John Grant – Queen Of Denmark

I love John. I first knew him when he was in The Czars. I was doing my band after Lush, Sing-Sing, and Lisa [O’Neill, Anderson’s bandmate, not to be confused with the Irish folk musician of the same name] used to sing with another guy called Tim Keegan. There was a gig at the Spitz in London where Tim supported The Czars and I just loved John’s voice so much straightaway. I remember thinking then, I think one day this guy is going to be quite big. We got to know The Czars a bit, and it turned out John was a really big Lush fan, so he was quite chuffed to meet me, which was a bit weird! With Sing-Sing, we played in Denver once, and The Czars all came to see us and we all stayed at John’s. I’ve got photos somewhere. And my prediction came true about how big he could be! This album especially I thought was wonderful. He did it with Midlake, and the analogue synths in the instrumentation are great. But his voice is just gorgeous. And the lyrics! About him growing up as a gay man in the Midwest. Love and loss again. And he’s a bit of an ABBA fan, like me. I remember The Czars covering ‘Angel Eyes’. We were in touch recently, and he said any time I want to come to Reykjavik I should. That’s one invite I’ll definitely take up!