tronic music — we were there in the early days of synthesizers and electronica , but at the same time , we loved the horns . And even now — I ’ m just about to do a tour with full orchestra , and we always have a sax player who ’ s got a tenor and an alto sax . And I don ’ t know why that is , but I think that ’ s always been a part of what we ’ ve been about .

IE : You set the bar fairly high for yourself in those days because few bands were using horns and reeds , and nobody outside of Bryan Ferry was rocking a Saville Row suit onstage . MF : Well , Roxy Music — a massive influence on

us , no doubt . It ’ s a Mod thing , really , although we came through much later . But the horns , though ? Yeah — I grew up listening to a diet of Motown and Atlantic , and Stax and Chess music , or Northern Soul . And funnily enough , that ’ s what you ’ d hear at every party you went to — Edwin Starr and Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson — so that was definitely ingrained . And we like funky elec-

IE : When you set your sartorial standards so high , how do you tour and keep the suits clean ? And how many suits do you bring with you ? MF : Well , I ’ m pretty pragmatic now . I ’ ve got a couple of nice suitcases with wheels on them , so I roll them around . And I ’ ve seen bands bring three wardrobe trucks for all their costume

changes , but I don ’ t do that . I ’ m usually wearing a suit , too , so that never really was my bag . So , the secret for anybody out there who ’ s thinking about this kind of thing is to wear a black shirt . You can usually get three gigs out of that and then swap it around , so you need two shirts with you so you can flip it and hit the launderette in different towns .

Martin Fry , 2022

IE : Looking back , you ’ re one of the first bands to portray yourselves as cartoons , as you did on 1985 ’ s How to be a Zillionaire . MF : We wanted to reinvent the band completely — it was myself and Mark White thinking , “ Let ’ s become cartoon characters .” It was a way of sidestepping the last record we ’ d made , “ Beauty Stab ,” which wasn ’ t that successful . And it was a way of kind of reigniting the band , so yeah , we did sort of build these instruments that we used on TV shows that were like cartoons , Hanna-Barbera things , like in The Archie Show . And they were one of the first cartoon bands , of course . But yeah , we really got into that , and songs like “ Be Near

Me ” from that period were really popular in America . People kind of liked that larger-thanlife aspect of it , I suppose . I mean , we were never going to be cartoons . But it was kind of nice trying .

IE : How have you maintained your voice over the years ? MF : A couple of lozenges , a cup of tea . Ha ! Actually , I ride my bike , or I sometimes spend time by the sea , and I swim in the sea . And I find that really helps the voice for some reason . But it ’ s like an old car engine — you ’ ve just got to keep it tuned and keep it running . You ’ ve got to drive ‘ round the block now and again