Phild] Hi Jo. Most of us at noisefest know about Dean's musical background, can you tell us a little about yours?

Jo) Since leaving Leeds college of music I've been a music therapist in a residential mental hospital, played and sung in various bands, been a session singer and taught music in a primary school.

P] How did you use music to help the mentally disabled?

Jo) I'd try and tune in to how the person was thinking and then use music to broaden their experience a bit: for example, calming them down with some soothing piano music or singing if they were very agitated, livening them up by playing drums if they needed that or improvising together on the piano. Hardly any of the patients had speech, so music was a way of starting some kind of communication and self-expression for them.

P] Which did you find the more rewarding job, the mental hospital or the school?

Jo) I used to teach 3 to 11 year olds so that was constantly rewarding. Children are so enthusiastic about everything. The sound of 200 kids singing a good song well is fantastic. The recorder group could be pretty funky too. When you work with severely handicapped people, as I did , any progress is measured in tiny amounts. Maybe someone will stop making their noise for a minute or smile when they hear a certain sound. Of course you do get the occasional amazing moment which is all the more amazing because of it's rarity.

P] How were your early school days? Were you good students?

Jo) They were fine. I was OK at most things but always best at music.

Dean) Er...No I was a bad student and left when I was about 14...didn't take any exams and bunked off from the middle of the 3rd year onwards until finally not bothering to go in at all. I used to enjoy art but that was it..the rest sucked. Obviously now I can see the merits of school and Rose and Harry are both doing really well and we are very supportive towards their school life..but mine was just a joke really. The school closed down about a year after I left due to it being a waste of space. I got the cane a few times mostly for being a pain in the ass in class and once for bunking..There was a very strict dress code and uniform of which I made every effort to ignore..I once went to school in an Afghan coat covered in Pink Floyd stickers and purple Loons, remember them ? Best forgotten really but at the time they were the anti establishment must have..I got sent home immediately, which was fine by me.

P] Did you have music lessons at primary/secondary school? Did you have a mentor who helped your interest in music develop at a young age?

Jo) Yes, I had piano, violin ,recorder, clarinet and saxophone lessons. My family are all musical so it just seemed normal to me to play instruments, sing in choirs and sing in harmony with the radio. My first saxophone teacher was pretty cool—Alan Melly. He helped me a lot when I started veering off the classical path. He lent me his saxes to try before I got my own and they smelt of cigarettes and nightclubs, which I found exciting.

Dean) No..the music teachers were so fucking lame...I remember one only lasted a week before running away...tut tut. If they were open to what we were into then maybe we'd have listened but they weren't at all..it was all classical this and bollocks that...Not interested..Now of coarse I quite like a bit now and again, nothing wrong with Shostakovich when you're feeling a bit down....

P] Seeing how studies have shown that learning music at school helps students in other subjects especially mathematics, do you think music should be made compulsory or more available in schools?

Jo) Yes of course it should . When I was at the primary school music was compulsory and each class was meant to spend a certain amount of time doing music per week, but when you added in the time they were supposed to spend on the other subjects per week you ended up with more hours than the school actually had!

P] Jo and Dean: what was the first piece of music you could play all the way through on an instrument ?[ excluding three blind mice]

Jo) It was a piano piece called The Little Brook when I was 7. That was the first one to get both hands playing different parts. And don't knock " 3 blind mice". That mid section is quite tricky.

Dean) I think it would be Chop Sticks on the piano that my Mum taught me..I remember thinking how clever I was. I could never get to grips with the piano though, all the keys were so close together and you had to use so many fingers at once...Then I discovered the drums...much more fun.

P] How/when did you first meet each other & why did you decide to start recording together?

Jo) Dean & I met in 1986 when I had just moved to London and his band needed a keyboard player. We were put in touch with each other by mutual friend, the late Dave Plews. After that band folded we remained close friends and I would often add a bit of voice or something to whatever he had cooking at the time. I had found and rearranged some sad folk songs and thought they would sound great if Dean could work on them with me. As luck would have it, he had some free time, so that's how it started. Doing the folk songs gave me more confidence to try more of my own .

P] Is there a regular procedure that you work together with to create a finished track between you?

Jo) What we usually do is I'll work on my own and write a song on the piano then we'll record that while Dean starts working out drums and stuff at the same time. Then he'll work on it on his own for a while, then we'll get together again and make any adjustments that need making. Sometimes Dean will write a whole track for me to write a song to, but it seems to work better the other way round.

Doga] Dean, how does working with Jo differ[if at all] from other collaborations you have been involved in?

Dean) Jo is like family..working with her is very chilled and knowing. She is such an extraordinary musician and vocalist..plus she has an amazing voice it's like a second nature to her. I've always loved her voice and respected her ability to sing the way she does...working with Jo is very serene and open when we're recording and she has a faith and trust in me like no other which makes working with her just special..we're both quite moody in a similar way which makes it fun as we understand each other..it's also very therapeutic for us, makes us both feel better and to me that's everything. The other thing that is very different is that Jo writes most of the music...I embellish, which is a great relief for me as I don't have to come up with the beginnings of a track...it's odd because that's something i'm very fussy about normally but with Jo I know what she will bring will be good..I never question it.

P] I've found the lyrics very touching. I even found some good advice to help my own relationship. Do you think writing about the problems in life are easier than the good parts?

Jo) I think there's a kind of need to write about the bad things in life---to get them out in the open and exorcise them.I don't feel the same need to write about happy stuff. Anyway , my voice doesn't suit happy songs.

P] The lyrics to Green Woodside are very sad and disturbing. Was this based on a true story?

Jo) Green Woodside is a very old traditional song usually called The Cruel Mother and I presume that it is a true story. There have always been unwanted pregnancies that needed dealing with and people have had to keep some very dark secrets . There are other ancient songs about this subject-----The Well Below The Valley being the most horrible. It's about a girl who has been made pregnant by her father, brother and uncle and has either aborted or killed the babies and buried them all over the house and garden.

This kind of thing still happens today. I've read newspaper articles recently about a midwife in Wales who had a baby's body in her attic and some bodies were found in flower pots in some woman's garden.

P] A lot of the lyrics sound very personal. How does it feel to release something so intimate into the public.?

Jo) I've struggled with lyrics over the years and finally found that I can only write about what I know, so i I can't feel weird about it. It's actually very therapeutic.

P] Personaly my favourite track at the moment is Songof the Eel. I ask what your favourite Black Holes track is and why?

Jo) It changes all the time, but today it's Time 4 Us because it's so bleak.

Dean) mine change all the time but Call Me has a special element..as does the most recent new track we did last week..

Doga] Do you have any specific ambitions [commercial or other] that you want to achieve with The Black Holes or do you see it as a generally low key project.

Jo) Some commercial success would be great. I'd love to do some live Holes.

P] Dean said on the forum that he's hoping you will be doing a few low key gigs in London. Would you consider recording one to video so people who can't make it can get a taste of the Black Holes live?

Jo) We would consider that, yes.

P] If you release an album do you think it will be hard to choose what tracks go on it? There are just too many cool tracks on there.

Jo) We have a lot of tracks to choose from so that should make it easier.

P] I have a really cool blues track called Karaoke, why isn't that listed on Dean's site? Do you not like it? How do you decide whether a song is good/suitable enough to release?

Jo) That one just sounded a bit out of place with the others. It was a bit of a throwaway song that I need to work on more. And to answer your last question, If we both like it then it's suitable.

Davemate] Jo and Dean: There are a few collectors at noise-fest [mainly music related, or that's all they're admitting to] Do you guys collect anything or did you? Is there a collection of antique thimbles beneath Dean's bed?

Jo) I used to collect Midwinter china but have stopped now I have enough of it. When I was a kid I collected paper bags and sugar lumps. That sounds a bit odd doesn't it? I've also got 25 tin whistles.

Dean) No thimbles..I don't really collect anything like that, I remember during tours I would start gathering lots of match books from all over but got bored..I suppose the thing that does interest me is drum sounds..I do like adding to my drum banks...I collected the England coins for the world cup 1966 does that count..?

Davemate) would you mind if I borrowed your Black Holes graphic for a new tattoo?

Jo) Go ahead, mate. See if you can use the rotating version.

P] You've been a great help to me getting to sleep and just relaxing in the heatwave we've been having at the moment. What do you like to listen to on a scorching day?

Jo) Humpback whale song or perhaps some Jose Feliciano.

Gavin] Is there any reason for being called The Black Holes or did it just sound right? Who thought it up?

Jo) Dean and I have very similar temperaments [probably because we were born within 2 days of each other] and we do tend to teeter on the edge of the dark side from time to time. The black hole thing is a reference to that-------as a joke really-------but it has other associations as well. Dean and/or Julie thought it up.

P] What was the last album you had trouble prising out of your cd player?

Jo) Fado em mim by Mariza.

P] What would your 3 desert island discs be?

Jo) Oh what a beautiful morning by Ray Charles, Can you hear me? by David Bowie and Mezzanine by Massive Attack

P] If you could collaborate with one musician living or dead, who would it be?

Jo) Can't think of anyone that would be as good as Dean

Q) Is there any chance of you working with Toni again and do you think you will remain in contact?

Dean) We'll always be in contact, it's not a nasty split as we've been through a couple of those and it's not nice, it's more a life change thing you know move on to other things give each other breathing space to work on whatever rather than Just Curve..it's a strain for both of us but Toni more than me ....We are going to do a last tracks recording session at some point in the near future to kind of tie things up and also to see what lurks in the never ending box of dats we've acquired over the years...

Q) What's the aim of that recording session? Are we going to get one last Curve CD?

D) We want to do a last few tracks kind of thing...not enough for an album but as I’ve said we’ll always be in touch and probably do more recording as time goes on...but for now we just want to put it to bed.

Q) If we begged do you think we could have a one off goodbye show? Some of us have never had the chance to see you perform, I for one am sad that Ill never have the chance; I became a fan too late to see Curve on stage.

D) I’m sorry you never got to see us live we did a lot at one stage for a couple of years but it made me go a bit mad. Short sharp blitzs around the main towns are much more fun but I can’t really think what would make Toni want to get back on stage with Curve, so I would say there’s very little chance of it happening...Toni hasn’t wanted to perform or tour with Curve for some years now so I don’t see her changing her mind at any time soon....which is a shame as we are fucking awesome live.

Q) Can you elaborate at all on Toni's decision to call it a day? Was she happy with Curve's more recent material?

D) I think she's just fed up with it and me simple as that...it's not all plain sailing and sometimes people are at different stages in life..when we're on the same track or we have a focused thing to get done we enjoy dealing with it but when you get one to many knock backs you just end up going fuck it...I can't deal with it anymore, leave me alone I want to go to bed, that sort of thing. I think Toni feels that the most recent work wasn't finished or up to scratch but I don't think she hated it or anything...it wouldn't be available if one of us hated it...it's more to do with not having funds to do it properly...You know, record labels and that ol' chestnut.

Q) Will you be steering clear of labels for a while then?

D) Don’t know...Have to see how things pan out ??

Q) Do you think that if you'd produced more poppy tracks like Cold Comfort or more dancey tracks like Answers you could have gained more mainstream success?

D) Maybe...I don't know, we always write pop songs if it happens to turn out a bit more easy on the ear generally we tend to fuck it over so it's got a grating element otherwise it seems wrong...maybe if we turned it all down and took out the "fat' it may have broader appeal, but there seems little point to that...lets leave that to others.

Q) I’ve heard a fair amount of Curve in movies and on television (Top Gear used a fair amount in the last series) do you get any say in who can use your material? I think I asked you this before but what's your favourite use of Curve in TV or film?

D) We clear all the requests, Toni likes Top Gear so we punted for it, seems we got a good play out of it. The mini disc add with Chinese Burn was bling and Spiderman 1 was cool, Curve music fits well with cars and fast motion. I liked the use of On The Wheel in the Doom Generation...Yes more of that please.

Q) Is there any chance of an "Open day at the Hate Fest Volume 2" so we can hear good mastered copies of tracks such as Cold Comfort, Worst Mistake, Some Good Some Bad and Let it Go? Or higher quality MP3's? I could also apply this question to your Dog Lab material.

D) Not sure...We like the fact that they're raw. It would be good to get them all mastered to CD but then again it's cool just to have them available as is, for what they are...outtakes and oddities...but I get you, it would be good to have them on a CD with all the trimmings...same answer re Dog Lab

Q) Is there any more unreleased curve material gathering dust that you'd be happy to release?

D) Have to dig into the box to see what's left. There are a few things I'm sure The Box is a bit buried at the moment but it will be looked into.

Q) Do you think there'll ever be a chance of a DVD of promo videos and live recordings or is all of that tied up in too much red tape?

D) DVD is always an option, it’s down to BMG really, they said they wanted to do one depending on how THE Way Of Curve sold...I think it’s done Ok so they may want to put something together. Thing is we don’t have that much to put on it, none of the shows were ever recorded (DUH !!).... We should have had someone with a camera permanently on but we didn’t so there’s not much point other than to put all the videos and some odd TV stuff which was either a terrible Dome session or an episode of the Beat...Not very much. Which is a fucking drag because had there been someone recording all the stuff that went on in-between everything we could have cut it into something very watch able....OH Well.

Q) How does working without a vocalist effect your output with Headcase and Doglab?

D) It doesn't seem to effect my output at all...I think subconsciously I'm always aware of a voice within the music as I arrange and construct the track...generally the tracks all work with or without a vocal that's the key I would say...

Q) How much time to you devote to writing/recording on an average day, do you try to keep reasonable hours or do you mind yourself working into the early hours? You do seem to produce a large amount of material.

D) Depends I like late recording binges and I like noisy day sessions that only go for a few hours. I would say that rarely a day goes by without some kind of recording or another. I’m still keen. I still love writing and playing. I’m enjoying the new technologies and how things are moving and progressing. Things that used to take weeks to edit can now be done in 2 seconds... It’s editing gone mad !

Q) Are you happier when the music is the result of collaboration, or do you enjoy going solo just as much?

D) I'm happy when it sounds good...how you get there is very much the luck of the day. Collaborations are crucial to me otherwise I end up going insane from not speaking with people...then again I quite enjoy a bit of insanity

Q) Do you foresee any of the collaborations in the Dog Lab becoming more solid, or do you enjoy taking time to work with different people at different times?

D) All and everything and as much as possible, with whoever where ever and with or without 'tea'

Q) Do you have any interest in performing live with any of the people you have been collaborating with?

D) Love playing live...might do some dog lab experience shows maybe go and play with other people, haven't done it for some time, but always open to suggestion and offers...

Q) I think the stuff I heard with you and your daughter sounds great, is there more in the works?

D) Yes...we love writing together, I've was recording her as soon as she could make a sound, I've got lots of mad stuff on tape. We'll always write and record no matter what...more on the way ? Yes as much as possible ! After all she is amazing and very talented....But I would say that wouldn't I.

Rose) Defiantly!! From being very little I've always looked up to my dad and I've always wanted to follow in his footsteps. I couldn't think of anyone better to be working with! ROSE X

Q) I take it you’re a fan of your fathers work then, what are your favourite tracks that he has produced or worked on?

R) There have been so many amazing tracks over the years but I think my favourites would have to be Chinese burn, hell above water and joy.

Q) Is there going to be an album in the not too distant future?

R) Defiantly! we’re trying to get on the case with some more songs but being the typical 15 year old that I am my social life seems to get in the way.

Q) All of your stuff is sonically adventurous, how much of the sound is recorded "as is" and how much added at mixdown? For instance fuzzy bass sounds, recorded fuzzed or recorded clean and dirtied up later? Do you have a sound in mind /find a cool sound and go with it, or record "flat" and experiment later.

D) Everything is recorded 'as is'...I can't deal with the 'We'll sort in the mix' thing. Like fuck you will..NO !! make it sound as you want it straight away no question, always record the sound as you want to hear it...flat is how it sounds...FLAT no I want unflat, as unflat as possible please.

Q) Do you use direct input of guitars much or do you prefer to mic up an amp?

D) Both ways are good whatever works for you... But there's nothing like the rattle of a Vox AC30 or cranked Marshall stack, Ampeg Bass rigs and the like recorded with the best mics in the world going through the best compressors in the world... But I'm not sure my next door neighbours would feel the same. So we crank in other ways. Volume is obviously the best effect ever.

Q) Which guitars or other gear could you not live without?

D) The Fender Jazzmaster guitar..my black music man bass and my mac lappy.

Now a few standard interview fillers:

Q) What's in your CD changer at the moment?

D) Spitfire by the Prods

Q) Who do you most admire in the industry?

D) Brian Eno

Q) What television shows do you enjoy?

D) Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, The Simpson's ,Futurama ,The Osbornes because they are all fucking brilliant.

Q) What's the last book you enjoyed?

D) Porno, Filth and Glue by Irvine Welsh and The Liar by Steven Fry

Lastly I’d like to thank you and Toni for some of the greatest music ever produced, I know I’ll be leaping about the house like a nutter, cuddling on the sofa or blasting it from my car stereo for many years to come, as I’m sure many others will be.

Love from Curve fans the world over

x

Dean) Cheers to you all !!

Interview by Phild with questions from Mark Lopez and Adam Savje. Originally posted on forums at www.curve-online.co.uk