cure interviews



spin article


"Wrong Number" is the only new song on Galore, and sounds a bit different than Cure songs of the past. How did it come together in the studio?

We came up with "Wrong Number" about two months ago in a different form. We had Adrian Show do a mix for us and it was a very different thing with backing vocals and a brass section. The words I really liked and I thought they worked but I could kind of hear a different song in there. Instead of the traditional thing where the group does the song and some one else does the remix, I thought I would do the remix. So, I contacted Mark Pratty, and it just happened in an instant. We had an idea for a song and four hours latter it was finished.


You have garnered quite a reputation for being almost counter-fashion.

I'm not even sure it's counter-fashion. I think it's more of a total disregard for what is conferred to be fashion. I honestly do laugh at people who determine what is and what isn't in because when I meet these people, they haven't got a clue. They look dreadful, they can't string two words together. I think people are in these positions by strange quirks of fate. They are all self-elected and I just don't buy into any of it.


But there's hardly ever an interview or article on the band that doesn't mention what you're wearing. You're always being lumped into some fashion statement.

I kind of take it with a pinch of salt. It's generally people who haven't got anything else to write about. Usually in an interview, [if] people start following that tack, I stop the interview because I realize that this there is nothing of interest to be said in that area. I've said it all so many times before that it's actually quite dull.


Let's not be dull, then... let's talk more about "Wrong Number." The song seems almost to have several parts. Was it written as one song, or as different pieces that melded together?

The lyrics were all written and I had sung it to a completely different song but the emphasis on "Wrong Number" was the thing that changed because on the original version, which was called "Lime Green," the "wrong Number" part wasn't really pulled out that much. It sort of mutated. There have been three remixes done as well. The problem is, I don't think it's going to be commercially available in America. It's a shame, because the CD single that is coming out throughout Europe has some really good mixes. In fact they are like five different songs called "Wrong Number." [The Cure's record company, Elektra] have this thing that they don't commercially release singles unless they are guaranteed, unless it's a proven band, which apparently we are not anymore. How fickle life is.


What did you think about before shooting the video for "Wrong Number?" You used Tim Pope, whom you haven't worked with since "Friday I'm In Love."

I hadn't sat down [him] since we did the "Friday I'm In Love Video" in 1992, so it was another chance meeting. We just picked up from where we had left off. I just knew straight away that when we did a new single this year, I would like Tim to do the video. [The video is] pretty manic. I don't know how people are going to react to it. We've already had to make several changes to it because it contains "disturbing" imagery apparently, though I see more disturbing imagery on children's television. They must have got a bunch of strange people sitting in judgment at various music television station around the world who see things I can't even see.


Galore has been carefully positioned as a singles collection, and not a greatest-hits package. Was it easier for you to just select singles, in the same way you did for Standing on the Beach?

Not really because the whole project has been really hard for me to push through. The record companies haven't really wanted the singles collection. I didn't want a double album and I didn't want a greatest hits because it's kind of capitalizing on the group's history and possibly putting a full stop to it. So the singles [collection] is just a logical record to release. It follows on from Standing on a Beach, it's ten more years. It's chronologically sequenced and you know what it is and people who buy the record will want it or not.


The Cure's lineup has changed over the years. Does that influence your songwriting, or how the songs end up sounding when they're finished?

It does to a degree depending on me really. There have been times when I have totally ignored who's been in the group and been totally obnoxious really. The weird thing being that I've discovered in the last few months that the group, or at least the people in it presently, actually prefer me being like that. They like me to have a singularity of vision so they can just sort of follow along with me. Over the last few years I've tried to be a little more democratic and listen more and it hasn't really worked in certain respects. In retrospect I should of stuck to my guns a little bit more.


So now you're sticking to your guns?

On this record I'm following my instinct and ignoring everything and everyone else. It's a different way of working than I have been used to in the last five or six years. But it's back to the way it used to be. I know what exactly I want and I follow it out till it's done. I can imagine it's quite difficult on the one level for the other guys but like I've said they really enjoy me having this sense of purpose. They like it when I get a bit maniacal. I suppose it's easy than for us to just start fighting each other.


Any ideas for a title for the next album?

I have a working title but I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's bad luck. I only did that once and I never finished the album.


How far along are you?

I set up a studio at home, so instead of making demos for the rest of the band to hear and then going into the studio to record, I'm actually recording every time I sit down. So I'm completing songs on my own at home, which I've never done before. We've done about 40 songs as a group of which about seven are complete and I'm happy with. I'm hoping that when we get to twelve we'll be done. But we're doing two or three songs at a time.


So if you have 40 songs, how do you go about whittling them down?

The problem is that I don't know which ones to discard because the ones I'm keeping now and working on for he album are really emotional ones. But there is a whole wealth of crass dance stuff that I suspect we might release under a different name [at the] end of next year. In fact that one will probably do very well and our Cure album will fail miserably. Such is life.


It's been 19 years since the Cure's first release and Robert Smith is still smearing his lipstick and eye shadow, teasing his thinning blackened hair, singing mawkish pop songs ever-so-lovingly, and otherwise wearing his sensitive soul on his black sleeves. SPINonline's Andy Gensler caught up with the man in black following a surprise show with Hole in London on October 11.

ROBERT SMITH: Boys Still Cry


Spin Online: Your show tonight was a far cry from the notoriously cynical, non-
reactive London crowds I've been hearing about. The crowd was going nuts
throughout the entire set.


 We were really, really nervous in a way that I'm never normally
nervous. We didn't know how they were going to react because they didn't know
it was us. They had just seen Hole and that was a good show, and they're there
waiting and wondering who's the next band? Normally the audience knows it's
you, so they're with you from the start. When we walked on and got this
incredible reaction, it really shocked me--it was almost like a Cure audience.
The first five rows knew all the songs and were singing along.

You kind of forget how much the Cure means to a lot of people. We're not
really hip and we haven't been for years but we still have a really strong,
hardcore following. There's a lot of kids who hear younger bands name-check us
so they come and see what we're about and you have to prove yourselves to
them. This is kind of like that but more difficult because you don't know if
it's going to be a thousand people in lumberjack shirts going, "Who are these
guys?" It kind of helped to listen to Hole. I wasn't allowed to go down and
watch, in case someone saw me, but they got a good reaction. I was listening
on the stairs. But Hole's thing is kind of aimed at a more alternative
American audience.

How did you like being paired with Hole?


I thought it was good actually. Bowie playing with the Chemical Brothers is a
really good pairing because it's unexpected--in normal life it wouldn't
happen. Garbage playing with the Chili Peppers was good because they wouldn't
normally support the Chili Peppers. Hole playing with us--there are
similarities, maybe not musical, but certainly I think in our backgrounds and
attitudes there's a kind of continuity. There's certain things I like about
them; I don't know if they like anything about us. It's better than having two
bands who are obviously paired together. The whole point of it being a
surprise thing is that some people are gonna go away preferring Hole, some
preferring the Cure, and some wishing they'd seen something else entirely. But
there's some who would never go to a Cure concert who will go home and think,
"I like that band." You could see people in the audience being won over. It
takes only one song--"Just like Heaven" is kind of a turning point. You see
people think, "I like that song."


Yeah, why does that song make me cry every time I hear it?


It's one of those songs that we're kind of lucky to have. That song of all the
songs we do provokes an emotional response from the audience. We always play
songs like "Just Like Heaven." It's fu**ed if you play a concert and don't
play the songs that people want to hear. But tonight we played a couple of
songs that even Cure fans would be stuck to recognize.

How come you stopped playing "Love Cats"?


They [the band] can't play it. Did you ask the band that?

Yeah, they just said they hadn't done it for years.


Yeah we did it and was fucking awful. They're not a jazz band--there's no
rhythm.

Your voice seems to impact people more than most singers. Why do you think
that is?


I don't think it's just my voice; it's mixed in with a lot of different
things. Not to be big headed, but I think I sing better than I used to I used to sing--with my back to the audience, not through trying to be weird, but I was really embarrassed
to be singing to an audience. I honestly used to be so embarrassed about singing that the first five or six years of doing it was painful, really painful. Then I kind of got halfway, then I got full face, and now I've gone through the phase of being a pop star. I felt almost uncomfortable doing the encores, but I was kind of half drunk enough to enjoy it. The new stuff we're doing now is much heavier though.

Was that from the new record you are recording in Bath, England?


We've done the first part of it and now we're going to Ireland to finish it
off.


How does the new record compare to Wild Mood Swings?


I think it's totally different and more difficult for the others in the band. Wild Mood Swings was a band thing. This album I've gone back to being kind of the dictator figure because I know exactly how I want it to be. On the last album there was discussion and give and take and now there isn't. I want it to sound a certain way. I want it to be a short album--45 minutes full of heavy stuff.



What on this album are you looking forward to?


A song called "Fall." It's the best thing we've ever done. It's like 11 minutes long and it's immense. It's a huge slab of stuff, it's everything I've worked with. If there was the one song I would have people remember the Cure by, it would be this new song called "Fall." It's everything I feel about what I've done in the group. It's a narrative song of my life in the Cure and it's huge. It starts little but ends up being massive. It's the most satisfying
thing I've done in years.

How was it recording in Bath, which is such an amazing place?

It's a fantastic place. There's a lot of people based there. Real World is
based there. It's a good area to do things--you can go places and talk to people with a
like mind.


I thought the scenery there is amazing too...

The drugs are good as well (laughs). It's one of those places in England...
there's places that become--not really fashionable--but just has a lot going on. It's
almost too much. If you go there, you become part of the scene. Brighton is a
good case--Brighton's a really good town, but one night is kind of enough--it's an intense night out.


Have you been getting into the Skint stuff or the Heavenly Jukebox scene?


No, I stay out of the way. I feel out of place nowadays when I go clubbing because people know who I am and it's just uncomfortable, and I hate going to VIP rooms--it defeats the whole purpose of going to club. So in Bath and places like Bath and Bristol down in the West country you can go out and do things and no one gives a shit--it's a different vibe, really.

When we go out on tour and wherever we go in the world, we can be noticed and
go to the VIP room, but it's not that appealing when you're trying to do something creative and you get that, "Oooh look its him." Its much better to walk in and just have a drink. We generally go out to kind of pub clubs when we're recording rather than club clubs. It's the culture that the band has always had of just meeting people who aren't that concerned about who we are because you get much more of a take on, I don't know, the "classic American reality check." If you spend 18 hours in the studio, you don't really need to
go to a club--you got a club in the studio.

Well thank you for your time and a really great show tonight.


Well, my nephews liked it, which is a really good gage because they've seen us quite a lot of times and they thought it was nice that the band enjoyed it for a change. Most Cure shows I tend to have my head down a lot of the time.