The Sisters of Mercy
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IE : We were born four days apart back in 1959 , so we ’ re both Tauruses . And you even wrote a song about it called “ 1959 .” What is the significance of that year to you now ? ANDREW ELDRITCH : Firstly , it has no particular significance to me . And secondly , I wouldn ’ t even know what my star sign was unless everyone else kept pointing it out to me . What if I worked with a different zodiac ? What if I were another nationality that – unlike Americans – isn ’ t addicted to astrology ? What if I was Chinese ? I ’ d be a different animal altogether .
IE : 1959 is the Year of the Pig . AE : I didn ’ t know that ! And that ’ s because I don ’ t care . IE : Soooo … what do you care about right now ? AE : Uhhh ….( pause ) Lots of things . As you know , I watch a lot of films , but recently I ’ ve been reading a lot of books , and I follow politics avidly . So I care most of all about civil rights , because I think if you don ’ t get civil rights , nothing else falls into place . But I haven ’ t downloaded anything new recently , apart from books .
IE : Well , going back to “ 1959 ,” when did you first notice art in your life as a kid ? I was reading H . P . Lovecraft at age seven . AE : I was reading Lord of the Rings when I was four . Where I grew up , nobody really much talked to each other , so I just locked myself in a roomful of books that nobody ever read and worked my way through them – English translations of De- Balzac ,, Maupassant , and rubbish like Agatha Christie and rubbish like Lord of the Rings . I would read the back of a cornflakes packet . And I always had a library card , because the roomful of books that nobody ever read ? These were all posh editions , the kind of books that aspiring parents buy by the yard because they look good when you rack ‘ em all up , with those faux-leather covers with horrible colored lettering on them . So I had a library card , as well , and the first thing that blew me away – that I picked out by myself – was Ringworld by Larry Niven . It ’ s seminal science fiction , and I ’ ve been addicted to science fiction ever since . I ’ m not so much of a Heinlein fan , though – I don ’ t like his ideas , and I don ’ t think he can write . So I ended up where anybody sensible ends up , which is Philp K . Dick for the ideas , and Kurt Vonnegut for the writing .
IE : Once I moved to San Francisco , I drifted into French surrealists , like Huysmans , Lautreamont , and Octave Mirbeau . And of course decadent poets like Baudelaire and Rimbaud , and Verlaine . AE : Ah . Well , unfortunately , I was forced to read Baudelaire and Verlaine as a child at school . And this was before high school , even , so I got fed up with them because I had to read them . So I don ’ t read any French literature now . Or rather , I haven ’ t , by choice , read any French literature much since I stopped having to learn French , and
I learned French for thirteen years of my life , and that ’ s a very long time . So that ’ s a lot of books – and whole genres , really – that got poisoned for me . But one person I came across after university , was Alain Robbe-Grillet , and I like him very much .
IE : Are you into all the pulp authors , like I am ? Jim Thompson ’ s The Killer Inside Me is just definitive . AE : I should read more of it , but I tend to gravitate to movies for that or certain TV shows . Like Hap and Leonard , I thought , was brilliant .
IE : Joe R . Lansdale ! Who wrote possibly the creepiest short story ever , The Night They Missed the Horror Show . Equaled only by Ray Bradbury ’ s The October Game , with its stunning final line , “ And then some idiot turned on the lights .” AE : Oh , I do like Ray Bradbury . And that should be the opening line of something , shouldn ’ t it ?
IE : A larger question : Why haven ’ t you written your own novel or screenplay ? AE : I ’ ve read a lot of books in my life , and I know what a good book is . And I ’ m pretty sure I wouldn ’ t match up , so I ’ m intimidated , basically . Whereas in my field of lyric writing , nobody else does what I do . You might not like it , but it ’ s what I do .
IE : Viscerally , the quantum leap forward you took on Floodland is still almost inexplicable . You took the reins from Wayne Hussey and just blasted off into the stratosphere . AE : Well , that was very much a ship of my own construction , a ship of my own steering . The business side of it was quite difficult at the time . There was a lot of shenanigans going on , and the record company couldn ’ t decide who they wanted to back . But on the other hand , I didn ’ t have a lot of band shenanigans to deal with , so that was nice . And the band – or the name , shall we say – was successful enough to command a budget , so I just put myself in the studio and got on with it .
IE : Looking back on “ Vision Thing ,” too , it ’ s weird to note that the song was about the senior George Bush , long before Junior came along . Were there songs you wrote about Junior ? AE : I was hard-pressed to think of a more stupid administration than that of Bush , the elder . I thought , ‘ Surely America ’ s going to wake up to this stupidity !” But it ’ s only gotten worse , and now it ' s beyond satire . And it ’ s mostly beyond lyric writing because you couldn ’ t make it up . There ’ s no adequate way to describe the recent orange shit show .
IE : How do you get your news ? I subscribe to the New York Times , or local Chronicle , and even read USA Today and watch Good Morning America for their capsule , but potent-sized infotainment slant . AE : I read three or four British newspapers every day . Not cover to cover , but I read the Guardian , the Telegraph , and I read the [ Daily ] Mail ‘ cause I like to see what the other side ’ s up to . But it ’ s always the same stuff . I watch MSNBC , I watch a little bit of Fox – again , just to see what the other side ’ s up to – and for light entertainment , politically , I ’ ll watch “ The Young Turks ,” which is a YouTube thing . It ’ s very good , and for an independent outlet , they ’ re very slick . And it is entertaining . And I ’ m a big John Oliver (“ Last Week
22 illinoisentertainer . com april 2023