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| Former Depeche Mode member, Alan Wilder is a prominent personnality in music, who has no fear of risk or experimentation. "Liquid", latest album of his band Recoil, is an undeniable proof of this: its dark music and disturbing lyrics sound like the soundtrack to our most intimate nightmares. Wilder has then worked with unique personnalities such as Diamanda Galas, Nicole Blackman (who also worked with KMFDM, Scanner ans the Golden Palominos), Samatha Coerbell (well-known NY spoken word artist) and even Rosa Torras, a Recoil fan who sent her recording to Wilder's Web site. Mr. X and Laurent have interviewed this unique artist in Paris: enjoy. |
 © Christophe Valette |
| - You have a new
LP out in March, "Liquid", how is it different from "Unsound
methods"? - In a way, they're kind of connected, they have a similar feel, they both have this soundtrack quality. But different singers participate and write different lyrics. In some ways, it's almost like a sequel to "Unsound methods". This one's a little more organic-sounding, shall we say, but it has the same kind of dark atmosphere. I suppose they go together quite well. - Can you tell us more about your lyrics and your inspiration? - I don't write lyrics, I choose people that I think are good at it. On this album, the lyrics in a way are more important than they have been in the previous records, which is why they're quite loud and upfront in the mix. I just wanted people who could tell stories well. There are many different stories on there, but the way I see is to try to tie them all together, so I use this idea of one track opening the album, called "Black Box", which is about an air crash and the pilot about to die sees his whole life flash before him and all the stories are like his memories, that's how it ties together. When I start off working on the music, I often use little bits of film dialogue or something like that, in order to give myself a focus to make the framework of the music. In a way, these spoken word people take the place of the actor, telling the story. It seems it goes well with the music, which has a very filmic quality. - How do you choose your guests (Diamanda Galas, Nicole Blackman,...)? - The music chooses for me, I make this music which doesn't really have much direction, but it has an atmosphere. From there, it normally suggests who would be good. I have one track called "Strange Hours", which is quite bluesy, with a dark side to it, that suggested to me someone like Diamanda Galas, because I knew that some of what she does was very blues and gospel oriented. It is similar to the way a film director works. - Your guests are mainly women, why? - It's a good question, I don't know (laughs). I did try a man, for 2 tracks, I didn't really work out. I found it easier to think of women's voices rather than men's voices. Maybe it's a kind of sensual quality... - Ever since Recoil's early days and even before, your music has tended to be rather instrumental. Have you ever considered singing? - I just don't think my voice is really strong enough and I have trouble writing words, it's doesn't come naturally to me. I think I've come to realize I should stick to what I do best, which is orchestration and structuring, being more of a catalyst for people to bring things. I need the focus of the vocals, but there are little bits of the backing vocals, even on this, coming from me. - What are your best and worst memories from the Depeche Mode era? - I don't have too many bad memories actually. The "Violator" period was very good, I think that was the time when the band got on together best, besides, we had our most success at that time. The time we went over to Los Angeles, there was an in-store and 17,000 people turned up for a record signing, that was quite special. Then we played the massive concerts there, that was a very good memory. Most of my memories are about partying, having fun after the shows, getting drunk and that kind of things. There were quite difficult periods when we were making "Songs of Faith and Devotion" in the studio. There were times when it was quite stressful. The band was very disparate and Dave was somewhere else... - You described Recoil as an antidote to Depeche Mode: was this band like an enormous machine you were trapped in? - Yes, in a way. It wasn't so much being trapped, but it was certainly a machine that was on a roll and some pressures come with that. There are high expectations everytime you make a record and personally, I felt I couldn't really do much more within it. When I left, it was a good time, we'd done a lot, it was good fun, but I kind of grew out of being in a group, it's like being in a gang when you're middle-aged. The group mentality just didn't suit me anymore. I have good feelings about it now. - You created your own recordig studio, "The thin line", in 96, was it an important step for you? - It's been a gradual thing really. I always used to work from home anyway, but my home studio started with just a cassette machine and now it's a whole building. It's important for me to work from home, if possible. It's a nice atmosphere, it's more relaxed. I can also spend more time with my family. - You've produced other artists like Nitzer Ebb, would you consider doing more production in the future? - There's always a part of chance, but it's not something I'm actively looking to do. If someone asks me to do it and I'm very interested, maybe I'll do it, but most of the time, when I'm asked to do things, it's people that want to sound like Depeche Mode or like Nitzer Ebb and it's quite pointless for me. Generally, I turn them down. - Through all those years, what were your main influences? - Dan Miller for me was very influential, personally speaking. I learnt a lot from him in the early 80s. Working with Flood was a very good experience. As far as producers are concerned, I think Eno is very good, but I haven't worked with him. - What do you listen to at home? - Everything, all forms of music: classical, techno, gospel or I can put on MTV. I keep a very open mind and listen to many kinds of music. - What was your favourite LP of 99? - I think it was the Blur album, "13". They're getting better and better. - You started music when you were very young and became successful quite quickly. What do you expect now as an artist? - I don't have huge ambitions, I consider myself lucky that I'm just able to do what I do now. I don't have to worry about selling records or commerciality or anything. I just want to carry on doing that. Maybe do a film project or something. My only real aim is to try and make music that interests me and perhaps is not like other people's. That's quite difficult to do. - How do you see your future, especially with Recoil or do you have other projects? - I don't have any other project at the moment. Sometimes, I do a little bit of outside work, some production, I did a TV documentary and some post-production for Curve recently. But these are small things, I don't really have any other major project. Mr. X & Laurent. Photos : Christophe Valette |
