We had a chance to talk to Tim Butler before he kicked off The Psychedelic Furs 2025 European Tour which starts in Belfast this month. Tickets to their Dublin & Belfast show are at this link
(LOFTD) Is there any song that you guys have that you think captures best what you’re about? I know a lot of people would know a lot of your famous songs. Is there a song you’d point to for somebody that’s never heard of you to have a listen to first?
(TB) I’d say Heaven. Heaven, yeah
That’s actually one of my favourite songs of yours as well. Have you any memories about recording that song back in the day or did it come easy? Was it hard or anything like that?
(TB) It came easy. It came from a riff or downward progression that I’d been playing with the drummer on the soundtrack of the tour before we recorded Mirror Moves. And I was playing it in the studio with Keith Forsey. He was like, oh wow, that’s cool. You know, what’s that? I said, that’s just a thing I’ve been messing around with. And then Richard started singing along you know, heaven, the chorus part of it. Yes. And he said, OK, he said, OK, now go somewhere else, you know, like chord wise. Right. So, I just so I just went to the first chord of the to the F and that was pretty much it. We recorded it that day. And John did the guitar solo and everything in two takes. So, it’s really easy. It’s one of the easiest songs I think we’ve ever written. If only they all were.
( LOFTD) One of the most well-known as well
It’s amazing. It is. It’s strange how things are. And a song like President Gas took forever and we ended up using two different takes, the beginning, and the end after the breakdown. So, you know, some things come easy, and some things come hard, like life.
(LOFTD) What were some of your main influences growing up?
(TB) Roxy Music. yeah I mean, they’re just so, the structure of their songs isn’t, on their first two records, it’s not really normal structures. There’s not verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, you know, like that. It’s interesting. So, I think when we formed and started to jam around musically. Richard and I were starting about forming a band, we’d just seen the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, and we were just blown away by their energy and the aggression of the music. So, we used that energy and the aggression and just added that to, you know, Roxy Music’s song structures. And we made that that was the beginning.
(LOFTD) Yeah, absolutely you can definitely kind of hear that with you guys. I was going to ask was there a moment it when you were growing up that you kind of thought to yourself this is what you want to do?
(TB) I saw the Sex Pistols, Richard & I was sitting around & talking about bands and if we formed a band out of famous musicians, who would we have in it? We had our favourite bass player, our favourite guitarist. And then Richard said, well, do you want to form a band? And I said, well, I can’t play anything. He goes, well, what do you want to play? And I said, well, I want it to be either drums or bass because I like the bottom end. It keeps everything together. So, he said, which of those do you want to get? And I thought, I can’t really afford a drum kit, so I’ll get a bass. And I bought a cheap bass and learned to play and here we are all these years later. Crazy, isn’t it?
(LOFTD) Yeah. The amount of people that started, like all the Manchester bands that started up because of the Sex Pistols and stuff like that. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
(TB) Oh yeah, it was cool because music needed a kick up the arse at that time. I guess we were into all that folk rock and 10-minute guitar solos and all that. So, it needed something aggressive and simple at the time, especially at the time when there was mass unemployment with people leaving school.
(LOFTD) Yeah, of course, yeah. I didn’t even think of the unemployment.
(TB) I mean, that anger, they had to get that anger out some way. So a lot of people formed bands and we were just lucky that we had a, I guess, a sound. Yes. That was sort of, we came on sort of the end of the greatest part of punk. And I think record companies and audience wise people were looking for the next thing. So I like to think we’re like a bridge between punk and independent indie, so alternative music.
(LOTD) Yeah, you can definitely hear that. Is there a moment that you kind of credit to help make the band kind of make it a full time thing or helped you guys take it to the next level?
(TB) Yeah, it’s hard to say. I think when we started having a hit over here with Love My Way being played all the time on MTV. And I think that’s when we thought, wow, you know, we’re making it, you know, because getting all that play in America. And before that, you know, we had been touring around England. And when we did our first tour over here and saw there was interest, we thought it could be a worldwide thing.
(LOFTD) Would there be anything you would have done differently knowing what you know now, or have you any advice for people that are starting out in bands?
(TB) Yeah, I think we would have… When we recorded Midnight to Midnight, we did sessions with… Who’s the guy that produced U2?
(LOFTD)U2 was… Martin Hannett did their first record …. I think?
(TB) It wasn’t him but anyway, the producer, who’s well known to… Daniel Lanois. Daniel Lanois. We were in there doing some demos with him, and he said, yeah, you’ve got three or four good songs here, but you need to go away and write some more before we proceed. And of course, we were snotty, you know, punky rock and rollers. And we said, no, you know, we can do it. We think we’ve got the songs. So, we went with a different producer. I think that album came out a bit overproduced and not really our sound. Right. I think the songs had been produced by someone like Steve Lillywhite, who had done our first two. Yes. It would have been a whole lot better for the band because that album, along with the remake of Pretty in Pink, got us a lot of fans. Those fans were the sort of pink t-shirt wearing little girls who would move on to the next thing as quickly as they’d found us. And a lot of our older fans were like, oh, they’ve sold out. and stopped listening to us and coming down to see us. So, it was a good thing and a bad thing. I think that was the worst thing in our history that we did. If I could go back and redo that album with a different producer. I’d also say the bands around, which we didn’t do, which is a good thing, don’t be pushed around into certain or whatever, by the record company. I mean, when we had our first hit, which was Love My Way, then of course they wanted another Love My Way. And we’re like, no, we don’t want to retread what we’ve done, because we’re always into every album being different. We just stood by what we wanted to do and weren’t pushed around by the company, which I’d say to any new band is keep to your original goal. Be true to yourself and not to the record company.
(LOFTD) I always thought like your albums are quite timeless. Like, you know, some of the stuff now sounds like it could be made today. You know, some of the different songs. with the way it kind of went synthy the last few years with songs and stuff, you know, so that’s really interesting to get your take on that.
(TB) Yeah, I mean, we have, I think, as you were saying, every album, other than Midnight to Midnight, you could play the songs on the radio now and they’d fit in production-wise. There’s no certain decade or year on the production.
(LOFTD) Yes yeah and even I was listening to your latest album as well again in preparation and it kind of reminds me of the new Cure album, I don’t know if wall of sound would be the right way to put it but yeah there’s there’s quite nice depth in it you know?
(TB) Yeah, I mean when we started out we used to call ourselves and the press used to call us uh Beautiful Chaos. There was a wall of sound which came about from the fact that when we first started, nobody could really play. And as we learned, we wanted to sort of push ourselves to the front, like, you know, look what I’m doing, look what I can do, listen to me. And so, it was like a wall of people trying to be heard. We hadn’t realized, you know, there’s places and sounds for every instrument. It doesn’t all have to be all at once. You can let it breathe if you want to do it. It gives it a great quality though, you know?
(LOFTD) Is there any song or bands you’re listening to at the minute that you’d recommend?
(TB) Ghost. They’re great. I went to see them. It’s been a couple of years ago, live. I think it’s the second-best concert I’ve ever seen.
(LOFTD) Yeah. That was actually going to be another question The best concert you went to?
(TB) The Sex Pistols, the second is definitely Ghost. Yes. Ah, yeah. They’re absolutely brilliant. The show they put on is crazy. It’s amazing.
(LOFTD) Have you got any good stories or memories from any of your trips to Ireland?
(TB) Actually, it’s great. Last time we’re there Joe Elliott from Def Leppard came to see us. I didn’t think he was a fan but he said just because he’s in a heavy metal band doesn’t mean I don’t have a broad spectrum of musical taste. I asked what his favourite song was & said he particularly like President Gas so I said to him next time we play in Ireland come up & sing with us.
The Psychedelic Furs
Left Of The Dial Music 