Tom McRae Interview: Politics

Suite101 discusses politics and failures with UK singer songwriter

Sep 26, 2007

Although never one to force his opinions onto anyone through his music, Tom McRae nevertheless has strong views, which he shares in part 2 of our special interview.

One of the things that his fans love about Tom McRae is his use of words in his songs. Not one of these to simply write about boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl tales, his lyrical prowess is up there with Justin Currie and Nick Cave when it comes to intelligent and thoughtful songs.

This thought process transfers to his views on the world, and in part two of our special interview with Tom, he talks to Suite101 about his political views and whether politics really have a place in music anyway.

My sincere thanks to Tom for being such a genial host, and to Jon Uren at Fruitcake Management for organising everything.

Tom McRae interview

Suite: One thing that’s never really come across in your songs is a political message, yet I know that your opinions on politics are very strong. Again, has this been a deliberate move on your part to not force your views down people’s throats?

Tom: Yeah, I think these things grow old very quickly, although the thing that’ll be remembered about the political riots of the 60’s is their great songs. Sure, you had Blowing in the Wind and other Dylan-esque rants, but for me it was a time of great love songs. Now we live in different times, you know? People are aware of what’s going on, but now they’re perhaps a little bit more cynical in that they don’t really want artists preaching to them about stuff. So yes, my views are a big part of my life, and I do read the papers and get angry just like everyone else, but unless I’ve got something productive to say about it in a song, I’ll shy away from that.

Tom: Well, there is a song on the new album called Keep Your Picture Clear, which is probably the most political song I’ve done, but apart from that, I just think it’s a bit of a shallow stream to follow.

Suite: Plus there’re so many people that just jump on the political bandwagon to create a stir simply to sell more records.

Tom: Exactly. I mean, people talk about Billy Bragg - who I love – being political, but it was more the anger in his songs that caused the stir. I loved the way he used that to speak to people, not about politics, but about the human experience that politics might have affected to some degree.

Suite: With your views being as strong, would you ever be tempted to write a song about the abortion laws, or rape, or anything like that where the system seems so screwed up in its approach?

Tom: Yeah, but how would you do it? I mean, if you watch the news or buy the newspapers today, and you see the main story that’s running on the front page, it might be Iraq. But then the media change to a different story, so that the main one ends up being in another part of the paper, from a different point of view. So it might be Abdul from Iraq, with the human side of the story and the war, but unfortunately because the news has changed focus, Abdul’s story no longer has any resonance to anyone because it’s politics and lies that are coming out instead. Sadly no-one cares about big pictures, they care about little pictures, so it’s about how you humanise bigger issues. I wrote a song about a dying soldier on King of Cards but it’s from his point of view. I mean, I’m sure everybody knows that war is wrong, so you have to find that bit of character to relate to, like Springsteen does, or one of those guys, to give it scale. So if I could do that on an issue like war, abortion, or whatever, I’d like to try.

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