Robert: Hello
JW : Do you feel nervous about unleashing a new project like this on the world?
Robert Smith : What in that it's scarily good? Emmm I'm not nervous. It's emmm become very natural, I mean it's a long time since the last one. Ah I don't know what our current standing is if we're due for a backlash or whether we've been away long enough to have what the opposite is.
JW : So the 10th Cure album isn't BRITPOP?
Robert Smith : No, although I suppose....you know..the...the...rather the criteria most people seem do get labeled BRITPOP so have we 'cos we come from here (uk) and we sort of play music in a funny way so...but no it isn't.
JW : The album's called WILD MOOD SWINGS. What kind of mood are you in today?
Robert Smith : Tired (giggles)
JW : Tired & emotional, your cutting the album at the moment.
Robert Smith : yeah, ummm we've been in Jane Seymore's house, doing the album.
JW : really?
Robert Smith : Yeah
JW : She hires it out?
Robert Smith : Yeah, Now we're her house guests
JW : It's very posh!
(Robert and Jo laugh)
Robert Smith : yeah it's very nice, it's just that we've worked in residential studios for the last 3 albums and it just seems really dumb just going somewhere...and...and giving a lot of money to use their gear. So we've bought our own gear and rented her house out, but... be a bit of a rent to leave, 'cos we've been there for over a year now. (laughs)
JW : And she hasn't tried to move back in any of this time?
Robert Smith : She did try and come back in at Christmas and we gave her a week and then she left again.
JW : Did you meet her?
Robert Smith : No she left flowers (laughs)
JW : So why WILD MOOD SWINGS what kind, the range of moods that your gonna encounter on this album?
Robert Smith : There are pretty wild, it was supposed to really capture the spirit or like the moods that....that exist within the group. It's not just me, it is like the first record really that I've written bearing in mind like how other people are and what they're thinking... other people in the group.
JW : How do they affect you then, the rest of the band?
Robert Smith : Well because we've been living together.....a lot you know...we're...we're in the house...we have sometimes the is just us and others times there's like up to 20 other people staying there 'cos words got around that we're there and there are some very long weekends going on. But umm... it's good but emm.. the positive side far outweighs the disadvantages such as the...the fridge is a mess ( hehehe) and all that sort of stuff. But it's really nice to have people to do things with all the time. It's really good fun we get on so...so it's good fun.
JW : It must be a very strange album then? Very kind of surreal if it is detached from the rest of the world?
Robert Smith : Well it's not detached...what I mean is within the house..umm you can hear the range of music is vast.
JW : What are you all into then?
Robert Smith : Well the thing is we don't really agree on very much contemporary music.. so when we have dinner in the evening which is the focal point of the socially for everyone.
JW : So you all sit down and have dinner?
Robert Smith : Yeah always 'cos that's when you kinda talk I mean we're together most of the time.
JW : Who cooks?
Robert Smith : We sort of take it in turns, we get people we know to cook or we get take aways a lot (hehe)
JW : Pizza man?
Robert Smith : It's more the conversation and the general sort of...emmm. just the idea of all sitting sown there art dinner, we listen to loads of different stuff from... then but really then coming from round the world, but it's not world music, but actually stuff recorded in caves and things like that. Jungle gets played and Frank Sinatra, everything gets played so .......
JW : This is what I wonder now whether you worry now whether it's going to fit into the scene at the moment?
Robert Smith : (You can hear a tone of disapproval at this last question in his voice (he's a bit pissed off by it)) NO 'cos there is now scene going on at the moment that's the whole point. Like it would be really foolish for us to pretend that we are somehow in competition with people who are part of a nominal scene. There's so much different much that y'know out there that it doesn't really worry me how we're gonna fit in we always haven't before so I don't see why we should this time. (laughs)
JW : And you enjoy not fitting in? What was it inside you what you wanted to unleash then? What we're you setting out to do with this album?
Robert Smith : we Originally a couple of years ago, the idea was to go in and do an album over the weekend, almost at exactly that point everyone wanted to leave the band so I was kinda just left there. So I had to leave to have a bit of a re-think..ummm....we had to find a new drummer and we had to sort of replace Porl and the.......
JW : And..and...and...
Robert Smith : It sort of went on and on and by the time we started recording ..... 'cos we actually used 7 different drummers...we had them all living there for a week at a time with us, just to see what one we got on with best.
JW : How did you test them out?
Robert Smith : (trying not to laugh) Ummm....we lived with them for a week (hehehe)
JW : And that was enough?
Robert Smith : It was a pretty tough test! Just using them to play different styles and different things actually lead me into thinking we should do an album that's really kind of varied..really diverse. So we've recorded about 30 songs now.
JW : Ok we'll play the single that we've been leading up to on the show..this is the 13th. Is there anything that you can say to people that will help them to understand this song?
Robert Smith : It's actually based on what happened to me in a club in Mexico, actually on the last tour, it's pretty self explanatory really
** The single is played **
JW : It's Radio 1's Evening Session, Robert Smith is with us. And that was the single then..the 13th How many tracks are gonna be on this album then?
Robert Smith : 14
JW : Will there be another album following up pretty shortly?
Robert Smith : No 'cos each single that comes out has got 3 songs on it and we're thinking probably 3 singles, so that's like another 9 songs.
JW : And off on the WILD MOOD SWINGS tour as well so it's not going to be too traumatic when you leave Jane Seymore's house 'cos you'll all be together?
Robert Smith : Yeah..it's just the house we're saying goodbye to really,, not each other or anyone else. It's just that...emmm...it has had an impact on everyone.
JW : Did you have any fall-outs when you were in the house?
Robert Smith : We didn't actually no, not at all the thing is I suppose that we're grown up enough now in someways to walk away from fighting each other. I only find it strange because in the past, always there has been an undercurrent within the group, but everyone seems to get ion un-naturally well.
JW : it sounds as if it's going to be quite a cheerful album actually.
Robert Smith : There's a lot of...yeah there's a lot of up stuff on it
JW : This is the 10th album then, how many more are there in the Cure?
Robert Smith : I dunno...there are at least another 50, I always get everyone in the group, at the time to believe it's the last album, and I believe it as well, and I preach every album we do as the last one and it could be...well one of them has to be.
JW : What's the track you feel most proud of on the album>
Robert Smith : It's impossible to pick one out...it really is..they're all so different it was like with the 13th it's a weird choice for a single you know...it's a brace choice for a single...blah....blah....blah. There is a really dead obvious pop single on there...there's a couple I suppose but there is also..every single song has been approached as if it could be a single.
JW : What can we expect with stuff like the tour, have you got some special FX or an image or some kind of something out there to shock people?
Robert Smith : Frilly shirts, really bright
JW : (hehehe) I mean your sitting here and people at home are gonna be thinking what are looking like at the moment and is there an image change or anything
Robert Smith : Ummm......
JW : You're just the same Robert Smith aren't you?
Robert Smith : Yeah, ah well there's not an ...there is an image I suppose it's very defined but it's almost like despite everything...everything that we ever do it's just like y'know may hair, my hair so I cut of off and it's....they're still like where's you hair gone? All that side of things. I mean when we go on stage there a lot of thought goes into how we're presenting what we're doing. So we try to retain a kind of subtlety to what we do.
JW : Well we'll find out on the tour. Thanks very much for talking to us.
Robert Smith : All right...Thank you.!