Suede

“There’s this moment in Suede where (the narrator’s) being called ‘evil’ by this other person because of whatever she’s done to them in their minds. But there’s this side of obsession and passion where one party thinks the other party is doing something to them - and sometimes people aren’t always looking at their part in something. In Suede, she knows what she’s up to; she knows what she’s been doing.” [Alternative Press - September 1999]

“You know, there’s always galactic reference going on in this record. There’s a scientific vocabulary going on in this record. Suede is about seduction, but there’s always a science reference, a physics reference, because that’s the realm of Venus. So I hung maps all over, and I knew I didn’t have it right, coming up with things. Then finally I got that whatever dimensions the song had to cross to find the being that she was devoted to, whether it was her mother or her sister or her lover or her friend, nothing could stop her. That kind of resilience was a real anchor for the record.” [All Music zine (www) - October 1999]

“Suede is the danger of... not always the physical fornication of anything. It’s the dangerous games that we play with mind control - the power of seduction, and how so many people put their hands up and say, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ because they didn’t fornicate.” [All Music zine (www) - October 1999]

“Usually I have a blood-line going for a song, so there are certain marriages of words that happen. Sometimes I try and become the words, so I’ll take on the properties and characteristics of a squeeze-box say. Am I still a woman as a squeeze-box? Obviously. With something like Suede, which is about seduction, I picture jets revving and I was walking round the studio with a physics encyclopedia. The guy character in the song thinks the girl character is really evil, yet he’s there to be seduced. Sometimes people act quick to see my evil twin, but they don’t detect their own.” [Mojo - November 1999]