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as a more “ fringe ” or a “ left field ” act is that the audiences that come , while they ’ re not massive , they ’ re kind of far better informed of the newer things that happen , you know ? They tend to be happier to be challenged and the songs they consider the key ones aren ’ t necessarily the ones that have been the big hits , which I find liberating .

Alison Moyet , 2017

llinois Entertainer : You don ’ t come to America very often so I know there ’ s a lot of excitement surrounding the Other Tour . Alison Moyet : I know , I know . Yeah , I love American audiences to start , so I ’ m really

IE : Can you give us a preview of the set list ? AM : It ’ s an electronic tour . I come out as a three-piece , so the premise of it is electronica , which means I can of course go back to the Yaz material , which has been sort of beefed up to fit with my last two albums .

excited about this tour .

IE : You go all over the world , but what do we have that you might not find in other territories ? AM : Well , for starters , I think it ’ s that I ’ ve never been a mainstream act there and that is a really liberating thing because having had the big solo hits in England , it ’ s much harder to travel as an artist , to develop and pull people along with you . It takes a lot of re-informing and re-informing . The great thing about being in America is because I ’ ve always been seen

There ’ s a good base of Yaz there , there ’ s some songs from the Alf album and then lots of solo and Other . There are hits in there , there ’ s Yaz in there , but it ’ s quite irreverent . It verges between lots of energy and grim , which is what I like . It ’ s quite euphoric , but also dark .

IE : What inspired you to go back to your electronic sounds on these last two albums ? AM : I really enjoyed the 2008 tour I did with Vince again . The thing with me is my voice has a lot of fiber to it , and I think

sometimes you put that together with other organic instruments , and you lose some of the shape of [ my voice ]. I ’ ve used this term before , but for me singing on electronica is a bit like dropping water onto Formica . You get to see the whole stain and that ’ s what I like about it . I can play with timbre , I can play with tone and these things can be very empowering on that kind of much cleaner , shiner surface .

IE : It ’ s nice to hear you enjoyed your time with Vince again because when you first split company in the ‘ 80s , it wasn ’ t as pleasant . What was different this time ?

AM : We ’ d grown up . I think the important thing to remember is when Vince started Yaz , it wasn ’ t with the intention of starting a group . He just split up with Depeche Mode . It was like his first marriage , he was raw , they were all raw and he felt he had something to prove because of the pressure going on . I imagine it ’ s a difficult time where it ’ s like you lost your family . He never knew that he wanted to record and he knew me from town because I was around and in the same class at school as [ fellow DM members ] Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore , plus I ’ d been to college with Dave Gahan . Even though I was aware of