Oct
Synthpop pioneers Erasure have released their eagerly anticipated new album, Tomorrow’s World, their first studio album for nearly 4 years after 2007′s Light At The End Of The World.
The new album’s called ‘Tomorrow’s World’. Where did the album title come from?
Vince Clarke: We got the album title from the programme “Tomorrow’s World”, which was a science programme that started in the 60s and I was a big fan of the show.
Can you talk us through the writing / recording process for the new album?
Andy Bell: Usually when we decide we’re going to do an album, it’s a year up front before the recording, because we have to decide when we’re going to go and meet each other and where, to do the songwriting and usually we write on the guitar or piano in the same room with a little cassette recorder or micro-recorder and Vince strums the chords and I’ll sing the melody and we’ll just do loads and loads of ideas, as many as we can and then Vince takes them all away and edits them and makes them into songs or we have a whole song.
VC: And then Andy will work on some lyrics, then we go into the studio proper to do the studio production. Andy and I got together in New York first of all, then we did some writing in London at the little tiny Mute studio and ended up in Maine, which is where I live.
What sort of timeframe has it taken to put ‘Tomorrow’s World’ together?
AB: We finished the album over a period of two years, but that was including writing and recording, but the recording was pretty quick and Vince and I did some demos in Maine. We’d done some writing in London, some writing in New York and then Vince worked with Frankmusik in Maine. And then I worked with him in LA for 10 days and then for a week in the Mute studios in London and that was pretty much it, really, apart from the mixing. It took a long time.
Is that longer than you’d usually take to make a record?
VC : Yeah, it was a lot longer, because I think for this album we wrote far more songs than we needed and there was a big long process of getting rid of the stuff that just wasn’t working and we did a bit of rewriting as well, you know, where we had an idea that we thought was great at the time and then maybe, a few months later we thought it wasn’t so great, so then we would rewrite.
‘Tomorrow’s World’ is produced by Frankmusic. How did you choose him to work on the album?
AB: Frankmusik really came about, I think, as an instinctive choice, really, in the end. We had some other producers mentioned, but when it came down to it, the fans really wanted Frankmusik and secretly, I wanted him as well, so… that’s what we got.
What sort of influence do you think he’s brought to the project?
VC : Well, I think Frank’s sound is much more intense than ours. You know, our records in the past have tended to be quite minimal, but I think the music that he produces is almost a wall of sound. It’s electronic, obviously, but it’s just really full on and it’s very different from any record that we’ve made before.
What was the brief to him, when you first started talking to him about it?
VC: Well, I mean, it’s like any time with a producer: you’re looking for somebody to actually pull all your ideas together. The demos were demos, but you want someone to be in charge, to say, “This is what this song needs. This is what that song needs,” and then also for someone to say, “We have enough,” which is half of the problem for myself and Andy.
AB: I think you need kind of someone who takes the songs like to another level, don’t you?
Was it difficult to just let Frankmusik have free rein?
VC: It wasn’t difficult for us to let Frank do his thing, in this instance. You know, he was doing stuff that I would never have dreamed of doing, so for me it was a learning process as well. You know, I was happy to see him do his thing. In fact, when he was at my studio, in the first instance, he thanked me for allowing him to do his thing and not be too you know, over the shoulder and saying, “Well, maybe you could do that,” and, “Maybe you could do that.” I think it’s kind of worked to both our benefits.
Are you happy with the end result of the album?
AB: I feel really happy. I feel quite comfortable. I think it’s a whole other thing having to sing the thing live, because there are loads and loads of kind of Melodyne… created melodies, like autotune, which goes up really high, which I’m not sure if I can get that high.
On the last record you worked with Gareth Jones, who was someone you’ve worked with several times in the past. Was it a deliberate attempt to go out and find someone new this time?
AB: I don’t think so. I think because we’d had a break from doing Erasure for four years, I think we were just kind of looking for a fresh approach really to everything and maybe a bit of new blood and maybe looking for a younger person, no disrespect with all the people that we’ve worked with, but I think it’s good for us, as well. It’s healthy for us to have a younger person’s input, because we don’t necessarily know what’s going on in the whole music world or what’s current.
Before Frankmusik even got involved, what sort of influences were you bringing into the album at that stage? What sort of sounds were you using and what sorts of lyrics were you exploring?
VC: When we started making the record, we weren’t exploring sounds at all, you know. All our demos are basically guitar and maybe some with piano, so they didn’t really have a direction. The songs didn’t really have a direction until Frank came along, you know, and we were open to his ideas and that’s the direction we went.
How do you feel this album fits with your back catalogue? Is there any particular album that you’d compare it with?
AB: I think this album goes in more with some of our obscure albums, like maybe “Erasure” from 1995 and “Loveboat”, because it’s quite strange and maybe “Chorus”, mixed in together.
When you set out to make ‘Tomorrow’s World’, Vince said he wanted to make an analogue record this time around. Did you succeed?
VC: This album is 50% analogue. The reason why the last two albums weren’t analogue was because I didn’t have an analogue set up, but now I have transplanted my studio from the UK to the States, so I had all my analogue gear up and running and so this was like the first opportunity that we were able to use that equipment for making songs, for making records, so, from a practical point of view, you know, it’s like all the music on the record is basically generated with analogue synthesisers. All of the drums and percussion are samples, so it’s a bit of a blend.
What sort of synthesisers did you actually use on the record?
VC: The way I worked this particular album was every single song, I tried to get as many different manufacturers of synthesisers, so rather than say, for instance, use like a Moog Prodigy or something for lots of different sounds, I’d use a Moog, then I would use something from Yamaha, something from Oberheim, something from Roland and mix it all up, because each synth has its own kind of character and it also kind of makes it a little bit unsafe when you’re working, because rather than going to the “go to” synth, where you think, “Oh, OK, Moog, that’s going to be a great bass,” go to something else and it kind of stretches you a little and hopefully makes the sound more interesting.
And from a lyrical point of view, Andy, it was obviously quite a long period of time when those songs were being born and there was quite a lot going on with you in that time. Is there a big difference between the songs at the beginning and the songs at the end?
AB: I think there’s quite a difference with songs from the initial writing process towards the end, because I’d just kind of broken up with someone. I was kind of writing about that town that I came from, that I’d left and a bit about the break up and then a bit about what was going on in my home environment in London, so there was loads of things and I think I was quite angry about quite a lot of stuff as well, so that kind of helped me get it out a bit!
When you’re making a record, how much do you feel responsible for looking after the expectations of the people who already like you and how much do you put more stuff in that you just want to do for you?
VC: I don’t think that we take into consideration other people’s tastes. You can’t do, you know, because otherwise you’d never finish a record, I think, so what we try and do is be true to ourselves and make the record that we think is a good record, put it out there and hope that, you know, other people will also get into it as much as we’ve gotten into it. You can’t make a record to order, I don’t think. You can’t write a song to order, certainly.
The only song that people have heard in advance from this record is “Save Me”, which we heard on the Forest shows. How did you choose that song of all the songs to play live?
AB : We chose “Save Me” to play live, because Daniel [Miller] thought it was going to be the first single and then we changed our minds, which is normal. But we think it went down really well live, and so we’re quite pleased.
VC: I’m really pleased that we did that, actually. It worked out really well, because people react to that song really well, I think and Andy does such a brilliant vocal on it live, with the girls – you know. It’s a real live song.
“When I Start To (Break It All Down)” is the first single from the album, so we should spend a little time talking about that. First of all, do you choose your singles or do you leave that to someone else?
AB : Usually we don’t choose the singles. You kind of have an instinctive feeling sometimes. I mean, in this instance “When I Start To (Break It All Down)” took over from “Save Me”, because when we’d finished it in the studio, we thought it was better and the song had gone in a direction that sounded really good.
Do you remember the genesis, the process of that particular song – the recording and the writing?
AB: Well, that started as a ballad, “Tender”.
VC: It was called “Tender” and it was kind of loosely based on “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley and then it got mashed up into what it is now. To me now it sounds like Tears for Fears. [laughs]
AB : We were in the studio and it was getting towards the end of the session at Mute with Frank and he was pretty fried, you know – we both were – and he likes listening to music and watching cartoons and things in the studio and there’s this one cartoon, what’s it called? “Superjail”. It’s really amazing – very bloody and quite violent, you know – and he was watching ELO on YouTube and I think that’s what inspired the piano for the dnn dnn dnn dnn dnn dnn… “Tender” and I thought, “Oh wow!” I thought, I never would have thought of it doing it like that.
What are your favourite songs on the album?
VC : “Fill Us With Fire” is my favourite song.
AB: I like “Whole Lot of Love”, because it’s just a bit twisted, really. That’s why I like it, because it’s screwed up.
Are you looking forward to taking the new songs out and playing them live?
VC: Yeah, we’re looking forward to taking the new songs out. We’ve been playing live now for six weeks and in our old set it was a lot of B sides and very old tracks, so it should be nice to put some new songs in there. Hopefully, if the reaction is the same as it has been for “Save Me”, then people won’t be asking for their money back at the end of the show, which is always good!
Do you know roughly how many new songs you’re going to be putting in for the “Tomorrow’s World” tour?
AB: Probably five or six.
Are there any in particular that you’re really looking forward to playing live?
VC: Yeah – “I Lose Myself” – that’s a disco stomper, so I’m looking forward to playing that live.
Are you planning a big production for the “Tomorrow’s World” shows?
VC: It’s kind of based on a destroyed city of the future. That’s the vibe. So it’s kind of like the future, but it’s all very grim and miserable – so hopefully we’ll lighten it up with some of our happy tunes!
Every time you go out on tour, obviously there is an expectation of some of the songs you have to perform. Is it difficult to refresh the set each time you go out?
AB: I think it’s quite hard to think of which songs to do live. Especially when you’re doing the pop hits tour, that’s one thing, because that’s what people expect and then other times you’re promoting one particular album, so you’ll play most songs from that, but I kind of like those tours when you can choose whatever you like from whatever albums, you know, but sometimes the customers aren’t happy when you do that, so you have to sprinkle a few things in there that people are familiar with, you know, but we have to think about as well theatricality for the show and how things work, so especially with the opening of “Tomorrow’s World”, we’ve still got to think of an intro track.
Do you have plans to record the “Tomorrow’s World” theme, Erasure-style?
VC: We’re going to try and record the “Tomorrow’s World” theme, see how it goes, you know. I’ve kind of programmed it already – that could possibly be an opening [track].
While Vince is getting all the sounds ready for the “Tomorrow’s World” tour, are you involved in costumes or stage sets?
AB: Well, thankfully, we’ve got everything sorted. It’s all pretty much organised. So I’m going to go and have a little break and so is Vince, a little mini one and then we reconvene in.
Finally, do you have a sense of pride for being Erasure in 2011? How does it feel to you to still be here making music?
VC: I love it!
AB: Yeah. I feel like that as well. I feel like Erasure has definitely earned its stripes and I know you kind of feel like we’re in it for the long haul, you know. Nobody can say, “Oh, I thought you broke up years ago”. No, we love it.
