RS: What was the inspiration for the "Sunrise" video?
Mick: Oh boy. The inspiration for the "Sunrise" video was to get it played on the channels basically. There was no artistic concept, it was get a few people in the video, make them look nice, make the video nice and sexy and they'll probably play it. That's how it works these days, it's just somehow uncreative, this video age of the tits-and-ass generation- I don't really think it's very helpful to women really. But there's not a lot I can do about it, it just seems to be the trend. I mean ours is lame and tame in comparison to some of the other videos that have girls basically simulating sex inside the video. I might sound old-fashioned but I don't think that's a very good representation of what women I think should be in this century.
RS: I would agree with you on that. Where was the concert video for "You Make Me Feel Brand New" filmed?
Mick: Oh, that was beautiful. That was filmed in Sicily, in Tornina in a Greek ampitheatre there. It was really something, it was a fantastic night I must say and I think we captured that on the film. I don't know if you've visited Europe and been to these places but these old arenas are just magical, there's no other word for it. Just, when you think of the history and the things that have taken place in these places, it has an astonishing atmosphere there. So I was really very happy to record that at that time.
RS: Speaking of videos, I bought your greatest hits DVD and absolutely love it. One of the clubs I work at is a video club and I play several videos off of it. Do you have any funny stories from one of the old videos that you'd like to share?
Mick: I have so many. It usually involved women, I don't know why.
RS: Oh, I have no idea why either.
Mick: So, it might be a little too rude for some of your readers I think. I'm trying to get out of this, can we get out of it?
RS: OK, we'll skip over that then. Of all the Simply Red songs you've sung, is there… I mean does it still feels new every time you sing them?
Mick: Well the ones that we perform on stage and when we come to put together the catalogue of the old songs, I think what would strike people more than anything is how they don't fit in a the time zone. We could rerecord one that was recorded in '85 with the band that I have now that's on that Sicily DVD, and we make it sound like they were both made in 2004, an old song and a new song. It's just in the nature of the style of the song writing and the music that I think is not part of a fashion. When you hear Duran Duran, God bless them, they really do sound like they were made in the 80s, they sound like an 80s band. I think that this timeless stuff that we do and the way that it's recorded as well, because of it's influence from jazz, hat was more of a sort of a timeless sound as opposed to a nostalgic sound. I think that's probably why we've lasted as long as we have.
RS: I notice there seemed to be a definite shift in the Simply Red sound when you added the musician/programmer Gota Yashiki back around the Life album.
Mick: Yes. Well, Gota started with us first on Stars, that was his debut album. The last two albums that I recorded for EastWest, out of Time Warner, I basically gave to Gota and Andy Wright. Andy Wright came up with the the Hall and Oates sample and worked with me on the Fairground song. I wrote the songs and gave them to these two guys to go away and do their interpretations of the songs. So the last two albums, Blue and Love In The Russian Winter, were not really what I would describe as proper Simply Red albums, they were two experiments. Some of the work is very good and I'm still very proud of some of the songs on those records, but they weren't really what I would describe as Simply Red. On the new album Home, there's much more back in the tradition because first of all I was in the room when the song had been developed, which is clearly because I'd written the songs and I was singing on them, and that has impact on how they sound.
RS: Awesome. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the people out there who are reading this?
Mick: I'd say to keep your ears open from now on because we ain't going away, we're going nowhere. The band that I have right now are the best band I've ever had and there's no doubt in my mind, one of the finest bands to ever come out of this country, the lineup as it is now. So we are currently working on new material and planning to rerecord these old songs, and just putting together packages over the new two years of both old and new songs that we think are going to create a lot of interest in a whole new generation of listeners.
