Rupert Hine - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Despite a hectic working schedule in his Los Angeles studios, Rupert very kindly offered to do an 'Exclusive' interview for www.BoomtownRats.co.uk.

Interview with Rupert Hine on 28 February 2002
Eddy Treloar(EBT) forwards the questions on behalf of this site.

For those of you who haven't heard of Rupert, you should have! Here are some interesting facts about him:

a. He is a singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, composer and, most famously perhaps, a producer. Rupert also regards being a singer on 12 albums as being extremely important to his work as producer.

b. He has contributed in some form or other to well over 100 albums, including 12 albums of his own, and countless singles over more than 30 years in the music industry.

c. He has recorded with artists such as Suzanne Vega, Duncan Sheik, Howard Jones, Chris de Burgh, Rush, The Fixx, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Underworld, Kate Bush, The Thompson Twins, Saga, Camel and Kevin Ayers, racking up many millions of record sales.

d. He has turned down many other well-known artists.

e. His first single was in the '60s - "The Sound of Silence" - the Paul Simon song before even he had a hit with it! Rupert then recorded 2 albums of his own before his first foray into production - a Dr Who record with Jon Pertwee way back in 1972!

f. He worked on the soundtrack of the James Bond movie "Goldeneye".

g. He has played on a Caravan album.

h. He has an award-winning website at www.ruperthine.com.

i. He has got drunk with XTC in their hometown of Swindon, but never worked with them due to their schedules not coinciding.

j. And last, but not least, Rupert produced the first 3 solo albums released by a certain Bob Geldof!!

EBT: Hi Rupert, thanks very much for your time. Firstly, how did you first meet Bob?

RH: I had never met him during the Boomtown Rats era. It was, in fact, the Band Aid project that motivated me to contact him. I just figured that someone with his background and music history, plus the extraordinary experience of the first two years of Band Aid activity and the Live Aid spectacle ... would have something to say as a song-writer and communicator. So I contacted him 'out of the blue'.

RH: He had already done some preliminary recording and writing with Dave Stewart which had led to two tracks that were pretty much finished. Dave's lack of availability through The Eurythmics' success meant that Bob needed a full-time collaborator. Also the fact that I presented a modus operandi to Bob that meant that he and I could work on our own without the baggage of other musicians at a time when he needed to figure out what he could independently.

Of course, he had always been the key songwriting element of The Rats, but here was a chance of developing his songs and their musical setting much more directly. I played the role of a band (aided by relatively new computerized technologies and programming) thereby keeping the writing and arrangement process intimate. This was, after all, Bob's first shot at stepping out of the relatively comfortable protection of a band and a role as lead singer into a fully-fledged singer-songwriter.

EBT: Bob obviously had great fun recording "Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere". How about the other 2 albums?

RH: I'm not sure what exactly gives the impression of 'fun' on the first album (of course, we had plenty of fun recording it, don't get me wrong). The following two albums 'Veggies' and 'Happy Club' were far more rooted in rollocky bollocky mayhem (often, though not always). 'Deep' was more introverted. Each track was more individually 'sculpted' arrangement-wise.

The other two were based on 'band-like' recordings initially and therefore an appropriate band-mates spirit filled the studio most of the time as is witnessed by the ramblings between tracks often involving giggles and laughter, particularly on 'Veggies'.

EBT: In an interview way back in October 1988 you said that Bob was the artist that you most liked collaborating with. Is that still the case?

RH: Bob's current album is the first Geldof work with which I have not been involved, save hearing and commenting on some early versions of some of the songs, as a friend. Therefore I am unable to comment truly topically. However, the reason Bob, for me, has always been a very good force to collaborate with, is mainly rooted in the fact that the songs and the ideas behind his songs would always be clear. On the odd occasion they weren't, he would be the first to admit it and sit-it-out till the 'point' or an 'angle' manifested itself and we could dive in.

Bob also 'needs' his music to balance out other aspects of his life. He is not in it for where the act of being a 'pop star' might lead him. He is well motivated to express himself as a minstrel ... alright you can laugh now Bob!

RH: Firstly, it changed considerably over the 3 albums. Pete's involvement with 'Deep' was quite slight. He appeared for the odd overdub along with all the other musicians (although I believe there was still a co-write or two). On 'Veggies' he was a crucial part of 'the band' that was used on almost all the tracks. Again some co-writing too with Bob.

On 'Happy' he had co-written a lot of the material with Bob and rehearsed it with the band and begun several recordings before I was even involved. The pair of them together are a good chuckle ... they are such old pals, there is a wealth of unwritten and unsaid language that bounces between them. Bob's patience, as is legendary amongst those who know him, is measurable only with a slide rule (in millimetres at that) ... and Pete has lived with this knowledge and first-hand experience for more than 25 years!

Things have to happen quickly in the studio for Bob ... or not at all. Pete will cobble an idea together for him to react to at a stage that's very sketchy by most people's standards, mainly because he knows Bob will have disappeared before he will have done anything more illustrative. Bob, for his part, can easily assimilate a 'quick scribble' and make enough sense of it to give a
thumbs up or down.

EBT: Why did so many big names appear on "Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere"? Was it to boost sales, boost Bob's confidence after the Rats split, or some other reason?

RH: Most of the 'big names' appear on the two Dave Stewart produced tracks if you check. For the bulk of the album there were not that much more than any artist might invite. One must remember that directly following Band-Aid, Bob's profile had obviously rocketed ... but, for once, for global, humanitarian reasons ... not the usual combination of self-oriented and publicity contrived weaponry. This translated into so many artists letting Bob know, particularly those actually involved with Band-Aid/Live-Aid, that if he wanted any help on his own album, they would be there in a flash. Now, it's quite hard to say no to so many great artists offering to 'drop in' and add their small touches to help Bob along. And they don't even want to be paid! Of course, from the production side we were well aware that too much of that kind of activity would only come across as a 'Geldof and friends' or worse still Geldof Tribute album.

A criticism that was to be a reality even at the relatively subtle level of the final album ... the curiously British backlash syndrome. Even being accused of 'cashing-in' on his newfound global celebrity. It seemed to take Bob many weeks of repeatedly expressing that he was merely going back to his 'day-job'! Absolutely true ... what else had Bob done since leaving school, other than make music?

EBT: Apparently, during the recording of "The Vegetarians of Love" and "Happy Club" many more songs were recorded than were released. Is there any unreleased material of Bob's that you are aware of - unreleased songs, mixes, versions, live recordings, etc.?

RH: Good lord yes! For 'Veggies' alone, we recorded 26 songs and I remember having to sort the final album and it's running order out of more than 100 songs and/or mixes!

RH: I have yet to hear the finished album, which I hope will be remedied soon!

EBT: You mention on your website meeting Bob back in the summer of 1997, when he had some "cool ideas song-wise for another album". Was this the phoenix of "Sex, Age & Death" waiting to rise from the ashes?

RH: Yes, I believe so ... meaning, I'm not sure how many of those ideas have finally made the record and how recognizable they would be at this point.

EBT: What did / do you think of The Boomtown Rats?

RH: That's a big question. The Rats were, in my mind, a hugely significant part of a truly creative era in British pop-music history. That era being book-ended by the outbreak of Punk at it's start and the somewhat murky 'dissolve' of 'New Wave' into the myriad of sub-pops such as New Romantics, Synth-Pop etc etc. A 4/5-year window that heralded some of the best song
writing based acts in the last 40 years of the 20th century.

The Clash, The Pretenders, Squeeze, XTC, The Cure, U2, The Police, Siouxsie, The Undertones, UB40 ... (the list is very long) ... and The Boomtown Rats figure certainly in the Top 10 of that list. Whilst 'Surfacing' housed some of the more intensely Rat-like songs, their album output was consistently strong taken in its entirety.

EBT: What are you working on at the moment?

RH: The last album I produced to hit the stores was Suzanne Vega's current
album "Songs in Red and Gray" released a couple of months ago. I am
currently working on Len's new album, provisionally entitled 'We Be Who We
Be". They of "Steal my Sunshine" fame from the summer before last. I write
this in a hotel room in Toronto where we are finishing up some last bits
and pieces before going to LA to finish the mixing.

EBT: How did you feel when Howard Jones' "What is Love?" went to number one?

RH: Not as ecstatic (but close) as the day his first album went straight to number one ... the day it was released! You have to remember that back thenthe charts were made up of actual sales alone, not like today where it is a ridiculous and virtually meaningless amalgam of sources including radio play! That is to say that at that time it was VERY rare to go straight to number one ... particularly if it was your first album!

RH: Artists, and therefore their albums, are just not THAT comparable ? at least in terms of the MO of each project which varies, for me anyway, hugely from artist to artist. I have no conveyor belt on which the next artist is plonked.

However, as you specifically use the words 'satisfying' and 'project' ... I can safely say that the answer is very clear. "One World, One Voice" in 1990 ... which, conveniently for this interview, featured BG too. 200 artists plus a 100-man orchestra combining to achieve, still to this day, the longest continuous improvised composition (53 minutes). Recorded in 26 countries over 5 continents. The first and only musical 'chain-letter'. An amazing project that I am trying to get re-released and re-presented for DVD as it was also a 2-hour television show made for the BBC.

EBT: And finally, who, when and why was the last time you asked for an autograph?

RH: Courtney Cox, who is an ex-girlfriend of mine's closest friend ... about 3 years ago... for my then 10 year-old son, Kingsley. He was in the middle of loving the movie, 'Ace Ventura - Pet Detective' in which she very attractively appeared. He has since been with me when we've hung out with her a couple of times and become very keen on 'Friends' now too (he's coming up to 13 and is interested in 'learning' about boy/girl 'relationships' ... at least on the light and fluffy level). He still has the photo, with its deliciously personal message to him, on his bedroom wall. So that was an autograph worth getting!

EBT: It certainly was! Rupert, thank you very much for the interview. I'm delighted that you gave your time to answer my questions!

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