The Cure Lives
Rumors about a possible seperation end and
the recording of a new album is announced. They promise to come to
Mexico City next year.
Alberto Castillo Torres
El Universal.
Sunday, July 13th, 2003
Sound explorer of the contradictions and darkness
of the human mind as the creative force in The Cure since 27
years ago, Robert Smith states that, although
the speculation about the band's breakup has ended because they will
record a new album after three years, and
a new and different chapter in the band's history opens, "reinvention"
is
not the word that defines the phase that the
British rock band is living.
Smith answers the phone at his home in London
and comments that, despite the band's next album producer, Ross
Robinson, is a nü metal guru, it's unlikely
that the band is going to wear a disguise which doesn't fit, neither that
they are going to deny its past.
"I'm not interested in reinventing The Cure,
deny my past, or pretend that I have become an adult, although I know
I'm 44".
"Many artists do that, because they want to
change their audience and sell more records, but it seems ridiculous to
me that The Cure would do it".
It's one o'clock in the morning at the British
capital, and the musician has just woke up, because he sleeps in the
evening and, like a vampire from the horror
films that he enjoys, lives at night.
For the guitarist, his return to the studio
and the premiere of the Trilogy DVD, (that documents the live
performance of three of his best albums in
Berlin in 2002) mark "a final point" in his career, but not regarding his
gloomy and passionate vision of life.
"People say that, as you get old, you get more
wisdom and you find the answers to the questions you had when you
were young, but that's a myth".
"As time goes by, the main purpose in life
for most of the people is to raise children, and those questions are not
important anymore. I don't have children,
I still have the same dilemmas about the sense of my life I had when I
was 15 and these feelings are still found
in The Cure's music… and they will always be there", he says.
Melancholic and depressive chronicler that
appeared as an artist with the help of punk and gothic rock, Smith
details that, after releasing Bloodflowers
in 2000, finishing the relation with his previous record label and
announcing a band break to make an attempt
on his own making a solo album, they met Robinson in 2002 and
signed with his record label IAM.
"I felt that making a record with Ross would
be a chance that I shouldn't let go. We're going to make a record in
September and if we are satisfied with the
results and we want to work with Ross again, then we'll make a second
and maybe a third, but for now, we're focused
only in one".
"Ross is a very well known person in the nü
metal scene, but we are his favorite band, and I like what he did with
Korn and At The Drive-In, though I didn't
like so much what he did with Slipknot. He is a perfectionist that wants
you to give your best and there are nervous
people who thinks that he is going to turn us into a metal band, but we'll
just sound different, because we'll keep saying
what songs will be on the record".
Trilogy - Live in Berlin consummates Smith's
dream of playing the songs of Pornography, Disintegration and
Bloodflowers in only one night, commemorating
in that way 25 years of The Cure.
"I always wanted to link these three records,
cause I felt they had things in common, and I wanted to do it with this
lineup, which is the one that has been together
for almost 10 years and has been the best".
The only performance in Mexico was that of
1992 in Monterrey, and Smith assures that he never understood the
reason why they didn't go on to Mexico City,
but promises that they will come back in 2004.
"I never understood why we didn't continue
to Mexico City and it seems really strange to me now that I think about
it, but it's 100 percent sure that we'll travel
to Mexico next year".
The musician denies the rumor that indicated they didn't play in Mexico City because of his fear to fly in a plane."
Smith: I will never be untouchable
The Cure's leader talks about groups that don't accept criticism
Alberto Castillo Torres
El Universal. Sunday, July 13th, 2003
He's almost three decades in the music business
and it's the forger of an esthetic that has influenced more than a
generation, but for Robert Smith it is not
simple to give his point of view about the British rock groups that today
mark a music trend. However, in an interview
from London, The Cure's leader considered that at least the members
of Radiohead have become untouchables, and
mistakenly, they think that they can't be criticized.
"The Bends is a fantastic album, but I didn't
like OK Computer, nor Kid A, and sinceI haven't heard their new
album, I don't know if I'm going to like it".
"There are many groups that are untouchables
and, after several years, Radiohead has taken that posture, and no
one can make any criticism of them. If people
like their records as much as they say, I think that they are achieving
something that for everybody else is unusual",
replied Smith, sarcastically. The good thing about the band
commanded by Thom Yorke (and that more than
one critic has pointed out as the best rock band in the world, and
even as the successor of The Beatles) is,
in music words, that "opposite to others, they believe in their work, and
that's good, though I don't like what they
do".
Resistant to be compared with other British
rock icons such as David Bowie, because "like him I just aspire to
make music in which I truly believe", the
author of "Killing an Arab" showed interest after being questioned about
the so called fight against terrorism that
the government of his country has supported.
"It's a war that can't be won, it's like the
war against drugs and the governments have a totally wrong approach
about this problem".
"Terrorism is terrible, to kill innocent people
just for the cause that you believe in doesn't justify it morally, but
it
happens because there is a lot of inequality
in the world. The money that is spent on missiles should be used to fight
the AIDS problem, or to bring third-world
countries to the first-world, but since it doesn't happen, this will create
an
extreme social dissatisfaction situation that
will only generate more terrorism".
A decisive factor is religion, according to Smith.
"Humans have this damn obsession with it. If
religion were made illegal for a year, it would be a very happy year,
but these mind differences have provoked 5
percent of humanity to consume 85 percent of what is produced in the
world, which it seems to me demential".
With faith that the next generation will change
for good the world's conditions, the artist indicated that he never has
reflected explicitly his politic ideas in
The Cure's songs, neither will he in the next record.
"The Cure has lived very aside from what happens
in the world. I want our songs to be aside from any time, and I
don't feel that The Cure can comment on the
happenings in the world or the social problems".
"It's inevitable that the world's situation
have an influence on me, but I'd hate to produce a record that only was
about the world that we live in today, cause
in five years from now, it's going to be completely different", he says.
(Thanks to Roberto Zúñiga Torres
for translating and typing all of this up!)