Ahead of July’s
show in Orlando, Vince Clarke of Erasure says the band wanted to capture something special about today’s world on the British pop band’s latest album.
Vince Clarke of Erasure wanted to capture something special on the British pop band’s latest album. “When it came time for writing the lyrics, we thought it would be good to reflect on the weird [expletive] that’s happening in the world right now,” said the keyboardist.
The duo of Clarke and singer Andy Bell are touring behind “World Be Gone,” released last year. Erasure will hit Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on July 8 (8 p.m., 445 S. Magnolia Ave., $34.50-$295, drphillipscenter.org).
With hits such as “A Little Respect” and “Chains of Love,” Erasure was instrumental in creating the synth-pop sound of the 1980s.
On the phone from the road, Clarke, 57, talked about connecting with his audience, the wave of new dance music and keeping his band productive and together for 32 years.
Question: In “World Be Gone,” you sing about some problems with the world today but also about love. Is it hard to reconcile the dystopian with the romantic?
Answer: It’s not something that usually a conscious thing. Most of the stuff we’ve written in the past over the last 30 years has been romantic related. I think it’s quite interesting if you can bring world things into it and then put them into more personal songs.
Q: Is it weird when you write a song with heavy or political lyrics and then see people dancing to it?
A: I guess people hear the record in different ways. We have no idea how people listen to our records. It certainly isn’t something we think about when we’re writing the song. You try to write the best song you can and if it passes muster as far as Andy and I are concerned then that’s it.
Q: Is there something about the ’80s pop sound that you have tried to preserve?
A: For me, that whole era of electronic pop music was hugely influential. It was music made of sounds that I’d never heard before, which is what made it so exciting. And it was music that I felt I could actually do. In the ’70s, there were all these amazing glam rock bands that I couldn’t relate to on a practical level. But when I heard the electronic music and they had these simple but brilliant arrangements, I thought maybe I could do this. Q: How has dance music evolved the most in the time since you began?
A: The most important thing is that more people have access to the means for making music. That’s a revolution. … What’s fantastic, I think, is that people can make music in their bedrooms and that music sounds as good as if they’d recorded it in a studio. There’s some really excellent and experimental dance music out there and it’s because more people have the means to make it.
Q: You’ve put out 17 albums in 32 years. How have you kept your duo so strong in this time?
A: We’re an old married couple, man. There are certain things you learn over a long period of time when you’re in a relationship and one of those things is respect. We respect what we both do. And when you’re writing as a duo, you have to bare your soul a little bit, and you can only do that with someone you trust. In our relationship, it’s all trust.
Q: Is it hard to perform such upbeat dance music in venues where everyone is sitting down?
A: On previous tours, we were very insistent that there was standing room for dancing. But as we’ve gotten older, and our audience has gotten older, it turns out people really do appreciate a seat.