Electronic pioneer Gary Numan outlines plans for a ‘heavy, aggressive and anthemic’ future
Regarded my many as one of the pioneers of electronic music, Gary Numan has had a career spanning more than three decades.
Nowadays name-checked by artists from Lady Gaga to Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, Numan has been responsible for some of the biggest hits of the genre.
Despite all his successes, it’s not been plain sailing, with times in his career when Numan admits he couldn’t give away tickets for shows.
However, with his latest album Dead Son Rising receiving glowing reviews, Numan is already well under way writing its successor, which is due out next year.
This month, Numan is back out on tour and heads to the region on Wednesday when he headlines Leamington Spa’s Assembly Hall.
“I’m very happy with the record, especially as it started out as a bit of a filler in its original concept,” Numan explains.
“I was going to put it out between Jagged and Splinter.
“I knew Splinter was going to take some time to make and I didn’t want to lose momentum.”
Numan explains that for a long time during his career he would not keep songs and ideas which didn’t make it onto an album – however, about 10 years ago he started to.
“I realised it was pretty stupid and kicked myself at how many songs I might have thrown away,” he says.
“I had about 15 songs I thought would be suitable and got together with my producer friend Ade Fenton.
“We got on with our parts, I was finishing the vocals and then I had a massive confidence crisis, went off it badly and walked away from it.”
It took another 18 months for Numan to revisit the collection of songs when he heard his wife playing what had been recorded.
“I think when you get down on something it colours your judgement,” Numan explains.
“I’ve been in that position before in the mid 1990s, I got in a downward spiral of what I was doing, the more dissatisfied I became the more I hated everything else I was doing.”
Numan got back in touch with Fenton and together the pair continued to work on the record – which now bears little resemblance to the original demos.
“It’s a proper album and it has been a pleasant surprise,” he reveals.
“So much stuff changed, chord structures, melodies – the lyrics have been completely re-written.
“It’s become a proper cohesive album.”
Numan’s favourite tracks on the record are Dead Son Rising and When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come.
Both are based on ideas taken from a book Numan has spent a lot of his career trying to write, the former taking one of the ideas from it.
About half a dozen tracks from the record have made their way into Numan’s live set, alongside the classics he became famous for.
However, Numan reveals he’s still picking songs from his back catalogue which aren’t normally palyed to “stir the set up a bit”.
Among the new tracks being played live, one is from his forthcoming album Splinter which will be finished by April and released later in 2012.
“My intention for it is to be the heaviest most aggressive and anthemic thing I’ve ever done,” reveals Numan.
“It’s along the lines of the Jagged and Pure albums, big, heavy and industrial – just a few stages further and darker. I want it to be relentless.
“For some people I’ll be going in the wrong direction but I don’t want it to be an interesting listen, I want it to be an onslaught, I want people to say ‘Jesus, that was hard work’. I want it to be difficult.”
Numan admits he spent a lot of the late 1980s and early 1990s writing songs he thought would be good for his career.
“It failed dismally and the career fell further,” he explains.
“I’m not good at writing commercial stuff even when I try to, I went through a period of selling my soul to try to keep the career alive and was very bad at it so went back to writing stuff I love.
“You have to do what you love doing or you become soulless.
“You sell out when you try to write songs to salvage a career, not when you find great commercial success.”
While Numan admits he’s “not massively confident” and is out of his comfort zone with collaborations, artists such as Trent Reznor from industrial rock legends Nine Inch Nails were just one band to help with a renaissance of Numan’s sound and popularity.
In 2009, Numan joined Reznor on-stage at London’s O2 Academy, where he performed Cars and Metal in front of thousands.
“My wife found out they were doing Metal on that tour,” he explains.
“We’d met Trent many years before when he was recording The Fragile and my wife got in touch and put me forward to join him onstage.”
Numan jokes he “could have killed her” for doing it and admits he only found out when receiving an email from Reznor about appearing.
“When I got there I found out he wanted to do two songs. I thought it’d just be a duo and we’d do a line or verse each.
“He wanted me to to do all the vocals, not just for Metal but for Cars as well.
“I said ‘It’s a mistake, this is your last show here, they’re not going to want someone else standing there singing someone else’s songs – that’s nearly 10 minutes’
“I thought they were going to bottle me off and go mental.”
However, after a glowing introduction by Reznor, Numan’s arrival on stage was met with cheers.
“There was an amazing reaction and it went from being the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done to arguably one of the most brilliant. I loved it,” he explains.
Numan admits “It’s pretty cool” to be seen by people as a pioneer of electronic music.
“My press in the early years was pretty terrible,” he admits.
“I had a dreadful time and there was no respect coming my way, I was vilified, it was horrible.
“To have gone from that to how I’m seen now is an epic transition.
“For people to say you’re influential and to have people cover your music from so many different genres is great.
“I’m very grateful, I was dead and buried – I couldn’t give away tickets and had about 10 fans left and was finished.
“People like Trent and Manson came along and there’s almost been a renaissance.
“My song writing has improved but at the same time other people have helped me along the way and fans have have stuck by me.
“I’m very proud of what I’m doing and love it more than ever.”
Gary Numan plays the Assembly Hall in Leamington Spa on Wednesday, December 7.
Doors open at 7pm and tickets cost £24.50
To book visit hwww2.seetickets.com/leamingtonassembly.
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