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ErasureArticle from Electronics & Music Maker, August 1986 |
Electropop veteran Vince Clarke and latest partner, Andy Bell, discuss composing, sampling and singing following their debut album release. Tim Goodyer takes notes.
After paving the way for electropop with Depeche Mode and Yazoo, Vince Clarke has joined forces with singer Andy Bell to form Erasure. The beat, the melody and the instrumentation are as strong as ever, but so far, commercial success has eluded the duo.
THE NAME VINCE CLARKE FEATURED IN THE ORIGINAL Depeche Mode lineup of 1980, alongside those of Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Dave Gahan. It was Clarke's songwriting talent and willingness to play pop on unlikely new instruments (cheap synthesisers) that gave the Basildon band their initial success with singles like 'New Life' and 'Just Can't Get Enough'.
But at the tail-end of '81, he bravely abandoned the safety of the Depeche camp to begin afresh. He resorted to the classifieds column of Melody Maker in an attempt to establish a working partnership with a singer, and received a response from one Alison Moyet. It was an unlikely combination — he a composer of up-beat synth pop from the sticks, she an experienced London blues singer — but the result of the unholy marriage was the enormously successful Yazoo. Huge, worldwide hits like 'Don't Go' and the immortal 'Only You' not only established Clarke's prowess as a popular songwriter and put Moyet on the map as a singer, but also established the viability of an electronically-based duo in modern pop. For Clarke had remained loyal to the instruments he knew — cheap monosynths, drum machines and Microcomposers — and continued to rely on the production skills of Mute label boss Daniel Miller and engineer Eric Radcliffe. With their help, Yazoo proved themselves an immensely capable and versatile act, with two albums (Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both) that demonstrated not just an uncanny ability to create some of the early eighties' best-crafted electropop tracks, but also calmer, moodier songs like 'Winter Kills'.
But all good things, as they say, come to an end. And so it was that Yazoo ceased trading in 1983, with Moyet setting out on what was to be a staggeringly successful solo career, and Clarke beginning a series of uneasy associations with other singers under the umbrella title The Assembly.
The most successful of those collaborations was with ex-Undertone Feargal Sharkey, who sang on the Autumn '83 hit 'Never, Never'. But after that, Clarke sank into a period of inactivity, eventually forming a new duo, Erasure, with unknown singer Andy Bell. Together they've released three excellent (but unrecognised) singles and an album, Wonderland, that's offering the public an opportunity to make up lost ground.
Talking with Erasure shortly after the album's release, it transpires that his association with Bell is another example of Clarke's 'classified ad' strategy.
'Andrew and I met about a year ago after I put an advert in Melody Maker for a versatile singer. We did about 40 auditions altogether, and he was almost the last person to come along.'
The placing of that advert marked the final admission of failure for the Assembly project, as Clarke explains.
'When we did The Assembly it was meant to be an album full of different singers. We started doing the album after the first single but there were lots of problems in finding singers. People imagine that if you're a musician it's like one big family, but really you don't know anybody else. I contacted a few people and they either didn't want to do it or they weren't available, and when they were there were contractual problems with other record companies. I also had problems with producers because the producer I wanted to use, Daniel Miller, just wasn't available at the time.
'The result was that we spent a year in the studio hanging around writing songs, preparing for the Assembly album which never materialised. In the end I was just sick of the studio. We started to do the next single but we couldn't get the right singer, so myself and Eric took our synths and went home. It was a really bad time; it was a year wasted and it made me really lethargic because we hadn't actually got anything finished.'
Then, according to Clarke: 'It was time we started a proper band. There's Andy and I in the studio. We find it more workable that way, although we get session people in sometimes to play guitar or whatever. It works very well — we don't have any personality problems.'
Bell describes himself as 'the eternal optimist' to Clarke's 'eternal pessimist'. As if in confirmation of this, Clarke continually refers to Wonderland in the past tense as if its failure were a historical fact.
'I liked the album', he says. 'I think it's the best thing I've ever done, but one of the problems when we first started recording was that Andy and I didn't know each other very well — I just wanted to record his voice. It's taken this long for us to get to know each other and know what each other's views are. Consequently, I don't think the album had anything to say lyrically. I'd like to incorporate those views into the next album.'
That next album could be heard in the making throughout the course of our conversation in Mute's own London recording studios, and sounds like it's set to continue where Wonderland left off.
"I spent a year and a half messing about with the Fairlight and I got really sick of it... It proved cumbersome live — we had to use two so that one could load up while the other was playing."
SO FAR THE SYSTEM, WHILE NOT PERFECT, has performed to Clarke's satisfaction both in the studio and on the road.
'The whole system's pretty mobile. We took it to America and hired all the synths out there. It was easier to hire because it's all available there and it's cheaper only to have to ship the BBC. With the Oberheim we stored all the patches on cassette and took them over like that. The UMI stores DX sounds on disk so we put all the TX sounds on that, and there's no problem with the memory on the drum machines because we use those over MIDI.
'There've been a few breakdowns — we've crashed the disk a few times — but even when that happens, you just put a spare disk in and load up another song. Any mistakes like that people seem to love — they go down really well, especially when things work again afterwards. It was the same with the Fairlight and the MC4, but things are so much more reliable now.
'We start a major tour in the autumn and we're hoping to include a drummer in the band, but playing only a snare and hi-hat, not a kit, just to make it more visual. At the moment we've got four of us — Andy and me and two male backing singers — all at the front of the stage, so it's quite strong. But I fancy a stand-up drummer at the other side of the stage from me, so there's the three singers in the middle. I think it makes it more interesting, especially as there's not a lot of people doing guitar solos.'
Banishing a Fairlight from your keyboard line-up is the sort of behaviour that gets you labelled 'arrogant', but Clarke has his reasons and, anyway, there's a Synclavier sitting next door...
'I got sick of hearing samples on records. I think some people do it really well. I really admire the stuff Daniel (Miller) does with Depeche because he never repeats himself. The problem with the Fairlight, and also the DX7, is there are too many presets involved. I look through the trade magazines and there are people advertising DX ROMs, so you don't have to bother programming yourself.
'Even using the TX is a problem, because it's really hard to get away from the inherent sound of the thing. Rather than use too many FM sounds, we're trying to get back to using analogue stuff like the Xpander and the Syrinx — that's a really wild analogue-sounding synth. The Xpander is quite user-friendly as well. There are so many things you can do with it. You've got 30 envelopes and 30 LFOs — it's ridiculous, you can just go wild. I'm the sort of person that likes to stand and twiddle knobs until something sounds good, and the nice thing about the Oberheim is there are so many knobs to twiddle.
'The Synclavier's Daniel's so we've just been messing about with a few things on it. I don't think it's very user-friendly — there are too many multiple function buttons — but the sound quality is excellent. We're getting it MIDI'd up as well now, so we can start doing sequences on it. But hopefully the whole album will be done here with the UMI. That way I won't have to start re-writing programs for live work.'
And as an acknowledged master of the art, how does Clarke see changing technology affecting songwriting as a whole?
'I'm always amazed when I get letters or demo tapes from people and they say: "If only I had a Fairlight this would sound really good". That's a really terrible attitude to take — sort of blinded by science. I can't complain with a Synclavier sitting over there, but I do think it's a shame that people don't realise the potential of cheaper synths and drum machines. Casio are really paving the way with their synths, but there are some really good cheap synths about. It's like punk all over again.
'I really like a good tune with a good chorus. I started off doing folk music and playing guitar and it's all derived from that. I only knew three chords to start with, so that was all I could write. Folk music is very simplistic but very effective all the same, and I think I've captured that.
'The way you write depends on whether you view the verse as the rest between the choruses or as a part of the song; to me it's all got to be pretty good. It's nice when it doesn't matter if you're listening to the verse, the chorus or the bridge section but it always comes alive.
A Clean Slate (Erasure) |
Clarke Techniques (Erasure) |
Downstairs At Erics (Vince Clarke) |
Reset For Success (Vince Clarke) |
Sounding Off (Vince Clarke) |
Waiting For The Perfect Song (Vince Clarke) |
In Clarke's Shoes (Vince Clarke) |
Vince Clarke’s Wall Of Sound (Vince Clarke) |
Home is where the art is (Vince Clarke) |
Interview by Tim Goodyer
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