The Sisters Of Mercy - Różności - Wywiady

This interview is taken from the May '92 issue of Siren magazine.Typed in by Jonas Olsen.

MR. SISTER

Incoming! Andrew Eldritch, much misunderstood master of mercy reveals why he is not the Gothic caricature that many write him off to be in a frank interview that explains why he's even planning to be nice to the French! And to top it all he's run out of fags...

Shakespeare's Sister: Sheldon Bayley. Vision Things: Alistair Indge.

``I've only got one cigarette left, so you better make it snappy cos' I get really itchy when I run out of cigarettes," came the witty warning from the other end of the phone line. Andrew Eldritch was in good spirits and so he should be, he's driving around in a spanking new white Mercedes the result of selling off The Sisters' pre WEA catalogue. He's also just finished working with Ofra Haza, a long term ambition for him, the result being an astounding rendition of that colossal classic from the eighties, 'Temple Of Love'. So why did 'Temple Of Love' get the special treatment?

``Cos' it's corking stonking, glorious and generally wonderfull'', raves Eldritch. ``Because the record company didn't think they could sell an album of back catalogue stuff without something to go with it, although, of course, I'd like to stress that it's not on the album. The fact that Ofra Haza's on it was just an added bonus, I was already in the studio and I'd already put down the backing tracks and all my vocals when she became available, so that wasn't the reason for doing it. But if she'd said 'yeh I wanna do something, but it can only be that song', then it would have been that song.''

Eldritch's praise of his Yemenite collaborator is generous to say the least...

``The woman's a total star, she's got the best voice on the planet, apart from being a total goddess, she honestly does have the best voice on the planet.''

Will she be working on any future Sisters projects?

``I hope so,'' comes the succinct reply.

Ofra Haza is the latest in a long line of people who have teamed up with Eldritch. Back in the days of The Sisterhood, Andrew was joined by Lucas Fox and Alan Vega on the 'Gift' LP, while 'Floodland' and 'More', the first single from 'Vision Thing', saw the input of Jim Steinman, he of Meatloaf fame. Are there any other people Eldritch is interested in working with in the future?

``Steve ~sic!~ Nicks and Dolly Parton,'' Eldritch reveals. ``Both of them are great songwriters, people I've got a lot of respect for. Similarly, Kate Bush - I think Kate Bush is a brilliant producer, I haven't heard anything since 'Hounds Of Love' which I thought was so well produced. I did at one time want to make a record with Pol Pott, but that's a very long story.''

'Temple Of Love 1992 - Touched By the Hand Of Ofra Haza' as the remix is titled in full, is a stomping romper of a track, ironically enough slowed down and somewhat stripped down as Andrew explains:

``We slowed it down a bit to kind of like stomping, cruising speed instead of total gonzoid over the top speed. The original is very,very fast. It's almost ridiculously fast.''

If the remix hadn't been handled with care, the danger of trying to slow down such an athletic anthem would be akin to trying to wheel-clamp a runaway train. It may be slowed down, but stripping it down has made it sleeker and seemingly just as pacey. Comparing the versions separated by nearly a decade, 'Temple Of Love 1992' sounds like someone's hit the afterburner button with a vengeance. Doktor Avalanche, the only drum machine to be running for President, undertakes a relentless bombardment resembling the shelling of a fixed target, selectively fusing and separating from the mach-sevenbass guitar which gives the song its considerable bottom end. The guitars manoeuvre at low altitude, the rumbling rock guitar keeping up with the rhythm section and evoking the style so predominant on the 'Vision Thing' album, while its more intricate laser-pitched companion revives the familiar tune of the '83 rendition.

Eldritch's vocals lock on target and absail up and down the track sounding like mortar shells hitting sandbags, while Ofra Haza's Sirenlike backing vocals resound in the ether above. Then the all important chorus kicks in. Putting it mildly, it has the impact of a depthcharge in an inflatable swimming pool.

As is the weird way in which things work, 'Temple Of Love 1992' was released on exactly the same day as The Mission's new single 'Never Again'. Rather predictably, the music weeklies have lumped the two together into one rather unperceptive review. Does this constant linking with the past become rather tiresome?

``I don't really see the point in it,'' Eldritch replies. ``Particularly beacause from what I gather The Mission have, to their credit, been brave enough to make a rather different record to what people expect which I imagine to be even further away from what we do. Whether it's good or bad is not really the point, I haven't heard it so I'm not qualified to judge, but I would resent it if my record was reviewed in the same breath as Wasp or Tanita Tikaram. It's just not relevant.''

The original 'Temple Of Love' was released just prior to Wayne Hussey joining The Sisters Of Mercy. At the time, the band's drug intake was unparalled, Eldrich was working himself towards a physical and mental breakdown, relentless tour followed relentless tour, and negotiations were underway to sign the right deal with a major label. How have things changed for Eldritch since the original 'Temple Of Love' was unleashed on unwitting but eternally grateful alternative dancefloors?

``I'm fitter but I'm still not rich and famous,'' laughs Eldritch. ``I still don't particularly want to be rich and famous. I'd like the songs to be rich and famous and I think some of them are. I think the main thing that's changed for me is that I don't have anything left to prove and that's quite a good feeling. I don't remember at the time, when the first 'Temple' came out, I didn't walk around daily thinking, oh my god I've got something to prove, but I'm sure it was an issue and it's consiously not an issue anymore.''

'Temple Of Love 1992' is not an exact replica of its 1983 ancestor, much to the disappointment of some of the more narrow minded devotees (``It's got some woman singing all over it and spoiling it...'') it's a logical jump to Lightspeed. But then what's the point in standing still with the ruling champion of kinetic tracks? Nevertheless, the heavier guitar style used on the track, which characterised the 'Vision Thing' LP, infers a sense of continuity that has never been so prevalent before. Each Sisters album has been different: 'First And Last And Always', 'Gift', 'Floodland' and 'Vision Thing' all made logical and progressive sense, but each differnet in their own way, skipping over the hurdles of stagnation with admirable ease. Does this retaining of the `Vision Thing' style mean Eldritch is now comfortable with the heavier rock style?

``I dunno, it's got less guitars on it than the original,'' Eldritch concludes. ``Much less. Usually when people say to me, you've made a rock record, what they really mean is, you've put more guitars on it. That's still quite superficial to me. I don't see heariness in items of orchestration or arrangement, to me some of the heaviest stuff we've done was the barest. Heaviness to me is a question of intensity and relentlessness rather than what kind of instruments you use.''

Perhaps the varying mediums used on the albums were a result of the differing band line-ups in operation at the time. This would explain the 'Vision Thing' type sound to 'Temple Of Love 1992', since the band line-up is virtually unchanged. However, there is the question of Tim Bricheno's input. Formerly with All About Eve, Tim's initiation into the ranks of The Sisters came too late to make any real impact on 'Vision Thing'.

``Tim came in very, very late on the last album,'' Eldritch recounts. ``Only in time to play a few parts on one song. Tim's very much looking forward to getting some credits on the next album, but I don't think Andreas is really that bothered.''

Do you think Tim's input will bring back a more intricate style of guitar work over the top of some of the more rockier stuff?

``Yeah. Particularly what I always call the M62 sound. you've got like a band across the north of England, and any northern English guitar player, whether they come from Hull or Leeds or Sheffield or Manchester or Liverpool, you can always tell that they come from that band of the country. That's a sound that I did kind of miss on Vision Thing.''

So when is the next studio album likely to hit the streets then?

``We started last week, putting our minds to it,'' Eldritch admits, ``I dunno, in the past I've concieved, recorded and put out an album in ten days and I've also conceived, recorded and put out an album in three years so I really don't know how long it's going to take.''

One album that does have a definite release date is `Some Girls Wander By Mistake', the compilation LP of the Sisters pre-WEA back catalogue, including everything form `The Damage Done' to the original version of `Temple Of Love' and all the respective B-sides. None of the tracks have been tampered with or remastered, ``they're still untouched by human hand'' as Eldritch puts it. In other interviews, Eldritch has stated his reasons for releasing such a work, as simply to enable him to keep running his Mercedes which he has grown increasingly fond of. Perhaps though there is another reason, when you look at The Sisters' track record for being dogged by bootlegs. A year or so ago, WEA officially announced that The Sisters Of Mercy were their most bootlegged band. The Sisters also appear in the all time top twenty bootlegs chart, ranked alongside the likes of The Beatles and Elvis. Considering, the bulk of bootlegged material is taken from their pre-WEA period, is this another reason for releasing `Some Girls Wander By Mistake'?

``Yes, in as much as people want to buy this record, rightly or wrongly,'' Eldritch confirms, ``I think there's a lot of good stuff on it, but there's also a lot of crud. Especially the very, very early material really embarrasses me and I would prefer not to put it out, but the fact is people want it and the fans have been good to me, so I don't see why I shouldn't be good to them to a certain extent. If you were to want to buy all this stuff on the original vinyl, it would cost you something like a thousand quid. That would be stupid money and it wouldn't be worth it, but the fact is that there are some people out there who would go and do that and I don't really see why they should be forced to. I would have put all this stuff out earlier it's just that it's taken this long to come to an arrangement with the old guy's lawyers.''

By `old guys', Eldritch is referring to ex-Sisters. The list is long, with Eldritch and the good Doktor Avalanche remaining as the only constants throughout. The first to leave was Ben Gunn, who went on to form a band called Torch that went nowhere fast. He was then followed sometime later by founder member Gary Marx who teamed up with Anne-Marie from Skeletal Family to form Ghostdance, who achieved a certain amount of credibility before signing to a major only to crash and burn. Soon after Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams shot off to form The Mission, who are still going strong. Patricia Morrison parted company with Eldritch after the `Floodland' period, and is rumoured either to be in a band with ex-Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman or to be fronting her own new band. The last to Leave was Tony James, who will be remembered for being photographed with a bastardised Sisters T-shirt proclaiming `Judas Leaving the Sisters' and trying to con the press into forking out thousands for an exclusive on the story. So just how stable is the band line up at the moment?

``I don't know,'' Eldritch reveals. ``There are a lot of people offering Andreas a solo deal at the moment and I think he's dumb enough to go for it. I think what we'll do is he'll go on sabbatical and then what he does after that is up to him, as far as I'm concerned he's still in the band if he wants to be. Often people go even if they don't end up doing very much, just cuz they figure there's got to be an easier way than this. I do everything the hard way, not because it's hard, it just happens to be the right way, and a lot of people get tired of that.''

Is that because you're a perfectionist in everything you do?

``Yeah...''

And do you think other people can relate to that?

``No...in a word.''

Do you think that Andreas will have any luck in his solo career?

``No. I still think he should do it, if he wants to do it, I really don't have a problem with the idea of him doing it. I just think he should regard it as a sabbatical, not as the wild blue yonder. We all have to do that sometimes. I'm lucky, because I've got easy outlets for that kind of thing which don't really interfere with me being in a band.''

To be continued...

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