Wayne Hussey – The Mission – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Dom Daley
Saturday, 23 November 2013 03:00
It’s not every day you get to chat with a man you’ve been busy collecting everything his band has ever released whether it be single, box set, limited edition, DJ promo, video and then DVD. But The Mission are a band I’ve always had a hell of a lot of time for, and the one man that’s been ever present is their striking and supremely confident frontman Mr Wayne Hussey. After serving his time playing with the likes of Dead Or Alive and The Sisters Of Mercy, it was The Mission where he took centre stage and carved out a place in rock ‘n’ roll history with his wild man antics on tour and drunken TV chat show appearances. Hussey never compromised or pandered to the media and yet had his face on the cover of Smash Hits Sounds, NME and Melody Maker, whilst his band headlined festivals and arena tours and recorded a string of top ten albums. So ladies and gentlemen on the other end of the phone I give you Mr Wayne Hussey.
Hi Wayne. How’s things? Congratulations on the new album, ‘The Brightest Light’, it’s a great record. Can I start by asking you how you’re finding things this time around playing and recording with Simon and Craig?
Well firstly it is different. Obviously we’re all a lot older and I think tempered in our behaviour. Of course it’s different. Um we were a little wild back in the day and we’re probably not in the condition to be that wild anymore. I think what that does do is then in leaves time for more energy and emphasis on the relationships within the band.
I was going to ask if you feel you get on better these days with a more controlled schedule.
Um, yeah but we were very close first time around, we lived a very intense lifestyle, working pretty much all the time whereas now we tour in small more manageable pockets and we stay in control of the work schedule. I think maybe it’s easier now. Maybe we’re not as close as we were but there is a respect and appreciation that I think only comes with time.
Do you think spending so long apart helps? That when you look back you’ll either focus on the good times or the bad and never a happy medium?
Yes I guess so. Time is a great healer and hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing.
I remember looking back at the old tour programmes from around the ‘Gods Own Medicine’ tour and you boys really gave it some, with date after date all over the place, and with maybe a day off here or there that were then filled with interviews and promo.
They were very punishing but that’s what we wanted to do. Don’t forget that we were a very good live band and we enjoyed that. It’s what we lived for. We made records so we could stay out on tour. Obviously at the time we’d try and make the best record we could but it was all about getting back out there on the road but recording was secondary to going out on tour. That was where the parties were haha!
You road tested the new album’s song by setting up three nights aboard the good ship Thekla in Bristol.
That was a lot of fun.
We covered the three nights on Uber Rock, tell us about the idea behind that?
We actually really enjoyed that experience. It was a brilliant thing to do to perform the songs in front of an audience to see what worked and what didn’t. It was very very loose and the audience helped make those three nights very very special. It was a fantastic part of the process watching if you like the songs develop.
It’s not the first time you’ve gone down this road before recording, or during the recording, where you’ve involved the fans. Does it really help then? Because at the end of the day it’s your songs and you guys control the process so is it really helpful?
Yes I think it is. Obviously we rehearsed in a rehearsal room and that’s one environment but it’s something different to play in front of fans. Things can and do change in front of an audience take ‘Black Cat Bone’ for instance we’d never have had the extended intro had we not done that in front of an audience and seen it work. It was my brilliant idea to start the first set with new songs then the second with familiar older songs and it was also an awesome idea to be onstage when we opened the doors. We were starting with ‘Black Cat Bone’ and that’s how it evolved over the three nights. It took five or ten minutes to get everyone in so that’s how it came about really. That wouldn’t have happened in a rehearsal room. The same with ‘Swan Song’ in a way we’d finish the first set with that and originally that was a 3 or 4 minute pop song. All the shows were recorded so we had them for reference then when we got back to the studio so it was a great process and really helpful to make the album as good as it could be. Rehearsals in front of a live audience is a great process, I can highly recommend it haha! I think it was a good insight for the audience as well to be privy to the dynamics of the band and how we work in a rehearsal room.
So will it be something we can expect again then?
Well yeah, I would if we were to record another album in the same way it would be good. The process this time was I’d write the songs with guitar and voice then send them to the band or I would just give them acoustic demos and they’d do their bit and it would give them a broader palette to work on and that would give me the luxury of just being able to write without me having to worry about all the other parts. If were to do that again it’s a good way to work out the parts to the material. I think I can speak for the others and say we really enjoyed the experience it was fantastic.
I think that comes across on the record that there is a freedom to just make a great rock record and not be bogged down with any tags and there sounds like a harmony and enjoyment if you know what I mean?
Yes, well we recorded it in a way that we were happy with. I know how good we can be live but I don’t know if we’ve ever really captured that on record. In the past there were always time constraints and budget, not saying they weren’t there on this record, but I actually think we’ve made a really good noise on this record. I don’t think there are a lot of frills on the records there aren’t many overdubs it’s pretty much two guitars bass and drums you know? It quite raw and that’s the right thing to have done for these songs.
A lot of the press have dubbed it The Mission’s “classic rock” album, has that made you laugh considering you’ve always been a rock band, and from the covers you’ve done nobody saw an Aerosmith cover coming or Neil Young and The Stooges?
Maybe for the first album the Goth tag was fair, but on this album they say we’ve left that behind but I’ve always seen us as a very good rock band you know. Some of the articles I’ve read where people say it doesn’t sound like The Mission of twenty or so years ago and I think “how can it?” And I’ve seen the term that this is The Mission’s Marmite album, but I quite like the idea that people either love it or hate it.
What would have been the point of making a ‘Gods Own Medicine Part Two’ and trying to re-create the sound of that album now?
Well I think some people might think it would make commercial sense to do it, but my job is to write the songs as best I can at any given time and that’s it. I’ve tried it in the past where I’ve tried to contrive songs for a specific sound or reason, but you can’t really do it, it doesn’t ring true. Ultimately you want to be convincing when you perform a song. I think people can tell if you’re not sincere and faking it to an extent anyway.
So when you recorded ‘The Brightest Light’ were you all in the studio together or were files posted around the world to work on in home studios?
The basic tracks were recorded together in the studio but because I live in Brazil and Craig is in the US and so on its cost prohibitive really. What we did was spend ten days in Lincolnshire doing all the backing tracks and Simon’s guitars were done on pretty much all of them, actually then Dave and I went back to Brazil and we spent eleven or twelve days there doing my guitar parts, and only a few touches were added here and there as well as my vocals, and then to finish off we went back to London to mix the whole thing. So the only part was those initial basic tracking days. Both Simon and Mike did pop in when we were mixing at some stages but only briefly. I think the end process is the only thing you can’t do by committee.
Is that how it’s always been? Leaving the mixing to yourself to oversee?
Haha! I’m pretty hands on, shall we say. Simon did an interview on our Facebook page and one of the things he said, and I’m paraphrasing here by the way, was “Wayne probably won’t mind me saying this but he’s the kind of person who will go round and ask everyone their opinion then end up doing what he wants anyway” haha but it’s probably true!
The truth is someone has to do that part of making a record though don’t they?
Yeah I guess so but I don’t think any band is totally democratic you do need someone to steer the ship.
You’ve just completed the American leg of the tour and you have the UK and Germany coming up at the end of the year and beginning of the next. What about after that in 2014? What about the next Mission album for example?
We’ll we haven’t really talked about that far ahead and what we’d like to do about the next record. I don’t really know maybe the next record will be totally different I don’t know? It all depends about the songs and what they will dictate direction wise. There are some provisional ideas, maybe some more touring, but I don’t think we’ll be playing in Britain for a little while and probably not mainland Europe either.
Have you found touring has changed a lot this time out with the band?
Of course, back in the day there would be bigger crowds, we were living large haha! These days it’s scaled down, but it’s stood up as being a very enjoyable experience.
I caught the Bristol show when you guys got back together, and with no record out the place was sold out, which in this day and age is no easy feat.
I know, but we still have a very loyal fan base, and that gives us the luxury to play bigger venues and without them we wouldn’t have been able to do any of this of course. I think the main reason we’re touring and making the record is because we’re enjoying it as the band, it’s been great and really enjoyable. I think the key is to do it the way we are it’s physically more manageable which helps. We aren’t wee whippersnappers any more haha!
I then went on to ask Wayne about recording a solo album, and he was keen to say that ‘Bare’ and the album with Julianne Regan weren’t really solo records but a collaboration and a collection of covers, and there might be a possibility of a solo album down the line, but it’s not something he’s imminently thinking about. Wayne was then excused from my company as he had to talk football with some radio station.
It was a real joy to finally get to chat with someone whose career I’ve followed closely since the mid-eighties, and is still going strong with some UK tour dates in December, to follow what has been a triumphant year for the band. There may not be much snow about this Christmas but at least there will be some Mission shows to keep the Eskimo happy!
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