Graham Coxon: 'I was a mardy brat in my 20s … I'm quite mellow now'

Blur’s guitarist displays on the state of pop music, swearing, and why he’s glad he doesn’t should put on makeup any extra

Graham Coxon enters the studio via a thick cloud of vapour. “Banana and yoghurt,” he pronounces cheerfully. I had anticipated Coxon to be a bit extra taciturn, given his status because the second least chatty member of Blur. But earlier, as I waited outdoors, I heard him loudly, fortunately tootling a track to himself. As he vapes, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his physique barely nonetheless for a second, even when he's making an attempt to take a seat down and speak. “I can get fairly harassed,” he says, shuffling in his seat, “but I’m in a superb mood once I’m within the studio.”

We're in London’s Konk Studios, near where Coxon lives, to speak about The Finish of the F***ing World, the Channel 4/Netflix drama about two damaged youngsters falling in love, for which he wrote the beautiful soundtrack. He abbreviates it to “The Finish of the World”, although, as a result of he's around youngsters rather a lot, his personal now being 18 and five. “The older one hears a couple of expletives once in a while, but I don’t swear that a lot any extra. I just discover it a bit grating. I’ve used every swear word beneath the solar but… ” He shrugs. “Who’s received the power to be that het up that they’re going to make use of swear phrases? You'll want to be enjoyable, not swearing. You should be doing something else.”