SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Sunday, August 13, 2006, Article By J. Poet
"In America, I’m still the classic one-hit wonder," Gary Numan says philosophically, via phone from his home outside of London. His 1979 single "Cars" was a worldwide smash, one of the first pop hits to use the synthesizer without trying to make it sound like a piano. He went on to become a superstar in England, but in the States his career quickly fizzled out.
"I can only blame myself," Numan says. "The tour I did back in ’97 was the first time I’d been to the U.S. in more than a decade. So many new musicians come along every year that sitting over here thinking people would remember me (in the United States) was stupid. I should have been more ambitious, but I concentrated on the U.K. I had enough problems to fix over here."
Numan’s problems in Britain started almost as soon as he became successful. Although he wasn’t the first artist to use synthesizers, he was the first to achieve huge success with an instrument that would soon come to dominate pop music.
"Electronic music wasn’t considered to be real music at the time," "Since I was the biggest act in the genre, I got the brunt of the hostility. Even as it became more popular, that hostility stayed focused on me. I also said some arrogant things, and that didn’t help, but today I’m in a fantastic position. I get good album reviews and get credit for being an innovative musician. Most people didn’t think I’d be around for 30 minutes, much less 30 years."
Numan says he takes full responsibility for his quick rise and fall. He prematurely retired in 1981, and when he came back only a year later, the sounds that once were so inventive had become new-wave dance cliches. Numan tried making music that was more accessible and club friendly, but the results were savaged in the press and failed commercially.
"I lost my way, musically speaking," he says. "I went from brilliant to dead on my feet, from loving music to making music in a desperate attempt to salvage my career. I followed advice from record companies and people around me. Before I knew it, I had no idea of who I was or what I was doing. By the time I made ‘Machine + Soul’ in 1992, I was complexly out of ideas."
While Numan was having his artistic woes, bands like the Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters were covering his songs and Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson were citing him as an inspiration. He was also diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a neurobiological disorder named for Hans Asperger, who studied young boys with normal intelligence who exhibited autistic-like behavior and insufficient social skills. People with Asperger’s have a normal IQ and many exhibit exceptional talent in a specific area.
"I realized there was a reason for the way I see the world, which was a relief," Numan says. "I’m more comfortable around machines than people. When I was younger, there were a lot of misunderstandings because I didn’t know how to deal with people. I’d do something that was perfectly understandable to me, but people found it offensive. Finding out I had a condition let me focus on what I was doing that annoyed people and helped me change the way I relate, even if I had to learn the new behavior in a mechanical manner."
After a period of soul searching, Numan reinvented himself.
"I went back into the studio and didn’t think about my career, or radio, or anything," he says. "I tried to approach (my music) the way I did when I was a teenager. I made music for the sheer joy of it, not stopping to care if anybody else liked it."
His "comeback" albums — 1994’s "Sacrifice," 2000’s "Pure" and the just-released "Jagged" — continue to explore the emotionally bleak arena of dysfunctional relationships with the sinister, industrial sound of a hermetically sealed universe full of crushing minor-key rhythmic noise.
" ‘Sacrifice’ was heavier and darker than anything I’d ever done. It felt as if I’d come home and was back on the road I should be on. ‘Jagged’ is too harsh to get on the radio, even if it gets on the charts, but I made the decision to make the music I want to make, even if I don’t win any new fans and only sell to a limited market."
Numan produced "Jagged" with the help of Ade Fenton, a United Kingdom techno DJ and remixer whose love of synthesized sound is equal to Numan’s.
"The songs come from me, but Ade’s great at creating and manipulating sound," Numan says. "He has a lot of patience as far as tweaking things. I’d write songs while he was manipulating the sounds and doing the production. On some tracks we have 70 or 80 tracks of drums, guitar and synthesizer, some played live but most processed. And there are no solos in the songs. I don’t write to exhibit musical ability. It’s all about mood and atmosphere."
Despite all the studio-generated chaos, "Jagged" sports some of the best melodies Numan’s ever written, many of them with a distinctly Arabic lilt.
"I’ve been listening to Arab music since ’84," Numan says. "It adds an element to the sound that I like, but I don’t write or read music. I just stumble along and do what sounds good. I’ve avoided musical training and have a left-of-center approach to composing. If I’m doing a progression, I don’t really know what the next chord should be, so I may go someplace else entirely. I still don’t know the most basic stuff, even after three decades."
Another thing that may surprise people is Numan’s unexpectedly melodious vocals. They bring the only hint of human feeling into his otherwise grim soundscapes.
"I’ve never liked my voice, but I’m finally accepting that it’s all I’ve got," he says. "Rather than hiding it, I’m singing as hard and as good as I can and getting more out of it. I’m never going to go down in history as a great singer, but I’m more comfortable now. And I’m singing in tune these days, so that’s an improvement."
GARY NUMAN plays at 9 p.m. Sat. at the Fillmore, 1850 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. $25. (415) 346-6000, www.livenation.com.
I’ll be in San Francisco this weekend to attend Numan’s concert. I’m also gonna drop a box of toothpicks on the ground to see if he can instantly count them all. Good times!
