Behind the Albums: The Psychedelic Furs

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on their eponymous debut, released in 1980.

Richard Butler: "As for pressures, [CBS] signed us for the material we're doing. The first single will either be 'We Love You' or 'Fall' and the first album is going to be the material we're doing now. So there's no pressure on us, we do it our way." (New Musical Express 1979)

Richard Butler: "It could have been a bit less polished, but it's still a great record." (CMJ 1980)

Richard Butler: "CBS Records has been very helpful to us. They don't tell us what to do, and they don't hype us – no BS – and the record is selling." (CMJ 1980)

Richard Butler: "This album knocks a lot of things, which is very easy to do. The second album will answer the sarcasm on the first." (Rolling Stone 1980)

Richard Butler: "[CBS] signed us because of what we were doing, so for them to change it at this stage would be stupid. We went in and said that we wanted 'We Love You' as the first single cos, as I said, we weren't worried so much about separating ourselves from the punk scene as from the original psychedelic scene, and we thought we'd do it straightaway; and then we said we wanted Steve Lillywhite to produce the album, cos he'd seen us a few times and is really into the band, and we got exactly that. And I designed the singles bag and all the promotion material, and I'll do the album cover, hopefully in conjunction with this poster company called 'Times Ten' so, you know, we've done everything we wanted to really...I can only say that we got a good deal. CBS immediately assigned us to an A&R man – Howard Thompson – to work closely with us. Apparently they're trying to get back to the small company type of thing, and we're the band they're trying it out with." (Slash 1980)

Duncan Kilburn: "After we'd done that album we felt it would have been better if we'd gone into the studios and done demos first or something." (ZigZag 1980)

Vince Ely: "We did it in two weeks." (ZigZag 1980)

John Ashton: "We were told it had to be out and it's still not out. Bollocks. I think now we're looking forward to going in the studio and writing some new songs." (ZigZag 1980)

Duncan Kilburn (on being asked why the band chose Steve Lillywhite as producer): "Les [Mills] knew him and at the time we were pretty much into it. I think he was right for our first album, but the problem was we needed a producer like the ones at the BBC that are able to put something out in eight hours, whereas Steve is very slow, he spends a lot of time thinking and working things out." (ZigZag 1980)

Duncan Kilburn: "I think Richard was sort of 'hitting out' very much on the first album, especially against institutions – marriage, religion, that sort of thing." (Fort Lauderdale News 1981)

Duncan Kilburn: "[Talk Talk Talk] didn't come easily, but it did come naturally. The first one took two years to write. Talk Talk Talk we wrote in less than three months." (Hot Press 1981)

Duncan Kilburn (on being asked what separates the music of The Furs from the other bands): "It's a hard question to answer because people would say that we had a trademark off the first album, which was very much that it's a number of things all meshing together instead of actually spacing themselves out and leaving room for other things. That was very much a trademark of the first album, but the second album's got less of that and a lot more melody, I think." (Interchords promo interview LP, 1981)

Richard Butler: "When we first started out I... lyrics were never written down. Some songs would last about 15 minutes. I used to make up the lyrics as I went along on stage, but when we recorded the first album that sort of freezes things, if you like." (Interchords promo interview LP, 1981)

Richard Butler: "On the first album, a lot of the songs were what I'd call a wall of rhythm sound." (The Journal 1981)

Richard Butler: "Talk Talk Talk has got a lot more melody in it, I think. The debut album is a wall of noise, if you like, and this is a wall of melody. The lyrics are less obtuse. On the first album, it's talking about institutions - mostly it's knocking institutions - whereas on this one it was all about love. Trying to look at it objectively from different points of view." (Overview 1981)

Richard Butler: "The first album was described as a wall of sound by a lot of people, and I think the new album is more a wall of melody. There's loads of melody going on, whereas before we were playing chords. Now, we're all playing melody at the same time, which still adds up to a massive sound." (Rip It Up 1981)

Richard Butler: "Lyrically, it's trying to put things down, trying to say too many things in one song." (Trouser Press 1981)

Duncan Kilburn (on being asked what were some of the differences in the way the band approached Talk Talk Talk as opposed to the first album): "Well, I think the band's first album – I mean, it's something [inaudible] in our case anyway, and I think it's fairly common. It's something we've been working on for a number of years. I mean, what the record company sees before they sign you is, that's what they envisioned the first album to be and that's generally the case. Because, as Richard said, the distance between the two albums was like a year which is longer than we expected because of the delay in picking up the [first] album in America. We had to come and tour here sort of much later in the year than we expected. We had a lot more time to work on [Talk Talk Talk] so I mean, we've been fortunate in some ways that there hasn't been external pressure for us to produce material and it's evolved quite naturally over a fairly long period of time." (WCUT-FM Radio 1981)

Richard Butler: "[Talk Talk Talk] is more personal. On the first album I was hitting out at institutions a lot – I had to get that out of my system, if you like. I got that out on the first album." (Unknown source, 1981)

Richard Butler: "Maybe it's true that the general feeling of the first album is one of rage, but on the second it's more one of anger or sadness. What's the difference between rage and anger? Well, I suppose it's that rage is much more of an aggressive thing, whereas anger is more inward." (Creem 1982)

Richard Butler: "I look back on the first album and it seems a bit clumsy." (Daily News 1982)

Richard Butler: "[Talk Talk Talk] is mainly just love songs, whereas the first wasn't about anything in particular - it sort of darted here and there. When you make a first album and get in the studio, you sort of go, 'Wow, let's try this and I want to sing that,' so it becomes a little bit jumbled." (Record Magazine 1982)

Richard Butler: "We did two albums with Steve Lillywhite (producer) before, and it was too much of a wall of sound thing - not enough separation." (Unicorn Times 1982)

Richard Butler: "When we were making up these songs [for Forever Now] we realized it was a different step for us. We were making up songs with stronger melodies, and we figured if we were going to change the sort of tunes we were doing, we might as well change the production – use Todd Rundgren, who would give us a clearer sound, as opposed to Steve Lillywhite, who on our first two albums tended to make us sound a bit murky." (Boston Rock 1983)

Tim Butler: "[Steve Lillywhite] was right for us at that time. We had that wall of sound for the first and second albums." (Island Ear 1983)

Richard Butler: "For the time we made the first two albums [Steve Lillywhite's] production was great but when it came to making the third album and we had thrown Duncan and Roger [Morris] out of the band and John, Tim and myself were writing much more melodic tunes, we needed a producer that could handle that much melody and Lillywhite wouldn't have been the right choice." (Rip It Up 1983)

Richard Butler: "When I listen to the first two albums now, they seem really full of confusion, angst, disgust & cynicism but I don't feel that way now. I think we can change things but I'm not the kind of songwriter that stands on a podium and shouts. I think you have to change things in a more gentle way for it to be effective." (Aquarian Arts Weekly 1984)

Richard Butler: "I made the statements I wanted to make on the first two albums but you can't sustain that kind of anger. I don't want to sustain that kind of anger and it's not a question of wanting to- I don't feel that antagonizing anymore. Now I feel like I want to get through the people. I meet people all the time and I enjoy talking to them. I enjoy people a lot more nowadays. I think it's just a natural process. I will feel a lot of anger but I don't feel like I have to get it out and shout as much as I used to. The first two albums were probably very good therapy for me." (Aquarian Arts Weekly 1984)

Richard Butler: "On the first two albums I was always distancing myself from emotion. I'd use the third person and a lot of cynicism. I think I was very uncomfortable with revealing any of myself. I was hiding behind word-play." (Daily News 1984)

Richard Butler: "Some of the old songs were almost impenetrable whereas I don't think these ones [from Mirror Moves] are and it's purposely so. All the albums have had their difference. The first one was really just angry, the second one (Talk Talk Talk) was the most complicated lyrically and possibly the deepest, Forever Now was half way between that one and this one and Mirror Moves is definitely the clearest and easiest to understand yet." (Melody Maker 1984)

John Ashton: "Our first album had a weird, eerie feel to it, much like what some of the psychedelic bands are doing now." (The Morning Call 1984)

Richard Butler: "Those first two albums [The Psychedelic Furs and Talk Talk Talk] were like primal therapy, you know, when you let everything out in one long scream fueled by frustration and anger. But having screamed it out, then gone out on tour and screamed it out in front of people, I think I got rid of all that." (Star Hits 1984)

John Ashton: "Steve Lillywhite really left the songs alone, he'd notice things and say 'turn that bit around, bring that bit out.'" (International Musician 1986)

Richard Butler: "I don't think I really use [the word] 'heart' a lot. I think I used it a lot on the last album [Mirror Moves] — more than I've ever done before. On the first album, I used the word 'stupid' a lot. I just get different words that I like using at different times." (Audivisse fanzine, 1987)

John Ashton: "By September '79 we were signed to CBS/Columbia, and by November, we were in the studio recording our first album." (Musician 1987)

John Ashton: "I'd say that fifty percent of what I heard on that first [demo] tape is there on the first album. We'd written a few things together - 'India,' 'Wedding Song' - but I think the whole sound of the Psychedelic Furs evolved around that year." (Musician 1987)

Richard Butler: "I remember reading a review where somebody said I'd used 'stupid' thirteen or fourteen times on the first album. I really didn't think twice about it. I liked the sound of the word - it was good and negative, which is what I felt like at the time." (Musician 1987)

Richard Butler: "We were after rawness and energy in the first two albums. We were amateurs who were still learning music. I was really difficult to work with then. I used to drink too much in the studio and refuse to do a second take. I wouldn't go back in and polish the vocals. I thought that wasn't honest. If it was flat in a few places so what. I was singing differently in those days, in a strong monotone." (News Press 1987)

Tim Butler (on recording the first album): "It was, actually, quick. We were very lucky, and we obviously had an original, different sound the record company thought the audience wanted." (The Orlando Sentinel 1987)

Richard Butler: "The first two albums we did were entirely, entirely inaccessible. I don't think there was one radio station in the entire world that played them. Our contemporaries like the Cure, Simple Minds and U2 were getting a lot of radio play." (The Philadelphia Inquirer 1987)

Richard Butler (in response to interviewer Peter Antony saying the first album's from 1979): "No no, we were signed in '79. I think the first album might have been 1980." (Radio Luxembourg 1987)

Richard Butler: "It seemed that people wanted U2 to be this huge world-breaking band and I think U2 wanted that too, whereas it never entered my mind to be something like that, I mean, we would have been really perverse to have wanted to be like that, making the records we made. Ha ha! I mean, if I play U2's first album and our first album, I think ours is the more uncompromising by a long long way." (Melody Maker 1988)

Richard Butler: "We were really lucky to get Steve Lillywhite, cause his approach was, he said for the first Furs record he wanted it to sound like a great live show. So there was no stepping on anybody's toes with going 'it should sound like this or that.' It was just 'you guys are going to make this record yourselves. I'm just gonna record it.' And from there Talk Talk Talk was a step away from that. We've developed musically and more so that than in terms of ideas, so that by the time we'd left working with Steve we had found our direction. Which was very lucky." (B-Side 1991)

Richard Butler: "On the first Psychedelic Furs record, the record company didn't even want us to come over [to America] and tour, so we did it under our own steam in a van and we toured that way..." (Billboard 1997)

Richard Butler: "For the first record, Steve Lillywhite said he wanted to make a record that sounded like the band doing a great live show. He felt that was a good way to start a band's career." (Billboard 1997)

Richard Butler: "[John Lydon] was certainly one of the people – him, Bob Dylan and David Bowie, were the three touchstones I had when we were making the first album, and being a band, I wanted to do everything that those people had done." (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler: "Steve was a great guy, had a great drum sound, and seemed to know what he wanted. What he said to us, which immediately put us all at ease – though we weren't that much ill at ease because we didn't know how it worked – he said, 'I just want this first record to be like a great live show. I don't want to push it in any direction.'" (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler (on summing up the first three albums): "The first album was our introduction to our music and any kind of public. And our second album in a weird way is a goodbye to England. And Forever Now is hello to America." (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler: "On the first album, I had a thing with the word 'stupid.' I had to edit it out. And then with Mirror Moves it was 'star.' And 'rain' is always there, it's like 'Come on Richard...'" (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler: "I think we were more 'punky' in the early days than many people thought – unless you were a diehard fan who bought the first couple of albums." (Ink 19 2002)

Richard Butler: "I think any pressure came from ourselves, which is more of a pressure that came after the first two records. We make those two, and wondered, 'What do we do now? We don't want to keep on making the same records.' So it became a pressure to do something different with every record." (Ink 19 2002)

Richard Butler: "I'd like to work with Steve Lillywhite again, I think he's a great producer. I trust him; we went into the studio to make our first two records as a pretty 'green' band, a lot of producers might have put too much polish on us or steered us in a wrong direction. He absolutely had the feel of what we were trying to do, and he brought out the best in us." (Ink 19 2002)

Tim Butler: "Recording for the first album was fun, fast and painless. Our producer, Steve Lillywhite, wanted a live sound, like a really good concert. So we all played together in one room, with very few overdubs. The whole thing was recorded and mixed in 10 days I think." (Ear Candy 2004)

John Ashton: "I did use an Arp Avatar on the first album, a guitar synth that came with a Hexaphonic pickup I installed myself. I used the 'hex fuzz' setting mostly, with a lot of chorus and flange. Unfortunately it proved to be unreliable, so I never used it live." (Modern Guitars Magazine 2005)

Tim Butler (on the band being seen as direct competitors to U2 back in the day): "That was probably because of the Steve Lillywhite thing. He produced Boy, then produced our first album. Then he said he wouldn't do two albums by the same band. Then he ended up doing October, so we got him to do Talk Talk Talk. There was a little rivalry around 1980. We co-headlined some shows in Germany [in 1981], Hamburg and Berlin." (The Quietus 2010)

Richard Butler: "The first album was certainly the sound of the band as it was at the time, and [Talk Talk Talk] was refining that sound. Steve brought out the massive wall of sound. It was a fairly large band, after all. He was well known for his huge drum sound. That worked perfectly with five other guys making an absolute racket over the top. Steve didn't want to put his imprint all over us. He'd said our first record should be what a really good live gig sounded like." (The Quietus 2010)

Tim Butler: "On the first album [Steve Lillywhite] wanted an album that was going to be like a live concert, the vibe and energy." (The Quietus 2010)

Tim Butler: "I think albums like Forever Now and Talk Talk Talk and even the first album still sound strong. I mean, bands could be playing songs like that and still sound up to date." (Kentucky.com 2011)

John Ashton: "A lot of it was pre-written by virtue of the fact that the band had been around a couple of years. So there were songs there. I joined the band in '78, and 'Sister Europe' was already a song, a version of 'Imitation Of Christ' was there, 'We Love You' was already there. And there were other songs that were coming along, like 'India,' that I brought to the band. 'Fall' was another, and 'Blacks/Radio,' which was just kind of a jam." (Popdose 2012)

Tim Butler: "With the first album, we used to go on stage, used to jam around ideas, we would be on stage for ten to fifteen minutes, and we'd be jamming around, and it's like another song idea would come out of that jam, so we would go to the studio and work it into a song." (Murfreesboro Pulse 2013)

Tim Butler: "What I'm really excited about is that we're playing songs from our very first album [on the 2013 tour], around that period, that we haven't played since the album came out. We've even got one song from the album that we've never played live, not even on the first album's tour. So, I think that people are excited by that." (Murfreesboro Pulse 2013)

Tim Butler: "Steve is, I think, one of the best producers around. And he was just starting out when he produced our album." (That Music Magazine 2013)

Tim Butler: ""When [Steve Lillywhite] came to record us, he had just done Peter Gabriel and I think he had done a couple of things with Siouxsie and the Banshees. He was pretty new. He did our first album and then he did U2's first album and then our second album and then he did October. He was leapfrogging between us and U2. He was a young, fresh producer." (Cleveland Scene 2014)

John Ashton (on how he got Roger Morris and Duncan Kilburn to play on the Satellite Paradiso album): "A couple of years ago, I got back in touch with Roger Morris (Guitar) and Duncan Kilburn (sax) with whom I had both played and toured with on the Psychedelic Furs first & second albums: The Psychedelic Furs & Talk Talk Talk. I had always wanted to make another record with these guys. So, when the opportunity arose, I jumped on it!" (Officially A Yuppie 2014)

Tim Butler: "Any one of those albums—the first, Talk Talk Talk—I think they could come out now and they could fit right into the music that is happening now. For us, it's a real pat on the back. That we did OK back then." (San Antonio Current 2014)

Tim Butler: "The last few [tours], we've been doing stuff that we haven't played for a while from the first album and the second album." (Yellow Scene 2014)

Tim Butler: "We're just so blessed that we still have that audience. I mean the first record came out in 1980 which is 35 years ago or something, and we have audiences that are growing." (Outline Magazine 2017)

Tim Butler: "For the first album we could barely play our instruments, but we had the attitude, and we'd go onstage and do a 20-minute jam around 'Imitation Of Christ.' Maybe after a few times of doing that, another song would come out of the jamming." (Music-Illuminati 2018)

Tim Butler: "For our first album, Steve basically went in and said, 'What I want to do is just make this album like it's a live show.' He came to see us playing a live show before we went in there, and he was blown away by, I guess, the energy and the attitude, and he didn’t want to lose that. There was very little overdubbing. It was basically live." (Music-Illuminati 2018)

Tim Butler (on The Psychedelic Furs' first American tour): "We were told by the record company not to tour the album. They didn't think America was ready for us. We came over despite CBS' ideas, and we toured for five months in the back of a minivan." (Music-Illuminati 2018)

Tim Butler: "I think as the albums went along we changed from being a sort of aggressive new wave band, not really knowing our instruments and how to write songs properly, but we got away with it with the first album." (Yorkshire Evening Post 2019)

Tim Butler: "Everybody in the band wanted to be heard, so it turned into a bit of a wall of melody, of beautiful chaos, for the first album." (The Aquarian 2020)

Tim Butler: "For our first album, we toured a lot behind it, and I think people realized by word of mouth that we were a great live band." (Cryptic Rock 2020)

Tim Butler: "On our first album we used to play and everyone wanted to make their presence known, so the music turned a sort of wall of chaos." (Cryptic Rock 2020)

Tim Butler: "I think the sound [on Made Of Rain] is maybe a cross between Forever Now and our first album from 1980, which were dark and atmospheric. I think it is back to our roots." (Cryptic Rock 2020)

Richard Butler: "I do remember in the early days, there was a cacophony of sound. Beautiful Chaos was the term used. It was all about six of us all playing and all vying to be heard. Steve Lillywhite, the producer on the debut album wanted to capture that live experience in the studio and I think he achieved that." (Electrypop 2020)

Richard Butler: "The back of the first Psychedelic Furs LP is almost a direct copy of the back of the first Velvet Underground album. (Laughs) Somebody took the photograph and I thought, 'Oh that's brilliant, it looks like the Velvet Underground – we'll have that!'" (Hot Press 2020)

Tim Butler: "We started touring America when the first album came out. Our label CBS said, 'Don’t bother touring, there's no demand for you over here.' Of course, we were chomping at the bit to get to America, so we toured over here for six or seven weeks in a nine-seater minivan and it helped us break into the American arena. We just did the hard work of touring around in summer in a minivan. America is so vast, it was an eye-opener [laughs]. We enjoyed it and it worked out in the end." (Huck Magazine 2020)

Tim Butler: "I think ['Don't Believe'] is the most – the one that most harkens back to the early sort of aggression of The Furs; circa 'India,' the first album." (Interview with Kyle Meredith, 2020)

Richard Butler: "We were very lucky to work with Steve Lillywhite. A great experience. A lot of bands, in that era, would complain that the producer put a lot of dampener on their sound, but he just wanted us to sound like a really good live gig of ours... which was everybody fighting to be heard on top of a racket, y'know? It was straightforward and honest and there wasn't much trickery going on. We'd never heard ourselves before, and to us it sounded great. We'd hear it back and go: 'Wow! This is us? Fantastic!' So, we loved the studio with Steve. It was a thrill. Was it 'post-punk'? Well, we were never totally committed to three-chord thrash, like some. I mean, we took a lot from it, but we were still fans of Roxy, the Velvets, Dylan. The Velvet Underground had beautiful ballads: 'All Tomorrow's Parties', 'I'll Be Your Mirror'. So, songs like 'Sister Europe' and 'Imitation Of Christ' made sense to us." (Record Collector 2020)

Tim Butler: "I remember we recorded that in a really short time too. Steve had been to see us live a couple of times and just wanted us to get the essence of a live show. We went in there and everybody set up in the studio, did two or three takes, and of course we'd been playing those songs for so many shows that we were pretty tight. It came together really quickly. And I think it still does have that freshness." (WriteWyattUK 2020)

John Ashton: "We went in to the studio with Steve Lillywhite to RAK Studios in early December of '79, and then we finished up the mixes once we went across through the holidays, the week we took off or whatever. I remember listening to that record, the mixes, over and over again, throughout that period of time. Just immersing myself into everything. So then we come back and he mixes the record and he decided... well, we were kind of like a bunch of, like, we all drank too much for a start. We were having far too much fun. It's really difficult to get anything done with everybody shouting 'More me, more me, more me.' So Steve decided to mix the record starting at six o'clock in the morning. I ended up sitting through the whole mixes and he said, 'I think it's a great way to wake up to a mix.' And I don't know if he was just kidding or – but it seemed to work. It was a highly experimental album for us, for me as a guitar player." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

John Ashton: "We made that record and then we toured it and we had a little bit of success with the first album. But then we went straight in and recorded Talk Talk Talk in '81. And that was a further foray into sonic possibilities with Steve and his engineer Phil Thornalley, who he used on both records." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

Tim Butler: "When we originally worked with Steve I think he had just done the second album with Peter Gabriel, and he'd done Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Scream stuff, he was quite young and fresh. He did U2's first album, he did our first album, and then he said, 'I'll never produce two albums by one band.' Then he went in and did the second U2 album, and then the second Furs album, so he didn't take his own advice of not doing two albums." (The Collapse Board 2024)

Tim Butler: "Well, the first album, [Steve Lillywhite] just wanted it to sound like we did live, because he came to see us live a couple of times. We pretty much just went in there and played like we would do a normal concert, and he cleaned it up a little bit in production." (The Collapse Board 2024)

Tim Butler: "[Martin Hannett] produced 'Susan's Strange', and, what was the other one he produced? I've forgotten the other one, oh, 'Soap Commercial', which weren't on the English version of [The Psychedelic Furs] because on the English version of that album we had a track called 'Blacks/Radio/Chaos', it was like a long jamming track, and CBS thought it sounded like it was racist but it wasn't. So on the US copy of that album, we put 'Susan's Strange' and 'Soap Commercial' on it." (The Collapse Board 2024)

Photo: Andrew Douglas