The Meanies reconvened just a few years later, but it has taken until now for McLennan and his fellow Meanies – bass player Wally Kempton, drummer Ringo Meanie and guitarist Jordan ‘Jaws’ Stanley – to record McLennan’s lost Meanies tracks. The result is It’s Not Me, It’s You, the first new Meanies album in 20 years.
“The tracks on this album were written in the late-‘80s, early-‘90s,” says McLennan. “Wally had demos of the songs lying around and he was always telling me to record them, and I just kept putting it off.”
McLennan concedes that ten years ago his attitude would’ve been to discard the older material and write new songs. But with the benefit of a more mature perspective, he realised there was a new Meanies record almost completely written.
“I’m glad that Wally twisted my arm, because sometimes it’s a bit sad when you’ve got a bunch of songs sitting there for 20 or 30 years, and you think they’re really good, and all they’re going to do is sit in a box,” McLennan laughs. “So I’m glad we’ve now recorded them.”
In the period since The Meanies’ original break-up, McLennan has embarked on a succession of other projects, including the Tomorrow People, the Bakelite Age and his current non-Meanies band, Sun God Replica. The frontman admits there was a time when he would’ve preferred to leave his lost Meanies songs buried in Kempton’s archives.
“I think I’ve reached that point when I look back on it with more nostalgia and love than I used to, McLennan says. “I didn’t really go into the recording for this record with any great expectations – it was just something that was a bit of fun to do. But as it went along, it really shaped up nicely and I thought it was pretty damn good and we should do something with it.”
In typical McLennan fashion, the lyrics fluctuate between anti-establishment rhetoric and psychological analysis. While occasionally blushing at his youthful invective, McLennan can still understand where he was coming from in those wild, sometimes misspent years.
“The way I wrote lyrics back then was probably between externally targeted songs about stuff that made me angry, and the other half were more internal, about my shortcomings, whatever stuff I was going through,” he says. “But now I think I probably write a bit more internally on the whole. What I write now is not as angry, and the edges have been taken off a bit, and it’s a bit more balanced. Actually… that’s not true [laughs].”
Having felt burnt out at various times over the last 25 years, McLennan is now more enthusiastic than ever before about recording and touring with The Meanies.
“Touring and playing with The Meanies now is really fun for me. We’ve done the record, and it’s got us all really excited. In terms of performance, I know we’re better than we were back in the day, and there’s just as much energy – though maybe not as much cutting. I feel completely confident with what we put onto vinyl, and what we do live. I think we’re as good as any band.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
