For this month’s cover interview, Exposed grabs an 808 and enters the synth-infused world of Welcome to the Marble Zone, the sophomore album from Joe Carnall’s solo project Good Cop Bad Cop.
“The Marble Zone started as a bit of a joke,” says Joe Carnall. “I mean, the tunes on Sonic are pretty amazing and I was even toying with the idea of doing a cover at one point. But in my old house where I first started making this album, I’d go down into the basement where I had my studio. I could hear the chaotic sounds of the world above, but I’d be immersed in this space downstairs, fully inside the Marble Zone, on the lava level!”
For those not sufficiently well-versed in the world of Sega’s famously nippy hedgehog, the Marble Zone is an ancient cave-like complex, filled with subterranean lava pools and all manner of tricky obstacles requiring zen-like focus (and plenty of frenzied button-bashing) to overcome.
Just as millions of gamers have escaped the harsh realities of life by spending some time engrossed in a pixelated underground maze, Joe Carnall would slip down the stairs and enter his own space where, as he succinctly puts it, “self-reflection led to creativity and the minutes became hours”.
Settling down for a pint with Exposed, he explains that having a cathartic place like this was a blessing during a period which saw him juggling the myriad challenges posed by lockdown while bringing up three young children with his wife. “During that time, I suppose we were all forced to look inward,” he reflects. “There were some beautiful personal moments but also some really tough ones. So, it’s a case of reflecting on a mad period in my life, but crucially, being old enough to want to write about it and not to feel like I had to lie about it.”
Unsurprisingly, the result is Carnall’s most introspective album to date, the second Good Cop Bad Cop offering which has seen him grow the synth-heavy sound with the addition of some hip-hop style grooves, cuts and edits courtesy of Sheffield-based producer GoldTeeth. The result isn’t far removed from what you’d expect if New Order, Gorillaz and LCD Soundsystem happened to be jamming together when Tier 3 restrictions were announced.
“This record was a real sort of diary entry, something which I’ve never allowed myself to do before,” he continues. “It’s a bit warts and all.” There’s a brief pause before he asks, “Do you know where that saying comes from, by the way?” I admit my cluelessness, and then, in true History teacher style, he dives into a detailed explanation of Oliver Cromwell’s role in coining the phrase. Look it up and pocket it for your next icebreaker.
As it happens, the duality between his jobs as a musician and a schoolteacher partly inspired the naming of this solo project (“and I think Good Cop Bad Cop just sounded cool”). Building on this theme, there are frequent nods to the creeping doubts and drudgeries in adult life and early parenthood throughout the album, from the sentimental laments of ‘Running Away With The Circus’ (“Kick me, kiss me / Do anything but pretend that it’s easy”) to the inescapable grown-up reality of having to deal with dickheads on ‘Mr Misfit’ (“Why can’t you see I’m resigned / Bathe me in all your white lies”).
But nowhere else is the album more emotionally honest than on the fifth track, ‘I Cried for a Friend’, a poignant tribute to the passing of a cherished pal. “There was a clutch of people in my life that died recently,” he says of the song, “and some far too young. Writing about it felt like a natural thing to do to try and process it, but at the same time, I really struggled to sing some lines in the studio and had a hard time keeping it together. I think it’s something that will connect with listeners, as unfortunately, it’s something we all go through at some point. Not that it makes it any easier.”
There is, however, plenty of light to go with the dark, and more than enough upbeat energy to move the ruminations along. ‘Madness in the Aftermath’ is a shimmering, lilting ode to those blissful moments where you redress the balance in life and rediscover a sense of self, ‘Does It Get Any Easier?’ combines squelchy hip-hop beats with scything guitar riffs and album closer ‘We’re Alright’ will surely be the only Neil Kinnock sample you’ll hear on a track this year, with the Labour leader’s 1992 rally call leading in a relentlessly-paced plea to restore some sanity in UK politics.
“I think, fundamentally, I need to do it,” he says when we move on to motivations for making the record and changing definitions of success. “Making a record like this is kind of like a form of therapy for me, or at least a temporary escape or release. I’ve been able to push the sound sonically with Andy [GoldTeeth], get some things off my chest and have a bit of fun with it. Making a record is a really special thing to do, and I’ve always felt that way. Maybe I appreciate it more because I’ve got this thing about everything being ‘my last one’, but I’ve been saying that for the last 20 years! That said, if I’m still proud of it in five years time and still enjoy playing the tunes, and if I have one or two conversations with people that it meant something to, that’s fine.”
Carnall will be taking Welcome to the Marble Zone on a five-date UK tour during April, culminating in a gig at the Leadmill on the 20th. It’ll be a much more intimate live experience to Milburn’s next hometown show, a headline slot at Rock N Roll Circus at Don Valley Stadium in August. However, what both shows will feature are setlists that capture snapshots from influential eras of the artist’s life: the brash riffs and infectious swagger of the mid-noughties indie scene juxtaposed with a far more reflective period almost two decades later, trying to make sense of the chaos while deep inside the Marble Zone.
Welcome to the Marble Zone is out on 5 April. Tickets for the Leadmill show on 20 April are available now from www.leadmill.co.uk.
GOOD COP BAD COP
WELCOME TO THE MARBLE ZONE
Words: Mark Perkins
Back in 2018, Joe Carnall, famed in these parts for being part of local indie heroes Milburn, wanted to make some new music, but with a deliberate shift away from the ‘guitar band’ sound he was forever associated with. Looking for inspiration, he uploaded GarageBand to his PC and started making a different type of more electronic-sounding music. After a while, he thought his old mate Matt Helders, of Arctic Monkeys fame, would be interested in what he’d written. They started chatting, and before he knew it, they were together, in the Hollywood hills, recording what became the first Good Cop Bad Cop album. Now, the two of them have reconvened, recording a follow-up album, Welcome To The Marble Zone, and have teamed up with Steel City producer Goldteeth AKA Andy Nicholson.
The songs take their starting point from Joe’s diary entries from the past few years, as he deals with his personal struggles, bouts of lockdown-inspired lows and not least the challenges of being a father of three, whilst at the same time celebrating the beauty and chaos of life in the 2020s. He talks about The Marble Zone being a place he can be at peace, even retreat to, where he can be creative and make music. He’s a self-confessed fan of charity shop vinyl discoveries, and he has clearly reached back into the past few decades for influences to his latest album, with echoes of New Order, that famous 808 drum sound and Bernard Sumner’s delivery and melodies. My standout album tracks of the ten on offer here are ‘Mr Misfit’, unsurprisingly about trying to fit in with people he feels he has nothing on common with, and ‘Houdini’, a synth-driven song, which has sound sitting somewhere between Kraftwerk and Human League, but with a cheeky little guitar solo thrown in at the end. A second album release is always a challenge, and they often fail to develop the energy and promise of their predecessor, but not so here. Joe Carnall Jnr is on a roll.
4/5
