Squeeze Are 'Coming Back From The Dead' & Getting Something Back From Audiences

UK rockers Squeeze carved a niche in the late-'70s and early-'80s with a seemingly endless string of irreverent, distinctly English pop hits penned by co-founders Glenn Tilbrook (responsible for the catchy melodies and music) and Chris Difford (who brought the wryly literate lyrics).

This combination of talents put a bright new spin on the '60s music they loved so much - from their earliest days they were often touted as the best British songwriting partnership since Lennon and McCartney - but the band proved prone to instability, breaking up and reforming with new members numerous times since their heyday.

But it's this last period since reuniting in 2007 that has proved a particularly fertile period for Squeeze. It's produced two strong, well-received albums - Cradle To The Grave (2015) and The Knowledge (2017) - as well as sold-out UK tours, well-attended American sojourns and even a triumphant main-stage appearance at the 2016 Glastonbury festival, delivering the goods in front of their largest-ever crowd.

"Certainly in the UK we're selling more tickets than we ever did," Tilbrook marvels of their recent good fortune. "We've done two albums in the last few years and, for me, when we got back together in 2007 we spent about five years being the best Squeeze tribute band in the world - it was the only way we could feel our way back into whatever relationship Difford and I have - and then we started writing, and I think that having new material is what makes a band viable and gives it heart and soul now. We did just play old songs for a bit and that was great, but there's only so far you can go with it before it becomes not so great."

Did the creative chemistry between the long-time songwriting partners return immediately?

"It took a while," Tilbrook reflects. "With Cradle To The Grave, we had a TV series to write to, so that album was probably more nostalgic than had it been a standalone record, but that actually made it easier for ourselves to communicate because we were basing ourselves in a past that we all remembered. That got us on our feet and then doing The Knowledge we weren't tied to any context so it's a bit more of a wide-ranging record, I think.

"[In terms of how it comes together] nine times out of ten, a tune will be put to a lyric and that's the way we've always worked, really: lyrics first. It's very lyric-driven; I write to the specific lyrics and sometimes swap things around a bit, but it's always driven by the lyric.

"The process has changed a bit since the early days, in fact until this century I never really touched Chris' lyrics; they would be as written. Now I sort of tidy up what he does a bit and sometimes - in a few occasions on The Knowledge in particular - I've written lyrics myself, which is a change for us. But I touch on areas that Chris doesn't and we don't tread on each other's toes."

Tilbrook believes that Squeeze's music has stood the test of time partly because they were never tied to a particular scene or movement.

"Yeah, I think that helped us," he tells. "It didn't help us at the time, but as time went on we didn't exist inside any movement. We were called 'new wave' for a while and then that went away, then we seemed to find our own corner. And I think in the long-term that's served us well, because stylistically we've changed quite a lot and people seem to accept those changes. Although we were never a mega-stadium-sized band, so I guess we never had that amount of people to please.

"But [the current line-up] feels like an amazing band; to me, it's the best it's ever been. And we're getting something back from the audience, which is just different than what it's been since the early days: back when we were first coming up, that's how it felt to me then. It's like coming back from the dead."