Pet Shop Boys still sound sweet

Apr 6 2009 By Andy Welch

Pet Shop Boys have recently brought out their new album, Yes. We talk to the evergreen pop duo about their music, working with Girls Aloud hitmakers Xenomania and their recent Brit award for Outstanding Contribution To Music.

"Well we've spent our time trying to avoid fame, so we find it a bit puzzling when people now crave it," explains Chris Lowe, one half of the duo.

"In the 80s when we were starting out, artists tried to shun all of those things so it's always a bit of a shock to the system seeing people trying to court notoriety. That's the way the world kind of is now, people want to live very public lives, everyone posts on the internet, but we come from a more private tradition.

"You know, being attractive in pop music has never been a disadvantage," he adds, turning conversation toward current single Love Etc.

"But as Neil says so rightly in the lyrics 'You don't have to be beautiful but it helps'."

Written with Xenomania, the hit-makers behind Girls Aloud's continuing success, the song perfectly displays the production outfit's innovative techniques and Pet Shop Boys' own classic pop sensibilities.

"We approached Xenomania because we like what they've done and also because we thought their production style would suit the songs we'd written," says Neil Tennant.

"We work in electro pop and so do they to a large extent. We just wanted someone to help us refresh the sound and they were perfect.

"We wrote Love Etc with them, and it was an interesting process. They wrote some backing tracks, we wrote over the top of them and this one we liked immediately. As soon as we started, we thought 'This is it'.

"I think the message of the song is very suitable for the current economic climate," he adds, "although that's a coincidence. It's giving the age-old message of all you need is love, it's saying we live in this culture where everybody emphasises celebrity and money and wealth and really those things aren't what make people happy. Love and affection and friendship and engaging with things make you happy."

Presumably winning a Brit award for Outstanding Contribution To Music also makes Pet Shop Boys happy.

"Yes, it was really nice, really good," says Chris, smiling.

"They did check that we would actually turn up before they pitched it to us, but it was an honour and it was nice to be there and feel part of the whole thing. Doing a medley of songs for nine-and-a-half minutes and to put on a big show was a great occasion."

Don't expect the duo to get hung up reminiscing about their glorious career, however.

"I don't think we think about our contribution to pop. I'm not sure anyone does, maybe Paul McCartney, but I think most people are thinking about what they do at the moment and a lot of artists don't like dwelling on the past too much because they're working on the present," Chris says.

"That's true of painters and filmmakers as much as anyone else too, so we probably don't think about the past too much."

It would be easy for them to rest on their laurels, but the pair much prefers to talk about their new album, Yes.

"It's a pop album and we wanted a title that expressed that positivity that you get with great pop, uplifting euphoria," Chris says.

"I think it's a very enjoyable record, we can see the reactions," adds Neil.

"We've played it to a lot of journalists and while you can tell some are just going through the motions, some are really enthusiastic and energised, and we've had a lot of that.

"We've made a really enjoyable record that's very super-melodic, very beautifully produced, and it's got a kind of freshness about pop music that you don't always get these days.

"The funny thing about us is we've been doing this for years and when you hear our songs we're not remotely cynical, there's a freshness and a romanticism about Yes which is very important to us.

"There is nothing really very political on the album either," adds Neil, a comment that might disappoint fans of the cutting social commentary that has appeared in his song lyrics over the years.

"There is B-side of Love Etc called We're All Criminals Now and it's about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, surveillance cameras and how, when you go to the US you have to give your fingerprints like a common criminal.

"We're all treated like that, but yet it ends up with someone innocent getting shot. We feel very strongly about that," he says.

"I think technology has to be a servant to us not the other way around, I think governments often don't understand technology too well."

And with that, we're back to posting on the internet. It seems social networking isn't high on either Pet Shop Boy's list of things to do.

"A pub bore is now a blogger," says Neil.

"There are a lot of good things on the internet, but I think people who live their lives through Facebook live their lives in a very public way. I wonder if the idea of privacy is dying."

"We were going to start our own site called Ranters," concludes Chris.

"We're not Twitterers, we're ranters. You could get in at 12 o'clock when you're drunk and have a good rant before you go to bed. Perfect."

Pet Shop Boys - Extra Time

Chris, 49, hails from Blackpool, Lancashire, while Neil, 54, was born in North Shields, Tyne And Wear.

After working in the London office of Marvel Comics, editing British versions of comics such as Spider-Man and X-Men, Neil went on to become deputy editor of Smash Hits magazine.

Chris and Neil met for the first time in a hi-fi shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, London. They realised they had a shared interest in dance music, and quickly began writing their own music.

Their 1987 single Always On My Mind, a cover of the Elvis classic, beat The Pogues Fairytale Of New York to the coveted Christmas No 1 spot.

The current album falls into their tradition of one-word album titles, which include Please, Very, Actually, Behaviour and Fundamental.

"It is the shortest album title we've had, just three letters," Chris says. "We're slowly getting it down."