Confession
September 1995
Compiled by Derek Langsford

This is the second Q & A session with Gary and again he has answered in greater detail than one would expect for a man so busy. Info on how to send questions are at the end.

Gary is apparently slipping further behind with the new album :-(. This month's edition has twice the number of questions as August's but I don't think it is why gary is falling behind. I hope that after this initial flurry, the number of questions might level off so that we can let him finish "Exile" :-)

A very small number of you may notice your questions have been reworded. I've done this to save duplication, clarify and in some cases, enable us to get more info from Gary. I try my best not to change the meaning of the content though.


Jim Fetters [mirai@rci.ripco.com] of Arizona, USA

Q1. It seems that the old analog synths gave a richer, thicker sound than
    today's synths - what is your retrospective view of analog synths?
    And is there any place for some of the older technology in the 1990's
    or is "newer better"?

A1. If you had used them in the days when they were all you had to use I
think you would find that your memories would be full of the times they let
you down and the very narrow, relatively, amount of sound variation they
could produce rather than how wonderful they all were. The sounds that I
used to get in the days of analogue only synths are all easily reproduced
by virtualy any of the newer machines. I definitely think that newer is
better. I like old aeroplanes but it's pure nostalgia and I think the same
thing applies to old synths in many ways. It tends to be people that missed
them the first time around that, in the main, have the strongest feelings
for them.


Kelly Ann Malkowski [dgibson2@PigsEye.Kennesaw.EDU] of Marietta, Georgia, and Robb Moran [SIRENT@aol.com] of New York, USA have similar questions:

Kelly asks:


Q2i. Hello Gary!  I am aware that you like the SF work of Philip K. Dick
     and it seems obvious that you like the SF work of Fred Saberhagen's
     "Berserker" series.  I would like to know if it's true you liked the
     Berserker series and also, what other literature tastes you have?

A2i. Yes I did read several of the Berserker books by Saberhagen although
when I revisited them again recently they didn't seem to be as good as when
I was younger. Still a great concept though. My other tastes in literature
are quite varied really. I like tech books about flying, war hero true
stories, I very much like some Clive Barker books, Imagica and Weaveworld
mainly, although I dislike most of his others. Tolkien is my all time
favourite, The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings which is, in my opinion, the
greatest book ever written. I read James Herbert at times but I'm convinced
that I'm missing all the most interesting stuff through lack of time, apart
from The Lord Of The Rings that is.
Robb asks:

Q2ii. Your music seems to have many references to films & books.  Aside
      from the obvious movie samples in The Fury and Outland periods (Blade
      Runner, Terminator & Predator) I am curious if you could name some of
      those influences/favorites that inspire you?

A2ii. The inspiration gained from books or films is extrememly limited,
mainly stealing the odd sample rather than any true direction. I love
Bladerunner for example but only gained a few image and stage lighting
ideas from it, the Strange Charm cover being one of them. Lyrically most
things come from my own experiences with just the occasional steal from a
book, William Burroughs was always a good one to get me out of a dry patch.


Jeff Farr [jfarr@drake.bt.co.uk] of Ipswich, Suffolk, UK asks:

    Hi Gary.  Firstly can I say how much I've enjoyed the last few tours in
    particular (including the OMD-'support' dates), and how grateful I am to
    have two FULL live albums available to document these!


Q3. I have a (hopefully) constructive suggestion for the next tour -
   publicity.  Last time you played in Ipswich (the Emotion 'club' dates) I
   saw almost no LOCAL publicity advertising the event in advance (two
   posters each inside the venue itself!).  No doubt cost is a factor, but
   why not produce a few thousand leaflets/postcards to advertise the dates
   and get fanclub members to stick a couple of hundred in sports clubs,
   other venues, swimming baths, pubs, noticeboards etc etc.  Would that not
   increase awareness?

   Thanks for 'Sacrifice' & Good Luck on 'Exile'.


A3. Local publicity is a problem. Any publicity is a problem come to think
of it. The cost obviously has a bearing on things but perhaps not in the
way you think. To get posters printed is actually not that expensive, it's
getting people to put them up that cost's the money. To get them put up in
the UK you invariably have to deal with rather shady groups of people who
take a large wad of cash and, for arguments sake, 100 posters for each town
and promise to put them everywhere. The truth is that most of the time they
take the money and throw them away. On the last tour that we tried it we
counted only 4 posters seen over the entire tour. Now we may have missed
some but bearing in mind we travel in to towns on major roads you would
have expected to have seen more than four posters on a 14 date tour. And
those 4 were all in one town!

The best kind of useful publicity, in the absence of major national
publicity which is now very difficult for me to get, is local press and
radio interviews or write ups about the forthcoming shows. This is
something that we do try hard to get but clearly could do better. The
problem again is money as to employ people that specialise in this kind of
local promotion is actually very expensive so we try to do it ourselves
which is cheaper but less effective. It's a constant battle to do the best
we can with what we can afford.

The leaflet idea sounds good, we did actually try this in a small way on
the Sacrifice tour, but we would need to know who would be willing to
actually help out in that way and who would actually put the leaflets in
good places and not just keep them all (that happened a few times last year
when I did hand out leaflets to people). We will look into doing it on the
next tour though as I think that it could be very helpful if we organised
it more efficiently.


Andy McHaffie [amchaffie@email.meto.govt.uk] of Reading, Berkshire, UK delves way back in time to ask:

Q4. I know you like to resurrect old stuff for your live shows, and I was
    wondering if any of the pre-Plan stuff would be a possibility to play
    live, like some stuff off the Roxy '77 bootleg ("Me my head", "Boys",
    "Motherless Faces" etc....)  Also, I love all the pre-Replicas
    guitar-based stuff and often toy around with your songs on my 4-track,
    and wonder if you'd be able to remember the lyrics to these extremely
    early punky' songs, cos the tape quality is so bad and its pretty
    impossible to decipher?

A4. Regarding the lyrics to the early punky songs I haven't the remoteset
idea what any of the words are. In truth, on many of those songs, I used to
make them up as I went along whenever we played live. Nobody could
undersatnd a word you were singing anyway the PA systems were so awful and
so it didn't seem to matter. It was the attitude that carried the message,
if you had a message, and I didn't even have that half the time.

Doing those songs live is probably not going to happen although I wouldn't
rule it out absolutely. By the way, most of the song titles on those
bootleg punk albums are wrong. I can't remember what it was called but I
know it wasn't 'Motherless Faces' for a start. I've seen other song titles
written down with some very interesting interpretations. If anyone can get
me a list of the various bootleg song titles I'll try to remember what the
real titles are and send you all a corrected list.


Derek Macdonald (cu17@csu.napier.ac.uk) of Edinburgh, Scotland asks:

Q5. Is there any possibility of the Gary Numan Songbook being reprinted?
    Also , I'd vote a definite "YES" for an unplugged album.  What songs
    would you consider doing?

A5. I think the Gary Numan songbook was a Beggars Banquet product and so
they own the copyright and any re-print is up to them. I would very much
like to put out songbooks of my own in the future but it all takes time to
get together and I don't have enough at the moment.

The unplugged album song list is something I've not even considered yet.
But I would be very keen to see it span the entire career.


Andy Flatman [ae26@cityscape.co.uk] of Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK asks:

Q6. Any plans or reasonable chance of you working with Bill Sharpe again?

A6. No plans whatsoever, I haven't seen Bill for many years now, although I
am supposed to be meeting up with him again fairly soon so who knows what
plans he may have. I'm actually very happy doing my own thing at the
moment, which is what I've always been happiest with really, and so I would
be quite reluctant to get involved with anything else. This Techno Army
thing is slightly different in that I only had to re sing the vocals and my
part was over. It took a day and a half so it wasn't that intrusive to my
progress on 'Exile'.


Jon Garland [jgd@leicester.ac.uk] of Leicester, England asks:

Q7. Could you clear up the events of a bizarre incident at the end of one of
    your concerts on the 1985 Fury Tour?  The gig (which was magnificant),
    at the Ipswich Gaumont, was reaching a superb climax when you appeared
    to get caught up in some sort of a fracas with a fan at the front.
    Before the rest of us could work out what was happening, the gig ended
    in total, shocked silence, with you, obviously very upset, storming off
    the stage. As this was happening, the fan was being set upon by other
    irate fans before being rescued and escorted from the building by the
    bouncers. This incident spoiled what was a truly breathtaking and
    storming gig.  What exactly happened Gary?

A7. As far as I can remember it was the last song of the show anyway. A man
tried to pull me into the crowd and as I pulled back, expecting him to
release his grip which is what usually happens, he gripped even tighter and
yanked on my arm again. It twisted it quite a bit which hurt a lot and
pulled the skin down which hurt a lot more, so he pissed me off mightily.
Bear in mind this was 1985 and I thought all that sort of hysteria nonsense
was long gone especially as this was an adult and not a starstruck 13 year
old (no offence intended). It didn't stop the show as I was finishing the
set anyway but I must confess to leaving the stage somewhat miffed. I had
no idea that anybody had set about the bloke until I was told later that
night back at the hotel. I was very upset that he had been hurt. I thought
he had let his enthusiasm get the better of him and that hardly warrents
getting a beating.

In the days of using microphones with leads people would sometimes wiggle
the mike stand so that it cracked into my mouth or they would pull on the
mike cable so that the mike jerked back into my teeth. Apparently done so
that I would look at them and receive a nice smile or a small fluffy gift
of some kind. Well worth getting smacked in the mouth for. All of those
things were far more annoying that having my arm twisted.

The only thing I could never quite understand is what would people do if
they did manage to pull me in?


Aaron Hannum [Scorbie@aol.com] of Chicago, Illinois, USA asks:

Q8. On The Aircrash Bureau's chorus was the main string sound a Polymoog
    or an Arp Odyssey?  I've been trying to duplicate the sound for years
    because you never left enough room to sample it on the earlier LPs!
    And would you consider using that string sound again on a track as a nod
    back at your previous work? I think we fans would appreciate it. :-)

A8. The sound was probably a Polymoog. It only had one good sound as far as
I was concerned so it would have been a lower octave version of the high
screamy string sound used on 'Cars' called Vox Humana. The Roland D-50 can
duplicate that sound easily if you have one. I have used that sound since
but not in as naked and upfront way as before. It's on the song 'Voix' for
instance.


Aaron Hannum [Scorbie@aol.com] of Chicago, Illinois, USA asks:

Q9. Is there a release date for the Berserker CD re-issue and is it any
     different from the original Fan Club release from 1991?

A9. The release date is very likely to be in early November, perhaps even
late October. The musical content is exactly the same but the sleeve is
slightly different. The original artwork was lost and so I had to re-create
it taking the opportunity to correct some minor lyric mistakes and use a
new photo on the back flap.


Mark Cook [COOK@library.uta.edu] of Arlington, Texas, USA asks:

Q10. You have worked with some great musicians (Mick Karn, Bill Nelson,
     Pino Pallidino(sp?), Nick Beggs, Billy Currie).  Who has been your
     favorite or most interesting person to work with?

A10. Bill Nelson was interesting in that it was amazing how badly we got on.
I had been a great fan of Bill and Be Bop Deluxe for some time but when we
finally worked together we were so different. Bill told me that he
genuinely believed that we received our inspiration from 'beams' of some
kind from across the cosmos. I thought that was complete crap and said
that, at the time, I did it for fun, money, girls and all other trivial
pursuits and benefits. He thought I was shallow, a point that I couldn't
really argue against, and I thought he was a pretentious dickhead.

I'm not quite as shallow now as I was then but I still don't believe in
cosmic beams of inspiration. He was a fantastic player though, very clever,
very creative.


Aaron Burke [AaronMIDI@aol.com] of Cleveland, Ohio, USA asks:

 I have been a fan of yours for years.  Unfortunately, I have never
 been able to see you in concert, and highly anticipate you coming to the
 States for a tour.

Q11. When you come to the States, I would assume that you would play smaller
     venues (2000 people or so).  How would someone who has been waiting for
     the honour of meeting you and thanking you in person get the chance to
     do so?  Do you sign autographs and say hello to the die hards after
     the show?  Do we have to be record company reps who haven't heard
     anything since "Cars" to meet you?

 If the question seems loaded, it is.  I have been waiting for years to meet
 you.  If this is the closest I get, thank you for years of fantastic music,
 and I would like to apologize for the American pop music culture and record
 companies for being so completely lame.

A11. Lots of questions in one this.

First of all I would probably be playing in 200 capacity venues not 2000
unless I'm very much mistaken.

Most people meet me, if they want to, back at the hotels after each show. I
don't keep the location a secret as I'm very happy to meet fans on almost
any occasion. I always sign autographs, all night if needs be, and I always
have my picture taken with any one that wants it, and I'm nearly always the
last to go to bed.

No you don't have to be record company reps. I'm perhaps one of the few
people that would make the President of Sony wait while I chatted to the
fans. Especially now after so many years of loyalty.


Rudy [iwisman@cello.qnet.com] from Palmdale California, USA, and Tiffany Profet [Masselyn6@aol.com] of Glendale (Second safest city in the country), California, USA have related questions:

Rudy asks:


Q12i.  Gary, in the last question I asked about "God only Knows" you said
       that "Nothing clever or deep I'm afraid" was involved in that song.
       Gary, you underestimate the power of your words.  I know you are a
       pilot.  But after listening to your music, your emotion comes
       through. Memory becomes one with the music.  You haven been a part of
       my life for 16 years. Each song brings a different memory.  Thank
       you. Was "Love Isolation for the Fans?

12i. Love Isolation started out being for my mum but I didn't think I was
doing her justice and so it kind of evolved into just a general ballad. The
bits that were meant for my mum were the chorus sections 'Call me +', 'You
were there +' and the 'You cried for me' bit, but the rest was definitely
not. Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.
Tiffany asks:

Q12ii.I personally would like to know the motivation behind your more
       heart-felt songs such as "Love Isolation", "The Seed of a Lie", "Time
       to Die", and "Empty Bed, Empty Heart".  These songs, to me, have the
       most powerful feelings and I was wondering where your inspiration
       came from for them.

(Faithful fan, Tiff)

12ii/ 'Love Isolation' I've covered in Question 13.
      'The Seed Of A Lie' concerns someone that leaves you and lets you
      down but perhaps realises it was a mistake.
      'Time To Die' is about the waste of all those memories and
      experiences when someone dies.
      'Empty Bed, Empty Heart' I wrote for an old girl friend who had gone
      off with someone else when I was about 25.


Steve Lilly [lilly@netcom.com] of Orlando, Florida, USA asks:

Q13. Some of your influences and musical tastes have been well publicized
     over the years. Whose music grabs you nowadays?

A13. I like the Sisters Of Mercy, Depeche Mode, some of The Mission's new
album, the Jesus Jones 'Perverse' album, not much else.


John Neil [BugRoom@aol.com] from Grand Rapids, Michigan USA asks:

Q14. I notice in a lot of your music - particularly on "The Pleasure
     Principle", there are many droning synthesizer sounds.  These 'droning
     sounds' sound a lot like they might have been influenced by the sounds
     heard from the cockpit of an airplane in flight.  Could this be true?
     (Or have I just been playing your tapes in my walkman too much on
     continental flights...?)    :)

A14. I think your walkman idea holds the answer to this one. Nothing to do
with me.


John Neil [BugRoom@aol.com] from Grand Rapids, Michigan USA asks:

Q15. Do you listen to/are you interested in hearing music from artists such
     as myself who create music and are very much influenced by you?  If
     so... is there an address you could give us to send such works to?

A15. I am interested but sorry, I cannot get involved in correspondance
about its good and/or bad points. Send tapes to PO Box 14, Staines, Middx.
England. TW19 5AU.


Andy McHaffie [AMCHAFFIE@EMAIL.METO.GOVT.UK] of Reading, Berkshire, England asks:

Q16. I've always wondered what happened to the original song "Letters" which
     was supposed to be on the B-side of "Sister Surprise". "Face To Face"
     was pressed up instead, but does "Letters" still exist ?

And Gary, congratulations on 'Sacrifice'. It was great to hear a return to
the darker, more stripped down Gary Numan and I hope this is a direction
that you will be continuing...I especially enjoyed the last Hammersmith
show, again because of its more minimal instrumentation...

A16. I struggle to remember. My vague recollection is that the wrong song
was used on the record. That would lead me to assume that another song did
exist at the time. Whatever the truth is though, any other song that may
have been around at the time is long lost and forgotten about now. It may
have been that it was simply a title error anyway. I'm sorry but I can't
remember.


Alek Way [Ahankara@aol.com] of Oakland, California, USA asks about something more recent:

Q17. On 'Absolution', it sounds as if your voice is taking a new direction
     (i.e. - the patented Gary Numan glottal attack is almost completely
     avoided).  This song means a lot to me.  It is a non-denominational,
     non-sectarian spiritual gateway, a little different style of gateway
     than what other Gary Numan songs are for me.  Was this singing style
     intentional, or am I just hearing something that doesn't exist?

A17. The singing style is not intentional in that I deliberately chose a new
direction for my voice. It's just the way the song was meant to be sung. As
for being a spiritual gateway of any kind I have to wonder what you see in
the song. As far as I'm concerned it deals with blind obsession, religious
fervour being just one example of blind obsession but not the one in the
song. If you notice, the lyric becomes increasingly 'fanatic' as the song
progresses which I think sums up the real danger of an obsession. For what
it's worth 'Absolution' is my favourite Numan song of all time. I wrote it,
recorded it and mixed it in about 7 or 8 hours as well so it was all very
immediate and exciting.


Derek Langsford [dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu] of San Diego, California, USA enquires:

Q18. Were the live tracks that appeared on the "Here I Am" compilation from
     Receiver Records taken from the unreleased "Isolate" Tour recording?

A18. None of us know the answer to this one. I'll try and find out from
Receiver.


Derek Langsford [dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu] of San Diego, California, USA enquires:

Q19. Back in May 1995 rumours spread through music dealers of a UK release
     titled "Heartbreak Hill" - supposedly the 3rd contracted compilation of
     NUMA material by Receiver Records.  It never appeared.  Has it's
     release just been postponed?

A19. Again, we have no knowledge of any planned release from Receiver called
'Heartbreak Hill' or anything else. In fact I don't think we've had any
contact with them for quite some time. They did licence a large number of
tracks for future use so another album is possible in the future but that's
about as much as we know.


Ed Carmack [carmack@typhoon.coedu.usf.edu] of Tampa Bay, Florida, USA asks:

Q20. On the "Sacrifice" tour you performed songs such as M.E., This is my
     House and War Songs which didn't show up on Dark Light.  Were these
     songs recorded?  If so, could we hope to see them as "B" sides or in
     some other form?

A20. No they aren't recorded. Quite some time ago a fan suggested to me that
it would be a good idea to play different songs each night to make the
shows more interesting for people that go to more than just one show. This
makes it more difficult from my point of view as it increases considerably
the amount of rehearsal time required to learn all the extra songs that we
will need to choose from each night. On the last tour for example we had
over 30 songs listed from which to choose the set list nightly. Although I
grumbled at the time this idea was suggested it was in fact an excellent
idea and not quite as difficult to implement as I'd first imagined.
However, it does mean that not all of the songs were played all of the time
and some were missed out the night that 'Dark Light' was recorded. 'Dark
Light' is a complete recording of that night with only the gaps between
encores taken out.


Ed Carmack [carmack@typhoon.coedu.usf.edu] of Tampa Bay, Florida, USA asks:

Q21. What can we expect on the next CD?  Is it a similar sound that was
     created on "Sacrifice" or are you progressing into new territory?  Are
     you again playing all of the instruments?

A21. I'm playing most of the instruments, Mike Smith is helping out a little
bit with some of the synth sounds as he has a PPG Wave system. I'm playing
all the guitar, most of the keyboards and anything else I can think of. The
sound of the album has the same core of reference as the Sacrifice album
but is, perhaps, even darker, certainly more powerful and rhythmic. It is
more like Sacrifice than any of my other albums though.


Tiffany Profet-Simpson [Masselyn6@aol.com] of Glendale, California, USA asks:

Q22. What are you referring to in the song "Pray"?  There seem to be a
     definite dark side to you, and I would like to know what makes that
     side tick?  And how does it manifest itself?

A22. I'm actually slowly working on my first novel called (working title
only so far) 'PRAY, The Final Treachery Of God'. The song 'Pray' was taken
from ideas based on the book.

Whatever dark side I have is a mystery to me although I'm sure it's there.


Tiffany Profet-Simpson [Masselyn6@aol.com] of Glendale, California, USA asks:

Q23. You know how some albums tie all of the songs together by blending one
     song into the next with an overlying theme (a continuous track concept
     album)? I think that would be a great idea and I'm curious to see if
     you  have ever thought about doing that in the future on some of your
     own albums.

A23. I actually did something along the lines of this with my 'Outland'
album. This had all of the songs blended together although without an
overall theme.


Derek Langsford [dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu] of San Diego, California, USA asks:

Q24. When Sacrifice was nearing completion a partial track listing was
     released including a song titled 'Badland'.  Did this song change it's
     name to something we now know as something else?

A24. Badland was a title for the song that was eventually called 'The Seed
Of A Lie'.


Derek Langsford [dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu] of San Diego, California, USA asks:

Q25. Any news on the long awaited and much anticipated "Living Ornaments
     '79/Wembley 81" double CD set from Beggars Banquet?

A25. No. Living Ornaments belongs to Beggars Banquet and so if they do
release a CD version of it, as they've indicated they might, which would be
a good idea from my point of view, they probably won't tell me about it
until it's ready. We don't have much of a day to day relationship really.
Although it's still very friendly we talk to each other only on very rare
occasions.


Paul Mayer of New London, Connecticut, USA asks:

Q26. Are there any other tracks like 'This House is Cold' that Beggars
     Banquet are sitting on that could be released?

A26. Not that I know of but my memory is so bad on things like that I'm
probably the worse person to ask. I'd forgotten about half the stuff on the
plan album until I saw the songs listed on the sleeve.


Paul Mayer of New London, Connecticut, USA asks:

Q27. You said last time you had no intention of using a drummer in your
     studio for a future albums.  How about a bass player?

A27. I once used a bass player on the Metal Rhythm album, which I think was
called New Anger in America for some reason known only to Miles Copeland.
This bass player turns up, I go out to meet him, help him in with his two
guitar cases, he plays well, goes home and we're all happy. Then I get his
invoice and find that he's not only charged me for the session, that's fair
enough, but he's also charged me 'porterage' which is for him carrying his
cases from his car to the studio. A mighty distance of some 2 or 3 yards
and I carried one of the cases anyway. My discontent with bass players
reached new heights with that one.

To be fair, and to answer the question sensibly, I have no reason not to
use a bass player other than this. Normally when you record you kind of do
all the conventional things, drum tracks, keyboards and so on. With the new
album I am trying to avoid doing the obvious. This isn't to imply that I'm
doing something revolutionary because I'm not, it's just that when I listen
back to a song in progress and the obvious thing to do is to add guitar, or
piano, or bass I deliberately do something else instead. It's a small
attempt at trying to make this one just a little different to what's gone
before. Limiting the choice of conventional instrumentation is a way of
doing that and so bass, at least, is out, real or synthesised.

The reasons for not using them too much on some of the other more recent
albums is that I do find that nearly all bass players tend to do very
similar things on songs and so you inevitabley have the bottom end of the
spectrum sounding a bit samey from song to song and album to album. I
realise that this argumant could be levelled at any number of instruments
but you have to draw the line somewhere and with me it's bass. Actually
I've also added brass to my list of no no's as well. And strings. And organ
(I've always hated the organ). And girl singers.


Rudy [iwisman@cello.qnet.com] from Palmdale California, USA asks:

Q28. "Deadliner" is a powerful haunting tune, with theme's of the hidden
      fear in us all. Any insight? I hope your "Exile" project is just as
      good!!

A28. So do I. 'Deadliner' actually started life as a short 26 second ditty
for a French perfume TV advert. I did three bits of music for this ad
company, they liked one of them, the perfume company liked the second and
both of them thought that the 'Deadliner' music was too heavy, so I wrote
some words for it, stretched it a bit and there you have it.

The lyrics are actually about an experience I had twice on the Dream
Corrosion tour and once shortly after it when I was back at home. Basically
they were nightmares of a particularly vivid and realistic kind. I went
into REM sleep within seconds of closing my eyes according to Gemma and
straight away began to show signs of great distress only to wake up a bit
of a mess a few minutes later. In the dreams a force of some kind, it felt
like a person, hurt me quite badly and when I woke up I still felt pain in
the same places. They were unlike any other dreams I've ever had and at the
time I was convinced that something was waiting for me. Even though the
scarier side of it is now long gone I still feel that. It was more than a
dream, something was there somehow, waiting for me, and, more than that, it
knew me. I like the song because it tells the story well in my opinion.


Kevin Duarte [kduarte@caere.com] of San Francisco, California asks:

Q29. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind chatting about your studio
     technique. I'm interested in finding out how you mix vocal tracks
     (ie. do you use one reverb on the whole mix or one on the vox tracks
     and another for the music, etc.). I'm also interested in finding out
     what microphones you like for studio and/or touring. - Thanx K.

A29. The microphone list is easy as I only use a very battered Shure SM58.
I've tried all kinds of all dancing super this and that things over the
years but still come back to the SM58. It may be cheap but it works.

My studio technique isn't quite so easy as I don't really have a
'technique' as such. I only have two reverbs, an AMS and a Lexicon so I'm
fairly limited on my choices. The AMS is usually tied up with the drum
sound anyway. The Lexicon normally has a general concert size hall
programmed in which I use for all other reverb requirements including my
vocals. I also use an AMS DDL on the voice using the two Harmonizer
sections to automatically double track what I'm singing. Apart from that
it's all pretty basic, I have two gates, two compressors, no phasers,
flangers or panners of any kind. no moving faders or any of that high tech
console stuff. I do tend to record more bits than I need and then sort it
out at mix time by sending lots of pre mixed chunks into a hard disc
recorder, chopping them together in a variety of ways and then sorting it
out. That's why I can put out these extended mix albums because I'm
actually doing most of the work as I'm preparing the conventional album.

I'm not a great technician in the studio at all. I'm not a techy whizz kid
at all either. I tend to just go in and see what happens from day to day.
Sometimes I read or hear about a particular procedure or technique that
you're supposed to use to get the best sound, mix or whatever and I'm
horrified to learn that I've been doing it completely wrong for years.
That's happened a few times and some of them are so bad I will never own
up.


Joey Lindstrom [joey@lindstrom.com] of Calgary, Alberta, Canada asks:

Q30. Some of us are planning a trip to the UK to catch one or, hopefully,
     many shows on your '96 tour.  For most of us, this will be a
     once-in-a-lifetime experience and it's one we'd really like to
     remember. It would be absolutely unforgettable if we were to get the
     opportunity to meet and talk with you, maybe get a backstage tour or
     something.  How might we arrange something like this, who would we talk
     to, etc.?

A30. Just ask me. Nearer the time, quite near actually, I get a list of all
the hotels that we will be staying in which I can pass on if you wish. It's
not a secret, most people that want to can come back and hang out.


Joey Lindstrom [joey@lindstrom.com] of Calgary, Alberta, Canada asks:

Q31. I saw you perform live 'way back in 1980, during your final stop on the
     (second) North American tour of that year, at the Max Bell Arena here
     in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  Leaving aside the fact it was  "a totally
     mind-blowing experience", I recall as I *LEFT* the show that, parked
     'round back, was a Gary Numan tour bus.  This baby was decked out in
      all the Telekon paraphanelia... black with the red double-bars, etc.
     I've wondered occasionally whatever became of that bus... rental job?
     I'd be interesting in finding out WHERE you got that bus, because it's
     very likely that the operator, if still in existence, will have
     PHOTOGRAPHS of it somewhere... and if they exist, I'd like to get
     copies.  Here's hoping this is the TOUGHEST question you've had to
     answer since we started the Ask Gary column.  (grin!)

A31. Well, this is a bit confusing. The only photographs I have of the tour
bus on that tour, which is also how I remember it, show a large greyhound
size bus that has these amazing mural type paintings on the side of cowboys
and indians. Horses, the desert, mountains, that kind of stuff. The Telekon
bus wasn't mine I'm sure because I don't ever remember even seeing one let
alone going around on it. Maybe it was rented by a group of fans to travel
to the show but apart from asking other digest people I can't help much I'm
afraid.


Philip Jacobson [PhilipJ414@aol.com] from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA asks:

Q32. In one of your recent responses to a question, you mentioned you have a
     cat.  My grandmother has always maintained people who have cats are a
     notch above everyone else.  Anyway, I've decided I would like to name
     my next cat after your current one, so could you give me the name and
     perhaps a bit of his/her history?  I would also like to thank you for
     hanging in all these years -- it has meant so much to so many of us.
     And pet your kitty for me too.   :)

A32. Our cat is called 'Nogbad The Bad' which I know seems a bit of a stupid
name but it takes me back to my childhood. In England we used to have a
childrens series made in that style where the backgrounds are painted but
the characters in the forground are little cut out people that move by stop
photography and smoke is always bits of cotton wool. Anyway it was all very
English and very quaint and I loved it. It was called 'The Adventures of
Noggin The Nog'. Noggins arch enemy was called Nogbad The Bad, hence the
name of our cat. We call him 'Nog' or 'Noggling' for short.

Nog is a grey Persian, prettier than most if not all other Persians. He was
given to us by Gemma's brother as he was the runt of a new litter and the
other kittens were giving him a hard time. He is a little bit smaller than
he should be but he has more character than most people you will ever meet.

I was never a great cat fan to be honest. Gemma persuaded me to try him out
for a few weeks to see if I changed my mind. It only took about a day and I
became cat mad. We are now registered with a local cat sanctuary and are
hoping to take in kittens that have been rescued from cruelty and neglect.


Gleb G. Zverev [gzverev@rpc.glas.apc.org] of Moscow, Russia asks:

Q33. In which countries have you performed live and where else have you been
     other than the USA and Greece?

A33. I've played live in Britain obviously, USA, Canada, France, Belgium,
Holland I think but I'm not sure, Germany or the bit that was called West
Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The best place to find out about
my touring history is Matthew Holbrook's web site called Nu Zone. Matthew
has the complete list of every show I've ever done anywhere plus lots of
other stuff although I'm sure that most digest people will already be aware
of it. We've already used it ourselves to find out about old B-sides and so
on so it's highly recommended.

----

I think that's everything.

Thanks again Derek,

Bye Bye

Gary Numan.


"THE DIGEST ASKS GARY" is a (still) new monthly feature where Digest subscribers can ask Gary questions via the Internet!

Send your questions via email to Derek Langsford [dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu] with a subject line of:

Gary's Qs

Please include your real name and the town/city, county/province/state and country where you are located. Please follow these directions carefully and don't post your questions to the Digest as that means more work for me :-(

I reserve the right to delete and edit questions for content or length.

Thanks to all for taking part,

Derek