Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cockeris an English musician, singer-songwriter, actor, voice actor, radio presenter and music video director. He is known for being the frontman of the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus, Cocker has led a successful solo career, and presents a BBC Radio 6 Music show called Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth19 September 1963
actively exist great indie people prove seemed stuff tv war
When I was in Pulp, I actively did more TV stuff because that was during the Great Britpop Wars, and it seemed important to prove that indie people could speak. That war doesn't exist anymore.
champion john music peel seek spirit tonight
Part of what tonight is about is to keep the spirit of John Peel alive. To seek out new music and champion new talent.
drift far gradually time
You write a song about how you think at the time, and then gradually you drift away from that, and when it's far enough in the past, that's when you think, 'Now I have to write something new.'
band kingdoms shy
Being chronically shy I needed to create a persona for myself and be involved with a band where I could be ruler of my own kingdom. Then Pulp became hugely popular and I lost control of it, which is when it all went wrong.
nice people drug
You don't often hear people say, 'Oh, since he's been taking them drugs, he's such a nice person! He's really come out of his shell, he's really nice, he's blossomed'.
dream taken thinking
I think basically becoming famous has taken the place of going to Heaven in modern society, hasn't it? That's the place where your dreams will come true. It's an act of faith now; they think that's going to sort things out.
rough-edges interesting passionate
I am passionate about keeping the human dimension in things. You have to keep the rough edges and the inconsistencies, that's what makes it interesting. I've always striven to be as sloppy as possible.
nice people persons
It's good that I managed to hoodwink so many people. I am actually not that nice a person.
kind expatriates backwards
I travel backwards and forwards quite a lot. I live very near to the train station. I'm kind of playing at being an expatriate, I suppose.
nice people nice-people
People who make good music aren't necessarily nice people.
drunk people freedom-of-speech
Tabloids invoke freedom of speech, but they're not interested in that, they're just interested in who's shagging whom, who's got drunk. And if you take that pretend, faux moral standpoint, you end up with people in public life being completely boring. Like they've had their genitals removed.
nice thinking self
If you're in a band or think of yourself as a slightly creative person, you can get quite self-indulgent, so sometimes it's nice to have those people who bring you down to earth, but in a pleasant way.
dog fairly function good great lyrics rescue song words work
Words are important to me, but a song can work and function and be a good song with words that are fairly standard. But really great lyrics can't rescue a dog of a song.