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Touring with the Cure feels great

Lead singers from two bands in the Curiosa Festival talk about their music and the influence of the Cure's sound on them.

By BRIAN ORLOFF
Published July 22, 2004

[Publicity photo]

The Cure

	Open for entertainment The area's new shape in musical entertainment has no walls, super acoustics, no bad seats and 258 bathrooms.

When the Curiosa festival hits the Ford Amphitheatre on Sunday, there might be enough black-clad fans to rival gothic-getup stronghold Ozzfest. That's because the Cure, fronted by the legendary and always sulky Robert Smith, is headlining. And the veteran British band, which got its start in post-punk 1976, is bringing along an all-star fleet of young and just as gloomy acolytes.

Actually, Smith and Co. don't have many reasons to glower these days, especially with the band's just-released eponymous album receiving critical nods and its festival selling well in all markets. Plus, the Cure's hallmark sound has never quite gone out of style.

What's the hottest trend in music now? Probably the resurgence of new-wave sounds, with hot acts such as the Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Interpol siphoning an atmospheric, poppy energy from, well, the Cure.

But Sunday promises more than just angsty release with mainstage acts as diverse as the Rapture, with its disco-dance-punk sound; suit- and tie-wearing New York art rockers Interpol, and Scottish noise rock minstrels Mogwai. Still, they all take a musical cue from the Cure.

We spoke with lead singers Paul Banks of Interpol and Luke Jenner of the Rapture about the Cure's impact and what it's like to step outside the insular New York rock world.

TIMES: Why did you sign on to the Curiosa tour?

JENNER: Robert Smith told me that he has listened to our record in his car when he drives around, so I thought that was pretty cool. I don't know if there was any other reason why we were offered to do the shows. I'm just excited because I really could geek out to the Cure.

TIMES: Are you excited about the potential for more exposure based on the venues?

JENNER: Recently we played an amphitheater show in California, and it was just full of 13-year-old girls and boys, and I thought that was really awesome, just to be able to connect to kids who have pretty much no other way to see you. Somehow it's cool to be crusading out into the suburbs because it (means) being able to reach kids for whom the coolest thing they are exposed to is MTV.

TIMES: Have you played Florida before?

JENNER: Yeah, we played there a couple of times, but see, the thing is, we've just been part of this hipster-elite-bulls-- for so long. We're kind of this New York band, and we're associated with, like, fashion and just stuff like that, which is cool, because those are our friends, but at the same time, we've played Florida twice, and I'm sure no one in Florida knows we've played there. We sort of play at 4 in the morning for people in ripped-up clothes with high heels.

We've never played in New Jersey, for example. And that's where I grew up. I didn't grow up in the Lower East Side (of Manhattan).

TIMES: Do you try to combat that hipster image?

JENNER: I guess the further into the hipster world we get, the more I feel comfortable wearing tie-dyed shirts and just being into Led Zeppelin and stuff I was into when I was a kid and reaching out to my inner dork. Because . . . if you find yourself in a sea full of people that are trying so hard to be something, you try to search yourself out.

TIMES: What drew you to dance music?

JENNER: My dad is a university professor, so I was raised on this mentality of researching everything. I worked in a lot of record stores, so I'd . . . buy hundreds of dollars' worth of records every week. Moving to New York we just got really into dance music because there is a lot of it going on here. (But) it wasn't like we sold our guitars and got drum machines.

TIMES: Did you ever worry about how you'd be received marrying a disco sound with indie rock?

JENNER: I was actually really stoked about having a backlash because we had just (ended a earlier band) that was really into the image. I remember at some point I got so sick of it, I just started doing anything that I thought would make people mad. Like, we started using a cowbell in our band. And I'm really excited about this tour because I think people (who aren't in the New York scene) have no context, so just everything is acceptable. And I miss that feeling.

BANKS: It went through these official channels, so (Robert Smith) didn't call me at home. I think there was a show in Glastonbury (England) where apparently Robert Smith watched one of our gigs through its entirety, and I hadn't noticed that he was on the side of the stage. But had I noticed, it probably would have thrown me off. When I found out, it was obviously very flattering that someone in his position stayed through a whole gig.

TIMES: It's a great idea to take these younger bands on a festival bill with the band that influenced them.

BANKS: I think it says cool things about them that they're in touch with newer bands and bring them out on the road. I think it's always hard to pinpoint specific influences, but the Cure is one of the few bands that the four of us as a unit all agree that we really respect. . . . It's not a given that we all like the same bands, by any means. It's one of the few that everyone does appreciate.

TIMES: You just finished recording a new album, Antics (due out Sept. 28 on Matador Records). Can you talk a little bit about its themes?

BANKS: My motivations lyrically tend toward the same kind of themes, those being sex and fear. I can't break it down much more. I think there's something more upbeat about a lot of songs on this record. . . . It may be a little more dense as far as layers of sound, but it sounds like us, and it sounds like a very healthy evolution and progression.

TIMES: Since you're considered a "New York" band, do you ever feel closed off to other scenes?

BANKS: I think all the good bands that you can discuss are just doing basically what they want. Once the Strokes and the White Stripes kind of broke through and got people's attention on legitimate, nonmanufactured music, I think it's a little easier for bands to do what they do. People on a larger scale than maybe five years ago are capable of appreciating and respecting music that is just doing what it is.

PREVIEW: Curiosa Festival featuring the Cure, Interpol, the Rapture, Mogwai and others, 5 p.m. Sunday, Ford Amphitheatre, 4802 U.S. Highway 301 North, Tampa. $29.50-$49.50. (727) 898-2100 or (813) 287-8844.

[Last modified July 21, 2004, 10:37:01]