The 'Alternating Currents' Legacy Interview: Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout
From 1992, an in-depth chat with one of the UK's most under-appreciated masters of songwriting
Prologue
When you’re one of the best, it’s hard to imagine that there’s still a struggle to overcome a perceived roadblock. Yet in convenient fashion, that is the very position that one Paddy McAloon finds himself in right now. He is without question one of the most accomplished lyricists in the world of pop music today. As lead singer/songwriter/guitarist for the British band Prefab Sprout, his finely honed instincts and gifted ability to craft classic paeans about love's universal appeal have played upon the heartstrings of the UK public for nearly ten years. But I'm willing to hazard a guess that the majority of you are scrunching up your faces, asking “Who is this McAloon character? Sounds like a cookie to me.” Well, don’t give up just yet, dear reader of all that is good in pop music. Patience, in the face of goodness, will see you through the struggle.
Plus a dash of understanding in many ways. When one confronts Prefab Sprout, granted the name sounds off-putting. Yet the band has four Stateside releases to their name and has acquired a laundry list of praises and accolades that should shame us out of our ignorance. The quartet — McAloon, brother Martin on bass, vocalist Wendy Smith, and drummer Neil Conti — have defined their sound with the help of producer Thomas Dolby, which may be a surprise to those who only remember his 1982 quirky electronic ditty “Blinded Me With Science.” Dolby’s deft touch and keen sense of taste, coupled with McAloon’s sense of romantic yearning, have woven its way through 1985’s Steve McQueen (Two Wheels Good in the US), 1988’s From Langley Park To Memphis and 1990’s Jordan: The Comeback. [Ed. note: Protest Songs, recorded in 1985, was a self-produced effort that wasn’t released until 1989]. Although the band’s debut goes back further, these are the defining moments during a time when composing a good song doesn't seem to be the high order it once was.
All of this leads up to today’s defining moment, accordingly the release of a greatest hits collection (and its video companion) The Best Of Prefab Sprout: A Life Of Surprises (Epic). From the fop ‘n’ nonsense wordplay of “The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll” and the jaunty western-style “Faron Young” and blissful nostalgia of “We Let The Stars Go” to the band’s major label debut “Cruel” (from 1984’s debut Swoon) and two new masterpieces “Life Of Surprises” and the extremely danceable “If You Don’t Love Me,” this 16-track rendering of the Sprout’s history Is nothing if not short of indispensable for any serious fan of popular music.
Prefab Sprout – If You Don't Love Me/℗©1992 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd./YouTube
Therefore, on such a stellar occasion as this, most of us would have reason to celebrate. But despite the above-mentioned praise and accolades and the guest musicians that have played with them — namely, Pete Townshend and Stevie Wonder — the US window has largely remained closed to the Sprouts, with a view never clearly defined or explained. So you might consider Surprises as a textbook for an introductory course in Prefab Sprout 101.
But that doesn't reflect on McAloon. He’s a soft-spoken, sweet-natured 35-year-old with an ego that in the words of UK’s Select magazine, is “pitifully underdeveloped.” And it comes right to the forefront when he acknowledges the reason why Prefab Sprout is an unknown and rarely heard-from entity here in the States.
“I know it’s because we’ve never played here,” he said over the phone in his lilting Newcastle accent from his record company office in New York, “and that we probably haven’t helped ourselves in what is usually a vital area for people learning about you. But I have been a bit despondent that we are quite as unknown as we are,” and punctuated this statement with a short laugh. McAloon has a very precise vision of Prefab Sprout and this confirmed his reluctance to tour even as far back as 1985 when the Sprouts grabbed a UK Number One with “When Love Breaks Down” and were asked by mega-fan Chris Difford of Squeeze to open for them on a US tour.
Prefab Sprout – When Love Breaks Down (Official Video)/℗©Kitchen Music Ltd., CBS Songs Ltd., CBS Records/YouTube
“I felt that we weren’t ready to play live, because we kinda got a record deal from a tape that was self-produced, largely.” In 1983, the Sprouts were a three-piece — the McAloon brothers and drummer Michael Salmon — and the band, very rough on the edges, didn’t necessarily represent their demo tape. Although McAloon was happy they were later signed to CBS in the UK, he knew that the band was capable of fulfilling an unseen obligation and didn’t have to be looked upon as some kind of garage band. “Things just got off to a weird start,” he remarked on that period. But he’s also part of the generation that essentially didn’t have to care about the craftsmanship in songs. And of course, that was called punk.
“In terms of pop music, we liked quite sophisticated things. So in 1977, when we first started playing and rehearsing, we were more into Hall & Oates and “Heroes” by David Bowie and “Aja” by Steely Dan. We were more into those areas than we were say, The Sex Pistols.” McAloon noted that springing from those times, there was a hypocrisy against the music one grew up with; a forced attempt to disown the past. “It just struck me as stupid. I don’t mind energy and I like the outrageousness of John Lydon. But I hated the fact that it formed a massive unthinking public movement where punks used to go around saying 'We want to be individuals. We want to think for ourselves.’ And they all looked alike and they all thought alike. I found it insulting.”
So as a result, McAloon’s pursuit of excellence had him turning to songwriters he admired, tunes that he felt were more worthwhile and as I pointed out, more hummable than “Anarchy In The U.K.” “When I started out, I just thought ‘I want to be different than everybody else.’ I used to do things partly out of ignorance. I didn't understand that songs were constructed in certain ways. So we did a lot of unusual stuff.” He also wanted to write his own particularly memorable songs in the mold of his heroes Jimmy Webb and Henry Mancini. Even if it meant he might be ridiculed for actually caring about something as important as a melody. “I thought ‘Hang on. It’s easy to laugh at that, but how easy is it to write a good tune?’ It's easy to mock something that’s sweet and pretty. But could you actually do it? I’m just not very interested in rocking out. We did a lot of that when we were younger. You kind of move on.”
Prefab Sprout – Lions In My Own Garden (Live in Munich 1985)/℗©Kitchen Music Ltd., CBS Songs Ltd., Kitchenware Records/YouTube
As the three-piece, the Sprouts released their first single, 1983’s “Lions In My Own Garden” on their own Candle label. This started to gather notices in the British press and got them signed to indie Kitchenware Records. It also served as the introduction for vocalist Wendy Smith’s arrival on their next record “The Devil Has All The Best Tunes.” But it signaled the end for drummer Salmon. A hard move to take, as the McAloon brothers and Salmon were all childhood friends. “He left because he wrote songs, but he wouldn't show us them,” McAloon explained. “He felt that if he stayed with the band, he’d be forever the drummer in Prefab Sprout and he wanted to be a songwriter.” And hence the initial weird feeling about signing with CBS, as Salmon was no longer in the band and drummer Neil Conti didn't come aboard until 1985’s Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good.
We then somehow jutted out of Prefabricated history and mused about the relative importance of music in our lives. Although McAloon admitted he had a certain arrogance when the Sprouts began, he has changed considerably in his outlook. “It’s not just a matter of liking and hating things. There are people involved and at the end of the day, it’s only music. You can’t make it a matter of life and death, even if it is,” and he laughed. But I ventured to point out that some do want to make music the savior, even if it’s only just a song. McAloon agreed with both views, vis a vis “We Are The World.” But what about the importance of today’s music? Holding it up against the classics of yesteryear — the music McAloon grew up on? Had he heard Boyz II Men's “End Of The Road?”
“I bought it. It’s one of the few singles I’ve ever bought in the last ten years.” But you wonder in today’s fast-moving world, how will this song stand up in the future even if it’s a record-breaking chart topper? How did Bryan Adams stay up in the UK charts for 15 weeks, beating out time-honored artists like The Beatles? How did that happen?
“The thing about that is, it’s the shame of statistics,” McAloon ventured. “People will use that in future biographies. Someone will say someone had more hit singles than Elvis Presley or The Who. Then you mistake that for worth or value. The two aren't connected.” He felt that there wasn’t a unifying or galvanizing factor anymore, the way The Beatles impacted an entire generation 30 years ago. “They were associated with that change. With Boyz II Men, I love the record, but I don't know if it defines any particular moment.”
And the movement right now that defines what is considered the cutting edge is called alternative. It’s the hip and cool thing to call bands that, but it’s a “useless” category, as McAloon termed it, especially for the hard-to-define Prefab Sprout, with their often lush productions and thought-provoking, gorgeous lyrics.
“Well, this whole issue confuses me, anyway, ‘cause I’m just this stupid English person! So, your charts — what do you mean by alternative or college radio? I’m talking now with the attitude I’ve had for four or five years.” And from left field, he considers Burt Bacharach “one of the most avant-garde and alternative writers who’s ever lived.” Bacharach could write for the common person, he passionately enthused, connecting with emotions in everyday life.
Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'N' Roll (Wogan 1988)/℗©1988 Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited/YouTube
When McAloon first arrived in the States in 1985 and was told that the Sprouts were college radio material, not even Top 40, “I was thinking, ‘Wow! This place is in a hell of a state!’ And then things got worse because we had a name that sounded like we should be some weird rock band. We had music that despite being obviously quite modern pop music, sometimes had orchestras on it. Which meant we were in some ways too sophisticated for college radio. Yet we really should have been appealing to young people.” McAloon felt that basically America was tying itself up in categorizing and labeling for convenience's sake. And it apparently shows no sign of changing, with the factions splintering into even small sub-categories, all part of a growing uprise and fast-moving phenomena that has definitely hindered Prefab Sprout’s message in America.
Prefab Sprout – Appetite/℗©1985 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd./YouTube
Another marketing tool that has sadly been overlooked for Prefab Sprout is their videos, also collected in a somewhat abbreviated ‘greatest hits’ form. A few of these videos were shown during their time of release on MTV’s 120 Minutes, the channel’s alternative music program. They are minor gems and the early ‘80s clips are actually, um… quite hilarious. The changing hairstyles of McAloon are pretty obvious, from his spikey cut and Fu Manchu mustache in “Appetite” to his bob cut in “The Golden Calf” to his rather conservative short cut in “Looking for Atlantis” just two years ago.
“I just do that ‘cause I’m really bored,” he said and then surprisingly confessed that he had “stupidly” just bleached his hair a “vile David Bowie blonde. I look like something out of Blade Runner,” and further admitted — with humor — that he wouldn’t have mentioned this, except that I brought up the haircut/fashion subject. He had done it only two days previous — spur of the moment before leaving home — and swore he shouldn’t have, as he’ll be the talk of Newcastle when he returns. “If you think I look strange or funny or weird on ‘Appetite,’” he said, referring to the 1985 video, “If you saw me today, I look like a ghost. I’m so pale and yellow-haired,” and we ended up cackling like school kids over this slightly unorthodox change in subject.
So, the focus found itself back to the Sprouts campaign in America (actually, the blonde hair might work…). Their deal with Epic Records is part and parcel with their signing to CBS in the UK and although there’s no direct blame, McAloon figured that by now, the band would be in a better position name-wise, considering he is a much sought-after and revered talkmeister back home. Even after the release of Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good — SPIN magazine has listed it among the Top 30 albums of all time — and From Langley Park to Memphis (with Townshend and Wonder among the guest musicians), there should have been some recognition. In fact, what might have been considered their breakthrough was 1990’s Jordan: The Comeback. A stunning piece of thematic scoring and lyrical depth practically unheard of today — with subjects ranging from God, Elvis, Jesse James, carnivals and holidays, Harlem and death — that didn’t get them the US notices it so richly deserved, except for the scattered airing of the cool, jazzy “Machine Gun Ibiza,” which is not included on A Life of Surprises.
Machine Gun Ibiza/℗©1990 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd./YouTube
“I’ll tell you what happened,” McAloon explained. “That was due to be a single in England. And then when the Gulf War started, they [BBC] dropped all records with references to bombs and guns. And “Machine Gun Ibiza” went straight out the window.” The material in the collection is based on their (obvious) success in the UK and Europe. “‘Carnival 2000’ was a Top 40 record in England. “Wild Horses” was just a purely selfish choice. We just liked the strangeness of it.
“But there are other things we would have liked to have on. For example, some of my best songs I decided not to put on because I thought it would make too moody of an album for a ‘best of.’ I think one of the best I’ve ever written is “One of the Broken.” I just thought it would be too down a moment. So we tried to make A Life of Surprises a compilation for people who may have heard of us before, but didn’t know that much about us.”
A factor in their favor may be their staying power after so long and also that McAloon hasn’t compromised the Sprouts’ initial vision since their debut. Although when one listens to Swoon, there are the rough vocals and bizarre twists, even in songs like “Green Isaac” and “I Never Play Basketball Now.” The inclusion of “Cruel” — with McAloon’s nasal vocal sounding like he has a bad cold — is acceptable from a historical point-of-view, but Swoon’s best cut is “Couldn’t Bear to Be Special.” “That’s one of my favorites,” McAloon concurred. “I put our weirdest material on the first album because when we got into the studio, I wanted to record songs we couldn’t play live.” An unusual move for a debut, it’s an album that’s rarely heard from, although McAloon would like to re-do the forceful tune and concluded that he’s “determined one day to do a very different version of it and re-release it.”
Couldn't Bear to Be Special/℗©2019 Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited/YouTube
There have been gentle pokes at McAloon in the UK music press for refusing to conform: to doing the ‘in’ thing, namely releasing a single in various formats, usually with a techno or hip-hop beat or some other version one would consider unsuitable, especially for Prefab Sprout. Although he was lampooned recently in NME for this somewhat archaic attitude — which he thought was hysterical — it was bound to surface sooner or later for the new single “If You Don’t Love Me.”
“The Billboard Dance Chart shows that's what’s bloody happened," he said. “They've done a re-mix of it and it really has nothing to do with us.” But if you had to pick a song, and if that’s the big problem with the Sprouts — to do a reworked dance-y version — they chose the right tune. “It was a little bit of a joke. It’s a song I like because it has no complexity whatsoever. If I played it on a piano or guitar, I think it’s quite moving.” He then said he didn't like using the term ‘joke,’ but acknowledged it’s territory that’s been investigated a million times already, “from ABBA to The Pet Shop Boys.”
If You Don't Love Me (Future Sound Of London Stateside Swamp Mix) – Prefab Sprout/℗©1992 Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd./YouTube
And despite the treadmill theory for this song, McAloon wouldn’t be averse to pursuing the idea of undertaking a Sprouts project that has nothing to do with their sound or image. And it seems the gears have been turning in McAloon’s mind for a while. “I think about Prefab Sprout doing records that people would be shocked to hear,” he revealed. How about disguising themselves as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? “But what tends to happen to us is, it all gets absorbed into mainstream Prefab Sprout.” Even gentle takeoffs like “The King of Rock ‘N’ Roll” — with its chorus of “Hot dog/Jumping frog/Albuquerque” — and “Cars and Girls” (a wistful homage to Bruce Springsteen) started out with this general idea. “I felt that after Two Wheels Good everyone had this super-serious picture of me. Y’know, I do write songs that don’t make it on the records that are more humorous. And I thought with those two songs, ‘We can’t possibly do these songs.’ But then I thought, ‘Hell, these songs are OK. We can make something of them.’”
It’s interesting to note that the songs on A Life of Surprises are not arranged in chronological order. In essence, you’re taking them for their face value, apart from any plan or scheme that might have originally been presented in. And for the obvious reasons, it works beautifully. However, McAloon never stops thinking about future projects or his plans for a wider thematic scheme past even Jordan. But he does have this habit of going on (especially in the UK press) about any and all upcoming projects, whether they materialize or not and you wonder if it’s a good idea to keep spilling the beans, so to speak.
Prefab Sprout – The Sound of Crying/℗©1992 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd./YouTube
“I do it because I sometimes get very uncomfortable in talking about what things are really about. So I’ve got a record out, the evidence is there for the journalist to hear. So I try to evade it by talking about my other things.” He admitted he’s closest to whatever he’s doing at the moment and a current release is old news to him. It does sometimes work against him — talking about Jordan two years prior to release didn’t help when interview time actually rolled around as everyone knew about it — but for the most part, McAloon admitted with sincerity, “I try to be honest in what I say.”
So… in all honesty, we had to wind this talk down for the record. He promised that the Sprouts will get around to doing “a proper tour. Actually, any tour!” of the US, hopefully later this year after the release of their next album. But for now, if McAloon doesn’t end up talking himself out of doing his Michael Jackson album or his Gulf War album or his country & western album, Prefab Sprout might just end up the pop phenomena they should be. After all, it’s a life of hidden surprises!
Epilogue
Paddy McAloon, 2019. Photo: ©Tom Sheehan
I Trawl the Megahertz/℗©2019 Paddy McAloon under exclusive license to Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited/YouTube
