How do you follow up an album that topped the UK charts, spawned two worldwide hit singles and shot you to the top of the EDM heap? If you're Example, you embrace your inner-rock god.
The Evolution Of Man sees Example moving on from Playing In The Shadows by drawing inspiration from adolescent heroes like Blur, Nirvana, Metallica, Marilyn Manson and The Prodigy. It's very much a record of its time — production comes from the likes of Feed Me, Dirty South, Tommy Trash, Skream and Benga — but it also owes a distinct debt to the '90s.
I talked to the versatile British talent about awkward situations, working with Graham Coxon and the racial politics of painting yourself silver.
I was just watching the 'Come Taste The Rainbow' video – why are you painted silver?
That video was kind of an accident. We were in the studio, a photo studio, shooting press shots, and the photographer, Rankin, was like, 'hey, let's shoot a video'. And I said, 'yeah, I'd love to shoot a video with you sometime. And he said, 'no, let's shoot a video now'. I was like, 'really?' And he said, 'yeah, yeah, let's mix it up'. They shot it on still cameras, you know, because still cameras have video modes now, and he just used different light filters to get the rainbow colours. Then he said, 'okay, we need a big finale. What do you want to do?'
I didn't know, so he said, 'well, why don't you just be... naked?' I was like, 'okay... that sounds a bit weird', because I'd never done that in any of my videos before. But he said it'd be fine, so I stood in front of the camera, and he was like, 'you look great, you look like you're in good shape, but I don't know... it just doesn't feel like the ending of a Flo Rida video'. And I was like, 'well, I fucking hate Flo Rida, I don't want to look like Flo Rida'.
So he said, 'okay, well, it still needs something, so let's paint you black'. And I said, 'well, that could offend a lot of black people, potentially, because painting yourself black isn't very PC... and I'll look even more like Flo Rida!' So I went on Twitter and I said, 'the director wants to paint me black – is anyone against this idea?' Funnily enough, every black person who follows me on Twitter said to do it, and all the white people said, 'no, you can't do that, that's racist'. I found that quite amusing.
So anyway, we settled on silver.
So I suppose the real question is, why aren't you painted silver in all your video clips?
Exactly! Red Hot Chili Peppers did it ten years ago, Rihanna did it recently as well...
And those guys are huge! Painting yourself silver is the shortcut to success.
Yes! The mad thing is that 'Come Taste The Rainbow' isn't even a single. I guess it's just, like, a promo video to help advertise the album. But people seem to be reacting to it really well, which is really great.
Exactly. It's promoting The Evolution Of Man, of course – you must be extremely excited for people to finally hear this thing.
Yeah. Even though I love the album, I don't want to make out that it's... I don't want to be one of those boring artists who says, 'yeah, it's my best album yet'. I like to think it's up to the fans to decide that. Whatever the fuck I think about it doesn't really matter, because as soon as it's released, I don't really own the music any more. The fans do.
But I will say it's my most personal album, because lyrically, it's very honest. It's like self-therapy. I did a lot of soul searching before I wrote this album and a lot of growing up. I think it's quite rare for someone to open up like this, especially with self-written lyrics. You know, you hear pop songs sometimes that make you emotional, but a lot of the time the artist didn't write it themselves.
It's a snapshot of about six months of my life last year. I wrote the whole album in January, and I'm in a much different place now that it's coming out, almost 12 months after I wrote it. I'm in a really happy place with my girlfriend and my life and my health and my career, so it's going to be weird performing these songs. Some of the lyrics... I wouldn't say they're depressing, but they're really honest. They could depress some people if they've been through some of the same stuff as me.
Musically, it's like... when you listen to Nirvana, or Metallica, or Rage Against The Machine, or even Prodigy, there's something about the music and melody in those songs that's quite menacing. If you're in the wrong frame of mind, it could be quite upsetting. I've kind of gone for a similar sort of thing on this album. Even though I appear happy on my Twitter and in interviews, I have low moments like every human being.
Does it become harder to write those honest, emotionally raw, autobiographical lyrics once you've had the level of success you've had? Or is there still plenty of stuff in your life to give you material to work with?
I'm never really stuck for material. But I suppose... look, a lot of artists on Twitter are really boring. They constantly promote stuff and don't ever really talk about what they're doing or how they're feeling. But I do, so my fans feel like they know me a little better. If you post 20 tweets a day about your life, they get an idea of your sense of humour and what you're into and your personality. Every interview I do, I'm always brutally honest. If you're brutally honest in your interviews, then people hear your songs and assume you're being honest there as well. So, for me, it's never really been a problem.
My first album, this is about five years ago, was a hip hop album, and it was a bit all over the place. It was a bit jokey, a bit tongue in cheek, I didn't really know what I was doing in the industry. It wasn't until the second album, with a song called 'Kickstart', a really personal song that was really close to the heart... that got a lot of people talking. Since then, I haven't really looked back. Everything I've written since 'Kickstart' has been really personal.
This might seem like a silly question in light of that, but do you consider yourself comfortable in the spotlight? Do you enjoy the chat shows and all that stuff that comes with being a celebrity?
You know what? I don't mind being in front of a camera when I feel there's a purpose. When I'm on stage at a show, I love it, because I love entertaining and the energy I get from the crowd. When I'm on a TV show, if I'm performing a song, that's fine, because obviously that's my job. I've done game shows and those are a bit of a laugh. I was nervous the first few times, but I don't really mind them now, because there's kind of a purpose to them, and I'm quite competitive anyway.
The things I don't like and don't get – I mean, I get why people do them, but I feel awkward doing them – are premieres, press events, parties, launches, stuff like that. Stuff where you're expected to dress up and look your best and pose in front of a screen, you know? I just find that stuff really awkward. I totally get why people do it, but it's just so not me, because I've never felt that comfortable in front of the camera anyway.
I always feel awkward posing and pulling a face, so for me to have to go stand somewhere with about 50 photographers flashing bulbs at me... you know what I mean? Even though I've done that a hundred times now, I still don't get it. It's probably because a lot of my favourite bands over the years have been successful on the back of their records or their live shows, rather than turning up to the opening of a fucking letter. So I just don't really get bands or acts that feel the need to do that. You know, there are some you see at seven events a week.
Yeah. You mentioned the bands you loved when you were younger just now, and Graham Coxon plays on four tracks on this album. How'd that come about?
I just met him at a charity event for War Child, which is for children who have been involved in war against their own will, which is a great cause, which is why I went there. Because, as I said before, there's a lot of stuff I get invited to which I can't go to or don't want to go to. Graham was performing with Damon, so I swapped numbers with him and emailed him and said, 'it'd be great if you could play on my new album'.
You know, from a fan's perspective, but also... I was quite up front with him, I said it'd be great for the media as well, because I'm making a guitar album, albeit an electronic guitar album, and I want one of the best guitarists in the world on it. Which he is, obviously. And he was very honest and matter-of-fact. He said, 'yeah, come 'round and play it to me... if I like it, I like it, and if not, I'll be honest'.
He liked it, and a week later he was playing on the album! The songs were already written, you know, and I think he liked the idea that the album was already done and he was just adding his guitar skills to it.
Given that you went to his place knowing that he would be honest, were you nervous?
Not really, because he's so down-to-earth and so normal. I went 'round and he gave me a cup of tea and some biscuits and we just sat and listened. He's just... I don't know, he's just a geezer, you know?
Sure. You'd obviously been heading in that direction for a while; were you planning to make something 'rockier' from the outset of the project?
Yeah. On the last album... everything started with a synth on Playing In The Shadows. It was pretty much all techno, trance or dubstep. There was one song in the middle of the album, and it was actually the title track, which started with a guitar but then had a lot of electronic drums and bass around it, which Chase & Status produced. That became one of my favourite songs off that album.
I think if I made another 'Changed The Way You Kissed Me', that would be too easy. If I made another 'Stay Awake', that would be too easy. If I made another 'Shot Yourself In The Foot Again', that'd be too easy. I wouldn't really be challenging myself. So I thought, let's just start every track with a guitar riff, and see where it goes from there. You know? I didn't really mind where the song went after the intro, but I wanted to start everything with a guitar riff.
That's why, on this album, you've got 130 BPM house songs with guitar on them, and they're not typical house songs, because they've got rock vocals and other elements you wouldn't usually hear in a pop or dance song. Then there's other tracks like 'Come Taste The Rainbow', which is like Metallica, but produced by Benga. So even though it doesn't have an obvious dubstep bassline, it's got those sensibilities. Then there's songs like 'Perfect Replacement', which Feed Me did, which to me, sounds like Knife Party, Prodigy, Rage Against The Machine... it's all over the place, but it's a very exciting track.
There are some really exciting arrangements on these tracks. Usually with a dance song, with a house song, you sing, and then the song drops, and then you sing, and then the song drops a second time and then it finishes. And with pop songs, it usually goes verse-chorus-verse-chorus-Middle-8-chorus. Whereas most of the songs on this album have got really strange arrangements. There's bits in the songs you never hear again, or there's a rap at the start and then no more after that.
I just wanted to fuck with people's heads a bit on this album.
The Evolution Of Man is out now. Example plays the following dates on the Stereosonic tour:
Sat Nov 24 — Homebush (Sydney)Sun Nov 25 — Claremont Showground (Perth)
Sat Dec 1 — Bonython Park (Adelaide)
Sat Dec 1 — Melbourne Showgrounds
Sun Dec 2 — RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane)
