Jacknife Lee: “Britpop was the ‘Make America Great Again’ of its day: xenophobic shite, it was misogynist”

Jacknife Lee has described Britpop as the “Make America Great Again of its day”, dismissing it as “xenophobic shite” and “misogynist”.

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The Irish producer is known for his work alongside some of the biggest names in music, having worked on major albums by U2, R.E.M., Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol, The Killers and One Direction. In the ‘90s, however, he was the guitarist in the cult Dublin indie-punk group Compulsion.

That band have just re-released their two studio albums ‘Comforter’ (1994) and ‘The Future Is Medium’ (1996) on Friday (May 2) via One Little Independent Records.

Speaking to Louder Sound in support of the re-releases, Lee has reflected on the time period in which Compulsion’s music was originally released, an era in British and Irish guitar music that was dominated by the Britpop movement.

Asked what it was that he did not appreciate about Britpop, Lee responded: “It was such a nostalgic look back at an older England, like what people saw as ‘glory days’ for Britain, the 1966 World Cup, The Kinks, the Small Faces, looking back to when Britain had colonies and they didn’t fucking complain.”

“And Britpop was the Make America Great Again of its day, all that Rule Britannia shit. I was pissed off, at that kind of Britpop xenophobic shite, it was misogynist, it was Loaded magazine, it was TFI Friday, it was just fucking lads asking for tits out. It was horrible, and we hated it.”

Explaining how he saw Compulsion as standing in opposition to that, he continued: “We were a bit right on, with a very kind of Marxist outlook on things, and so that was fuelling our anger. We were raging fucking lunatics with amphetamines, railing against the world. So there was no way we were going to join any of those groups, because none of it appealed. Our attitude at the time was ‘Fuck England, look to Dusseldorf’. And with the American post-grunge/punk thing, I think when we were told we might fit in, we just ran away from it.”

After Compulsion split in 1997, Lee went on to pursue a solo recording career, releasing his first album ‘Muy Rico’ in 1998, followed by ‘Punk Rock High Roller’ in 2001 and a self-titled third album in 2007.

It is his work behind the production desk, however, that has seen Lee achieve his greatest success. Some of his early producer credits include Snow Patrol’s 2003 breakout album ‘Final Straw’ and U2’s ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ in 2004. He also helmed the final two R.E.M. albums ‘Accelerate’ (2008) and ‘Collapse Into Now’ (2011).

More recently, he co-wrote and co-produced ‘The Last Time’ from Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ in 2012, which featured Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody. He also collaborated with The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Siouxsie And The Banshees’ Budgie on the album ‘Los Angeles’ in 2023.

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