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After 20 years together, the British pop duo has a new album, "Nightbird" - their first original studio offering since Bell learned he was HIV-positive in 1998 - and a U.S. tour, which began with 10 sold-out shows at New York's Irving Plaza in April.
The concerts combine songs from the new disc, old favorites like "Oh L'Amour," "A Little Respect," "Chains of Love" and "Sometimes," and even a cover of Blondie's "Rapture." They still have a flair for the dramatic: Bell opened the set wearing giant angel wings, and later changed into a pair of glittery turquoise short-shorts and nothing else.
But they've also grown up a bit. When they sat down to talk with The Associated Press, it was Bell's 41st birthday; the 44-year-old Clarke, who's also the quiet mastermind behind Yaz and Depeche Mode, is expecting his first child with his wife in September.
AP: What's it like for you guys to tour again?
Bell: It's pretty exciting, selling these places out.
Clarke: The U.K. was pretty much sold out - the tour we did prior to this one. I was kind of surprised. I didn't think anyone would come along. We hadn't played for so long and you sort of lose your confidence. This time around we knew obviously in advance that the dates were sold out, so that was a good feeling.
AP: How do you get back into that mode of performing, especially since your shows are so theatrical?
Bell: That's the thing I've always really enjoyed since I was a kid, putting shows on and going out in the neighborhood. That's the thing I've kind of liked most, until we've been on the road for so long that we wear out, and you just want to go back in the studio. ... I'm just glad to be fit and be doing it, really.
AP: How are you feeling, and how are you managing your health with the tour schedule?
Bell: It's all fine, really. It's not like when I was 25 and I would go out and stay out all night and come in and do the show the next day without sleeping. Those days are gone and over.
AP: You guys named the album "Nightbird" because, Andy, you're an insomniac, is that right?
Bell: Not all the time - just if there's too much going on. Especially if we've got a heavy schedule and stuff, I tend to go over it in my head, pre-planning everything. Even for the shows - I just wonder what I'm going to say between the songs. Just really stupid things.
AP: You think about that?
Bell: I do, yeah. Even though I keep it to a minimum, I wonder what am I going to say after that one? 'Cause not much happens between the shows for inspiration for chitchat. I was thinking maybe we could get a scriptwriter for next time for a few jokes and things. 'Cause he's really good at the jokes (motioning to Clarke) but he won't talk because he's too shy.
AP: Vince, when you guys did "Rapture," the entire place went nuts because you actually opened your mouth and said something. What is it like for you to get that kind of response?
Clarke: It's very embarrassing to do. I do worry about it. I always think I'll get the words muddled up because I'm not used to doing it. It actually makes me appreciate what he does a little bit more - remembering lyrics and stuff.
AP: Who are you finding your fans are now - are they the same people, just 20 years older, too?
Clarke: Some of them are.
Bell: Yeah, it's kind of a mishmash. Depends which night you go. We have clone night - the kind of leather guys. And then we have young night - all the young girls. And then we have Asian night.
Clarke: It just seems to get all mixed up.
AP: How do you think your sound has evolved?
Bell: It's think it's kind of, um - I hate to use the word - but more sophisticated, more mature and smooth.
Clarke: This new album, I really wanted it to sound like a synthesizer record. I didn't want to make sounds that sounded like real instruments. ... I wanted it to sound analog-y and sort of science fiction-y.
AP: Andy, you were working as a butcher when you answered Vince's ad for a singer, is that right?
Bell: No, I did have a part-time job as a teenager working in the meat department, but that was like, five years before.
AP: OK, then let's get this right, because the butcher story is part of the lore.
Bell: No, that was awhile before I met Vince. When I met Vince I was selling ladies' shoes, and taking great pleasure in watching them electrocute themselves from the static on the carpet.
AP: That's just mean.
Bell: I know (smiling).
AP: Vince, he was the 41st person you saw, correct?
Clarke: Yeah, we did auditions all weekend, and we had lots of people coming along and Andy came along right at the end. Myself and the producers, we were completely fed up with it - two days, we didn't hear anybody interesting.
AP: What was it about Andy that worked?
Clarke: Well, we gave everybody two songs to learn and to sing in about five minutes. It was just Andy's interpretations of those songs. He seemed to get them straight away, showed the right kind of emotion in the singing.
Bell: I was a huge Vince fan anyway. I loved Yaz, yeah, I really loved Yaz and I rehearsed to the records all the time, so maybe I had that kind of intonation already.
AP: Where did the outrageous costumes come from?
Bell: I think on our very first or second tour, we had nothing, and I went 'round Kensington Market the day before the show. And I picked up some rubber leotard sort of things, which were a hit. And from then on they've just gotten more and more involved, more elaborate as the shows got bigger.
AP: Andy, you came out at a time and place that wasn't terribly tolerant toward homosexuality. What was that like?
Bell: We had people doing interviews and asking which type of girls do you like and all these kind of things, and I just hadn't been out with a girl. ... And at that time, there was a very kind of quiet political gay movement within pop in the U.K. which - I had kind of gotten the tail end of it - with Bronski Beat, and they were The Communards later on. And then there had been Frankie Goes to Hollywood about five years before we'd met each other, maybe three years. It was a huge thing being a teenager, or being in your early 20s, living in London having moved from your hometown to join a band and being gay, as well, and I just got swept along with the whole thing. ... I met (musician and activist) Tom Robinson and I said to him, "How do you come out in music? How do you do it, what do you do?" I thought maybe you had to sign a piece of paper. He just said, "Wear a badge."
AP: But then you wrote songs like "Hideaway" which express that.
Bell: We decided purposely to write those songs at the time. But I had a great ally in Vince. A lot of people might have said, "Oh, bloody poof. I don't want to work with him," or something.
AP: You were diagnosed with HIV seven years ago. Do you mind talking about it?
Bell: No, I don't mind talking about it at all. That's almost like a second coming-out, as well. I was on a bit of a self-destructive pattern in 1998 and then I had pneumonia, so I found out from then. And it wasn't a great surprise to me because I'd been kind of trolling around everywhere, you know? It took a while because in the U.K. probably about 15 years ago - I'm sure it was the same here, as well - there was quite a witch hunt going on if you had AIDS. Like the Freddie Mercury thing - it was like, it was this gay disease at the time. So I was a bit scared, I was a bit nervous. Once I told my family - I told them about three years ago because they were going to be printing these stories in the newspaper - so then I thought, I just wanted it to be out in the open, 'cause I just don't like keeping things away from the public.
AP: What sort of response have you gotten from people?
Bell: It's been pretty fine, pretty good. Going out, there's always people with the same - who are HIV as well - who come up to you and just tell you what it's like for them. And that's part of the reason for doing what I did.
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