Art For Art’s Sake
As he approaches his 75th birthday, 10cc’s Kevin Godley can tick two new life experiences off the list. The singer, drummer, composer and music video director has turned to crowdfunding for the subscription-based release of his very first solo album, Muscle Memory. He tells Prog about his experiences of working remotely for the first time and why Sheet Music holds a special place in his heart.
Words: Chris Roberts
Kevin Godley: happily butting heads.
Images: Kevin Godley
“I think it’s part of an artist’s function to comment on what’s happening during his lifetime,” muses Kevin Godley. “I always did in a way, although maybe in a more light-hearted manner with 10cc. We were like journalists, or film-makers, back then. Whereas with this now, I’m headbutting stuff as opposed to peering at it from around a corner. And even if the character singing it doesn’t answer the question - at least pose the question.”
Pausing only to free one of his dogs who has got “trapped in a door, somehow”, Godley is a fascinating conversationalist, grimly intrigued by our modern world, and it’s that theme that dominates his darkly compelling album, Muscle Memory. Implausibly, it’s the first solo record from the 10cc and Godley & Creme graduate. Although the man of myriad talents, now in his mid-70s, resides in the Dublin area, his warm Lancastrian burr still comes through. He’s happy to touch on his years singing and drumming with maverick quartet 10cc, then his forming an avant-pop duo alongside Lol Creme before the pair became groundbreaking, hugely influential video directors, and the videos he’s made by himself since (for everybody from U2 to Paul McCartney to Phil Collins to Blur). Yet the main event right now in our unsettling times is this somewhat unexpected album, a triumph that began in a typically (for him) unconventional manner.