Once In A Killing Moon: Echo & The Bunnymen interview

Echo & The Bunnymen are fresh from gracing the stages of Belfast's Mandela Hall and Dublin's Olympia this week but they're not done with Ireland yet.
Will Sergeant – guitarist and one of the two remaining founder members alongside Ian McCullloch – found time to talk to hotpress.com about their early Irish connections, the strange chemistry between himself and his singer, feeling "sidelined" on 2014's Meteorites and how he and Mac are back writing again.
Oh, and there's Oblique Strategies and Brian Eno chatter thrown in there for good measure.
You've always had strong support from Irish crowds, through thick and thin. What do you put that down to?
We always used to go there, didn't we? We went to Dublin from very early on. And Belfast as well, where a lot of bands never used to go. Bill Drummond used to go there, when his dad was some sort of a preacher – son of a preacher man! – he used to go over there quite a lot. A lot of the places we went to in them days were places Bill used to go on holidays! We had adventures in Iceland and that sort of stuff. There was the wee Scottish tour we did around all the little islands, it was brilliant. It was all the places where Bill Drummond would go.
Do you put stock in the supposed comradery that Liverpool and Ireland have?
My mum was definitely of Irish descent. Bolger is an Irish name, right? You can't get far in Liverpool without finding someone with Irish relatives.
When you hit the road these days, Will, are there still all the cliched rock 'n' roll trappings that go along with that? or have you settled down at this point? I can't really imagine The Bunnymen backstage with yoga mats and herbal tea.
No, we don't do the yoga mats and herbal tea! [laughs] I've never been that wild, really. To me, it was always a bit embarrassing, that side of it. It was a bit Rod Stewart. You've gotta remember we came from the punk remnants, if you like. So all that stuff was seen as a bit cheesy and a bit crap. I remember going to the Rainbow Rooms in Los Angeles one time and Rod Stewart was there with all his cronies. Being loud and acting stupid. I hated it. I just got up and left!
Still a kick to play the old stuff live or you reliant on the crowd's energy to keep it fresh?
I've never any problem playing the old stuff. I don't understand how people get bored of it. It's not as if I'm sitting around playing it every day. It's the only time I ever hear it.
And your singer is still announcing 'The Killing Moon' as the "greatest song ever written"?
Yeah, yeah! I think it is one of the best songs. I love 'Killing Moon'. I've just been writing about it for a reissue of Ocean Rain. I quite enjoyed it. I enjoy the writing. I've done quite a bit of things. It just takes you back. You go back and you're in the studio at the time. Little techniques that we did that were, to us, unusual. Cos we didn't know a lot about recording techniques particularly but we liked to experiment. I really like to experiment because I'm a huge Brian Eno fan from the Roxy days. It was always seen, to me, experimenting was one of the most interesting things about being in a band.
Did you ever employ his Oblique Strategies in the studio?
I've got them, but I've only got the French version! There was a girl that I knew years ago that translated them and handwrote them all out for me. She was doing French so it was a project for her. It's all mad things like "reverse what you've just done" or 'think of yesterday". This sort of stuff.
Oblique is the word.
They do put you in a...
Different headspace?
Yeah. They do work, people use them. Brilliant idea. He did them with Peter Schmidt.

You released Meteorites last year. Is it tough to motivate yourself to write a new album every handful of years? And do you end up agonising over who they stack up in 'the pantheon' of Bunnymen stuff?
It's a bit weird, isn't it? Nowadays, records don't seem to matter as much as they did when I was getting to music. it was the most important thing in my life. Buying records was all I did. I'd be prepared to do a six o'clock paper round to them! Nowadays it's thrower. Nobody listens to a whole track, a whole album. I find that a bit sad.
I've just been writing with Mac last week and I might be doing some more today. I think that's the plan. It's just coming up with new things. It's still interesting, it's just the end product doesn't have the same power that it used to. It's not for lack of trying, it's just that the world has changed around it. It's a shame but it always does. Years ago sheet music was the big thing, wasn't it? then it was 78s and all the rest of it. Now there's so much other entertainment around that music's just one of the things that's in there.
You've dabbled with the crowd-funding model. You see new artists using it and it's changing the relationship between artist and audience. The musicians have to come out saying what they'll do for fans, to try and rustle up some money. Audiences probably aren't as in awe of acts as they were in the '80s with you guys...
Yeah. I think that all started with Myspace and Facebook and all that crap. I've actually stopped doing all that crap. About a year ago and I've not missed it one bit! [laughs] I think there will be a backlash to it at some point. I think people will just say "this is taking up too much of my life." I'd rather live my life than tell people about it: "look at me, look what I've done!" And nobody gives a shit anyway.
Well you talk about that "look at me!" thing and when we talk album releases, what about U2's album giveaway? They've said it was a case of trying to be heard in this endless stream of music coming out.
I haven't got an iPhone, so I haven't got it!
Weren't rushing out to buy it?
No, not really! I did hear one of them on the radio which had a big, chunky guitar sound on it which was pretty good. An almost Iggy Pop kinda sound.

It seems important for you to dabble outside of The Bunnymen. There was a great reaction to your Poltergeist side project. Is it important for you to have those avenues to explore sonically before you get back to the "day job"?
On our last album, I was sidelined a bit and I wasn't very happy about it. That's why I did Poltergeist, just to keep me from going mad! Like you say, I'm always up to some little project. But it's not like I'm ever thinking 'ooh, this is going to be a hit'. A lot of it's just for me. If I like it, that's good enough. I think that's pretty much with everything that you do. You're doing it for yourself, really. It is a self-indulgent. I'm not really bothered if they sell. Though it would be great to do the next Tubular Bells or something. But I think climate's completely changed for that to happen. I don't think there'll ever be records that change the world like Dark Side Of The Moon again. There are so many little tribes now that there is no unified thing. There's no punk. Nothing like that. There probably are punk bands but it will be their little Facebook group that are into it.
Good playing with Les [Pattinson, former Bunnymen bassist] again with Poltergeist?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trouble is he's moved to Australia now!
Not good for practicalities...
No! he was always going to go. We knew he was going and we said "when you go, Les, don't worry about it, we'll just find somebody else.'
Good terms, then.
Totally. Les is one of my best mates, always will be. it was just one of those things. He'd had his visa for years and was just waiting to sell his house. His house went so that was it, he was off. he got a job, and he didn't like that job so he got another straight away! Les is very practical. He's hands on, he can do anything.He knows what he's doing.
I suppose when a lot of people think of The Bunnymen, they do think of you and Ian. What is it that keeps dragging the two of you back together after all these years?
I don't know. It is a weird thing. When we sat down in that room last week, it was like the first time we sat down for the first time in my dad's back room 30 years ago. He was chugging away on the chords and I was doing sparkly little guitar bits in between. You can bad and find cassette tapes and that's what we'll sound like. Then we just expand on it. To me it always sounds like The Velvet Underground when me and him sit down. That's one of the main things that united us: the Velvets, Bowie, Iggy Pop. Then he'd have stuff he'd be into like Frank Sinatra. Load sod things that I like that that he didn't like, but there was a good common ground there.
You said earlier you were sidelined for Meteorites?
We had this new management, they just looked at Mac as the be-all and end-all.
Which seems frankly bizarre at this stage of your career.
I just felt left out. We've got rid of them now. They're gone!