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 need to put on makeup any extra

Graham Coxon enters the studio via a thick cloud of vapour. “Banana and yoghurt,” he declares cheerfully. I had anticipated Coxon to be a bit extra taciturn, given his status because the second least chatty member of Blur. However earlier, as I waited outdoors, I heard him loudly, fortunately tootling a music to himself. As he vapes, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his physique barely nonetheless for a second, even when he is making an attempt to take a seat down and speak. “I can get fairly careworn,” he says, shuffling in his seat, “however I’m in a superb mood once I’m in 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 teenagers falling in love, for which he wrote the beautiful soundtrack. He abbreviates it to “The Finish of the World”, although, because he's round youngsters quite a bit, his personal now being 18 and five. “The older one hears a number of expletives now and again, however I don’t swear that a lot any more. I simply discover it a bit grating. I’ve used every swear word underneath the sun but… ” He shrugs. “Who’s obtained the power to be that het up that they’re going to make use of swear phrases? You want to be enjoyable, not swearing. You could be doing something else.”