Press Conference, Turku, Finland, 03 August 1985


Robert : We spent March and April doing the album. And January and February, we did nothing. And May, we're just doing things like deciding how it was gonna look like, the artwork, things like that. And then just over the past six weeks, we've been playing various festivals. Mainly in places where we haven't really been before. Like Spain and Greece, here... Just to make a change really.


- How about the Roskilde festival ?

Robert : Most of it I really enjoy. Strangely, the only one that we didn't headline... (the only concert we played in the five past years that we haven't headline, because I hate playing underneath other groups, I think we're better than other groups...) we played Athens and it was really good. I enjoyed it, probably the most I think.


- What happened with Boy George over there ?

Robert : Well, the riot that happened was really a political riot. They just focused their attention on that particular event because there was a lot of media there. But it had really to do with demonstrators and the minister of Interior to resign. It had nothing to do with Boy George really. But he was an obvious way to get, you know, to the papers.


- In Between Days gets compared with New Order's Age of Consent.

Robert : Yes, it's what people tell me. Is that New Order's new record ? Because people kept saying "yeah, this sounds like New Order" I went bored with their new album. I think it's really awful. I think we're much better than New Order. I used to really like New Order but I think they're boring over the past year really. Because they always sound the same, we haven't sound like that and probably won't again. It's just an experiment. In fact, one of the songs from New Order ripped off A Forest anyway, it's exactly the same chords as A Forest. There's nothing new under the sound really. I don't mind, I'd rather be compared to New Order than being compared to Wham !


- I was in London earlier this week and I saw you on Breakfast TV Wednesday morning and saw 3 or 4 pages of you on the lastest Smash Hits. So are you gonna be a pop star now ?

Robert : Humm. No, I mean, it just happens every year. I sort of get exposed. But I never follow up, so no.


- I was a bit disappointed with the Top from my point of view it was too close to progressive pop music.

Robert : In retrospective, the only thing wrong with The Top album I think is it's too slow. If it had been faster, it would have been much better. But the trouble with it was that we didn't play any of the songs before we recorded. In fact, a lot of the songs were written in the studio. It's not one of our best records, no, I agree. There's nothing I can do about it. It was last year. It's a different group now. The whole way of working is very different now. It's much more like when we did Seventeen Seconds. It's much more like a group. Because last year, I was just writing and playing everything as well. To my ear, it just sounds like me. Some of the worst aspects of what I do. But there's also songs like Shake Dog Shake and Give Me it, I think, are really good.


- Do you think The Head On the Door is going to be a radical difference compared to the previous Cure albums ?

Robert : Well, the Head on the Door really sounds like The Top should have sounded like. The Top was meant to be a collection of very individual songs, almost like a singles collection. And the Head on the Door is like that. There's 8 songs completely different to the ones before and the ones after. I don't know, I expect the people who really liked Seventeen Seconds will hate it even more. It doesn't really worry me. I think it's good. It sounds to me like the group sounds at the moment. And particulary having Simon back, the more he plays with me again, and probably the harder it will get, because that's how we ended up with Pornography the first time anyway.


- You have a lot of different sounds on the Head on the Door, like flamenco guitars, the Blood and the saxophone on A Night Like This.

Robert : Yeah, again. There was no overall idea of what the album should sound like. We've changed really.


- You have recorded close to 20 songs, you told me in June, that you still hadn't make up your mind about which to include so how did you end up with those ones ?

Robert : The ones that sounded best together I think. There's still a lot of disagreement between me... Everyone's got their own idea on what should be on... it's too late now 'cause it's done. We rerecorded Close To Me, we put brass on it and that's probably going to be a single. It sounds completely different. And that'll have like two b-sides that would have got on the album. The trouble is, I know the songs that we've done, if they won't get used now they won't ever get used. Because we never do what we've done in the past. Because they always seem old fashioned to me. Just in the structure of what the Cure do.


- What's your favorite tune on the new LP ?

Robert : Sinking. The last one of the album is my favorite.


- What about Push ?

Robert : It's just us being funny really. That was one track I was a bit unsure about. It's supposed to sound like American music but done in an English way. I mean, it's a good tune. It reminds me of Another Journey By Train which is the b side of A Forest. It's just like an instrumental.


- It sounds to me like, you know, the most familiar Cure tune.

Robert : It doesn't to me. Kyoto Song sounds the most Curish to me.


- Why did Simon join the band again ?

Robert : 'Cause he was missing us. And I was missing him. No, because we just gradually go back to be good friends as we were before. I asked him to join me.


- Was Nick Drake an influence to you ?

Robert : He used to be when I was younger. But I haven't listen to Nick Drake in a long time. I still think he's good but I wouldn't listen to him anymore. Because I don't feel the same as I used to.


- Are you rehearsing with this festival for the UK tour ?

Robert : (laugh) We'll forget all the songs by the time we play in England. I wouldn't consider any concert that we do as rehearsals. The only rehearsals we have are private, it's never in front of people. It's not really fair. Just because it's not England... English audiences can be as bad as any other audience.


- But how do you feel playing with the others ?

Robert : It's exciting. It's not like a rehearsal. I mean, everyone knows what they're supposed to play. We don't think "this has got to be really really professional". But at the same time, I wouldn't go on stage drunk. If I was in the audience I wouldn't like to see me on stage drunk. So it's just that. As long as I would be entertained, that's all I worry about. I don't worry about anything.


- Do you still want to make an album like Pornography ?

Robert : Hummm. Whenever we're in the studio, there's always one day I wake up and think "ah this record's gonna be too soft, I wish it would sound like Pornography". But then I think Pornography already exists. Nothing can stop us having made it. It's there. So it's pointless to keep reiterate something. Again, if I wanted to remake Pornography I think I'd be an idiot really. Because it would be impossible for us to. I wasn't like I am now at all. I was very different.

After Pornography, I could have been one or two people really. All one side of me could have been more dominant than the other. Musically anyway... the sort of Boys Don't Cry side. I prefer it, mainly because... to try to do something like Pornography, you actually have to live apart. And you don't live apart very long. You end up dying apart. And I was not really ready to do that for an audience. It's like a romantic idea, when you're actually in the reality of people looking at you, waiting for you to fall over things. It's really awful. I got really fed up with people thinking I was dead.


- There's one track, Siamese Twins, it reminds me of Franz Kafka...

Robert : Someone like Kafka, I enjoy reading his books. He had more an influence, I think, on songs like At Night from Seventeen Seconds. A far more direct influence. Siamese Twins... the only influence on all of Pornography in the style of writings is Dylan Thomas. Just because he had the same... He used a very peculiar way of twisting words around. I just thought it was really clever. But Pornography isn't about one particular thing. Even in one song, there's about 10 or 15 incidents. It's even really difficult for me now to think about it all. At the time I really didn't know what we were doing anyway.


- What about Faith ?

Robert : I think it was the complete opposite to Pornography. It was like a reaction to Faith. Pornography was a reaction to Faith. Because Faith was actually attempting to find something that had hope in it. It was almost like optimistic in a way. Where Pornography is completely depressing. It was like... "It doesn't matter if we all die", that's exactly how I felt. It was a reaction to the whole idea of caring about other people. At the time, it was really really stupid to care about anyone. There's still part of me that feels like that just as strongly as it used to.


- I was told that you actually got up at 4, how did you make it to Breakfast TV this week ?

Robert : I don't remember. I went to bed at about 5. I had to get up at 7:30. So... and we did a John Peel Session after the Breakfast television. I keep waking up... like today, I woke up really early today. I just laid in bed...


- So you have more festivals to do after this one ?

Robert : No, this is the last one.


- And then ?

Robert : And then I'm gonna do nothing for a couple of weeks. Just gonna sit somewhere.


- How sometimes a nice pop band doing songs like Lovecats did dark songs ?

Robert : Because it's interesting for me mainly. I mean, after Pornography, I no longer wanted to be considered as Robert Smith of the Cure in the way I had been. I just wanted us to do anything so I could wake up in the morning thinking "I'd love to do a jazz record" and we could go and do it. If people never experienced the Cure at that time, after Pornography, they may never will 'cause it was then. It's like people trying to regret Joy Division or something.

Obviously there are groups that continue to deal with that dark side. But to be locked into that forever, like a spiral, it was just too awful to contemplate. Really I was forced doing something more poppy. Or doing nothing at all. For a while I didn't do nothing at all anyway. I was just so fed up. I still find I was getting angry at other people making awful records. Just things as simple as that. I mean, just like this, listening to this (band playing in the background -ed) makes me want to go on stage and play.


- How did you feel with the Banshees ?

Robert : I think the Banshees are more of a pop band than the Cure are. Really. I stopped playing with the Banshees 'cause I was too tired. There was absolutely no other reason. The idea of me being in the Banshees was much better than the reality. I don't think I was right in the Banshees. The reason for that was, I was so tired, I was acting in a peculiar way anyway. It wasn't really me in the Banshees.


- Which one was your main band at the time ?

Robert : For a while it was the Banshees. It had to be 'cause the Cure was just me and Lawrence. We didn't play live so... The first six months I've been in the Banshees was really good fun. It was just like me being on holiday. But then it started to get a bit too serious. When I first joined I hadn't responsabilities in the Banshees and gradually as I was accepted more as part of the group, I began to have responsabilities. The reason why I joined in the first place was to get away from doing interviews. I used to go to the beach and Sioux would do the interviews.


- The new album is quite optimistic, is it a reaction to things like anti-heroin, you know all these things happening in England...

Robert : No. The anti-heroin campaign is a joke as far as I am concerned. It's one of the symptoms of an illness like seeing a bowl of bad fruits and eating it and knowing you're gonna be sick. Heroin has nothing to do with it. The problems in Britain... It's where the money goes. That's what the problem is. There's nothing else. I mean, if you're stupid enough to get addicted to heroin, you deserve to die anyway. They might as well spend money on the next generation not being addicted to heroin rather than trying to save this generation. So it's a waste of time.


- In which interview did you mention that Echo and the Bunnymen are one of the best groups in the music today ?

Robert : It's just one of these things. It's like New Order, even if I think at the moment, they're quite boring. They're one of the groups, I suppose, could... because I grew up with them at the same time. I'm just a fan of the Bunnymen.


- Did you meet McCullough personally ?

Robert : I met him twice. I wouldn't say I know him personally. No... I had a drink with him. But I have had a drink with lots of people.


- What kind of music do you listen to nowadays ?

Robert : Hummm. I don't listen to very much music at all. Really. I never do when we're involved in something. Probably because we've been recording, to actually relax, I watch films or read books or get drunk. I don't listen to music.


- What about the Glove, you were doing with Steve Severin ?

Robert : That was just, because we were really good friends at the time. We thought it would be good fun to go in the studio and to see what happens. Because he's always written for the Banshees and that would always be Sioux singing the songs that he wrote. So, he thought it would be a nice change for him to write songs and we could actually make them sound how we wanted. And I thought it would be good for me to write songs where I didn't have to sing. Although the one fault with the Glove album was the voice. I didn't think Jeanette's voice was very good.


- Robert, do you read a lot ?

Robert : I try to. It's the only way to stop going stupid.


- You have many songs about love, but they're quite bitter ones... Are you disappointed with the relationships between the genders ?

Robert : Humm. In between people the same gender I get disappointed. But it's noone's fault. It's just...


- I know you lived with someone for quite a while...

Robert : Yeah, I still do from time to time. I wouldn't expect anything in any other way really. I suppose it's one of those things you're conditioned to believe in, because you can see happy endings. Maybe people do. But then most of the times you forget about it.


- When Echo and the Bunnymen were here, they played a gig and first they played some of their favorite songs. Would you do that kind of thing ? Have you got some kind of favorite songs ?

Robert : We couldn't because we would be like Echo and the Bunnymen, wouldn't we ? I recorded some songs for a solo EP and then not released it. No, it's a good idea. Their best songs wouldn't be the songs that I'd play. They played the Doors and the Stooges, Velvet Underground songs...


- The Bunnymen picks 60's bands. Are you considering doing something like that ?

Robert : No, The Glove took care of the 60's... I'm writing the history of the Cure at the moment. That's my project. Exploring the myth of being a group.


- I heard you were doing some kind of film music ?

Robert : I was doing some film music... but it's like one of those things. Because I'm not considered to be well known for writing film music to the people making films. It was like a proper film. I wanted to change what I was doing and so... despite the moment. The thing I was writing for specific projects, some of it is quite good so maybe... I was going to write film music for Tim Pope, on a feature film, he asked me to do the music to that. But he's so fucking mental, he'll probably end up making it in about 20 years time.


- How many videos has he directed for you ?

Robert : Five. And he's doing one this Tuesday.


- So what will be the next single ?

Robert : Close To Me. And we're doing it in a wardrobe. I may go now, 'cause my voice disappears.


(the conference is finished but journalists keep asking questions on the way to the backstage)

- Do you always wear that suit ? Because you were wearing it in Roskilde ?

Robert : Yeah, I know !


- Can I have your signature ?

Robert : That's an unusual request.


- We ask every band that comes to Finland their favorite animals...

Robert : Hummm. Cat. hummm... ... Polar bear. ... humm. ... Elephant.


- Do you have any kind of animal of your own ?

Robert : No, I hate the idea of keeping them. Because they only die before...someone could make them happy.