David Jensen : Lots of listeners want to know about the single Let's Go To Bed, if there's any meaning behind things or if it's just the invitation it would suggest.
Robert : (Laugh). No, there's no meaning behind it at all. It's just a horrible pop single really.
David Jensen : How is it going on the Siouxsie and the Banshees tour, 'cause you had to replace John McGeoch, who is not feeling well.
Robert : Yeah, it's fab. Really. It's a bit mentally full of stress but it's good fun.
David Jensen : What sort of notice did you have before you had to jump in the last minute ?
Robert : Hummm. Five days before I knew. No, about seven days before the tour started.
David Jensen : Was that really intense training then or were you aware of most of the material anyway ?
Robert : Humm. I was aware of it but you realise when you try to learn something just how unaware you are of what's actually going on. It's very easy to sing a song but, you know, especially in the course of the Banshees' new album, the guitars were very removed from the actual songs. So it was difficult to try to find which parts to play because there's about 10 guitars on every track.
David Jensen : That's right ! But the thing is, do you play in your own style or do you very much try to do the kind of things John McGeoch would be doing if he was up on stage ?
Robert : Unfortunately, there's no real precedent for the Dreamhouse songs on stage live, apart from the Elephant Fayre early in the year. Noone has really heard how they should be played. Which could always be a disavantage, people would think I'm not as capable as John Mc Geoch because I don't sound like the record. But yeah, it's quite easy if you get inside, in the case of McGeoch's mind, it's easy to follow then what he's gonna do. I feel I've interpreted more than copied, I suppose, what's he's done.
David Jensen : It's not the first time you had to step in at the last moment in the Banshees. The first time was when two members suddenly left and you were supporting them and you jumped in, didn't you ?
Robert : Yep. It's when it started.
David Jensen : So have you remained sort of good friends with them all this time ?
Robert : Yes. I kept the contact since then. The only reason why we did the tour was because we admired them as a band so... and I asked to support them. That was the only support days we would do, even then, even if we were relatively unknown. And it was just fortunate I suppose. From the Cure's point of view and my point of view, that the other two left.
David Jensen : Did you do any Cure song on stage with members of the audience asking you to play A Forest or something like that ?
Robert : (laughs) Yeah, some wacky people shout out things like A Forest, but they're quickly dismissed with a look.
David Jensen : Are you still going to record some material with Steve Severin ?
Robert : We're like in the process of doing a single when the Banshees went off to Milan and always sort of started. So we haven't had the chance to finish it. We're going to do an album as well early next year. None of it is finished. That project's been going on since when I first played with the Banshees. We'd say, "we'll do an album together". But you know we were always doing something at different times so... but now I think we'll have the time to be able to do it.
David Jensen : Why is Simon not on the cover of the new single or credited as he was on the Pornography album ? He hasn't left yet, has he ? Many people say he has left and why ?
Robert : Oooh.
David Jensen : Has he left first of all ?
Robert : Yeah, I suppose so. It's been very strange, over the past six months we were doing a tour in Europe and I got gradually more and more desillusioned with just the idea of being in a touring group. And I just came home and there would be lots of rows and things and I seriously thought after finishing the whole thing just giving up being in the music business. Cause I've got really tired of being seen as someone who could make money by selling a certain amount of records and all the things tied up with that. So I just said I wasn't going to do anything until the end of this year. Eventually I started seeing Lol again. And we just went into the studio and we just did that. Basically, it's what it's been like. I mean, we sort of drift it apart more than it has been a conscious decision saying "Simon's not in the band". He wasn't on the single anyway. It would be dumb to credit him with the part and a picture.
David Jensen : The image of the Cure, you're talking about making pop singles and all that, the whole cycle thing. What's interesting about the Cure is people generally haven't had a look at you because obviously you made a really determined effort to be low profile like in the Pornography album, you're wearing masks. Why is that ?
Robert : I don't know. There are reasons but they're pretty dumb. It's just we initially started the whole idea because we didn't want the people to know how we look like so they wouldn't be biased against the record. If you went to a record store and you saw our first record which had a fridge, a hover and a lamp on it. That wouldn't give you any indication at all about how the music was. In a bright pink cover. So we just carried on. I think we've done it badly a lot of times. The whole idea of keeping a low profile. I think it worked against as much as it has worked for us really.
David Jensen : Things changed now, don't you think ?
Robert : I don't know. It always seems funny anyway. On record sleeves, on photos...
David Jensen : Is Let's Go To Bed part of a new beginning then ?
Robert : I don't know. No, it's not a new direction at all. This single was done, started off really, as an experiment. Just for me, just to see if I could still write, really like a pop song. I personally thought it should have come out under a different name. Not under the name of the Cure. I had a few arguments about this. "We shouldn't release this, people would be crying"...
David Jensen : But that's interesting cause you're actually going back to the actual model of keeping the band's face hidden cause now you're think about hiding the name of the band as well.
Robert : Yeah. It's obviously like a Christmas record. But it's not brought out at Christmas in a cynical way. Or it could be seen to be that. We made it from a record company's point of view. I still think Christmas is sort of fab. There's good records at Christmas. But also the worst record of the year are released at Christmas. I just really wanted it to be a one-off, it will be a one-off. We won't conceive follow-up singles.
David Jensen : But you haven't lost any credibility...
Robert : It has nothing to do with credibility. I don't care what people think in general. There's always been a guide line just for me of what I think is the Cure and when it was done I just wouldn't think it was the Cure. But it was released as the Cure... I could have made a point of it, like a big point, but I just thought it's not really worth it, it's Christmas and everyone will be drunk when they'll hear it. They won't remember or believe it in January so...
David Jensen : Who are the bands that you enjoy today ? Or you used to enjoy, maybe that sort of music you heard when you were young and inspired you ?
Robert : Gosh... everyone. Because I had an older brother, an older sister and a younger sister. Mum and Dad were classical madness in the house and things. So it's just been blues and Captain Beefheart, Rolling Stones, the Beatles and then David Bowie...
David Jensen : The Cure really established right from the start a very different sound from everybody else. The heavy bass lines...
Robert : I think the reason behind that has again to do with low profile, because when we started I didn't sing. For a year and a half of being on stage, I just used to be the guitarist. And when I started to sing I wasn't very capable of singing and play at the same time. That's why Michael used to start playing more bass. It carried on from there. The guitars have always been as important as everything else in the Cure, but never more important.. I don't think.
