Gary Numan Interview

The original electro synth pioneer is back and in Norwich to prove that, despite his increasing years, he will never be boring, to you or himself. Whether it be his 1979 hit 'Cars' or his later industrial releases Gary Numan has been doing his thing for more than 30 years and shows no sign of slowing down. His music has influenced everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Kanye West and after recently moving to America he chats to Lenore about his forthcoming album, loving Halloween in the US and why he will always love being British (in spite of the weather). 

You've recently moved to America, what prompted the relocation?It was quite a long process for me, I started thinking about it years ago. There was quite a lot of stuff in the press actually that said I was doing it because of the riots or my wife being attacked in our village, all of which was utter bollocks. Firstly my wife wasn't attacked and we were already a year into the process when the riots happened so it was nothing to do with that. It was really to do with two things. First of all I've got three little girls aged 9, 7 and 5. As they start to get older you start to think what they're going to do with their lives, you start to think a little differently. For all of Britain's equality legislation I still think women have obstacles placed in front of them compared to The US. I come here a lot, for work and various reasons, and I always thought women here had much more opportunity, not only in the scope of things open to them but to the level at which they can succeed. It's common here to have women at the top level, whatever industry they're in be it entertainment or otherwise, and I've always been really impressed by that. So that's what I wanted for my little girls. I wanted them to be able to choose from as wide a range of things as possible and to have no obstacles in their way. So that was an important thing for me -  something five years ago I wasn't thinking about at all.

On the other side of it, I started to think about my own future and where I could do best because I'm getting older - I'm 54 now. There's going to come a point where making albums, touring the world, as much as I love it, as much as I would like it to last forever, isn't viable any more. I need to think what I want to do next. If I want to stay in music what would I do if I'm not going to be touring? That's where I earn the bulk of my money. I need something to replace it, so I stared to think about film, composing for TV and that sort of thing. I had a talk to a number of people over a period of time in Britain, and there just aren't the opportunities there. We came very close to doing a film recently and it fell through. There are just so few opportunities for so many people trying to get the work so we just don't have a big enough film or TV industry to handle the amount of people that want to do it.  So again I started to look here - it's the global centre for entertainment, TV, film and so on. if you want to work in those areas there are more opportunities here than anywhere else. It's still difficult to come here and step into that but you've got to start sowing the seeds at some point. If in ten years time I think this touring lark is getting a bit much for me then I would already have had to be working in film a little bit to get experienced, to understand their requirements which are very different to making albums. To have made all the contacts, to have done a few things, to have proved I can do it so when I do ease myself from one to the other I know what I'm doing and people here respect me and know that I can do the job.

Beyond that, where do you love being the most?I love it here, the weather is beautiful, the people are friendly, there is so much to do. This weekend, we're going to drive out to a lake called Big Bear in the mountains, stunningly beautiful. We're going to come back and go to the beach, the temperature is going to be in the mid 80s even in November. It's as simple as that really! I can't understand why the whole planet isn't applying to come here! The Americans are moaning because they think it's cold though, by Los Angeles standards mid 80s is a bit of a nippy day!

I feel really guilty for leaving though because I'm absolutely British through and through, top to bottom. I've no intention of losing my accent and my sense of humour is not going to budge for a second, but I'd spent the best of the Summer looking out of the windows at the rain with the kids winging. It's fucking annoying! I'm too old for that! Every day I'm stuck inside looking out at the rain is a day of my life wasted. I don't want to have to waste another single day of my life because of the fucking weather. Being here fixes that. 

Although on Sunday morning we had an earthquake. I've never been in an earthquake before, that was a shocker!

Was it quite a large one?No, but the Americans were laughing at me because I'm running around like an idiot saying 'Wow! how amazing was that?!' and it was as serious as someone bumping into you. It felt like an aeroplane had flown into the side of the house. A massive bang, the whole house shook. Then my bed started shaking like something out of the exorcist. Fucking hell it freaked me out! Being an Englishman you don't think earthquake, you think ghosts, it was dark, I thought we were being haunted! Then I ran outside cos I though it was the dog! I've got a huge dog, an English Mastiff that weighs about 15 stone, and I thought he might be having a fit because he sleeps next to the bedroom door or maybe scratching himself. That shouldn't be shaking the bed I know but I couldn't get my head together. I flew out the bedroom to find Wilbur the dog standing up and everything was still shaking. That's when it dawned on me it must be an earthquake. Then I got excited. I flew downstairs to make sure the kids were ok and they were all hiding under a quilt in one room, actually loving it thinking it was really good fun. So lovely weather but you do get the odd earthquake from time to time!