Sound ideas

WHAT is the sound of the future?

Martyn Ware, the Eighties hitmaker with Human League and Heaven 17, is aiming to introduce a North-East audience to the sight and sounds of tomorrow’s music.

He arrives at Sage Gateshead on Saturday, for the Future Of Sound 2009, with his own 3D performance piece, Illustrious, alongside Erasure’s Vince Clarke... and admits “sometimes the tour performances are outstanding, but sometimes it can be unimpressive”.

Other acts to watch out for are Brian Duffy’s Modified Toy Orchestra which plays songs such as Where Is My Sock? Or a cover of Kraftwerk’s Pocket Calculator using only the sounds from modified children’s electronic games which have cost no more than £1 from car boot sales or toy shops.

Asked for his reasons for leading this Arts Council-funded tour of leading electronic music pioneers, Ware says: “Everything I’ve been involved with is forward facing because it’s what I love. So right from the start of the Human League and before I’ve tried to have a vision of the future and that now seems to be my specialist subject and my destiny.

So now I’m trying to spread the love, my love of a subject with other people... and I’m not making a lot of money out of it I can assure you.”

Currently he shares a 3D sound studio and also works from his Primrose Hill, London, home to put together things like a sea-based soundscape to go with Booker Prizenominated Australian author Tim Winton’s latest work, Breath. It was played to South Bank commuters as they crossed the Thames footbridge last week.

“It helps pay the bills and it’s exciting,” Ware says.

He flatly denies that his rivalry with Phil Oakey, who brings Human League to headline at next weekend’s Evolution gigs at NewcastleGateshead Quayside, ever became as violent as suggested by the rumours about the band’s split.

“It is something that I will always regret. Our arguments were loud but he never threw milk bottles at me,”

Ware responds.

On the subject of his long musical career, he adds: “There aren’t many people who have music careers lasting 30 years... not many have careers that last 30 months these days. You have to be resilient and not be too discouraged by setbacks because if you did then nobody would have a career beyond a couple of years. We all get so many setbacks and it’s only big touring bands like the Rolling Stones who seemingly tour forever. Without these ridiculous exceptions the majority are like us.

We do a lot of touring with the Here And Now show, which is made up of Eighties acts.”

The tour plays the MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle, tonight and Ware says of the ever-touring Eighties bands: “We’re all mates and everyone is trying to earn enough to cover mortgages because record sales have gone through the floor. It doesn’t matter what the powers that be say... I know I haven’t bought a CD in six months and I love music, but I download everything off the internet now. So you have to earn money by touring and performing live.

“I’m 52 years old now and everyone else is of a similar age and we all have children and those that are lucky have expensive properties to maintain. It’s a different world to when we started and there are now lots of ways of earning money in this industry... doing music for radio and TV and soundtracks for films and selling tracks on the internet and live merchandising. You have to have a business brain just to make ends meet.”

Heaven 17 has never disbanded with Glenn Gregory still a member but Ian Craig Marsh having departed.

They are still touring and Sheffieldborn Ware is hoping that future dates will include the North-East because “we’re Northern lads and it’s one of our favourite parts of Britain”. In December the band are performing with a 75-piece orchestra and 50-voice choir in Germany at a pop-meetsclassical night.

He keeps his 3D creations and pop career separate and admits: “Heaven 17 is almost like a fun and lucrative side project now. If we were waiting for it to be our central way of earning money we’d all be sleeping under Charing Cross Bridge and not playing music there.”

Ware also runs a company called Sonic ID which is moving into the world of commercial sound branding.

“The design and branding for a particular company on the high street has a brand bible where everything, down to the typeface font on the sign, has to be the same. The vast majority don’t have anything like that for sound. We offer a consultancy service and can create the sound as well.

“It could be everything from radio and TV adverts background sound to jingles and through to ‘hold’ music on the telephone, to internet music and possibly right down to computer start-up sounds. Otherwise it’s just random. It makes people feel like they’re part of a big team and if you think how sound is used in the Disney organisation (When You Wish Upon A Star etc) they’ve been using if forever.

Disney understand the power of sound and spend an absolute fortune in getting the sounds right for a parade or a ride. It’s not rocket science, but takes a bit of care and attention and money,” he says.

Oglivy, the advertising company, approached him regarding the mosquito ultrasonic machines which are supposed to stop youngsters from congregating at places like bus shelters by emitting high-frequency sounds – only audible to young people.

“I was asked if there was a positive spin and if we could come up with a micro language that could be used on a mobile so that teenagers could communicate and adults wouldn’t be able to hear it. It’s a secret language kind of thing. We did it and it’s been a massive success. If you go to fanta.eu you can download it for your mobile.

Under-15s can use it and it has eight words at the moment like ‘yes, no, shall we go’. It’s been mentioned in blogs and attracted worldwide interest online,” he says.

■ Future Of Sound, Sage Gateshead, Hall 2, Saturday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £7.

Box Office: 0191-443-4661 thesagegateshead.org