Rock'n'Folk, Bath, England, March 1996 -Translated from French


Roger : We all changed since the Prayer tour. Now Robert is more relaxed, less tense and the band is more opened to anything that could happen. At the time, I was trying to convince Robert to use modern technology but he would reject it. When he called me to play the piano, I couldn't believe it : I saw the studio filled with Macs, samplers, sequencers, and he would even use the computer to write the lyrics. We're even going to use the internet... (...)


Robert (arriving) : Did you already talk to somebody ?


- Yes, the driver and the maid...

Robert : I say this because it's a fucking great band, it would be a shame to lose time.


- You looked tired.

Robert : Yes, I'm exhausted.


- You don't live in London anymore ?

Robert : No, I left in 1988. I bought a house in Sussex after my wedding. London became too dirty and noisy, the kind of things that you can't stand anymore with age. Anyway, I'm lucky enough to be able to leave which isn't the case for everybody. And also, I would endlessly argue with my neighbours, my car would always get tickets, I had fans sleeping in front of my door. It's so easy to be trapped...


- Like in the spider webs from your videos...

Robert : Animals don't interest me anymore. I've never had a pet, I'd find cats quite irritating actually.


- Aren't you a Cat in Chinese Astrology ?

Robert : Hummm, no, I'm afraid I'm a Pig.


- We were thinking about cats because of their 9 lifes and your numerous threats to disband the group.

Robert : Oh, it's time for me to retire. It seems obvious, generally, after six months being on tour, when I lose the sense of what we do... And then I start again. The tour for Disintegration was really exhausting. We would believe people saying to us that we had to become even more famous. Except on a personal level, it wasn't possible. I would get wasted all the time and it wasn't easy for me to be 30 and I'm not talking about the intrusive people around me. But the band had several lives, depending on who was part of it at the time. Influencing my state of mind. Roger is by the way the only one who left by himself without me having to ask him. That's why he's the only one who came back.


- In nearly 20 years of music, nothing outside the Cure influenced you ?

Robert : Not directly for the songs, except for the beats. Wish was a record from its time, contrary to Disintegration. I'm interested in bands from now, like Supergrass. But it doesn't mean they influence me. Of course, in the past, I stole one or two things around me...


- Like ?

Robert : Bowie... and Hendrix. But mainly from Bowie. The androgynous side, the kind of alien character, what he represented, a real icon. And he really turned into this alien who crossed America in a limo, high on cocaine, out of the world and time. Making extraordinary records like Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Young Americans, it gave me this idea of another world. Like Hendrix did. I didn't like glam rock except David Bowie, who didn't have much to do with it. He was creating artistic works like 2001, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now...

My other heroes belong to literature. They don't exist. Like Meursault (The Stranger - Camus) or the boy from the Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, who inspired me to create my own different character. It's not as common as people think. Most people prefer to follow norms. But when you recognize yourself in a brother or sister, like it was the case for me, it makes you want to be different... talking about family, we celebrated my Dad's 75th birthday, right here, last Saturday.


- Did you have a very strict education ?

Robert : My parents were always socially involved with their church, but contrary to my brothers and sisters, they didn't oblige me to go there. I think they let me choose what I wanted to do when they saw the results they had with my older brother. He was rebelling when he came back from India with his hippy posters and the incense he would put in the house. Or the rows he had with my father when we were eating. All that made me suspicious and distant from religion. I don't know many people religion made happier or better. You can see how it's mostly used to get away from boring or failing lifes. But it doesn't interest me anymore, since I've accepted the idea of death.


- Precisely, to a lot of people, Cure lyrics represent this morbid tone, this suffocating sadness.

Robert : There's not a lot of ways to escape from futility. You can throw yourself into hedonism. Experiencing the body. I've chosen the spiritual way, a quest for something preferable I didn't find yet... Maybe that's the consequence of my Catholic education, I'm unable to believe in whatever thing now... There's still another way : having children and being immortal through them... And you become used to taking lots of drugs... Now, I accepted life doesn't have to be extraordinary. Which can be shocking, judging by what my life is. But after all these years of going on tour around the world and play music every night, this became normal to me. It's my first interview of the year, maybe that's why I feel like talking a bit. The album took such a long time...


- New things are going to be said about this new album, positive and negatives things. What stereotype about the band or yourself, do you think is the most outrageous ?

Robert : That people focus on the introverted side of what we do. Sometimes, there are dark things on our records but we're not depressing people. This record is even lighter than usually. There's a song called Home on this record, about the joy to own a house, nothing deep or sad. But, who knows, maybe you never grow up. Like my father, who didn't learn anything and who's 75. He would like to be 25 still. He's not happy, he hopes there's a God... I'm not satisfied either.

Owning things doesn't bring you anywhere. We escape by playing music, making artistic works, using our brains and thinking we're somewhere else.... Even if, nowadays, I don't believe in anything, not even in paranormal stuff. It's sad, I know, but I realize I don't expect much from the world. It doesn't prevent me from having a moral sense. I couldn't kill like Meursault did. I feel hurt by injustice in the world, our lack of power in front of terrible things... The generation that will be in charge in 10 years is incredibly stupid. Why building a better world for hopeless young people ? When I was young, we all tried to escape having a job. Now, it's the opposite, if you find a job, you're not even sure to keep it. My nephews and nieces don't have high hopes or big expectations. They don't think about the future.


- What makes you angry ?

Robert : Things like Chirac's nuclear tests... The French don't fucking care about the rest of the world...


- A bit like the British with the Falklands war or United States with Vietnam...

Robert : Yes, it's true. I say this because I'm British, but also because I feel like Cure fans I meet around the world are detached from their country of origin. I only see the world through the windows of a cab. Maybe I'm afraid of what I don't understand, but this country starts to become frightening. There are threats I didn't feel 15 years ago. This idea of old people being beaten up or raped terrifies me. Nobody has much to lose and society doesn't make any sense anymore. But I let myself being negative again, maybe it's the weather that depresses me. But poverty in Sao Paulo, even in the sun, is really depressing. I felt guilty to play there. But maybe, not that much, because otherwise I wouldn't have played. I suppose...


- Did you really like Paula Abdul in the 80's ?

Robert : No, somebody gave me a tape with her remixes and I thought the sound was excellent. I hardly knew who that was...


- It was because of the flute sound... so Curish...

Robert : I think we stole Why Can't I Be You ? to somebody like that who was singing "Bad bad bad bad boys"... But what happened to Paula Abdul ? She was also a choreographer... We met her at some award ceremony in America. She's incredibly small.


- Are you going to put white make up on again ? You look good with a 3 days beard and no make up...

Robert : But I never used it, the white one... But I don't like the way I look with a beard. I'm growing old, I'll be 37 in April and I feel like I'm 50... but I was very young last Saturday...


- Isn't it weird ? Next to our parents, we always feel like they look at us like if we were 10...

Robert : I quite like that. Last Saturday, I talked to them like if I was a child again. They wanted to listen to the 25 songs we recorded, including my favorite, Bare. They also thought it was the best song I've ever written. Strange coincidence. It talks about those couples who break up and think they're going to stay friends. Maybe it's the first song I wrote that includes a narrative theme over 8 minutes. When we started, I wanted to make the whole album like that, with bass, drums, piano and strings and to record it surrounded by candles, to have this kind of Cowboy Junkies atmosphere.

But you need change, it's inevitable and I learned to admit that. It's not worth supporting things that shouldn't be or doing the opposite, destroying what's good. It's what I've done in the past, manipulating people, just to see what was going to happen, like I did with the band. But I'm still very pleased with this line-up.


- Drums still sound like thunder and Robert Smith's guitar still sounds like bells in the distance...

Robert : Oh, it's... very poetic. Porl is missed. He's a much better guitar player than I or Perry. He was hard to predict when he played and I don't know how to do that. I have to drink a lot and then I lose myself in that. But then, I can't play very well anymore and start to cry. In Australia, there's a Cure cover band. They came to see us backstage after a show and I asked them what they thought about our concert. The singer, who was supposed to be me then, said "We sound more like the Cure than you do"...


- It's great, so Andy Warhol or William Wilson, the Edgar Poe novel...

Robert : I thought it was scary. I told them : "You're talking about another time for the Cure. But we changed since. We still sound a bit the same but we changed".


(Interview : Eric Dahan)