July 2003 by Tero Alanko
Soundi
translated in english from finnish by Steven Hallaselka
The 72-minute Disintegration was specifically compiled with the CD format in mind. The vinyl version of the album in fact had two tracks omitted. Before the Trilogy project Smith had very little experience regarding the DVD format which he is claiming to be "remotely interested" in... 6 months ago he didn't even own a DVD player. "Before this project I felt discordant" says Smith. "In fact, I'm still a bit unhappy about how DVD's are promoted because they often contain material that is not available on VHS. It's wrong to force the consumer to buy a product in a certain format to get something that they can't get in another format. That is really crap. I really hate the idea of having numerous versions of the same CD that are marketed in different regions, what I mean is the different order of the tracklisting or the album containing extra 'bonus' tracks or similar absurdities. I think a product should be identical in all places, unless there is a truly valid reason for it to be different."
"The record company wanted to release The Trilogy just on DVD alone but I insisted for it to be released on VHS also as I don't want the record company to force all Cure fans to go out and buy a DVD player. We tried to fit everything on one VHS cassette and it actually worked pretty well apart from the interview section. If someone really insists seeing the interview, it's their choice as a consumer to buy a DVD player. But even I realised that there is no point of releasing the VHS as a double cassette release...but I think in The US it will actually be out on a double VHS cassette because the quality of VHS tape is a bit poorer. If I compare the picture quality of the DVD to the VHS I must admit that it is much better for the former. The surround sound creates a special live-sensation which itself makes a 'better' experience of this as a whole. "
"We are already beginning to record our next album but I don't think we will be using the "5.1 surround sound" as on the DVD. I wouldn't mind giving it a go but I don't think the producer of the record, Ross Robinson, would like the idea too much. I have given him total control of the recording aspects of this album" says Smith. As incredible as it sounds the new producer in fact is Ross Robinson, the same guy who has created the unique sound for Nu-Metal bands such as 'Korn', 'Limp Bizkit' and 'Slipknot' to name but a few. Smith has signed a three album deal with Robinsons "I Am Recording" label and the first one of those albums is due out next spring. Maybe some comfort to Cure fans is that Robinson has claimed to a be a huge fan of the Cure since the 1980's. Smith: " We have already spent about four weeks recording demos and we will probably spend another two before the actual recording session with Ross which is scheduled to commence around July-August. The album should be canned before Christmas and out for a spring release. It's very fascinating, this time round Ross has the final say in what the album will sound like. I swore to him that I won't interfere in his views what the album should sound like what so ever. He has left the songwriting to us but the way it sounds will reflect his notion of what the Cure sound should be. All the Internet rumours that are going around predict that he's going to mould us into this Nu-Metal band, that's obviously not going to happen but people seem to be a bit apprehensive about it. I said Ross can produce the album at his own will. As far as the sound is concerned I have less power over it than I have ever had over any record we've done, apart from the first one I think (Three Imaginary Boys 1979). In a way its a very fascinating idea. I was afraid that if I had produced it myself it would have just resulted in a Bloodflowers Part 2. I think most fans would have been quite happy but as an artist the idea didn't appeal to me. In spirit, some of the new songs do sound like the songs on Bloodflowers. It is going to be really interesting to see what direction Ross is going to take them to. Still, I'm not worried because I really like our new songs and I don't think they can in anyway go wrong".
After Bloodflowers Robert Smith was supposed to step back from the Cure and record and release the "electro/industrial" sounding solo album he had been working on, but meeting Ross Robinson changed his mind. "This time last year I was supposed to be promoting my first solo album or at least I thought I was, but things didn't quite go according to my plans, they are a bit unreliable at the best of times. I solemnly promised myself that after the festival concerts we did last year I would finish the solo-album by Christmas, release it at the beginning of the new year and review whether there's a future for The Cure. In fact, I have finished most of the parts on the album but I haven't even decided who the 'guest' players on the album should be so the album is on hold at the moment. I have sang all the parts and completed the instrument bits I played but it's still not finished and probably won't be until after the next Cure album is out or possibly even the one after that. It will be released though, but no one should hold their breath..."
The 'folklore' surrounding The Cure often includes stories regarding strange recording sessions; The mystic 'Carnage Visors', a 27-minute instrumental piece of music was released on the b-side of the cassette version of 'Faith' (1981) as the soundtrack to a short film done by Simon Gallups brother Ric. Also, 'Lost Wishes' was a tape that also included four instrumental songs recorded during the 'Wish' (1992) session released as a 'promo' by Fiction. The most famous however is the project known as 'Music For Dreams' which started around the time of 'Disintegration' but transformed into a Robert solo project. Smith: "Most of 'Music For Dreams' integrated into my solo project I was doing at the time. I'm very happy that it has never been released and I'm the only person with a copy of it. In fact, I have a copy of everything The Cure has done..Anyway that record is...well, It's quite funny really. Let me put it this way; it isn't very good...It may be released at some point when I think the time is right, maybe only as an Internet release. I don't ever think it should be released commercially so that people will have to pay for it, it isn't good enough for that. I regard it rather as a historical view into my state of mind at the time...perhaps in that way it holds some significance". Maybe this isn't a good idea to reveal but we intend to record an instrumental album just between us (the band). We have toyed with the idea to include a bonus disc with the upcoming album, perhaps include it on the first pressings of it (ltd edition) and it will be done without Ross Robinson, though I don't know if it's a good idea because it will be substantially different than the actual album...It's quite calm and dream like music, basically just tracks that we play when rehearsing the 'real' songs. In my view however some of them sound so good that it would be nice to release them some way or another. They are very simple but quite beautiful and emotional pieces of music...In fact, some of the ideas are taken from 'Music For Dreams'."
In the 1970's Chris Parry signed The Jam to Polydor and participated in producing the bands (headed by Paul Weller) first two albums. Siouxie and The Banshees also was one of his discoveries. In July 1978 a demo-tape by The Cure made its way into the hands of Parry and he was so enthusiastic about them that decided to fulfill a dream he had for a while and establish his own record label. He later became the natural manager for The Cure that he also signed to his label. The first release from 'Fiction' was The Cure's single 'Killing an Arab' in 1979 and the last ever release was The Cure's Greatest Hits just before Christmas in 2001. Smith: "Unfortunately Fiction decided to sell the whole of The Cure's back catalogue to Universal. In other words they sold themselves to get a bit more money. That was more than a disappointment to me. It has annoyed me a lot and caused all sorts of headaches for me to ponder about. When I heard Fiction had been sold, the first thing I did was to make sure I had all the original tapes that The Cure had ever recorded in my possession. I have had to fight very hard to get some of my rights back to the material and I think it's been a real shame because we've been with Fiction for over 20 years and I would have expected some sort of loyalty from Chris Parry towards me and the rest of the band, but he didn't have any of the sort. We've made a lot of fucking money for him over the years and as a 'thank you' he was to leave us out in the cold. Over the years I've had to make numerous difficult decisions to secure the future for the band but I don't think I could have done this to anyone.."
Despite all this Robert Smiths co-operation with Universal will continue, more so because the way things have turned out, rather than the way things Robert had planned. Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of 'Three Imaginary Boys' and because of that all the Cures albums will be remastered and re-released as 2-CD sets. "Between Bloodflowers and the Greatest Hits I made a contract with Polydor and Universal that all the albums will be re-released next year, the Greatest Hits was part of that deal even though I didn't really want to release it. However, having done that, it made my position much better as I got them to agree on the re-releases but so that none of the album artwork will be changed and I get to decide and control aspects of the re-mastering process. every single album will include a bonus-disc that I'm compiling right now. Also a 'box-set' album containing all the b-sides should be out as soon as next year. I'm hoping that by Christmas 2004 all the re-masters will be out. I' treating this in a kind of a 'once in a lifetime' event so I'm trying to do everything very carefully. Everything has to be how I want it to be because I've contributed a big part of my life into these albums. Going through all these tapes is really very draining and heavy work, but I can assure you that there will be some extraordinary material available for Cure fans on the bonus discs, so it will be worth it. I sound like a salesman but there will be a lot of material that no one has ever heard before. Even I myself haven't sat down before and listened to all this stuff the same way. I have honestly had to listen to hundreds of tapes and most of them don't even have any markings on them...I mostly listen to them while I'm driving, I have a small notebook by the side where I make markings of the tapes and give them a grade from 0 to 20. At least the tapes are more or less in chronological order and I'm now roughly up to around 1996 so I'm getting closer to the finish. Thankfully there isn't much left but after that I have to go over all my notes which will then also be quite scary I suppose."
Robert reveals that a guy called Chris Blair who has worked at Abbey Road studios since the 1960's, will be doing all the re-masters for the albums. The first generation CD versions do not get much appraisal from Smith, in fact he regards the sound on them as out rightly curious: " All the early CD's sound absolutely morose, especially 'Faith'. I'm actually quite ashamed of the sound, its really quite flat and dull...unlistenable in fact. I know who mastered it on CD as well. He's done quite a few of our early albums...all that he could lay his hands on!. There were only a handful of people in the 80's who were regarded as 'experts' in mastering CD albums but most of them were complete idiots. They did as they pleased and ruined loads of classic albums, even some of our albums on tape sound better than the CD versions. Chris Blair I think is used to working with old master tapes. Some of ours are in really bad shape. For example the old box where the tapes for 17 Seconds were was covered in mold stains and I can imagine working with them will prove to be a challenge. But overall I'm very confident that they will sound incredible compared to the originals...
In August 1988 Robert Smith married his sweetheart love, Mary Poole, who was the dancing 'extra' in the 'just Like Heaven' video promo. Right from the beginning they mutually decided not to have any children and to this day they haven't changed their minds. Robert neither has any pets: "I don't care about any living creature" he says, "I just live for myself..."