Jarvis Cocker reveals oldest song on Pulp’s new album has existed for 30 years: “That was a real dream I had”
Jarvis Cocker has revealed the oldest song on Pulp’s upcoming album More has existed for almost 30 years, explaining that the idea came to him in a dream.
In an interview with the New Yorker on June 1st, the frontman gave an insight into the making of the album, which marks the first effort from the band in 24 years. Within this, the song ‘Grown Ups’ has been ruminating in Cocker’s mind for the longest period.
“That was a real dream I had,” he said, referencing the song’s stratospheric inspirations from outer space. “I had it a few years ago and I wrote it down. That song is the oldest song on the record. The music was demoed when we did the Pulp album This Is Hardcore [in 1998], a long time ago.”
Cocker added: “I knew I wanted to call it ‘Grown Ups’ but I couldn’t think of any words beyond that. I lost confidence in it. And then when we were trying to get songs together for this record, I thought, ‘This is it. This is its last chance’.”
Reflecting on the fittingness of the title of the song, given that the music was written three decades ago and it is finally being released “now I am grown up,” the frontman admitted that much of the reasons for the new albumwere born out of tragedy.
The genesis of More began while Pulp were on tour in 2023, but following the death of original bassist Steve Mackey as well as Cocker’s mother, “It was a bit of what we were talking about—when someone close to you passes away, one of the ways to deal with it is to think, ‘OK, well, I better make the most of my life now, or what’s left of it’,” he explained, adding, “I just thought it would be good for us to see whether we could get enough songs together for a record.”
Pulp’s new album More will be released on June 6th.
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