Gary Numan requires no introduction. The man who found incredulous fame at the tail of the 70’s with synthesised pop gems like ‘Are Friends Electric?’ and ‘Cars’, only for it to tail off after announcing his retirement from live performances. Fortunately the retirement didn’t last long and Gary is able to talk to us about his latest album ‘Splinter’ and tour following a recent critical and commercial revival fuelled by a new found inspiration – friend and workmate Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
Our Electronic Editor James Paul Matthews, and Indie Editor Martin McDonnell had a chat with Gary Numan ahead of his 2nd UK tour in support of the brilliant ‘Splinter’ album.
James Paul Matthews : Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on a quite frankly stellar new album. I have been analysing it in and out for a while and it literally blew my mind. If I may say so, this is definitely some of your best work I have ever heard! Could you tell me a little bit more about the writing and recording sessions for the album?
Writing it was actually a fairly quick process, once I started, it just took me about six years to get started. I was diagnosed with depression in 2008, and I’d been ‘wrong’ for quite a while before I even went to the Doctors about it, and so I didn’t write anything at all for a number of years. As I was getting better, and that drive and desire to want to write began to come back, the things I wanted to write about were those years that I’d just gone through. Depression can be a very damaging experience, to career, to relationships, to many things, and it was all still quite fresh and raw so I wanted to write about it. It was not only to write an album but, as many of my songs have been over the years, a kind of home grown therapy. By writing about something like that you think very deeply about it. In effect you’re talking out your issues, much as you would to a close friend or a therapist, but you’re talking to yourself. The end result us much the same though.
The album was written and recorded in two stages. The first half was done in the earlier months of 2012, and then work stopped for a while as I immigrated to the US in October. The second half was written and recorded in Los Angeles, once I had my new studio built, in the first few months of 2013. I wrote everything at home, recorded good quality demos for Ade Fenton to use as a clear guide as to what I was looking for with the song, and then those files were sent to Ade in the UK where he worked on them further. We would then discuss, and argue sometimes, about the various ideas until we had what we were looking for.
JPM : And did the recording sessions differ from previous albums?
Not so much. Splinter is the third album that I’ve worked on with Ade and it followed a similar working path; I write the songs, I build up the demos, Ade makes them sound better. We have always worked separately, only really coming together at certain key points. We do talk a lot on the phone or via FaceTime but nearly all the work that I do, I do alone, as does Ade. It sounds a bit odd and distant but it actually works very well.
JPM: A special mention must go to Ade Fenton for being behind the helm for mixing and production for Splinter, as he has done even more of a greater job than he has done on the previous albums. Can you tell me a bit more about the production process? Also, what particular software / hardware do you use: Pro Tools; Logic?
I use Pro Tools, Ade uses Logic. That in itself is not a huge issue but it would be better if we were both on the same system. The sound generating software we use, the soft synths are very similar. We both use a lot of Native Instruments packages and others from Spectra Sonics. The equipment is amazing but, in this day and age, the prices have come down so much that we use pretty much the same soft synths that most other people use. Someone making music on a little computer in their bedroom probably has almost the same gear that I have. I like that. It means that, as we are all near equal in terms of equipment, those that can write and produce well stand out.
JPM: The last time I saw you live was actually at Nine Inch Nails’ ‘last show’ at the O2 Arena a few years ago, where you duetted with them for a few songs. What is your relationship like with Trent?
It’s good. I don’t see him very often but, when we do, it’s friendly. I have a great deal of respect for Trent and what he does, and he’s been very kind and helpful to me in a number of ways so I’m also very grateful to him.
JPM: Additionally, it is fair to say that NIN are heavily influenced by the likes of yourself and others like Depeche Mode and many more. But do you take musical influence from bands like NIN, Ministry, and others who credit you as their main musical inspiration?
I’m influenced by everything around me, every day. I do not believe in originality, not in music anyway, it’s all just a constant variation of things created long, long ago. I watch TV, go to the cinema, read books, watch gigs, listen to the world, look at everything, it’s all there just waiting to touch you in some way or another. It all goes in, and then it all comes out again but, hopefully, added to ideas of your own and reborn as something new. I’ve been influenced by almost everything I’ve ever heard musically, at one time or another. Ultravox, T-Rex, Depeche Mode, the list is almost endless.
JPM: Also, are there any new artists or genres of music that inspire you personally, or that you have taken a liking to recently?
Not genres, I don’t really know what genres bands fall into, but recent bands that I’ve enjoyed include Roman Remains, Officers and The Losers. I’ve taken them all out on tour with me at some point or another recently.
Martin-John McDonnell: How has the reception been for the material from new album?
It’s been amazing. Splinter seems to have been incredibly well received by press and fans alike. On recent tours I had the strange but interesting experience of watching new fans singing along to songs from Splinter and who then clearly didn’t even know the words to the older songs. In fact, the crowds on this tour have been noticeably more energetic and interactive than they were previously. I don’t know if that’s new people coming in, probably part of it I would guess, or older fans having a new album they really love, also possible, but whatever it is, it’s a far more exciting experience for those of us on stage. Top see and hear a crowd going mad during a song, not just at the end of it, is quite a special thing and it feeds us energy more than anything during the performance.
MJM : It is a well known fact that you in some ways stumbled into synth music with a synthesiser just happening to be in the studio. Firstly, what attracted you to the synthesiser and secondly, where do you think you’d be now if you had not have stumbled across it?
The first part of that question is easy to answer. The synth sounded like nothing else I had ever heard. It was floor shakingly powerful and yet could also create the most gentle and haunting of sounds. It’s the ability to create not just the notes, but the very sound itself, that makes electronic music infinitely more appealing to me than any other kind. As for where I would be if I hadn’t stumbled across it? Well, my other two big interests were aeroplanes and racing cars, so, I guess I would have been a pilot or, more likely, a racing driver. I wanted a life that offered a constant challenge, excitement, travel and some other things best left unmentioned.
MJM: Performing tracks from older albums on tour, as you often do, is there an urge to reshape the music to suit your current style?
I do it all the time. I like the older songs to sound as heavy and as dark as the newer stuff so I rework the older songs regularly. I keep the melodies and arrangements the same so that fans can recognise and enjoy the song as it was, but beef up everything else around it. It helps to keep those songs fresh for me; it keeps them exciting to perform.
MJM: Following from that, have you ever been tempted to re-record any of the older songs in your catalogue?
Not really. Reworking them for a tour is fair enough but those live versions often come out on live albums and DVD’s so I have no real interest in re-recording those versions in the studio. I’d rather just write something new.
MJM: How do you think that you’ve changed live and in the studio since the days of Tubeway Army?
In those days I wrote songs at home on the piano, with a metronome, and then built them up when I got to the studio into the finished songs. These days I write songs on the piano in my own studio and then build them up as I go along. So, in many ways, it’s not that different at all. What is different is the equipment. These days the studio has a computer at its heart and most of the sound generators are within that computer. It’s a very high tech environment.
Live, I think I’m about as far removed as a performer as you could be from those early days. Back then I was nervous and awkward. Moving little, and what little movement I did was carefully worked out before hand. It was all very wooden and unfeeling. These days I lose myself in the sound completely and move around constantly. It’s all very energetic and aggressive, the other end of the scale to the way I used to be.
MJM: What will be your plans for the rest of the year regarding the release of Splinter? And are there any other non-album based projects in the pipeline?
I have the second UK tour to do next, then some festivals in the UK and the US, with a final Splinter show at Hammersmith Apollo in November, which I’m very excited about. That Hammersmith show will be the final live event connected with Splinter. After that I start on the next album, a documentary, a new autobiography that will pick up from where the last one stopped around 2007, a novel (possibly, if I can get it done in time), collaborations and another film score (my first one has just been finished and the film From Inside, and soundtrack album, will be out in October).
You can catch Gary Numan this summertime on the following intimate UK tour dates and festival appearances :
JUNE
Sat 21 IRELAND Body & Soul Festival
Mon 23 CHESTER Live Rooms
Tue 24 CAMBRIDGE Junction
Wed 25 NORWICH Waterfront
Thu 26 READING Sub 89
Sat 28 EXETER Phoenix
Mon 30 BOURNEMOUTH Academy
JULY
Tue 01 PRESTON 53 Degrees
Wed 02 LEAMINGTON SPA Assembly Hall
Thu 03 HOLMFIRTH Picturedrome
Fri 04 KNEBWORTH Sonisphere Festival
AUGUST
Sat 16 KETTERING Alt-Fest
