Erasure • Features • Interviews
Andy Bell & Vince Clarke "Light At The End Of The World" (2007)
Where did you record the album and how long did it take?
Vince: The album was written and partly recorded in Maine. Myself and Andy were working in Portland, writing songs for a few weeks and then Gareth Jones, the producer, came over with Andy and we set up a small studio in a house in a town called Falmouth, which is just outside Portland.
Is there any particular reason that you wanted to record there?
Vince: Well, the main reason was because I've got the baby.
Andy: It was a family album.
Vince: And I couldn't really afford to travel to the UK for that length of time.
How long did the recording take from beginning to end?
Andy: We kind of wrote songs in three instalments. So we did all the writing in Portland, Maine and I stayed there. Vince came to see me. That was only two lots, was it? Or three lots?
Vince: That was like three weeks of writing, I think.
Andy: Three weeks. We kind of did rough sketches of the songs over the internet and then hooked up for a month, yeah, in the house, so it worked out quite well and then mixing took about six weeks, I suppose, so it took about a quarter of a year?
How did making this album compare with earlier albums? Has the recording process changed over time?
Vince: Well, I think the thing that's changed for us is just because we're living in different countries, you know, it's using the internet to communicate ideas. That's the biggest change, I guess.
This particular album was all recorded onto the computer and it was mixed from the computer as well, so you know, we didn't have to go into a big, extensive studio like this to do the work.
At what stage do the lyrics come in the writing process?
Andy: The lyrics are always right up to the very end. I don't know. I mean, Vince has got like a lyric library, I suppose, or a lexicon for when I get stuck, so I can just go through the list, but it's kind of hard. I find it really quite hard, doing lyrics because it's hard to be original, you know. You tend to repeat things, I think.
Do you think songwriting becomes easier as you get older?
Vince: I think it gets more comfortable. It's totally comfortable now, you know. I think in the beginning, when we first started writing songs together, because we didn't know each other that well, it's sometimes kind of embarrassing to express your ideas or feelings that you have for a particular song. Now we're totally at ease with each other, so that makes the process a lot easier.
Andy: One of the ideas, as well, for this record was doing as much writing as we could and trying to make that a discipline and Gareth was saying last night when we compiled the CD, that when you listen to "Wild!", even though it sounds good, it's like there's filler tracks on there and I think on this album it doesn't sound like there's filler tracks, because we sort of did it on purpose, you know, for them to be really strong songs.
How do you think 'Light At The End Of The World' differs from your earlier work?
Andy: I think it's kind of more confident with the writing and it's quite optimistic, I think, from a lot of the stuff that we've done recently. We've decided, by doing this album, that when we go to the next one that we'll try and get the lyrics right from the beginning or try and kind of write the song straight off from the beginning, because you can sort of get lost a bit, you know, and also because we kind of like use different parts of different songs to make up a whole song, but now, when you listen to the CD, I can't remember what the original demos were like, so the songs grow out of themselves anyway.
The album was produced by Gareth Jones, who you've worked with previously. What do you think Gareth brings to the recording?
Vince: Well, I've never really worked with Gareth before. Andy has - he's done lots of singing with him - but apart from the "Other People's Songs" album, which was a different kettle of fish completely, I just really wanted to work with him, because he's so enthusiastic about everything and he's great at when you get stuck for an idea of coming from a different direction and saying, "Well, why not try this," and it'll be something that you'd never thought of before, even if it doesn't work, at least you go that way to discover that and I think he just brought a lot more excitement into the whole project and he keeps us in check, as well.
After the acoustic album, "Union Street", was there a conscious decision to get back to electronic instruments again on the new album?
Vince: Oh yeah, definitely. It was really good fun doing the acoustic album and it was a completely different experience working with other people, but there's all this new software coming out all the time and it's like an unending toy box and you know I had to get back to that box and see what was going on.
Is there any particular reason why you chose the album title?
Andy: We couldn't think of anything and we had a few names and "Light At The End Of The World" was a working title for one of the songs.
The first single is called "I Could Fall In Love With You". Can you tell us anything about this song?
Andy: I don't know if that was in the first lot of writing - Portland writing - or the second lot.
Vince: I think it was the second.
Andy: Because we kind of got warmed up, as well, with the writing, because I think quite a lot of the first session, we didn't end up using it, did we?
Vince: No, we were just getting the feel for it.
Andy: Just like a few little bits, you know and it wasn't... "I Could Fall In Love With You" was a complete song. It wasn't with bits taken from elsewhere and I think it's quite sort of classical Vince, but also quite modern.
The album opens with "Sunday Girl". Can you tell us anything about this song?
Andy: When we started, Vince said, "Oh, this is going to be our sell out album," that we really try to sell out, and I said, "Well, we can't," because how you can do that anyway. You don't know how you can do that, you know and quite a few of the songs, I find it quite hard, even though we've written them ourselves, to put a finger on the song and to kind of decide what it is and I think "Sunday Girl" is kind of a mixture between disco and like a Neil Sedaka song, you know.
Vince: I think it sounds like Ray Davies.
Andy: Also, I mean, with Blondie being my favourite band, I like making references to them, all the time. I don't think I'll get fed up with doing that. Not like Abba, you know.
When you begin writing a song are you aware of the direction it will take and how it will sound when it is finished?
Andy: It just becomes like a kind of word puzzle, you know and it's great working on a computer, because you can just slice things up and paste them around and I think just when everything just falls into place, you just know that's the right...
Vince: I think in the beginning, I mean, when we do our really, really dodgy demos on a microcassette, there's a real sense of ownership there, just because you've created something from nothing and then it goes away from you a little bit, I think and then when it gets mixed and you have the chance to take it all in, then it sort of comes back to you.
How involved do you get with the mixing of the album? Are you quite happy to pass that over?
Andy: I think it just depends how much work you've been doing on the album, because with "Nightbird", I was there almost every day for the mixing and you kind of feel like, well, you don't really know how much influence you have on the mix anyway by being there, because people do what they want anyway and you can only have an idea, like reversing the bassline or something like that, so and in some ways, I feel quite happy to kind of hand it over to somebody, because they can get something that you wouldn't have thought of.
Vince: Most of the time, we do quite a lot of recording during the mixing, so we both have got to be there for that, but in this instance, nearly all the work was done, so we knew what we were giving Gareth. He wasn't going to come back with loads of surprises.
One of the more uptempo tracks on the album is "Sucker For Love". Any stories there?
Andy: Well, quite a few of the songs start off in a lower key than when they're finished and "Sucker for Love" was one of those. It was quite low and quite Gospel-y, but as we're working on a song, we change the keys, change the tempos, just to make it as exciting as possible. I think that's kind of in the same vein as "Sunday Girl", really. It's like a really uptempo dance song, which you're not quite sure where it fits in, but I think it's one of the strongest songs.
One of the bonus tracks on the limited edition of the album is "I Don't Know Why". What about this one?
Andy: I think it's a really good dance track and I love it. It's because, well quite a few of the songs, you're influenced by what you've already done, so I think by doing "Other People's Songs", there's a bit of a Fifties vibe going on there somewhere and I just like how the chorus is really one of those rip roaring, hymnal choruses, but we just felt like it wasn't as polished as some of the other ones. That's why we left it off.
What are the Erasure touring plans for this album?
Vince: Nothing's been confirmed, but we'll tell you anyway, then you can find out if we're allowed to tell you. What's happening is... we'll be doing a big tour of America, and it's a kind of a festival tour, so Cyndi Lauper's going to be headlining, then it's us, or we're on before her, and then Blondie and then two or three other groups that are actually under 30, for the kids.
Any plans for Europe and the UK?
Vince: Well, we have a break in summer and then the plan is to come back and do England and maybe some dates in Europe in the autumn.
What about the stage set for the tour? Is there a theme at all?
Vince: Maybe for when we tour on our own in the UK, but for the festival thing, it's really just an opportunity for us to play to a different audience - people that wouldn't normally come to an Erasure concert - so it's going to be in a festival style. There won't be an extravagant set or anything like that. It'll just be us and the other bands performing.
Will it just be the two of you on stage? Will you be working with any other musicians?
Vince: Well, It'll be using the computer and a little bit of guitar. We'll have...I think we'll have maybe three...
Andy: Three singers.
Vince: Three back up singers and then possibly, if we can get it together, we may have like a percussionist as well on the American dates, so there'll be plenty going on, visually.
With such a large catalogue of songs to choose from, how do you go about selecting which songs you perform live?
Vince: Well, you know, you have to play your singles, well, you don't have to, but the audience love it and I love it. I love playing all the old songs anyway, and then introduce a couple of new songs. During the course of a tour, we usually drop a few songs or maybe replace them, anyway.
Andy: You always have requests as well, like through the year and people say to you, "Oh, I really love that song," like "'I Love Saturday', why haven't you ever played that on tour?" and stuff, so then we'll have a go, and nobody knows what the song is!
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Vince: What's on your iPod, Andy? That's the question.
Andy: I was quite shocked. I just did internet or iTunes shopping the other day for the first time and I was quite shocked how easy it is to find stuff, because I thought it'd be really hard. I thought it'd be harder than going to a record shop and I thought they'd be quite limited, but I don't think they are and I bought, for £7.99, forty tracks from 12" singles of Man 2 Man - "I Was A Male Stripper In A Go Go Bar" - which is really, really tacky, but that's the kind of thing I like and also I discovered that Boy George had an album out in 2006 that nobody had heard of and I thought "Electric Blue" was the only album that anybody hadn't heard of and he had one out at the same time and it was really good. I was like, "God!" you know, he's doing the same thing, and so it doesn't make you feel so bad, you know!
How do you see yourself in relation to the pop world, as such? Are you just happy just making the records for yourselves, or is there a desire to better the success of the last album?
Vince: I think there's always that. You always want to do better and sell more records, obviously, and you know to play to bigger audiences, so, but at the end of the day, you know, making the record, for me, is the most fun.
Andy: I don't think you ever lose your ambition and it's great when your song's being played on the radio, because otherwise nobody knows that you've got anything out, but also you just realise that the world isn't big enough for everybody, kind of, so you just have to be really pleased that you can still have a job where you're writing songs.
Erasure have an amazingly loyal fan base. Do you ever think this album's going to appeal to them more or are you trying to appeal to a different crowd?
Vince: I don't think you can do that. I don't think you can make records for other people. I think you've just got to make a record for yourself, actually, because if you don't like it, then what's the point?
What would you say was the secret to your longevity?
Andy: I think you just have to keep working. You know, keep working on yourself, keep writing songs. Someone was telling me about some girl from S Club 7 or one of those bands, where she did a reality show for MTV and it was all about her making a single and if it was not Top 10 in the charts, she was going to give it all up and it wasn't, so now she's gone to be a reality TV star and I just think that's really sad. If music is your passion, you should just stick at it no matter what.
What's next for Erasure?
Vince: We've been knocking about an idea to do a record of nursery rhymes. I mean, we've been talking about it for years, you know, so perhaps we might do a little of that...
Andy: Yeah.
Vince: ...before we dive into the next Erasure album. That might be quite fun.