Gaz Coombes was worried Supergrass reunion would be a “backward step”
Gaz Coombes has spoken about how “nervous” he was about reuniting Supergrass following the success of his solo albums.
Coombes has released four solo albums, the most recent of which, ‘Turn The Car Around’, was released just last month. His second solo record, ‘Matador’, was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2015.
In an interview with Classic Pop, Coombes said that he was “anxious” that reuniting Supergrass in 2019 would be seen as a “backward step”.
“Having got into a flow and the last two albums having done so well, it seemed a bit odd, like a backward step,” he said. “But then I was confident that I could operate both things together and it seems that I did, because I was obviously writing this record mainly during the reunion so I feel like I made best use of both things.”
Supergrass originally split up in 2010, citing creative differences, but Coombes has now said that he left the band because it was no longer making him happy. “I didn’t leave Supergrass to go solo. I left because I wasn’t enjoying it, and it wasn’t making me happy. So I needed to get myself happy. I realised that just because I wasn’t in the band didn’t mean I was going to stop.”
Coombes released his solo debut, ‘Here Comes The Bombs’, in 2012. Speaking about the record, he said: “It was transitional, there was definitely a hangover from Supergrass.”
Supergrass released a live album, ‘Live On Other Planets’, in 2020, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and raise raise money for grassroots venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They later performed at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in September, after which Coombes confirmed on his social media that it would be the band’s last show of their reunion.
Coombes commented on the possibility of another reunion in a recent interview with NME. “Reunions can’t go on forever and they’ve got to have some sort of lifespan. It was always gonna be that year, we were gonna do everything in 2020,” he said.
“But because of what happened with the pandemic, obviously it got spread out into two and a half, almost three years which is pretty crazy. But it’s cool that it ended in a way where we could definitely look at the possibility of other shows down the line if it feels right and if everyone’s in the right place.”
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Emma Wilkes
NME
