Music > Interviews

Gary Numan

30/08/16

Da da da da daaaaaa. Da da da daaaaa. Be be be be-be-be-be. Yep, it’s Gary Numan’s massive hit Cars. Pretty much anyone from any walk of life, of any age would be able to tell you who he is, and know Cars and Are ‘Friends’ Electric? This iconic performer and incred musician is coming over from LA to play tracks from three of his best loved albums at UEA this month. I was honoured to chat with him about his wife, having Aspergers Syndrome and why Cars is still a winner winner chicken dinner.

 

Gary Numan! You are an electronic legend and pioneer. What equipment did you start off making music with, and what do you use now that we have computers and more developed ways of creating sounds?

 

I started with an acoustic guitar when I was very young, that’s how I started writing songs. When I started writing with the hope of actually recording something one day, mid teens I guess, I was lucky enough to have a decent electric guitar, amp, a few pedals and a cassette tape recorder. I made two albums with that gear (not the cassette) before I was able to afford my first synth. These days it’s mostly computer based and so done with software synths and processing. I do have a few cool hardware synths, the Roland JD-XA, Moog Voyager and MIniMoog D newly arrived, Access Virus and my old faithful Alessis Quadraverb. Mostly though it’s done with software these days.

 

What was the reaction to your early tunes like Down In The Park at the time? It was obviously very different to what else was popular at that time, mixing guitar with synths.

 

Down In The Park was the first single released from my second album, called Replicas. Replicas got to number one in the UK when the second single was released, a song called Are Friends Electric, so it did very well ultimately. Down In The Park itself didn’t have that commercial success as a single but it remains one of the biggest crowd favourites. It’s been covered by many people, including Marilyn Manson and the Foo Fighters, so it seems to have been popular. The early rise of electronic music, which Down In The Park was part of, was greeted with a mixture of contempt and adoration. From the press it was mostly contempt, but the public seemed to go for it in a massive way. Are Friends Electric was number one for a month, which was very cool.

 

Cars has perhaps been your biggest hit, and everyone is still in love with that song. What do you think it is about it that made it an instant classic?

 

Cars, and the album it came from The Pleasure Principle, both hit number one at the same time, in the same year that Are Friends Electric and Replicas had also been number one in at the same time. It was a very good year. Cars is about the closest thing to a pop song I’ve ever written but it isn’t a typical pop song so I don’t really know why it did what it did back then, or why it still does so well today. It’s covered and sampled constantly by a wide range of artists - Snoop Dogg has a version out at the moment for example, it’s used constantly on adverts like the currently running Aviva ad, and it just keeps on going, year after year. I guess the riff is quite catchy, the high descending string line is memorable. But it has no vocal chorus, virtually none of the things usually associated with a hit single. But neither did Are Friends Electric, so it just goes to show that the public are receptive to things outside the norm if they are ever given the opportunity to hear them.

 

 

What did you feel you could achieve as a solo artist that you couldn’t as Tubeway Army?

Not having to debate every decision. Simple as that. I knew where I wanted to go, how I wanted to do it, and I didn’t want to keep having to explain that and fight my way forward. It’s why I left labels years ago. Too many people trying to force you to dilute your vision. I’ve always been perfectly happy to sink or swim with my own decisions. If they’re wrong, they’re wrong. I don’t blame people. But I do object to being bullied in to doing things by labels, cue my awful Prince covers of many years ago as a case in point.

 

You’ve always had a very distinctive physical look onstage. I understand that came about as a result of happenstance rather than a deliberate move. You’ve obviously gained a lot of confidence over the years, but do you still get nervous before a show?

 

The use of image was designed partly to make the lyrical content of the songs more believable. I adopted the persona of a character in the songs I’d been writing at the time. The other part was that it gave me something to hide behind as I was cripplingly shy. I’ve been doing this for a long time now so the need to hide behind a persona is long gone. Strangely enough, the real person that has grown up and developed on stage over the years is very much like the one I pretended to be back at the start. I’ve been doing this for most of my life, so being on stage is as natural to me as having dinner these days. It’s rare for me to get nervous, very rare, but it does happen from time to time.

 

You’ve dabbled in many genres within your songwriting – jazz, funk, rock, industrial, electro and pop. Which artists have influenced you the most over the years?

 

Only a few. I was a big fan of the John Foxx version of Ultravox when I started in electronic music, John was a major early hero. I loved the Depeche Mode Songs Of Faith and Devotion period when Alan Wilder had a big hand in what they were doing. I’m a huge fan of Alan Wilder, as I am of Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor, another genius in my opinion.

 

You’ve projected a different image for each album, giving it a strong identity, almost like a concept, or a work of art, rather like other greats like Bowie. Did you feel you needed to do this to retain your audience’s interest or was it a natural development for you?

 

A bit of both if I’m honest. To begin with it was all very natural, a part of the art of what I was doing, but then I started to feel that I ought to, rather than because it had any real meaning for the music. That’s when I started to lose my way with the career, with my creativity. It stopped being natural and genuine. I was able to shake that off and find my real direction again around ’94 with an album called Sacrifice. Since then the need for ‘image’ has largely gone away but the way you look does still need to reflect the music you make.

 

 

If you met someone who had never heard your music before, which of your albums would you suggest they listen to and why?

 

Splinter, Jagged and Pure. Those three, most recent, albums sum up everything I’d ever want people to now about me, or think of me. I wouldn’t play them any of the stuff before that. Not that I’m against it in any way, certainly not these days anyway, but I would want people to know what I’m doing now, not what I’ve done before. I would want them to know where I am creatively, not where I’ve been. I have no desire to live on past glories. I'm proud of them at last, I wasn’t always, and celebrate them once in a while like on the upcoming tour, but I don’t use them as a symbol of why people should still be interested in you. You must justify fan interest which each new album you make. You have to keep earning the support, not just saying I did something great a lifetime ago and that should be enough. It isn’t enough. If my new album isn’t great then I deserve to lose fans.

 

In the 90’s you made a move to start making harder edged, more personal music. What heralded this decision?

In the years leading up to that I’d been writing songs to try to keep a wide range of record label opinion happy in a desperate attempt to salvage a career that was failing badly. I was really unhappy, I didn’t like what I was doing, but just lost my way so badly that by ‘92 I thought my career was over. It was then I met Gemma, who I’ve been married to ever since, who managed to convince me to look at what I was doing and to think again. She introduced me to music I hadn’t heard before and she reminded me of why I got into music in the first place. From then on I started to work differently, and to think differently. The music became much heavier, much darker, and I fell in love with making music all over again. I’ve kept that newfound attitude ever since and my music has grown because of it.

 

You married Gemma, in ‘97 and have a delightful family now. I’m really happy for you that that’s worked out because on paper in must have had an imbalance to it at the start as she was originally a huge fan of yours before she met you?

Fans are people, not less than me, not better than me. We all have our talents and our quirks, our good points and our bad. I’m a fan of things, we all are, whether we have nothing to show for our efforts or whether we are the President of the USA, but I don’t see myself as less than the person I’m a fan of. I see everyone the same. Gemma was a fan, but she was also the most fascinating person I’d ever met, with a heart the size of a small planet. I have never met anyone like her, on so many levels. The only imbalance, if there was one, is that it’s very hard to live up to your glowing press releases and your airbrushed posters and album covers. It was Gemma that had all the unpleasant discoveries to make, and to deal with.

 

You have Aspergers Syndrome. How does that affect your life?

When I was a teenager I was sent by my school to a child psychiatrist for my behaviour problems, at school only I hasten to add, who subsequently referred me to St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was there that it was first suggested that I had Aspergers. I was put on two drugs, Valium and Nardil, for a year or so. But then I stopped going and all talk of it very quickly faded away. It was Gemma who noticed it immediately when we met, her brother is diagnosed Aspergers, and so I looked into it again via the Internet. I have never seen it as a major problem, and the things it adds to my life far outweigh the few negatives. It’s particularly useful to an artist in the music business I think, but probably many other areas as well. It gives me a phenomenal sense of focus, I obsess about things that need an obsessive amount of drive and attention. My level of concentration is exceptional, I have a detachment from some levels of emotion that come in quite handy when dealing with negativity or arseholes, I can let the biggest setbacks or bad opinions just slide off me as though it didn’t happen. I’m fueled by set backs in fact, driven by difficulties, fiercely independent. Much of this, if not all, comes from my level of Aspergers. The down side is I’m not much good at small talk, I offend peoples sensibilities by accident, I’m emotionally challenged around people being emotional, shit at eye contact and a number of other things, none of which hinder my life that much. Especially as I have Gemma, who is about the friendliest and most chatty person on the planet. Everything that I lack she has bundles of.

 

I have no desire to live on past glories

 

I’m very much looking forward to seeing the documentary about your life, Android in La-La Land which comes out this autumn. Did you enjoy being involved in it, and did it give you the chance to gain some insight into your own life?

 

It was an interesting experience but I certainly didn’t get any insight into my own life. The film really just looks at the immigration to the US, the making of the Splinter album, my first for a few years, and my relationship with Gemma. I don’t think it told any of those stories as well as they could have been told so I’m a little disappointed with the film. People seem to like it though.

 

You’ve been living in America for a few years now. What do you miss most about the UK?

Friends and family most of all, but also the quaintness, the colour, the prettiness, fish and chips, our quiet afternoon meals in our local pub garden, many, many things actually. But, having said that, I am very happy in Los Angeles. The never ending beautiful weather, mountains and oceans just minutes away, a very outdoor lifestyle. I do go back to the UK often though, sometimes to work, often to just visit. I like to show the children different parts of it each visit.

 

On your upcoming tour you’re going to be playing material from three of your most iconic albums, Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon. You’ve never been one to rest on your laurels or look back to the past much, but have always been pushing forward with new ideas. Why is now the right time for you to treat your fans to some of these early albums played live?

To be blunt it’s because I’m in between albums. My last album came out in 2013, my new one will be out next year, so this was a perfect opportunity to get out and play some songs that I don’t usually play. I have a great relationship with my fans but one of the grumbles they do have is that I don’t play enough older stuff. These ‘inbetween’ periods allow me to do that without diluting my main tours, which are there to specifically promote new material. I’m much happier playing new stuff as a rule but I have found that doing these back catalogue tours, once in a while, is a nice change for me and the fans.

 

Your upcoming album is being Pledged. How are you finding that process?

I’m lucky in that I have more than enough money to make albums. I have my own studio for one thing, so I’ve never needed to generate money specifically to make an album. The idea behind the Pledge campaign isn’t about funding, it’s about trying to find ways of making the fans more involved. I want them to be aware of what it takes to make an album. The ups and downs, the exciting moments, the horrible moments, the entire creative process and all the factors of life that have an impact on that. I want them to listen to the finished thing and be able to relate to everything on it more deeply, because they would have been a part of every thing done, every decision made, during the making of it. Why lyrics were written, why sounds were chosen, why titles were picked, what happened in my life to influence the music and the words, all of it. It’s an attempt to bring us closer together, and in so doing, it gives me the financial freedom and knowledge to be able pick and choose what happens to it after Pledge. That is a situation I’ve never had before.

 

You have a huge fanbase which includes many well respected and famous musicians like Dave Grohl and Beck, and your music and look has undoubtedly influenced many acts. What would you like your legacy to be?

I think it’s already there. To be seen as an innovator, to be considered influential, to be acknowledged as a pioneer of a new genre of music, to still be a viable and creative artist. These are the amazing things that are mentioned now, more accolades than I could ever have hoped for, more than I ever dreamed of, so I couldn’t ask for anything more. My legacy seems to be intact and all I need to do is make sure I don’t put out a shit album and ruin it all.

 

Gary Numan plays at UEA on 23rd September. Tickets are available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com.

 Photo by Ed Fielding