ELECTROGARDEN FEATURES

CURRENT FEATURED ARTIST
THE NINE | BNI | ESH | ESH-2008 | GANYMEDE | ABOD
MESH | RECOIL | ULTRAVOX | CAMOUFLAGE | RED FLAG | GARY NUMAN
DE/VISION | CAUSE AND EFFECT | IRIS | BERLIN | VENUS HUM

FEATURED ARTIST

GARY NUMAN

  

Gary Numan has seen his career reach the pinnacle of number 1 chart success, slide into relative obscurity and then to resurge with an independent spirit. With the recent release of a career retrospective CD “Exposure“, a new album in the works for 2003 and his 25th anniversary of being a professional musician approaching; the Electrogarden took some time to speak with Gary about his career and what we can expect from him in the future.

EN: Your music has taken a much darker turn over the last few albums. What has been your greatest influence over your style?       

Gary: I think as the 80's progressed, and even into the early 90's, my reasons for writing songs had become more along the lines of trying to salvage my career, which was in deep trouble, than actually writing things I genuinely loved. It took me too long to realise that I had completely lost my way, musically speaking, but I did eventually. At that point I stopped, took some time to think about how and why I had changed and what I needed to do about it. The influence came from the decision to give up on trying to save the career and just go back to writing from the heart, with no thoughts about contracts and radio play and selling records. Effectively I quit and started to make music for a hobby again. I didn't even have a record deal at the time. As soon as I started writing from the heart again, the way I used to when I first became interested in making music, it all got much darker and I began to genuinely enjoy making music once again. It had been a long time since I'd really been happy with what I was doing. My style is influenced by many things. First of all I can't actually play guitar or keyboards very well and so my lack of musical prowess means that I have to concentrate on other things, such as mood and atmosphere. That obviously has something to do with the way it sounds. You don't hear virtuoso guitar solos on my stuff for example. I'm also tied in to technology in a major way and so much of the sound is technology driven and constantly evolves as new ways of manipulating sounds are made available. When it comes to just listening to other bands for ideas I do that all the time. I listen to lots of stuff, mainly heavy and dark. I'm still learning and the world is full of clever people that i can learn from.

EN: What can your fans expect from the new album you are hard at working recording for next years release?  

Gary: I was very happy with the last album 'Pure'. But I think it can be darker, heavier and more aggressive and so I want to continue along that general path but just get better at it. I like where I am at the moment. I don't want to move into another style of music but I do want to keep moving forward. I want the album to be full of huge, menacing grooves with massive anthemic choruses, plenty of those 'here comes the good bit' quiet moments before the whole world comes thundering in. I think that sums up my intentions for it. Probably sound like shit though and my career resurgence will be over. Time will tell.

EN: One of your greatest commercial successes occurred very early in your career, "Cars". Do you ever find it difficult to shake your early 80's success and the retro stigma of 80's music? Any marketing plans to take advantage of the swelling nostalgic interest of 80s music?

Gary: I have no marketing plans whatsoever to take 'advantage' of any nostalgic interest in '80's music. I hate nostalgia in music. People reliving the past by going to gigs by yesterdays pop stars to relive their youth is such a sad concept. I've said No to every nostalgia tour that's been offered. Having had big success before, my biggest year was actually in '79, can become a weight that hangs around your neck and I've worked hard to try and wriggle out of any 80's connection because it stops people from accepting what you are doing now. Understandably in most cases because most 80's acts are still churning out the same old sound and seem unwilling to move on. I'm not like that. I couldn't wait to see the back of the 80's, and the 90's for that matter. I still think my best album is to come and it won't sound anything like 'Cars'.

EN: You have stated that you are not necessarily interested in chart success. What drives Gary Numan? Do you deliberately turn your music a darker shade to thumb your nose at pop music?

Gary: I'm not interested in writing songs to get chart success. I used to be though and that was the major part of the problem that I referred to in answering your first question. It was getting away from that attitude that has helped my song writing improve in the last 10 years and turned my music in a much darker direction. It's easy for me to prove as well. The only single I've put out recently has been 'Rip', which did get into the UK chart strangely enough, but it did it without any major radio play as it was considered way too heavy by play list standards. All of my three albums that I've released over the last 10 years have been dark and in no way suitable for day time radio. I made a conscious decision to take my music that way knowing that it was, commercially speaking, one step away from career suicide. But I wanted to write songs that I'm proud of, not something sanitized and sweet that would sit comfortably on day-time radio next to Kylie (no offence intended to Kylie) and Gareth Gates. However, it would be untrue to say that I'm not interested in chart success. I'm very interested in it. I just want it with music that I care about. I did it with 'Rip' so it can be done, even in a music business that is so dominated by pure pop music.

EN: What are the proudest moments of your career? What do you find most disappointing or any regrets?

Gary: Getting to number 1 in the album and single charts at the same time is something I'm proud of. I did it twice actually with different album and single combinations. I think the most proud I've been though was this year. Sugababes were Number 1 with a song that used the music from my 1979 'Are Friends Electric' song and I was Number 1 on the interactive Kerrang TV channel with 'Rip'. So I spanned nearly 23 years of music at the same time. A little later 'Rip' itself entered the main UK chart and become the first chart success I'd had in my own right for several years. Considering that I'd been written off by virtually every music mag in the country over the previous 10 years, and had been dropped by my previous record company only a few months before Rip charted, it all felt pretty good. I do regret many things, mostly though I regret losing my way as a songwriter throughout most of the late 80's and early 90's. I can't believe how bad it got before I even noticed anything was wrong with what I was doing. It was a pathetic inability to really see what was going on. It won't happen again.

EN: You have stated that your music is only finished upon a deadline arriving. Would you consider yourself obsessive about your craft? Talk about the process you go through for writing a typical Gary Numan song.

Gary: Not much of a process really. It starts in different ways, sometimes melody first, sometimes groove built up through layers of loops or noise samples. I don't really have a set way of doing anything and it seems to be as chaotic one day as any other. I do think I'm obsessive about what I do though but not in a good way. I'm eaten up by self doubt and a crippling lack of confidence. The reason my albums are always late and are eventually only delivered to the label when they give me an absolute now or never deadline is because I know they could be better. They can always be better and that knowledge haunts me as each one is released. Each new album is just an excuse for me to make up for the mistakes on the previous one.

EN: What album were you most satisfied with immediately upon completion and why?

Gary: Pure. It had been a nightmare to make, My dog died, my Nan died, our unborn baby died all while I was making it. It was an incredibly difficult time and I knew the album was vital if my career resurgence was to be more than a brief flicker in the dark. It felt like the best album I'd ever made. It IS the best album I've ever made. I was glad that the making it was over as much as anything else. I'd become quite ill with worry for much of it. I'd succeeded in making music a hobby again but that, strangely, had also revitalized my career and so many of the old pressures resurfaced. I thought Pure was the right album at just the right time.

EN: What advice would you give budding electronic musicians just starting out in today's market? Do think it is easier or harder in 2002 to find success in the music business?

Gary: It seems very hard to me at any time to find success and it seems far harder to keep it should you be lucky enough to get it in the first place. Getting success is definitely so much easier than keeping it. I wouldn't dare give advice to anyone, look what a complete bollocks I've made of most of my career. Still, in the spirit of trying to answer your question my reluctant advice is: Don't listen to advice. Most of them are wrong and few of them will share or even understand your vision. Anyone that says you're shit is probably lying, anyone that says you're brilliant is probably wrong (and lying), just believe in what you do and, most of all, make sure you enjoy TRYING to succeed. It's as much about enjoying the journey as it is arriving at the Rock Star hotel.

EN: Your 25th anniversary of being a professional musician is coming in February 2003. Any special plans or tours scheduled?

Gary: A little 2 or 3 gig weekender in the UK near February 10th is about all. I have the new album to get finished if I'm to have another few years doing this. And I do want to do this for much longer than 25 years.

EN: You seem to be interested in the dark nature of man. What do you think ultimately motivates people to do what they do and why?

Gary: Greed mainly and this strange need to want to feel 'better' than those around them. Hence money becomes a big deal for some people, positions of power and influence are what drives others. In some a need to hurt others gives certain sick individuals the personal dominating satisfaction they require. Mostly people value what they are in terms of how much better or worse it is than those around them. The big fish in a little pond syndrome is everywhere. Then of course you get the big players who want to be the biggest fish in the biggest ocean. It's all nasty and scary and I'm no less motivated by such things than most. Man (and woman) is basically a bit frightening when you strip away all the bullshit of so called 'civilization' and see what makes even 'ordinary' people tick. Or so it seems to me but I could, of course, be completely wrong. I do not believe in the inherent kindness of man, quite the opposite.

EN: What bands today do you find most intriguing? What do you find yourself listening to these days?

Gary: I find most of the really interesting music in film scores these days but I also listen to NIN, Marilyn Manson, Korn and a whole mass of newer bands whose names I can never remember.

EN: Electronic music in the 90s seemed to go through a tremendously difficult time period. It seems that the only bands that were able to thrive held a large following in the gothic community. Why do you think that is?

Gary: I didn't know that was the case so I can't really comment on why that should be. I don't really follow the fortunes of any style of music, electronic or otherwise. Generally, I'm too self absorbed in my own problems to really care actually. I've always been uneasy with becoming identified with any group, gothic or any other, as that can, by definition, say things about your music that isn't strictly true and it can limit any spreading over from one group of musical taste to another. It's nice to have a strong following but dangerous if that very following then limits the way in which your music can evolve through fear of losing that support. But I think it's possible to be liked simultaneously in any number of 'musical communities' if the music is broad in its range and well written. It should be able to touch different people at different levels. Maybe the recent electronic music hasn't been able to reach a broader audience because it hasn't tried to, so to speak? Maybe it's been written, in the main, for a specific audience or market and so was, inherently, self limiting? But, as I say, I really don't know.

EN: Anything you would like to add or say to your fans?

Gary: Thank you, as always, sorry the new album is taking so long and I hope you think it's been worth the wait when it does eventually come out next year.