Return of the Mac
Indie band Echo & The Bunnymen are heading to Wales as part of their latest tour. Neil Collins asks singer Ian McCulloch a few questions
Q: You’re returning to Cardiff with The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon tour. What are your memories of playing the Welsh capital over the years?
A: I’m glad Wales is on the tour because every holiday I ever had as a kid was in Wales – usually days out in North Wales.
My favourite memory of Cardiff was spending a day or two with the Manics when we recorded Some Kind of Nothingness.
I had a great time, the hotel was great and I loved driving into Cardiff past the castle.
We had got just over the Severn Bridge, and I was sitting down with my manager at the time and I just thought “Wow, this isn’t the Cardiff I remember!”
The first time we went there, we hadn’t seen the centre or any of the stuff that’s there now and it’s been completely done up like a posh city!
I’m not saying that in a bad way, but it looked lovely.
I never went to any of the Liverpool finals in Cardiff as I was always away, but it really impressed me.
I’m hoping to have a day off in Cardiff, and it would be great to catch up with the Manics!
Q: Echo & The Bunnymen was the first gig some of the Manics went to at Bristol’s Colston Hall back in the ’80s, and there’s a pic of you signing an autograph for James Dean Bradfield! Were they pinching themselves to have you in the studio performing with them?
A: Maybe a bit, but we had met up with each before and I can be funny rather than what my public image might be, and they knew my funny side.
There was an element of that, but I was really made up that they asked for me.
It was kind of a mutual appreciation thing.
I threw in a few Bowie impressions…I’m doing a Morgan Freeman one at the moment too!
I’ve been pretty good impressions since I was a kid.
I think my first one was Elvis actually.
Q: How has the new album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon been received by the critics so far?
A: As far as I’m aware, it’s been brilliant across the board for the first time in ages.
There have been a lot of congratulations, but when someone from France says “This is a masterpiece”, you kind of go “Bloody hell, no one from France has said that in a long time!”
I feel like I’ve definitely produced something properly.
I was so focused on every second of every day and my days were longer than most as I had to take care of everything and not just the bits I was doing.
We were recording in a gaff near Henley – it’s like a little, wooden hut more than anything, but you can sleep in there.
It’s fairly OK accommodation, very primitive. So I go to my room – the only one with a lockable door – the rest of the people have to sleep in a dormitory thing, it’s proper Dad’s Army!
And I would go in there and just listen non-stop and check and recheck that everything was sounding how I heard it in my head.
I sent mixes of it to my wife Lorraine and although we’re not together any more, we’re still very close and I value her opinion.
From the earliest stages, she said “What the hell is going on here?! Your voice is off the charts!” She knows my voice – not better than me – but better than most.
Some people may say “It’s not like the old days”, but I didn’t sing it like the old days. I don’t like listening to that voice, it doesn’t ring true to me.
The early stuff is fantastic, but some of these songs are 40 years old, and they need to have changed a bit. Just for me. I’m the one who sings these songs, and no one else.
I knew I had to put an angle on them, and bring them – not so much up-to-date because I think our stuff
doesn’t age generally – but to bring the voice and the lyrics out.
I think with bands, lyrics can often be overlooked and people get used to the sound of a group, but my lyrics are there to grow with me and the audience.
A song like Rescue, which I wrote when I was 19, I haven’t strayed too far from. I just put some more funky things in there, which I thought it never had.
I don’t think the actual groove of the song was ever used enough, it was all stop and start on the first one.
The critics have singled out some songs which I didn’t think they would like Zimbo as being their favourite on the album, which is weird as I had imagined someone saying “How dare he take the drums out!” I had to take the drums out as it was Pete de Freitas (former drummer who died in a motorcycle crash in 1989).
Fair enough getting someone to do it live, but there was no way I was going to get someone to commit Pete’s part to record.
Q: Was it a difficult process choosing which songs from your vast back catalogue that went onto the album?
A: No. It was based largely on the live set, which varies from tour to tour.
But the staple songs remain the same and because I’ve sung them so often over the years, they’re the ones I know and which ones I think lyrically are the better songs.
It came about very quickly in its conception as well. Whatever I do in life is very much based on instinct.
I wanted to do All That Jazz, but then thought that’s been done thousands and thousands of times.
I still wanted to get in a couple off Crocodiles though because they’re the older songs.
Q: Echo & The Bunnymen celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. Did you ever think you would still be here as good as ever after all these years?
A: I never thought it would be anything else. There’s no other option and there never was.
On the actual 40th anniversary, we’ve got a gig in Toronto that’s been sold out for a while.
Hopefully, we’ve got the day off after so we can get bladdered!