QTheMusic.com

Massive Attack are late. The fifth floor suite in a plush London hotel is, apart from Q and a PR rep, remarkably derived of anything significant. There's a high-rise chair in the bathroom last occupied by Penelope Cruz for her share of a promotional circus, which soon will be admired by Robert ''D / 3D'' Del Naja, but mostly, the room, as with the miles of corridors outside, is painfully sterile.

But it's worth the wait. It's been seven years since Massive Attack's last album. Heligoland, their new LP, was meant to be the return to form, a showcase of that which once made them pioneers of their unique genre. But reception so far has been lukewarm, with the band recently suggesting a new direction might be wise by asking dubstep buttontwister Burial to do a remix of the album. But first things first:

- You have to remember, 100th Window was a deliberate attempt to make something else.

Del Naja and Grant ''G / Daddy G'' Marshall are no longer late. In fact, they have been present for quite some time, the conversation drifting between the aesthetics of music appreciation, their roots, and long-time collaborator Horace Andy before merging into the troubled album sessions of past years. So should 100th Window have been released as a Del Naja solo record?

D: Well, no. Because 100th Window started and ended as a Massive Attack project. But I wanted to get away from Mezzanine - the last thing I wanted was to make another album like that. So it was a deliberate 'well fuck it, let's make something different'.

- Mezzanine was for me a tough record, because I was fighting with [former member] Mushroom and didn't know what the album was supposed to be, what Massive Attack was supposed to be. Because Massive Attack was always a collision of personalities.

G: We were both fighting with Mush.

D: Yeah, but I was...

G: Yeah, physically you were fighting.

D: And for me it was a daily grind, trying to engage an idea.... That was when Massive Attack stopped to be interesting.

Despite it's calamitous origins, Mezzanine went platinum, and like 1991's Blue Lines and 1994's Protection, is frequently labelled as a Trip Hop Classic - an historical cul-de-sac if any. Nevertheless, 100th Window did in contrast little more than give the undeniable impression that the game was up, with Del Naja recording the bulk of it alone, alienating Marshall in the process.

Back in the suite, the duo cough simultaneously, twitching ever so slightly in their seats.

G: Well, we're back in harmony now, see. Coughing at the same time.

D: You know, we've known each other for twenty- odd years, there's bound to be some tough times. It's like a family struggle.

The family then, extends on Heligoland wider than ever before, with Elbow's Guy Garvey, Martina Topley-Bird, Hope Sandoval, Tunde Adebimpe and famously the return of Damon Albarn to MA's fold.

G: That guy [Albarn], he shits ideas doesn't he? He is such an intense guy to work with, you kinda have to hold him down to stop him springing off the walls, and tell him 'right, we're doing this song'.

D: Another thing is, Damon just said ''I'm only gonna work with you guys if I'm not sucked into the Bristol time warp, I'm only doing things in major keys not minor, I'm not fucking working all night''. And all those rule were broken the next day. By him.

G: It was just a pleasurable experience.

D: Absolutely man. The same with Guy and Martina, who we were envious of. When Tricky first played me his demos with her [Topley-Bird]when we were first living together, I was so jealous, I couldn't hide my envy. Here's this girl he just met on the street and she sounds like that you know. But then that session was really nervewrecking, because after all these years, it might be a disappointment. Fear might stop you from doing things.

Did you ever consider bringing in Tricky?

D: Yeah, Tricky came to a soundcheck in Paris, I hadn't seen him for five years. It was really odd, but as soon as I met him it just clicked, and [we] forgot the current dynamic and got into an old one, same as ten years before.

G: You know, we asked Tricky if he wanted to come on board for this album, but it was just a case of him waiting for me to call and me waiting for him to call.

D: It's like a Mexican standoff: ''You have to call me twice before i call you''.

G: It was yeah, one of those bravado things. But it might be a possibility for him coming on board for the next one. I still think he's a genius and I love him.

D: Definitely, it's all about the moment really. Tricky and me you know...when we got together it was a very volatile relationship, both Aquarians, both very selfish.

G: [Mockingly] Nooo. Selfish? Nooo.

A knock on the door and room service enter with two fish 'n' chips. Marshall, who has been eyeballing Q's beer for the better part of the interview, jumps to the edge of his seat before leaning back again, gently stating that dissecting batter and cod during an interview might not appear too professional, or that it's simply a bit rude. Only on Q's insistence that it's ok, does all 6'6'' of him take a giant leap towards the cart before he and Del Naja place plates on their napkin-draped thighs. It's great comedy.

Massive Attack eat, compare fish sizes, and conversation flows naturally between Q's red-stripe cradling gloves to Del Naja's confession of 'still being a tortured punk somewhere inside' before landing awkwardly on the recent antics of John Lydon:

D: That Country Life thing. What's that about?

G: What's that about Johnny?

D: Country Life adverts, he..

G: He's not doing that.

D: Yeah! He's the face of Country Life, mate.

G: What's Country Life?

D: Butter, you know..aarrgh.

G: Oh my god yeah I've seen that, what's that all about?

D: It's mad innit.

G: Jesus Christ.

D: You know when Keith Flint was doing Firestarter, and people were doing impressions of him in adverts...I though it was someone doing an impression of Johnny Rotten. It took me three hours to realise it was actually him.

An interview with Massive Attack often produce two things: A lengthy speech about current affairs from the well-informed Del Naja, and a baffled response from Marshall when confronting him with a previous quote, of which he remembers preciously few. With our time slowly running out, the conversation has as such moved into politics, with Marshall venting his bewilderment over an older quote of his, in which he stated there was ''no way the people with real power would let a black man run for president''. Del Naja, on his side opts to focus on the Norwegians, and Obama's controversial Nobel Peace Prize last year, before stating his disappointment over Q's quote not being the one where a broadsheet journalist subtly had made an ironic comment about Marshall.

G: Did he say that about me?

D: Yeah, I wanted to cut that motherfucker out and put it under my pillow.

G: [jokingly] Alex Petridis, you're a dead man when I catch you.

They are comfortably back in harmony with each other then, the two Bristolians, even though they claim to be not fully so with their own music. They've had a little help from their new friends, but perhaps all they need now is to rediscover their old entourage as well. A Tricky/Albarn collaboration surely must be tempting. Just as long as they make sure to avoid those Mexican stand-offs.

Interviewer: Brand Barstein

Part of Massive Attack week on Qthemusic.com.

11:04 AM | 12/02/2010