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EXCLUSIVE: 21 and Under With…GARY NUMAN

October 29th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by Editor in Chief

(Photo – Ed Fielding)

New Wave legend and the godfather of electronic music’s humble beginning, Gary Numan has taken a few breaks, but never stopped his mission to keep creating unique and diverse electronic music. Thirty-one years later he has strapped on the gear, loaded up the bus and has once again hit the road to give die-hard fans a complete live version of the classic album “The Pleasure Principle”, played in it’s entirety. ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day spoke with Gary from Toronto to get an update on his current activities and on the recent incident where he lost his voice while playing in Atlanta.

1. ABORT: We heard that you recently lost your voice, what’s the situation with that right now?

GARY NUMAN: It’s okay now. It vanished entirely on day two of the tour. I couldn’t even talk let alone sing anything. We had to cancel the Atlanta show, which was a real bummer for me. That’s the only show I’ve cancelled for health reasons in 31 years of touring, so it was a huge disappointment. For the next three shows I had to ask the audience to sing a few of the higher pitched songs that I still couldn’t get to, but since last week’s New York show it’s been okay.

2. ABORT: “The Pleasure Principle Tour 2010” sees you going to Mexico for a few dates, any particular reason you chose Mexico rather than doing a string of South American dates?

GN: I don’t like being away from my children for too long. I usually limit touring to two-week segments these days for that reason. This tour is around three weeks, so I’m already pushing that limit some way. We had the option to extend the tour and go all across South America, but it would have been way too long away from them. They are only young and it’s not good to be away from them for too long, not for them or me. We intend to come back to South America next year.

3. ABORT: Can we see Gary Numan doing any more appearances as you did when you performed “Metal” with Trent Reznor or maybe some surprise guests to appear on your current tour?

GN: It’s not something I plan for to be honest, but I’m happy if people want to come and join us for a song or two. The Nine Inch Nails thing evolved from a single guest appearance when they played London last year into also playing at the final four NIN shows in Los Angeles. That was an amazing experience. On this tour, we had Nash The Slash join us on stage in Toronto, which was very cool.

4. ABORT: You will be heading back to the U.K. for a few dates, do you still find years later that a North American crowd are less or more receptive?

GN: I think they are pretty similar actually. A good crowd in North America makes the same kind of noise as a good crowd at home. Haven’t had any bad ones yet, so I guess I’ve been lucky.

5. ABORT: Next studio album: When are we looking at as far as a release date and can we get a few producers names that are involved?

GN: It’s likely to be called Splinter and I’m working on it with Ade Fenton again, who worked on the last album Jagged. I hope to have it out by spring 2011 or soon after. We also have another album called Dead Son Rising that we have nearly finished. We are still unsure whether to release that as an album or move that music over into two film projects that are being put together at the moment.

6. ABORT: This tour seems to be a solidified line-up of musicians, are you going to keep this troupe for recording as well?

GN: I don’t really use musicians much on the albums as I tend to play most things myself, along with Ade these days. Having said that, Tim Muddiman and Steve Harris have already contributed some great guitar and bass parts for some of the songs, but it’s not really a studio band, it’s a live band.

7. ABORT: With the exception of the track listing, how does The Pleasure Principle 2009 DVD differ both visually and musically when compared to let’s say Jagged or Cold Warning DVD’s?

GN: The Pleasure Principle 2009 DVD and Jagged are not so different. Obviously the PP DVD has all the old PP songs on it, played in a very similar style to the 1979 originals, but the rest of the show is along the lines of the Jagged DVD. A few changes in band lineup perhaps and the lights are obviously different, but overall you can see it’s from a closer point in the band’s history than the Cold Warning DVD. That goes back to 1984, different look entirely, different sound entirely, different band entirely.

8. ABORT: Best date on this tour so far and will we ever see Gary Numan doing a full or condensed Canadian tour?

GN: Best show so far has probably been Chicago. We played there with Recoil, Alan Wilder’s band, and had a great time. Sold out, fantastic crowd, amazing atmosphere. To be honest though, we haven’t had a bad night on the entire tour. It’s been the most enjoyable tour that I’ve played in North America for a very long time for a number of reasons. I do seem to have a problem with Canadian promoters, however. With the exception of Toronto, and even then their offer was the lowest on the tour by far and barely covered my costs for going there, no other Canadian promoter was interested. It is a bit frustrating because we sold out Toronto, and we have sold out shows in the majority of the other cities we have visited as well. To not be able to find a promoter in Montreal or Vancouver for example, historically two cities I would play in, that was interested in having me was very disappointing. Perhaps they will think again next time when they look at how well this tour has sold. From my point of view, I would love to play more shows in Canada.

ABORT: Thanks for your time Gary.

You can catch Gary Numan live for the following dates :

Sun 10/31 Seattle, WA Neumos

Mon 11/1 Portland, OR Roseland Theatre

Tue 11/2 San Francisco, CA Fillmore

Wed 11/3 Los Angeles, CA El Rey

Thu 11/4 Los Angeles, CA El Rey

For more tour dates and info go to:

numan.co.uk

By E.S. Day

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