Scene: What have you been doing recently?

Bon: We've been in the studio making the Big Hit album. We started off working on it in London and then moved to Chicago for awhile. Things went wrong in Chicago, so we left to L.A., and we went to London a couple of times. Then there were all sorts of arguments over album artwork, videos and such, so three years later, it finally made it out.

Scene: So it was a struggle.

Bon: It was a damn struggle, yeah...

Scene: And I heard that you moved to this country--officially?

Bon: Well, unofficially at the moment...I mean, we've been spending a lot of time here, but yeah, pretty much we'll end up being here. I'm in Chicago, Douglas is in Detroit, and the other two guys--Jason, who plays drums, and John, who is playing gutiar for us live--they live in Los Angeles, so we're liberally spread about.

Scene: What has the scene been like from city to city on your current tour?

Bon: It's been kind of weird. We started off the North American part at least in Buffalo, New York, and that was fairly quiet. Then we went to Toronto, which was seething. Then we went to Cleveland, which was quiet. Then we went to Detroit, which was seething. Then we went to Chicago, which was ultra-seething. And then we just played Seattle, which was quiet again, so it's been kind of on and off really.

Scene: And now you'll be playing Vancouver and that should be--SEETHING.

Bon: Yeah, if you follow the pattern up to this point. We're looking for a "seether."

Scene: I would have to say that it will probably be seething here in DC.

Bon: Yeah, I would think so. The drummer from the opening act is from DC, and he said it would be at least "semi-seething."

Scene: Can we expect the instrumental texture to continue to be a part of your new sound?

Bon: I think so. I think that picking up different instrumentation and experimenting with ways of doing things has definitely broadened what we do and the main thing is it's really given us a path where we can improvise and do things more off of instinct. I think you get much more truer feelings coming out of the music; whereas sometimes if you have to go through computers' banks of technology until you get a sound, that can be a little bit of an obstruction sometimes, so even if it starts with something as simple as an acoustic guitar or piano, to get the actual sound is the most emotive way of doing it--THEN we put it through the old sonic mangler.

Scene: ...the "old sonic mangler?"

Bon: That's a large instrument that we built. (laughter)

Scene: Can you tell me how you hooked up with Jason Payne?

Bon: We were working in Los Angeles on the album and Jason worked in a cappuccino bar. Douglas' now-wife was hanging out down there. They knew each other; he was playing a gig, so we went to see it. We were very impressed with his drumming so we invited him up to the house. He moved in a week later and the ways haven't parted since.

Scene: So the rest is history...

Bon: Indeed.

Scene: And who is the additional person coming with you?

Bon: John Napier is his name. We met John because he was opening for us on the last tour. We wanted someone to do the guitar work on stage and he was free, so we're happy that we found him.

Scene: So is he going to be doing similar stuff to what Bad Brains' Dr. Know was doing on the album?

Bon: He can, but he branches out a lot more. He does a lot of varied stuff actually, and not even always playing guitar in every song. He does percussion too. He's very versatile.

Scene: Can you describe how Kick It was written?

Bon: Kick It was written in the shower by humming into a Dictaphone.

Scene: At what time of day?

Bon: That was in the morning before I went into the studio. Then I went into the studio and got it all down.

Scene: I used to get the best stuff in the shower too. I got a whole string quartet in the shower once.

Bon: Did you? Was it cramped?

Scene: It was pretty crowded. Actually, I wasn't prepared for you to be making puns. But I heard you were fun to interview.

Bon: Was whoever told you we were fun to interview lying?

Scene: If they were lying, they'll have to Kick It ...I read that your wives won't let you wear spandex anymore.

Bon: Yeah...that's Douglas' wife. She won't let him wear spandex trousers.

Scene: So this IS true.

Bon: Yeah. It is. Females can get away with spandex, but males--I don't actually think it is a good idea, really. I think it's thumbs down on that one. It's kind of obscene. (pause/laughter)

Scene: You know, tourists come to Washington, DC, every year to see the cherry blossoms...Is that somehow connected to that song [Cherry Blossom]?

Bon: I personally wasn't aware of that. Douglas might--he's the one who wrote those lyrics.

Scene: When I hear that song, it sounds like somebody's getting ready to go wipe out the President...you know, some psycho headed for the White House, just around the beginning of April, when the cherry blossoms start falling...

Bon: Well, maybe we should get in touch with the Washington Tourist Board. Maybe Doug knows about this. Maybe he's not telling me. He hasn't let on.

Scene: What was it like growing up in Chelmsford, England?

Bon: Very quiet. Semi-rural, I mean, when we lived there it was more rural than it is now. It's kind of like a satellite of London. Everybody that lives there pretty much commutes to London for work, or works on the farm. Pretty dull, on the whole. And a place where you pretty much have to make your own fun.

Scene: And so, what exactly did you do?

Bon: Well, we started off throwing lots of parties all the time and getting horrendously drunk. Then we started traveling around to other parties, got drunk a lot, and that turned to getting a band together. We got drunk a lot, played music a lot, and that was life. When we first started a band, we were going to have an artist involved. We had this whole graphic concept, and any time we were going to do a concert, and it didn't matter how small, we would put up flyers everywhere. People got into that--seeing that we were making some kind of effort, so things became popular quite quickly.

Scene: So, do you look back fondly on those days?

Bon: There's good things about them and bad things about them, like most of the things you do in your life, really. You look back on them and think you can see a certain thread of reason why certain things happen. We certainly have had a lot of fun and managed to cram a lot of adventures into a relatively short space of time, traveled a lot of places, so really, on the whole, I can't complain. It's been a quite exciting life up to this point.

Scene: What was the most exciting jump where you felt like you were really being recognized?

Bon: There were several periods, really. When it was first being discussed that we were going to sign to Mute, that was an exciting time because we thought that label was the perfect label for us to be on at the time. It was pretty exciting opening for Depeche Mode--doing shows like giant stadiums--kind of breathtaking to be in front of all those people.

Scene: Have you heard that Alan Wilder left Depeche Mode?

Bon: I have indeed.

Scene: Do you know anything about that?

Bon: Only probably what everybody else knows--his statement. I haven't spoken to him.

Scene: It struck me like when The Beatles broke up. Is that a little strong?

Bon: Depeche Mode has been a large part of people's consciousness for a long time now. But all things come to an end. And who knows? It might mean that more musical collaborations and other projects come out--it's too easy to think it's the end when it might mean a new beginning.

Scene: Any special moments you'd like to share?

Bon: Obviously, when we actually saw the finished product of our first demo--that was quite satisfying. Actually seeing Big Hit make it as a finished product was a relief, if nothing else. I never thought I'd see the day where it did see the light of day. And concerts that are too numerous to mention where we've had a really good response or it's been a really good vibe--that's a really uplifting experience. Personally for me, just a few days ago we played in Chicago, and I've been living there for a couple of years and that's the first time that most of my friends got to see me actually do a concert. So that was quite a funny moment for me.

Scene: Are they still your friends?

Bon: THEY ARE!!!