Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Behind the Albums: Love Spit Love


A selection of quotes from Love Spit Love on their eponymous debut, released in 1994.


Richard Butler: "The response I've gotten from Furs fans has been great. You know, 'I was (ticked off) when I heard the Furs had broken up, but I really like this record' seems to be the consensus." (Los Angeles Times 1994)


Richard Butler: "The concerns that seem clearest to me on this album are the passage of time, not having a faith to believe in and not believing in the myth of romantic love. I believe in love, I just don't believe it lasts very long." (Press Of Atlantic City 1994)


Richard Butler: "There are songs of hope on this record. I think 'Green' is a hopeful song. 'More' is an optimistic song." (Press Of Atlantic City 1994)


Richard Butler: "I love the way [producer Dave Jerden] made Jane's Addiction sound, and what he did with Alice In Chains. I like the sound of those records. Then when I met him and he was talking about how he'd worked with [Brian] Eno... I really liked his ideas, and it turned out that the way he envisioned [our] record sounding was exactly the same as I'd heard it. Plus, he makes guitars sound great, and that really attracted me as well.
"Recording can get really boring, and the only reason it didn't this time was because of Dave sticking in his two cents' worth, so we were arguing with him all the time." (Unknown source, 1994?)


Richard Butler: "It's very difficult to pin exactly what's different on the album, because I was and still am the same person. I'm kind of a pop writer in some ways, but I'm not going to go out and make a Spice Girls record.
"I'm more pop in terms of the Rolling Stones, bands like them. Richard Fortus can sit down and say, 'Hey, I've got these four ideas, what do you think?' Maybe one of those will immediately suggest a melody, and I'll just start singing along with it, and then start writing words. And that's exactly the way it was with the Psychedelic Furs. I would say the real difference is Richard Fortus, more importantly than anything else." (Unknown source, 1990s?)


Tim Butler (on the reason why The Psychedelic Furs took a hiatus): "We had grown tired of the record/rehearse/tour/write/rehearse/record/rehearse/ tour treadmill. And we felt we needed a break from it and from one another, although I did continue writing with Richard [Butler] for, and played on, the first Love Spit Love album." (Ear Candy 2004)


Richard Butler: "I was going to do a solo record. I left the Furs, put the Furs on hiatus or whatever for awhile, and started making a record. But it was much more band sounding, and I was working with a guitarist. During the process of making it, it became a band rather than [a] solo record. It never came out, the solo record. And it shouldn't have, because it didn't sound like a solo record. That evolved into Love Spit Love." (Chronogram 2006)


Tim Butler: "There was a time, after the first Love Spit Love album–I didn't do the second one, or tour with them–I actually went to audio engineering school. Then I went and worked as an audio engineer at Electric Lady Studios in New York, at Jimi Hendrix's studio that he built. So, I was in the music business, but I was on the other side of the glass, in the control room. (Creative Pinellas 2016)


Tim Butler (on working with Love Spit Love): "That was a nice break. I did the first Love Spit Love album, then I left the band and had my own band in New York for a few years, which didn't go anywhere. The whole Love Spit Love thing was a nice experience. I never toured with them because I had my own band. Writing with Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer was great." (Cryptic Rock 2020)


Richard Butler (on the time when The Psychedelic Furs broke up): "It was time to go in and make another record, and I just realised I wasn't excited about it. I felt as if I already knew what it would sound like. We didn't want to do that again. And so, we just… quit. At that point it wasn't meant to be a hiatus, it was simply 'I quit!'
"I went on to make two Love Spit Love albums and a solo one." (Record Collector 2020)


Photo: Michael Halsband


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