Richard Butler interview excerpt

Here are a few snips from my 1987 interview with Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs (and, since, Love Spit Love).

NP: Why do you think other bands so often consider the Furs an influence on their own music?

RB: I think it’s just the fact that we’re a rock band. I think that any rock band who’s not making pop records is influential to people, in a way that it shows there are other ways to make music. Especially in England — it shows that there is another way to make music besides being in the charts all the time.

NP: When bands come out with material that sounds a lot like the Psychedelic Furs, do you feel as if they’re being unoriginal?

RB: I don’t think anybody starts out being original. I think you’re always the result of your influences. If someone was to start a band and they were influenced by Captain Beefheart and The Doors, people would go, “God, that’s incredibly original — what an original mind!” If someone came out and did the exact same thing with Duran Duran and Howard Jones, everybody would go, “That’s unoriginal — that’s crap.” But the person has only done the same thing, which is to mix up two influences. I’m not saying that I like Duran Duran or Howard Jones, but that’s the process that gones on when you start a band. It’s not really about originality — you’re just taking all of your influences and all that you’ve taken in yourself, and putting it all together.

And for more from The Psychedelic Furs…