Pet Shop Boys

Interview, Sept, 1996 by Andrew Sullivan

And they've never grown tired or stale. They've also never really received all the credit they deserve. That may change. Now that dance music is ruling the airwaves, this daring duo is more vital than ever. On their new album, Bilingual, they present music that speaks to the body and soul. Here is an interview with one of the Boys by one of their longtime fans, someone who also speaks to body and soul, culture critic Andrew Sullivan

Since their earliest hits in the mid-'80s, "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been scoring heartbreaking, danceable pop. At a time when disco was considered rock's public enemy number one, the duo championed its lush, uplifting grace and recognized that it was a format ripe for experimentation: Their ingenious injection of literate, sophisticated lyrics into high-energy dance-floor epics has earned them success in Europe and Japan as well as a growing cult following in the U.S. And though a passion for remixing their material keeps their output steady and evolving, it is what former rock journalist Tennant calls "the proper albums" that keep fans hooked. With the release of Bilingual (Atlantic), the first such "proper album" in three years, TeNNant and Lowe try Latin-infLected tempos, while retaining their trademark wistfulness. The first single off the album, "Before," is classically deft Pet Shop Boys and is already a hit. An obsessive fan since their first recording, I at last got a chance to chat with Tennant, who was vacationing in a castle in Italy's Umbrian countryside.

ANDREW SULLIVAN: One of the things that your supine fans are in awe of is your productivity. From my point of view, it seems every time my life gets depressing and I long for another Pet Shop Boys album, you produce one.

NElL TENNANT: Well, I think what we do is we make the so-called proper albums, of which this new one, Bilingual, is the first in three years. Then we'll put out a disco remix album, which we do now and then. It seems a shame to bring out these dance mixes only to have them disappear into the murk of twelve-inch singles - some of them are pretty good.

AS: With other artists, it seems there's a yearning to produce something grander than a pop song. Have you ever thought about writing a musical or an opera?

NT: Actually, we are planning to write a musical at the moment with an English playwright named Jonathan Harvey. Originally, we were going to do a version of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, but we couldn't get the rights.

AS: How did you get the idea of putting music to Graham Greene?

NT: Well, the main character in Brighton Rock is seventeen and a gangster. I think it's a subject that would lend itself to our kind of music.

AS: There seems to be this notion of the Pet Shop Boys as being extremely satirical or cynically ironic, but I think so much of your music is in fact incredibly naive, especially about love. Are you ever frustrated that the authenticity in your writing is missed?

NT: Yeah. On the occasions that we do interviews, I normally try to bring something like that up. One of our first records was "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," which was a cynical joke song - actually, it was a little bit like a punk song - so people's ideas about us were awfully colored by that. In truth, we've only ever really done one or two like it. But yes, I think I am quite a naive person.

AS: A song like "Liberation," or even "It Always Comes As a Surprise" on this new album, reveals extremely touching moments of intimacy. Is this an expression of your own life?

NT: Those songs are both about the people I was going out with at the time. The incident in "Liberation" about a head resting on my shoulder is true.

AS: There's also a tension that puts most of your work at a different level than most pop music. You often have a high-energy beat with a very sad lyric. Or you put a happy lyric and a somewhat melancholic melody.

NT: Well, when I was growing up, I was someone who liked the lyrics of Bob Dylan, but didn't like the music. [laughs] And I didn't see why you couldn't have dance music with lyrics that were like Bob Dylan's. But in pop, when you're being serious, you're expected to announce, "Hello, I'm now being serious." I believe that music can have a major disco rhythm in the background with swooshing strings and all that, and you can still listen to it quite seriously.

AS: It's almost as if you're disrespectful to the various traditions, especially the pomposity and self-importance of rock.

NT: Yes, well, we used to have a real bee in our bonnets about rock music. I like music that sends a shiver down my spine. I also like music that is sort of uplifting. And, you know, pop music, ecstatic pop music, does that for me.

AS: And yet you also bring a large amount of social commentary into your music. Are you using pop as a medium for journalism?

NT: I don't think quite like that. I'm a historian, really. That's what I studied as a student.