Richard Butler (AKA Butler Rep) talking on behalf of the Psychedelic Furs. I went along to talk to the band recently in the studio where they were recording demos for their second album due later this year.
Richard and sax player Duncan Kilburn are the two main spokesmen with John Ashton (guitarist) and Vince Ely (drummer) adding their views, while Roger Morris (guitarist) and Tim Butler (bassist) hardly said anything.
Getting back to the Furs obvious influence upon the current scene, Richard continued, "We did all that kind of thing on our first album. With the new album we're going to try and give some answers to the questions raised on that album. The first album gave us a point of view to work from but we he no longer going to be slagging people off. We're no longer going to be quite so negative in our approach.
The band have over an albums worth of new material. "Two albums worth", says Vince incase CBS read it. Songs like Look Around You", "Mr. Jones' and a new one by John that's as yet untitled echo Richard's optimism without getting too far away from the original Furs sound. They also have four songs ready, which they recorded earlier this year with Martin Hannet: “Soap Commercial,” “Susan's Strange,” “Dumb Waiters” and “So Run Down” of which may be included on the album.
“We're not really sure which numbers will be used" says Duncan, "Because everything will be put together and the best numbers will obviously be the ones we'll choose for the album. We're going to the States soon and we'll have a lot of time to finish writing even more material over there. We want as wide a choice of material as possible to choose from".
Before the Furs visit the USA, they are planning to play a London date (probably the Lyceum) and a gig at the Leeds sci-fi festival. I wondered if any of this newer material would be tried out live on any of these dates.
Duncan: "We hope to do most of the new songs. It would be great not to have to touch the old material apart from the obvious favourites like 'India' and 'Sister Europe'. We're in a better position to play new material live now that we no longer have to promote our first album any more."
The trip to the States in mid-September will be their second visit. They went over earlier this year and played two dates at New York's Mudd Club as a taster. The promoters were so keen to be the first to provide the New Yorkers with their first sight of the Furs that they paid all expenses for a week and flew the band in and out of the country.
"I think the idea was to revitalize the Mudd Club", says Duncan. "Otherwise I just can't see the economy of it all". Richard: "The promoters lost so much money even though we packed out his club for two nights. It was a terrible gig though. It was like Studio 21 and was really snooty with people wearing latex tights and spaceboots. They were the only crowd being allowed in. If some poor bloke dressed up like us in jeans and a shirt wanted to get in, he'd get turned away. We should be doing Hurrahs next time, which I hope is a bit better. I also went to CBGB's whilst I was over there last time and that's a real pit!"
The band are obviously looking forward to their trip to the States and I believe that they'll do very well over there. Their only other journeys beyond the Isle of Wight were gigs in Brussels and Paris. They are planning to visit Holland for five dates as soon as they return from America, but no long European tours are planned.
Seeing six minds and bodies try and emerge as a unit is always interesting and when the Furs say that they try and be as democratic as possible,they mean it. They all contribute towards the music and the latest experiment that they've tried on the new demos is Duncan playing keyboards.
"It's unlikely that I'll be playing keyboards live on stage. I'm only really trying it out for one number to see if it works; the sax is still very important within our music and if I move accross to the keyboards or synthesizer then there's a danger that I might start neglecting the sax."
I wondered how the band felt about adding other Instruments on record, but still retaining the more raw sound on stage. The band agreed that they had to do it this way because on record it's always the sound that is the main importance, but live it's the whole visual thing as well. "They have to be treated as two completely different things", says Duncan. "It's never actually bothered us live as we never play the same show twice".
Richard: "When we first started we played so loud and distorted that you couldn't tell if there was a tune in there or not. This was because we couldn't play very well."
Vince: "We still can't. We like to get away from the predictable pattern of songs which have to have a chorus, etc."
Richard: "We do aim for a "Wall of Noise” in as far as we don't go in for solos. We try and build up a texture with everybody perhaps doing something different within the same number. We used to have a vacuum cleaner on stage and I use to run around the drum kit and stick the vacuum on it. It used to sound like a gorilla farting than any sort of experimentation.”
Roger: "That was in our “Art” days of course." Talking of 'Arty' and experimentation brings me onto the subject of the Psychedelic Revival which certain members of the media are currently trying to create. "They're all arseholes", says Richard about the press/media involved. “We're not trying to wake up the past, so how can we be psychedelic thought up to oppose the many punk bands with too obvious names that were around when we first formed."
John: "There can't ever be a psychedelic revival because it's always been with us, really. I used to trip out to the Banshees so I suppose some people would call them psychedelic."
Duncan: "It's like there are some reviewers in the press that have gone to great lengths to try and describe why we're not psychedelic, even though we've never ever said we were psychedelic in the first place."
Richard: "All we've ever wanted to do was create enjoyable music for people. If anyone tries to look too deeply into our music then they wont find any hidden meanings there at all. We aren't trying to wake up the world or anything! These bands who play political music just get into a fashion of being political and they're just saying things without actually doing anything. We just try and put across points of view. We try and adjust people vision a bit into seeing our points of view."
John: "It's people like Julian Temple who really piss me off the most. How can he stand up to a whole nation like he does in 'Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' and tell everybody not to put their energy into music. What's he done? Only made a film, that's all!"
You were saying that it was because of a lot of the new bands playing rather "doomy” music that has made you change direction slightly and become more optimistic in the future.
Richard: "Yes, but it wasn't so much a conscious thing at first. When we arrived on the scene everyone was into punk and we tried to be different. Now everyone is playing depressing music and we want to change again. It's more of a natural progression for us really. I'd never say that the new bands are bad, because they're not. It's just that now that the whole country's in a very depressed state it can't be very nice to be constantly reminded by depressing music."
Duncan: "You've got to be more realistic about things. You can't be depressed forever."
Richard: "The people who formed bands after seeing us are good because they haven’t copied us."
Duncan: "I don't think we are easily identifiable so we don’t get copyists so much. You go to a Bauhaus gig and you see the same sort of clothes, they're all the same and we never get that thing at all.”
Roger: "I think things with us and we're getting a varied audience nowadays, not punks or whatever."
Richard: "I’d feel a bit the same, if we ever did get the same audience at our gigs, it would prove that they unimaginative audience, luckily they're not."
You do have a stage presence that comes across as a band. John: "We've never gone forward on building up the image that we had lots of money and we’re self sufficient, then we’d get so many things thrown on stage.
Duncan: "We're at a very good stage where everybody seems to provide great backstage stuff on stage, whereas something is that we can't afford it. I know everybody says that if we don't want to have to beg venues if we can help it. We did a few on the lggy tour and hated it. This of course, it’s down to our choice of venues. It’s okay in London when we play the Music Machine but outside London is difficult."
Richard: "I don't think we going to try and boost our egos by playing much larger venues. We'll be playing the Rabb (?) when we get back from the possibly with Suicide - the seats will probably be taken.
We finally discussed the ideas for a producer for the next album as yet untitled, but Duncan was jokingly referring to having the atom bomb split. The producer that the band want to use is a former engineer who produced three tracks from the album “Flowers, We Love You and Pulse". At present, he’s furthering his experience as a producer in America, but when he becomes available, he will be quite a logical choice.