Mani'I pencil meself in for a buttie and a shit a couple of times a week, but apart from that it's tunes all the way...'

Mani (Primal Scream, Stone Roses), Peter Hook (New Order), Andy Rourke (The Smiths) and Gary Briggs (The Strays, Haven) are "bass supergroup", Freebass. After forming some four years ago, their first LP, A Beautiful Life, is finished and they're touring this summer. Maxim spoke to Mani...

By Stuart MesshamApril 2010

If you’ve got a frontman who looks the part, can write great lyrics but’s got a hairlip, then you’re fucking snookered aren’t ya? You can’t be dressing like no paraffin lamp, know what I mean?

Maxim: How's it going, Mani?

Mani: How are ya geez, alright? I’ve been talking crap to people on the phone all morning – no change there then! Ha!

You all geared up to talk some more?
Yeah, go for it.

Good. You're in another band now called Freebass and are just releasing your first album with them, It's A Beautiful Life.I’m thinking a lot of our readers won’t have heard of Freebass. If you could start at the beginning for us: What is it? Where did it come from? Why did all these big names get involved?
It started on some boozy night out where we were probably all grumbling about our lack of activity with our various bands. So we decided to do something together because we love each other’s company, and we just wanted to have a grin, nothing too serious. Then, before you know it, there’s 17 bits of tunes coming together.
Course, then our main bands, Primal Scream, New Order and that, decided they were gonna go on tour, so the Freebass thing went on the backburner and it’s been there for a good few years… then we had to find a singer, which is no mean feat, so that took time. And we’ve just got it all nailed down in the past six months, got it all finished off. And here we are, eh...
Basically, we’ve all changed the world music-wise in other bands we’ve been in and this ain’t about that at all. It’s just about geezers having a good time.

Seems reason enough to me.
We all hate fucking sitting there and watching Loose Women – we want to get out there and play some rock ‘n’ roll music!

You’ve done stuff with Tim Burgess, Howard Marks and Peter Wylie on a previous EP.
Yeah, once we’d started the album proper, these were tunes that were kind of left over. And we didn’t have a singer at the time. You know, Tim Burgess is a good mate. Pete Wylie and Howard Marks are both good mates. So we thought whack ’em a tune and see what they come back with.

Is anyone on the list to collaborate with?
If this record goes okay and people go to gigs and we’re pretty well received, we may well do another one. I wouldn’t mind getting Ian Brown, Liam Gallagher, Weller – there’s an endless list of people who I’d like to work with and who I have worked with, y’know?

Gary Briggs was in the relatively little know group Haven. How come you got him on board? What tipped the balance?
Haven had a couple of top thirty hits. He’s got a great voice and he writes great lyrics and he looks okay and that’s all you can ask for in a frontman.
If you’ve got some geezer who looks the part, can write great lyrics but’s got a hairlip, then you’re fucking snookered aren’t ya? You can’t be dressing like no paraffin lamp, you know what I mean?

He moved in your circles too didn’t he?
Gary moved to my area in Manchester and we became mates. It’s very clicky is Manchester, it’s a small city and everyone in music knows everyone, and we just got mates. He just sprang to mind when we were all talking and we thought, why not try Gary out, and he was perfect for the job, y’know?

For people that haven’t heard anything of Freebass, who would you compare yourself to?
There’s some Primal Scream and there’s some New Order, sure. But there’s also some reggae. Little bit of pop. Bit of grunge. It’s like making a Ruby mate innit, just chuck a load of ingredients in, give it a stir and see what you think.

Freebass playing any festivals?
We've got a little festival in Middelsbrough (check the website for details www.freebassuk.com) and we've got a lot of slots somewhere in Glastonbury, it won't be any of the big stages. I got stuck in China during the volcanic ash thing, so I booked a flight to Tokyo, where I've got a few mates and picked up a few DJ gigs there, did it for no money, and when I got home on the following Monday, I got offered to play a festival out there with Freebass. So it goes to show, if you do soomething for nish, then you can something from it, y'know?