In the years since earning the title "seminal Britpop band of the 1990s," Pulp has had one of their most popular songs, "Common People," covered by William Shatner and their retrospective Hits album go over "like a silent fart," according to frontman Jarvis Cocker.

Cocker, for his part, is now a husband and a father living in Paris. It's a long way away from the band's glory days of the mid '90s, when, in one shining moment, during a performance by Michael Jackson at the 1996 Brit Awards - where the King of Pop surrounded himself with adoring children - the rakish and bespectacled lead singer rushed the stage. In protest of Jackson's exploitative display, Cocker began to drunkenly dance, gyrating his hips in mockery of the pop singer/twice-accused child molester, resulting in a few minor injuries and an arrest.

Over a decade later, Pulp is relatively quiet, but it doesn't mean that Jarvis Cocker has entirely mellowed with age. Back with a new solo record (his first) entitled Jarvis - out April 3 on Rough Trade and followed by the singer's first U.S. tour in nearly 10 years - Cocker proves the old bite has far from dulled, despite years of domestic bliss. A case in point: an anti-capitalist track with a refrain of "Cunts are running the world." Says Cocker, "I apologize for all the swearing, but sometimes that's the only thing that seems appropriate."

Radar caught up with the indie icon to talk about, among other things, the parallels between Disney films and pornography, Bono's God complex, and just where, exactly, Mr. Cocker buys his trademark specs.

RADAR: Let's talk about the lyrics on the new album. The current single, "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time," which you wrote for Nancy Sinatra, is sort of a feminist anthem. Where the hell did that come from?

JARVIS COCKER: Well, I'm very in touch with my female side. So it kinda came out, written for her, and the reason why I felt I could sing it was that I too have wasted women's time. I think men will avoid commitment at all costs and want to play the field as long as they can.

So then how'd your wife land you?

She caught me off guard. I guess we met at the right time. I was prepared to make that leap and try it out.

I like the way a lot of the record's songs deal with domestic dramas, like the song "Disney Time." It's funny how you went from "This Is Hardcore," which dealt with the mechanics of a porn film, to "Disney Time," which deals with the plots of children's films. Has fatherhood mellowed you? I don't think so. That's probably why I put off fatherhood for so long - I thought it might change me in some way. It does change you a bit but it doesn't erase anything that was there; it opens up new things you wouldn't have access to without having had a kid. But it doesn't fundamentally change you.

That song "Disney Time," it does start with an oblique reference to "This Is Hardcore" - Disney equates to porn in some weird way because it gives a pornographic view of family life, a kind of airbrushed view of it. Something that I don't think exists. The way they take a fairy story and take all the nasty bits out. It's about the Disneyfication of childhood.

Like the Brothers Grimm without the murder. The older Disney movies had a bit of that, like Bambi's mom dying. I think the older ones have a bit of power to them. After Dumbo, I was crying for like 10 minutes. Bambi is the mother of them, but I don't find that as moving as Dumbo's mother stuck in the trailer with the mad elephant sign, and that song, [sings] "Oh baby of mine." God, you are mellowing. Oh god, don't say that, please! You know you can't buy Pinocchio at the moment, and someone told me they are going to remove the scene where he's smoking cigars with the bad kids at the circus. They're going to airbrush all the cigars out so they don't encourage kids to smoke. I thought that was pretty crap.

The song "Fat Children" is the funniest song on the album. I love the line, "The parents are the problem / Giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies." Was that inspired by an incident, a run-in with a little lardass?

I'm glad you think it's funny, because some people don't. And I think that's quite sad. It wasn't a profound insight. I'm living in Paris, but I go back to London quite often, and you realize that kids in London seem much fatter than kids in Paris.

Hell, you should see the ones here in the States. Wait, they do have fat kids in Paris.

They have some but certainly not as many. That title popped into my head, and I thought it was a great song title. If a title makes me laugh, or I think, Oh no, you can't write a song called that, I'll go with it. Same with the song "Cunts Are Still Running the World." I thought, I've got to do it and make it work.

Speaking of cunts, was that song based on Bush and Blair?

The title came to me while queuing in a bank. I suppose it's more of a critique of capitalism, the way it's become the model on which to rule the world.

Money is God.

It's bad that an economic system has been taken up as an ideology, and as it says in the song, "Fuck the morals, does it make any money?" It's pretty bad because the only real principle it works on is Thou Shalt Make A Profit. To maximize profits, you exploit other people.

The song is really powerful. You released it on the Web last summer, but why'd you tuck it away as a bonus track on the album? Was the record label afraid of it?

Initially, when I was doing the running order, it was the first track on the album. But it was too extreme. It cast a bit of a shadow over the rest of the record. It was too angry and political of a statement and it unbalanced the record. It's my fault that I decided to hide it a bit. Sorry if that's irritating.

"Running the World" was first posted on your MySpace page, "Jarvspace." It seems you've embraced the new medium of distribution. How long until you think the Web kills off the record industry for good, and do you think that's necessarily a bad thing?

I don't think it will kill the industry. The only ones with a real problem are the majors because they are these big, lumbering behemoths with a lot of staff and shareholders. It might be a problem for them. I don't think it's a problem for the independents. Fuck the majors, I'm on an indie so I'm not bothered.

Good attitude. In recent years, you've been collaborating and writing for other people, including Marianne Faithfull, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Air, and Nancy Sinatra. Do you like hearing other people sing your words?

Yeah, it gives me a great feeling of power. Putting things in other people's mouths is very pleasant.

Sounds dirty.

Yes. Also, it gives me a holiday away from myself—I can put myself in that person's head and figure out what works for them.

The Guardian said you had a breakdown at the height of Pulp's success. Would you say that's true? I never went into a clinic to find out properly, but I imagine I did. I came over to New York just before Christmas, in 1996, to try to get away from everything in the UK. Wasn't very smart because I was so fragile and didn't know a soul in New York. I had agoraphobia.

New York's a tough town for that fear. I spent a lot of time cowering in my room at the Paramount. I went pretty weird. People's faces all looked very strange, the eyes of the people went all weird. Even the radio sounded like it went through a phaser. So I definitely went through a mental episode.

What do you think of Britney Spears's very public breakdown? I've not seen any footage of it here. I don't think she looked half bad with her hair cut off, actually.

She's the new Sinead O'Connor. All she needs is a pair of Doc Martens. It was bound to happen. If you come across as squeaky clean or deny certain aspects of yourself, it's bound to come out in a destructive way. It doesn't surprise me, and I feel kind of sorry for her. I address it in the song, "I Will Kill Again." Denying parts of yourself makes them fester and come out. I might have thought, I'll get married, have a kid and that will make me a nice person, but it doesn't work that way. I hope it's not just me!

Bono also wrote a song for Nancy Sinatra's latest album. This is kind of an aside, but, do you think Bono has a God complex? Do you think he wants to be God? I've often heard about the legendary Bono talk. He will take a singer from an up-and-coming band and give them the Bono talk. Dunno what he says—he's never given it me. But I dunno—he's in a weird position being in such a massive band for such a long time. He's trying to use his position for, I guess, good. It's not the way I'd go about it. But then again, I'm not him.

Who would you give the "Jarvis talk" to? What are you listening to these days? I think there's lots of good music these days. There's the 1990s, a new band on Rough Trade. I heard a few tracks off the new Arcade Fire record that sounded amazing. CSS I like a lot—very good for dancing around to. I heard a new track from the Arctic Monkeys the other day which was very good too. Where do you get your trademark glasses? Oh, that's an easy one—Cutler and Gross, just opposite Harrods.

Are they called the Jarvis frames? I don't think so. I went in to get a new pair 'cause the old ones broke and they didn't have any in stock. They had to go and make some special for me. You know, they wouldn't make a fortune from the Jarvis glasses. But I think you could still get a pair ... should you want to! And I don't get any money or royalties from them.

Maybe you should start your own line, like Beyoncé. I've never understood that. Why would you want to have lots of other people looking like you? The point is trying to pick something that's yours, to create your own look. And selling and making your own clothing range, I'd hate it, to see some people wearing Jarvis clothes. Even Pete Doherty's working on a clothing line.

And Madonna's H&M line debuts soon. It's a collection of sweatsuits. Who the hell wants to walk around looking like a retiree in Florida? Hmm, Madonna, obviously. I don't get all that. It's just another aspect of the commodification of everything. It's the commodification of your personality, because your clothes are an expression of your personality. Releasing a record—that's as far as I'll go. That's kind of my personality, and it's worth it for me in some small way. But a pair of bloody trousers? Come on. Have a word with yourself. Whoo, that was kind of a rant.