Alannah Currie says that the Thompson Twins want to make music for the whole world

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 25, 1984

By Steve Newton

The last time the Thompson Twins played Vancouver they were a support act for the Police. 

But since that visit the British trio have hit it big with their Into the Gap album–which debuted on the U.K. charts at #1–and are now full-fledged headliners in their own right.

They’ll be bringing their chart-busting, synthesized sound to the Queen E. Theatre this Saturday (May 19)

The Thompson Twins are Tom Bailey from the north of England; native New Zealander Alannah Currie; and Joe Leeway, who is half Irish/half Nigerian. So they aren’t real twins. They took their name from a Belgian comic strip called The Adventures of Tin-Tin.

Lyricist Alannah Currie called from sunny Santa Barbara, California, last week, and talked about the group’s beginnings, aims, and ambitions.

When did you, Joe, and Tom first meet?

Well, we’ve been playing together since 1980. We had a seven-piece band which was also called the Thompson Twins. But in 1982 the three of us just started working on our own. We made the Sidekicks album and Into the Gap.

Was it a big change, going from seven to just three?

No, it was really good. I mean, the seven-piece band was a very big cult band. It was quite experimental. But a lot of people were quite frustrated, so we just cut it off. It’s a lot easier to work with three people than with seven.

Are the three Thompson Twins very similar personalities?

No, we’re completely different [laughs]. Don’t ask me to describe the others, because I can’t. We have a good time. We fight a lot, but you can do that when you’re friends, you know.

Tom is quoted s saying, “We want to be cross-cultural, pansexual, inter-emotional.”

[Laughs]. Yeah. Tom uses big words.

Do you know what he was getting at?

Yeah. What we do is pretty common to all cultures and people, all sexes and races. We don’t want to make music just for England or just for America–we want to make music for the whole world. We aim to make our music heard by an awful lot of people.

Do each of you have a specific area that you like to concentrate on? Like is one person more involved with the music and another more into the live show aspect?

Well, we started off that way–it was just a matter of organization. One of our things was to have control over everything we did, from videos to artwork to live shows. Everything. So what we did in ’82 when we started, was split ourselves into three.

Like, for example, Tom we made responsible for the music, me for the visual stuff–videos and photographs–and Joe for the live show. It means that while Tom’s mixing in the studio with the producer, I can be off getting the next video together and Joe can be organizing the stage show. But we all write the songs together and we all play, so it’s very much a mix.

You’ll be here in Vancouver on the 19th. Do you have a touring band or is it just you three?

No, we’ve got another four musicians We’ve got bass, drums, and two keyboard players.

Out of the big-name acts that you’ve toured with thus far–Peter Gabriel, the Police, Bowie–which one did you most enjoy playing with?

Oh…the Police I think.

Why?

Because they were really nice people. We were out with them for two weeks, and the other ones we were only with for a few days. And their audiences were great–really open-minded.

Your new album isn’t quite as danceable as Sidekicks. Were you and the other Twins in a less upbeat mood recording Into the Gap?

No. What happened was, with the Sidekicks album we were really intrigued by dance music. It was another one of those things where you go, “Well, everybody wants to dance. Let’s try and make everyone around the planet dance!”

I mean, we can make really good dance music ’til the cows come home. We could have done that on this album as well. But what we felt we weren’t so good at was melodies and lyrical hooks.

On the Sidekicks album we sat down and wrote the grooves first and put the lyrics and melodies on top, but with the Gap we sat down and wrote the melodies and the lyrics first and then put the grooves over top.

And was it a harder record to make than Sidekicks?

It was a more old-fashioned way, I think. It’s back to the plain old sittin’-at-the-piano, writing a song and singing it at the same time.

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