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 make-up any more

Graham Coxon enters the studio by way of a thick cloud of vapour. “Banana and yoghurt,” he proclaims cheerfully. I had expected Coxon to be a bit extra taciturn, given his fame because the second least chatty member of Blur. But earlier, as I waited outdoors, I heard him loudly, happily tootling a track to himself. As he vapes, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his body barely nonetheless for a second, even when he is making an attempt to take a seat down and speak. “I can get quite harassed,” he says, shuffling in his seat, “however I’m in an excellent temper once I’m within the studio.”

We're in London’s Konk Studios, close to where Coxon lives, to speak about The End of the F***ing World, the Channel 4/Netflix drama about two broken teenagers falling in love, for which he wrote the beautiful soundtrack. He abbreviates it to “The End of the World”, although, as a result of he's around youngsters so much, his own now being 18 and 5. “The older one hears a number of expletives once in a while, however I don’t swear that a lot any extra. I just discover it a bit grating. I’ve used every swear word beneath the sun but… ” He shrugs. “Who’s acquired the power to be that het up that they’re going to make use of swear phrases? You must be enjoyable, not swearing. You must be doing something else.”