Overview Fanzine #3
OV: What are the main differences between the debut album and "Talk Talk Talk"?
Richard: "Talk Talk Talk" has got a lot more melody in it, I think. The debut album is a wall of noise, if you like, and this is a wall of melody. The lyrics are less obtuse. On the first album, it's talking about institutions - mostly it's knocking institutions - whereas on this one it was all about love. Trying to look at it objectively from different points of view.
OV: The current album seems to have a more romantic tone about it than your previous album. Is romance a topic you would like to explore more in upcoming releases?
Richard: No, just this one. I think it was looking at it objectively. It's not romantic. I mean it's got songs like "I Wanna Sleep With You" which is talking about sex and not wanting any type of relationship, but just wanting sex. On the other hand, it's got a song like "She Is Mine" which is very romantic, if you like, and it's objective. It's not sort of started from the notion that "Pretty In Pink" would be a good opener for America whereas "Dumb Waiters" would be a good opener for England and we worked from there. Just tracked it from there.
OV: Is that what made you decide to leave certain tracks off of the U.K. and put others on the American?
Richard: No. That was because America wouldn't put out "Blacks/Radio". They thought it was too unpalatable.
OV: I thought the opposite when I first heard the song. That would have been a very American oriented song, if you wanted to make Americans listen to the group.
Richard: No...it's funny 'cause the song "Blacks" was - a lot of people have thought it's racist before. It's in fact very tongue-in-cheek in that it comes from a comment made by Andy Warhol. Somebody said to him - "What do you think of the Black people?", and he said "If it wasn't for the Blacks in the south, my fathers refrigerator factory would close down." He was being very piss taking and it's taking a piss at racism. People don't see it, yet people are throwing things. For anybody to think we're a racist band is absolutely ridiculous 'cause we're all intelligent people here.
OV: Was the title of the new LP inspired by the "Music Machine" song "Talk Talk"?
Richard: No. It's only recently, since we've brought out this album that people have asked that. That's the second time I've been asked that. I've never heard of them before.
OV: Music Machine was the name of the band.
Richard: I've never heard of it before.
OV: Alice Cooper even did a cover of that song on the last album he made. [Flush the Fashion]
Richard: I've never heard of it before. I've never heard the Alice Cooper version.
OV: You still have yet to hear the song?
Richard: Is it good?
OV: Yeah. It's way ahead of it's time. I think you'd enjoy it. It's certainly a song
that your group could do a cover of. It's your style.
Richard: We don't really do cover versions. of basdail "Mack the Knife" is the only cover version we'd do.
OV: "Talk Talk Talk" has a few noteworthy keyboard parts... "Dash" on the B-side of "Dumb Waiters" has a piano melody. Is this a direction for the future keyboards?
Richard: We'd like to feature more of a lot of things. I'd like to use cello and twelve string guitar as well, but keyboards will definitely be on the next album, I'd say. We just want to expand the sound. It would be great to have a big band sound on the next one. We'll have to hire session musicians to tour with us next time. Do a Talking Heads!
OV: Is it one of your objectives as a group to provoke people into realizing what is happening around them?
Richard: Yeah. Just to make people think would be nice. I'm not saying that I've got the right idea about anything and what I say is right. I wouldn't be that big headed or...that's being a bigot, if you like. All I'm saying is that I've got an opinion on things and I think everybody should think enough about things and form their own opinions instead of having opinions forced on them or just believing what they're told.
OV: Did you think up the term "beautiful chaos"?
Richard: Yeah.
OV: Do you think it still applies?
Richard: Not anymore. I thought of that term because when we first started, we couldn't play. We had lots of nice melodies in there but basically, the sound together, we couldn't play. Like I said, it was chaos but it had some beautiful bits in it...so I thought I had to call it somrthing like "beautiful chaos".
OV: How did the idea to cover "Mack the Knife" come about?
Richard: We were on tour and we heard it by a guy called Bobby Darin have you heard of him? It's from a Bertol Brecht play, "The Threepenny Opera" and the way Bobby Darin sang it, it sounded syrupy. It shouldn't be done syrupy. It should be done more sneering and if you've seen the play, it's a very seedy type of song. we thought it should be done in more of a seedy way...or at least a bit more aggressively. So, we thought, we don't like Bobby Darin going down doing this version, so we'll do one.
OV: You achieved what you were after...it's
sleazy.
Richard: Thank you!
OV: Was the B-side of the "Sister Europe" 45 [****] originally intended as the introduction of "India".
Richard: No. We used it as the intro to
"India' afterwards. It's the introduction
to "India" played backwards.
OV: Did Roxy Music influence the bands instrumentation?
Richard: No, not at all. You could ask Madness that or the Beat. Just 'cause we've got a sax doesn't mean...no, not at all.
OV: Did it bother you that "Sister Europe" was initially regarded as a David Bowie
Richard: As a David Bowie reference? I was never told about that.
OV: Well, the style of the song; when people first heard it, they thought that it was a David Bowie reference.
Richard: Yeah, I've heard that before, but I've never heard the thing about the reference. The thing is that when we were recording it, Steve Lillywhite - I used to sing it more aggressively, Steve Lillywhite said - Try it this way, just try it. Imagine that the telephone's going at 4:00 in the morning and you're talking on the telephone at 4:00 in the morning. And that's how I made it sound. There was nothing about trying to make it sound like David Bowie or anything like that. He said make it sound like you're talking on the telephone at 4:00 in the morning and I did. So if you want to ring me at 4:00 in the morning and check it out...do!
OV: Your vocal chords seem to be so relaxed on that song. That's how you get that captivating atmosphere.
Richard: "She Is Mine" is similar to that on the new album. That same sort of feeling.
OV: Were you ever in another band with your brother, Tim?
Richard: No.
OV: Do you recall the first song ever
written by the group?
Richard: I think it was "Blacks/Radio".
OV: Was the idea to start the group devised by yourself and Tim or was the band concept developed by the group as a whole?
Richard: No. What are you saying? Were there half a dozen people sitting in a room who said let's call ourselves the Psychedelic Furs? No. I wanted to be in a band and I asked Tim if he wanted to be in a band as well and he said yeah. He wanted to play drums, but he couldn't afford a drum kit, so he bought a bass guitar instead 'cause it had less strings, and he couldn't play bass. And then we just went about finding other people.
OV: Did you just come to the instrumentation by meeting other members of the group by accident or was it planned to find a sax player?
Richard: Well, we knew Duncan and he wanted to be in a band, but he didn't know what to do so he decided to play sax. It was like, I just asked people and they said yes and then decided what to play without learning it. That's why I say when we first started, we couldn't play.
OV: What did you get out of working with odw Steve Lillywhite?
Richard: A lot of headaches!
OV: You didn't get along with him?
Richard: No, I did actually. He's a good friend of mine. I like him a lot. That's why we I worked with him twice. The first album, I had some complaints about the production on the album and I wasn't absolutely 100% happy. We were going to use David Bowie. David Bowie was interested in doing it, but he got busy with the "Elephant Man" over here, so he couldn't do it. We had very little time 'cause you've got to get set with the producers ahead of time; get the contracts done and all that. So we decided to use Steve because by then, he'd gotten to be a friend as well. And also, when you go into a studio with a new producer, you're always on edge for a couple of days. It's like it's really a couple of days wasted. And then, somebody like Steve - when he was coming down to rehearsal and listening to things and making suggestions and formulating ideas as to how he was going to produce it and what he was going to do and we were talking about production. In fact, we recorded some numbers...pre-production type of thing. It worked out well. He's a good producer. Have you heard U2?
OV: Yes, our first interview was with them.
Richard: They're friends of mine! Adam
especially. [Adam Clayton]
OV: That's who we interviewed! He was a friendly guy. Good interview
Richard: Yeah, he's a friend of mine.
OV: You've worked with so many producers other than Steve Lillywhite. You did something with Martin Hannett, something with Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor. "Mack the Knife" was was a different producer.
Richard: That's an engineer with the band who produced that.
OV: So that's why he's mentioned?
Richard: Yeah.
OV: Would you like to totally produce your
next album?
Richard: No. We're using somebody American next time, but we're not allowed to say who it is because the contracts haven't been signed.
OV: Have you made any videos for the new album?
Richard: Yeah. We've done two. There's one for "Dumb Waiters" and one of "Pretty In Pink". The "Dumb Waiters" one is great! You'll have to see that. It's really good.
OV: I saw the one for "Sister Europe".
Richard: That's not very good. "Dumb Waiters" is great! I love it. "Pretty In Pink" took the most money out of the two videos. But "Dumb Waiters"...just the way it's done, shot in the lab and everything, it's great!
OV: How many dates do you think you're going to do on this tour?
Richard: Another two months. Then we go to Australia, then Japan, then back to England, then back over here. We're recording the next album, the third album over here starting in November.
OV: Did you enjoy playing here tonight?
Richard: Yeah. It was fun. It never dropped. You've got a really good atmosphere. It's good fun. I was surprised actually because we've never been out this way before. I was surprised at the reaction. It was a great crowd...it was good!
OV: Anything I should have asked, but didn't?
Richard: Yeah. Why am I doing this? Why am I talking to you?
OV: It's a living!
Richard: Yeah!