As anyone who has experienced such a thing will surely tell you, the old cliche about it changing your life is absolutely true. Just ask Bill. "I have to sing a bit quieter," he says. "Trying to do a lullaby in my usual singing accent is a bit of a shock to his system, so you may find on the new album I'm singing a little more gently."

It has also given Bragg a new outlook on life. "Having a kid brings you perspective by the bucketload, usually at 3 in the morning. And I think that is a good thing, because this is a stupid job," he adds. Apparently life as a politically-active British rock star isn't all it's cracked up to be. Becoming a dad has put Bragg back in touch with reality, he says. "If the majority of your experiences are in the real world, it can only help you put insightful ideas about the real world onto your records," he adds. "Without wanting to make it a 'big dad record,' I've always tried make records that reflect what's happening in my life at that particular time."

Bragg's new role as poppa and the dilemmas that role creates is quite apparent in "From Red To Blue," the opening track on William Bloke. In the song, Bragg asks the musical question, "Should I vote red for my class or green for our children?"

Explains Bragg, "I put that line in to reflect that I too wonder what is the best way to make a better world." It seems that Bragg's partner and mother of his child thinks the environmental party is the way to go, rather than the socialist party, but Ol' Bill isn't quite convinced. "It's a discussion we have," Bragg admits. However, he really doesn't have the answer. He just wants to make sure that people are discussing such issues.

"'From Red To Blue' is a song that challenges people of my generation who were perhaps more active in the '80s not to become reactionary fuddy duddies as they grow older," he adds. "But in writing a song like that, you have to be careful not to take a position that is politically correct or holier than thou."

In "The Space Race Is Over," another tune from William Bloke, you, dear user of the internet, may initially think that Bragg has become a "reactionary old fuddy duddy" himself. In the song, Bill boy sings, "Don't offer me a place out in cyberspace/Cos where in the hell's that at?"

But have no fear, net-heads, Billy isn't really dissing this very medium. "I'm not saying that I'm not interested in cyberspace," he says. "It's a great means of democratizing information, but it is not the same as going to the moon...The underlying message of that is that while technology is great, we mustn't rely on it to solve all of our problems. We mustn't sit around and have unsafe sex and say, 'Don't worry, scientists will come up with a cure for AIDS.'"

On a lighter note, we probably shouldn't sit around while the world deals with what Billy terms as "the Oasis problem." Says Billy, "Oasis is like the new orthodoxy in Britain and everyone in the pop firmament is positioned vis-a-vis Oasis. As a lyricist, they don't really do it for me...I'm one of those guys who sits around and thinks, `What exactly is a wonderwall?'"

When Bragg is reminded that Wonderwall is the title of an obscure soundtrack album by George Harrison, he quips, "So you think he's saying, `After all this time, my darling who I love so much, you are merely a George Harrison soundtrack?"

If your looking for some Beatlesque pop, Bragg suggests Robyn Hitchcock, his recent touring mate who he refers to as "the Disposable Hero Of Hitchcockeracy."

"In my mind, if you want to see someone who has taken some of the best ideas of the Beatles and gone forward with them, don't waste your time on Oasis," Bragg says. "Hitchcock can sing better John Lennon than either of the Gallagher brothers and he is much more true to it. It's just pure ageism that he is not as hip as Oasis."

			"Upfield"
			"From Red To Blue"
			"Greetings To The New Brunette"

Billy himself is no longer "the new brunette"--to paraphrase one of his early songs--on the pop scene. That fact is quite apparent throughout William Bloke, as Billy struggles with getting older and becoming a dad. In the song "Brickbat," Bill croons "I used to want to plant bombs at the last night of the Proms [a yearly imperialist gathering in Britain]/But now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom."

But just because we're all getting older doesn't mean that we can't change the world.

"There are less destructive ways to change the world--and one of those ways, among others, is the way you bring up your children," he says. "I think that is a very hands-on way to change the world. You can't keep charging people into the barricades and not come way with something in the end. People get disillusioned and walk away.

"When it comes down to being a parent, you actually see why you are doing this.

"It's not just for you, it's not just so that you blow off explosives in the memory of Che Guevara, it's to make a better world for the next generation," Billy adds. "I think that is as fundamentally as motivating as any other political idea."