Heartland

Interview with Andrew Eldritch
Just prior to the release of Temple of Love
Conducted somewhere in New York
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INT: When you make a record, before you go out to performance, who do you
think is your audience? How do you picture your audience as this
quintessential person, say you're walking down the street and say,
"that's the person that's the guy that takes my record home".
AE: God only knows. When we started off, we thought, "well all you can really
do is make records for yourself and just pray that someone out there
likes it". Then you start playing gigs and you begin to concentrate on
the first ten rows, like the people you can see. People who are jumping
up and down a lot, so you make records for them. Then you realize that's
there's actually like another 5-600 people in the place that you can't
see and you've no idea what sort of people they are. and then you start
thinking about them cus there's always the first ten rows going to do
whatever they do anyway.

INT: Right, because that's the nature of the people that stand right up front
stage.
AE: So. we're back to making records the way we want to and praying that
someone out there likes them.

INT: On your own terms...
AE: Yeah...

INT: Cus the other night at Danceteria, someone yelled out 1969, and you said
"we don't do that anymore".
AE: Right, we turn our covers over much quicker these days.

INT: Which I took as a positive. Some people don't take that as a positive.
"Aww, they're not gonna do that". You said, "I'm gonna do things on my
own terms".
AE: It's a shame we don't play Jolene anymore. Cus I'd really like to come
over here and play Jolene. I saw Dolly Parton on the television this
afternoon doing her Elvis impression, that was wonderful.

INT: Dammit, somebody's gotta do it.
AE: Yeah, if I was butcher, I'd do my Elvis impression too, but as it is I'd,
well I even stopped doing my Dolly Parton impression.

INT: The new ep, the a-side is Temple of Love.
AE: Yeah, a real gonzoid song. It's very fast. We though we'd better put on
the a-side, just cus the last record we put out was the Reptile House
which was very slow.

INT: Very very slow...
AE: So just to prove a point we put a very fast record this time.

INT: Three songs on it? Four songs?
AE: Yeah, the seven-inch with a shorter version of that will be out in a few
days. The twelve-inch will take a little longer. We have to tie-in the
release of it here with the release of it in England. Otherwise we get an
import/export problem. So it'll be a little while before you can actually
buy the eight minute version of that here and, of course, has Gimme
Shelter on the other side as well as the usual b-side.

INT: In England that's on Merciful Release Records...
AE: Here it's on Merciful Release too, but we have a distribution arrangement
with Braineater, who are with Dutch East India out of Long Island.

INT: Now that's your label, Merciful Release.
AE: Yeah.

INT: You have the March Violets on that label and...
AE: I threw'em off actually.

INT: You threw them off?
AE: Yeah. I stopped getting on with them. I made a coupla records with them
and we stopped getting on.

INT: Really?
AE: Yeah. I actually produced those records 'n stuff, but you wouldn't know
it to look at them. Like I did the artwork, and I managed the band, and I
did their press and ...

INT: The whole thing...
AE: Yeah. And they sort of turned around and bit my hand. So I threw'em off.

INT: So you threw them off the label. (laughs)
AE: Yeah. I just got rid of them. What the hell.

INT: Fair enough. Do you have any plans to have any more bands on the label?
AE: Yep. There's a single out this week by a new Leeds band called Salvation.
Which is a very good first record. I'm intending to have another record
out by them before Christmas. My problem at the moment is I don't have
time to do anything more than executive produce other bands. So right now
I'm looking for people to license product from. Where I don't actually
have to work so much on getting the actual product together, but I can
just product manage the thing.

INT: Just put it out.
AE: Yeah.

INT: Which would be much easier, but...
AE: I was going to put the Chesterfield Kings out in England, but they got
some great press the week before I was going to do it and I thought,
"well I can't do this now because people will accuse me of jumping
bandwagons 'n stuff." But stuff like that and the True West record that I
brought back from America last time I went home...

INT: Yeah, I was about to ask you. Are you going to have everything in the
same style or be diverse and that answered the question.
AE: Whatever the hell we like.

INT: Whatever you like. Hey, listen, it's your label, do what you want.
AE: It just so happens that all of the people we know in West Yorkshire are
using are using drum machines and the occasional fast guitar. I guess
we're partly responsible for that.

INT: Is there any objective to the label? Or just to put out good stuff?
AE: No, there aren't any particular objectives for the label. I don't think
I've really got the right to impose my personal view on what other
people do to that extent. Although, obviously, if some fascist wants to
put out a record on my label, I'm going to tell them no.

INT: (laughs)
AE: Unless he's a very funny fascist, of course.

INT: Now, coming over to America, bands'll say, the one band I can think of
that has a really bad attitude towards Americans is New Order. They came
over and they just, were like, "get away from me", "just give me the
money, let me play and go home". Saw you guys the other night and didn't
think you had that attitude. Talking to you now, you don't seem you have
an attitude at all. Do you think attitudes on band's parts are bad? I
mean they come over and just...
AE: No, I mean I, as a race I think the Americans are a really gross
people. You know, the grossest in the world. But I got nothing against
individuals. I was surprised myself at the attitude I have towards
American crowds when you actually play to them. Because, I'm generally
fairly abusive to any crowd. But I like this place a lot. I'm having a
good time, and it's very difficult for me to get up there and pretend
otherwise.

INT: Right, it's just like, a lot of bands don't realize this, I mean,
Americans hate some of the things that come off abroad about Americans.
You come here and you have to take people as individuals. A lot people
forget that and it something that slips people's minds.
AE: Yeah, we suffer a lot of from American tourists, I guess, same as every
other place, and so we come over here and we think the place is full of
tourists. Which, of course, it isn't. I dare say that a lot British
tourists are pretty unbearable.

INT: The cameras and the Hawaiian shirts and things.
AE: Yeah.

INT: Now, the band has done a lot of 60's covers, other covers, you mentioned
Jolene before...
AE: Right now, we're doing Emma by Hot Chocolate and Gimme Shelter. Before
that we did Jolene, we've done 1969 by the Stooges, all sorts...

INT: And it's strange that 1969 really fit the style of Sisters of Mercy very
well. I've listened to it several times and the drum machine just fit
right in, everything, the arrangement fit in.
AE: We weren't originally going to release that, actually, because we had a
thing about not releasing covers. But it was the American market that
actually asked for it to be on the record.

INT: And it wasn't like, just as a cover, let's just put it on.
AE: No, we just did it in the studio cus we'd been playing it and we thought
"well, we're here, let's record it". We had a thing about not releasing
covers. Even now, we refused to put a cover on the a-side of a record.

BREAK

INT: So we're sitting with Andy, from Sisters of Mercy. As far as song-
writing, we haven't even touched upon song-writing. You've said there's
a lot of black humor in the songs.
AE: Yeah, we had to make the jokes a lot more private, actually, for the
songs to work these days. Most of the irony generally comes out on stage
these days and not on the records. Cus with the records, you bypass a lot
of the stupidities of rock 'n' roll. I mean the way in which it's
delivered is generally fairly stupid, but that doesn't come across on
records cus people take them into their bedrooms and the whole rock 'n'
roll schtick doesn't really interfere with the communication.

INT: Was there any record you thought was really, maybe not funny, but had a
twist to it, an irony to it, that just went over people's heads? Who
totally just ignored it.
AE: One of ours?

INT: Hmmm?
AE: A record of ours?

INT: A record of yours, yeah.
AE: Yeah. All of them. All them have got, I thought the Reptile House was our
finest hour yet because it was the most serious record we ever made,, but
it was also the most perverse. Everything about that record is perverse.
It's really slow, it's really long, and I just love the way all the lead
lines are hidden in the mix, involved in all the effects, completely
submerged. You really have fight with that record. And the last track
starts like it's gonna be a sort of pop number and the voice just
slithers back into the mix and the tune distorts itself and then that's
finished you just get a reprise of the beginning which brings you right
back full circle. It's a very perverse record. It's part of the concept
of the thing, that there's no escape from the Reptile House. But a lot of
this does go over people's heads, they just think, "ah yeah, a long, slow
record".

INT: "Now I'll listen to Culture Club". (laughs)
AE: (half laughs) Yeah, right.

INT: Do you consider yourself now, the press, as we mentioned before, the
press likes to lump people in big piles for their convenience. I've seen
you mention in articles, about Death Cult, and Blood + Roses. I mean, do
you see yourself as part of that? Do you see yourself as part of
anything?
AE: No. Well, yeah, we see ourselves as part of the rock 'n' roll tradition.
Which is where we differ from all those people, they make a big deal
about being some brand new thing. No, we're just a sort of modern twisted
heavy metal band I guess.

INT: With a different slant.
AE: Yeah. I mean, we're very aware of the tradition and we're keen to own up
to it. Hence, records like 1969 and Gimme Shelter and we're also keen to
point out the sort of parallel reference points. There's nothing wrong
with us doing the Jolene and Hot Chocolate songs.

INT: Cus music is music, it's as simple as that.
AE: Yeah. America's got a much better attitude toward songs. In England, a
lot of what a band does is hurt by it's status in the fashion stakes and
we have weird programmer's on the radio in England. Sixties nostalgists,
and motown fetishists and...

INT: We have that around here to, so, it's just not as profound....
AE: In England, if you do like a cover of a Supremes song in a fairly, sort
of electro-poppy way, you're guaranteed a top ten hit. And a lot of
people, like, do that.

INT: Is it because, I guess the country is smaller, that's why you can get
away with something that fast. It's harder here...
AE: It's a generation of DJ's that grew up through the pirate stations and
are now, like, head of light entertainment in the various corporations.
And it's also that the record companies are looking for quick returns,
but they've worked themselves into a vicious circle of no imagination
where the quick return is bringing on a whole culture where there aren't
any bands that are really being supported by record companies who can
inspire any loyalty in the public at all. When I grew up there were bands
who gave you something to live by, like reinforced your social code, or
whatever. Now that there isn't that at all, there are bands that will
reinforce an hour of your Saturday night and that's about the extent of
it. Or there are these sort of new spiritualist, ludicrous, positive punk
bands who I've got no time for whatsoever. Mostly because none of them
can write a good tune.

fin............