How's that for promptness!

I wanted to send Gary the July questions early as he will be rehearsing for the festival shows the first week of August. So I mailed them off Monday and lo and behold the answers were in my mailbox when I got into work Tuesday. And as usual he goes to great lengths to answer some of them.

Q1.  Let say you are stranded on a desert island, and you can only bring
     three albums with you (from any time period).  What would they be?
     (double albums count as 1)

A1.  This sort of list can change from day to day but this is what I would
     take today.

        Songs Of Faith And Devotion. Depeche Mode.
        Perverse. Jesus Jones.
        The Slider. T.Rex


Q2.  One of my favorites has always been 'stories'...I recently received a
     copy of an mid 1980 show during the Telekon tour in which you played
     it....was it written for Telekon? or did it just get debuted on the
     Telekon tour.

A2.  It wasn't written for Telekon. I think I wrote it a few months after
    Telekon was finished.


Q3.  also, my friends and I have a bet what you are saying in the
     instrumental portion of the song... i've heard some absurd guesses,
     ('rich-er' 'which one' etc...)  I of course say its just a nonsense
     word...who is right?

A3.  I think it's 'You Are' but it could easily have been something on the
     back of a flightcase. When I was in a punk band I used to make up the
     lyrics as I went along each night so ad-libbing is something I'm quite
     good at. Just as well considering I can't remember my own lyrics most
     of the time.


Q4.  When you played Saturday Night Live, did you get to meet any of
     the prime time players? on such a high profile show, do rehearsals
     permit you to meet the other celebrities? if so, did you particularly
     like anyone of them?

A4.  Rehearsals are quite busy so people are running around a lot getting
     ready for their next sketch or whatever. I did meet a few people
     although I wasn't aware of who they were at the time. I would like to
     know who was on that programme actually. Maybe someone has a copy of it
     and could tell me? I did meet Elliot Gould who was excellent.


Sacrifice is really good....
anxiously awaiting exile.

Mr. Webb:

Q5.  Thinking back to the "Dance" album, on the track "Boys Like Me", do you
     recall where you got the name 'Zara' from?  I'd never heard the name
     before and I like it so much that someday when I have a daughter of my
     own, I'm going to call her 'Zara Marlene'.

A5.  It was a woman that I met in a club who also happened to know the woman
     who tried to blackmail me, as in the song 'We Take Mystery To Bed'. She
     then started playing a few little games of her own. The name doesn't
     have that good a memory for me but it wasn't that big a deal one way or
     the other.


Thanks - Miss Marlene

 "I only have one life to live and artistic credibility is a very good way
  of starving for most of it."

My question or comments stem from the above quote from last months Q&As.

Gary, I've been a fan of yours a long, long, time.  I don't put you on a
pedastal like some other fans do, which I'm sure from one musician to
another you can appreciate, so I'm not afraid to ask you this.

It seems to me that after Telekon, the numerous bad reviews of your
music by critics took its toll, and with Dance through Warriors, you tried
to give people what you thought they wanted instead of continueing to put
out what YOU wanted.

Q6.  Is this the case?

A6.  Not really. For instance 'Dance' was a very non commercial album which
     did not please Beggars Banquet at all when they first heard it. I've
     had bad reviews ever since my first single 'That's Too Bad' so I saw no
     reason to change anything after 'Telekon'. In fact 'Telekon' was one of
     the few albums to get a good review in a music paper not that that
     means very much. I've always tried to put things out that were what I
     wanted. It's just that for a while I didn't know what I wanted although
     that applies more to the early 90's than to the early 80's.


Q7.  As you look back, do you think your decline in popularity and record
     sales, and thus the end of your record deal with BB (I know that it was
     an 8 record deal, but did they even offer you an extension?) was
     because you were trying too hard to be successful by pleasing all the
     critics instead of your fans, or because the new cohort of teenage
     music buyers caught onto other artists?

A7.  I think my decline in popularity is entirely down to a lack of airplay.
     People will not buy, CANNOT buy what they don't know is available. I
     think the Beggars deal was for 5 albums not 8 and commenced from
     Telekon onmwards and the ending of it was instigated by us not them
     although the relationship had gone aground a bit from all sides. In
     fact it was more to do with getting away from WEA than Beggars.

     In many ways it's far too simplistic to say that, for several years of
     my career, I was trying 'too hard to be successful' although I
     understand how you and others think you see these things. You are
     though speculating as to my feelings, the business situation, my
     creative output and temperament,the desires of the record company and a
     thousand and one other factors unknown to you in a situation that
     changes, or changed should I say, almost daily. We all from time to
     time take on board advice that may have a bearing on how we are best to
     proceed. At times it's seemed as though I'm surrounded by ten billion
     bloody opinions, all from people who genuinely believe they know best
     as to where I'm going wrong and yet none of these opinions are from
     people who have ever sold a single record. When the career is going
     badly it is hard to believe in yourself and to keep this barrage of
     'advice' at arms length and so sometimes albums are put out that are
     less 'Numan' than others. I have never put out an album that was an
     attempt at trying to please the critics in preferance to the fans now
     would I ever do such a thing.


Q9.  Also, have you ever thought of getting a producer?  The only reason I
     ask this is that my other favorite musicians, Rush, co-produce their
     stuff with Peter Collins these days, and they say that it's good to
     have another set of ears and eyes observing the music to keep them on
     their toes.

A9.  I think the difference between 'Machine And Soul' and 'Sacrifice' is
     probably a good enough answer. Sometimes having another voice around
     can be useful because it comes up with great ideas that you hadn't
     thought of. Sometimes those ideas begin to take the album away from the
     core sound and style that makes an artist attractive to the fans in the
     first place and so becomes self defeating. Sometimes another voice can
     simply be one of incouragement which fills the artist with a confidence
     that could otherwise be lost in self doubt. That's what I have now and,
     at the moment, I much prefer it to working with a producer of any kind.
     I do see where a producer could be very helpful and I'm in no way
     saying that I won't work with one in the future. At the moment however
     I feel I'm working quite well without one.


Thanks and good luck, I would love to see you at the top again real soon,
keep putting out stuff like Sacrifice and I'm sure you will get there.
Though I wish you would take it easy on us religious folks. Later..

GARY'S COMMENT: I honestly do apologise for writing stuff that may offend
     peoples beliefs. It is not my intention to offend anyone, just to
     question in my own way things that many people hold to be true
     concerning God. I have to write about something and this is the subject
     that fascinates me the most. At the moment especially.  If belief gives
     you comfort then I'm genuinely glad for you and would hope that you see
     my comments as irrelevant compared to the might and power of what you
     believe to be true.

Hi Gary, I have a couple of questions:

Q10.  Bought and enjoyed your "Radial Pair" video very much. I'm curious...
      why is your Harvard painted like a Japanese fighter (white, with a red
      rising sun). I had heard that the Harvards in England were generally
      yellow. Was it painted this way when you got it?

A10.  When I bought the aeroplane it was painted in a Green/Brown camouflage
      scheme like many others. I found it very hard to get work for it and
      therefore very hard to get into display flying which was my main
      ambition at the time. I painted it in Japanese colours so that it
      could masquerade as a Japanese Zero fighter. It caught on and I was
      then flying in battle scenarios at displays all over Europe for many
      years.


Q11.  What, if any, significance does the caduceus in your Sacrifice "logo"
      have? I'm guessing you are not a doctor so is there another reason you
      have used this symbol? No complaint, mind you, only curiousity.

A11.  No significance at all. I have to confess that I had no idea what the
      symbol was when I used it. It turned up as one of the alternate
      symbols on a font that I used a lot with my Desktop Publishing
      software.

Hi Gary.

I missed the gig you played at the gay club at the LA2 on the Sacrifice
tour due to having split up with my boyfriend on that very day...

Q12. How did that gig come about ?

A12. The organisers of the gay club noticed that we were playing in the
     same venue before they took it over on a particuylar night and so asked
     if we could leave the gear set up and come back a few hours later to
     play a few songs for them.


Q13. How did you go down ?

A13. It was good. The organiser was a bit silly though, He sold it to his
     club as an electro pop nostalgia event. He obviously had no idea what
     I'd been doing since 1980. When he came to the sound check that
     afternoon he was very unhappy and said that we were far too 'rocky' for
     his club. This made me a bit nervous as to how we would go down but it
     worked out fine.


Q14. Would you consider doing a similar thing again ?

A14. Possibly. The situation and money was perfect for that particular
     night so it would need to all fall into place naturally if it was to
     happen again. Doing club gigs to a non Numan audience is not something
     I'm that keen on doing though. I was also a bit unhappy about the way
     that they tried to keep all the Numan fans out of the club. I know it's
     a gay club but I don't ban gay people from my other shows and had hoped
     that things could have been a bit more conciliatory on that front.


Also, I was wondering what your plans are for the Pulp gig..

Q15. How long a set have you got?

A15. I'll probably do about 45 minutes, maybe an hour.


Q16. Are you nervous playing to a crowd of strangers (as  opposed to Numan
     fans)?

A16. Very. I'm not looking forward to it at all although I normally slide
     into a different mode whenever I actually walk out onto a stage. It's
     not the doing but the waiting to do that's scary.


Q17. Have you considered branching out to the main festivals such as Reading
     or Glastonbury ?

A17. I'm waiting to see how the Pulp festival goes first.



Oh...and ...

Q18. Have you made any more plans with Wayne Hussey about the direction of
     the stuff you will be playing.

A18. No. Wayne is still away in America. I don't even want to think about
     it too much until 'Exile' is finished anyway.


Q19. Would you consider calling yourselves by a band name rather than just
     Hussey and Numan..? I'm sure that by promoting the project as a band,
     regardless of how transitory the collaboration is, would be a way of
     attracting more publicity and fans...

A19. I think that would be cool yes. I don't expect much to happen on the
     Wayne Hussey thing until much later this year. I think it could be
     excellent though.

Your musical arrangement abilities are phenomenal and I would like to see
you release a compilation CD of complete instrumetal songs, not blurps as
in 'HUMAN'.

Q20. Any chance of you doing that in the future?

A20. I don't have enough time to do the main things at the moment so I
     doubt if I will be able to get around to a more conventional
     instrumental album for quite some time. I must admit though that I'm
     not that interested in doing one either. I like singing and I like
     writing lyrics. Possibly this is an idea for the more distant future.


Q21. How do you choose which song would be a single?  And what songs are
     going to a B-side?.  Some of your B-side I feel should be A-side
     singles.

A21. I choose songs simply from a 'how much do I like them' point of view.
     I think the reason that, in retrospect, I haven't always gone with the
     most suitable A-side is because I've been listening to some of those
     songs for about two years or more by the time it comes to make choices
     and I'm sick to death of hearing them. The more recently written songs
     in an album session can often sound better because they seem fresher.
     The end of a recording session is not a good time to be choosing
     material for an album or for singles for that reason but what choice is
     there? Looking back though, a year or so later, I often wonder why I
     chose the songs I did.


Q22. Have you ever considered having a percentage of your fans listen to
     a new album and give you feedback on what they'd like to see as a
     single?

A22. Thought about it many times. It may actually be more productive though
     to get in a batch of non fans and ask them which is the one they would
     find least offensive as a single. The truth is that none of that
     matters a jot if the single isn't played by radio. Therefore the best
     thing to do would be to get the DJs in and ask them. They of course
     don't do such things.


Q23. As I write my poems and songs, at times I will be driving and think
     of an incredibly good line and pull over and right it down to
     incorporate in my lyric base.  Have you had that experience?  Also, did
     you get the poem I E-mailed you?

A23 . No I haven't had the e-mail yet I'm afraid and yes I often get ideas
      when I'm driving. In fact I use time in the car as a major source of
      ideas for vocal lines and putting the finishing touches to an album.
      Unfortunately my car stereo has died.

Thanks for your time and I, as all Numan fans, anxiously await the
'Exile' album.

Q24. The song "Moral" is musically, very similar to "Metal", and both use
     the repeating line of "...like you","...aren't you", etc.  Are the two
     songs related in any way?  Is "Moral" some sort of continuation of
     "Metal" or did it just turn out that way?

A24. Yes in some ways it's a continuation. 'Moral' was just another version
     of 'Metal' but with new lyrics.


Q25. Speaking of "Moral", can you give any insight about "Matthew's mother"?

A25. Matthew's mother was the woman also referred to as DEB in the song 'We
     Take Mystery'. Much of the 'Dance' and 'I Assassin' albums are about
     her and people like her.

Q26. How long did you play bars when you started out, and do you
     remember a specific time that you jumped to bigger venues..., and how
     did it come about...

A26. In a band playing my own songs not very long, only a handful of gigs
     really. I did a bit more of the weddings, and social club type playing
     before that, doing cover versions of Tony Orlando songs amongst
     others:-(

Before I begin, I'd just like to thank you again for the wonderful
hospitality that you and the whole Numan camp showed to all the fans
(myself included) that attended the Premier Tour.  The entire thing
was handled with real class from top to bottom.

I noticed that on your recent update to NuWORLD's "Interview"
section, you mention that you're not terribly interested in re-doing
your old material outside of live performances.  This brings to mind
something that Matthew played for me while I was over there (and that
I've been trying to obtain for myself): namely, the "Pacifica"
remixes of the Nancy Boy cover of "Are 'Friends' Electric?".

This really blew me away - you took an old song and breathed totally
new life into it... and what was so cool was that it wasn't just a
remix, but it was essentially a COMPLETELY new song - only the words
stayed the same.

Q27. I'm very curious as to how this project all came together.  The
     way I understand it, the band "Nancy Boy" rented time in your studio
     to record their cover.  But how did you become involved in creating
     these "Pacifica" models with the all-new instrumentation?

A27. Nancy Boy didn't come here actually. I was asked to do a number of
     remixes in different styles for them but I'm not familiar with the
     various styles around and so could only agree to do a mix in my style.
     For a number of technical reasons when their tape arrived I couldn't
     get it to sync with my studio and so I had no option but to re-record
     the music entirely and just cut in their original vocal. Noting with
     some slight irritation that they had changed some of the lyrics by the
     way but it wasn't a big deal. I wrote the new music on day one and then
     spent day two adding their vocal and mixing two versions. The two were
     actually just variations of the one mix and were called 'Pacifica Mix'
     and 'Desert Mix'.


Q28. Would you consider revoicing the song and rereleasing it with your
     vocals?

A28. We are thinking about doing just that. Possibly not for a conventional
     single release but as part of something else. This may even be the
     excuse needed to go with a Babylon 8 :-)


Moving along... er, rather, moving BACKWARDS... I've been playing
Berserker quite a bit lately and I'm really curious about the
Japanese or Asian or Oriental tinges to much of this album... for
example, your overall image has a rather Japanese feel to it, and
"Cold Warning" sounds so Oriental that it comes as quite a surprise
when you begin singing in English!  (Grin!)

Q30. Can you think of any specific influences that helped colour this
     album in this direction?  Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and
     there was no intention to utilize an Oriental "theme"?

A30. Afraid not. It actually came out at a time when I was vaguely into
     Frankie Goes To Hollywood amongst others and so no obvious Oriental
     influence was around that I can remember. I don't remember going for an
     Oriental theme with that album. I was using the Wave PPG System for the
     first time and was more into sounds that it had than anything
     specifically Oriental.


Q31. While I personally feel that the Berserker "image" (all white,
     black lips, blue hair) is one of my all-time favourites, I seem to be
     in the minority on this one.  Looking back twelve years, how do you
     feel about this image, and why do you think it's not one of the
     consensus favourites of the fans?

A31. I've always felt that the Berserker image was about the most favoured
     outside the leather images. It was certainly the most striking I've
     ever come up with and, although a nightmare to actually use, was my
     favourite visually. On the album that is not live where it was more
     reminiscent of a melting wax works than anything else.


And finally:

You've been asked repeatedly whether you've considered becoming an
actor, and you've always said that you hadn't, and more
interestingly, that you DON'T THINK YOU COULD DO IT.

On an old (bootleg) interview disc I've got here, you told an
interviewer that in essence you and other musicians *ARE* actors when
you're on stage, and this is something maybe you've missed.  Just
taking one look at some of the recent Exile publicity pics, plus
other shots (album covers, publicity stills, videos, etc.) from the
past, you gotta admit that there is some acting skill required to
pull off all these wonderful images you've treated us to.  Indeed,
one of the best videos I've ever seen is "This Is Love", which
features a VERY fine acting performance by Mr. Gary Numan.

Q32. In the face of all this evidence of your skill as an actor, why do
     you feel you could NOT be an actor?

Leaving aside things like available time and whatnot - I realize that
you've already got two careers and likely wouldn't have much time for
a third.  This just seems like an area where you and the fans are on
two different wavelengths and I'd be interested to see if you could
shed some light on this difference of opinion.


A32. But acting is not having a picture taken. Acting is being asked to cry
     convincingly when you are actually very happy, to say a thousand words
     with only the slightest lift of an eyebrow. People have to love acting
     to have the confidence to even audition for a part, with all that ego
     denting rejection just a sneer away. It's also being told what to do by
     a director in front of hundreds of other people who have seen it done
     by the best and snigger openly at your poor attempts. It has
     similarities to music in that the audience has to suspend reality for a
     while but the mechanics of the actual job are totally different. One
     suits me and the other is as alien to my nature as swimming in a snake
     pit. I know actors and actresses, I went out with an actress for a
     while, and I know that the mental requirements alone for acting are not
     strengths that I posess.

Q33. Will the 12" single version of "New Thing From London Town" and "I
     Can't Stop" be on the CD reissue of _Strange Charm_?

A33. We are still very unsure what to do about the track listing for this
     and other planned re-releases. Some people want as much on them as
     possible while others have expressed a great deal of anger that a
     re-release will be different to the original and therefore force the
     collectors amongst them to buy it again. Both schools of thought are
     worthy of serious consideration although it already appears that
     whatever we do someone is going to be upset. No change there then.

Bye for now

Gary Numan.

Send your questions via email to:

Derek Langsford (dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu)

with a subject line of:

Gary's Qs

Include your real name, town/city, county/province/state and country.

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

Thanks again to all who participated.