GARY NUMAN TALKS ABOUT WORKING ON HIS NEW ALBUM “INTRUDER”, AN UPCOMING UK TOUR, PLAYING WITH DIFFERENT IMAGES THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, HIS RECENT LIFESTYLE, FAVORITE PLACES TO PERFORM AND VIEWS ON MODERN REALITY
Gary Numan is a remarkable artist, a true legend that influenced a lot modern music in areas of style, sound and new aesthetics. His long and impressive career is full of breathtaking ups and dramatic downs, starting in the middle of the 70’s in his hometown of London, when he formed his first band Tubeway Army. First singles of Tubeway Army were made in the punk-rock style. But soon, Gary Numan discovered the magical world of synthesisers and moved to a more electronic sound, perfectly reflecting the futuristic vibe and new emerging forms that were in the air at the edge of 70s –beginning of 80s.
His first single in the new electronic direction was “Down in The Park” and was soon followed by “Cars” and “Are Friends Electric” which achieved massive commercial success and took top chart positions worldwide. This mega success was followed by first two solo albums, “The Pleasure Principles” in 1979 and “Telekon” in 1980. At that point Gary Numan became one of the leading new world pop-stars with an incomparable sound and stage image. His approach to sound production which he used in these first albums by giving synthesisers a hard edge sound by playing them through guitar pedals became a big influence for the biggest industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy. His stage image of an androgynous android was heavily inspired by science fiction images of future dystopias of the newly emerging cyber-punk genre and was really capturing peoples imagination. Also in the line of dystopian android image and electronic music with an infernal vibe, starting from these first well-acclaimed works, sincere and self-centered lyrics became a serious conceptual part of all Gary Numan’s songs and the trademark of his style of songwriting.
In the 80s, Gary Numan moved a bit from pure electronic sound and like all real forward-thinking artists who are always looking for something new, started to experiment with other musical genres like jazz, funk, soul and disco which was followed by changing his stage image to a less futuristic look with more references to an elegant gentleman’s style with classy suits. This period was marked by such albums that became, with no doubt, cult classics like “Dance”, “Warriors”, “I, Assassin”, “The Fury”.
In the 90s, Gary Numan faced a creative and personality crisis, his albums were far from commercial success and he was even thinking about leaving the music business at one point. The quintessence of this period was when his album “Machine + Soul” was released in 1992 and according to Gary’s words, nothing was right in this work; the music, the clothes, the haircut. But soon, he managed to reinvent his music and look, turning to a new style with a more guitar oriented, heavy industrial sound as well as a kind of gothic post-apocalyptic stage image. This path brought Gary Numan’s career and creativity to a new level, being marked by the album “Sacrifice” in 1994. Since that moment, within his next albums he mostly followed this new sound and style, making a bunch of well acclaimed fan and critic albums throughout the 90’s and into this century.
He recieved big respect from Nine Inch Nails, the band leader Trent Reznor mentioned that Gary Numan was one of his biggest musical influences, covered his song “Metal” and invited him him to join Nine Inch Nails on tour for a number of shows. Other artists that covered and used samples from Gary Numan’s songs includes such a wide range of bands that represents many different styles like Blur, Moloko, Basement Jaxx, Fear Factory, Sugababes and it certainly played a good role for introducing his music to the new generation.
At the moment Garry Numan lives a happy family life in sunny LA with his wife Gemma and three daughters and successfully combines it with an intensive music career, releasing new albums, videos and touring all over the world. We were lucky to talk with Gary just before his big tour in the UK about his new album “Intruder” which is going to be released next year, the evolution of his stage images, his favourite places to perform, and views on modern reality as well as other interesting things.
Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov
Hi Gary! Thank you very much for finding time for us. As I understand you are really busy at the moment with recording a new album… Can you please tell a bit about this work – with whom are you working on it, the name of the album, its general musical direction and vibe and when it will be finally out?
The new album is called ‘Intruder’ and I hope to have it out in September 2020. I’m working on it with Ade Fenton as producer once again, so it will be our 5th album together. Musically, it’s still heavy, epic electronic, with a strong leaning towards a film score vibe, but with vocals, obviously. It looks at the climate change problem from the point of view of the planet itself. It considers Earth a living thing and humans as a virus that need to be destroyed for the earth to survive. Climate change, and the temperature rise, is a planet level version of a fever.
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