Gary Numan > Quotes

“Time heals nothing, it merely rearranges our memory.”
― Gary Numan

“I took the bass out and played it for the first time. The very first four notes were the four notes of the main ‘Cars’ bass riff. I liked that, so I played four different notes as an answer line, and ‘Cars’ was pretty much done, in less than a minute. Those eight notes are the song, exactly as I played them straight out of the case. A few minutes later, I had the third section of the song done, and about thirty minutes later I had the lyrics. I’ve never written a song more quickly than that. Without doubt that was the most productive few minutes of my entire life.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“The live music industry, the industry that I largely rely on for my living, is in terrible trouble. Industry friends of mine have lost their businesses, many have lost their jobs, venues are closing down and we are all anxious about what the future holds.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“New Zealand was next, and it was a very different experience. Within minutes of arriving at the hotel, someone tried to start a fight with Ced because, according to the man, he was ‘black’. We went out to a club, band and crew, and were chased out by a gang of skinheads. I also saw my first serious anti-Gary Numan demonstrations. People outside the venues with ‘Gary Numan Go Home’ written on a banner, and other things even less polite. They were handing out leaflets supposedly decoding what they read as anti-religious lyrics.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“Packing was a nightmare. You don’t realise how much rubbish you accumulate throughout your life until you have to pack it. I actually found an old MiniMoog synth completely buried under vines that had grown into the attic space of the garage. I thought it had been stolen years before.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“I went into the control room with Mike and noticed a synthesiser on a desk in the corner. It was a MiniMoog. I’d never seen a real synth before, and it was a fascinating machine to look at. Dials and switches from one side to the other, the rear section tipped up like a portable control panel. In many ways it reminded me of the control panel my dad had made for me as a child, except this one looked incredibly high-tech. I’d always associated synths with prog-rock bands like Yes and ELP, and that sort of music had never really been of any interest to me. I’d liked some of what Kraftwerk had done, and really liked some of the things Bowie had done with Brian Eno, but none of it had ever made me think of synths as a way forward for me.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“In many ways, it took me too long to fully understand how different things were for me. For example, the first thing I did was to rent a large holiday caravan at a campsite in Weymouth. As a child we’d gone there every year in my mum and dad’s tiny touring caravan, and I always thought that the really rich people stayed in the bigger vans up the hill. I clearly had a very limited view of what rich and poor truly meant.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“I’ve taken the virus very seriously. I do not think it’s part of a world conspiracy to either control us or kill off the weak. I think it’s a disease that got out of control. I do not think masks are an invasion of my civil liberties – I think they might just save my life, and yours. I absolutely do not want to get sick.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“The entry to these events is hideously embarrassing. You’re picked up and driven to the venue, where you join a queue of cars some distance away. Someone comes to the window, checks who’s in the car and speaks into a radio. At the appropriate time, your car is allowed to move forward to the drop-off point, and you get out to a barrage of cameras. You then walk the red carpet, where photographers shout at you to look this way and that. It feels very much like being a lesser prize on a game-show conveyor belt. If someone more famous turns up, you’re abandoned, or if you turn up and the person ahead is less famous than you, they abandon them. It all feels coldly brutal, and I genuinely don’t like it, but it’s all part and parcel of going to those events.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“During the last UK tour I’d received a message from Jean-Michel Jarre, asking if I would be interested in collaborating with him on a song. He was planning an album of collaborations with people who he thought had been important in electronic music so I was honoured just to be asked. In May he was in Los Angeles on business and came over to the house to talk more about the project. I was a little in awe to be honest. Jean-Michel is a true legend, and hugely successful, but he could not have been nicer. I doubt you could ever meet a more easygoing, charming, entertaining man. He had us absolutely hanging on to his many stories throughout the evening. At one point he was rolling around on the floor with 200lb Wilbur slobbering all over him. He is a lovely human being.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“I’d allowed myself to become very out of touch with the latest technologies. I’d used samples but didn’t really know how sampling worked. I’d used sequencing but, again, didn’t really know how sequencers worked, and so on. Synths had moved on, but those advances had escaped me. My reliance on the PPG, and my reliance on Mike and Ian operating it, had rendered me a technical dimwit. It amazed me how quickly I’d lost touch. It seemed like only yesterday that I was on top of everything and now just a review of a new synth read like a foreign language.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography

“Neither of us had the slightest intention of dancing, but we’d chosen a song for the occasion anyway called ‘Closer’ by Nine Inch Nails. I hadn’t really thought it through properly, because the lyric in the chorus is ‘I want to fuck you like an animal’. My nan was not best pleased.”
― Gary Numan, (R)evolution: The Autobiography