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NEWS : STORIES
British synth-pop outfit New Order created one of the early 80s' catchiest sounds when they fused electronica and dance rhythms from London's underground club scene. The group formed from the ashes of famed punk outfit Joy Division after their lead
VH1: After all of these years, what has changed about New Order and making music? Bernard Sumner: We don't take as many drugs. When we used to come to America in the 80's and the 90's we'd get fucked up all the time. This is probably the only time I have been to NY where I haven't been off my face. It's kind of good, 'cause you wake up in a good mood. Reality is a lot more interesting in the flesh then what passed for reality in those days. Did you get inspiration from the drugs? If so, how did you learn to get it without them? Sumner: Yeah. We used to stay up all night in the recording studio. The longest session we had was on the "Perfect Kiss." We stayed up for 72 hours straight. After that, we went back to our flat in London, packed up all our clothes, drove up to Manchester, flew to Australia and did a tour. Maybe [drugs] weren't all that bad; they made us work hard. In the end, you start off using 'em and they end up using you. In the end they are always destructive. I wouldn't recommend anyone go down that road. What was the inspiration behind the title, Waiting for the Sirens Call? Peter Hook: In myths, sirens would lure sailors onto the rocks and their boyfriends would come and rob them. I quite like the analogy of it, being lured to your death by pretty young voices. But it was all a bloody sham. There were no bloody sirens. It was just a bunch of boilers luring the sailors onto the rocks... How did Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters end up singing on "Jetstream?" Hook: There are two versions of this story. I just heard Bernard's. "Jetstream" was finished, and we used our backing vocalist, a lovely girl named Dawn. Then our A&R manager said that there was something missing. We were like, "Shut up mate! You're an A & R man!" So anyway, they wanted to do a remix on it, and basically our A&R guy insisted Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters have a go. Lo and behold, she did a great job, 'cause we weren't really expected anything more on it then what we had done, but she took it and did a good job. There is talk of it being the next single, but it's a bit poppy for my liking really. How did you pick the single? Hook: It's strange. When we did this disc the first two singles that the record company picked were very New Order. Normally we pick really poppy songs. I was like "Finally! After eight albums these singles sound like New Order." Then that bloody woman from the Scissor Sisters comes along and does a bloody great job and now they have stuck that one out. No, I'm delighted, of course. What's the video for "Crafty" like? Hook: It has a lot of kissing in it and we have come to the conclusion that people like kissing. It's about a couple who have sex for the first time. It is not a sex education video, but it's pretty bloody obvious what they are up to. The Killers actually took their name from one of your videos, which had an imaginary band in it. Hook: Michael Shamburg of Factory USA shopped around and saw the opportunity to make these like mini films with a great soundtrack. It was his idea to approach accomplished filmmakers like Katherine Bigelow and Jonathan Demme, and say, "OK, here is your soundtrack, a sound track by New Order." They would be like, "Oh my god! Fantastic! A soundtrack by New Order!" He was very good at the schmoozing dinner. You couldn't get people like that to do a pop video now. The strange thing was that we got nothing but grief from VH1 and MTV, 'cause we weren't in them. They were like, "No band? Not interested." We released the video for "Perfect Kiss" in the cinema as a thing with the main feature. That was the only way this could get seen. Now it is OK for the band to not be in the video. So we were visionaries in that quest. Did it click that The Killers had taken their name from your video? Hook: I got the EP before I had even heard of that and it never twigged. I just thought it was a fantastic record. We were at the NME awards in England, and we were seated next to the Killers. Brandon [Flowers] was there and he gave me a drink of Diet Coke, which was very nice of him, 'cause we had run out. I went over to him because my son is a huge fan of theirs, and said, "Do you mind if I get a picture 'cause my son is a huge fan?" Then he kissed me -- but not with tongue - and said, "Oh man, I am a huge fan of your music." I said, "That is funny, 'cause I am a huge fan of your music." He was a real character; I really liked him. What are the ingredients that keep you together? Hook: A wry sense of humor, patience, and doing what Bernard says. It is democracy, as long as you do what he says. He is a very strange character, 'cause he is sort of insecure. Even if he gets something great, he'll still try everything else. We'll sit there and wait and he will try out [every musical idea he can think of]. Then he'll come back and be like, "Yeah, the first one was the best." It's not perfectionism; I think it is a Capricorn thing. But the strangest thing about New Order is that we never talk about music. We just sit down and do it. You guys were part of the famed Hacienda club scene in Manchester. Is there any kind of focal point for an entire music scene these days? Hook: The strangest part about the Hacienda was that we didn't play our music there. I mean we played there, but not our music. The whole point of the Hacienda was not? to play our music. It was against our ethos, which seems ridiculous now. Y'know, build a nightclub and not play your own music. The Hacienda was actually inspired by New York and the Paradise Garage. We took it back to Manchester with us. There was nowhere in Manchester for people like us to go cause you had to dress very smartly. It was disco-inspired, so the idea was that we wanted to build something for ourselves, somewhere we could go. What gets your music across now? Hook: What we have done in the past. We've proven time and again that we make good music. The thing New Order has going for it is that a lot of people in this business have grown up with us, since 1979 with Joy Division. Now the record execs that are the bosses were fans of ours in the 80's. We were in France, and the head of Warner Bros. in France was explaining to us how he ran into a New Order gig and ripped his trousers. Have you ever had a riot at one of your shows? Hook: The way I used to work was, "this is my stage, f*ck off." I did that in Santa Monica when some kid tried climbing up onstage. I put my foot on his head and the audience started booing and throwing stuff at me. All is fair. I have been beaten up several times. If you dole it out you have got to be prepared to take it. We have had some good riots when we didn't play encores. The strangest one was Boston, when we played and it was crap. We used to play a different set each night. We really challenged this Boston audience and won. They were really pissed off and we were in the dressing room miles away from the stage. We were there with our manager, and we're like "Where are the roadies?" Normally they would come back to the dressing room. So we sat there for another 15 minutes. Then we went downstairs and saw this roadie with a speaker around his head. There was a massive riot that smashed all the gear up. They had to call in the mounted police to move them out and we missed it all sitting in the dressing room!
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