http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interview ... e_m*****n/
Songfacts: You worked with David Allen, someone you've worked with a lot over the years. What is it about David that fits so well with the music you make?
Wayne: Well, certainly I don't consider that we worked a lot together over the years. The first time we worked together was in 1983 when I was in a band called Dead Or Alive and we recorded our first single. It was with CBS at the time, and we used a studio called Genetic and Dave was the engineer there - a young kid engineer. That was the first time I met Dave. I always have gotten on great with him.
Then the second time was a couple years later when I was in The Sisters and we were looking for producers for the first album. Dave was suggested to us and I think he'd just started working with The Cure at that point, who were in a vaguely similar genre. I said, "Yeah, I know Dave, he's great," so we did that album together. He and I got on great. He had a tough job making that record because of tension within the band, shall we say. There's some great stuff on that record.
Songfacts: You mentioned Sisters Of Mercy. I think it's interesting that Sisters Of Mercy only recorded a few studio albums, and The m*****n has recorded for at least 25 years. And yet, you're still, in a lot of people's minds, associated with that band.
Wayne: It's all perpetuated by people like you asking the question, isn't it? You know, it's part of our past. But bloody hell, it's 27 years of The m*****n! How many jobs that you were doing 27 years ago do you still talk about? Very few. The thing about The Sisters was it was a great time. We made a good album. I'm proud of that time. It's already been well documented, so we don't really need to talk about that. Craig [Adams] and I came from that band, but we've been doing The m*****n now off and on for 27 years. It is unfortunate that we still end up having to come up against this one. As you said, The Sisters have released very few records, and I think on Andrew's [Eldritch] part, he's managed that very well. He still maintains his self-ness and his audience, you know. I think if Andrew was to make a record it would actually blow his whole thing, so I think he knows that. I'm a musician. I write a song. I want to record it. I want to get it out and move on to the next thing.
Songfacts: Well, can I ask you just one question about Sisters Of Mercy? And then we'll move on. As far as your recorded work with them, songs that you helped create, what are you most proud of?
Wayne: That would have to be "Marian." Andrew and I worked at different times of the day in the studio. I would work during the day, which is why poor old Dave was absolutely exhausted by the end of it: because he was trying to work with both of us. "Marian" was something I came up with in the studio and there I wrote the whole song, music and the backing track. I wrote "Black Planet" the same day, actually. Then Andrew came in in the evening:"Oh, I don't like that." I was, like, whatever. I went off. I came back in the morning and there were finished vocals on both of them. That was how it was working on the album.
I had an occasion to listen to "Marian" about a year or so ago because I was doing a DJ set. I thought, 'Oh, I'll play Sisters.' So I got "Marian" out and listened to it. There's a weird alchemy at work on that track with the guitars. I can't remember what I played or what guitars I played, but the combination, the mixture of the guitars on that song has some weird alchemy at work. It sounds really spacious, but very full.
, but I've always wished someone would talk more about how Wayne got on with Gary Marx, especially musically. Did Gary play or have any input on the songs that Wayne wrote and vice versa?
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