Tim bones up

TIM Booth is bound up in music once more.

In December 2001, he had bade farewell to James and the pop scene after 20 years and 20 Top 40 hits to focus on acting and writing and teaching trance dance, but what's this? On Monday, the 44-year-old singer from Clifford, Boston Spa, is releasing his debut solo album, Bone.

"I'm not in control of this. It was a complete accident, and it's not a solo record, it's a collaboration," says Tim, who got together with a fellow songwriter, an angel, a stand-up comedian and a man in a caf in his adopted home of Brighton. He was "barely aware of his own subconscious desire to make music again".

"I thought what was going to happen was acting and writing," says Tim. "I wanted to give myself time to write a lot, which I did, and had a great time. I had a film script that got optioned and I do acting training once a week, because I love it; I love the fear."

So Tim Booth did his screenplay writing, found time for some DJing and returned to his first calling of theatre (he was a drama student at Manchester University at the time he met the other members of James). "A few years ago I won the Manchester Evening News award for best newcomer for a play I did at the Bolton Octagon Edward Bond's Saved. I loved it. Scared the **** out of me, but I loved it," he says.

"So I'd been running three things at once and not panicking, really very happy, having a great time with family and friends. This one bit first. So I've not had a sense of waiting for something to happen."

The 13 tracks that make up Bone were produced chiefly in a Brighton bedroom by Lee 'Muddy' Baker and mark the first fruits of Tim's songwriting partnership with Kevin 'KK' Kerrigan, a young engineer who had worked on the last James sessions for Pleased To Meet You.

"We wrote the first single, Down To The Sea, and a few others together, and I knew they were great songs but we couldn't finish them. Lee came along and gave it sexiness," Tim recalls.

How does the sound differ from the Manchester indie pop of James? "We've got a lot of grooves on the record, and James didn't have grooves. James were hard to dance to," he says.

Nevertheless, people did dance to James, not least Tim himself. "They did. I did. I DJ and I use masses of music that's going to get people dancing, and that got me into groove. I love not necessarily straightforward dance music but music that makes you start to move your hips.

"I said to Lee, 'I love these songs but I also want people to feel a little infectious movement from them', and he came up with all these great drums and bass lines. So that's a huge difference."

Tim stresses that the "complete accident" tag to the new album is no mere spin.

"I met all of the band last year," he says. "They make their own records and do other things. Lisa Lindlay-Jones (a.k.a. XAN) was going out with a friend of mine, and she sings like an angel. Milo (Michael McCabe) is a stand-up comedian. I met Lee in a caf; I heard him talking about music."

Initially, Tim planned to take a back seat. "My idea at the time was I didn't want to sing the songs and I didn't want to tour, so we were going to find some band and get them to do it. Then when I met Lee, he said he'd love to produce it and play every instrument."

Album ready for release, Tim offers a crash-course guide to Bone. "With a song like Down To The Sea, you can see it comes from James. I see it coming from Sometimes, that sort of area. Then there's a lot of the record that doesn't sound anything like James," he says.

"The launch place for the lyrics probably has a strong connection to me, then I'll start to exaggerate and, by the end of it, it's not really me at all. Like Wave Hello is really a song about the fear of long-term commitment. By the time I've got to the line 'Things never turn out my way', it's not me any more, because I'm lucky. But I don't care. I'm following a line through."

Another highlight is a new version of Fall In Love With Me, the ballad from Booth And The Bad Angel, Tim's cult collaborative album with American soundtrack composer Angelo Badalamenti in 1996.

"I just love that song. When Angelo and I wrote that, we were just dancing around the room; we thought we'd written the song that would break all walls down," he says.

"I felt it never got heard properly, and I just thought 'I want you to hear this' because I know it's one of the best songs I've ever written, and it's a really different version."

James were once the subject of a sneering assault by fellow Mancunian Morrissey on We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful. Now Tim addresses the theme of celebrity on Redneck. "It was sparked by some friends of mine who are now very famous. I'd rung them a few times and nobody had returned my call for months, then the girl rang back and was so apologetic. Over apologetic," he says.

"I thought 'They're scared in case I think they didn't ring back because they're so famous'. By the time I get to the chorus, it's about the disposability of fame, that we're just ice cream. One day people want vanilla, the next day they want chocolate. Everybody in it thinks we're so important."

Explain the choice of album title, Tim. "Bone, it's a good word isn't it? It's something that just works, and it's something about being stripped to the bone, I think."

Booth and band will be touring soon, surprising Tim once more. "I had no intention of playing live again, but Lee rekindled my desire to take the songs out and tour," he says.

It is time to Bone up on Tim Booth once more. "There's some dark lyrics on there but ultimately I'm an optimist. I like my happy endings."

Tim Booth's debut solo album, Bone, will be released by Monkeygod/Sanctuary Records on Monday. He will play Leeds Cockpit on July 8

Updated: 16:05 Thursday, June 10, 2004