Here’s a translation I made of a PSB interview in the greek magazine “Icons” that comes with the Saturday edition of the “Ethnos” newspaper. As it was translated in Greek and then back to English again it’s most probably not 100% accurate, but it’s worth reading:
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Interviewed by Aggeliki Eleftheriou
Pet Shop Boys’ suite is on the 7th floor. Philip Stark furniture, minimalist aesthetics and five more journalists that have come to London especially for today’s interview. We are served coffee and talk about the band. They’re all diehard fans. A few minutes later Neil and Chris enter and greet us friendly. They give the impression of two very good friends - they’re simple, approachable, cheerful, talkative.
What does the album title mean and what was it inspired from?
Neil Tennant: It’s inspired by the endless conversations we had about the dogmatism that dominates these times. On this subject we wanted to do something very electro that can also be interpreted differently. The idea behind the lyrics was to put current events within songs that speak of relationships. Many of the songs are influenced by the events that followed 9-11 and the “war against terrorism”.
Your last album divided your fans. It’s been four years since then - looking back how do you consider Release? Do you believe that you did achieve what you wanted to achieve?
Neil: I think Release is a very beautiful album. I listened to it after a long time to see how it sounds and I saw how good it is, the songwriting is as good as with this album. But I think that people want to listen to your records and have the same feeling they had when they first listened to “West End girls”, or “Can you forgive her?” if they are younger. Of course you can’t have the same feeling as you’re not the same person. In pop music people always hope that the artist will give them back the same magic moment they had when they were young. If the artist fails, then it’s his mistake, which it is not, because it cannot happen again, you yourself has changed. We are always consistent in the quality of our songwriting and I think you can listen to “King’s Cross” along with “Birthday Boy” and see how they match.
Do you make deliberate choices on how an album will sound like or do you go to the studio and then see how you end up?
Neil: In this project we had planned to do minimal electro pop, but it just didn’t happen, because epic songs turned up like “Integral” and we agreed to go towards that. When we were writing them, we knew what we were doing, that everyone would say that it’s “very Pet Shop Boys” and we thought that our collaboration with Trevor would let us explore the songs and make the best out of them. This is the exciting thing about working with Trevor. The different “touch” in what we’ve always done.
What is your opinion on today’s pop music?
Chris Lowe: Depends on how you define pop. I believe that Kaiser Chiefs and Killers are pop, therefore it’s in a very good state, but if you think that pop is Journey South, then no it’s not.
Which new artists do you like?
Chris: I very much like the Killers, although there’s this debate inside the group whether they’re pop or not. They don’t like the word, the usual rock snobbism.
How do you feel when Madonna says that you’re one of her favourite groups?
Neil: When her album was released last year all the reviews were mentioning Pet Shop Boys. When we saw that Stuart Price was her producer we offered to make a remix and we did “Sorry”.
How important is the visual representation of your work? What’s your viewpoint on the visual accompaniment of your music?
Neil: The visual has always been a very important part for us. In this work, it was Chris’s idea that we had to use neon lights for Fundamental. With the clothes we wear and the topper hats, there is a very interesting contrast with neon. In the video of “I’m with Stupid” we have Matt Lucas and David Williams from the TV comedy series Little Britain starring. As we’ve done in the past for various pieces, we used the clip not to translate the basic idea of the song, but to work out similar ideas and meanings. It’s a parody of ourselves and our clips of “Can you forgive her?” and “Go West”.
Have you ever felt like being innovators of pop?
Neil: I don’t think that we’re ahead of anyone, but I believe we have a slight arrogance that makes us feel or think that we feel like that. Twenty years ago, we began by creating our own world, a PSB culture, with the idea that the rest of the pop world didn’t matter for us unless other worlds collided with ours, as with New Order. I think the result is that some things you do are modern and some others not, something might look innovative for that time. We don’t try to do exactly what everyone else is doing and this can mean that we are ahead or that we are not, but this is not our motivation.
A few moments later we are warned that we have time for one last question and without much politeness I jump and ask “Are you planning on making a new album?”
Neil: Yes we do, this is our last record with EMI’s 1990 contract, there’s been a lot of time since then, but we’re in the process of signing a new deal with EMI, therefore there’ll be some new albums.