I'd like to have your point of view about that. Lots of people, lots of artists, rejected the 80s.
And you, what is your point of view about this? Are you rejecting the 80s too?
I don't think there's such a thing as the 80s. It's just like, because of now having come from the 70s through the 80s and into the 90s,
it's a really lazy kind of media-driven perception that things are grouped into like 10-year periods.
It's bollocks, they're not. The 80s is like the human lead, like the, ran right the way through until you end up with Nirvana.
I mean, and in between there's, I mean there was loads of really bad music, but there always is, there was in the 70s.
And in some ways I think decades, if anything, have broken up into like beginnings and ends.
The middle bit always seems really weak. The middle of the 70s was like pretty rubbish.
The beginning was excellent, it was like glam, and the end of it was punk, it was really good.
And some of the 80s, the start of the 80s was excellent, like the human lead and that, that was really, really good.
I mean, if you were at the right age at the right time, that was really, really good.
The middle of the 80s was a bit soft, you know, it did not very much happen, and the end of the 80s was excellent.
I mean, in England I thought there was some really, really good groups at the end of the 80s.
And the night, moving into the 90s, there was like brilliant dance music, really brilliant dance music and ambient dance music.
And I think there's, I think we're in the middle of a very soft period at the moment.
I have no respect at all, like for most of the people that are involved in English or British new music.
I think most of them are so average. There's nothing there, there's no inspiration at all.
It's just like people just like, just going through the motions of like being in a band.
And all they want to do is just like get what you get out of being in a band.
They don't actually want to like do something creative, they don't want to make anything beautiful.
They just want to be in a band and like do, you know, like get to the bar, it's like get the show over with and like let's take some drugs, you know.
Which is fair enough, but it doesn't really lend itself to like, to emotional music.
I mean, that's what I like. The thing is that it doesn't matter, really, because it doesn't matter what I think or what I say.
I'm nothing.
No, you're not.
Well, I mean, in that I do this because that's what I want to do.
So I'm not, I don't like to be a critic of what anyone else does, because I know how difficult it is to do anything anyway.
So if anyone does it, I much prefer someone does something and I think it's bad and I just keep my mouth shut.
At least they've done something. I hate people that criticize and they don't do anything.
Yes, but most of the band of the 80s that you were turning, Human League, to all these groups of the 80s,
everyone disappeared like Human League. You're still here and still at the top of your career.
And you seem to be the only one that have the 80s was still the same at the same level, some high level.
So that means that you have the recipe of success or recipe of something that you're going to tell to your French people.
Yeah, because we're always unfashionable.
I think that's it. And also because I think that some of the songs are good. That sort of helps, you know.
You got the name of a song.
Well, if we had like all the attitude that I want the group to have in the world and we didn't have good songs,
it wouldn't matter because no one would want to listen to The Cure. So you have to have that.
And I think that the problem with a lot of people, a lot of groups and a lot of musicians, artists,
even outside of music, is they find something they're comfortable with and they stay there.
And we haven't. I mean, we still work. The Cure is not really a dangerous group, I don't think.
We're just like a slightly strange pop group. There's nothing too dangerous about it.
You mean risky?
Yeah, I mean, we're very conventional. We always use like drums, bass, guitars and that.
But within that context, I try and like make the group do something slightly different.
But it's always, it's pretty, you know.
That was your strength, maybe, in a way, now?
We started off as a pop group and I still think we are. We just, we've got like an edge to us.
It's just a bit weird, you know.
The line-up of Cure has changed many times. Roger O'Donnell comes again, Simon Gallop left.
They all come back.
So is it very difficult to work with Robert Smith, in a way?
No, if it was, they wouldn't come back with them.
No, I like the idea of there being changes in the line-up.
It does help me because I get fed up, I suppose, with people.
The thing about being in the Cure is it's quite draining, emotionally draining,
because I demand a lot from everyone around me. I don't let anyone...
If I'm going to be, like, everyone else has to be. And sometimes people aren't prepared to do that all the time.
And so they leave, but then they come back.
But I still, I mean, everyone apart from Lowell, I'm friends with, that's ever been in the Cure.
I still talk to him, still write to him, still speak to him on the phone.
So it's like a very big, strange family, the Cure.
I think at some point everyone will come back into the Cure.
For years, you've toured, you've produced, have you tried experiments, something?
I had a year and a half of just being normal.
Being a normal human being?
Yeah, I went home and I lived, and I established ties with my family and, like, friends that I'd lost touch with.
Because I'd been doing things with the Cure for, like, seven and a half years until 1992, without a single break.
And it's, I mean, through choice, I really enjoyed it.
But I suddenly realized that I had done nothing else, which is a bit worrying.
As long as I had a court case, which took up six months of my life.
I just walked away from the group, and just, I didn't think I'd come back.
Actually, in 1993, I thought that was it, and I was quite happy, but...
Are you going to make an album soon, after this one, close to this one?
Well, the others want to make one in two weeks, between the American tour and the European tour.
Much? Merci beaucoup, c'est vraiment, c'est génial, c'est génial, pas d'autres mots, c'est vraiment super.
Merci beaucoup, le mic, c'est terminé, thank you very much, goodbye.
See you soon in France, playing live.
Okay, ciao ciao.