Synth pioneer Gary Numan talks life after ‘Cars’: ‘Around 2008-2009, I got dark’
Forty years ago, on Aug. 21, 1979, synth-rock pioneer and Tubeway Army founder Gary Numan released “Cars,” which went on to become one the most iconic and hits of the early ‘80s. Over the ensuing decades, Numan continued with a critically acclaimed if less chart-topping career — and then his 2013 studio album, Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind) , became his highest-charting LP since 1983. That album’s politically charged follow-up, 2017’s Savage (Songs From a Broken World), garnered so much critical acclaim that it led to Numan winning the prestigious Ivor Novello Inspiration Award for his songwriting.
Numan, now 61, is trying to enjoy such accolades, but he tells Yahoo Entertainment that proclamations of his “comeback” continually perplex him.
“It’s a weird thing, because I’ve never stopped, and yet I’m always ‘coming back,’ apparently,” he chuckles. “From what? From ‘Cars’? Am I coming back from ‘Cars’? From 1980? I’m not sure what I’m coming back from. I’m not sure when [critics and fans] think it stopped the last time. But as long as people like [my music], that means everything, really.”
Numan is aware that “Cars” — his only single to crack the U.S. top 40, where it remained for an astounding 17 weeks — was a new wave game-changer that left a lasting legacy. But you wouldn’t know any of that from talking to the man, who remains as humble, and unsure of himself, as the day he accidentally stumbled upon his first synthesizer in the late ‘70s.
“It’s lovely when you read [positive reviews], but the way you feel about yourself doesn’t change. I’m still nervous now going into a studio — just anxious that you’re going to be able to come up with it again and again and again, that the songs are going to be good enough,” he admits. “I’ve been doing this for years; you’d think I’d get used to it by now. So all of these lovely things that are said, as much as I appreciate them and it’s nice to hear as a person, my insecurities are intact. And that doesn’t look as if it’s ever going to change.”
Ironically, it was Numan’s neuroses that helped him create what many heralded as a comeback masterpiece, since Splinter was inspired by his battle with depression. He also asserts that he doesn’t see his recently diagnosed Asperger’s as a disability, but as an advantage that helped him develop his mysterious, aloof onstage persona.
“Around 2008 to 2009, I got dark. I was having really weird things going on,” he reveals. “My wife had post-natal depression after our second baby, which continued through to the third, so she was different. That affected me quite badly. And I had a massive falling-out with my mum and dad; we’d been close for my whole life, and then all of a sudden, it just fell apart in a day. Unbelievable.
“Anyway, that’s all fixed now. But that happened. I turned 50, we had two children, and then a third came along, which was a real surprise. We didn’t think we could have children; our first baby was IVF because we tried for ages and couldn’t have children naturally. … All these things were going on, and I started to get really weirded out about getting older and dying, and it all freaked me out. I would see an old person in the street and start crying. And I don’t cry as a rule; I’m not an overly emotional person. I’ve got Asperger’s, that whole disconnection. So I got treatment, but it went on for a while, three or four years.”
Numan struggled to get back on track, even with treatment. “In a way, the treatment for depression is just as dangerous, because the thing about depression is you’ve got no drive. It sort of sucks your life energy away,” he says. “The cure puts you in a permanent state of ‘I don’t care about anything, I’m just having a great time.’ You don’t care, so you don’t want to do anything, either. I think it was four years that I didn’t write a single song, four years that I didn’t care. Career was fading away, marriage was in trouble, just horrible, horrible — but you don’t care, because you’re taking these pills and everything is just all right.
“I was lucky; I had lovely people around me that saw it and were able to eventually get through to me. So you back out and you come back to normal life again. But when that happened and I started to write again, and I wrote about depression, because that was the thing that was most in my mind at the time.”
Numan confesses, however, that it’s still difficult for him to settle into a positive mindset. “My wife goes mental with me. Something really good happens and instead of just enjoying the moment, I go, ‘What about next week, what about the next album, what do I do now?’ She says I’m one of those glass-half-empty people. And I don’t want to be like that; I want to enjoy life and have fun. When something good happens, I want to be able to just really have fun with it and say, ‘Hey, isn’t this great?’ Not go, ‘Oh, now what?’ Because that’s what I do. Pathetic, really.”
Numan says his move to Southern California in 2012 helped make his outlook a little sunnier. “There’s another part of me that’s got three children and goes to the beach and goes to Disneyland, that’s married and very happy,” he chuckles. “I’m [trying to be] glass-half-full now. … Part of the reason I moved to America [from England] is because I wanted to get as much out of the days I’ve got left. I sound like I’m 100! I got sick to death of sitting in the rain and your life is ticking away and you’re doing nothing with it, so I came here to get more out of life. So this whole glass-half-empty thing is all going to be a part of that. I’ve got to swing it around.”
Overall, though, Numan is in a good place nowadays, literally and spiritually, and he says he’s feeling “brilliant, actually. I’ve always been very moody, up and down. … I’ve always been ‘problematic,’ as they say, but I’ve come out of depression, and I’m less so now.”
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda on how art aided his ‘Post Traumatic’ grieving process
Berlin’s Terri Nunn on how she got her ex to play an 'a**hole' on new track 'Show Me Tonight'
Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan remembers performing with chickens on German TV
Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Spotify.
Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle’s newsletter.
