The Sisters of Mercy – Andrew Eldritch

The Sisters of Mercy are an unusual band. They had a period when they were seriously “big”, not just in their grandiose electronic rock sound, but also in their global presence. Songs like Vision Thing, Dr. Jeep, More, This Corrosion, Dominion/Mother Russia and Lucretia My Reflection pretty much set the standard for an entire sub-genre of music.  They didn’t maintain such a high profile, but nor did they disappear from view completely, by breaking up or some other form of disintegration. They simply decided to do this their own way, which completely excluded tap dancing with the devil of record companies – and even excluded releasing albums at all.

Lead singer and creative director of the Sisters operation Andrew Eldritch is reputed to be a difficult person to interview.  He’s reputed to be a lot of things that he is not. I found him to be intelligent, witty and pretty bloody hilarious when he wanted to be. We pick up the conversation near its beginning when he’s talking about having the same name as somebody else. You can probably guess how we got on to that subject….

AE: I had to pick a stage name quite early because there was some dude in Duran Duran already had mine. Under British Equity Union laws, if you are an actor or a performer with a card you are not allowed to perform under the same name as somebody else, who already has a card with that name.

HHMM: Well that explains Freddie Mercury then.

AE: I’m not sure anything explains Freddie Mercury. When I was pre-pubescent I remember saying to my school friends, “Do you think there is something a little unorthodox about that man?” They said, “Nah, he’s heavy metal”. And I said, “No I don’t think he is”. I was very surprised when everybody got shocked that Gary Glitter turned out to be a bit of a pervert. You want a man to dress up in a silver jumpsuit doing glam versions of rockabilly songs for his entire career and then you are surprised when he’s a bit strange? That bloke that was convicted of killing a tv presenter a long time ago, he actually changed his name to Freddie Mercury’s real name because he was so fixated on Freddie Mercury and secondly on shooting tv presenters in the head. It’s a weird world isn’t it? I try to live a very private life because stalkers are an ever-present threat to people in my profession, however lowly they might be.

HHMM: It interesting you should say that because people have been intrigued by that air of mystery and darkness that seems to envelope you. Is that something you cultivated at all or is it simply lazy journalism?

AE: I don’t know. You are the journalist. When this conversation is finished you’ll have to tell people whether I was seemingly friendly, seemingly forthcoming, if a little shy.

HHMM: But was it cultivated at all?

AE: It happens to everyone that sings in a baritone. Look at Johnny Cash and Lee Hazlewood. Even Scott Walker was deemed to be a bit of a dark character just because he sang the odd torch song. I like doing the occasional moody song, but I also like to rock out. If people ask me interesting honest questions.  I’ll give them an interesting, honest answer. Life’s too short to behave otherwise frankly.

HHMM: When I read through the website, which I must say is extraordinarily informative…

AE: People say I am unforthcoming, but I once spent a whole year, a year when I was doing any promo or when I wasn’t doing gigs, I spent pretty much the whole year putting that website together. I wrote every single page and I think that is reasonably forthcoming…and I tried to make it quite funny.

HHMM: I found it very funny and very informative. I’m pleased to know that you enjoy the smell of cornflakes and hot milk, for example.

AE: Oh man, Oh yes. I think it derives from my early days when I liked the smell of Rusks and hot milk.

HHMM: One thing that the website did very much underline to me, was that for all the times that you have been mis-interpreted, you have actually remained very consistent throughout

AE: To be fair there was a week when we did wear those clothes, but it was just one week among many. No-one adopted and ran with my Hawaiian shirt phase or my silver trousers phase. Or any of our other phases. That was the one that they seemed to pick up on, and I think that says a lot more about them than it does about us. One thing that the website proved to me when I finished it was that, is that it is fairly intelligent and the one thing that bothers me about the representation I receive in so many places is that its not very intelligent. There is a fashion fixation that I don’t think you will find on the website because I am not fixated by fashion. Anybody that is, is going to be the flavor of the week which we have never been, and they will not be the flavor of the week for every other week of their lives. That’s not what we wanted, even in the days after the first punk wave we were always regarded by our peers as being not quite kosher, because we stood up and said, “actually we like classic rock n’ roll”.

HHMM: When I look at the lists of the things that you like and the things that you wont tolerate and the things that you find absurd – they are very consistent and its not like you have come and gone with the breeze.

AE: In our very first interview I was asked how we saw ourselves in the pantheon of bands, and I remember saying something like, “well, we’re not as good as Motorhead…but”, and that’s what I still say now. I still say the same thing now. That was my benchmark and it hasn’t really changed. We try and get better at what we do, and half our set on any given date is unreleased songs but for obvious reasons half of it has to be a selection of released songs. To find renewed interest in that on any concert date we have to find a way of breathing life into it., so we do adjust things and we do shuffle things around and we bastardize songs a bit, but its only with a view to being more fun and being a bit better at what we do. We’ve never tried to anything else. I’d love to make a dub reggae album but no-one would buy it from me, so I don’t do that, I leave to people who are very good and not just making a dub reggae album, but at selling dub reggae albums. As it happens I don’t do that, but it doesn’t stop me hankering to do so.

HHMM: Do you think there is a segment of your audience who we wont mention by name who don’t quite understand that the whole concept of being in a band is faintly ridiculous?

AE: I think even amongst that contingent and the people of that contingent that we appeal to, are a bit more switched on that some of the other contingents.  They are a lot less po-faced, they tend to do a lot more dancing and they seem to like to rock out and have a good time. They are not the po-faced bunch that you might be led to believe, although they can look a little bit stupid. But they do that because they know its stupid. A lot of them have pretty sensible lives and they like to freak out about and I don’t blame them for that.

HHMM: At the time of Vision Thing and Floodlands was there any kind of  a world domination plan?

AE: There certainly was. By the time we got to Floodland there definitely was. By that time I was going on Top Of The Pops every time I put a single out. But it was not like we had a struggle to achieve that. I just like a good tune and because I’m not a trained musician classically or any other way, I’d come up with tunes that nobody else does, because I don’t really know how to do it. So I come up with tunes that are not just catchy, but notably unique. Most of the time you hear a Sisters riff, even before the singer starts, you know it’s a Sisters riff. I didn’t have to struggle to do it, but what I did put myself through, which I might not do now, is doing enough promo and sucking enough corporate dick to play arenas. Even though I’m not much of an extrovert personally I’m not too worried about success because I have few needs. So I didn’t do any of that but I don’t really regret it. World domination was nice for a while and I do like playing arenas but I don’t like any of the suck up that goes on, on the periphery of it.

HHMM: Do you think the Sisters would have endured the 30 years that they have if you had tried to continue to put out records?

AE: I would have been miserable dealing any further with the corporate world that I had to deal with.  Even though I don’t have a contract I still argue with them even now. I’m constantly arguing with people that I’ve never been signed to because every so often someone says, “Would you like to sign this record deal for three and a half dollars and we’ll put you under all the strictures that you used to be under when we paid you millions of dollars?” I say. “No, you haven’t got a grip on the internet, you haven’t got a grip on proper accounting, Apple and Amazon are eating your lunch and you are all dicks”.  Last time I got an email from Warners, who are supposed to be in charge of our back catalogue, they wanted to discuss the release of a Greatest Hits album.  Not only was that a stupid idea because we already have one of those on the catalogue that they are not bothering to sell, but on the email, from their legal department, they managed to spell ‘Greatest Hits” wrong. Last time they released our album Vision thing they spelt the words “Vision Thing” wrong on the spine of the CD. I don’t know how many times ironic that is. So I don’t really miss that aspect of it, Playing arenas is nice, get sued every time you pop your head above the parapet is not nice. But playing arenas is fucking groovy and we still like playing big festivals and we get a lot of them because we are very good at it.

HHMM: You are playing a big festival here called Soundwave…

AE: But we are not headlining it which is unfortunate, but that’s OK because there are some very fine bands headlining it for us. The downside to that is that we only get to play a 45 minute or one hour set. That’s great for us because we don’t have to expend as much energy and it will be complete party time, with very few moody numbers to get anybody down in the sunshine, but it doesn’t allow us to show our true repertoire. That’s one of the reasons that we added another date to Melbourne.  Thee we get to play for an hour and a half and we get to develop a musical argument.

HHMM: when you are doing festivals do you find that some of the new bands actively seek you out and if so how do you avoid them?

AE: If they are people like the Dandy Warhols we go and have a drink with them. And if they are people like Metallica who have been known to wear our t-shirts on stage, that’s very cool.

HHMM: And if it’s a band who think that they are inspired by the Sisters but who in fact are missing the point completely?

AE: Well I think they are a bit afraid of us and they don’t tend to come up and introduce themselves. The people who do introduce themselves are more likely to be drag queens from San Francisco, who say they have been inspired by us, and that’s really nice.

HHMM: Has being in the band for 30 plus years allowed you to have a life where you can read books and explore technology and consider philosophy and have the indulgence of an artists life.

AE: And watch an awful lot of strange Japanese films . And that is my entire day and I am very happy with it.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with my life. It wasn’t always so. We’ve been through hard times. God knows I have paid my dues, he says to quote somebody or other.  But yes, that is my entire day – mucking about with technology, reading books and watching strange Japanese films and smoking cigarettes which I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for.

HHMM: On one level the vehicle of distribution would appear to be the perfect medium for a band like The Sisters, but you have chosen not to go that way.

AE: If we were interested in releasing stuff that would be exactly the way we’d go. We do record stuff, and I’m sure that nobody but me would be particularly afraid of releasing it. I’m not afraid of releasing it, so much, but it seems like a bit of a drag to me. And the fact is the band does quite well and we don’t need to do it.  I could tie the boys up in a studio for 6 months making the best album ever, but the fact is I cant do that because they have other things to be doing.

HHMM: I liked your observation that the internet was like a thousand people shouting in a library…

AE: And I made that observation when there was only a few million people doing it. Now its just pandemonium.

HHMM: Is that why you don’t go that route?

AE: No. I’ve always thought we were a civilizing influence and pandemonium needs us.  The problem with the band is, and I don’t want to sound blasé or complacent, but we are not broke and we don’t need to fix it. We have done so much better for ourselves since we have stopped pandering to anybody’s idea of a release schedule, even ours.

HHMM: Is there any event that you could foresee that would bring closure to the whole idea of the Sisters and the manifesto that you set up?

AE: (long pause). No. I’ve sometime wondered about that. I have thought about going back to university because I dropped out and that would be a full time job for five years or so and that would probably kill the band stone dead. But I’ll never get around to it and I learn enough just dicking around on the internet to not feel so badly that I have to go to university to complete myself. I’ll probably die with my boots on.  I still write as much as I ever did but obviously an element of quality control has crept in recently and I throw a lot more away than I used to. But I come up with new songs and I put them in the set and people seem to like them.  I haven’t yet felt like I’m betraying any kind of legacy because I’ve always done pretty much what I wanted to do and I’ve had people around me that shared the same vision, so I don’t have to bend people to my will. Life’s pretty easy in that regard so I don’t see why I cant keep on going for a while. I was never the greatest singer so the fact that my vocal range has decreased with age, and due to the fact that I smoke a lot of cigarettes, really doesn’t bother me at all.

HHMM: Its good being perpetually perceived as an outsider, because you never have to worry about becoming one.

AE: Indeed. Some of the hoops we’ve had to jump through to play ball with corporate media in the past are not hoops I’d be prepared to jump through anymore. I still talk to record companies now that I have never been signed to and I cant agree with their policies on DRM, I cant agree with their policies on very much at all. They are not corporations that you need to be successful but they are corporations that you need to be famous.  Luckily I’ve had a lot of success but I don’t really need fame.  I’m only doing this interview with you now, because we’ve never been to your part of the world and its high time we did, and the promoter is anxious because we have not been there before and they have asked very nicely if I would do some interviews.  Please don’t take it personally because you seem like a lovely fella.