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Q&A: Erasure's Vince Clarke
Founder of Yaz and Depeche Mode talks about putting down the synthesizers for Erasure's acoustic album and upcoming US tour.
Erasure is coming to a city near you in May.
Erasure
But instead of a roiling batch of their customary '80s synth-pop at your favorite dance club, the duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell will be playing acoustic versions of their songs, sans synth, in staid theaters.
That's right--the purveyors of such '80s synth hits as "A Little Respect" and "Chains of Love" have stripped down their sound for an acoustic album called Union Street, and are coming to the US in May for a tour featuring acoustic guitar, banjo, bongos, penny whistle, and even a smidgen of ukulele.
Vince Clarke, founder of both Yaz and Depeche Mode and one half of Erasure along with singer Andy Bell, sat down with MP3.com to discuss the idea behind going acoustic and taking the project on the road.
MP3.com: Let's start with Union Street. Was doing an acoustic project something that had been brewing for a while or was it kind of a spontaneous thing that you and Andy decided?
Vince Clarke: We'd been discussing it for quite a while. We felt that we'd like to try and showcase the songs that perhaps weren't chosen as singles, as purely songs rather than songs with lots of gadgetry and electronics behind them, without the synthesizers. So we chose a collection of songs that we felt would work simply with just an acoustic guitar. And that was the process of choosing the actual tracks.
MP3: So you consciously stayed away from some of the more uptempo stuff like "A Little Respect"?
VC: Yeah, it was. The songs that we've chosen are songs that we felt perhaps at the time might have been singles but weren't. So these are our favorite songs from the albums that we've recorded.
MP3: Songs that didn't get enough shine as they should have back in the day.
VC: Yeah, exactly.
MP3: Do you think a lot of music from that era, the electronic pop and synth pop and that kind of thing, gets ignored in terms of the songwriting that goes into those songs?
VC: I think so, yeah. Often people just see the synthesizers, and they just dismiss--people are very ready to dismiss the whole of the '80s just because people were using synthesizers and not guitars. There's some great songwriting back then, you know.
MP3: What's your personal favorite song among those that you've chosen for Union Street?
VC: My favorite track from the album is "Stay With Me." Without sounding immodest--it's just a really great, emotional song, and it's uplifting and it's joyous and I think that the acoustic instrumentation of it really shows the melody off to its best.
MP3: How did you connect with [producer and guitarist] Steve Walsh? It seems like he was an integral part of this project, and you recorded the album at his studio in New York.
VC: We were doing a couple of acoustic sessions for radio stations in New York at the time, and he was recommended to us by the record company. So we met and we just hit it off straight away basically. He's a real competent guitar player, plus he knew lots of different players that were based in New York so he organized all the other musicians. And he and I sat down and discussed certain tracks and we said, 'Okay, perhaps this track could do with a little bit of steel guitar, we could maybe use some bold acoustic bass on this track.' It was a real collaboration. And yeah, it was recorded in the basement of his house.
MP3: Now that you're taking this project out on the road, you've done a number of acoustic shows in Europe so far, what's the specific makeup of the band? Is Walsh touring with you on guitar?
VC: Yeah, we have Walsh on guitar. We also have a percussion player, acoustic bass, we have steel pedal guitar and banjo. Andy is singing obviously, I'm playing guitar, and Steve's wife Jill is also singing. There's a bit of penny whistle, even a bit of ukulele in there as well.
MP3: So will the live show be primarily tracks off Union Street?
VC: Most of the songs, yeah. But to keep the evening varied, we'll also be performing some of the old hits like "Respect" and "Chains." We'll just be giving those more of a hillbilly lilt.
MP3: Yeah, I read that Andy had been interested in doing a country and western project, and that that may have played into the origins of this project.
VC: That's right, yeah.
MP3: In the live acoustic shows you've played so far, were you initially nervous at all in terms of introducing your longtime fans to reworkings of songs that they know one way?
VC: I guess we were a little bit nervous about how people would react, and I think people were a little bit surprised when they came to see us. But at the same time, all the venues we were playing were quite small and intimate. And this is really like a concert for the fans--people that have been loyal to us for years and years and years. As the show progresses, people really warm to the idea. At the same time, this is totally a one-off. So I'd like to think that people will remember this as something very special.
MP3: So when you first come out on stage, for those that maybe didn't read about the show in advance or anything like that, they might be a bit surprised, but they quickly warm to the idea.
VC: By song three they're all dancing.
MP3: Does this acoustic project reflect a change in what you listen to these days? Are you more interested in singer-songwriters than you were before, or is this project and your musical tastes unrelated?
VC: I've always been interested in the singer-songwriters. I would have never been interested in music at all had I not heard the music of Paul Simon when I was a teenager. That's the thing that really got me going. I saw the film The Graduate for the first time when I was about 15, and I heard the songs on that record and I thought, 'Oh, I can do that.' And I went straight out and bought the songbook, read all the songs, and that's what really got me interested in music in the first place. So I suppose synthesizers came later.
MP3: What's bopping around in your head these days? Who are you listening to?
VC: Nothing particularly new. At the moment I've got an obsession with Cat Stevens for some reason.
MP3: Nothing wrong with a little Cat Stevens. Thanks for the time, Vince.
VC: OK, thank you very much.
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