Hello all, I have pasted below an interview I did yesterday with Steve for a forthcoming UK music magazine called 'Dummy' from the same people that brought you Jockey Slut and The Face. I've included the full unedited interview as the mag will probably carve some of it out.
read it here first!
Hope you like.
Congratulations on the NME ‘God-Like Genius’ award. How was last night?
‘It was very much like the other ones I have been to. I can’t really say I like that sort of thing; it took a lot of wild horses to get me there. But it was a good night out. It was the first time we have played (new single) ‘Krafty’, it went well, we enjoyed it, and you never really get the best reaction at these awards things everyone’s sat around talking. I spoke to one of The Libertines; he seemed like very polite young man. We played 4 songs, Bernard dedicated ‘Crystal’ to The Killers, he’s a big fan of them, Gillian was nudging me saying ‘that bloke keeps staring at you’, I had no idea who he was, he was in The Killers apparently, they seem like nice enough people.’
New order never sounded like anyone else...And there hasn’t been anyone that’s sounded like you since…Although some have tried. What’s your secret? Which bands have you heard that you thought imitated your sound?
‘People have impersonated us and still do, I guess everyone does that with their first album, I know we wanted to sound like The Velvets, and its fine to ape someone’s sound on the first record, it’s the second album that tells I suppose, If bands are still copying their influences at that point it’s a bit sad. It’s odd, we don’t know why we gel so well together, if we thought about it too much it wouldn’t work. I always think its like when you know how a magic trick is done, it takes away from it. The sound we have is what happens when we get in a room and play together. We have tried to sound different, but it always comes back to that New Order sound…The last album ’Get ready’ was us trying to do something different, we had been away for a while and were worried about sounding like old New Order…so we tried a different approach and to get a bit more Joy Divsiony. With the new album we remembered everyone liked the old stuff anyway, so in that respect it was less daunting and a bit easier. Although sometimes we will be writing and I’ll say; ‘we can’t do that…It sounds too much like New Order’ we can end up writing an old song! “Stop...this was on Low-Life”. “Oh yeah”’
The new album is called ‘Waiting for the sirens call’ what’s that about? Bernard seems to have a fixation in his lyrics about going to sea? Is he a secret sailing fan?
You noticed! The nautical themes… Ha-ha, the sea is in his blood. He’s got a boat, he’s a serious sailor, and he loves boating. I wouldn’t go on a boat with him though, done it once, never again. He’s done exams and everything. He’s a skipper. ‘Aye aye Captain’. All that.
Bernard’s got his nautical passion, Am I right in thinking you collect tanks?
Yes! I’ve got a few, no new ones lately; I’m running out of barn space. They are all roadworthy, insured, and taxed. I could drive them on the street but I don’t want to, I got some spares off a bloke the other week, he said “did you see the cracks in the pavement near the bank? I did that!” The tank thing, I feel a bit like a nutter sometimes, they have these big fairs and you have to go to get the parts. Tank fanatics are a mad bunch, they all seem to be Police Officers, and it’s a worry. Its like big boys Airfix, it’s not a war thing for me. I just got up one day and thought ‘I don’t know what inside of a real tank looks like’ so I bought one. Then I bought a load more.
Is Phil Cunningham a permanent member of the band? Will Gillian rejoin?
‘He won’t go…we can’t get rid of him…He fitted in well with the live gigs, he just does his thing, we didn’t audition, we can’t do that. We’ve never auditioned anyone. He just showed up and we let him join, he’s good, he doesn’t want to be Pete Townsend or anything, fits in well. Its difficult with Gillian really, you can’t plan for these things (The couples daughter is ill) I was either her or me to leave really. She won. I was hoping I would win the toss up. But no. I have to stay in the band.’
What’s your personal favourite New Order album?
‘I never really listened to any of them until recently. Errrrrr, ‘Power Corruption and lies’ still sounds pretty good. Yeah, I like that one…’Technique’ was fun , I kind of look back at that though rose coloured glasses, we were all off our heads’.
New Order ploughed a lot of their profits into The Hacienda; bailing it out of debt…Do you regret ever having anything to do with that club?
‘At the time I was regretting having anything to do with that fucking place. But we are still here. I don’t regret it, it was stupid. It’s another great example of the black and white side of Factory. They thought they knew how to run a club. It was run as a collective by the people on the door, it was ridiculous really. You could tell anyone who worked at the Hacienda as they would be carrying beer crates down the road. (I then go on to confess and apologise to Morris that I stole cases of beer most weekends when I worked there) ‘There you go! I had to pay for my fucking drinks on the rare occasion I actually managed to get into the bloody place’ I don’t regret The Hacienda, no; it had its moments’.
What now for New Order? can you see yourselves still doing this in another 20 years time?
‘If you’d asked me 20 years ago I’d have said no... I have this discussion regularly with Peter about maintaining our dignity. Although The Stones seem get away with it. Retiring would be nice, I can play with my Tanks, Bernard can sail around in his boat and Hooky can pursue his burgeoning DJ career’.
You are the least prominent member of the band; does that bother you in anyway?
‘When I heard someone wanted to interview me for this magazine I thought it was a case of mistaken identity. I should join MI5. You don’t notice me…Michael Eavis came over to me the other night and said “You must the new boy”, quite a compliment maybe. Even when I had my photo on the sleeve of ‘Low-Life’ I still had problems getting into some of our gigs in the States. They wouldn’t let in me into my own gig! No, I wouldn’t like too much attention. There was always this myth that New Order don’t do interviews, we are doing one now, y’know? We’ve always done them; we just never had to get involved in that press trail rubbish, that was the great thing about Factory. Although at the beginning of the band we were still trying to figure out who we were. When we did the first album - ‘Movement’ we were worried that everyone would ask about Joy Division. Ian had just died. The last thing we wanted to do was talk about it to the press.’
After writing the album ‘Republic’ things got a little heated between you lot apparently a lot of people thought you had split up…Is it still a bit frosty in the studio? Are you friends again?
‘Republic was horrible; we were nearly plotting to kill each other! There was all that shit going on at the time, Factory going down and The Hac closing. We should have gone on strike…Gillian suggested it and we poo-pood it. In hindsight we should have done. It was a bad time to make a record. It was only after all the shit had gone that we could be friends again. It’s much more relaxed now.’
Which new bands do you like?
Secret Machines. They’re good. I was told Interpol playing live is like a joy division tribute, fine. I heard a band last night at the awards and hooky was like “that’s one of ours!”Yes Hooky, it is. It doesn’t bother me too much. I was asked when recording ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’ “Steve, just play like YOU…Its very fashionable at the moment”. Odd.
What’s happening this year? Will you be touring? Do you still enjoy touring?
‘It’s a happy medium, what did our heads in; in the past was this ‘break America’ treadmill. You do a big tour, and go back and back, it’s a bit grim. When we did ‘Get Ready’ we went to Europe for a few gigs and came home. Weekend gigs, that’s the way to do it. It gives you something to look forward to in the week. This time round we are doing the festivals and some weekend gigs. We want to enjoy it or the audience don’t enjoy it and it’s not fair to anyone. Some New Order fans liked some of the things we did in the middle of our career, in the mid eighties when we would play a different set every gig. You see something different every night. We had to do that, its so boring playing the same set night after night. We would often write songs on stage, it was a Factory thing, you would rehearse and someone would say “can you play a gig on Thursday?” “Ok then”…we would play the new one, and we’d just try it out. Bernard would make up words on the spot. Just get an electronic beat going and go for it ‘Temptation’ was done like that, Bernard had some acid one night, and we took it from there’.
Your favourite track on the new album?
‘Probably the title track ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’.’
Has Peter Saville done the artwork for the new LP? Was it delivered on time?
‘Well, we had a problem with the sleeve. You go and see Saville and he swans about and you say get on with it, that’s generally how it works. He needs a concept Peter. On this album it was going to be a Tahitian style lady in a lagoon, then the terrible tsunami happened in Asia and the sleeve felt a bit tasteless. So we changed it, it was nearly a yacht photograph for Bernard, but Peter went with a bright orange typeface, I haven’t seen it yet.
Do you still get on with Tony Wilson?
‘I missed him on that reality T.V programme the other night. I hope someone’s taped it. I was touting the idea of a celebrity executions programme; ‘choose your method of death Mr Wilson’…Tony’s ok, he lost as much money as we did to be honest. We could feel bitter about it if he made bucket loads of money, but he didn’t. There were great things about what Tony did, the fact he let us do what we wanted, it’s like at the awards thing yesterday, they tell you what you have to do. “Talk to this person, stand on that carpet, do this, do that” I’ve been doing this for years. It’s weird to suddenly start having to adhere to all these rules.’
The press girl asked if Dummy was a magazine about drummers (don’t know what that says about drummers) Got any drummer jokes? Your 3 favourite drummers please?
A drummer goes into a shop to buy plectrums for the guitarist…”Sorry, this is a greengrocers” That kind of thing. Favourite drummers would be: Jackie out of Can, he’s funky AND German, you can’t knock that. John French from the Magic Band, he’s made a really excellent bonkers all drumming LP. And, errrr. The Drummer out of Spinal Tap
New Order release the single ‘Krafty’ on March 8th and the album ‘Waiting For The Sirens Call’ on March 28th.
Elliot Eastwick.2005
. Thanks for sharing it with us! 
for good journalism.