Lock back in Minor

Two Celebrations, one Album: Through the Cure's 20.th. anniversary and Roberts 40.th birthday, Robert achieved
one long awaited wish: After Pornography and Disintegration Cure Boss releases with Bloodflowers the 3rd part of
his very personal trilogy

Bloodflowers was announced already 2 years ago, but then its release was delayed again and again. What
happened?

Robert:I exactly knew, what kind of album i would like to do, but when i met the band for first discussions, i had no
good feeling. And i realy feared that there are plenty of problems.

What kind of problems?

Robert: I was quite upset about the behaviour of some of our band members. There was no enthusiasm, no zest, no
sensibility. The mood escalated, when i told them, that i don't want to record Bloodflowers with people, who are
acting like a part-time band. I was realy very upset, more than that: I hated them !!

Instead of firing your musicans like in the past, you seemded to motivate them !

Robert: Yes. I explaned to them, that the Cure means much more to me than just the name of a band. Then i played
them Pornography and Disintegration and made clear that we could probably do a great album, if we really want to.

And it happened well. But you kept emphasizing, the more the Cure move on, the more the music changes. But
Bloodflowers itself sounds quite familiar. So how's the development?

Robert: This time, the intetion was different. This album should reflect the last 10 years. For sure, there are many
different songs, but the all have this unmistakable style. If some people mean, that this album sounds typically
or old-fashioned - right, that's just what it's about !!

So, did  you pay contributions to your reputation as a dictator ?

Robert: (laughing) I was more a conductor than a dictator ! And in the end, me, the whole band hat the great
feeling, that Bloodflowers has become very great. If Wild Mood Swings would have been the last cure album,
i would have been rather unhappy, because the mood i wanted to express, was not realy right !!

Songs like "Watching me fall" and "39" seem like a personal confession. Is Bloodflowers the the 3rd. part of your
Biography?

Robert: Yeah, right. The Album goes in a strong context with Pornography and Disintegration. Even then i looked
back. Bloodflowers was developed when i was turning 40. There i wanted, like before, to write a very honest and
autobiographical album.

Does that mean, that Robert Smith is going to become an adult?

Robert: Oh, my god, no ! Nobody should ever call me a grown-up. I more got the feeling, that i was already born
old.

When we look at your lyrics now, we get the feeling, that great melancholly has affected you at your 40thbirthday...

Robert: I tell you what i did on my birthday. Instead of celebrating an ordinary birthday, i wanted to stay alone that
day, just to have enough time to think. I took a blank sheet of paper and a pen and started to write everything down
that came up to my mind. But in the evening i was very drunk and burned down the paper. But this kind of process
was very releasing.

At Wild Mood Swings you emphasized how happy and confident your are. Why now the change of mood ?

Robert: I realised, that i was fighting against the honesty of admiting, that i was missing the desire of beeing heard.
I make music, since my early childhood, simply because i like it. But it's more difficult to be a Performer ! And the
next step, to write a song, that gives more to the people, than just easy entertainment, is much more difficult. When
i was young, i wanted to release an album every year. But i don't feel that pressure anymore today.

Did you think a lot about, how credible Rock n' Roll goes a long with your age?

Robert: I realised, that I've got some life outside the band, which i built up the last 6, 7 years. I now enjoy waking
up in the same room, with the same woman, to life in the same house. I seem to need more time for my family and
friends. I don't want endless tours and studiowork anymore.

What does that mean? Is there a future for the cure, or not?

Robert: The future lays in front of me like a white, clean screen. And I'm really thinking hard about what i should
paint. Indeed I think, that i'll be releasing  a solo album. There are already seven tracks, which have nothing to do
with the music and the concept of the cure. But that might not (already) be the end for the cure.

(Thanks Patrick)