Translated into English from an interview originally printed in the September 1988 release
of the Swiss magazine NEW LIFE.

NL = Bernd of NEW LIFE
AS = ADRIAN SMITH

NL: Your records have fixed me up with the impression that you are one of these uncountable electro bands currently populating the music scene. Most of the people believe that you are a Belgian band. But your concert fairly surprised me. How do people face you after a concert?

AS: A lot of people are apparently confused after our concerts because we don't stand behind of mountains of synths making pretty music. Our sound is much harder.

NL: One of your oldest song 'Sweet Stuff' is on the Belgian sampler 'Electronic Body Music'. Do you think you are a part of this 'new electronic movement'? I regard all this as a hype of the record company.

AS: It is a hype of the record company. We chose 'Sweet Stuff' because it represents our style of music. Today we don't see ourselves as a part of the electronic body music scene. It's good when people who listen to the song on the sampler like it and buy our other records and discover the things we are doing now. Our new album is different from our older songs. I wanted more melody, vocals and substance on the new album. We never made 'Electronic Body Music' in the past and we will not do so in the future.

NL: On the new LP you use considerably more electronics than on stage. Are you harder on stage because you play with LOVE AND ROCKETS here or do you want to get harder in general?

AS: In the studio we work with synths - live we use them on backing tapes to allow more freedom of movement. To compensate we use a drum machine and a drummer to give more power to the rhythms. The badly played live guitar makes the sound much harder and chaotic on stage.

NL: What in your opinion is the reason for the success of bands like SKINNY PUPPY and FRONT 242?

AS: I think people are sick of those endless stereotypes: Rock, Heavy Metal and Pop. The 'underground music' of the 60s and 70s had actually disappeared, but now it's coming back in the form of electronic bands.

NL: Do you believe that the people who bought VELVET UNDERGROUND years ago buy CLICK CLICK and SKINNY PUPPY today? There are nearly only teenagers listening to this music.

AS: If the old folks still prefer 'underground', then I believe some of the young like new electronic bands…but not all. That's the development.

NL: You say that as a producer and not as a consumer. What do you buy?

AS: I have a lot of German records. I would call CAN my favourite band. But I don't really like any of the 'Play it again Sam' stuff.

NL: Aha. Why does every musician I know think so highly of CAN? I hear that again and again.

AS: I don't know. I became hooked on CAN's drummer, I'd say he was as much an influence as the rest of the band.

NL: Do you think that this 'middle-european music' could also import in the US? The Europeans are influenced by the hip hop scene at the moment.

AS: I was highly surprised that we - as a greatly unknown band - sell so many records in the US. I did'nt know that the Americans liked this music, I thought it was too strange for them to comprehend, but it seems they do. In Frankfurt and Munich we played gigs which were visited by many GIs. First we were slightly intimidated (actually I thought they were fascist skinheads) because they were a very loud and aggressive audience. But they liked our concert. But it is not our aim to make music for such people...

NL: Are you satisfied with sales of your records?

AS: I don't know exactly what we are selling at all. Our compilation LP 'Wet Skin and curious eye' sells quite well. Also 'Sweet Stuff' is running really well. I don't know how the new LP sells as it's only been on the market for a short time.
That's what this tour's all about…promotion. And it's a very hard tour. Most of the time we have to sleep in the car or on the floor of someones house because we haven't got the money for a hotel.

NL: How did it come to this strange composition LOVE AND ROCKETS and CLICK CLICK? You are quite different.

AS: That was pure chance. Their lighting man, Pete (Luton) Hosier is also our lighting man, so we came together. Pete gets paid by the Rockets, not by us. I had only listened to one song of LOVE AND ROCKETS before. But they make good stuff. I'm going to treat myself to their albums when I get back home. They like us as their warm-up, if you like to call our brand of music warm.

NL: What's your aim? To entertain the people, to make them dance or to make them to use their brains?

AS: That's a really good question. On the records I would like to stimulate the people to use their brains. Like the motto: the more you hear, the more you hear…put on the record, turn off the light and see what you see. On stage I suppose we would like to entertain more and offer the best to the people for their money. In Hamburg the audience was totally enthusiastic. That was great! The people really raged and didn't want to let us off stage. But we don't have master plan.

NL: In one song you have a TV set on stage playing a video. Besides you have these slides, which give you an optical support. That reminds me of the statements of many bands of the moment that they like to watch TV 24 hours a day, that the desire for optical violence grows and that they like to have brutal sex with plastic puppets. I see parallels to books as 'Clockwork Orange' etc. Do you also read books and try to get the people such messages?

AS: Most of the songs are based on observations of other people. I know somebody who watches TV the whole day and doesn't even turn it off for 5 minutes. But there aren't any specific songs about violence and sex on the record…except Playground.

NL: What about change of the people who said a few years ago that TV and violence are rubbish . And today they say: we want to watch TV 24 hours, we want plastic food. They actually practice the decadence of decay.

AS: You can't stop this development. I cannot stand violence: The people believe that because our music is raw and loud we actually want to reflect such things even more. A concert however is only a show. But there are bands carrying things onto the stage only to destroy them.
Look what EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN are doing, for example. What they do is actually more than a theatre. I don't believe that they are really living in that way. But I have to admit that I don't know their lyrics.

NL: You use very few samples. Only in some songs I could find some preset sounds. What do you think about sampling, particularly if it is used excessively?

AS: We use samples when we want to have instruments which we don't have access to. We can't afford to have session musicians. Most of the samples on the 'Wet skin...' album are self-made. Editing the sounds is higly time consuming and we are forced to do it in the studio. That's very expensive and sometimes you find out finally that a sample played an octave lower cannot be used anymore.
We don't want to overload the music with samples. It would sound too synthetic. Jim Foetus uses loads of samples, and it sound like sampling but he's doing it cleverly and it fits into his music brilliantly. It depends on how you use them.
As we were recording a track for the new album a keyboard was stolen out of the studio and we had to use another one for the bassline - but it sounded totally different - so we took a bass sound from DAF. That was very funny. We used a whole day to edit this sound and we hopped around wildly when we had the new effect on it. We were real 'samplemaniacs' - but only for a day.

NL: What is the atmosphere like in the region you live for bands like you?

AS: Luton is a small town about 30 miles north of London. There you have only few chances to play and to play in London is nearly impossible. You call a promoter in London and ask him for a gig. He will ask you if you ever have played in London and you will say: no. Then he will tell you that in this case he can't do anything for you. That's absurd: you can't play in London until you have played in London. Catch 22.
But in September we will have a concert with Love and Rockets in the 'Dominion'.

NL: Do you like to continue being independent or do you have ambitions to go to a major?

AS: I would like be on a major. A lot of things would go better. Tell me how to get a contract. Rorschach Testing is a small label. They can only invest little money in us. We don't make music for the money but for fun. But it would be nice if we at least had enough money to sleep in a hotel .

NL: I think you have an outsider role in England because you are actually playing music which has more success in the Benelux countries and Germany.

AS: Yes, that's right. In England we're virtually unknown. Most of the people don't regard us as English.

NL: It's quite interesting that most of the people buy the 'Sweet Stuff' 12" because of the b-side 'Stay out of the water'. Are you aware of that?

AS: Yes, the joke is that the song as it is came into existence through a mistake recording the hi-hat. Then we thought this effect was very good. Shortly after the release of the record we had a gig in Holland. As we were announcing 'Sweet stuff' the crowd roared: "Stay out of the water."

NL: Why did you play nothing of this record, although it was so successful?

AS: For these concerts we had to occupy ourselves with the new material. We want to think over these songs again and dress them up a bit. At the moment we are about to play 'Clang' again. But we will also play these songs again, but not so techno-oriented.

Two years ago every third customer sang a song to his record dealer that he badly needs this record. In every disco they played this song sounding as if it was partly played backwards. That lead to a quick sell out of the record but it was played everyday on the radio. So the record dealers had only one wish: that this damn CLICK CLICK disc would be re-released.

Well. In the course of the electro movement CLICK CLICK ran beside it decently. Their music was played in the relevant discos as a filler between some boring Belgian music. The aversion to this music, the bad band name and the seeming inactivity of this band lead to the fact that I totally gave them the cold shoulder. Whereas you can get excited about the FRONT 242 idiot, CLICK CLICK could not even do this.

Until, yes, until I got to know a few days ago that they are on tour with Love and Rockets. I had never credited them with that. It's not that this Bauhaus offshoot belongs to my favourite bands but such a line-up gets it at least to argue with CLICK CLICK again. Their new LP 'Rorschach Testing' (that's the psycho test with the ink stains) has a few nice moments and is striking through the lack of obtrusive samples. No top record but after all...

The concert however was a real surprise. No storms of enthusiasm but CLICK CLICK have thrown some cliche expectations overboard.

The beginning really scared me (I am always scared when a concert begins with gloomy sounds and fog). But then I was surprised pleasantly. Like all the others I expected two guys behind synths and one clinging to the microphone due to pure agony singing things about bowels. But I did not expect a real drummer, a guitarist (not being overworked) and a quite intelligent looking vocalist.

On a big wall in the background colour patterns were shown to the rhythms. I let everyone to have his own interpretation...

The music was surprisingly hard and noisy, the singer was dancing funnily and let his dead body he had with him rotting elsewhere.

The show effects with the TV set, dancing lights and long plastic arms were also quite nice and ingenious (except the fog). The Zurich people thanked the English, who are up to now taken for Belgians, for it. This was a concert which didn't fill me with enthusiasm but which didn't bore me. Sometimes you had to seesaw with the foot inevitably and to clap.

There were hardly any people in the crowd who knew the new album enough to sing along with it. In every case it would be be difficult because the Smith brothers do not write ear catching pop songs a la 'Stay out of the water' (which they didn't play). That is surely the reason why CLICK CLICK do not have the success of other current bands. The one trying to add his own style to it will see what he will get out of it...

Even when I don't agree to all what Adrian said during the interview (lasting one hour) his sympathetic character made it hard for me to contradict. Yes, it's my fault.

As I said...after all.