Gene’s Martin Rossiter: Fame, Fallout and the Return
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After a 21-year hiatus, Gene returned last year to perform three sold-out comeback shows, including a triumphant night performing to 5300 fans at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, where the band’s classic line-up of Martin Rossiter (vocals), Matt James (drums), Steve Mason (guitars) and Kevin Miles (bass) delivered one of the stand-out performances of their career. That performance was captured on the live album, ‘Apollo’, which upon its release in April this year reached Number 1 on the Official Record Store Chart, Number 2 on the Independent Albums Chart, and Number 8 on the Physical Albums Chart.
Gene return to London to play two shows at the Roundhouse in Camden on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th October, where they will perform a different set each night, before playing their first North American tour in 24 years in November. Tickets for all shows are on sale now, available from https://www.geneofficial.com/live/
Gene is the one of the most distinctive British bands to emerge during the 1990s.
Their first single, “For the Dead,” originally reached No. 86 in 1994—but when it was rereleased two years later, it climbed to No. 14, becoming the band’s highest-charting UK single. It formed part of an impressive run that included “Sleep Well Tonight,” “Olympian,” “Fighting Fit,” “We Could Be Kings” and “Where Are They Now?”
As Martin Rossiter, singer, lyricist and unmistakable voice, says of Gene’s extraordinary trajectory: “We took off like Concorde and landed like the Wright Brothers.”
In this candid Martin Rossiter interview, Gene’s singer and lyricist talks to Steve Blame about the band’s extraordinary rise during the Britpop era, from “For the Dead,” “Sleep Well Tonight” and “Olympian” to “Fighting Fit,” “Where Are They Now?” and Drawn to the Deep End.
Martin reveals what happened when Gene’s original line-up—Steve Mason, Kevin Miles, Matt James and Martin himself—met again after more than a decade apart. He discusses Alan McGee’s role in encouraging the reunion, the old band dynamic immediately returning and the emotional impact of walking onto the stage at the Hammersmith Apollo.
He reflects on Gene’s place—or lack of one—within Britpop, the persistent comparisons with Morrissey and the Smiths, and the reductive press coverage he experienced as an openly bisexual performer during the aggressively laddish culture of the 1990s.
The conversation also explores Martin’s Welsh childhood, family trauma, complex PTSD, sexuality, masculinity and mental health. He explains why he rejects the romantic idea of the tortured artist and considers whether suffering helped or hindered his songwriting.
Martin talks about meeting guitarist Steve Mason, how their contrasting musical instincts created Gene’s distinctive sound, the rapid response to “For the Dead,” the success of Olympian and why Gene’s commercially successful second album was nevertheless treated as a disappointment by their record company.
He also explains why he ended Gene in 2004, how becoming a music teacher changed his understanding of success, and what eventually brought him back to writing for his solo album The Defenestration of St Martin.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Martin Rossiter and the story of Gene
00:52 Why Martin changed his mind about a reunion
03:18 How Alan McGee helped bring Gene back
04:04 Meeting the band again after more than a decade
05:58 Reunion, nostalgia and what happens next
07:03 Returning at the Hammersmith Apollo
08:56 When songs no longer belong only to their writer
10:19 Childhood, family trauma and complex PTSD
16:13 Wales, church music and finding his voice
21:02 Welsh identity, language and belonging
24:32 Believing he might be Jesus
30:36 Bisexuality, masculinity and the British press
35:08 Meeting Steve Mason and forming Gene
39:51 Gene’s sound and the Smiths comparisons
43:23 Why Gene never felt part of Britpop
46:50 The Morrissey comparisons
48:01 “For the Dead” and Gene’s rapid rise
50:00 Olympian, success and record-company expectations
52:01 The intensely personal lyrics of “Olympian”
53:06 Mental health, diagnosis and depression
54:37 Rejecting the myth of the tortured artist
56:05 Looking back at Drawn to the Deep End
57:39 Why Martin ended Gene
58:48 Teaching and redefining success
1:03:48 Returning to songwriting
1:04:54 “Three Points on a Compass” and his father
1:06:29 The extraordinary response from other men
1:08:31 Fatherhood and no longer needing to be saved
Gene return to the Roundhouse in London on 9 and 10 October, performing a different set each night, before their first North American tour in 24 years in November.
Tickets and confirmed live dates: https://www.geneofficial.com/live/
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