Suede started Britpop before Oasis, but the band refuses to stay there. ‘We are anti-nostalgia.’

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Throughout much of its career, Suede, being one of the pioneers of Britpop in the early ’90s, believed this music genre wouldn’t experience a resurgence. However, this presumption will be challenged on September 6, as Oasis takes the stage at the Rose Bowl for one of their first U.S. shows in over two decades, marking what is being touted as the largest rock tour of 2025. Approximately 90,000 fans are anticipated to attend in Pasadena for a performance by the Gallagher brothers that embodies a larger-than-life British essence, reminiscent of a pub on Santa Monica Boulevard. The day prior, some five thousand miles away, Suede will unveil “Antidepressants,” their 10th studio album.

In the United States, the band is known as London Suede due to a longstanding legal dispute with an American folk artist. This name may prompt polite acknowledgment rather than the passionate nostalgia Oasis still evokes. However, in the UK, Suede was instrumental. Their 1992 single “The Drowners” sparked what would grow into Britpop, one of the biggest comebacks of British rock since The Beatles, opening doors for a new wave of bands and boosting Britain’s cultural influence worldwide. The band’s first self-titled album was released the following year, featuring grand, anthemic guitar melodies alongside intimate, uniquely British depictions of life.

Stepping out from the shadows of anonymity, where everyday musicians with simple monikers like Ian Brown rose to prominence as British music royalty, I found myself, Brett Anderson – the androgynous, flamboyant frontman of Suede – bringing a touch of drama and glamour back into the spotlight. For a moment, Ricky Gervais even joined us as a co-manager. Our band graced the cover of Melody Maker, a renowned UK music magazine, before we’d even released a single note.

Our debut album was highly anticipated in the early 90s, generating excitement comparable to the Smiths’ arrival a decade prior. When it dropped, “Suede” became the quickest-selling debut album in British history.

Anderson assertively states, “We were the first to release a Britpop album.” He implies that this is a fact that should be accepted. However, despite their pioneering role, the band’s influence seems remarkably underappreciated, often overshadowed by bands whose British identity was simpler to market abroad. As Britpop started taking shape into a distinctive genre and concept, Suede was acknowledged as its founders, but they eventually became less prominent when bands like Blur and Oasis took center stage, shaping the movement we now associate with Britpop.

Today, Mat Osman from Suede’s bassist is here, dressed casually in a worn black t-shirt and eye-catching necklace. Meanwhile, Anderson, who identifies as “anti-fashion,” continues to sport his consistent style of a well-tailored shirt and snug formal pants. Leaning back on his couch with one arm carelessly resting at the back of his head, Anderson seems at ease amidst the gently swaying greenery of his English garden under the soft summer light. His band has been active for such a long time that the cultural movement it originated from has made a comeback.

Following Suede’s debut album release, David Bowie straight-up told me, “Your playing and songwriting is so impressive that I know you’ll be making music for a long time.” Boy, was he right! With ten albums under our belt, Suede continues to push creative boundaries, resisting the lure of a comfortable ‘heritage band’ existence. As Anderson puts it, “We are anti-nostalgia.” Our latest album reflects the wisdom of age and the peculiar duality of feeling both youthful and seasoned, like running on “18-year-old software in 50-year-old hardware,” as he aptly describes. With me and Osman nearing our sixties, we’re still going strong!

Antidepressants” serves as a symbol of maturity for Suede, contrasting with their early work that depicted the exhilarating highs and crashing lows of first love. Now, Suede’s music focuses on the delicate task of preserving relationships, a theme seldom explored in songs according to Anderson. He states, “People often sing about finding or losing love, but few truly capture the essence of maintaining a relationship.”

Over time, Suede has transformed into an exploration of endurance, managing to keep teenage emotions alive and well within their music. Yet, despite this evolution, their songs still embody a unique brand of Britishness – chaotic yet captivating, desperate yet aspirational – just as they have always aimed to portray in their depictions of British working-class life.

Anderson was raised in Haywards Heath, a town in southern England near Osman, as part of a working-class family living in a government-aided home. His father had a passion for classical music, while his mother was an artist – interests that were often viewed as unconventional within the working class at the time. This perceived contradiction reflected Suede’s own sensibilities, which challenged the conventional expectations of what working-class representation should be. The music press, dominated by the upper middle class, found it hard to understand this. As Osman notes, “There’s a certain type of working-class culture or person that the middle class is comfortable with – it’s that Oasis, football-and-beer image.” Britpop, in its popularized form, became precisely that: rowdy, boozy, and deliberately simple.

Suede distanced themselves from Britpop when it transformed into a form they no longer identified with; a style that felt reminiscent of nationalistic fervor to the band. Their second album, “Dog Man Star” released in 1994, served as Suede’s counterpoint to Britpop, offering an artistic dreamscape rather than a typical stadium anthem. During this period, the media often portrayed Britpop through oversimplified rivalries: Oasis (representing the working-class culture of Manchester with its football and pubs) versus Blur (symbolizing the middle-class art scene in London). Suede, with its glam influences and dramatic songs, didn’t fit comfortably into either category. The band members wore vintage suits that some perceived as sophisticated while others might argue more damningly, they refused to simplify their class identity for easy understanding.

Back in 1994, as Noel Gallagher himself put it, a significant challenge emerged. That year, Oasis released their debut album, and according to Noel, “You have bands like Suede making quite good music, but Brett Anderson’s lyrics are a mix of Bowie and Morrissey, and I don’t think a typical 16-year-old on welfare is going to grasp what he’s saying.” In Britain, as I’ve come to see, the caricature often holds more weight than actual life.

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The cartoon in question is now gaining popularity in the U.S., which is unexpected considering Britpop’s historically anti-American sentiment. Unlike earlier British music trends, Britpop didn’t rely on or reference American culture and often opposed it. While Britpop was growing in popularity in England, grunge was becoming prevalent in America. At times, Britpop seemed to be a cultural response to its American counterpart. For instance, Blur poked fun at grunge music with their hit “Song 2,” a song with meaningless lyrics and overly enthusiastic tone. On the other hand, Suede’s British identity was more about inherent instinct rather than a formal manifesto, driven by the urge to portray small, personal stories in grand, romantic, even dramatic ways. Britpop expressed Britishness through wit; grunge expressed Americana through subdued emotion. As Anderson puts it, “If I had to pick between grunge and Britpop today, I’d likely choose grunge.

I, as a supporter, am making a conscious effort to adopt an optimistic perspective rather than being cynical about the revival of Britpop. This generation, with their purchasing power, seems to be reminiscing about their youth, and I’m attempting to view that as a positive expression of nostalgia. The Oasis gigs, in my opinion, are more about shared cultural experiences, about being part of a vast crowd that shares the same feelings, rather than just musical events.

Suede’s influence stretches far beyond our shores, evoking mass enthusiasm in places like Chile, where they recently performed to tens of thousands, and China, where they can easily fill sports stadiums. However, in America, things are different. The band has no plans to tour the States as it’s unlikely to be profitable, and we’re not here for charity work.

Although Oasis’ Rose Bowl performance might be seen as the triumphant finale of Britpop in America, Suede continues to look ahead, continually seeking ways to innovate. “Britpop seems like it’s just some sort of nostalgic thing, doesn’t it?” Anderson comments. “It’s a watered-down version of a past that never truly existed.

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2025-09-02 13:31