John Foxx Interviews

BBC - Live In The Basement.

Interview I - October 1983

The end of the song 'Your Dress' from the 'Golden Section, somebody observed to me that that sounds a little bit like 'Roxy Music' at the end there, with the girls singing. Were you aware of that?

Not at the time, not at all.

It's a long time coming this LP isn't it? It's your third LP, the last one was two years ago. Why the long delay between the two?

Well I tend to offer tangents, I do different things like...I went off to Italy and America for a bit, just to have a wander around. I did some music for little projects for films and things that I wanted to do and I worked with some friends of mine who live out there. I kind of like to do that rather than just going in one straight line all of the time, I think it's a bit more healthier, a bit more crazy as quick.

It's a bit like the life of the Victorian Artist, I can imagine you with your sketch pad wandering around Italy.

That would be lovely, I'd like to do that.

What films were they John?

There was an Antonioni film that I did some piano music for. There is a friend of mine in New York who makes films of parks in America which are a bit more sinister than England. So I did some electronic horrible noises for that and someone in England who is making a super 8 film which sounds very arty but actually it looks very beautiful because he blows it up onto 32 millimeter and it's like a pointerless painting, beautiful colors and it's a lovely film and I did some very lyrical kind of drifting music for that.

Which is the most important part of your career, to be the writer who works on that sort of project or to be the pop star, the John Foxx figure?

I like both of them, I know it is a bit schizophrenic, but I enjoy both of them, I think they are both exciting in different ways. The rock side of it is more exciting physically in more ways than one, the other stuff is kind of more satisfying in other ways, so I need both of them to balance out, and it keeps me sane.

It does seem to me with your single 'Your Dress' slipping down the charts quite dramatically this week that the story continues of John Foxx being the bridesmaid and not the bride again in terms of commercial success. Does that disturb you?

Not really, it's when the family stops buying the record....(laughs).

Your Mom and Dad rushed out..... Regarding commercial success on the records we were asking Kid Creole this earlier and he was saying that yes he really does care a lot about that.

I mean it is important obviously because pop records should be popular I suppose. I'm always in that position of straddling the two worlds a bit. I'm considered to be a bit arty and people want me to be more popular and I just end up slightly confused between the two.

You have a somewhat low profile in terms of a pop personality, Do you get mobbed in the street?

Not mobbed no, people who like what I do tend to be a bit more discreet about that, they kind of sit next to me for a bit and then start talking which is quite nice actually, I prefer that.

They're sort of like friends in that sense really.

Yes, it worlds out very well. It is difficult traveling on the tube occasionally, because you find two or three people kind of examining you carefully, scrutinizing you.

Do you work alone alot when you are creating your music.

Yes I do. I need an engineer of course to do the technical side. I get lots of people in and get the atmosphere working properly and it gets very frantic when I start things off and then I finish things off very much alone. This time, on this album I worked with a guy named Zues B. Held, king of the gods, he's a modest chap. He used to work with Fashion.

What has he done for You? Do you think he's put his stamp on the album to a degree.

In a way, what he does is he kind of polarizes my opinions a bit. I often decide to do things against what he wants me to do but it wouldn't happen if he wasn't there, it works and it's a really valuable relationship. Often he comes up with some very good positive ideas too and it also saves me lots of work and lets me concentrate on performing and just having a good time.

Did he also produce 'My Wild Love'?

Yes he worked on it with me, it was a co-production.

It struck me that that song, although the production is very sophisticated, it could very well sort of go back to the early Ultravox days in its structure and feel.

I suppose it could, I wrote those songs anyways.

You haven't changed your writing philosophy in the intervening years since then.

No, what I do is....there is a stream of those kind of songs that I use, also I try to go off on different tangents. That's kind of my style of writing, it comes naturally.

The last time you performed on a major tour out live was with Ultravox. Now you have your first solo tour coming up soon, once again I have to ask why has it taken so long to get around to it?

Well I think partly it's because I was really interested in electronic music and doing things totally electronically and just working with videos and not doing any live things. Most of the time then you couldn't anyways, you couldn't possibly do what was on some of those records at that time on stage. So I decided against it and to do it on remote control as it were. I miss that now, I've missed it for a few years. I like being on stage, it's very exciting and it doesn't happen in any other part of my life and there is something magical when it works properly. It's not because of me, it's because of the audience, there is a feeling there that I can't describe really without sounding a bit pretentious about it, but it is very real and it is something that I want to get back to.

So it's not that you are shy, I began to wonder whether you were scared of getting out there in a live situation.

No, it's not that really, I suppose in everyday life I can be a bit reserved but I don't think I'm shy.

The technology has caught up now to allow you to do the things properly.

Yes, it's no problem now but it would have taken banks of stuff to do it in those days because it was really primitive, there weren't even any proper drum machines around then. I had to do it all manually, it's difficult, it's primitive electronics you know....there's a whole kind of music that has taken off now...it's become a mainstream part of pop music, it wasn't then at all really.

The band you've got around you, are you going to keep them on after this tour?

I want to, we're getting along really well, the rehearsals have been great, we've been sweating away for two weeks now, it's really exciting.

It must be weird for you to have other people interpreting your music suddenly there.

Yes it is, but again they come up with ideas that I wouldn't expect so that makes it even better for me.

What places are you playing at and when do you start your tour?

We start on the 13th in Manchester at the Hacienda, there is a gig in Hitchen before that actually and then there is Liverpool, The Royal Court, Birmingham, Nottingham, Reading, Warrick, Sheffield, The Dominion in London is on the 21st, there's Essex University and then I think we finish at Chipenham on the 23rd, but that is going to change.

Live In The Basement Part II - 1985

It's been 2 years since your last album, why so long?

I went on holiday for a bit.

Can you afford that sort of time to relax?

Yes, just about, I think I need it though because I get caught up with the whole thing when I'm in London so I need to walk away from it every so often, otherwise I just lose perspective.

It must be nice as well presumably to have a relationship with a record company that let's you do that.

Yes it is actually, Virgin are really good, they are the best for that, they just let me disappear for a while and don't worry.

I read an article recently that said you were putting the emphasis back now on song writing.

Yes it is, I think because over the last couple of years I've heard a lot of songs that depend on the production rather than the song content and I was missing hearing lyrical and melodic things. I started writing things like that without thinking about it. I just realized that I was writing these things because I wanted to hear those kind of songs because I wasn't hearing them on the radio or off record.

I think you were saying that you'd gone back to listening to some of those classic popular songs, not pop music as such but popular songs before all that?

Yes that's true, what was the song I played last time.....'The Shadow of Your Smile'.

I remember that song, that was terrific wasn't it and you really like those songs. Do you think there is something that can be learned from them.

They're beautiful, there is a kind of emotional range in those songs that isn't in many songs nowadays. I think because people are trying to make dance music or disco music all of the time and they forget the more melodic things. You can't necessarily bop around to but they give you an emotional charge rather than an energetic charge.

The song you are about to play for us, 'Hanging In The Air', you wrote this song the day before yesterday?

Yes I did, it's a new one. We had about two hours rehearsal on Thursday so it should be alright.