THE ESSENCE
Interview réalisée par Christophe Labussière
What a pleasure it is to catch up with Hans Diener. We fondly remember the first albums by The Essence released in the late 80s and the joy those songs brought us, as if they were produced by an alternative version of The Cure and led by a not-so-evil double of Robert Smith. Four decades later, we candidly discuss those not-so-distant years with Hans, The Cure, and today's The Essence, whom we will see live in concert at Paris's Supersonic Records on Saturday, September 7.
When The Essence appeared with "Purity" in 1985, something quite astonishing, even very special, happened. Two things were happening at the same time. The record was incredibly beautiful, featuring thirteen tracks that were all extremely effective —a cold pop, soberly new wave, soft, and with ambitious detours. None of the tracks were below the others; it was a real succession of "pearls", each as lovely as the last. It truly felt like discovering something precious, both touching and beautiful. And at the same time, this sound, initially so unique, inevitably made one think of The Cure, and your voice resembled Robert Smith's. I seem to remember —though I may be mistaken—that at the time, you denied this influence, and if I'm not wrong, you repeated that it was just an accidental similarity between your two voices that led to this shortcut. That The Essence had nothing to do with The Cure. Would you be more honest today? Did you actually know The Cure's records by heart and wanted to recreate that sound, that "spirit," in your own way?
First of all, thanx for the huge compliment of liking our first album that much. Like most bands their first album, it's most of the time been written from the start of the band and developed along the way before it went on record. Especially in the beginning we were much compared to The Cure, especially my voice. I never denied that I liked them and therefore they were an influence, but the way it was being put out in the general press, it seemed liked we only listened to The Cure, which was( and is) completely untrue. As a guitar player my influences were much more The Edge, David Gilmour and John McGeoch and concerning my voice, that's something natural. I agree we have (had) a similar tone and style at that time. If I have to name some musical influences when the band started, it went from U2, Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, etc., all the way to Kraftwerk, David Bowie and casual songs I picked up from radio.
From my perspective, the similarities were undeniably related to the voice but also to the spirit. The lexical field was very close to The Cure's: "Cat", "Blind/span>", "Forever/span>", "Reflected/span>", "Dream"...
Actually the song "The Cat" I wrote with a heavy influence of New Order's "Movement" album. "The Blind" and "Forever" were inspired by Siouxsie and John McGeogh's guitars. I can however see your point in "A reflected dream" as a "Curish" song.
« I saw The Cure on their Dutch "Faith Tour" in a circus tent. The atmosphere really grabbed me and fell in love with this sound equally. »
Were you easily influenced without realizing it, or were you simply fans?
I can still remember being overwhelmed by the "Boy" album from U2 and when I saw them live in 1981, The Edge became my guitar hero. In that same year I saw The Cure on their Dutch "Faith Tour" in a circus tent. The atmosphere really grabbed me and fell in love with this sound equally, like in the nineties when I first heard Radiohead and went to their concert I was completely blown away.
I remember when you came to perform in Paris —I think I saw you two, maybe three times— the venues were packed, and half the audience were primarily fans of The Cure, ultra-fans. And once the concert was over, if my memory serves me right, you would come to the edge of the stage to sign autographs. Were you aware that these fans were primarily fans of The Cure, even though they obviously appreciated your music?
Everywhere we play we also attract people who like The Cure. And that's not strange since there are similarities. If you listen to our new (unreleased) songs live, it has nothing to do with them.
« But at some point in my early twenties, I changed that completely by starting to look more like Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice rather than being a goth! »
You physically resembled a sort of "best of" between Simon Gallup and Robert Smith —this too wasn't accidental…
Well in the 80's a lot of people dyed their hair black and had eyeliner on, in that sense I was no exception, but at some point in my early twenties, I changed that completely by starting to look more like Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice rather than being a goth!
You're still a very handsome man (!), and you still have beautiful hair! I dare to say this because on your Instagram, you don't hesitate to present yourself nicely. Do you have any advice for Robert Smith? (Just kidding!).
Thanx again for the compliment. For me social media is an outlet for the band and myself with a lot of "pretty pictures". I call it entertaining and amusing, nothing more. Concerning Robert, the drugs and drink does a lot with a person… It's up to him, but a change of style would suit him better, I think. I don't know about his hair, but it's clear to see he hasn't much left and covers this with his backcoaming style… But he seems very comfortable in his appearance, and that's all that counts!
Did you ever meet or interact with them back then?
Yess, I did several times. The first time I met Robert was when he played with Siouxsie. We went to a club together. The next couple of years I saw the band after concerts and we went to clubs in Amsterdam, etc. This was in the 80's.
« That's one thing I have to say about Robert, he could write gloomy songs but also pop songs. That's what I've always admired about him and what we have in common. »
With "Purity" and "A Monument of Trust," which came out two years later in 1987, did you feel like you were part of a particular "scene"? You were on the same label as Sad Lovers and Giants, which is significant, but did you feel connected to other bands in some way?
For me things were never so much underlined as being part of a certain “scene”. It was easy to put us in a box together with The Cure, Joy Division, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, etc., but I was listening to all sorts of things, from Aha to U2, Barry White, Kraftwerk and some real commercial stuff in the charts. I don't like to be narrowed down to one style. That's one thing I have to say about Robert, he could write gloomy songs but also pop songs. That's what I've always admired about him and what we have in common.
You're from the Netherlands —would you say that this helped you stand out, or did it complicate things for you?
Since we had an UK record contract our base was the UK, but I'm very sure that it didn't help being a Dutch band. Holland is not very famous for his international artists. It's mostly local success what Dutch artists have.
In 1988, "Ecstasy" was released. This record lost its "pop" ease, starting with a lot of guitars, and then everything was a bit "down tempo." There are new gems like "Only for You," which re-anchors the sound back to The Cure, there us also "Afterworld," or "Despair" (which is somewhat "sluggish"). How did you view The Essence's direction when writing this album?
For me Ecstasy was a start of a new era of writing for me. I was at that time very much influenced by Prince among others. I didn't want to stick to one particular style of songwriting so I wrote pop songs, rock songs, gloomy songs, experimental songs, it was a bit of all.
In 1991, "Nothing Lasts Forever" was a very pleasant surprise. It contains all the "codes" of the first three records, and we discover an album that is almost flawless. The sounds and atmospheres that remind us of The Cure are still very much present, but perhaps more controlled; the guitars are once again more discreet. In a way, the album feels very "mature" How do you perceive it from your side?
Nothing Lasts Forever is my personal favourite album. I wrote this album after a very intense period in my life. It's the most close I could get to writing a concept album. Basically it was my exorcism album. In the sense of a concept I could compare it to albums by Pink Floyd ("Dark Side of the Moon"), The Cure ("Pornography"), U2 ("Achtung Baby"). Songs like "Everything" and "Out of Grace" belong to my favourite songs I wrote.
But hasn't it arrived too late?
The album was released three years after ecstasy. It took me a while to "get it all out" from a personal perspective, but it wasn't too late. It needed time to develop.
Why did you give this album that name? At that time, did you think you were going to stop?
Again the title says it all. All things will end at some point in time. Ultimately Life itself...
Four years after "Nothing Last Forever," in 1995, "Glow" was released. How do you position it compared to the previous four albums? It also starts with a lot of guitars, which return throughout the record and become the backdrop. The sound seems to distance itself from what characterized you, even though tracks like "Right or Wrong," "Bleed," or "Out of Grace" (even though there are still a lot of guitars at the end of this track) still do the job.
"Glow" was the first album where the music has been written together as a band. All the previous albums, I wrote totally alone in every sense, from all music and lyrics to the instrument parts. So this was a new way of writing, all together in a room. It's true that guitars are becoming more dominant on this album, but there is still quite a lot of keyboards in there too. If you think that "Purity" had no keyboard at all except for the intro of "The Cat"!
And why did you include a new version of "Only for You" on this album?
This was partly a question of our record company and partly a quest to see if we could make it sound better than the original… which it didn't!.
Why did you stop releasing new albums afterward?
At some point we all started doing things outside the band, for instance, I became a record company owner myself, and was very busy with that.
Can you tell me more about it? What is its name, and what kind of music does it focus on?
Why didn't you ever stop?
It's simple, we're having too much fun playing and, though very slowly, we are recording new songs which will see the light of day in good time.
Do you have any regrets? If you could do it all over again, is there anything you would do differently?
It's the old story. At the beginning of our success, our UK record company went bust and I decided to lay low for a while, keeping myself busy on the industry side of the music bizz. That basically took away our chance to go for a bigger level of success.
I saw on your Instagram page that you do live covers, like David Bowie —have you ever covered a Cure song?
The funny thing is that when the band started in 1983 (we were called Movement then), we played covers for a couple of months, but I wanted to write my own music.
Nowadays we sometimes throw in a cover or I sing when I'm seeing friends at a concert a song or two with them. It can vary from David Bowie to Justin Timberlake, to Michael Bublé, to The Cure.
We've played from time to time a cover from The Cure but that stopped years ago. I think the only song I could be tempted to cover again, cause we did that one before, is "The Figurehead". One of my favourite Cure songs.
