#thevioletflame

The Violet Flame by Erasure, 2014 #erasure #thevioletflame #deadofnight #mute #musicilove #albumaday #1117 https://www.instagram.com/p/CHv5Ae5H9JT/?igshid=12k12n9jv7dzp

Happy anniversary to Erasure’s album, ‘The Violet Flame’. Released this week in 2014. #erasure #andybell #vinceclarke #thevioletflame #elevation #reason #sacred https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcOUqMASTt/?igshid=1p44ye77mzexy

Happy 5th anniversary to Erasure’s album, ‘The Violet Flame’. Released this week in 2014. #erasure #andybell #vinceclarke #thevioletflame #elevation #reason #sacred https://www.instagram.com/p/B2t3OfUgUaa/?igshid=aaaidyawjiay

Forgiveness Thru The Violet Flame - self-hypnosis program - meditation

Bwaaaahahahahahhaa. Horror film montage set to ERASURE's - Dead of Night (Halloween Scream Video)

SLUG: How is the Lone Star state treating you guys?  Andy Bell: It’s very good so far.  SLUG: Well that’s good, since you guys have another show there tonight, right?  Bell: Yeah.  SLUG: Nice! I was reflecting that here in Utah you have an extraordinarily large fan base, and I kind of reached out to basically all of my friends and conveyed to them I’d be interviewing you and every single person said the same thing: “Tell Erasure how much we love them!” And I said “I think they know that!”  Bell: Awwww, we really, really appreciate it! It’s amazing how much in the audience, I’ve noticed, the looks on people’s faces and you kind of feel the camaraderie between everybody, you know? It really is something special, it really is.  SLUG: So when you’re performing, you feel that love coming back at you, right? I mean there has to be some kind of a satisfaction from that.  Bell: Yeah, you do. I mean, as a performer you’re always naturally kind of… you have some trepidation before you go on, you know, and you just feel like you could easily say the ‘wrong’ thing…if you say anything kind of political…or…I don’t know, you could easily upset somebody or a group of small people. You kind of keep it to…I wouldn’t say you keep it superficial but you just hope that you can commune and send the love really via singing and the music, really.  SLUG: Yes, definitely! I’m kinda jumping all over the place with my questions, but your voice, especially on Snow Globe—and extra especially on this new album—it sounds incredible! You hear about singers’ voices kind of declining over the years and for you it seems to be the opposite.  Bell: Right…I’m a great believer in, you know, I love Frank Sinatra’s voice and I love Elvis’ voice as well…he had a beautiful, soulful gospel voice…and I just think if you look after your voice really properly and take care of yourself, I can’t see why there’s any reason that it should fade, you know? Maybe when you get up into your eighties and stuff. Because you become frail, you know? Touch wood, I haven’t had anything wrong with my throat and—not seriously wrong—so I kinda feel like, I just really cherish it. And be ever so thankful that I’m able to sing, really!  SLUG: Well absolutely! And I have some questions about the recording of the album. So when you’re going to go do your vocal—when you’re preparing for that—is there a routine you do?  Bell: Well, to be honest, I’m singing pretty much 24/7. We do warm-up vocals every day when we’re on tour…I’ll do them or either we’ll do them before sound check and before the show and you kinda get pretty much ‘warmed up’ all along so…obviously you like to have breaks—because it’s like you do with anything else—and your voice does get kinda rusty, or it becomes weaker…so it’s like anything, you just have to exercise and keep it in good shape, like an engine, and then, you know, get the ‘balance’ right, between work and play!  SLUG: The new album is so fantastic and I cannot stop listening to it!  Bell: That’s great. We’ve had a great reaction from it, more than we’ve had for a long time.  SLUG: And it’s well deserved! So when you sat down and demoed the songs, and you did that in Florida I believe this time?  Bell: Yeah, we did it in Florida and Vince came down and he stayed just up the road from where me and my partner have a place and we just did writing every afternoon for two weeks, and we did that twice, and he’d come over with already pre-recorded loops and chords and literally I’d sing them there and then with a little mic that we’d bought—  SLUG: WOW!  Bell: —and either we’d keep the tracks that we hadn’t necessarily thought we’d got something we felt was good on, and then sing it overnight, sing something overnight, and e-mail him the MP3 from the iPhone. He’d come back the next day and we’d arrange them and then sing them properly—the demos—and then once we had all the demos we gave them all to Richard, who listened through them and [chose] what he thought was best. Then we kinda re-edited some of the songs, and then they started working on the music to make it all shiny and professional, and he worked with Vince remotely and then I went and worked on the vocals and lyrics with Richard over probably about a four week period.  SLUG: Now that’s what I was going to ask you: so Richard I know was involved—and I’ve loved some of his work, like especially Saint Etienne…that remix of Foxbase Alpha is incredible—he had worked with you on Snow Globe and is that how he got involved with this new album?  Bell: Yeah, we tried him out for Snow Globe and we liked the results on that and how it sounded and stuff and yes, so we thought “Well, it worked once so we’re going to do it again.”  SLUG: Nice! Well, I did want to ask that question: How much say do you guys have in that? Is it entirely up to you, or do Mute and Daniel Miller get involved?  Bell: No, we’ve gone with quite a few people a number of times… SLUG: Yes, like Flood and Martyn Ware a couple of times.  Bell: Yes, Flood and Gareth Jones. Sometimes people seem to think that when you’ve worked with someone a few times that they’re not going to find you a new niche or a new sound. Sometimes you have to listen to the record company and they’ll put people’s names forward and you listen to their music or hear about their reputation and stuff and say “yes” or “no.” You know, it’s quite a tricky process, I think, picking someone, because Vince, he knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s got his way of doing things and I’m kind of a vocal perfectionist. At the same time, I don’t know how to say it—I wouldn’t say we’re ‘boring’ but we’re definitely a two man team.  SLUG: So the producer helps you to direct the sound?  Bell: Yeah, yeah and you know sometimes we like the results and sometimes we don’t like them, it just depends. I think sometimes you can get turned in the wrong direction…it’s tricky!

Since your classic "Always" i haven't heard something similar