Mike Mettler | Nov 4, 2022
Source: https://www.analogplanet.com/content/jim-kerr-simple-minds-gets-directly-heart-vinyl-matter
im Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds, is one of us. As a kid growing up in Glasgow, Scotland in the early 1970s, collecting vinyl was of paramount importance, and he got himself a day job just so he could buy records and go see concerts. (Sound familiar?)
Fast-forward to the present day, where Kerr and his megaplatinum-selling band Simple Minds have just released their 18th studio album, Direction of the Heart, via BMG on 180g black vinyl that was manufactured in Poland. (Orange and silver LP variants are also available, for those so inclined.)
Direction marries the best sonics and songwriting intentions of the band’s high-profile 1980s recordings with modern-day sensibilities. “That’s the ideal — and it sounds like it’s an obvious ideal, but it’s never easy to do,” Kerr allows. “However, I think we’re pretty darn near it here, because the past is the past. You can’t go back. Recently, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84 [which was originally released on LP in September 1982] by playing it in its entirety at the last gig of our tour [at Summer Sessions in Edinburgh, Scotland, on August 13]. So we cango back to playing that record while knowing that you can’t completely go back — but you can evoke, and you can connect that kind of feeling we had when we were 19, and 20. But it would be like trying to build the Brooklyn Bridge again now.”
That said, Kerr prefers to look ahead, artistically speaking. “It’s a different world,” he agrees. “There are different materials. There are different people. We know too much, almost — and I don’t say that in a bad way. There’s an idealism that comes into it, and I think if we can conjure up the essence of those early art-rock days — but do it with more focused songwriting that comes through experience — and then get that all together on an album, it’s not a bad combination.”
Not in the least. To delve into all that conjuring and more. Kerr, 63, and I got onto Zoom together across the Pond to discuss how important buying vinyl was (and still is) to both him and his Simple Minds songwriting partner, guitarist Charlie Burchill, why it was crucial to shape Direction of the Heartspecifically as a two-sided record, and how important an influence David Bowie albums remain as part of his creative life to this day. I opened up and I was able to see / The vision thing, you got the vision thing. . .
Mike Mettler: I’ve long felt like Simple Minds have fully embraced vinyl throughout your 40-plus-year career. How important has the vinyl resurgence been to you as an artist and a listener? How do you feel about it?
Jim Kerr: Well, first of all, initially, it’s just mind-blowing. And there’s a great story you’ve probably heard — I dunno how many years ago this would be now, but Sony wanted rid of one of the main vinyl pressing plants in Holland [Haarlem, since renamed Record Industry]. And this kid [Ton Vermeulen] who was just pressing up vinyls for DJs, he took it off them for a song. They wanted rid of it, and they just gave it to him! And now, they’d move the earth to get it back! (laughs heartily) I mean, who could have foreseen that?
But embracing vinyl — t’s been an amazing thing. For me, even just the culture of it — the culture of not only the putting the needle on, but the artwork, the whole thing. Walking around with your own [vinyl] billboards, seeing who you wear. It was how you cut your cloth, what tribe you were part of, and all that culture. Thank God there are still remnants of that — and growing remnants. New remnants.
Mettler: Speaking of new vinyl, let’s get into Direction of the Heart, which runs for a nice 40ish minutes. Were you thinking of sequencing it for two sides, right from the start? What was the thought process when you guys started on it?
Kerr: It’s just inherent. I mean, that whole CD thing of 13 tracks — first off, no one’s got 13 good tracks. Forget it! It’s like, if you give me 13 tracks, my heart sinks. It’s more like, “Give me your best three.” You know? “Give me your best two sides.”
We still see it as roughly 43, 44 minutes — if you get there. I mean, I would have it at 37, 38 [minutes], but people feel like they’ve been ripped off. That’s just the same as adding to the seven days in a week. No one’s going to convince me any different. They might try and change it, but . . . (laughs)
Mettler: Well, only The Beatles are allowed eight days a week. Everybody else — probably not. Only them.
Kerr: (laughs) Okay. That’s the only one. Only they can get away with it. But that album length, it’s just inherent. There’s something about it. Listen, I even feel it in podcasts. A lot of podcasts are 42 minutes, 45 minutes. Enough’s enough.
Mettler: Yeah, you should know when to not overstay your welcome. When it came to the recording process, I know this is a bit of a lockdown record, but were you and Charlie [Burchill] able to be in the same studio together, and everybody else kind of came in remotely, so to speak? How did you guys do that?
Kerr: That was one of the real positives about it. Because we were locked down, and because there was nothing else able to go on, Charlie and I not only did get in the room together — we were the only ones in the room! It’s fortunate that we get on. Because it was just us for a lot of it. Towards the end, we augmented stuff, but for the longest part of it — the biggest part of it — it was the two of us. That’s how we started the band — it was the two of us.
There was nothing else going on — no distractions. There was a real commitment there I’d like to think is perceivable in the music. We got really, really into it. And it gave us a chance to not just go with the first thing, but to kick the tires a bit. Things would be sounding real good, and it would be like, “That’s done. That’s done.” Then we’d go back two weeks later: “That’s not done. Let’s go again.”
Again, one of the things coming out of that thing was that while the whole world ground to a halt, we found a way of at least keeping the creativity going.
Mettler: Was there any one track that you didn’t have to mess with too much, one that just kind of fell into place easily?
Kerr: The opening track, “Vision Thing,” just felt right. It just felt like, this is what the record’s all about. It really did. And from the opening chords, it’s like, “Yeah, this is where we want to be.”
Kerr: The song’s a celebration of life — essentially, my dad’s life. He passed during the record [being made]. But that’s in a real sweet spot, because we’re playing it live just now, playing at festivals. A majority of the audience don’t know it and certainly don’t know what it’s about, but they’re jumping up and down because it’s a real joyous journey. In amongst the chords, there’s an obvious sentimentality due to the subject matter. I think that’s a sweet spot between joy and sadness, between darkness and light — all that stuff. If you can get in there, it’s a good place to be.
Mettler: There is a signature feel going on with it, for sure. Another track I’d like to get more into is “Solstice Kiss,” and the way it starts out — I almost feel like it’s a not-too-distant cousin of “Belfast Child” [a linchpin track from Simple Minds’ May 1989 album, Street Fighting Years], in a way. Was that intentional? Did you want to have that connection point sonically?
Kerr: That’s bang-on, yes. That’s one of the songs written by our bass player, Ged Grimes — well, the music anyway. And Ged has this connection to Celtic music. He does a lot of music in the game world, and he worked on a couple of things recently that were using the very best Celtic musicians.
He came up with this tune, and at the start, there was this whistle thing that was very reminiscent of “Belfast Child” that we thought, when we heard it, “You know what? Elaborate on it.” So, there’s a little “Stairway to Heaven” at the start (chuckles), but then it comes in with the suitable bombast.
And by the very name “Solstice Kiss” — it’s ethereal, and you can very much feel the skies. I guess the title itself made me wanna write about that, or that kind of romance. I could feel all those pictures in the music.
Mettler: I can see that, literally. It’s a beautiful thing. As to the vocalizations on the record, I feel like there’s a lot of interesting, layered vocal choices — again, something I feel like is a hallmark of yours. When we hear another voice, whether it’s male or female — and I believe Sarah Brown is your female vocalist. . .
Kerr: (interjects) Sarah is amazing, yes!
Mettler: No pressure to obviously match your previous work because in the ’80s, you had the great voice of Robin Clark’s along with you. That helped thread the needle of the sound you wanted for this record, I think.
Kerr: Well, it’s great that you mentioned that — going back to the ’80s, and those records we did with Robin Clark. At the time, of course, Jimmy Iovine was producing that album, [October 1985’s] Once Upon a Time. I would have a loose notion of something, and he would say, “Just go for it! What is it you’re trying to do here?” I’d say, “Well, we’re trying to get this sound — I remember seeing this singer that did the Bowie thing” [i.e., Clark sang backing vocals on March 1975’s Young Americans]. Jimmy said, “Why don’t we get her, then?” “Ok, great! Could we get her?” “Yeah, we can get her!” And she would come in, and it’d be great.
[MM adds: Just cue up tracks like “Sanctify Yourself,” “All the Things She Said,” and “Alive and Kicking” to see/hear exactly what we mean!]
Record Industry Spain 