"It's been 19 years since the Cure's first release and Robert Smith is still smearing his lipstick and eye shadow,
teasing his thinning blackened hair, singing mawkish pop songs ever-so-lovingly, and otherwise wearing his
sensitive soul on his black sleeves. SPINonline's Andy Gensler caught up with the man in black following a
surprise show with Hole in London on October 11."

ROBERT SMITH: Boys Still Cry

SPINonline: Your show tonight was a far cry from the notoriously cynical, non- reactive London crowds I've been
hearing about. The crowd was going nuts throughout the entire set.

Robert Smith: We were really, really nervous in a way that I'm never normally nervous. We didn't know how they
were going to react because they didn't know it was us. They had just seen Hole and that was a good show, and
they're there waiting and wondering who's the next band? Normally the audience knows it's you, so they're with
you from the start. When we walked on and got this incredible reaction, it really shocked me--it was almost like
a Cure audience. The first five rows knew all the songs and were singing along.

You kind of forget how much the Cure means to a lot of people. We're not really hip and we haven't been for
years but we still have a really strong, hardcore following. There's a lot of kids who hear younger bands
name-check us so they come and see what we're about and you have to prove yourselves to them. This is kind of
like that but more difficult because you don't know if it's going to be a thousand people in lumberjack shirts going,
"Who are these guys?" It kind of helped to listen to Hole. I wasn't allowed to go down and watch, in case
someone saw me, but they got a good reaction. I was listening on the stairs. But Hole's thing is kind of aimed at
a more alternative American audience.

How did you like being paired with Hole?

I thought it was good actually. Bowie playing with the Chemical Brothers is a really good pairing because it's
unexpected--in normal life it wouldn't happen. Garbage playing with the Chili Peppers was good because they
wouldn't normally support the Chili Peppers. Hole playing with us--there are similarities, maybe not musical, but
certainly I think in our backgrounds and attitudes there's a kind of continuity. There's certain things I like about
them; I don't know if they like anything about us. It's better than having two bands who are obviously paired
together. The whole point of it being a surprise thing is that some people are gonna go away preferring Hole,
some preferring the Cure, and some wishing they'd seen something else entirely. But there's some who would
never go to a Cure concert who will go home and think, "I like that band." You could see people in the audience
being won over. It takes only one song--"Just like Heaven" is kind of a turning point. You see people think,
"I like that song."

Yeah, why does that song make me cry every time I hear it?

It's one of those songs that we're kind of lucky to have. That song of all the songs we do provokes an emotional
response from the audience. We always play songs like "Just Like Heaven." It's fu**ed if you play a concert
and don't play the songs that people want to hear. But tonight we played a couple of songs that even Cure fans
would be stuck to recognize.

How come you stopped playing "Love Cats"?

They [the band] can't play it. Did you ask the band that?

Yeah, they just said they hadn't done it for years.

Yeah we did it and was f***ing awful. They're not a jazz band--there's no rhythm.

Your voice seems to impact people more than most singers. Why do you think that is?

I don't think it's just my voice; it's mixed in with a lot of different things. Not to be big headed, but I think I
sing better than I used to I used to sing--with my back to the audience, not through trying to be weird, but I was
really embarrassed to be singing to an audience. I honestly used to be so embarrassed about singing that the
first five or six years of doing it was painful, really painful. Then I kind of got halfway, then I got full face, and
now I've gone through the phase of being a pop star. I felt almost uncomfortable doing the encores, but I was
kind of half drunk enough to enjoy it. The new stuff we're doing now is much heavier though.

Was that from the new record you are recording in Bath, England?

We've done the first part of it and now we're going to Ireland to finish it off.

How does the new record compare to Wild Mood Swings?

I think it's totally different and more difficult for the others in the band. Wild Mood Swings was a band thing.
This album I've gone back to being kind of the dictator figure because I know exactly how I want it to be. On
the last album there was discussion and give and take and now there isn't. I want it to sound a certain way. I
want it to be a short album--45 minutes full of heavy stuff.

What on this album are you looking forward to?

A song called "Fall." It's the best thing we've ever done. It's like 11 minutes long and it's immense. It's a
huge slab of stuff, it's everything I've worked with. If there was the one song I would have people remember the
Cure by, it would be this new song called "Fall." It's everything I feel about what I've done in the group. It's a
narrative song of my life in the Cure and it's huge. It starts little but ends up being massive. It's the most
satisfying thing I've done in years.

How was it recording in Bath, which is such an amazing place?

It's a fantastic place. There's a lot of people based there. Real World is based there. It's a good area to do
things--you can go places and talk to people with a like mind.

I thought the scenery there is amazing too...

The drugs are good as well (laughs). It's one of those places in England... there's places that become--not
really fashionable--but just has a lot going on. It's almost too much. If you go there, you become part of the
scene. Brighton is a good case--Brighton's a really good town, but one night is kind of enough--it's an intense
night out.

Have you been getting into the Skint stuff or the Heavenly Jukebox scene?

No, I stay out of the way. I feel out of place nowadays when I go clubbing because people know who I am and
it's just uncomfortable, and I hate going to VIP rooms--it defeats the whole purpose of going to club. So in Bath
and places like Bath and Bristol down in the West country you can go out and do things and no one gives a
s***--it's a different vibe, really.

When we go out on tour and wherever we go in the world, we can be noticed and go to the VIP room, but it's not
that appealing when you're trying to do something creative and you get that, "Oooh look its him." Its much
better to walk in and just have a drink. We generally go out to kind of pub clubs when we're recording rather
than club clubs. It's the culture that the band has always had of just meeting people who aren't that concerned
about who we are because you get much more of a take on, I don't know, the "classic American reality check."
If you spend 18 hours in the studio, you don't really need to go to a club--you got a club in the studio.

Well thank you for your time and a really great show tonight.

Well, my nephews liked it, which is a really good gage because they've seen us quite a lot of times and they
thought  it was nice that the band enjoyed it for a change. Most Cure shows I tend to have my head down a lot
of the time.