Always live with meby Diego Centurión

Interview with Andy Anderson

THE 13TH. 63

Thirty years ago it was published one of the rarest records from The Cure, not only for its sound, but also because it was recorded during strange circumstances within the band. The truth is that this album became virtually a solo album by Robert Smith, some participations of Lawrence Tolhurst, Porl Thompson (he was not yet a member of the band) on sax and our interviewee, Andy Anderson. We could talk about the album, but that would only lead to read data known. So we decided to go to one source who recorded the disc, and that, through their memories, we do live a little this recording of 1984.

Hi Andy, is the second opportunity we have to count on your presence in The 13th Revista, which is extremely rewarding and an honor for us. And of course we are very grateful to have the opportunity to appeal to their memories that are a priceless treasure to us.

What was the job of being a member of “The Glove” to be another member of “The Cure” on “The Top”?Before I became a member of the Glove/Cure and the subsequent recordings that followed, I was a Session Musician, playing in different bands and different types of music in London, and this proved to be a great help working with the Glove and the Cure.

How did Robert proposal for you to enter the band??I was working in a band called “Brilliant” with Martin Glover from the band “Killing Joke” at Trident Studios London and Chris Parry and Robert Smith came along with a cassette tape and asked me

to listen to the tape, they had heard my drumming on previous albums such as the Steve Hillage band, Sham 69’s Jimmy Percy’s solo albums and on Brilliant’s recordings, and ask me if I’ll go for an audition for them, I went, and got the position of playing drums for the Cure that day, and the rest is history.

How were the months prior to the recording of “The Top”?The months leading up to the Top album were very hectic indeed, we had done lots of rehearsals, about 2 to 3 weeks, and also a few television shows, here in London, and a couple abroad, and our first live festival show was at the Elephant Fayre, Port Eliot, St Germans. Cornwall. 1983. The band headlined that year, that was a very special and awesome gig.

This is a personal opinion: His work on “The Top” enriched the sound of the band. Without detracting from the work of Lol, that is responsible for much of the dark sound of “The Cure”.Did you feel free to work on the album? Or Robert had planned that what you had to record?

I had listened to the earlier recordings of the Cure and also to Lawrence’s playing, which is very unique and also the original sound of the Cure, this was a great help for me, in order to capture the feel and spirit of the Cure’s music, and I will add that it was not easy to do, lol, but it worked and Robert and Lawrence liked it. On the Top album I was free to contribute my style and feel, and adding that to the Cure’s spirit, and mainly to Robert and Lawrence’s song writing.

64 .THE 13Th

We know that “The Top” is almost a solo album of Robert Smith. You have recorded the drums. In a previous interview, you have already told us a little about that recording.But we will appeal to your memories:My memories of recording the drums on the Top album are as fresh as the day I recorded it. Firstly being at Genetic Studios Berkshire in the countryside was just fantastic, I didn’t get a chance to see much countryside, because as like with all drummers you have to lay the backing tracks down first, this involves setting the kit up, tuning the kit, and then running through the song or songs, also it was a very hot summer and like always I’m stuck in the studio, lol, but I love it. lol. As you had seen and heard on the Top Deluxe Edition album there a lot of Recored Takes or Out Takes, until we find the right one, so therefore on my part I have to do an awful lot of work and hard work too, the thing I love for me is trying out different feels and styles on new music and hopefully coming up with a great track at the end of today, and looking back on it I believe we did.

“Shake Dog Shake” You open the album with a lot of potential. Do you remember the recording? or that occurs when listening to yourself in this song?Yeah I remember it well, from my point of view the intro needed to be a massive statement, and thus the heavy Tom fill on the intro, which was my idea, it wasn’t planned it’s just happened, so we kept it in, then the track launches into a massive wall of guitars and sounds, and Roberts vocal and lyrics is just right for the track. I love that sort of stuff, I’m a total Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell fan at heart, so getting

a chance to do something like that was very cool.

“Bird Mad Girl”. You make wonderful things with Hit Hat.Ah yes my Hi Hats, I like funky hi hats very wispy, kind of feel to it, you find that a lot of old sold school funky drummers do that type of playing, and I just love it, so I applied it to Bird Mad Girl and that seemed to work, another example of me adding myself to the Cure music and sound.

“Wailing Wall”. The game with the toms makes the song is deep and dark.I like a mantra or mantric drums, and any that you hear the world over has a form of haunting sound to them, especially played in this way, and I thought this would work really well with this track.

“Give Me It”. Another energetic song with a strong beat.Another great track to play, for me it’s “let your hair down time” I used to play a lot of festivals where I would jam for hours on end. A kind of no holes barred type of music, or in other words free, and “Give Me It” reminds me of that free feeling and spirit, they’re hard to drum kits on the records plus percussion, therefore creating a wall of drums, I love to experiment with drums with Reverb and Echo, and in some cases this can develop into a mantric sounding drums too, and it’s many thanks to being allowed to apply that to the Cures music.

Dressing up, sounds Difficult but it’s not.it’s mainly a strong Bassline and a layed back drum beat, plus the keyboards and guitar parts kinda make it sound difficult,

THE 13TH. 65

when we first started to play it, it came together with no problems with it at all, there are a lot of tracks about by other bands sound difficult, but in fact they are somewhat straight forward, and as long as you have a tight and solid rhythm section everything and anything is possible.

“The Caterpillar”. In a previous interview, you mentioned the leather pants. But the rhythm of this song has many and varied percussion, were your own ideas?Yes they were my own ideas, as a Session Musician I started off by playing all sorts of percussion, so I applied it to “The Caterpillar” Lawrence had a silver Ludwig drum kit that I used at the time, and with that kit there were a pair of Felt Beaters that I used on Wailing Wall live and in the studio, and with “The Caterpillar” live and in the studio, the Beater just gave the track a strong hollow sound to it, as opposed to playing with sticks, which is A much more harder feel to the track.

“Piggy In The Mirror”. The beginning is just fantastic and simple.I like this due to the fact, that it’s me trying to do a funky “Ringo Starr” “Beatles” drum track on it, (the drum fills give it away) lol, great track this, I love playing it.

“The Empty World”. A military march. But the drum sound you’ve done is perfect.Well having reverb on the kit gives it the ambience, and me attempting to do Press Rolls on the snare gives it that kinda military marching sound, thinking back it was all very inventive stuff we were doing, and I love that, it creates a very unique band.

“Bananafishbones”. A great pace, with a great start. A great pace I agree any faster and it wouldn’t work, and if it were any slower it would stop. ;) more Toms from me, I would have preferred more reverb and echo on the toms, but the track sounds great after it was mixed, so I’m a happy man.

“The Top”. A rhythm with a high creative flight.Robert allowed us all to be creative on this track, plus we had all been playing together for quite some time and when this happens you start to read each other really well musically, A kind of knowing what someone is going to do before they do it, I love this track, the Versus the Chorus, especially the choruses, I find it a really haunting and yet a very innocent track, I love it big time, it always leaves me with great memories of creating and being a member of The Cure.

When you listen to the album again, What do you feel?EIt’s a great feeling listening back to the album, there are lots of great unique things going on, on that record, when you make a record you don’t know how it’s going to end up whether people will like it or not, but 30 years later down the line and people are still liking it then we must’ve been doing something right at the time when we recorded it, so I’m very very pleased about that and also pleased of being part of the album, and mainly a big thank you to Roberts and Lawrence for giving me the chance to work with them on it, Top stuff indeed.

66 .THE 13Th

You’ve seen “the Cure” in recent shows, and played some songs for the album “The Top”. How did you feel with the songs?I saw the band play at the Royal Albert Hall in London, they had a really great sound and the songs were really great to hear again, hearing the tracks again after all this time was really great and personally I haven’t seen them play live since when I was with them in 84, so it was doubly great for me actually being there to watch them play again. I was there for two nights running and it just got better and better. I am truly honoured by Robert, dedicating “Shake Dog Shake to me, that’s never happened to me before, and still overwhelmed by that, and will live with me always.

30 years of “The Top”. A lifetime. How do you see this year 1984?1984 was a very productive and creative year for the Cure, and a milestone rebirth

of the band, and now in 2014 and beyond the band will continue to be creative and productive in the future too, without a doubt.

Thanks Andy for receiving and answering our questions. You have given us an enjoyable part of our lives.

A lifetime never ends until it stops, the Top album has stood the test of time and will continue to do so.