Echo and the Bunnymen: Ian McCulloch plays O2 Academy Oxford to promote 'best new album in years'

One of rock’s great mavericks, Ian McCulloch is also one of its greatest survivors. Hugely respected by fans and musicians alike, the frontman of Echo and the Bunnymen is responsible for some of the most enduring indie tunes ever made; records which have influenced generations of bands.

But McCulloch is no artefact; no dinosaur living off past glories. He remains a creative tour de force; a power to be reckoned with. So the fact, that, four decades after his ground-breaking debut Crocodiles, he has just finished one of the best albums of his career, is cause for celebration — but not really a surprise.

The new album Meteorites (released later this month) shows a musician who has never lost his edge, striving to create something vital and exciting.

“It’s my best album since Ocean Rain,” says the singer proudly, while relaxing at home in his native Liverpool.

“That was 30 years ago, but still sticks in the mind. This is the most complete thing I’ve done since that, though. It sounds bold and fresh — and even modern, whatever that means!”

The album is the band’s 12th, and finds the Cutter and Killing Moon singer, and Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant, back on top of their game, and brimming with verve, originality and lyrical honesty. Its contemporary vibe is, in no small part, down to the production values of Ian’s collaborator Youth.

The producer, real name Martin Glover is the former bassist of post-punk band Killing Joke and has worked with acts as diverse as Take That, Tom Jones, The Orb, Primal Scream, Erasure and Guns n’Roses. The project followed Youth’s input to Ian’s 2012 live solo recording, Holy Ghosts — an album of orchestral re-workings of McCulloch and Bunnymen tunes originally recorded during a show at London’s Union Chapel.

McCulloch admits to having been blown away by the producer’s re-recording of such seminal tracks as Lips Like Sugar, Rescue, and Nothing Lasts Forever.

“It was so exciting how he remembered those songs,” he says. “So when he said ‘should we do this?’ I was ‘defo!’”

The record, Ian’s first studio album since 2009’s The Fountain, found the artist in what he admits was a dark place after a period of artistic despondency. “I wasn’t happy with a lot of stuff,” he confesses. “Emotionally I was at a very low ebb.”

Youth encouraged McCulloch to give free reign to his emotions, and lay his demons to rest. “It’s great because it’s about things,” he says. “I’d like to think of the songs as poems.

“I needed someone to bring something extra to it; to make it sound fresh. And it’s produced the way a Bunnymen album should be. He told us how many bands we had influenced and that gave us confidence. “He said ‘Sing your head off,’ and he told me to stand up instead of sitting down. He basically said ‘get up and get on with it!’ “It was great and everything we put down was good. It was all done on the first take, more or less, and works brilliantly — which was a surprise. It was a thrill; like reading a book. I’ve always seen my words as poetry rather than lyrics, but this especially. It was an outpouring of things I wanted to beautify. It’s got a real angle; it reminds me of Crocodiles.”

Much of the material started life in McCulloch’s Liverpool flat, with the aid of just a bass guitar. “I wrote a lot of those things to a bassline,” he says. “I’d never done that before, but I’m good at it. They’ve got a groove to them. The bassline propels the song.”

So what will the fans think? “They’ll love it,” he grins. “The reaction has been brilliant and the single, Lovers On The Run, has already got loads of radio play. Things are happening that haven’t happened for a long time. I can’t wait to play this stuff live – and pogo to [album tracks] Market Town and Constantinople.”

The man once dubbed ‘Mac the Mouth’ because of his wit and no-holds-barred honesty, is still an outspoken critic of anyone he considers “a moron” — whether they be musicians (Bono: “I call him ‘Nobo’,”), footballers (Andy Cole: “He never smiles unless he’s got a glass of Champagne in his hand,”) or politicians (Ed Miliband: “He’s posher than Nigel Farage,”).

But it’s musical insincerity which receives the full Mac onslaught. “Bands try to endear themselves to people too much,” he begins. “The talent show thing is entering indie-rock. It’s so shallow, and that’s why bands have no original ideas. They are more B&Q than IQ.”

And he isn’t going to stop there. Not while there’s a chance to lay into his latest bête noire: folk-pop. “They should ban violins unless they are being played for classical audiences,” he smiles. “It’s not a barn dance. It’s the most horrible kind of music.”

As well as being one of our greatest rock eccentrics, McCulloch is also one of the best-loved ambassadors of his home city. “I love being up here in the pool of life,” he laughs. “I can’t be away from home turf too long – it’s been long enough already this year.”

A poll recently put McCulloch in 26th place in a list of greatest ever Scousers. So how does it feel to be a local hero? “I’m still nowhere near Ken Dodd,”he grins. “He’s definitely the king of Liverpool. I’m just the heir apparent — and he doesn’t show any sign of going away soon, so I will have to remain a prince.

“Still it’s good to be at 26. I was at 62 before. At this rate I might even get past a Beatle!”

Echo and the Bunnymen
O2 Academy, Oxford
Saturday
Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk