Gary Numan

Photo by Jack Lue

The Legendary gary numan

presenTs InTruder

gary numan has reTurned wITh InTruder - hIs 18Th soLo sTudIo aLbum expLorIng The Idea of The modern worLd warnIng and fIghTIng back agaInsT humanITy’s caTasTrophIc behavIour. hIghwIre daze recenTLy InTervIewed The Legendary performer To dIscuss The unveILIng of The epIc InTruder In The mIdsT of a worLdwIde pandemIc, hIs LookIng forward To pLayIng ouT LIve agaIn, ThoughTs on The one and onLy davId bowIe, and oTher TopIcs of InTrIgue. read on as we vIsIT The omInous worLd of gary numan’s InTruder...

Interview by Ken Morton - Live Photo by Jack Lue

Is there any overall story of concept behind the album title Intruder?

The theme of it is if the Earth could speak – if it could voice what it’s feeling at the moment, what would it say? How does it feel about what’s going on through climate change? Does it feel disappointed? Does it feel disillusioned? Does it feel betrayed? Is it angry? The biggest question is does it want to fight back? Is it already fighting back? Is the virus the first stage of many in its desire to fight back? That’s pretty much it. In a way, it follows on from the last album that I did called Savage, which took climate change as its core theme and then I did sort of a science fiction story in the future based on what that world might be like. And with this one, it still uses climate change as it’s core reason for being. I just wanted to find a different way of keeping that conversation going. In fact, my youngest, who was 11 at the time – a couple of years ago wrote a poem called Earth – and it’s essentially the Intruder idea. In its pain, the Earth is speaking and it’s talking about how sad it is and how disillusioned it is by people and what we’ve become and what it needs to do. And for an 11-year-old, to show that amount of understanding and empathy I thought was amazing – and it stuck with me. And then when it came time to do Intruder, she had already sort of planted that seed in my mind, so I just expanded it a little bit. In fact, on the album sleeve, when that comes out, as you open up the gatefold, her poem is the first thing that you see. It’s very front and center, because it really did start with her. And her poem is really a beautiful way of saying what I’m trying to drag out in the album.

What has it been like to write, record and release new music in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and so much social unrest in the world today?

In a strange way to begin with, it didn’t change anything at all – because I was already working on the album – and the album already had its theme and direction. And part of the idea was about the Earth fighting back. There was already elements in the lyrics about the Earth doing things to us – so

when the virus came along, it kind of just fed straight into the idea. There’s a song on the album called The Gift, which is about the virus, but it was already kind of there – the idea. It was weird actually the way that happened. But I was just locked away – I’m going out to the studio every day – I’m coming out in the evening when it’s dark – I’m totally obsessing about it now and I’m not really going out as much. And when the pandemic came along and we were told to stay home, I barely noticed to begin with – because my life didn’t change at all. When you’re making an album and you’re really deep into it, the world just rolls by and you’re barely aware of the day to day of what’s going on. But as time went by, I think I finished recording it in July – maybe August – when I kind of came out of that and started to reattach myself to the world again, that was pretty shocking! But the actual making of it was barely touched by it, and yet you would think to listen to it that it’s been heavily touched by it, because it seems to be an album that partly includes the virus and what’s going on now. But it was already there – that was a story that I was already trying to tell. It just kind of unfolded more deeply as I was making the record.

What were your first impressions when you found out that David Bowie had passed away. What was going through your mind?

Shocking really, because there was no warning – there was no talk about him being unwell. This is a terrible comparison, but there was a Star Trek film where Captain Kirk died – and I remember getting really upset when Captain Kirk died even though it wasn’t real – because somehow it symbolized my childhood – my life – something that I had grown up with. Even though it was only a character, that character got so old now that it was acceptable to kill him off – and he was gone. And I felt much the same when Bowie died – when I got the news about Bowie – this was somebody that you’ve grown up with which has been a big part of your life at different times – and then he’s gone. It’s not only shocking for the fact of the person and all that he’s achieved, but what it means to your own life. I think there’s a selfish streak in some of us that makes you think about your own mortality at that point. You think fuck – when all your parents die and then your heroes die and then you die – you know what I mean? It kind of brings your own thoughts to “Oh that’s terrible and awful! What a terrible thing to happen!” to “Fuck! I’m next!” You go through a horribly selfish full circle and I feel awful about thinking that! It wasn’t just Bowie – Prince died and George Michael – god, there were so many that year! That was a particularly bad year. And everyone of them is like a little needle in the arm of “Oh my god, we’re all marching towards it!” I can remember – my wife was telling me about when Steve McQueen died many years ago, how upset her mum was – and it was for very similar reasons – as if a part of you dies with them on the one hand since they’ve been such a part of your life and he’s gone – and it reminds you of your own mortality and how that’s racing towards you – just like a double-edged sadness.

Let’s go back to 40 years ago when you released Dance – one of the most interesting and controversial albums that you’ve done. Looking back on that album, what do you think of it now in retrospect – and the fact that it was 40 years ago…

I really like it. I really liked Dance when I did it. The record company was not so keen, because it was such a diversion from where I’ve been before – and from a career point of view where I should have been maybe churning out more Cars type songs. I go and do something like Dance which is a complete change of direction. I could understand where the record company thought I was being a bit suicidal with that one. For me it was always about trying something different – it’s always been about trying not to repeat yourself. I can’t always claim to being successful and I can’t always claim that the albums I’ve made have been good – because they haven’t. But the attempt has been to always improve on the one before and trying something different – bring in different instrumentation – try to do different things on the production side and whatever – just try to keep moving forward. And sometimes that meant going sideways first and then you can go forward again. But I really liked it – I do really like it. I do think it’s a really quirky record. If you’ve had some success with more poppy type songs like Cars and so on – and then you do something like Dance – that’s actually a real gamble. That was a big risk to take – and it was one that I was completely happy to do and one that the record company were very reluctant to – and they went for it anyway. And to be fair, they were right in that it probably wasn’t the best album I should have done or the most suitable. But it’s not just about being successful – it’s about trying to do things musically which are interesting and a little bit more challenging.

And as for the 40 years thing, that’s amazing. These kinds of anniversaries now for my albums – I’ve done so many! I did a chart about a year ago where I wrote down all of my albums – and I did like 5, 10, 15, 20, 21, 25 years and I started ticking the boxes – and pretty much every year for the rest of my life will be an anniversary of one album or another. (Laughs) For

the rest of my life I could do an anniversary tour and not even write fucking new songs. It’s just I’ve been around for such a long time. It’s a long time – and I’m just kicking – dust.

You don’t seem like someone you likes to look back – you like to look forward. So, we probably won’t see a 30-year anniversary of Outland anytime soon…

(Much laughter) Noooooo. I’ll tell you what though. I can’t wait to get back to touring – at the moment, I don’t care what it is! I’ll do a medley of Cars if it will help me get back onstage again! You don’t realize how much you miss something until it’s sort of taken away from you. Usually I’m touring constantly – when one tour’s finishing then I’m usually a few weeks away from another one. There might be a slight lull where I make a new album, but even then, I normally pop some excuse of a tour in the middle of it to break up the monotony of the studio stuff. But this has been awful! This has been a year and a half now. It’s the longest period ever since I became a musician where I’ve not toured – and the lifestyle – the excitement of that being with your friends – the travelling – the crowds – all of that – I never realized how much I would miss it. I wouldn’t be lying if I said a few years ago I was sort of talking to my wife and friends and I was thinking about how long I’m going to keep going with it. Maybe I’ll do another tour and that will be it. And then it’s taken away, and you think “Oh my god, I can’t imagine never doing it again!” And now that I’ve not done it for a while, I can’t imagine! Stop touring? Why would I ever do that? It’s just the best thing!

Do you have any messages for your fans who are reading this right now?

The one that’s really prominent is how grateful I am. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and I’ve always tried hard with the music to make it as good as it can be. There’s been some weaker moments when I look back for sure. But the fact that people stay with you – the fact that people spend the time to check out what you’re doing and to buy tickets to come see you. I think with most artists who’ve been doing it for a long time – the appreciation of that really starts to sink in and how important it is and how grateful we should be for that. It really starts to become more than lip service after a while. I think when you first become successful, you kind of expect it. It’s all exciting and everyone’s got fans – but over time, when they stay with you and support you and when you’re down, they pick you up. There have been many occasions where I’ve been pretty close to being broken and beaten – especially in the middle years when things had been going pretty badly – and you go onstage and everybody starts screaming. It just picks you up. Sometimes it’s just a simple message – a simple message will come through and makes up for all the shit you were in that day. You know, it really does make a world of difference. And I’m just very, very grateful...

Exciting & Incredible Debut By

Available ON MR RECORDS 28TH May 2021 www.melodicrockrecords.com