Wrap Yourself In The Furs

Despite his glamorous, world-weary image, his foreboding and forbidding lyrics and his nasty rasp of a voice, singer Richard Butler, of the legendary Psychedelic Furs, is warm and hospitable in conversation. He greets me like a long-lost friend (okay, we did once hang out at a gallery showing his haunting paintings), laughs easily, answers all questions with ease, not to mention a writer's attention to detail.

"Touring is much easier now than when we began in the '80s," says Butler, still betraying the accent of his native Surrey, England. "When we started recording for Columbia, there'd be an album every year, followed by a huge tour. Next year you'd do the whole thing over again. Until you felt like a mouse on one of those exercise wheels. Now, when I feel like playing, I call my managers and they book us for a month or so, here or in Europe. I like it so much more now."

Chances are, your opinion of The Furs (who play the Fairfield Theatre Company, June 6th) hasn't changed from those early days. Simply one of a handful of essential English bands, once categorized as New Wave, but who now seem timeless, The Psychedelic Furs play a hip, streetwise rock, with trace elements of Lou Reed's jaundiced eye, gorgeous Britrock melodies and a sense of unease beneath their songs that can black out the sun instantly.

You know the most famous tunes: "The Ghost In You," "Heartbreak Beat," "Heaven" and "Pretty In Pink," as despairing a portrait of a loose and lost girl as anything Mr. Dylan ever dreamed up.

Contemporary giants have taken notice.

There are those Killers, for instance.

"Yes, I think they're fans of ours," says Butler with typical English understatement. "When they did The Hollywood Bowl, they had sample of "Pretty In Pink" they were going to play, and then, as it got going, they suggested we come out and play the song with them."

Geeky fan that I am, I ask Butler if everybody at The Bowl went crazy upon seeing The Furs in the flesh.

"Yes, they quite liked it."

And then, there are the new songs. Having written the band's classic material with his brother Tim (and former Fur John Ashton), Butler says the brothers have three new tunes they will be playing this summer, as well as something from Richard's wondrous 2007 solo debut and a couple from his busman's holiday band, Love Spit Love.

Asked how the two brothers compose, with Tim in Kentucky and Richard in upstate New York, Butler says it's pretty much the same old way.

"Tim sends me demos, chord changes and grooves and things. I just sit there and hum and try words and ideas and eventually a good melody and lyric will emerge from all that bashing. Even in the old days, John and Tim and I would sit down and do it just like that. Tim found a girl in Kentucky, so he lives there now. But our process is the same. Even if it's done by mail."

Although, Butler says, "I don't really play an instrument - except guitar - badly, I did have an experience once in Manhattan, when I was walking around and a whole song  just came to me. It was a country song, amazingly. I called my answering machine at home and sang the thing so I would remember it. I didn't end up using it, but it was a great experience."

Asked if this most cosmopolitan of frontmen ever listened to country, he says, "No, not so much. But my father use to listen to Hank Williams and Jim Reeves, so it may have sprung from childhood."

And speaking of childhood, Butler's 12-year-old daughter, Maggie, has some listening habits that give the music-sensitive Butler hope that good taste continues among the younger set.

"Well, her one flaw is that she likes Justin Bieber. I told her, 'You're not even going to remember his name in a year," Butler says, chuckling. "But, at the same time, she really likes Of Montreal and Vampire Weekend. I asked her how she'd even heard of those bands and she said her friends turned her onto them. The fact that kids like these groups that don't get much airplay is a really healthy sign."

Then, there's the artwork. Having studied seriously back in England, and shown at numerous important galleries in the U.S. (including the prestigious Van Brunt Gallery in upstate New York), Butler, whose painting is as dark, moody and formally precise as his lyrics, will be having a big show in London this fall. Once under the spell of Francis Bacon, Butler is, himself, quietly emerging as one of the important artists of his generation. If you go to www.casola.com, you'll see examples of his work, where portraiture meets surrealism in a harmonious way. And he's in the company of such serious folk as Ronnie Cutrone and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

And after the tour and the art show? Well, if he's sweating the future, Richard Butler doesn't show it.

"Hopefully, Tim and I will write some more songs. We're touring Europe this summer and we plan to write on the road as well, and demo things, too. As far as putting out a record or anything, we'll see. I suppose we'll just try to do everything just one gig at a time."

INFO:

The Psychedelic Furs play The Fairfield Theatre Company on Sunday June 6, with opening act She Wants Revenge. It's a Members Only event. Tickets are $67. For more information, call 203 259-1036. Doors open at 7:30 pm.