Supergrass record covers

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey team up with Radiohead producer

11 August 2009 - Members of Supergrass have teamed up with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich to record a covers album.

Singer Gaz Coombes and drummer Danny Goffey recently wrapped up sessions of re-workings of their favourite tracks by Beastie Boys, The Kinks and The Doors in Godrich's London studio. 

The trio spent two weeks in Covent Garden laying down their own takes for the record, Turn Ons, which was born out of a live cover of Michael Jackson's Beat It. 

"There's an element of classic mix tape to it," Coombes explained.

"So we sat in the restaurant across the street, drank loads of wine and just worked out what kind of songs we could record.

"But we did it in a way we could put our own personality and character on there to give it a real nice angle."

"Supergrass is still very much a creative force and we're halfway through a new album." Danny Goffey, The Hot Rats

Tracks set to feature on the album, which was inspired by David Bowie's 1973 covers LP, Pin Ups, include The Crystal Ship by The Doors, Elvis Costello's Pump It Up and Beastie Boys classic Fight For Your Right.

"That's a great song and the lyrics are really cool," said Coombes.

"It doesn't really have any chords on it, it's about the beat and the rap. But we decided to make it sound like The Who.

"Another one I loved recording was I Can't Stand It by Lou Reed because it was quite simple and we got all these female backing vocalists to sing on it."

Coombes and Goffey also confirmed that despite their pre-occupation with their new side project, that hasn't stopped them working on Supergrass' seventh studio album.

"Supergrass is still very much a creative force and we're halfway through a new record as it is," said Goffey.

"We just had some time on our hands so we thought it was a great idea to do this as well."

The Hot Rats are due to appear at this years' Reading and Leeds Festivals over the weekend of 28-30 August.

Damian Jones