Finding A Cathartic Release And Looking To The Future

The Charlatans seem to have packed an entire lifetime of experience and emotion into their career. With 12 studio albums and 25 years together under their belt, Tim Burgess, Mark Collins, Martin Blunt and Tony Rogers do their best to keep both the band and their music progressing into the future. "We were really new to it when we started. Our first album, Some Friendly, got off to a good start. It went to number one in the UK and we played bigger and bigger venues. One thing we've always said is that we never want to feel like we're standing still," says Burgess.

Their 12th studio album Modern Nature was released in January 2015, and stands testament to a band that, rather than disintegrating over time, continues to re-imagine and rework the formula that ensured their enduring success in the earlier years. "I definitely think it's our best, but maybe the band aren't the ideal judges with their own work. There's so much work that goes into a record, so much from everyone involved, and it becomes a snapshot of that time. There's that quote from The Go-Between 'the past is a foreign country'. We've always been a band that looks ahead," muses Burgess.

"We have to remember that his children lost their father. That was the most tragic part of what happened."

It's no mystery that the tragedy that has befallen the band over the years, rather than crush them, has been moulded into a kind of cathartic release through music. It's a process they have had to go through more than once. When keyboardist Rob Collins died in a car accident in 1996, they brought forth their '97 comeback Tellin' Stories. Survival instinct has kicked in once more, with the band now playing and recording with a steady rotation of drummers including Peter Salisbury (The Verve), Stephen Morris (New Order) and Gabriel Gurnsey (Factory Floor) after the loss of their long-time drummer Jon Brookes in 2013, who died after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2010.

The band have had a difficult time since Who We Touch, and in between a memorial show for Brookes, fundraising for The Brain Tumour Charity and the making of a documentary, they managed to get together the album. Modern Nature was largely written during that difficult three-year interim between Brookes' diagnosis and saying goodbye. "We had had a few years while he was ill and we wanted to come out with a positive record. We met up at our studio and shared ideas — Mark and I worked on some songs, Tony and Martin had some ideas, and others were all four of us. It's definitely the album we set out to make.

"He was a founding member of The Charlatans, so his loss was devastating — we have to remember that his children lost their father. That was the most tragic part of what happened. It hit us hard — Jon was ill for a couple of years so, in some ways, we are given time to deal with it. We all said our goodbyes," says Burgess.

They're now, as always, looking to the future and their upcoming Australian tour. "It's five years since we've been and it's great to see our fans there. There's always quite a gap between our Australian tours so the atmosphere is always really good."

And, in terms of touring without Jon, they're keeping their ever-positive outlook: "We've been doing this a few years now — nothing really ever feels strange."