SPIN Online: February 6, 1998

With a new album in the works, a tour making it's way across America, and Galore, an album of singles chronicling the last ten years of their career on the shelves, The Cure's main mope Robert Smith tells Spin Online's Donna Moran(puppyo@aol.com) about the making of their new single, what's in store for the next Cure album, and just what the advantages of being maniacal are.

Q. "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?

A. 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.

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

A. 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.

Q. 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.

A. 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 n that area. I've said it all so many times before that it's actually quite dull.

Q. 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?

A. 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.

Q. 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."

A. 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.

Q. 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?

A. 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.

Q. 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?

A. 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.

Q. So now you're sticking to your guns?

A. 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.

Q. Any ideas for a title for the next album?

A. 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.

Q. How far along are you?

A. 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.

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

A. 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.