Chrissie Hynde Chats To FemaleFirst

01 June 2009

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As The Pretenders unleash their new album, Break Up The Concrete, on the UK today, I caught up with the legendary Chrissie Hynde to talk about music, men and all things girly.

Hey there Chrissy how are you?

Good, just finishing you my bag of walkers crisps! [FF: Yummy, they’re treating you well over there then?] Yes! Only the best, [FF: What flavour?] Ready Slated, they had some really minging flavours like Chicken and Bacon and stuff, I usually go for black Pepper or Salt and Vinegar or something. But I think walkers are old school, I think Black Pepper might be a little exotic for the old reprobate company! Haha!

So, aside from Walkers, tell us about your latest album, Break Up The Concrete which is released next Monday?

It’s rough and ready. Like my men! [FF; I like it!] it was recorded very quickly in about 11 days live in the studio and it’s kind of punkabily! There is some real musical excellence in the record, but with me involved I obviously brought it down to my level! Don’t let that get in the way?

Is it your greatest hits?

No! That was the cold-blooded merchandising device to get people to buy it! We had a new record that came out in that States about a year ago but as we were dropped from our record label Warners a few years ago because we don’t sell records… but you know, hey! I’ve been dropped by better than them!

No seriously, that’s the way things are going at the moment and the music industry is destroying itself with it’s own greed and we’re paying certain artists millions of dollars for nothing and making CD’s too expensive etc and now people can get these CD’s for free and of course if they can then they will. I mean who wouldn’t, everyone got too self important in this game anyway and thought they were curing cancer or something but as far as I’m aware noo-ne has yet so…

That’s a great attitude to take!

Yeah, I mean come on, it’s just rock and roll, it’s supposed to make you dance! I wish everyone would just get over themselves, it’s not about being the biggest band or anything. But after being around for 30 years we have a massive back catalogue we thought if we gave that away for free too it might be an added incentive to get down to your local erm, [FF: HMV?] Yeah!

I love it… good idea! So if you could sum the who shebang up in five words for us, what five words would they be?

Erm! Rough, Ready, Raw (and) NOT MINGING!

I love it! Haha, you’re proper loving the word minging at the moment aren’t you?

Yeah! Haha, that’s my Mot Du Jour! [FF: I don’t understand French!] haha, it means my word of the day! [FF: Brilliant!] That’s not very advanced French, well, obviously for you it is though!

I know, you’ve taught me something today, I’m speaking to a legend and learning new facts! Now, back to music, this is your ninth album to date, would you say it’s your best yet?

I would say it’s as good as the first two albums which is good, it’s as close as it can be to the original band. It’s spirited and definitely has a ‘vibe’ which you rarely get if you’ve spent a few months in a studio because that really is a vibe-killer!

So it’s already been release in the US, how was the reaction over there?

I think people liked it and stuff from radio play. I’m not trying to sell records or increase my audience or anything, I’m just trying to get by!

Aww, that’s a great attitude to take, it’s so refreshing in this industry.

I know! I have everything I want really! Haha. The real reason I would want people to hear the album is so that when we go out live and we play some new tunes we’re not playing to an audience that looks like a photograph of an audience! If you go out to see… name an artist for me…

I went to Nickelback last week, they were epic

… okay, well I don’t know their catalogue so well, but you want to hear songs that you know because you’ve been listening in your front room and in your car and the song comes on in the venue and you stand up and you dance! We know the name of the game because we’ve all spent years in the audience and if someone has enough heart to listen to the album a couple of times, it means that when we play it live it will go down a treat.

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