Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook opens up about their album 'Trixies' and teases another
'Trixies' was written more than 50 years ago
Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook joined Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio to chat about the band's latest album 'Trixies' and the unusual story behind it. The singer also revealed that we'll have to wait another two years until they release another album, which has already been recorded and "has got the best songs" they've ever written.
'Trixies' is the latest album from the 'Cool For Cats' band, but Glenn and founding member Chris Difford actually wrote it when they were just teenagers back in 1973, when Glenn was just 15, and Chris was 18.
Writing the album 'Trixies'
Glenn explained how their meeting ended in a great partnership. "Chris was already writing songs and I was already writing," he said.
"When we started working together though, we just went through the roof. We were writing and writing and writing. I was 15 when we met, he was 18 and we didn't have a lot to do. We had a band, but the band couldn't really play properly. We couldn't sing properly.
"The one thing that we did, that was way ahead of everything else, was write. So we wrote a concept album called ‘Trixies' and we played it to all our friends for about six months, until they got bored and we moved on and wrote some more songs.
"But the songs stayed there and they're very much of their time. It's very much a 1974 record. But the songs now have a sort of timeless feel about them. And it was really interesting, to approach them from the point of view of they're 50-year-old songs now."
Glenn went on the talk about the sound of the album, saying: "It's quite musically sophisticated for the time. We were really picking up on the influence of music that was about at that time.
"I think all the... almost all the songs I can point to, that one's influenced by Stevie Wonder, this one's influenced by Wings, this is by Sparks.
"You know, there's a lot of stuff that songs are directly influenced by one person, one artist, and that just doesn't happen these days."
What's the meaning behind the album title 'Trixies'?
When asked about the unusual album title, Glenn explained that it was something Chris created. "'Trixies' is a nightclub that existed in the head of Chris. He'd been reading a lot of Damon Runyon books and also, you know, TV, three channel TV Britain, they'd show gangster films every now and then.
"So it's a combination of those two things and Chris' imagination about this place that was sort of low life, exciting, a bit unhinged and that came out of his head."
Adding: "Seedy is exactly the word."
Why release it now?
Reflecting on the band's last album 'The Knowledge', released in 2017, Glenn explained: "It is eight years since our last album, and it's eight years since we found out that probably the world wasn't hanging on for another Squeeze album.
"You know, I was very proud of that record, but you know, you don't have a right for people to pay attention to you."
So, with that in mind they were keen to make sure their next album had a story behind it, as Glenn continued. "I mean, we did have old tapes. That's certainly true. But really the idea, you know, since the last record, we'd always been aware of the fact that you need a story. You absolutely need a story.
"And so ‘Trixies’ sort of loomed up on us and we thought, well, there, we've written it already and it's a great story."
Listen to the full interview below
'Tried, Tested and Trixies' tour
Later this year, Glenn will be going on tour with the band which he says is "a bigger band," with nine members now, and they can: "Deliver vocally in a way that we could never deliver before."
Revealing that the gigs will feature some of their much-loved tracks from past decades, it will also feature their new music from 'Trixies'.
The band previously went on tour in 2019, and as Glenn explained: "I think it's more exciting now than it's ever been for me. I think that I had a realisation in 2019, we recorded an album, a live album in Liverpool, and I spent a long time mixing it, listening back to us. I saw lots of areas that we could actually be a lot better in."
Squeeze's next album
They might have only just released 'Trixies' (on 6th March), but the band already have plans to release another album with their "best music yet". According to Glenn, the record label wouldn't allow them to release a double album, so we'll have to wait two years for the as-yet-unnamed record.
Glenn revealed when they recorded 'Trixies' they actually recorded this other album: "We recorded an album of new songs at the same time," he explained. "We were very much going backwards and forwards. We didn't do one and then the other record. Everything fed the other. So the other album we've got is full of the best songs we've ever written."
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