For years, Andy Bell of Erasure has been drawn to women of a certain age. “Women like Catherine Deneuve or Deborah Harry have this innate royalness about them, this sense of fully being,” he said. “I’ve always admired that.”
Imagine his joy, then, when, upon turning 60 last year, he began to feel that way about himself. “It’s almost like seeing yourself from the outside and appreciating who you are,” Bell said by video call from his vacation home in Majorca, Spain. “How lovely to feel that way!”
The feeling gave Bell so much confidence, it helped inspire him to release his first solo album outside of his hit band in 15 years. Titled “Ten Crowns,” after the Tarot card that signifies finding balance in your life, the album extends Bell’s legacy of making effervescent dance music, but with a twist. Instead of working with Vince Clarke, his usual partner in Erasure, he paired with the songwriter, producer and remixer Dave Audé. “It did feel a bit like cheating,” Bell said with a laugh.
The prime subject of the songs — love — echoes the theme of Erasure’s classic synth-pop hits of the ’80s like “Oh, L’Amour” and “Chains of Love.” (The band will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year.) As usual, the new songs sharply contrast ecstatic music with yearning lyrics. “For me, love is an unreachable destination,” Bell said. “To love someone unconditionally is almost an impossible task.”
It’s far easier, he finds, to love the things that make up his list of 10 essential inspirations. Interestingly, none have anything to do with music. Instead, they show a heightened sense of the visual world though, to Bell, they’re intimately related. “I definitely see things as sounds,” he said. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Anything 3-D
I love that illusion. It brings you to a place where reality meets fantasy. I think my interest stems from when I first saw Andy Warhol’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” with Joe Dallesandro. What’s not to like?
Expo Steam
It’s the U.K.’s biggest steam fair, with traditional fairground rides all powered by steam. It’s an overstimulated experience with the steam billowing out and the pumps and pistons going backward and forwards, which is quite phallic! Vincent and I should do a steam tour with his music programmed onto billowing, cutout sheets!
Gemstones
They can be cut or uncut. I love the refraction of light in them and how you can take a stone, or a piece of rock, from the earth and make it into something incredibly beautiful.
Freshly Cut Grass
My mum was a huge gardner and I loved the smell when the grass had just been cut. She also had this rhubarb patch where the leaves would grow so massive I could go and hide under them as a child. These simple things are somehow the most important.
Fractured Rainbows
The place we live in Spain is in a valley surrounded by craggy pink quartz mountains, so sometimes it rains on one side of the house and is sunny on the other side. It creates all kinds of crazy shaped, quarter-sized rainbows at varying angles tipped on their sides. It’s almost like you’re living inside a kaleidoscope!
Psychic Abilities
I’ve been to readings where I just walked into a shop and this lady would go into a trance and tell me all this information off the top of her head. I think, “How does she know all that?” There are definitely charlatans out there, but there’s also another dimension that some people are attuned to.
Pig Farms
There was one at the end of the road where I grew up and, boy did I love that smell. I think during Covid I lost a bit of my sense of smell, so maybe that’s why I’m yearning for it now.
Snails
When I was a kid walking in a field, I would see all these tiny snails and pick them up. There was such a variety of them — blue ones and pink ones, almost like seashells. I was fascinated by their shape. Then, one time on a tour in South America I saw that they sell snail slime cream. It’s made of the mucus of the snail, but it’s quite good for your face!
Tarot Decks
I love the symbology within each of the cards. The decks can be so different, but they’re consistent in representation. The cards are like Rorschach tests. It’s about what you see in them.
Christmas Toys
There were six of us children to buy for, so we had to take turns getting the more expensive presents. No guns or toy soldiers allowed, only art, puppets and craft materials and, of course, musical instruments. I had a Bontempi organ that was really lovely. I could play hymns and carols on it. I also loved getting marionettes. They come from the theatrical world. The art of enacting things, that’s the connecting point for all of this.
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