Can you please explain what exactly an “Arab strap” is [as in the song The Boy with the Arab Strap]? Asking for a friend … Lennon
The funny thing is I can’t! I know it’s something vaguely sexual, but the reference was to Arab Strap, the band. I gave the gold disc for it to my mum, who put it up in her living room. When the minister came round for tea, he was looking at the gold record and reading the label, so there was an awkward moment. After that, she gave it back to me.
Are you worried about how only posh people have the time to make art now? Boredom is a key part of the creative process, and I can’t see another Belle and Sebastian emerging if the members have to spend 40 hours a week applying for jobs because of universal credit. jamesofwalsh
Being on the dole was a twilight subsistence. Stevie [Jackson, guitar] would make soup for anyone who wanted it. We were living as cheaply as possible, but in that void of life ideas came in, and spirituality. I found God on the dole! I do wonder how our band would exist nowadays. The slight upside is that, with technology, people can record themselves to an amazing degree. I’m not sure if that quite makes up for it.
If You’re Feeling Sinister and Tigermilk helped save my sanity in the late 90s. Do you have any desert island discs fixed in time and place as a musical remedy? TeeDubyaBee
Before the band I had been a DJ in clubs and a raver, but in the early 90s I got sick [with ME] and just didn’t have the energy for music. After I came out of hospital, I wanted to take it one song at a time. Can’t Be Sure by the Sundays was the only song I wanted to hear. Then I went on to Felt, and Victorialand by Cocteau Twins. Because I was lying down resting, music felt like a meal or intravenous drip.
Is there a specific reason why most of the names of the characters in your songs start with a J – Jill Pole, String Bean Jean, Judy and the Dream of Horses and so on? OSW111
I hadn’t noticed! I would imagine it was a phonetic thing or musical tic, but when the band started, my girlfriend was called Joanne and she was the inspiration for some of the songs. So maybe all the Judys and Jills were Joanne in disguise. String Bean Jean is literally Joanne.
How much of an influence was Nick Drake’s Hazey Jane II on your songwriting and sound? VerulamiumParkRanger
I had Nick Drake’s River Song or something on a compilation and liked it, but I didn’t love it. The big blueprint for Belle and Sebastian was Love’s Forever Changes. After our second record came out, everyone started talking about Nick Drake, especially Bryter Later, and I came to grudgingly admit that it was great.
What’s the meaning of The Blues are Still Blue and what does the launderette in the song have to do with it? TheFundees
Songs tumble out like dreams – you can’t control where they’re going, but they’re a snapshot of what you’re thinking. That song is about the way things never seem to work out like they’re meant to and you’re still gonna be a little sad, but there’s definitely a launderette theme running through my life. I’m writing an autobiographical novel and three chapters are launderette-based. When I lived in cold places, launderettes were warm and, if you sit there with your book, someone might comment and start a conversation. So they were touchstone places.
What was [Associates’ keyboardist/guitarist] Alan Rankine like as a music lecturer? Flashbleu
He was comradely and friendly, but he didn’t stick to any kind of curriculum. Kids in their early 20s were there [at Stow’s college, in Glasgow] to learn about the music business and he would kinda look at his watch and take the whole class to the pub. To me that was quite genuine training for the music business.
How has the songwriting and recording process changed for you as a band since the 1990s? nummsarah
The fundamental shift was changing from me being an individual songwriter bringing songs to the group to where it’s the person who has the strongest idea who leads it. We’ve turned our rehearsal space into a recording space, which I was always against because I thought we’d get lost in noodling, but it’s been more like the way Prince recorded. Whenever you get an idea, you can record. When we started, the studio was seen as sacred. It felt like we’d sneaked in and had to get as much done as possible before the grownups came.
How does Glasgow affect the band’s music? Alex_R_R
If I’d been born and brought up in Sheffield or Leeds, I’m sure those cities would have the same influence, but Glasgow is extraordinary to me. I walk, cycle or sit in the city every day. I like to sit beside the river, dreaming about the Glasgow that was and perhaps the Glasgow that never was. Those imaginary scenarios become the songs.
Do you ever wish you had chosen another 60s kids TV show as your name? catchytitled
If the band had come together a few months earlier or later, we’d have been called something else. I’d written a short story called Belle and Sebastian – I used the name on a demo tape and it just stuck. As we picked up members, it seemed absurd to stick with the name. Then we picked up Isobel [Campbell], so it had extra meaning.
What’s been the most important gig you’ve ever played and for what reason? 25aubrey
In the summer of 1996 we decided to put on our own show and hired the basement of a church in Gibson Street [in Glasgow’s West End]. It was full of people we didn’t know, not just friends turning up as a favour to us. I remember looking at Stevie like Scooby Doo turning to Shaggy and thinking: “What do we do? Do we panic? Should we run?” But that was the moment we first realised we had something and we kinda never looked back.
Did you ever meet [Sire Records founder] Seymour Stein? Newfoundlander
Seymour Stein was at that gig. When we brought out Tigermilk in 1996, this legendary industry guy who had signed Madonna and the Ramones came all the way from the States to see us. The night we were wined and dined by Seymour, Stevie was washing dishes in a restaurant round the corner, so he wrote the song Seymour Stein about his experience of missing out. Seymour Stein was great company, although he came all that way to Glasgow and never asked about Belle and Sebastian. He talked about the Smiths or New Order, which was great for us because we’d ask all these questions. Then he flew off and we were a bit: “What was the point of that?”
I once saw you bring the house down with an impromptu version of Let’s Stick Together after a random audience request. Does the band take a masochistic thrill in such on-the-spot covers? McScootikins
The rest of us had never really been in bands but Stevie had been learning the classics on guitar right through high school and had music in his fingers. If he was in the mood and someone shouted for something, he’d just start riffing. I have no such skills, so would just step back, dance and go “Whoo!”
• Belle and Sebastian’s new album Late Developers and single Every Day’s a Lesson in Humility (with Suki Waterhouse) are out now on Matador and Sub Pop respectively. Their UK and Ireland tour starts at 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin on 2 July.
