Erasure have been one of the most well-known and influential artists in pop music since the 1980's. Since then they've gone through many stages releasing countless pop hits before moving on to deeper more experimental pastures. In 2003 the lads released a covers album entitled "Other People's Songs" and in 2005 had their seventeenth top ten hit with "Breathe" from their album "Nightbird". In yet another change of direction the band, consisting of singer Andy Bell and former Depeche Mode/Yazoo veteran Vince Clarke, are soon to release an acoustic album entitled "Union Street" comprising of tracks from their previous albums re-recorded in a country & western style. We managed to organise a phone interview with Andy Bell while he stayed at the Millennium Hotel in London and after a few problems with the woman at reception and the line itself, eventually managed to speak to him.

How are you doing today?
I'm alright thanks, just fighting off a bad flu. Everybody's had it - that winter to New Year one. It went away but then it came back again (laughs).

Okay so you're releasing a new album in April called "Union Street" which will be a bit different from past Erasure releases as it's an entirely acoustic album. What was the inspiration for this?
Right. For our album "Other People's Songs" we did some acoustic sessions for radio in America and it went down really well. I've always wanted to do a country & western album and we just thought it would be a really good idea. Vince hooked up with this guy from outer Brooklyn who helped us with the acoustic sessions and he knows loads of musicians all around America and from Nashville. We picked songs that we thought that people would have missed from previous albums and reinterpreted them with violins, percussion, slide guitars and new vocals. This guy has a home studio in the basement and his wife did the vocal arrangements and it just worked out really lovely. I'm really pleased how it came out. Kinda bluesy.

Was it difficult choosing the songs for it?
Well not really I mean we did have quite an idea ‘cos we had the songs in mind - the one's that we wanted to do - so it wasn't that hard really. Anyway-Are you from Denmark? No, I'm from Newcastle. Oh wow it's just your accent sounds funny...
Yeah I don't know where the accent comes from (laughs).

But you've been talking about doing a country & western album for a long while, what's it like to finally see one released?
Well it's lovely, and I'm really pleased that they're our own songs as well. We've got a couple of musicians and big producers from Nashville to work on American versions of the single. They're really pleased and there's this whole buzz going around in America about how great this album is! So we did it as an off-the-cuff thing and we're just really pleased with how it's come out. It's been great getting to reinterpret the songs. When you're using acoustic and stringed instruments there seems to be a lot more room to express yourself with the vocals.

A lot of the songs on "Union Street" are non-single fan favourites, like "Alien", "Home", "Piano Song", are there any ones that you wanted to do but which never finally made it?
Well we did do a version of "Cry So Easy" which is from the album "Wonderland" but I couldn't get any better than the original vocal so we just left it and used it as a track on the EP. That's the only one, but I would have liked to have done "Dream Like State" (B-side to 1990's "Star") but you can't do everything.

Speaking of "Cry So Easy" on the accompanying "Boy" EP, it's the only Erasure song credited entirely to you. What was it like working on this song again?
Err well I was a bit disappointed really because I couldn't reinterpret it in another way but maybe that's just because Vince wasn't there. Well he was there but he kindly gave me the writing credit because I came up with the tune and the words myself so in that way maybe I wasn't able to reinterpret it any differently ‘cos that's how it was done in the first place. I don't know, I just couldn't get a handle on that one.

Now you're going on tour next month, are you excited?
Well quite excited, I'm getting excited now ‘cos we're doing press but I'm going on holiday in a week because I haven't been on one in ages. I'm just going to relax but at the same time doing vocal warm-ups every day. So I'm slowly getting around to the idea that when the time comes I'll be raring to go.

Are you expecting to see lots of new faces on tour with "Union Street"?
I don't know... I think that a lot of the people who have bought the tickets will be the hardcore fans. Although a lot of people seem to come to see us live but don't necessarily buy the records so it seems to be kind of a different audience. Sometimes when we're doing shows the people don't know the new stuff but they know the old stuff. You can't really tell what an audience is going to be like really.

Is there anything new to look forward to on the new tour? Will you have your usual backing singers?
Val is going to be there (Valerie Chalmers long time backing vocalist for Erasure) and I've got eight new people to be working with. I've never worked with acoustic musicians before so that'll be nice.

So do you think that since Erasure is such a long established name in music that the heat is off a bit for you to produce hit after hit?
Well I do think so in some respects although I don't pay that much attention to the charts. But at the same time I think there is some really high-quality music writing nowadays, but it's not necessarily by the artists themselves. I think it's a pretty old fashioned thing to be an artist and to write. Everything is so TV, pop, reality show driven at the moment. I suppose we had our time but you kind of feel like... not quite old school but kind of middle ground because we've still got our peers - people like Madonna and Annie Lennox. So you're kind of like in the middle, I feel like a pop uncle (laughs).

In 2003 you released a covers album ("Other People's Songs"), last year you released your solo album "Electric Blue" and now you're releasing an acoustic album. Do you think that there's a lot more freedom in the projects you take on now?
Well I think it's entirely up to you what you want to do. It really helps to have a history behind you but I think that doing something like this really helps to dissipate people's prejudices because people still think of you as "this 80's synth band and that's all you can do". Sometimes it takes away from the song writing and people don't necessarily see you as a songwriter they just see you as some pop singer. I think that something like this, hopefully, lets others see you in a different light and maybe reassess the work that you've done.

And by redoing the songs in an acoustic light it shows just how flexible some of them are.
Yeah that's right, I can't wait until Dolly Parton hears it!

Now I've just mentioned your solo album "Electric Blue" which you released last year with Manhattan Clique, so I have to ask what was it like to work without Vince Clarke?
Well they're really cute, really enthusiastic boys but they've got a lot to learn. It was quite difficult not having the safety net of Vince because he's kind of like my brother really and I did miss him not being around because his humour is very dry. With the Manhattan Clique boys it's like talking about farts and dicks all the time. It's like schoolboy humour with them, and it's funny for a while but then also because they're so enthusiastic it kind of rubs off on you but I can't stay up all night partying. So it's swings and roundabouts I guess.

Were you happy with how the record turned out?
I was really happy with how the record turned out, not very happy with its performance because it wasn't really picked up by radio or anything. Sanctuary (the record label) were having huge financial problem which didn't really help and also Radio 2 didn't like the song so you're just pretty much buggered. They haven't given up though because they're going to release something else after "Union Street" so you can just hope. I'm just really proud of the work.

So there's going to be another single from "Electric Blue" released later in the year? Is there any news on this? Will there be a video?
Well I hope there is, I mean we've got enough footage from the live things we've been doing so hopefully we'll get a video together.

Onto a couple of general questions now, and I have to ask, after so many years of being in Erasure do you still enjoy doing what you do?
Yeah I do enjoy it but you do kind of get... long in the tooth sometimes because you know how the whole thing works. I get a bit envious when I see young people doing it and they're being hailed and everything. But at the same time I think they need to be careful because the rug will be pulled from under their feet at some time or another. I think they (the record labels) give people a lot of false hopes. When our "Cowboy" album was released on Madonna's label in America and then we produced "Loveboat" (the following album), they didn't like it and dropped us. That's what the music industry is like at the moment. This is why I'm so glad we're on Mute, because they kind of nurture an artist rather than hail them like Dido or James Blunt. Then there's nothing left of the person, they're spent and there's no backup for that person so it's down to the individual in the end and so I really admire struggling musicians, I really do.

I've always wondered this but when you're on tour are there any songs that you really get sick of?
Yeah you do get sick of a few of them. I'm not sick of "Blue Savannah" yet but I do get sick of "Sometimes". "A Little Respect" is one of those that I really enjoy singing but I do get sick of it because it's over and over again. But I think to myself, thank god I'm not Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York" - start spreading your legs (laughs)!

So after so many years can you tell us what your inspiration to start singing professionally was?
Well I guess it was just one of those second nature things. I'd been singing around about the place and not really thinking of "oh I could make my living out of this" it just kind of happened. I knew I wanted to be in a band but it was just one of those teenage things, like you want to be in a band and you want to be a millionaire and then when you do that you think well that wasn't really what you wanted to do. But the singing is the best thing.

On the last tour when you were promoting your last album "Nightbird", was it difficult sorting out a set list? Because obviously you've got to fit a lot of ‘required' tracks in...
Yeah it is. Because really you can try to experiment but people always want to hear hits. When we had the "Erasure" album in 1995 and we came out all-guns-blazing with "Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)" and the reaction was "urgh?" from the audience. You can't go up on stage and be deflated like that every night so you have to change things around and give people what they want.

Some people have said that the tour last year wasn't as flamboyant as past performances. Was this a budget thing?
Yeah it was a budget thing. Unless you've got a million pounds to spend you have to do something in a different way. We're quite restricted when it's just the two of us so doing something like the "Union Street" tour will be quite refreshing.

On another subject your partner in crime Vince Clarke recently became a dad, what was this like for you? Does it make him even more reluctant to tour?
No he loves it now, he wants to go on tour now! But being a dad he can do all the stuff, the feeding, the changing, everything and he wants his son to have an English accent so he's trying to get them to move over here as quickly as possible. He loves it, and he's really proud, he loves being a dad.

Even more general questions now and with the introduction of Civil Partnerships are you and your long-term partner getting ideas?
Not really... we were toying with it but things aren't as simple as they seem.

And finally, have you seen Brokeback Mountain yet?
I haven't no. I saw Capote though and that was good.

Andy Bell thank you very much for speaking with us.
Alright bye!

Erasure's acoustic album "Union Street" is out on the third of April.
The accompanying 4-track EP "Boy" is released on the 20 of March.
The tour begins with the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on the 14 of April and ends at The Sage in Gateshead on the 21.

For more details check the official website.

www.erasureinfo.com
www.andybell.com
www.manhattanclique.com