Robert Smith-he of the raven's nest hair,blood-red pout,geisha-pale face,
3 a.m. eyeliner and artfully tortured lyrical outlook-is the focal and
vocal point of the Cure.But he doesn't do many interviews.And what
interviews he does do are peppered with calculated nihilistic statements
such as "I get naturally despondent watching the sun rise" and "When I'm
alone in bed at night I still have the same nightmares."

All of which is one reason I'm talking to drummer Boris Williams,a
refreshingly steady guy who was on the phone from London prior to the
band's American tour.The Cure performs with the Pixies,Love and Rockets and
Shelleyan Orphan tomorrow at Fiddler's Green.

Williams has been a constant in the Cure since 1984,itself a notable
accomplishment for a band that pretty much established a revolving-door
personnel policy since Smith conceived the Cure in 1977.The musical output
has been almost as diverse.Disintegration is the band's 11th album,and
perhaps the best,blending the earlier darkly etched moods of earlier works
with entrancing,inventive musical dimensions of later ones.

As Williams describes it,it was a long,thoughtful process that involved
being graded by Smith who uses small hand-drawn faces to indicate what he
likes or dislikes.

"With Disintegration the only definite decision was that we wanted to have
cohesive sound,unlike (1985's) The Head On The Door or (1987's) Kiss Me,
Kiss Me,Kiss Me which were as varied as possible," said Williams. "What we
usually do before we record is that everbody works at home on ideas with
portable tape recorders and studios.Then we get together with tapes and
Robert has these little exercise books.He grades the songs.He draws a
little face,a frown,smile or blank face beside each song and out of all
those we pick out the right sort of songs.

"This time we recorded about 32 ideas instrumentally on a 16-track
machine...then having done those we listened to them for a couple of weeks.
When we got to the studio,we decided which ones to record out of that lot.
The band is like a democratic dictatorship,though.When it comes down to
final decisions,it's Robert's decision what songs are going to work on the
album."

Williams found himself in the band almost by accident.At the time,he was a
hired gun for the Thompson Twins-a poppy,synth-soaked band that is about
180 degrees from the Cure's sense of revamped 19th century fatalism.

"It was a fairly sort of different group," is how Williams diplomatically
put it."I'd done an American tour with the Thompson Twins and played on in
California on my own for a break after that.At that point,the Cure came
over from Japan and their drummer went a bit funny and had to go home.
Someone else filled in for him for awhile and they got in touch with me.
They asked me if I wanted to finish off the American tour so I did two
soundchecks where I sort of tried out a couple of numbers.I was thrown in
the deep end but it was good though.After three weeks of finishing off the
tour Robert asked me if I fancied doing the next album (Head On The Door).
It was one of those things;I was in the right place at the right time."

The Cure,Love and Rockets,the Pixies and Shelleyan Orphan perform at 5 p.m.
tomorrow at Fiddler's Green.Information:290-8497.