RS: What are some of your favorite basslines, both now and in the past?
Peter Hook: Mine or of other peoples'?
RS: Do both.
Peter Hook: Do both, all right. Well, my favorite basslines – I was
just listening to "Leave Me Alone" by New Order, which is my favorite
New Order song, actually. But my favorite bassline has got to be
"Twenty-Four Hours," closely followed by "She's Lost Control" and
"Love Will Tear Us Apart." I was very, very lucky, in the early days,
to get those wonderful basslines. In New Order, I'd have to say "Age
Of Consent" is probably my favorite bass line, along with "Leave Me
Alone." "Sirens Call" was one of my favorites on the last album.
Other people – bass players are always really weird. I mean, I love
early Jean-Jacques Burnell, from The Strangers; he was my hero. I
aspired to be like him. A lot of the equipment I bought was
Jean-Jacques equipment. I was just watching myself playing on the DVD,
using the Hiwatt amp; I bought the Hiwatt amp because Jean-Jacques had
one. That's funny, isn't it? It does work, doesn't it, when you buy
peoples' equipment. One of my favorite bass players is the girl who
used to play for Motown.
RS: Really?
Peter Hook: Yes, a lot of the Motown bass lines, like "Just My
Imagination," when you listen to the bass on them, it's an amazing
bass guitar. I hate bass guitarists that follow the guitar. I think
they should be drummed out of the bass players' club.
RS: An obsessed fan wanted me to ask you – New Order were rumored
to have worked with Brian Higgins, also known as Xenomania. Did
anything ever come of that?
Peter Hook: Oh yes, we tried that. The guy turned out to be a huge
New Order fan. He was a big Joy Division and New Order fan, Brian
Higgins. He was a nice guy, but his style of production did not work
with New Order. He's a very hands-on writer; he was too hands-on, and
I think he also caught us at a bad time, and it didn't really work.
But I found him to be quite a nice bloke, to be honest. It would have
been an interesting collaboration because he's so poppy, and basically
all the music he makes is for chart success only. There's no depth in
it; they're just all hit singles for Sugababes and Girls Aloud. It
would have been an interesting collaboration actually, but it came to
naught. We worked on five ideas. It would be a wonderful bootleg,
that, wouldn't it? It is somewhere, New Order working with Brian. But
it's a fascinating story. Do you know the story of Brian Higgins?
Peter Hook: Of course, he wrote Cher's "Believe."
Peter Hook: It was funny because he was telling me that he wrote
"Believe" in a Stone Roses style as homage to the Stone Roses. He has
a version of "Believe" in a Stone Roses style, and it was that version
which somebody at Cher's record company heard, and made somebody
rerecord that as the track we all now know and love. How weird is
that? And he made something like three million in a year.
RS: Nice work if you can get it.
Peter Hook: You can say that again.
