Interviewer : There's quite a long time since you had any kind of record out. What's been happening to you ?
Robert : Most people consolidate their position by bringing another single, follow up singles, but we just didn't want to do that. We just went away.
Simon : There really wasn't a lot of time or anything since last year anyway.
Robert : We did go in the studio, last year... And recorded a few things but we didn't really like any.
Interviewer : It strikes me there was a tremendous change between your first two albums, Three Imaginary Boys and Seventeen Seconds... And this (Faith album) is to quite a degree a continuation of Seventeen Seconds...
Robert : When we first started, it was supposed to be louder and more aggressive than anything we've done before. Because that's how we felt at the time. It's not as aggressive as it should be really. It's just while we were actually making it, things changed. It's as simple as that. The tracks changed, the way we approched tracks changed radically from what we were doing when we were rehearsing and decided what we're gonna do. When we actually recorded a song it turned out completely different from how we imagined it would.
Interviewer : When you say things changed, it sounds like lot of these things were significant. What were they ?
Robert : Death in the family.
Interviewer : Seriously ?
Robert : Yeah. It's just like... The atmosphere was, I think it was, slightly delirious, recording in the same studio as Seventeen Seconds. We were back into the same studio that held the emotion from Seventeen Seconds, it was there, when we were doing the album. It was really hard to shake off.
The other difficulty in the making was again from a physical point of view. Where we were recording... Because we had to move out, for various reasons, we were half way through it... So we actually did the album in about seven different studios in London. Which is never very good for the continuity. We were working, always behind, like way behind, that's why the track "Doubt", I don't really like it. Because it was rushed, the vocals were done really early in the morning because we had to meet a deadline. We had no more studio time booked. But really we shouldn't have been given that pressure. We should have said "no, we'll take another week, another month". Because why all that time to make the album anyway ? There's always one mistake that occurs when we do something. There's always one mistake, and that was it really. So it's got seven really good tracks and one not so good.
Interviewer : Simon, do you disagree ? You're in charge of the loudness and the aggression in the band I think...
Simon : I don't know. I like that track (Doubt). It's because what was said about, it does sound like... manic in a way and I like that. Always do.
Interviewer : Do you think there should be more of it in the Cure ?
Simon : I'm not saying anything like that. I'd get sacked or something... ! (laughs)
Interviewer : There seems to be a lot of emptiness and loneliness in your songs. Tell me about it, boys... What's the problem ?
Lol : It's just that we always wanted to express our worst side and things that always happen to us when we're feeling at our lowest. And we never felt happy doing anything else, really. I mean, it seems contradictory, never felt happy, but... We do have, I don't know, a certain joy to get rid of melancholy feelings by saying them, or singing them.
Interviewer : Simon, what's your version ?
Simon : It's just more confortable.
Interviewer : Confortable to be miserable ?
Simon : No, it's not being miserable really. More confortable to reflect that aspect of the mood. If we were Kool and the Gang, we could sing "Celebration". I mean, it's like asking Kool and the Gang why they don't sing about misery. It's what we're more confortable playing or singing about.
Interviewer : Right. Robert ?
Robert : The songs just reflect what we feel like doing and what, I think, everybody would feel like if they stopped for about half a minute.
Interviewer : Is it a good idea to stop for that half minute then ?
Robert : It is from time to time. It's not like we're morose or anything. If you were playing songs in front of people, songs that people want to hear over and over again, you have to have convictions in what you're doing.
Interviewer : The title of the album, Faith, it sounds very positive and straight down the line. Is that what it's about ?
Robert : Yeah. It was supposed to be a positive statement to try to move out away slightly from our awfully obscure imagery that has been pressed upon us by certain people in the media. It's really not just faith, it's like faith in what you do.
Interviewer : We're gonna close with The Drowning Man. Have you got any comment on that one ?
Robert : Yeah, it's about a Mervyn Peake book. Titus Groan trilogy. It's not based on the book, it's just about one of the characters in the book. A girl, called Fuchsia, a very unfortunate sad character.
Interviewer : So why is it Drowning Man ?
Lol : A will of obscurity (laughs).
