Essentially we wanted to sound like other celebrated bands we liked, and luckily there was a lot of common ground. But we didn’t have much of a roadmap, or a budget. We played cheap guitars (spent more money on effects) into cheap amps. One of the things that differentiated punk from new wave was the amount of processing. Punk was performance, new wave was production. Ramones - Flock of Seagulls. We were on the cusp, but we fell hopelessly into the latter. Probably all the Yes we took during puberty.

My models here guitar-wise were Peter Buck and The Edge. To some extent Andy Summers. I loved riding the fence between rhythm and lead, a hybrid I termed “melody guitar”. Integral, hooky, but still middle distance (or wide focus?). With Paul as a “second”, he nominally veered toward lead, I rhythm. I sang more, couldn’t look down.

In hindsight, everyone overplayed, above their capability, across the board, almost constantly. We called it pushing the envelope, but we weren’t comfortable with spaces. It wasn’t subtle, it was adrenaline. When I listen to the old tapes it hits me immediately, yet you couldn’t convince us at the time. And we played too fast when we began, and too slow by the end. Too much damn echo (we could not think without echo!). Well, at least we didn’t feel restrained - maybe it was a reaction.

Also, in retrospect (very much so), we needed a keyboard player like….a drag chute. We certainly didn’t need a Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson. It brought more density, clutter, weight. We might gain altitude but we flew erratically. There is a way to integrate keys into a post-punk guitar palette, but we missed it. Until too late. I appreciated that Russ could take direction, when I had it, but that Lynn was more intimidating. Later when I had a keyboard at my side, we benefited from it not being in use all the time. Near the end, with neither Russ nor Lynn to blame, Paul and I upped the guitar sonics to prog levels anyway.

I sing much better now than I used to, and I don’t sing that much! I was in search of a voice throughout. In a sense we all were.

All About Me