HOW IS YOUR HEALTH AT THE MOMENT? (George Silva)
It's fantastic, and I've stopped smoking too, it's been two weeks so I think
I've stopped now. Although I think I'm getting more nicotine from these
things (nicotine sticks) than I ever did from cigarettes! Apart
from that I'm doing really, really good! I've been going to the gym again
and everything...
WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY? (Thomas Gosses)
I didn't do anything, and I wasn't at all bothered about it being my birthday!
ARE THERE ANY CURRENT PLANS FOR ERASURE?
So far... well Vince knows that all this stuff (Andy's second solo album) has been put back. It was going to be finished at the beginning of this year, but our schedule is that we are supposed to be meeting up in October or November to do some writing - which I'm sure we still will - but I wouldn't imagine that we would start recording until next year so I don't think anything would come out until towards the end of next year.
ANY PLANS TO TAKE ERASURE BACK ON THE ROAD SOMETIME SOON?
No, I don't think so...
YOU'VE MENTIONED IN SOME RECENT INTERVIEWS THAT YOU MIGHT BE WORKING
WITH A HUGE CHOIR IN DALLAS AT THE START OF NEXT YEAR, IS THAT A SHOW THAT
MIGHT STILL HAPPEN? (Walter in Dallas)
Well that's coming up quite fast and I did pass it all onto our manager and the guy who does our touring in America to see if we're going to be available, although at first I didn't realise that they want Vince to be there to do music as well. I thought that they wanted to reinterpret our songs with me doing the vocals, and that's not what it was. It seems they want Erasure to go and play a show with a choir which would still be a fantastic thing to do, but maybe not in 2010.
THERE WERE MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT TOURING SENT IN THAN ABOUT ANYTHING
ELSE... LOTS OF PEOPLE ASKING IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO TOUR IN THEIR COUNTRY
OR CITY, FROM PRETTY MUCH EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD!
Well the thing is it all depends on how much the promoters are willing to pay us for shows, because we just can't afford to take the whole thing out otherwise. That's the big thing to bear in mind because with Erasure it's a big group of people!
HOW ABOUT PLAYING A FEW FESTIVALS? (Jim Hawker)
We don't get invited! We never get invited... I'm not saying they're all the same but they seem to be part of the same group somehow, and we get missed off! I had an astrology reading done recently and it said that a lid had been on me for ten years and only now is it starting to come off, and I really do believe that. It said that I've been banging my head against a wall with my work for the past ten years, and now hopefully I'll see the rewards for that ten years of work, which I really do believe. I don't think we've had the breaks... I don't like comparing us with ABBA but the same thing happened to them for ages and ages and ages, and it's nothing to do with the people or their opinions or even the industry, it's just how it is and you have to just deal with it!
DO YOU THINK THAT VINCE HAS CHANGED SINCE BECOMING A FATHER, AND
IF SO WHETHER THOSE CHANGES HAVE AFFECTED ERASURE AT ALL? (Sharon Harriman)
Well Vince has always been pretty laid-back but I think he has really chilled
out a lot, and like he says he just thinks it's really amazing when Oscar
goes and... looks at a stone or something and thinks that it's really amazing!
I think it has kind of opened Vince's eyes to how a child sees things, and
the same for me as well. I wasn't very much in contact with children in
my own family, with my sisters and their children, except when I was living
in Hastings and met loads of mums and their children and that was fun...
you can be really honest with them and stuff. It just takes you outside
of yourself and I think that's the whole thing about it, this is a very
ego-centric business to be in and it just gets you outside that whole thing,
outside yourself, and that's really nice.
CAN YOU UPDATE US ON THE PROGRESS OF THE NURSERY RHYMES ALBUM?
(Armando Juárez Suárez)
Well I think that's still carrying on, there's still just the four or five
songs so far but it's kind of on hold at the moment...
YOU RECORDED A SONG CALLED 'LET IT FLOW' AS A B-SIDE TO 'AM I RIGHT?'
AND THERE'S A SECTION IN THE SONG THAT SOUNDS LIKE A BACKWARDS MESSAGE,
IS THAT TRUE AND IF SO WHAT WAS THE MESSAGE? (Jamie Lord)
I don't know that it's a backwards message but what we do sometimes is we'll get the whole track and play it backwards, and then I'll take one part of that and sing it, not the words but I'll try and match the sounds, and then we'll turn it back round again so it's forwards but sounds like it's going backwards! That's what it is... I don't know that it's actually words but it was a whole track that was played backwards and I sang parts of it like that and then we'd turn it back round again. I don't really know why we did that!
DO YOU PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?
Not really no... I did buy myself on of those chord keyboards because they're really easy because you just press the chord and it comes out... I haven't had a go yet!
WHAT'S YOUR AVERAGE DAY LIKE? (John Drake)
Well my average day doesn't really start until about eleven o'clock to be honest, because I'm up really late. At the moment I'm either coming down here (to the studio) or if I'm at home I really don't do anything! I just do emails and stuff, sit around... maybe not even get dressed! Otherwise I'll go and see friends or do things like go to the dentist, those sorts of things... accountants meetings, things like that. I have no structure at all!
WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT MUSICAL FAVOURITES?
Well I haven't been listening to a lot recently because I've been concentrating on this (the new solo album)... the last thing I bought was Penetration, the old punk band, and I really like X-Ray Spex. What else? I can't think of anything!
HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEW DEPECHE MODE ALBUM? (John Walker)
I have heard bits yeah, I think I prefer the more dancey ones, the more electronic ones. I quite enjoyed where they were going with it but I'm not a huge fan of theirs - although I love some of their stuff - but I did think it was quite interesting. I shouldn't say this really but I think for all the experiences they have been through it should have been... more, somehow!