Behind the Albums: Talk Talk Talk

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on Talk Talk Talk, their second album, released in 1981.

Richard Butler: "[The debut] 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 (on The Furs' influence upon the music scene at the time): "We did all that kind of thing on our first album. With the new album we're going to try and give some answers to the questions raised on that album. The first album gave us a point of view to work from but we're no longer going to be slagging people off. We're no longer going to be quite so negative in our approach." (ZigZag 1980)

Richard Butler: "The album is very cynical about romance. I do believe in romance, but I don't believe in what I was told to expect it to be." (The Bangor Daily News 1981)

Richard Butler: "This is a Psychedelic Furs commercial. Buy Talk Talk Talk." ("Dumb Waiters" playable picture sleeve, 1981)

Duncan Kilburn (on the album): "This one [Richard Butler] describes as songs about love – not actually love songs  – songs about relationships. It's a personal thing he was going through at the time. It's still strong, heavy material, although it's dealing with a much lighter subject." (Fort Lauderdale News 1981)

Duncan Kilburn: "What we were aiming to do was try and emphasize the melodies a little bit more. Not necessarily to make it lighter, but to avoid the 'second album syndrome,' which is to follow up the first album. We wanted to try to make it different, and that's what we came up with. Although in many ways it's more accessible, in other ways it's just as dark and heavy." (Fort Lauderdale News 1981)

Duncan Kilburn: "I would say that 50% is a direct follow-up from the first album, 25% is more accessible material, and 25%, for example 'All Of This And Nothing', is a diversion for us - it's strange." (Hot Press 1981)

Duncan Kilburn: "This album 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, with the exception of 'Mr. Jones' and 'So Run Down', both of which had been around for a while. The States helped a lot in tightening us up. We didn't write any of the songs there but it did generate ideas which we worked on later." (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: "On the first album, a lot of the songs were what I'd call a wall of rhythm sound. But [Talk Talk Talk] is more like layers of melody." (The Journal 1981)

Richard Butler: "We've just finished the second album and, as the first, we've got Steve Lillywhite producing. He's good because he thinks things out in the way we do it, rather than try to impose on us the way he feels." (Manchester Evening News 1981)

Richard Butler: "There's more melody in the new one. It's more cohesive lyrically, and more cohesive production-wise. It's a grown-up version of the Psychedelic Furs if you like, all about relationships, all disillusioned love songs. I didn't do it consciously, it was a real surprise to me but the complication with this album is there's no final statement. It's not saying love is a thing you shouldn't believe in, all it does say at any one point is you shouldn't believe in the word love to mean what you're told it does, you should work it out for yourself." (Melody Maker 1981)

Interviewer: "What are the main differences between the debut album and Talk Talk Talk?"

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)

Interviewer: "[Talk Talk Talk] seems to have a more romantic tone about it than [the debut]. Is romance a topic you would like to explore more in upcoming releases?"

Richard Butler: "No, just this one. I think it was looking at it objectively. It's not romantic. I mean it's got songs like 'I Wanna Sleep With You' which is talking about sex and not wanting any type of relationship, but just wanting sex. On the other hand, it's got a song like 'She Is Mine' which is very romantic, if you like, and it's objective." (Overview 1981)

Interviewer: "Was the title of [Talk Talk Talk] inspired by the Music Machine song 'Talk Talk'?"

Richard Butler: "No. It's only recently, since we've brought out this album that people have asked that. That's the second time I've been asked that. I've never heard of them before." (Overview 1981)

Interviewer: "Talk Talk Talk has a few noteworthy keyboard parts... 'Dash' on the B-side of 'Dumb Waiters' has a piano melody. Is this a direction for the future keyboards?"

Richard Butler: "We'd like to feature more of a lot of things. I'd like to use cello and twelve string guitar as well, but keyboards will definitely be on the next album, I'd say. We just want to expand the sound. It would be great to have a big band sound on the next one. We'll have to hire session musicians to tour with us next time. Do a Talking Heads!" (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 (on being asked about the direction of the album): "We won't be doing songs as fast as the first album. More melody, and a lot weirder. Also more overdubbing It will be different. It has to be. It would be boring to do the same stuff. I'd like it to be radically different." (Take It! 1981)

Richard Butler: "It didn't used to be that we had what could be called a lead guitarist and a rhythm guitarist, but it's developed that Roger [Morris] likes playing rhythm and John [Ashton] likes lead breaks. They're often playing different parts. That's where the second album differs from the first. There are more melodies going on: keyboard melodies, vocal melodies, guitar melodies." (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)

Interviewer: "You released the first album in 1980, the second, Talk Talk Talk in 1981."

Richard Butler: "We're a one-album-a-year band. CBS wanted us to be a two-album-a-year band, but we didn't feel we were ready for that. We're supposed to do two albums a year for five years - that's how it's written in our contract - we'll be doing it for ten years. They've been good to us. They haven't tried to make us sound more commercial or whatever." (Unknown source, 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." On the second album, I wanted to write about something in particular, and I chose the subject of love. Trying to look at it from different angles." (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 (on Forever Now): "The lyrics tend to be a bit more cohesive and less wildly surrealistic and the last album [Talk Talk Talk] was basically songs about love whereas this one isn't, this one's about... personal freedom?" (Melody Maker 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: "At first, because we were sort of 'underground', the English critics really raved about it, and then as soon as we started getting a bit popular with Talk Talk Talk, they tried to put it down again. They like to build people up and try to knock 'em down. Nobody in the band really gave a [__] anyway. The critics are pretty ineffectual, generally; they're imbeciles for the large part." (Musician 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 [Kilburn] and Roger out of the band and John, Tim [Butler] 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: "'Love My Way' should've been the last track on Talk Talk Talk as on that album I was asking myself what love was all about. The songs were about love as opposed to love songs and I think I answered the questions on that album with 'Love My Way' which is telling people not to worry about the way they love or how they love, it's love that's important." (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 think a lot of the cynicism on the early albums was just me hiding my real feelings. The cynicism was largely a perception. I didn't want to put my own feelings on the line as much as other people's feelings which is easier. At the time, I wanted the songs to reflect my feelings other than performing them." (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)

Interviewer: "Have you encountered any resistance to Mirror Moves from your longtime fans?"

Richard Butler: "Normally. Occasionally, longtime fans will come up and say 'This album isn't as good as the last two. Why have you sold out?' that it can't sound as raw because Tim [Butler] and John [Ashton] have gotten very good as players, and they've gotten very interested in sounds. The first two albums were pretty much live - it was like: walk into the studio, plug in your guitar and go. Tim and John have come a long way as musicians." (Aquarian Arts Weekly 1984)

Richard Butler: "Thinking back, for me some of the best lyrics are on Talk Talk Talk. I couldn't write lyrics as good as Talk Talk Talk again, just because I don't have the inclination to write in that confident style. On that album, you can get a visceral understanding of the song without knowing what it's about." (Artist Magazine 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)

Richard Butler: "I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that the words [on Mirror Moves] aren't as involved as they were on Talk Talk Talk. For me, that was the album where you had to untie this knot and then you found there was another little one down there. There was no end to it almost." (Melody Maker 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)

Richard Butler: "I don't mind writing songs about love – I don't like writing love songs. There's a big difference... most of the Talk Talk Talk album was about love, but they weren't love songs, like 'I love you, baby' – all that kind of [__]. I can't do those." (Audivisse fanzine, 1987)

John Ashton: "My favorite album has always been Talk Talk Talk, (which showed) the kind of vicious side of our sound." (The Indianapolis Star 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)

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 (on being asked what he would like to be remembered for): "I don't know. I think I'd like to make an album that was great enough for people to listen to in 10 years' time and think 'Cor, he was brilliant!' Like you listen to albums now, like Edith Piaf. That it might not be part of the mainstream of pop now doesn't mean it's not long lasting.

"I find I can listen to our early ones, like Talk Talk Talk, than listen to all the albums that were out at the same time that were massively successful where that one wasn't, and I prefer Talk Talk Talk. All the other stuff hasn't aged so well." (Record Mirror 1987)

Richard Butler: "I still feel Talk Talk Talk was a brilliant album that was massively underestimated in its time, and I feel kind of resentful about that. On the other hand, you feel 'How can we get ourselves across?', and that's probably how you get a song like 'Love My Way' coming through." (Rock Express 1987)

Richard Butler: "I don't think what we do is going to fade out tomorrow. I've put a body of work behind me that I like, but yeah, the best is ahead. We still haven't made the record where we can stand back and say, Yeah, that's what we've been on about all these years. That's perfect.

"We've probably come closest to it, that toughness, on Talk Talk Talk and [Midnight To Midnight]. At the moment, it's bits here and there." (Sounds 1987)

John Ashton: "Talk Talk Talk was the high-point of the original Furs. We couldn't go any further. We were misunderstood. So we left England rather disillusioned and found out that America was waiting for us with open arms." (Tampa Bay Times 1987)

John Ashton: "Our second album was more melodious; still retaining that wall of noise or wall of energy — that's what we called it." (Fort Worth Star Telegram 1990)

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)

John Ashton: "We're a bit ambivalent towards the press, especially the British press, as we've been twice damned with records before. It's like when we made Talk Talk Talk, it probably got the worst reviews of any record that we've ever done. And since then now that it's a few years later people are going, 'well, that's a classic album, it's a very important album for its time.'" (B-Side 1991)

Richard Butler (on being asked what he considers The Psychedelic Furs' finest moment): "Hard to say... Talk Talk Talk." (Asbury Park Press 1994)

Richard Butler: "With the second record, we felt like we could be a little more experimental in the studio, which we were." (Billboard 1997)

Richard Butler: "I do remember the songs taking a long time. We were holed up in a studio in north London for months and months trying to come up with those songs." (Billboard 1997)

Richard Butler: "That whole album is anti-relationship and anti-the idea of love and very pro-sex-for-sex's-sake, with 'I Wanna Sleep With You' being the prime example." (Billboard 1997)

Richard Butler: "I listen to [Talk Talk Talk], and I still think it sounds great, and it sounds fresh in a strange way." (Billboard 1997)

John Ashton: "The fiercest we ever sounded on record." (Should God Forget liner notes, 1997)

Richard Butler: "For Talk Talk Talk, I remember playing the Ritz in NY, and we had people queuing round the block to get in, and it was wow! This is for us? It was an incredible feeling. Whereas back in England we'd be playing Newcastle Poly, half full or something." (iJamming! 2001)

Interviewer: "There's a cohesiveness to Talk Talk Talk."

Richard Butler: "For most of the part they're better songs, it's better realized as a sound, and I think the lyrics are better as well." (iJamming! 2001)

Interviewer: "A lot of people see it as their favorite album. With cult groups, fans often love the second album."

Richard Butler: "I think it's our best album. If I had to look back on all the stuff - as I've been forced to recently - I think it's the most solid album. But it's not an album that you can say 'That was our best album, let's go back and do that again.' You can't imitate it, it was so much of its time. But I think it's a great record."

Interviewer: "Was it easy to make?"

Richard Butler: "No! We spent ages in John Henry's [writing and rehearsing]. I think we were in there for months solid, like six months, say from nine to five. We were booked in there daily five-six days a week for six months it seems. Our typical day would be, we'd arrive there around ten or eleven, hopefully not everyone would be there so we could go round to the pub, roll out of the pub when the pubs shut around three, with a few cans, and then work till about six or seven, then go back around the pub." (iJamming! 2001)

Interviewer: "Your voice seemed further back on Talk Talk Talk."

Richard Butler: "I don't know why I wanted it pushed back. I think the reason I would have given to the band and Steve Lillywhite was 'I don't want it to be way out front, I want it to sit in there with the music and be part of the music,' but probably there was a little bit of not being sure of how I was singing either." (iJamming! 2001)

Interviewer: "Is there a way of summing up the three albums, almost like as different children?"

Richard Butler: "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)

Interviewer: "Are the first three your favorite albums?"

Richard Butler: "Yeah, but also the fourth (Mirror Moves), and the seventh (World Outside)." (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler: "I don't know whether we thought [an album] was going to stick around, but I certainly remember with Talk Talk Talk and Forever Now saying 'this is great,' going down to the pub and collaring people and saying 'You've got to come back and listen to our new record,' and sitting people down and playing it to them, and just thinking 'Yeah!.' You can write a song and think, 'Yeah it's great,' but you actually sit somebody concrete down and play it, it's like, 'No, this sucks.' With someone else being there you almost put yourself in their shoes when you listen to it. And sitting people down with Talk Talk Talk and Forever Now, I remember thinking 'Yeah, this is great.'" (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)

Interviewer: "Pretty In Pink: the movie. How do you feel now about the band's participation with this project?"

Tim Butler: "At the time it gave us an opportunity to experiment and try to improve on the song. It also got us out to a much wider audience. It was fun, but those kinds of things can be very risky business." (Ear Candy 2004)

Richard Butler: "It's looking pretty good for 25-years-old. People say it's influential. The record doesn't sound dated. In any given time, there are always different tricks that producers use. Steve Lillywhite thankfully didn't use many of those so it didn't have anything particularly to date it." (NewBeats 2006)

Tim Butler: "We think it's our most complete sounding album. All of the songs and the vibe ... it's the most unified out of all of the albums.

"And it seems to be the album that started to break things for us around the world, so it's sort of a favorite." (CT Post 2010)

Richard Butler: "The highest moment [for the band] would probably be certain times while recording Talk Talk Talk." (Metro Times 2010)

Interviewer: "At the time you were seen as direct competitors to U2 as band 'most likely to'."

Tim Butler: "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)

Interviewer: "So how did the band's sound evolve with Talk Talk Talk?"

Richard Butler: "The first album was certainly the sound of the band as it was at the time, and the second step 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. On the second record, we were free to do more overdubs and edits, because we had gone past a live gig in establishing our sound. We felt comfortable enough to make more of the production."

Tim Butler: "On the first album he wanted an album that was going to be like a live concert, the vibe and energy. And pretty much the same thing with Talk Talk Talk – he was a very hands-off producer. He'd get the sound and leave us to arrange it. We did a couple of warm-up shows at the Marquee before we went into the studio. We had maybe a month or so in rehearsal studios, go there every day and start hanging out at the pub and leave there with a few cans and just jam round ideas. Invariably there were some fights happening. These minor fights, that energy – Talk Talk Talk is my second favorite Furs album, but it's the first favorite for just about everyone else in the band. We're all really proud of it."

Interviewer: "The songs were pretty much prepared before the studio sessions, weren't they?"

Richard Butler: "Yeah, but I'm really lazy with lyrics. The lyrics were probably half-written. Then we came up with ideas. I remember having charts on the walls of what had to be recorded for each song. I would invariably try to leave the vocals to last, because I was writing. At the end of a day Steve would say, 'Oh, we're doing "Pretty In Pink" tomorrow.' So I'd have to go away and make sure I had all the lyrics together." (The Quietus 2010)

Interviewer: "The early Psychedelic Furs were famously a quite quarrelsome entity."

Tim Butler: "The arguments would last five or ten minutes, then it would be smooth sailing. If there weren't arguments about the music we felt that people didn't care enough about it. And it would come out as a lesser piece of music. If you'd just had an argument with someone, when you came to record in the studio, you have something to prove – you play with passion, you play harder. Maybe that's why the album has that energy and a certain amount of aggression. I think those things are healthy in recording. You can rest on your laurels if you're on take number forty – there's nothing better than a fight to get you up for a new take!" (The Quietus 2010)

Interviewer: "Talk Talk Talk was slated at the time by critics. There were objections to sexism in the lyrics – specifically the robust carnal longings of 'Into You Like A Train', and lines like 'I don't want to give you flowers, I just wanna sleep with you'. It always seemed to me that you dealt with sex and romance in a very functional way."

Richard Butler: "That was a little surprising. I didn't find there were any attitudes on there written as a male that couldn't also be felt as a female. If I were to posit the idea that I didn't want to have a romance with somebody, I just wanted to sleep with them, I was accused of sexism? I think that's a fairly commonplace way of thinking for males and females. Not every time a girl has sex does she want to get married and have babies with the person – you know? It seemed a curiously old-fashioned way of looking at it all, and in a way, reverse sexism."

Interviewer: "I liked the brutality and the nihilism about romance throughout the record. It's exceedingly blunt."

Richard Butler: "The idea of romance is a weird, ephemeral idea that's put forward by advertising and religion, I suppose. How realistic it actually is? I wonder." (The Quietus 2010)

Interviewer: "What about the bands that profess their admiration for the Psychedelic Furs? Does Richard hear echoes of Talk Talk Talk in the likes of Interpol, etc?"

Richard Butler: "Bands like the Killers come forward and say they were very influenced by us. Often bands will say it and I don't personally hear it. I'll listen to them and go, nah, they sound more like Joy Division!" (The Quietus 2010)

Interviewer: "I think I'm right in saying that the shows you're about to come and do will be revolving around the Talk Talk Talk album?"

Tim Butler: "Yes, that's right… it's kind of a popular thing to do now, but the idea is to do that on this tour and then on the next tour we'll do the whole of Forever Now, and then the whole of Mirror Moves… I don't know if we'll be able to face doing the same thing for Midnight To Midnight though!" (This Is Not Retro 2010)

Interviewer: "Do you have any particular memories of the making of [Talk Talk Talk]? What was the mood in the camp at that stage?"

Tim Butler: "It was pretty good, I mean we were fresh off some success from the first album. We'd toured over here [in America] and it had taken off and started to do really well here so when we went in to do Talk Talk Talk we were buoyed up by that. We were getting on really well and I think we wrote some of the best songs we've ever written."

Interviewer: "You were a six-piece band when you made Talk Talk Talk, did that make the whole recording process easier or more difficult?"

Tim Butler: "Yeah, it was actually the last time we were a six-piece… but it's less difficult the less people you have. The way we wrote that album was that we had a block of time booked at Nomis Studios in London and we'd start the rehearsal by going to the pub, then go on to the rehearsals, jam around and have arguments about stuff and then go back to the pub at 5.30 before going back for some intoxicated jamming! Which kind of worked because at the time we prided ourselves for building up a kind of wall of melody… but the feel of that was what it was all about, the feel of six people almost competing against each other. Six people who couldn't really play their instruments very well! But it worked and I like to think that that's a classic album, not our only classic album, but I do think it helped shape alternative music…" (This Is Not Retro 2010)

Tim Butler: "It's a very up, aggressive album, which we'd sort of forgotten. We've played songs like 'Pretty In Pink' and certain other numbers from the album through the years, but to do the whole thing back-to-back [for the 30th anniversary tour], it's quite a workout." (The Advocate 2011)

Tim Butler: "It really is a quality album, it still sounds current." (CL Tampa Bay 2011)

Tim Butler: "It really is an aggressive and energetic album. Most people know us for more mid-tempo songs like 'The Ghost In You' or 'Love My Way'; they forget about some of the stuff on this album. It's really a young band's album." (CL Tampa Bay 2011)

Tim Butler (on the climate when Talk Talk Talk was first released): "This was a time when we were still making inroads into what was known as 'alternative music.' The album was No. 1 on college radio, which was a pretty big deal back then." (CL Tampa Bay 2011)

Interviewer: "I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear you're going to be playing this entire record on stage."

Tim Butler: "Is Talk Talk Talk your favorite Furs album?"

Interviewer: "Yeah, I think so... it's your meanest album, and probably the most complete."

Tim Butler: "I beg to differ there... my favorite record is Forever Now; but you're right, it's a mean, energetic album."

Interviewer: "I think it would be a bigger hit, perform better on the charts as a new record today."

Tim Butler: "Yes, I think I'd agree with you on that. When it first came out, there wasn’t that much acceptance of alternative music on the radio… Now, alternative music is all over the place, but back then it was pretty much just on college radio." (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Interviewer: "Talk Talk Talk is such a vigorous record... did you all have to pick up an exercise regimen to prepare for the tour?"

Tim Butler: "(Laughing) No… It's funny you said that, though, because one night last year, after the Talk Talk Talk set, we came offstage and Paul Garisto, our drummer said, 'Wow, this is really a young person's album!' It's deceptive. A lot of the songs I didn’t realize were so fast." (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Interviewer: "What do you recollect about the writing and studio sessions for Talk Talk Talk?"

Tim Butler: "I recollect… going to the pub around the corner from the rehearsal studio about 11 o'clock. We'd get drunk until the pub closed, and we'd grab a six-pack and go to the rehearsal studio and jam. And then at 5:30 when the pub opened, we'd be back there. I remember a lot of fights, a lot of energy and aggression — everybody was trying to get their input in. It just happened to all click." (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Interviewer: "I wore this tape out in high school, and now Talk Talk Talk is in my computer, fresh as a daisy.  It's all very surreal."

Tim Butler: "It's very surreal, to me, to hear it on the radio all these years later. It's surreal to think that people still want to come down to hear it. I think about how old I was when I recorded it — 'What was I thinking when I played that bass line, how did I come up with that?' It is surreal… and kind of scary [laughs]." (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Tim Butler: "When we did the Talk Talk Talk tour this year, we were really surprised at how current these songs sounded. The thing about The Furs is that we never went with any kind of trend. We weren't swayed by the fashion of the time. I think that's why, for the most part, our back catalog could be released today and sound current." (Kentucky.com 2011)

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)

Tim Butler: "When we decided to do the tour with the whole of Talk Talk Talk, I didn't even realize it's actually the 30th anniversary of the release of it. Playing it, it's like it could be released now. It's not dated." (Mountain Xpress 2011)

Tim Butler: "Some of the songs that are in the Talk Talk Talk set [for the 30th anniversary tour], we haven't played since the album came out. It's quite refreshing. It's been more than thirty years since we've done songs like 'I Wanna Sleep With You' and 'So Run Down.' So that stops it from being the usual suspects.

"Although, the usual suspects do show up in the second set." (Musoscribe 2011)

Richard Butler: "I think it sounds great. Productionwise, thanks to Steve Lillywhite, it wasn't locked into any period of time. It sounds like a rock record." (San Francisco Chronicle 2011)

Tim Butler: "We'd forgotten what a sort of aggressive album that was. We've done certain songs over the years, but never the whole thing, and it's quite a daunting album to play for people our age — it's very in-your-face and aggressive, which is cool." (The Daily Gazette 2012)

John Ashton: "We spent a lot of time in the rehearsal studio just jamming stuff out, and that's basically what constituted Talk Talk Talk." (Popdose 2012)

Tim Butler (on being asked if The Furs would replicate an 80s sound or go in a different direction the next time they start recording): "I don't think it was [specifically] 80's; Talk Talk Talk could be released by any band today and it would fit. Like any band, what influences us is what's around us. Musicians are influenced by what is around them at any time; that's what keeps it fresh." (AL.com 2013)

Tim Butler: "'Beautiful chaos' was coined when we started up as five musicians not really knowing how to play or how to write a song you know. It went way back, with that stuff. We all wanted to be heard, and make an impression. It was like five people 'soloing' or something, which was chaos. And we imported 'beautiful chaos.' We learned really quickly by Talk Talk Talk, I think we had learned when to lay back and let something else take the line, right (laughs). (Murfreesboro Pulse 2013)

Tim Butler (on The Furs improving their playing and songwriting on Talk Talk Talk): "By that second album, we learned how to do it right." (Tucson Weekly 2013)

Tim Butler: "I think Richard's favorite [PFurs] album is Talk Talk Talk. That's my second favorite." (Westword 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)

Interviewer: "On your song 'Still,' from [Satellite Paradiso], there is a saxophone during the opening not unlike 'Dumb Waiters' from the Furs' Talk Talk Talk album. How important is the saxophone to your sound as well as that of the early Psychedelic Furs?"

John Ashton: "To me the Psychedelic Furs sound was the two guitars and a saxophone. Roger and I played really well together. He was in the band before I was in the band. I joined on my 21st birthday in 1978. The sound of the Psychedelic Furs, for me, was that classic period of the first two albums. The intertwining of the melodic lines was what defined that sound. So somewhere between the Velvet Underground, a little bit of Roxy Music and the aggression of the punk music we had grown up with like Iggy & the Stooges, MC5, and then later the seedy punk of London in the mid-70s like Sex Pistols, The Damned and all that stuff. We were an amalgam of all those things, and it just came naturally. To me it was the sound that I always missed in the later Furs lineups. We didn't have saxophone in the later lineups. The classic line is the classic lineup. If you take out any of those elements you've messed with the chemistry. I think that was pretty evident on the first two albums. The third album, Forever Now, we took a departure in sound. We added cello. There's a little bit of saxophone. There's not the interplay of guitars that Roger and I had on our first two albums." (Veer Magazine 2015)

John Ashton: "I always encouraged [Satellite Paradiso], the Furs, and other bands to play the songs live before you record them. When you're on the spot, and you have to get from A to B and get through the song, it's good to know what works. That's the best type of pre-production that you can have. The Furs did that with Talk Talk Talk, and it really paid off." (Interview with David Iozzia, 2016)

Tim Butler: "The reason we started to use keyboards at all was that when we were recording the second album, Talk Talk Talk, our saxophonist [Duncan Kilburn] went out to a club, got into a fight, and someone broke his jaw. So because he obviously couldn’t play sax, he just brought a keyboard into the studio and started playing parts. From there the use of the keyboard expanded." (Memphis Flyer 2016)

Tim Butler: "By the time we got to the second and third albums, I think we had learned how to write songs, how to structure them. We were a bit more melodic." (Music-Illuminati 2018)

Tim Butler: "With the second album, there was a bit more talking about the song structures and changing them around and stuff like that." (Music-Illuminati 2018)

Richard Butler: "On Talk Talk Talk we had charts on the wall of songs that needed lyrics, so that was my homework." (Uncut 2018)

Tim Butler: "In England we always faced a lot of bad press – specially around the time of Talk Talk Talk. We were starting to take off over here [in America], so we decided to go where there was the bigger market." (Portsmouth.co.uk 2019)

John Ashton: "Although Talk Talk Talk was a pretty full-on, aggressive album, there are some other songs there that were a little lighter, a little more poppy." (The Quietus 2019)

Interviewer: "The year 2021 is also a big year as well because it will be the 40th anniversary of your second album, Talk Talk Talk. Is there any celebration planned for this special anniversary?"

Tim Butler: "I don't know, I didn't even know it was the 40th anniversary. (Laughs) You've got me thinking now that maybe we should do something. Maybe we'll have to arrange some sort of a birthday party for it."

Interviewer: "(Laughs) It would be something great to see. That is an album that turned a lot of people, especially in the USA, onto The Furs' music."

Tim Butler: "Yea. 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. I think when Talk Talk Talk came out, which I would have to say is my second favorite album, it all started from there.

"I think it was with Talk Talk Talk that we started to know how to write and construct songs properly. 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. With Talk Talk Talk, we learned how to harness each member's best attributes." (Cryptic Rock 2020)

Interviewer: "Now for the mandatory fanboy question: Which '80s Psychedelic Furs album was the most fun to record, and which were you happiest with once it was all finished?"

Richard Butler: "Talk Talk Talk is still my favorite Furs album. But I remember coming back from recording Forever Now and just being thrilled with what Todd Rundgren had managed to do with our sound." (Magnet Magazine 2020)

Tim Butler (on Richard Fortus producing Made Of Rain): "The good thing is, Richard Fortus, who co-produced it with us, was an old-time fan. So he guided us into what was the best part of The Furs and steered us away from what was maybe the worst part! That was really healthy for us, because we were all over the place as to what period of The Furs was the best. Richard [Butler] has always said he thinks Talk Talk Talk was the best and my idea of what was the best was Forever Now. But with this, we got a cross between the two, but brought up to date." (Music Week 2020)

Richard Butler: "Steve Lillywhite had first of all said, 'I never do more than one record with anybody.' Then he did a second record with U2. So, we'd brought him in again for Talk Talk Talk." (Record Collector 2020)

Richard Butler: "Unlike a lot of bands, we hadn't played very many shows before the first album, but once we released that first record we were playing constantly, so we honed our craft to a large degree. I think that's what accounts for the sound of the second record. It was written over a shorter period of time too, and some of the best songs are written very quickly. We had some tunes that didn't have lyrics and I would just be writing them on the way into the studio and putting things off, getting someone to put on another guitar or something, so I had time to write lyrics. But I love both Talk Talk Talk and Forever Now."

Tim Butler: "The whole thing is learning how to write and structure songs with dynamics. For this one, we spent a lot of time in rehearsal studios writing the songs. The cool thing is that before we went to record it we did two nights at the Marquee on Wardour Street to play all those new songs live. Steve came down to listen and to watch the crowd's reaction to certain songs, so he could advise us on what needed changing. With 'All Of This And Nothing', Richard and I went back to our apartment one night after we'd recorded the basic track. We came in the next day and Roger and John had come up with the picking intro part and recorded, which was a game changer for that song." (Uncut 2020)

John Ashton: "We made [The Psychedelic Furs] 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)

John Ashton: "We didn't have a success with ['Pretty In Pink'] or [Talk Talk Talk] immediately, although in America – in England it got panned. It got panned quite seriously by certain journalists." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

John Ashton: "Although we didn't get immediate success in England, in America it just took off." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

Interviewer: "Steve Lillywhite did your first two albums, what did you learn about making records from him?"

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."

Interviewer: "How do you think he helped the band?"

Tim Butler: "Well, the first album, he 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. Then in terms of what went into the second album, he helped us to sort of cut down the amount of guitar overdubs. John liked the idea of going in there and doing five or six different guitar lines and then leave it up to the mix to sort it out. Steve was more into two or three guitar lines, find the part that you like and then play them on one take, because it'll make it a whole lot easier to mix it." (The Collapse Board 2024)

Photo: Peter Noble