Pete Doherty has announced details of his new solo album ‘Felt Better Alive’ along with details of an intimate UK tour. Check out the title track below along with our interview with The Libertines star.
READ MORE: Pete Doherty on survival, family, and the future of Libertines and Babyshambles
Due for release in May via Doherty’s own Strap Originals label and supported a run of shows in towns namechecked in Babyshambles‘ classic ‘Down In Albion’, his latest solo effort comes with a taster in the form of the country-tinged road song of the lead single and title track.
“My ultimate fantasy moment is like in that film Yesterday where he’s the only person to know The Beatles songs,” Doherty told NME. “Before that film was written and made, I used to have that fantasy when I was a kid. I’d be watching Top Of The Pops with Oasis, Blur and Pulp and would pretend I’d written the songs. That’s the whole thing about singing in front of the mirror with a hair brush, isn’t it? I took it to another level by imagining that these people had never been born, and that the rest of the world hadn’t heard the songs so I had to present them.”
He continued: “There was one song by Townes Van Zandt called ‘Pancho And Lefty’, and I always thought that song was the ultimate song to have written. I tried and tried to write it and rewrite it, but you can’t. ‘Felt Better Alive’, to me, is the English version of ‘Pancho And Lefty’. It’s about the soul of an old, jaded cowboy rock’n’roller on the road, still trying to keep it together to just do what you have to do. You can’t fight time, you know. You can’t fight time. We always lose.”
Check out the rest of our interview on the solo record below, where Doherty told us about why the songs (apart from one) weren’t right for Libertines, and what to expect from the rest of the album.
NME: Hello Pete. What can you tell us about what went into these songs on ‘Felt Better Alive’?
Pete Doherty: “They all just sit well together. They were all written around the same time; around the time I was working on The Libertines’ new album [‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’, 2024] but they didn’t seem right for it.
“It’s not that they were rejected by the band, but in order for it to be a Libertines song, it has to be really me and Carl [Barat]. These are songs that are me, really.”
Was there just no space for Carl when you were writing these songs?
“I just couldn’t capture Carl’s attention with them, in a significant enough way for him to go, ‘Ah, what does this need?’
“A fellow called Mike Moore did take an interest. You might know him for the work he’s done with Baxter Dury. He plays guitar and he’s MD for Liam Gallagher’s solo stuff. He came around to my gaff and listened to my little dictaphone (The Dictaphone Of Kerbibble, I call it) and that had a few half-formed ideas. Straight away, he felt what I felt – that there was something that needed to be mined. So we did it, and a few of them ended up as co-writes with him, because had a lot to add.”
And so, ‘Felt Better Alive’…
“I was going to call it ‘If You Can’t Fight, Wear A Big Hat’ but the label didn’t it, so I caved. If you do buy the vinyl copy, you’ll see engraved it engraved into the inner rim of the groove. On the other side it says, ‘QPR FC RULE’.”
Would you say this single captures the spirit of the album as a whole?
“There can be something uplifting about resignation, but at the same time you’re not just sat at home moping and singing these things to yourself. You’re still going out there and singing them. I think there’s enough melancholy in this record to fill a good-sized jerry can. The idea is to splash it on the audience and see if it ignites or not.”
Where does it take your solo work after your 2022 Frédéric Lo collab album ‘The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime’?
“It’s probably more overtly country. ‘Felt Better Alive’ is probably cod-country. I’m going to get that in before anyone else does. I really don’t know. I don’t like to think of things in terms of genre, but if you have to then it’s country, isn’t it?
“I believe at my core that anyone who’s liked anything I’ve done before will love this, because it’s very personal. I feel like these are songs I rate and are up there with anything I’ve done. I think The Libertines are stark-raving mad not to have put them on the album.”
Peter Doherty, 2025. Credit: Roger Sergent
Especially on ‘Pot Of Gold’ where you’re singing to your daughter: “Daddy’s trying to write you a lullaby, and if that lullaby is a hit, daddy’s gonna buy you loads of cool shit, and we’ll forget about the times when they always tried to run me out of town…“
“That was a cowboy reference. It’s a bit of a nod to my old mate Alan Wass as well [collaborator who died in 2015]. There’s a bit in there that’s nicked from one of his sadly-unreleased songs, ‘No Protection’.”
And ‘The Day The Baron Died’ has echoes of The Pogues and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, but of course it’ll already be familiar to Libertines fans…
“Well ‘The Day The Baron Died’ is one of the songs that The Libertines wanted, but on The Libertines album it’s called ‘The Baron’s Claw’. For publishing and legal reasons, we had to change the title. This is the original vision of the song. It’s quite unusual. We did an amazing version of it with The Libs, but this is the same song but with a slight variation of lyrics.
“I had to do it again because the whole idea of the chorus was to use the mad, ‘Instant Karma’ drum fill. The Libs didn’t want to go with that because they thought it was too pastiche-y and corny. Originally I had the sample from ‘Instant Karma’, but we re-recorded.”
Would you have had Yoko Ono and the lawyers on the phone?
“Ooh, that’s a good question. I fucking hope not. That would cost more than I’d make from all the album sales.”
Pete Doherty will release ‘Felt Better Alive’ via Strap Originals on Friday May 16. Pre-order it here and check out the full tracklist below:
1. ‘Calvados’
2. ‘Pot Of Gold’
3. ‘The Day the Baron Died’
4. ‘Stade Océan’
5. ‘Out Of Tune Ballon’
6. ‘Felt Better Alive’
7. ‘Ed Belly’
8. ‘Poca Mahoney’s’
9. ‘Fingee’
10. ‘Prêtre De La Mer’
11. ‘Empty Room’
Doherty will also embark on the ‘Anywhere In Albion’ UK tour in March before a run of ‘Felt Better Alive In Europe’ dates. Tickets go on general sale from 10am GMT on Friday January 17 and will be available here.
MARCH
08 – Newport ICC Wales
12 – Wimborne The Tivoli Theatre
13 – Birmingham XOYO
14 – Oldham Whittles
16 – Bristol Trinity Centre
17 – Deptford New Cross Inn
18 – Catford Blackheath Halls
20 – Mansfield Canvas
21 – Watford Palace Theatre
23 – Newcastle Wylam Brewery
APRIL
06 – Geneva Antigel Festival
26 – Paris Le Trianon
30 – Amsterdam Melkweg
MAY
01 – Cologne Die Kantine
02 – Berlin Festisaal Kreuzberg
03 – Leipzig Taubchenthal
05 – Munich Technikum
13 – Bruges Cactus Muziekcentrum
Pete Doherty announces the ‘Anywhere In Albion’ 2025 solo tour
The Libertines will also be touring throughout 2025, with a headline show at London’s Gunnersbury Park on Saturday August 9. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Meanwhile, Doherty has also teased that a Babyshambles reunion “is on the cards” for 2025.
The post Pete Doherty tells us about new solo album ‘Felt Better Alive’: “The Libertines are stark-raving mad not to want these songs” appeared first on NME.
