Scott free

MIKE Scott stopped using The Waterboys as his band name after 1993's Dream Harder. Recording the reflective Bring' Em All In and the fiery Still Burning albums under his own name, this ever-questing, restless Scotsman found himself consigned to the commercial suburbs.

And so, The Waterboys have returned, even though new album A Rock In The Weary Land is in essence a solo record, like so much of Scott's past work, with guest musicians.

"It's a name that people know. I'm quite realistic about that. I spent 12 years in The Waterboys, maturing and making records, and perhaps it was too much to ask people to build up another name," he says.

It might not be fair - both Mike Scott albums warranted more attention - but the truth is, the Waterboys name has a frisson, and its return gives added impetus to Scott and his band's appearance at York Barbican Centre tonight.

"I dug being 'Mike Scott', especially when I was doing my one-man show, but when I work under the name The Waterboys, there's an intangible extra - something bigger than me," he says.

Scott makes a change from many rock interviewees with a record and tour to promote: he openly challenges questions, making the interviewer work harder. For example, advance notice had suggested A Rock In The Weary Land would mark a return to the epic "big music" that Scott made his Eighties trademark on The Whole Of The Moon and This Is The Sea. Not so, he explains forcibly.

"No, I don't consider it a return to past music," he says. "I see it as a continuation; as one journey. I write a bunch of songs, I make a record and I work hard for a long time to make it as good as possible, and then I take it on the road."

The decision to restore The Waterboys was entirely his, he stresses, rather than at the insistence of his record company, RCA. "It's purely from my own point of view. I feel my music deserves to be heard, so why not use the name?" Scott says.

"When I was recording it, it was a solo album and I didn't know what name it would be going out under. But then the first two Waterboys were solo records and Dream Harder was a solo album too, made by me in New York."

Point made, Mike. A Rock In The Weary Land is not so much a Waterboys comeback as another change of tack, just as Scott embraced traditional Irish folk and country music so enthusiastically and without warning on Fisherman's Blues in 1988. This time, now 41, he is using atmospheric sampling and calling his new sound "sonic rock".

"I think by now people have got so used to me having my own style and always changing style that they expect the unexpected, and that's a good position for me to be in," he says.

"I realised that on the last record I made 1997's Still Burning, my attention was on the lyrics and the singing and not the sound of it. It was a very straightforward record sonically and I knew I had to update my sound to compete with other Nineties musicians... Radiohead... U2... and I feel I've done that."

Does he believe The Waterboys, or rather Mike Scott, has lived up to expectations brought about by The Whole Of The Moon? "I think I've followed my destiny; the other side has been an illusion, a path made by the media."

"I feel I should follow my own beliefs: I follow what I want to do musically and I would have a problem compromising, doing something that I didn't have my heart and soul in just to sell records.

"After I climbed the mountain, I wanted to climb another mountain and go in a different direction too. I could have made The Whole Of The Moon 2, but I didn't ever want to do that.

"I grew up listening to people I admired, Dylan, Neil Young, Bowie and The Beatles: artists who change with every album. I always wanted to do that and I always saw music that way."

As early as his first press releases, Mike Scott talked of his vision of an ever-changing, ever-evolving band. The subsequent path may have surprised even him, but he has been true to his word.

The Waterboys, York Barbican Centre, tonight at 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, available on the door.