That whole Lovelife period was weird at first, because you
Anderson: I think we were done. Chris dying… I’ll be
had betrayed shoegaze in critics’ minds for something
honest with you, by that time, I had had enough. It was
lighter and poppier. How did you feel, hearing that?
time to move on.
Berenyi: We never had a clear singular path or were
Coming back with the box set, the reissues, do you think
showered with glory in the first place. The real story
Lush now is radically different than it was then, and are
of Lovelife was in its production. We had had mentor
you going to maintain it as a vehicle for new music or to
producers before and got bored of that. What we wanted
maintain its legacy?
to do was make a record that sounded like us. The easiest
way of doing that was just having our live soundman do it.
Berenyi: I was terrified of playing gigs after not doing them
That meant that the layers were gone. People thought that
for twenty years. I thought it would be a nightmare, but I’m
we did that deliberately to sound all Britpop. We were just
finding that I can do this, actually. We did an EP of new
trying to simplify.
songs and asked ourselves if we need to make them Lushlike, and the answer is: no. Just do them and they’re Lush.
Then Chris died. In retrospect, do you think you would
I thought it was going to be harder and more depressing,
have carried on as Lush if he hadn’t committed suicide?
but it’s fun.
Berenyi: Personally, I do. If he had stayed alive, maybe
Anderson: Writing and recording new music was a big
I would have made more music. I think we would have
carrot dangling in my face. I don’t know that I would
pulled through it and tried to have made another record.
have done it otherwise. Then again, most of you will
Maybe we would have fought; maybe we wouldn’t have
probably walk out on the new songs anyway when we
finished it. We would have tried.
play them. [Laughs.]
.]