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

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

Graham Coxon enters the studio by means of a thick cloud of vapour. “Banana and yoghurt,” he declares cheerfully. I had anticipated Coxon to be a bit more 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 track to himself. As he vapes, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his physique barely still for a second, even when he is 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 an excellent temper once I’m within the studio.”

We are in London’s Konk Studios, near where Coxon lives, to talk about The End 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 End of the World”, though, as a result of he's round youngsters quite a bit, his personal now being 18 and 5. “The older one hears a number of expletives now and again, but I don’t swear that a lot any more. I just find 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 must be enjoyable, not swearing. It's worthwhile to be doing one thing else.”