Stereo Warning: The Cure: Robert Smith interview

Here's part three of the interview with Robert Smith from the Cure. Part four -- and final -- coming tomorrow.

You don’t have a keyboards player for the first time in decades. Why did you not replace Roger?
There’s no need to when you got someone like Porl playing guitar. He can pretty much create any sounds that you want. There are only two songs out of the 33 that have any keys on them at the moment and that’s me playing so I don’t really miss the keyboards. It’s nice every once in a while to totally limit the palette of sounds that we have. We did that on Disintegration to only allow certain sounds to happen so that that holds the whole album together so if you’re playing a very slow Eastern sounding song and put it against a really upbeat driving song, the fact that you’re using the same instrumentation and the same palette of sound tends to hold the whole thing together.

On a lot of the albums, the keyboards you hear aren’t played by the keyboards player in the band. An awful lot of keyboards on Cure albums are played by me. If I say it needs to sound like this and just play it, there’s no need to teach the player how to play it if it’s already been played. If there’s no keyboard player, there’s no sense of “well, what am I going to play.” It sounds great without a keyboard player, so why bother putting one in? If we had five people, you’re snubbing the person if you don’t want their instrument in. So you almost have to have keyboards when you have a keyboard player. Live, you might miss the keyboards on some of the songs a little bit, but if you’re a Cure fan you sing along and fill in the gaps. On others it’s not that important to play it live. It’s all about the energy and the performance and the words.

What is your approach to your next tour?
We’re going as a band everywhere around the world. The idea of being a four piece is getting back to that stripped down stage look and sound. The fact that we can turn out anywhere with very little equipment and play a concert is going back to the old idea of The Cure. It’s less grand than things we’ve done in the past, but we’re still planning to play for three hours.

I read somewhere that Ashley Simpson said she might collaborate with you on some music. Is that true?
(laughs) I happened to meet her a couple of times. I don’t normally hang out in places where I bump into artist like Ashley Simpson, but I took some of my nephews and nieces to see her in (the musical) “Chicago.” Musicals aren’t really my form of entertainment I have to confess, but I was pleasantly surprised by it actually. As to working with Ashley, I’m not so sure how that’s going to happen. I’ve been tempted to work with a couple of people that I’m not normally associated with and I suppose I won’t rule anything out. I’m a lot more easy-going than I used to be.

You already retired once, how much longer are you going to be doing this?
I’m genuinely surprised at the people’s reaction when we play shows, it’s hard to ignore it. It’s gratifying to know that people still want The Cure to exist. The best thing about playing live is that we’re an old band playing to a young audience. As long as I still enjoy it I should keep doing it. I personally find it slightly upsetting to see seriously old people performing contemporary music. I haven’t quite reached that very old person stage but I’m aware that time is moving on. Once I won’t be able to sing for three hours and also mentally wanting to do it, that’s when I’ll stop. I don’t want The Cure to fizzle out doing 45 minute shows of greatest hits, I think it would be an awful way to end the legacy of The Cure.

The last time we talked you said you were thinking about growing a beard and starting to write film music.
I’m not so sure about the beard part, I look like Father Christmas when I have a beard, which is entertaining for this time of year but not really for the other 11 months. Film music is definitely still my goal. But I had to choose between to continue on with The Cure and make an album with Porl or become a film music writer, and I opted for The Cure. Hopefully another opportunity will arise for me to be involved in a film. If it doesn’t I still think I made the right choice. I’m still able to stand up and sing for 3 hours so as long as I can do that I should probably take advantage of it. The day will come when I can’t then it’s probably the time to sit down and start making film music.

Check back tomorrow for part 4 of this interview.

Tags: the cure robert smith ashlee simpson