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NEW ORDER ARE READY - DOTMUSIC INTERVIEW WITH NEW ORDER
NEW ORDER ARE READY
New Order have revealed they thought the band would never work together again, in an exclusive dotmusic interview.
The Manchester legends, who release 'Get Ready', their first new album in eight years next month, have confirmed that relations between the band reached an all-time low during their prolonged exile.
Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, who are acknowleged as having changed guitar and dance music forever, told us how the band rebuilt a catalogue of broken bridges. Sumner explained: "At one point I did think that we'd never make another record.
"The group never split up, but we didn't make any plans at all. All the horribleness just seemed to blow away in the winds of time, all the antagonism towards each other just seemed to disappear really."
He elaborated: "We spent so much time together that we were just sick of the sight of each other and each other's problems and weird hang ups and we were focusing on that too much and just wanted to get away from each other. But it's done us the world of good."
Peter Hook compared the making of 'Get Ready' to the peak of Joy Division, New Order's former incarnation with legendary vocalist Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in 1980.
He explained: "When I listen to it it's unusual to get that 'whoof' tingly feeling you got when we did something like 'Unknown Pleasures' or something and you're thinking my God..."
---
For a while it looked as if we'd sadly seen the last of New Order. Eight years of inactivity was interspersed with successful solo careers and "other projects" which could have easily spelt the end of the old Order. But just as they've been proving critics wrong since day one, New Order are back sounding as good, if not better, than ever with a new single 'Crystal' (out next week) from the excellent 'Get Ready' album (out Aug 27).
dotmusic spoken with frontman Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris about the new material, getting back into the studio together, and touring amongst other things.
PART 1
How did 'Crystal' get written?
Bernard: "'Crystal's' an interesting track because that was something I wrote here at home and it was kind of written, and there's still a version around of it as a dance track really, with drum loops and like a house bass line and you know, a very synthetic track. And I'd just written it before New Order had got back together, before we'd started working on the album, I just had it lying around and said 'how about us... I've got this track' and I just brought it in, I said 'how about us doing a different version of this,' you know, 'cos I didn't think the house direction was suitable for the direction that we were going in.
"So I played it to Steve Osborne and I was like 'oh we've got all these tracks and we've got this other track as well,' you know I was quite dismissive of it really because I wasn't that bothered about whether we used it or not and it just didn't seem to fit in really. And he really liked it so we took it down to Rockfield Studios in Wales and worked on it and it made this amazing transformation from a banging dance track to a kind of guitar orchestra. It's a really kind of spiky hard-edged sound. That gave us our direction really on the rest of the album because that was the first track we worked on and we got it and we got it in the bag and put it in the pocket and we thought right that's very interesting that, that's really interesting that kind of style does set the shape of the album and it was good."
PART 2
What's the title of this new album?
Hooky: "The title of the album is 'Get Ready' so it could mean anything or nothing. I thought it was just nice, New Order, 'Get Ready', 'cos we are, we're getting ready for the next phase of our musical lives both physically and mentally so it's quite a simple thing but it's very pertinent."
How does it feel to be working together again?
Bernard: "It almost feels like you're starting again and in a way you are starting again and it just feels really fresh because of that. And because it's fresh you kind of, I don't know, it's just exciting really, more exciting you don't feel like oh I've done this for the past ten years, I've been doing it for the past ten years, you've got to do it again, another album, another tour, you know, another set of interviews, it just seems...although we have been doing stuff with our solo projects, it's not been the same as New Order."
Hooky: "We've had nothing but positive from the record company, from the people that we've gone back to, the New Order side of things, and everything and the people that we've been working with, the producers, programmers and stuff - they've been really, really positive and like really happy that New Order you know are back together again. It certainly has I think shown in our music that there's been a very positive approach to it. It's felt...the whole thing when I listen to it you know I mean it's unusual to get that 'whoof' tingly feeling you got when you did like 'Unknown Pleasures' or something and you're thinking my God..."
Bernard: "t feels very clean and it feels like the blackboard, the slate's been wiped clean you know and we can go ahead without any baggage, any of the baggage that was dragging us down that we'd accumulated over the years. So yes I feel very positive about this record."
PART 3
Was there ever a time when you thought you'd never make another New Order record?
Bernard: "I guess at one point I did think that we'd never make another record. The group never split up, but we didn't make any plans at all but just all the horribleness just seemed to blow away in the winds of time, you know, just all the antagonism towards each other just seemed to disappear really. So I mean New Order we never... we never planned much for the future...we've always sort of concentrated more or less, in the past, more or less about a month ahead, maybe two months ahead.
"And that way life doesn't seem too much of a burden and I was obviously sad about what had happened and regretted the way that it had gone but it was truthfully inevitable, what happened, that it was going to happen, it was going to happen. I regretted it but there was nothing I could do about it so I didn't beat myself up about it. But I'm glad we've got back together 'cos you know it's a much better way of ending things."
Hooky: "Now we're getting on really well, I must admit, I mean it actually feels like when Bernard and I first met funnily enough. I've known him since I was 11, he's probably about one of the oldest people I know."
What sort of a relationship do you have - are you still good mates after everything that's happened?
Hooky: "It's a funny kind of matedom because it's not like...I mean we both have friends outside so you're not like best mates in the way that they're always together, 'God he's always with him, bloody hell if he's not playing with him in the group he's down the pub with him,' it's not like that, you know. I mean the thing is is that New Order is a huge part of your life and has been, and Joy Division, for 25 years as you say we've spent enough time together."
Bernard: "You've got to remember that we'd probably spent more time with each other than we had with our families over the preceding 18, 20 years or something we'd been together. We spent so much time together that we were just sick of the sight of each other and each other's problems and weird hang ups and we were focusing on that too much and just wanted to get away from each other, but it's done us the world of good, you know, life's very strange, life doesn't turn out the way you expect it's going to turn out. I mean I'm very surprised that we're together now making an album. If you'd have asked me that years ago I'd have said 'no way, absolutely no way,' but it's happened you know, I'm glad it's happened."
Hooky: "And low and behold when we did get back together again it was like going home for Christmas. You're only there ten minutes and you felt like you'd never been away."
PART 4
How long did it take you to make this album and where did you record it?
Bernard: "When we started I said it's going to take us a month to write each song and everyone was like 'you can't do that! We'll be still here in you know...' and it does. 15 songs, you know, it's... it took a year and a half to do it. So anyway we wrote for about a year at Steve's farm which seems an awful lot of time but that's what happens and it's a good album so... You can't really... the writing stage you just can't really push it can you? You know, you can't rush it 'cos otherwise you end up writing songs that are not inspired, songs that have been you know forced out of you. So anyway we wrote at Steve's farm and then we moved to Real World Recording Studios which is Peter Gabriel's studios down in Bath which is a great studio."
Hooky: "It's almost like your third family in a way 'cos it's like going home when you go back there, they're all waiting for you, it's all the same people still working there isn't it, it's really nice."
Bernard: "You see we used to record in London a lot, in the city, but we'd end up... we'd go out every night and we can't take the hangovers any more can we?
Hooky: "We sort of have to be hidden away from our hedonism."
PART 5
Why won't Gillian be joining the band on tour this year?
Stephen: "Unfortunately my youngest daughter, our youngest daughter, is recovering from a serious illness and it's kind of like when something like that happens you put your family first really. It was a difficult decision to make but that's what we decided. It's going to be strange but I mean as it turned out we didn't really have very much choice in the matter and it's kind of like when nature strikes you've just got to go with it really. I mean it was either... it had to be one of us really and it ended up being Gillian."
How important is it for you to tour this album internationally?
Bernard: "To be honest the whole of this year is kind of testing the water and sort of seeing if we still like it. I mean we toured and toured for years and years and now we just want to play the places we want to play so we're not away from home for too long."
Hooky: "I mean the thing about making music is that obviously you want as many people as possible to listen to it. I mean the only thing that sort of stops you is the geography of it you know, I mean we are playing abroad this time and probably more than we have done in about the past 15 years, we've already committed ourselves to more gigs than we've done in the past 15 years or something. So I mean it is... it's just nice, you just want people to listen to it, you want all different types of people to listen to it."
Interview: Sally Stratton
New Order have revealed they thought the band would never work together again, in an exclusive dotmusic interview.
The Manchester legends, who release 'Get Ready', their first new album in eight years next month, have confirmed that relations between the band reached an all-time low during their prolonged exile.
Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, who are acknowleged as having changed guitar and dance music forever, told us how the band rebuilt a catalogue of broken bridges. Sumner explained: "At one point I did think that we'd never make another record.
"The group never split up, but we didn't make any plans at all. All the horribleness just seemed to blow away in the winds of time, all the antagonism towards each other just seemed to disappear really."
He elaborated: "We spent so much time together that we were just sick of the sight of each other and each other's problems and weird hang ups and we were focusing on that too much and just wanted to get away from each other. But it's done us the world of good."
Peter Hook compared the making of 'Get Ready' to the peak of Joy Division, New Order's former incarnation with legendary vocalist Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in 1980.
He explained: "When I listen to it it's unusual to get that 'whoof' tingly feeling you got when we did something like 'Unknown Pleasures' or something and you're thinking my God..."
---
For a while it looked as if we'd sadly seen the last of New Order. Eight years of inactivity was interspersed with successful solo careers and "other projects" which could have easily spelt the end of the old Order. But just as they've been proving critics wrong since day one, New Order are back sounding as good, if not better, than ever with a new single 'Crystal' (out next week) from the excellent 'Get Ready' album (out Aug 27).
dotmusic spoken with frontman Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris about the new material, getting back into the studio together, and touring amongst other things.
PART 1
How did 'Crystal' get written?
Bernard: "'Crystal's' an interesting track because that was something I wrote here at home and it was kind of written, and there's still a version around of it as a dance track really, with drum loops and like a house bass line and you know, a very synthetic track. And I'd just written it before New Order had got back together, before we'd started working on the album, I just had it lying around and said 'how about us... I've got this track' and I just brought it in, I said 'how about us doing a different version of this,' you know, 'cos I didn't think the house direction was suitable for the direction that we were going in.
"So I played it to Steve Osborne and I was like 'oh we've got all these tracks and we've got this other track as well,' you know I was quite dismissive of it really because I wasn't that bothered about whether we used it or not and it just didn't seem to fit in really. And he really liked it so we took it down to Rockfield Studios in Wales and worked on it and it made this amazing transformation from a banging dance track to a kind of guitar orchestra. It's a really kind of spiky hard-edged sound. That gave us our direction really on the rest of the album because that was the first track we worked on and we got it and we got it in the bag and put it in the pocket and we thought right that's very interesting that, that's really interesting that kind of style does set the shape of the album and it was good."
PART 2
What's the title of this new album?
Hooky: "The title of the album is 'Get Ready' so it could mean anything or nothing. I thought it was just nice, New Order, 'Get Ready', 'cos we are, we're getting ready for the next phase of our musical lives both physically and mentally so it's quite a simple thing but it's very pertinent."
How does it feel to be working together again?
Bernard: "It almost feels like you're starting again and in a way you are starting again and it just feels really fresh because of that. And because it's fresh you kind of, I don't know, it's just exciting really, more exciting you don't feel like oh I've done this for the past ten years, I've been doing it for the past ten years, you've got to do it again, another album, another tour, you know, another set of interviews, it just seems...although we have been doing stuff with our solo projects, it's not been the same as New Order."
Hooky: "We've had nothing but positive from the record company, from the people that we've gone back to, the New Order side of things, and everything and the people that we've been working with, the producers, programmers and stuff - they've been really, really positive and like really happy that New Order you know are back together again. It certainly has I think shown in our music that there's been a very positive approach to it. It's felt...the whole thing when I listen to it you know I mean it's unusual to get that 'whoof' tingly feeling you got when you did like 'Unknown Pleasures' or something and you're thinking my God..."
Bernard: "t feels very clean and it feels like the blackboard, the slate's been wiped clean you know and we can go ahead without any baggage, any of the baggage that was dragging us down that we'd accumulated over the years. So yes I feel very positive about this record."
PART 3
Was there ever a time when you thought you'd never make another New Order record?
Bernard: "I guess at one point I did think that we'd never make another record. The group never split up, but we didn't make any plans at all but just all the horribleness just seemed to blow away in the winds of time, you know, just all the antagonism towards each other just seemed to disappear really. So I mean New Order we never... we never planned much for the future...we've always sort of concentrated more or less, in the past, more or less about a month ahead, maybe two months ahead.
"And that way life doesn't seem too much of a burden and I was obviously sad about what had happened and regretted the way that it had gone but it was truthfully inevitable, what happened, that it was going to happen, it was going to happen. I regretted it but there was nothing I could do about it so I didn't beat myself up about it. But I'm glad we've got back together 'cos you know it's a much better way of ending things."
Hooky: "Now we're getting on really well, I must admit, I mean it actually feels like when Bernard and I first met funnily enough. I've known him since I was 11, he's probably about one of the oldest people I know."
What sort of a relationship do you have - are you still good mates after everything that's happened?
Hooky: "It's a funny kind of matedom because it's not like...I mean we both have friends outside so you're not like best mates in the way that they're always together, 'God he's always with him, bloody hell if he's not playing with him in the group he's down the pub with him,' it's not like that, you know. I mean the thing is is that New Order is a huge part of your life and has been, and Joy Division, for 25 years as you say we've spent enough time together."
Bernard: "You've got to remember that we'd probably spent more time with each other than we had with our families over the preceding 18, 20 years or something we'd been together. We spent so much time together that we were just sick of the sight of each other and each other's problems and weird hang ups and we were focusing on that too much and just wanted to get away from each other, but it's done us the world of good, you know, life's very strange, life doesn't turn out the way you expect it's going to turn out. I mean I'm very surprised that we're together now making an album. If you'd have asked me that years ago I'd have said 'no way, absolutely no way,' but it's happened you know, I'm glad it's happened."
Hooky: "And low and behold when we did get back together again it was like going home for Christmas. You're only there ten minutes and you felt like you'd never been away."
PART 4
How long did it take you to make this album and where did you record it?
Bernard: "When we started I said it's going to take us a month to write each song and everyone was like 'you can't do that! We'll be still here in you know...' and it does. 15 songs, you know, it's... it took a year and a half to do it. So anyway we wrote for about a year at Steve's farm which seems an awful lot of time but that's what happens and it's a good album so... You can't really... the writing stage you just can't really push it can you? You know, you can't rush it 'cos otherwise you end up writing songs that are not inspired, songs that have been you know forced out of you. So anyway we wrote at Steve's farm and then we moved to Real World Recording Studios which is Peter Gabriel's studios down in Bath which is a great studio."
Hooky: "It's almost like your third family in a way 'cos it's like going home when you go back there, they're all waiting for you, it's all the same people still working there isn't it, it's really nice."
Bernard: "You see we used to record in London a lot, in the city, but we'd end up... we'd go out every night and we can't take the hangovers any more can we?
Hooky: "We sort of have to be hidden away from our hedonism."
PART 5
Why won't Gillian be joining the band on tour this year?
Stephen: "Unfortunately my youngest daughter, our youngest daughter, is recovering from a serious illness and it's kind of like when something like that happens you put your family first really. It was a difficult decision to make but that's what we decided. It's going to be strange but I mean as it turned out we didn't really have very much choice in the matter and it's kind of like when nature strikes you've just got to go with it really. I mean it was either... it had to be one of us really and it ended up being Gillian."
How important is it for you to tour this album internationally?
Bernard: "To be honest the whole of this year is kind of testing the water and sort of seeing if we still like it. I mean we toured and toured for years and years and now we just want to play the places we want to play so we're not away from home for too long."
Hooky: "I mean the thing about making music is that obviously you want as many people as possible to listen to it. I mean the only thing that sort of stops you is the geography of it you know, I mean we are playing abroad this time and probably more than we have done in about the past 15 years, we've already committed ourselves to more gigs than we've done in the past 15 years or something. So I mean it is... it's just nice, you just want people to listen to it, you want all different types of people to listen to it."
Interview: Sally Stratton
