Insisting “I don’t want to be cool. I don’t want to be the Arctic Monkeys,” former Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins is grilled by the Guardian’s Hannah Pool.
You were a huge star when you were lead singer with the Darkness. Now you and your friend Beverlei Brown want to represent Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest. Why?
I’ve been enjoying a long break and Eurovision doesn’t seem to affect anything else. It’s so removed from everything else that happens in music – it’s something that you can afford to do and then crawl back under your rock. It’s a nice way to break it up. I actually had a dream about it. I can’t remember the specifics – just that I woke up with a really positive feeling.
Is it all part of some ironic masterplan?
If it’s a masterplan, I don’t really see to what end. Just to make everyone feel stupid? No. It’s not.
Is it a desperation thing – to revive your career?
I’m not especially desperate to revive a career; I was actually desperate to get out of my career six months ago. I’m not terribly keen to get back because of the tedium of being in a band and answering questions like that.