John Foxx Interviews

Debut Magazine

After not having heard about John Foxx for at least a year we were anxious to see what kind of person we would be confronted with, because of the changing pop music scene, one never knows for sure what will be on top tomorrow. We could have hardly been more surprised by john's charming and refreshing attitude. One felt as if one had known him for years. After his LP The Garden he took a break, which he spent partly in Italy and France, mainly because of his interest in renaissance painting and to visit friends who work there. Besides which he also worked on music for a film that regisseur Antonioni is currently making. However, he never forgot his musical ambitions, and continued to compose peices for his next album which wll come out in the near future. During his last LP, in which he played all of the instruments himself, with the aid of electronic equipment, he underwent an interesting development process which brough him back to wrking with other people. The new album is produced by John and Zeus B. Held (he should be known to German readers because of his group Birth Control) furthermore we have Jo Dworniak (Bass) Robing Simon (Guitars) and Paul Wickens (Drums) and naturally John (Keyboards, vocals and guitars) The result of this effort is an album that pleases and sounds better the more it is played--The way it shoudl be with a good LP.

Debut: What caused you to change your style and to work with other musicians again?

John Foxx: The music that I did before was hard and intellectual. I tried to leave out all feelings and see what happened. I just wanted electronic and video without any human contact. in the long run, this is unhealthy because slowly one becomes more eccentric and because in principle I like good rock 'n' roll--I'd rather do spontaneous and live music! half of our new album was recorded in eight days, non-stop. Afterwards we were totally exhausted, but we had the feeling that we hadreally accomplished something. there are definitely two opposing sides to me4, one tends toward order and perfection and the other towards spontaneity and ecstasy. The guitar is always the most important instrumetn in rock music. in the future I would like to play much more guitar because it is a new field for me. I would like to develop a style with ic both melodic and modern.

Debut: The group Ultravox, which you founded, is now very successfu. Are you angry about that?

John Foxx: No, no on the contrary, I am very happy about that and consider it a compliment, that's not to say that Ultravox owes its success to me. They've worked really hard and their style has changed. The concept of this kind of music was my idea. the first to play this kind of music were Kraftwerk, they created this style, and I tried to transfer it into an English pop-framework. Naturally, I was also inspired by Brian Eno's music which is much more complicated. When I left Ultravox, Midge ure had fortunately joined them, he writes similar peices and thinks in a more practical way, otherwise the group would probably not stayed together.

Debut: in your opinion, is it negative to want to earn money and think commercially?

John Foxx: I think money is necessary to realize ideas. I have left the place behind me in which I thought money was not important and I wanted to be only an artist. on the other hand, I only want to earn money with things that I enjoy doing and not being forced into doing things only for the money.

Debut: How do you feel about the pop music which is produced in England right now?

John Foxx: I like the English pop music of the present moment very much, maybe it is the best in the last twenty years! Although much of it is based on a lof of American disco-rhythms and our singers often attempt to imitate American accents.

Debut: Why does one never read anything about you and your music in the music press? --No Stories?--No Scandals? What do you do in your private life?

John Foxx: It must be because I don't lead a very scandalous life. I drive into the country and take long walds with my dog. I am still painting and my friends tell me that I should exhibit the work. But at the moment music is more important.

Debut: Do you plan any live concerts in the future?

John Foxx: Tes, we are going on a world tour in October and November: Europe, also Germany, America and Australia.

Debut: Will you be travelling with the same musicians who did the album with you?

John Foxx: That depends if they have time, but the English musical scene is like a big family, everyone knows everyone, and finding good musicians for the tour won't be a problem.

In 1979, John Foxx left Ultravox, for whom he was lead singer/songwriter, to begin a solo career. His music is heavily synthesized, with rhythm machines, synthesized bass and lead synths. The sound is quite similar to that of Systems of Romance, Foxx's last album with Ultravox. Artists such as Gary Numan have been influenced by John Foxx.

Equipment: Elka (Strings), ARP Odyssey, ARP sequencer, Roland Vocoder, Prophet, Roland Jupiter 8, 'Human Host' (voices on tape), Simmons electronic drums and LinnDrum.

John Foxx's London studio, The Garden, is also well stocked. The room is outfitted with Eastlake monitoring, 800 watss per side, and the 24-track Amek desk (35 channels that can double up to 70) is hooded up to an MCI 24-track tape machine and a 2 track misdown model. Effects include an MXR flanger, Lexicon digital echo, Eventide harmonizer and a Revox tape machine for the tape delay effects. Foxx's keyboards amount to a Roland Juno 60 and Jupiter 8, a polymoog, an Emulator and a Fairlight. There is aslo a Roland MC-4 Microcomposer and he still uses his old ARP Odyssey quite ofetn. But his prized keyboard is a 6-foot Yamaha concert grand piano ("I love the feeling of playing it. I go down and play it at night sometimes") He keeps time on a LinnDrum, a Movement Systems drum machine and a Simmons drum kit that he triggers with the Linn. His main guitar is a nondescript Fender, but Foxx is also quite fond of a battered old twelve-string acoustic that is great for recording because it has a neutral sound. You can do anything to it, treat it any way you want and it sounds beautiful. Just put a mike in front of it"