INTERVIEW >

Howard jones

An icon of the ’80s synth pop movement, known for hit albums such as Human’s Lib and a string of era-defining pop tracks, Howard Jones is an artist intrinsically linked to his classic synthesisers. In 2019 he returns with a new album, Transform, which sees him updating his sound in collaboration with US electronic titan BT. We caught up with him to talk classic gear, his work in film and more...

What gear have you worked with on recent projects? Your old Roland Junos and Jupiters?

“Yes, absolutely. Gary Barlow asked me to write a couple of songs for the Eddie the Eagle film, which was based in the ’80s. He wanted it to be ’80s-related, but brought up to date. I was like, ‘Yes. How will I make a record like that with my current thinking?’ I wrote two tracks really quickly, thinking about, as you said, the sounds that really inspired me and the instruments that inspired me right in those early days. I had the arpeggios going on in the Juno and the [Sequential Circuits] Pro-One playing a short sequence. And then I played basslines on my [Moog] Prodigy and thought I would play the chords on the Jupiter-8. I just thought, ‘Right. I’ll set myself those limitations’. The songs that came out of that were Eagle and Hero In Your Eyes. That inspired those two tracks, but I didn’t stick to that plot entirely on the new record. Obviously, I worked with BT on three tracks. He had just done a record with his band All Hail the Silence, which is amazing. He recorded entirely in an analogue studio with analogue synths. That’s where he was coming from, funnily enough as well. So it was an amazing time for us to collaborate.”

The new album opens with the song The One to Love You. That one sounds like a throwback to some of your earlier songs and sounds.

“This is really interesting because that’s the first collaboration you hear between me and BT. Because it was the first one that we did together, he wanted to reference my early albums by using things like the [Yamaha] DX7 mixed in with the bass. And he put in little quotes from my songs. The most prominent one is at the end where there’s a bit from Assault and Battery. There are also little bits where he’s referencing Conditioning, and the bassline from Pearl in the Shell. I was just blown away by that. It was so cool. And then, right at the end, there’s a very moving scene that he did. He used to listen to Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action at this place near his house, so he did a recording of the environment where he listened to those albums. It’s got a little bit of train noise and birds singing and just the ambience of that place. When he told me, I was really moved by it. There are all kinds of

instruments on that one. I don’t know how many analogue synths he has in his studio – probably around 50 and they’re all wired up and plugged up and working. He’s way more of a synth guy than I will ever be!”

Unlike many of the storied keyboard players, you seem to have kept a lot of your old gear!

“I’ve kept the ones that were really important to me. In fact, I was using them today because we did a video for Hero In Your Eyes. I brought them all down to the studio – the Pro One, the [Roland] TR-808, the Juno-60, the Jupiter-8 and the Prodigy. Those are the ones I kept and I do use them, but I also use the amazing emulations we have now as well. I know those synths really well and I know how to get the sounds I want out of them. BT said to me he’s going to turn up to my house one day with a soldering iron and a big van of keyboards that he says that I’ve got to have back in my arsenal

[laughs]. I know he’s serious about it as well – those are the sort of things he does. He’s got a much bigger collection than I do. It’s like a paradise for keyboard players going into his studio. He got a Fairlight CMI Series III that he’s had re-coded, and it’s all working perfectly with new software. It’s quite inspiring for me to see all that, because one of the first gigs he ever saw was me doing my one-man show in the United States. I think that was quite inspiring for him. I’m a huge fan of his work. I hardly ever collaborate with anybody, but he is somebody I really wanted to do that with.”

Did he reach out to you to collaborate?

“It’s an interesting story. I’ve been a huge fan of his work just independently, thinking that he was one of the electronic pioneers of his generation. We went to see him do a show in Miami where he was using an orchestra and electronics together. I was just ending a tour in the States, so I said to [bandmate] Robbie [Bronnimann], ‘Let’s fly down and see this’. So I bought tickets, and BT found out I was there and he gave me a ‘name check’ from the stage, which was a bit embarrassing! Then we met afterwards. We said, ‘We must get together’. He invited me to his studio. We started working on some things on his Eurorack. I said to him, ‘We really should make some records together’. He said, ‘Man, I would die to do that’. It was a very mutual thing and we did it. We didn’t just talk about it, we actually did it.”

Did you work together in person or did you send things back and forth?

“We sent things back and forth because I’m here in Somerset in the UK, and he’s near Washington in the US. I went over for the last part of the mixing and the last few keyboard parts. We were in the same room together at the end putting the final touches on the tracks.”

What kinds of things did you learn working with BT? Did he have any tricks up his sleeve that made you say, ‘Oh my God, I never thought of doing that!”

“Well, there are so many that I don’t know where to begin. He’s such an innovator. He’s at the cutting edge of things, because he codes himself, as well as programmes and scores for games, and more. In

The One To Love You, he does an amazing thing where he sidechained dozens and dozens of tracks, so that the bass and snare could sit beautifully no matter how much density was going on around. He also used this software called iZotope RX by the people that make Ozone. He would go through every track and take out a specified amount of low end. Then he would go in and erase any kinds of clicks or artefacts that accumulate sometimes with tracks. The programme is like an AI thing and it fills in the gap with what it thinks should be there. So those were two major things he did.”

The song Hero In Your Eyes has a great synth riff at the front. What keyboard did you play that on?

“It’s actually based on the Pro One – the mono synth. But mine is not working 100 percent as this old gear tends to, so I think I used a Juno in the end to do that.”

It’s interesting that with all the modern emulations and plugins available these days, you’re often still reaching for your original gear.

“Yes. Well, it does have that sound. It’s punchy and great, and then you can do work with it inside a computer as well. I tell you what I really enjoyed using on this album: the new [Spectrasonics] Omnisphere 2, where you can use your hardware to interface with a really accurate emulation of that keyboard. Every note on your hardware corresponds to movements that you do in software, and so you can be working like you would with your hardware synth.

“You’ve got all the benefits of it being digital and then being able to record every single movement that you’re doing and even if you’re doing two things at the same time, it records all that, and then you can edit it. I think that’s a brilliant way forward, because it’s such fun to actually get your hands on all the knobs and the sliders, but then have all the benefits in digital realm as well. I was really impressed with that.”

What will be your main keyboard on your upcoming tours?

“Well, I’m going to actually play more piano in this set, because like yourself, I love playing piano. For the UK tour, I’m hiring in a Yamaha AvantGrand. It’s got a proper wood action in it with hammers and then from there, it’s digital. For America, it will be a Roland RD-2000, because I can’t really cart the big one around.”

Do you think that the sheer availability and affordability of gear these days has diminished the excitement of making electronic music?

“I think the more sophisticated the gear gets, and the more people there are out there making those instruments and plugins and software, the easier it is for somebody just starting out to get things sounding really good, quickly.

“People like us have to work 20 times harder on our sounds, on our arrangements, and on our mixing to be able to be worthy of a position of putting out records. Because you can’t just use what comes out of the box. You’ve got to spend a couple of days on a bass sound and get something original and different that works in the whole picture. It’s a virtuous circle, really. The more there is out there, the more that young kids can get excited about it quickly, but then we’ve been around a long time. We should work harder to make those original sounds and great-sounding things.” want to know more? Transform is available now. For more information, visit howardjones.com

“I hardly ever collaborate, but BT was someone I really wanted to do that with”