After Robert Smith made public his intention to finish the live of the group after more than twenty-five years in
active-duty, the british guys surprise us with a new album, "The Cure" (I Am/Universal, 04), in wich they return
with renewed energies and substantial changes in his sound.

We met in London. There, Robert Smith attends to the international press for two days (in journeys of more than
fourteen hours). The reason is the edition of the new album of The Cure, a work simply titled "The Cure". The
title, points Smith, it’s related to the fact that it opens a new stage in the history of the group, and I assure you
that, after having listen to the eleven pieces included in the album (plus one) several times, something of that is
true. This is not about this album offers something that we have not listened already in some previous albums of
the group, but per moments, contributes with changes. The guitars on the most accessible songs ("Before Three",
the single "The End Of The World" or "I Don´t Know What´s Going On") sound american alternative, but without
leaving the habitual refrains from the popest songs of The Cure. Also surprise the crude guitars, the real crude
guitars in "Lost" (kind of crescendo in wich Smith transmits all his vital anguish that closes abruptly) or "Never"
(the most rocker song, strictly rocker, that the group has ever written). But, on the other hand, we continued
finding us with to the The Cure of always, because that’s the way "Labyrinth", "Anniversary", "Us Or Them",
"Taking Off", "The Promise" - suffocating piece of ten minutes that will close the album or "Going Nowhere" -
bonus track exclusive in the European edition – sound. And the same I would say about the lyrics, and most of
them continue trasmiting the restlessness and existencial oppression of the 45 years old artist.

Those changes of which I am speaking about were in their mayor part caused by the production of Ross Robinson,
a guy that until now was well known by recording hard groups like Slipknot, AT The Drive-In, Vex Network, Korn
or Limpbizkit, and that publishes "The Cure" in its seal I a.m. Record... and also to the necessity of Robert Smith
to avoid boredom. Thanks to all this, The Cure releases an album that we won’t mention as the group’s best thing,
but neither as the worse. Let’s say it will be the american album of The Cure and, possibly, one of most accessible
that they have done in years. In any case, it cheers me to listen to him, it cheers me to discover that Robert Smith
looks excited again with the group and that "Trilogy" wasn’t the final testament of one of the essential names of
the pop and british rock of all time. And, please, don’t say to me again that they are only "some sinisters".
Certainly is that some of their discs sound dark, wild and introspective (it’s necessary we talk again about
"Pornography", "Seventeen Seconds" or "Faith"?), that their imagination - and some others’ - marked the future
of the gothic rock, but The Cure also has contributed so much to the pop, as much as with "The Head On The
Door" and with the most accessible pieces of "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" or "Disintegration". Unfortunately,
many lost the faith in them due to the trajectory during most of the ninety because of "Wild Mood Swings". Now,
luckily and after announcing a pair of years ago a supposed retirement, The Cure returns with renewed energies.
After considering that in our conversation, Robert Smith was good natured and communicative, we will leave this
to the own artist who explains itself. You know... after listening to him, with praiseworthy education and a s
urprising calm, I admire him even more. Robert Smith seems like a current person. It seems like it, but their
songs know that this is not true. Throughout all these years we have had this left clear. Robert Smith is Robert
Smith, and you, of course, no.

 
Q.- One of the things that captured my attention the most is that this album sounds like the The Cure of always
and simultaneously like the new one.

A.- Yes, I agree. Indeed for that reason we thought about calling it "The Cure", because it represents everything
what we have done to date. I think of this disc as if it was "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me", a work that gathered
different ideas from which we had been during the eighty, and I believe that the idea in this occasion is very similar.

Q.- I suppose that you are first in seeing that, as time goes by, you must contribute with new formulas for your
music.

A.- Sure. With "Bloodflowers" the intention was to do an album that lasted one hour and that maintained one
same feeling, that was an experience from the beginning until the end, that make you capable to lay in bed closing
the eyes and letting yourself go. But this album looks for other things, tries to be more accessible and more
varied, even when this might be the album with greater emotional load than never has been done.

Q.- I suppose that the idea of making a more accessible album will have much to do with the fact that you are
excited again with the group and that you have more energy now than three years ago.

A.- It depends. I believe this is a combination of different things. One of the fundamental points has been that
Ross produced this album, because since the project was born he puts so much enthusiasm to everything and was
able to infect us with it. After "Bloodflowers" we did a film called "Trilogy", that we filmed in 2002, but appeared
the following year in DVD. For me that was the end of The Cure because it summarized twenty-five years of
carrer and about ten years with the same line-up. It pleased me what we were doing at that time, but I thought it
was a good moment to leave it and pass to another thing. People had remembered The Cure as something great,
then I met Ross and everything changed. Since the beginning he insisted "we must do another  The Cure album,
we must do an album together... ". And it happened that eighteen months later, after calling to me constantly by
telephone and writing piles of letters to me, he came to see me again. We spoke of the amount of new groups that
quoted us as their influence in the interviews, of how some of them sounded... he followed "you cannot leave it,
you must do a new album"... and here I am.

Q.- Any way, you already were thinking about making other things. The last time we interviewed you in Madrid
three years ago you talk about a solo album which you had almost ready. Have finished those songs in "The
Cure"?

A.- It had all ready to do an album in solitaire in 2003, but we did "Trilogy" and I was for four months editing it
and mixing it, because it lasts 3 hours and a half. Later I began collaborating with a pile of different artists...
Junkie XL, Blink 182, Junior Jack... I believe that it was preparing me mentally for a change. In fact, one of the
reasons for which I accepted to do so many collaborations was because I no longer felt any obligation with The
Cure and to work with another people was going to allow to me to learn how to work with different musicians and
differents worlds. I remember last summer I was driving home and said to myself "maybe I’m mistaken, perhaps
I would have to continue with The Cure, perhaps I would have to do this album with Ross and I will have time to
continue my solo album next year". I have the songsalready done, so I can recover them at any time... So I called
Ross and I said to him: "Ross, go ahead, we’ll do a new The Cure album". After a month we were recording
demos. We put ourselves to work during one week in more than 100 different ideas. When we finished we had
thirty seven almost ready songs that we recorded in a small studio some miles from here, and I must recognize
that the ideas on the beginning are very similar to the ones that finished in the album, but with a different sound.
Later we went during two weeks to London with Ross, played the thirty seven songs and we ended with twenty... I
wrote then all the lyrics and I made them to fit the music. At the beginning of February of this year we began to
record the definitive album for six weeks. We did it in direct, with the group playing in one room. Doing this in
this way has been a fantastic experience and a pleasure.

Q.- It seems that working with somebody that’s not part of the group has been really important to contribute with
new ideas. In fact, what surprises more of "The Cure" is the sound of the guitars. In some songs they sound very
american, something alternative, and in others they sound very crude, like in "Lost". I believe that you had never
recorded guitars that sounded like this.

A.- When I decided that I was going to work with Ross there were a bunch of  Cure fans worldwide that had to be
really nervous because they knew that he had worked with groups that I like, like Cold or At The Drive-In, but
also with others that I don’t, like Limpbizkit or Slipknot. People imagined that working with Ross would suppose
too many changes, and in some way is that’s true. He’s ten years younger than me, but he has grown listening to
us, to the harder songs and the pop ones, so it was great working with him knowing that he could connect with the
different faces from The Cure. Ross has worried much about the sound of the group, so later it was not necessary
to mix the songs. We recorded in direct and we fixed a sound for each song, and, although in the credits he puts
that I have mixed it, it’s not true. The album was recorded and it was practically mixed at the same time. Back to
your question, I am not sure that the guitars sound american, they just sound different. We used different
amplifiers because it worried us so to mantain the habitual spirit of the group but from a radically different point
of view... as you said in the beginning. If we had made an album that sounded exactly as always it wouldn’t have
any interest for me, I believe in that case I wouldn’t have returned to record nothing else.

Q.- On the other hand, one of the things that I have liked the most is how you have done the sequence of the
songs, with "Lost" like crescendo of opening and "The Promise" closing.

A.- The american edition of the album will finish this way, but the european will include as a bonus the song that
you’ve listened, "Going Nowhere". In any case, I believe that finishing the album with "The Promise" seems to
me a little obvious (laughs), although really is going to close it. "Going Nowhere" is a song we recorded very late,
almost at daybreak and at the end of the sessions, but seems to me a very pleasant form to finish this album.

Q.- Leaving aside the press, fans, the sales... I would like to know what opinions, throughout the years, you have
considered related to your carrer. Who have been the people whom you have trusted?

A.- Traditionally, there have been three opinions that I have listened. First mine (laughs), after that my woman’s,
Mary, and Simon’s (Gallup, bass man of The Cure), because each one of them represented a face different from
what I do. And although also it was important what Ross said, the main thing was that we were satisfied with our
work, because The Cure has not had a producer sice the first album... and we have thirteen produced by me. One
of the reasons why I took so much deciding to work with Ross was because I have to be 100% positive we were
not mistaken. Once I had it clear I decided to deposit all my confidence in him so this would worked.

Q.- Throughout these twenty-five years you have recorded many songs, but I would like to know if once you have
done one that you didn’t like and that, whatsoever, was included in some of your albums.

A.-Good, in the first album there are several songs that I’ve never liked. We were at full speed and they said to
us that we recorded all the material that we had. We trusted that people. I remember perfectly that I insisted "no,
we will not record ´Foxy Lady´ from Jimi Hendrix, because I hate how we do it” but we played it in pubs and they
convinced us to record it. “It will be a B side... If you don’t like at the end we won’t use it”, they said. Obvious, it
was fatal and even so they used it. We were too young and they lie to us. We shouldn’t never have made that
album, but we had eighteen years and felt in the trap. Since then I have wanted always to control the production
and for that reason I like everything what we have recorded.

Q.- Anyway, I suppose that you will understand that The Cure fans remained astonished when they listened that you
were going to work with a producer of hardcore and metal like Ross Robinson...

A.- There is a pile of bands who Ross has worked with that really like The Cure, this is what happens. I have heard
Korn,Vex Network or AT The Drive-In saying that we were one of their favorite groups... Our influence has
pierced much more of that I have been able to imagine. Groups like Deftones have said that they adore The Cure
and they respect the form we have directed our carrer throughout the years. Even if they do not like too much our
music, yes they appreciate how we have worked throughout the years and how we have been able to maintain a
certain success whatsoever. And that is a sensation that in america is still greater than in Europe. Thinks that the
perception that is there about The Cure is very different from the one we have here. There we are an alternative
group, a successful alternative group, but not mainstream. For that reason the musicians respect us and they
consider us an adventurous band... they appreciate our personality, although I would be the first hating us if we
had not acted as we have done it.

Q.- What cheers me the most is that you are illusioned with the group and the future...

A.- At the moment I am being centered in what we will do this summer, because we will be in several festivals and
some with really attractive acts. I have always liked that part of the summer... for that reason there are so many
fans asking me why we are every year in so many festivals. Well, guys, it’s because I like to act in direct with The
Cure, and in fact we continued touring, but I specially enjoy participating in great events. It is an experience that I
have appreciated more as years go by.

Q.- In fact, in Spain you will act in July within the programming of the Xacobeo and in the United States you have
mounted the Curiosa tour, next to a pile of excellent bands...

A.- Yes, in Spain we will be with Muse or Starsailor... and I hope to see their performances. Although, as you
imagine, I am very excited with the Curiosa Tour. There we will play with Interpol, Mogwai, Thursday, The
Rapture, Cursive... I want to see them playing every single night. I really like those bands, keep in mind that I
have chosen them personally one by one.

Q.- Changing of subject, I would like to know if, after so much time writing songs and dealing with the industry,
exist something of which you are really tired. Are you tiredof having to compose for having a life?

A.- No, music is one of the few things that have never disappointed me. I could never quit writing because I still
have the same emotional answer than when I was fifteen years old and I composed my first songs. At the moment
I feel music as always and I assure you that I really feel it in a strong way.

Q.- In that case, it wouldn’t affect you if your discs stop being successful?

A.- The success has never been what has taken me to do music. I did not make too much money for years, so... it
doesn’t worry me. I began to compose as art, and after so many years I continue doing it by the same motivation.
I want to write songs that can make people to feel something. And why? That’s another question I cannot answer
to you. I have never understood that necessity that we, some people, have to communicate through music. I have
ask myself that question often and I‘m still without an answer... I make music, first because I need it and second
because I know that people likes to listen to it. I feel that I am participating in something great. It’s very enriching
to do something like this, is part of the human nature, one of the good parts, the desire to create over the desire
to destroy... and I always am going to align myself next to whom prefer to create.

Q.- And this point of view is the one that you have now or it stays since you began to write songs?

A.- No, I’ve always had it. Even when I was younger I was decided on demonstrating something to me and to the
others. I felt so alone in this world and for me it was a test, a fight against everything. I mean that when Simon
and I toured by the world playing the songs from "Faith", it felt to me as if we were in war with the audience. As
I’m getting older and The Cure has been more successful I have felt less discomforted with people.

Q.- You have never felt like prisoner of the image that we have of Robert Smith?

A.- Good, that has happened to me in several occasions, mainly when The Cure began to be really successful in
the second half of the eighty’s. That affected me so much mentally and I became a different person. I did not know
to handle the attention I received by the media and I felt frustrated with all that. I had never wanted to turn to be
a famous person, I just want to feel good with what I was doing, but things began to work so good and they
escaped off of my hands. At the end of 1992 I decided to take a breath because I hated what I was turning to; I
suddenly felt like a paranoid and a damn egoccentric.

Q.- Then, it bothers you that people have seen you during years like a strange person? I mean, it’s difficult  to
think of you seated in the sofa seeing the television in slippers...

A.- I don’t know. It’s a difficult question... but what it’s true it’s that I don’t have a common life. I watch TV
occasionally, but not quite often. I live with another person and my world it’s really private, I’m not somebody
that is constantly in the media. The main reason why I say to you that I don’t live a normal life is because, starting
with, I don’t work. I don’t work for anybody, I don’t have to get up early, not even would be forced to come here
today. For me this is an authentic luxury and every day that goes I consider myself a lucky person. When I went
to school and everybody asked me what I wanted to do in my life, I responded to them: "What I want is not to
work". I have always wanted to make things, but not to work for others. In that sense, I have a non-usual life,
mainly because I have a one hundred percent independence. I don’t have children, I don’t have responsabilities...
is a strange way to live, can be, but at the same time I have a very normal life. I have been driving the same car
at least ten years, have lived in the same house more than fifteen, I go to buy to the stores of my district, buy my
food and my gasoline, I take care of my own garden. Summarizing, I maintain a normal home life, but
simultaneously I have another expensive and more stranger, I go to the stages to sing... You know, tomorrow it
will be my first free day in a month and all I want to do is to go to my garden and to watch the sky calmly. The
texts that I write come from the part of Robert Smith whom loves to make things, but that doesn’t mean that I
must be like in my songs. That only reflects a part of my personality and, believe me, I’m not a person outside the
normal thing.

Q.- In order to finish I would like to ask you something just by curiosity. After selling so many discs and making
as much money, exists some dream that Robert Smith has not been able to make reality?

A.- The only dream I had when I was very young was to travel in the space like an astronaut. And I believe I’ll
never be able to fulfill it, at least until somebody decides to pay that trip to me, because I believe that it costs
about twenty million dollars (laughs). In any case, I’ve never been a very ambitious person. There are many
simple things that I would like to do before aging, like going on vacation to Ireland. Yes, this is something that I
have wanted to do during years and years and years and in the end never decided to. Also would like to go and
see some friends who I don’t see a long time ago. Perhaps I would have to make more things now before I’m too
old to walk (laughs)...perhaps I don’t know, would have to take advantage of the energy that I have left before it
disappears. Even so, I feel very good with what I do at the present time and I believe that would be a little difficult
to seat and think about what I’ve never done.