GARY NUMAN

ANECDOTES ON THE HECTIC

“You’re in the middle of the most beautiful place in the world. We saw mountains, forests, and bears, and they argue about who’s going to get out of the pool first; like FOR FUCKS SAKES, drives you mental!” quips a lively Gary Numan, pausing to giggle while describing his recent family road trip.

He seems excited, sharing tales from the adventure, where he drove an RV along the highways of California with his wife, children and a 200 lb. mastiff that “snored like a drunk lumberjack.” Amidst a packed itinerary that included parasailing, horseback riding, and a steam engine, the only downside was the physical setbacks, which he relates to 15 years of experience as a display pilot. “I can’t even drive a car up the side of a hill without getting vertigo and feeling like I’m gonna fall over. It’s the weirdest thing — I don’t get it in an airplane at all.”

Gary speaks to me over the phone from Los Angeles, where he and his family have moved into the “ridiculously hot” Northridge area of the San Fernando Valley. The move has given him the opportunity to tour in North America more frequently, while spending less time away from his children. It also gives him time to undertake what he describes as “a pressure-free method of natural progression” toward becoming a film composer.

He also has plans to collaborate with some friends, introduced to him by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Gary is flattered to point out that Trent was the first person to write him a testimonial for his US immigration application.

As for what he might create in the future, there is no determined formula, nor particular direction. “I’m very very proud of how many people talk about me and name me as an influence, or cover my songs. I’m very genuinely flattered, but I have my own path.” Numan gets excited at the access he now has to advanced technology, creating sound from seemingly anything — even recording his children fighting. So to him, classic or new, analog or digital, he doesn’t really give a shit. “My sort of talent, if I have any, is noises. Sounds. Noise arrangements, stuff like that. Musician is a bit of a misnomer really.”

A pile of unfinished projects ahead of him, he wishes that he had a better work ethic. “I’m really rubbish… I forget stuff. I’m absolutely chaotic, in my head. I need very, very, very firm management.” He is, as he quotes, “too erratic for my own good” and when opening up on Vancouver, his thoughts are scattered.

“It was such a long time ago, God I can’t even remember… I remember it was in this very small club. God knows I’d just married my wife.” He recounts his 1998 gig at the long-gone Starfish Room. Gary basks for a moment before relating a time when he briefly lived here, during the early ’80s: “I was in the top of a hotel that had apartments; I can’t remember exactly where it was near the downtown area, but I remember just a beautiful view of the mountains and the harbour from there.”

So what should fans be looking forward to later this summer? Sadly, the industrial goth or die-hard discographer may be disappointed. “Some of the ones from the middle years, the late ’80s and early ’90s I just don’t think are very good, to be honest.

“I don’t think, creatively, I was at my best during that period.” Gary continues, humbly and methodically examining his discography, “one of them is shit!” he exclaims with a twinge of embarrassment toward his 1992 album, Machine and Soul, before erupting into laughter. “I have a large back catalogue, some of it I’m proud of, some of which I’m not proud of at all.”

However, Gary won’t dwell in self-examination, at least not for too long. He goes on: “I think one of the things that’s made me keep making music for so many years is that desire to do better than I did before. To keep trying to find new sounds and new ideas and new ways of doing things; it’s where the excitement lies.”

When he does play here in August, expect a set that will feature his upcoming full-length album, Splinter, as well as his 2012 release, Dead Son Rising. Both draw on recent emotional turmoil: antidepressants, a mid-life crisis, as well as a sci-fi novel he is currently working on and his ever-present fascination with death.

Begrudgingly, he admits that there is a debt to be paid to his fans and that we will hear the hits, including the songs that brought him to stardom: Cars and Are Friends Electric?

Despite the macabre undertones that surrounded him, he is absolutely giddy to get back to his favourite aspect of his musical career, “I still get every bit as excited for the release of the new album as I did, y’know, 35 years ago.” He pauses to snort at the amount of time that has passed, “Fuck me, 35 years ago… when I first started doing it.”

It was a delight hearing Gary Numan light up with every answer, breaking into anecdotes and tidbits from a full life, lived in music. Both under the spotlight of fame and in his own “eternal shame” of 90s ‘CD rot, his genuinely humble take on the scene he’s helped to form (and is now breaking back into) is enough to make one blush with embarrassment and rush to hold the door open for him again.

You can bask in the sardonic aura of Gary Numan on August 30th in Vancouver at Fortune Sound Club.

By Emily Matick