Heartland

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.

iesus wrote: Wayne seems to believe that if Andrew get in the studio and record a new album, he believes in reality that this will blow all the scenic and the myth of the Sisters and Andrew then will have no funds for doing what he likes to do? Did i get it right?

mh wrote:I more than half suspect that Wayne is as guilty of perpetuating the association as anyone else; it's good press and Wayne's a sucker for that.

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.

jparton wrote:I think I am one of the few on here that has no problem equally enjoying the m*****n and the Sisters (pre Floodland, slight caveat)

I don't belong to any "camp" but find it amusing that there can be such bitterness to someone that has gone on to record for nearly 30 years vs. someone that has made three albums and tours as a virtual tribute act to what went before.

if the root of this is some kind of view that Wayne caused the split in '85 then you don't know your Sisters history, and if for those of you that think Wayne's song writing made them more commercial (the FALAA Side A vs. Side B debate) then I give you Von's Steinman work.

Luckily I can listen to both with out self loathing

Hom_Corleone wrote:I just don't like their music, never have.

Being645 wrote:

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.

Yes, Waynie-bee ... we know, we see what you're doing there ... *sigh ...

stufarq wrote:

Being645 wrote:

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.

Yes, Waynie-bee ... we know, we see what you're doing there ... *sigh ...

In fairness there are loads of threads on this forum that have come to exactly the same conclusion ie Von's scared to reease anything new.

Nikolas Vitus Lagartija wrote: FWIW I think WH's vocals are better and more natural on the new stuff than the rather strained theatrical stuff on the first few Mish albums.

stufarq wrote: In fairness there are loads of threads on this forum that have come to exactly the same conclusion ie Von's scared to reease anything new.

markfiend wrote:

Hom_Corleone wrote:I just don't like their music, never have.

This... I just don't understand. It seems to me that the early Mis-sion stuff follows on very much in the tradition of FALAA-era Sisters a lot more than Floodland does.