Donning The Wig Once Again.

Will 'Bloodflowers' see Messers Smith, Gallup, etc breathe their last ? Yes and no says the ever enigmatic but
inordinately polite Robert, on the phone deep one perfect evening... 'Sorry I'm a bit late ...' says Mr Smith, with
which we get down to business.

RIP: Listening to the album I got the feeling that while there are a few good moments of fury it seems to be quite
wistful, almost gentle, and certainly retrospective. Is that where your head's at ?

Yeh, it's certainly got a nostalgic feel to it. Much as 'Disintegration' in 89 was kind of commemorating turning 29
into 30 I wanted to do the same turning 39 to 40. It's autobiographical but it's slightly dishonest, because I didn't
want to put any pop on it, and even though I felt the urge to do a couple of more upbeat numbers. I really wanted the
album to work as a whole. So I suppose it's sort of where my head's at.

RIP: I feel too that there's a really good cohesive feel on it. 'Wild Mood Swings' in particular probably reflected its
title, whereas with this, it's more seamless. Was that deliberate ?

Yeh, I definitely felt very different about making this record than certainly the last two. 'Wild Mood Swings' and
'Wish' which were both more kind of band albums. With 'Bloodflowers' I knew before we even set foot in the studio
exactly what the record was going to be like. Simon and Roger were in the band for 'Disintegration' and they
remarked on the fact that from very early on the atmosphere was the same and they didn't enjoy it. All of the band
left before the end of this album. I wasn't really bothered if everyone was going to have fun - when everyone came
back and listened to the mixes and heard the whole thing they were all kind of amazed at how good it sounded,
which to me is the whole point. I don't think I'd have any band left if I'd made the last two albums like that, and
certainly 'Wild Mood Swings' was intentionally kind of really jumbled up, very incoherent and very confusing and
that's sort of how the band was at the time. This time round it's much more an album that suits me, 'Bloodflowers'.

RIP: Are the rest of the band still talking to you ?

Yeh - we did a show about a month ago in New York for VH1, and it was the best thing we've done in years because
the intensity is back. I'd actually gotten pretty disillusioned with the band when we played there wasn't any passion
and I felt a lot of that was probably to do with me. The band is driven by my desire. Before we made 'Bloodflowers'
I thought let's try one last time and finish on a high but the actual end result has kind of rekindled my enthusiasm. It
was inconceivable to me last year that I would be thinking of going out and playing some shows cos I meant this
basically to be like a farewell kind of album so its strange - when I started listening to it and it's like 'this is the best
thing we've ever done'. I'll have to think on it. Because it's turned out so well I'm quite content for the time being to
consider it to be the last.

RIP: Although you've said that before.

(Laughs). Yeh, I've said that for every album in the last twenty years. If 'Wild Mood Swings' had proved to be the
last Cure album I would feel slightly dissatisfied - not because it's not a good album - but because it doesn't sound
like the end, really. If it ends up that it is 'Bloodflowers' I will be very happy because it will seem like I knew what I
was doing. People will imagine that I did have a masterplan after all.

RIP: There's still an air of despair - of things never going to be right ...

It's particularly there when I'm writing songs, when I'm trying to create something and I think I can never actually
get it right. The weird thing is that with a lot of the words I wrote them all pretty much the same period of about six
weeks. But actually making the album I feel totally different now. I hate artists who say it's a cathartic experience
because it's bullshit most of the time, with this album I did actually noticed a marked change in how I felt what I was
doing after we made it.

The thing is, it doesn't really reflect a big part of my life which is now taking place outside The Cure. My nemesis
lurks within the whole idea of being an artist. I'm not really confronted with these demons, it's not as though I'm
wandering around pulling my hair out by candlelight. I'm actually a lot more content than I have ever been in my
life. I just felt that there was a part of me that I wanted to express and I really thought it would be a full stop to what
I'd been doing for the last twenty years and as it's turned out I've found it's so, fun isn't the right word, it's so
enjoyable for me on so many different levels making this record that I can't imagine why now I would want to stop.

RIP: Thinking back to 'Pornography' and so forth - they were obviously difficult times - do you think that coming
out of something like this that is so good obliterates the difficult records you've made ?

Just before we went into the studio I played the others 'Pornography' and 'Disintegration' and asked them to
imagine if there was going to be a third album after these other two, this is the album I wanted to make. So
everyone knew they were in for a bit of a rough ride. But in fact they aren't that difficult for me. I mean, I really
enjoyed myself making 'Pornography' but I was just in this drug-crazed stupor a lot of the time. 'Disintegration' the
same. I was very quiet, very obsessed by that record and didn't really talk much to anyone but every day I got up
really looking forward to making the record. I've never really actually made an album that's been difficult: once I've
reached that point and I've got the songs I really do enjoy the process.

The side I have to reconcile myself is actually the touring side of it. It has increasingly become the most difficult
part of what I do and now that I'm kind of semi-integrated into the community - it's difficult for me to imagine
getting up, packing a couple of bags and pissing off for six months. The thing is I don't have to do it which is why
there's no point in moaning about it when I choose to do it, but I feel like it's the first time that I'm leaving behind
my real life, whereas in the past I've always felt that The Cure is my real life and the rest of the time I'm kind of
just treading water.

RIP: It's something that certainly comes through a lot, that whole love/hate of what you're doing. You've got a real
life now that isn't 'microphones and manifolds' (laughs) - is there that schizophrenic jump, an element of - I'll pull my
hair on and go out and do my job again ?

If it was as clear-cut as that I think it would be easy. The trouble is that it just doesn't seem to quite mesh the two
sides of my personality, when I give free range to this side that can just be spoilt and scream and act in a very loud
and kind of ugly manner and get away with it and get people applauding it worries me because it does take over. It's
just an insidious process but the longer I'm involved, particularly touring, the longer I take to readjust to get back to
what I think and feel myself is a balanced way of living, and it takes its toll.

I'm just worried if I keep going it, that I will turn into an idiot. Not at 40, it's not my ambition in life. It's inevitable, I
appreciate that. I'd (just) rather postpone it as long as I can.

RIP: I guess you grow out of it.

Yeh, a big part of me has but then there's still kind of a little teaser in the back of my head going 'Go on! Try it
again ...'

RIP: It'll be better this time ...

Yeh, there certainly is something very seductive about that whole lifestyle. I just felt that I'm gradually changing
and there will come a point when I say I don't really want to do that anymore.

RIP: There's always a song or two out of it - you've got 'Open' and 'Watching Me Fall'.

Yeh, 'Watching Me Fall' is very much 'Open' Part II.

RIP: From a sheer musical point of view it doesn't feel like it clocks in at ten minutes. It must have been kind of fun
to run with that one ?

Yeh, well my home demo version is actually twenty minutes and I slashed it in half ! I did it as kind of my 'Seven
Ages of Man' (laughs) but unfortunately it ended up sounding a bit like Meat Loaf ! I thought that the scope was a
bit too grand - it was supposed to encompass my entire career. In the end I just focused it down to one night, I
thought that was long enough.

RIP: I remember a quote from Keith Richards which was like 'There are people born in the world now who've never
been in a world without the Rolling Stones'. There is a bit of The Cure thing there, you've been around forever,
you're a real institution - does that increase or take away the pressure when you're making a record ?

I don't think that I've ever once considered what I'm doing in those terms. When I'm in the studio and the lights are
out and I've got a microphone I try and imagine that there is someone, somewhere in the world who wants to hear
what I'm singing cos otherwise there's no point in doing it. That's the only time I imagine that there's an audience. I
don't really think of The Cure's work as any kind of body of work. There are certain things that I think are really,
really good  and there are other bits that I think are kind of OK and some it is kind of pretty dumb. I don't defend
everything that I've ever done. To the casual observer, it's just Robert Smith and a bunch of blokes but to me,
who's in the band is actually really, really important. I don't feel like I've been in the same band since I was
eighteen. The makeup of those different line-ups has been dramatically diffferent and also how I've been within
those line-ups has been dramatically different. It's just weird that the band's had the same name and it's just
unusual for a band to keep going this long. I don't know, I guess culturally Keith Richards would at least be able to
say that about the Rolling Stones because they've probably had a much more dramatic effect. It could be called
presumptuous to say that there are people born who don't know a word about The Cure, it sounds pretty insane at
the same time.

RIP: It sounds pretty insane coming from him too.

Yeh, exactly (laughs). But he is insane !

RIP: You've always walked that great line between critical success and sheer volume-shifting globe-straddling
success. It's obviously not something you can do deliberately, but do you understand how that has worked ?

For me, the most important thing is that other musicians when asked about The Cure usually have some respect for
what we've done, because they realise it's difficult to have done what we've done. There are a number of reasons
why we were able to do it how we have and they're completely haphazard.

'Wild Mood Swings' was the first album that we've ever released that didn't sell as many as the one before, around
the world all the record companies sort of looked at each other and said - what the fuck do we do now ? They had no
idea why we were selling that many records in the first place. I think we've possibly managed to maintain a higher
percentage of our audience than other bands do - it's part of the key to it. We're attracting a younger audience the
whole time, but we've managed to retain enough of our older audience for the numbers to keep increasing. So we
don't kind of like swap one generation for another. We've still managed to hold on to the disaffected souls who have
been disaffected all the way through our lives.

RIP: Hey, I've got 'Seventeen Seconds' at home ...

(Laughs) There is no kind of plan, though! Walking away from 'Wish' that was our biggest commercial success - I
felt that mentally I was on the verge of having some kind of breakdown - commercially kind of killed the band. And
that's why it's easy not to be famous - you've just got to stop. You're very quickly just not famous anymore. The
record companies were horrified at that point, cos they realised that the momentum had built up and once you kind
of stop this juggernaut, it's very difficult to kick start it. When we came back to 'Wild Mood Swings' I seemed to be
the only person involved who appreciated that we would be coming back at a much lower level. I mean our lower
level is still like selling a million and a half albums. For anyone else it's a major success but in Cure terms the
record companies are thinking like - what's happened to The Cure now, you know, that's it, the end.

With the band in general it's always honestly surprised me how popular we've been. I suspected probably that we
wouldn't do very well cos I didn't generally like mainstream popular music and I thought - how will we fit into that ?
But it's kind of accommodated us over the years and there's other reasons that've helped along the way, but most
of the time it's just been chance. That and good songs. Without the songs the rest of it wouldn't really mean very
much anyway.

Michael Larsen.
 

(Thanks Rodney)