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level , you can ’ t just punk rock it anymore .
IE : The song “ Omens : is interesting . Because the omens are all there , but nobody seems to see them , right ? LRB : What I think you ’ re picking up on is how these things are , uhh , a bit sarcastic in a way ? Because with “ omens ,” I ’ m a superstitious person , so don ’ t ever tell me your weird , idiosyncratic superstition because I will incorporate it and never go to a hair salon on Wednesday , say . And I ’ ve learned a lot of different superstitions over the years and from different countries . Like , for instance , in Japan , the number four is bad luck because it also has the same Kanji character as Death , so the Japanese don ’ t conduct business on the fourth of the month ,
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mond — she got the consumption , as they called it , and she died , and they buried her in an unmarked grave up in Church Hill , the graveyard of the church where Patrick Henry gave his famous “ Give me liberty or give me death ” speech .
IE : As legend has it , Poe grew so obsessed with the word ‘ tintinabulation ’ that he carried it around on a scrap of paper for ten years until he could finally use it in his poem “ The Bells .” LRB : Yeah ! Well , I have , I suppose , a really more modern and shallow version of that . In the notes section of my iPhone , where I ferret words away for further use , sometimes a note will sit there for five years until I figure out , “ Oh ! I can put this in that song !” There was a great book that came out last year called Poe For Your Problems , by a local author , and it ’ s advice from the world ’ s least likely self-help person . But it ’ s got a lot of interesting things about
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PH : Oh , man ! The German heavy metal ones ! Yeah — German death metal , “ Isolazione ,” which is “ Isolation .” I can ’ t remember what the band were called , but it was a death metal version of “ Isolation ,” and it was amazing . Some of them are really wild ! So you get a lot of beautiful ones , and then you get some really
ugly ones . I mean , it ’ s been like that throughout our career . Don ’ t forget Orgy ! Do you remember the group Orgy that did that cover version of “ Blue Monday ”? That actually earned us a Grammy ? Adeath metal version of “ Blue Monday ”! It was bloody awful , but it still was the most played on the radio back in 1998 or 1989 , and we got a Grammy for it ! For one of the most-played death metal songs ! So it has to be a compliment , doesn ’ t it ? It has to be a compliment …
IE : Obviously , you ’ re still a creative person . Is there an album of all-new Light originals coming ? PH : Yeah . Funnily enough , there was . But it
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was stopped by Covid . We ’ d actually started writing some songs together . But I mean , I d a hell of a lot of collaborations . I started a col laboration last week , actually , with Rusty Egan , who used to be in The Rich Kids and Visage . And I ’ m actually doing two collabora tions with American groups at the momen
which is quite exciting So I ’ m not short o things to do , and that Light LP is still languish ing there . We did seven tracks , and my ide was to pool and maybe not even put it out a The Light — put it out as a different name , a Monaco or something . Because The Light i the vehicle for playing Joy Division and New Order , and I don ’ t want to confuse it — I don ’ think the audience would be very happy if al of a sudden we went , “ Right — well , we ’ re no gonna play Joy Division now . We ’ re gonn play a new song of ours .” I can hear the groan from here . So it ’ s nice to keep these things sep arate .
Tom Lanham
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