Behind the Songs: Heartbeat

John Ashton: "Most of the [songs on Mirror Moves] aren't love songs at all. 'Heaven' is about nuclear war, 'Here Come Cowboys' and 'Highwire Days' are political, 'Heartbeat' is about life in the city, specifically about some people we know." (The Morning Call 1984)

Richard Butler: "When I write things I tend to like them very structured and not off-the-wall. I like this to be happening here, and that there, and everything to flow very smoothly. Without the edge that John adds, I think I'd end up hating my own songs. Also, a lot of the best songs tend to come off these weird riffs that John comes up with. They're not quite what you'd expect and so I tend to react to them differently vocally.

"Like 'Heartbeat', which is one of my favorite songs now. That was like a rock song and I just couldn't get along with it at all. But John did all these things to it, tweaked it about, and at the last moment I twigged and stuck a vocal on it. It was done the day before [Mirror Moves] was due to be taken and mastered actually... I always leave the vocals to the last minute anyway, but on this one I had to stick it down in two takes, and then John came up with an idea for the horn parts which we slapped on, and then it was gone!" (One Two Testing 1986)

Richard Butler (on being asked if The Furs or the record company were behind the remixes of "Heartbeat"): "We did the remixes. John actually mixed the remixes with Keith Forsey. I like the remixes. It's one of my favorite things he's ever done, I think. It's just like a different direction." (Radio Luxembourg 1987)

Richard Butler: "It was really funny the way ['Heaven'] worked out. We were a song short for the album Mirror Moves. The lyric was originally written for 'Heartbeat', but seemed to fit 'Heaven' much better." (Melody Maker 1988)

Richard Butler (on the New York Remix of "Heartbeat"): "I had very little to do with that. It was so unusual to hear something like this coming from this band—there was a lot of cries of 'how dare they?', but that was the reason we did it, to irritate slightly. We just wanted to try something different." (Interchords 1980s)

Interviewer: "When you did things like 'Heartbeat' which was kind of a dance record – which, great song by the way – how was the reaction to that? Obviously it was a smash hit for you guys, but did you get people calling, oh, it was a change of form [inaudible]?"

Richard Butler: "Not really. I mean, John did the dance mix of it. I wasn't even aware that he was doing it until he played it to me and I thought, oh that sounds great."

Interviewer: "John did it himself? Cause that dance remix was kicking."

Richard Butler: "Yeah, he did it with Keith Forsey but the ideas were his."

Interviewer: "Right."

Richard Butler: "Yeah, I liked it. It didn't bother me what people would say about that. Cause we'd always kind of [inaudible] dance clubs we'd always gone down pretty well. And we'd done it before as well, we did a song called 'Aeroplane' with Todd Rundgren."

Interviewer: "Which was the back of 'Love My Way'."

Richard Butler: "Yeah which is a very dance [inaudible] it didn't feel like we were kinda copping out in a way."

Interviewer: "No, there was no way at all. I mean the thing was... 'Aeroplane' was hard, too. It's very hard to approach [inaudible]. Do you remember that 'Heartbeat' started off a beat? The dance mix [inaudible]."

Richard Butler: "Oh yeah, we did that on purpose!"

Interviewer: "You did that on purpose?! Cause it was hard for people to mix it and they started at 'doo doo doo' and then it would go to the music and it'd be like off a beat."

Richard Butler: "Yeah."

Interviewer: "You did that to screw up DJs? That's great! [Laughs] That's hilarious! That was definitely on purpose?"

Richard Butler: "Oh yeah."

Interviewer: "Ah, that's wonderful. Was that yours or John's idea? Or is it just...?

Richard Butler: "Oh, I forget how that came up. I think, actually, that might have been Keith Forsey's idea to do that."

Interviewer: "Cause, it's funny." (Radio interview with Matt Pinfield, 1991)

John Ashton: "I wrote the music. Richard wrote the lyrics. Ed Buller felt we should change the chorus—he was right. Mars Williams came up with this really whacked intro. Live, it only worked if you paid attention to Paul [Garisto] counting in the actual song, not Mars. Also, Paul being the drummer always had a handle on the situation and saved our bacon many a night." (Should God Forget liner notes, 1997)

Tim Butler (on the NY Mix): "That did really well in dance clubs, but it was a bit of a departure from what we were used to. Keith said, 'I want to do a dance remix of this.' And we said, 'A what? Dancing what's that?' 'Oh, it's a cross between disco and pop, you jump up and down and then do the odd John Travolta move.' And he played us some dance remixes and then we said, 'Go for it.' It's amazing what you can do when you use drum machines." (Goldmine 1998)

Interviewer: "If you and Richard ever have an argument, what's it usually about?"

Tim Butler: "Hmmm..."

Interviewer: "Girls?"

Tim Butler: "No... how a song should sound like, or which song is good or not."

Interviewer: "As in, 'This is crud, I refuse to play it'?"

Tim Butler: "No, there's been instances where we'd have to cajole Richard for weeks, convince him that a tune is good... and finally, when it's been recorded and mixed, he'd turn around and say, 'That's really good.'

"A case in point is 'Heartbeat,' from Mirror Moves. Richard didn't like it, but we'd carry on in the studio after he'd gone, we'd change it around and add or subtract bits. One day, Keith Forsey played it back to him, and Richard said, 'What’s that?' 'Oh, this was the one you didn't like.'" (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Tim Butler: "We did a remix with [Keith Forsey] of 'Heartbeat' off of Mirror Moves. We were in the studio when he did it, and it was fascinating. He did it in one-minute sections. That is a good remix -- the New York mix of 'Heartbeat.' I'm not really a huge fan of remixes and dance floor stuff when it came in the '80s, but I know New Order picked up on it and ran." (Westword 2013)