Fans of the popular London based duo known as Curve, understand why this band can sell out the 9:30 club in Washington D.C. and every other date on their new tour to support the new album, Come Clean. It’s no surprise for them.

Although you may not have not heard Curve on the radio recently, you will hear about Curve, because Clean is a startling discovery for anyone. It is catchy, dancy, profound and sexy. It’s what Dean Garcia calls "Curve music." That may seem like an obvious and snide remark, but that’s what it is. They don’t want to be pigeon holed in a specific genre. They stand alone. Many may think Curve is a clone of Garbage, but the opposite is true.

Alternative Press labeled Come Clean as," …one of the most highly anticipated albums of 1998."

I caught up with Dean Garcia and Toni Halliday at the 9:30 club to discuss the buzz on the album and why it has been so long since their last tour.

Alex: How does it feel to be on tour?
 
Dean: Good. It feels great. We like it.

Alex: How long has it been since your last tour?

Toni: Five years. 1994.

Alex: Do you miss touring?

Toni: It's funny because, I think that when you come back to do touring you think, "Ha this is fucking great! I really like this." But at the time when we stopped we were going "We're not going on fucking tour again! . . ."

Dean: Cause there were so . . . such manic schedules last time as well. We sort of forced ourselves with . . . kind of forced into a situation committing to everything. You know what I mean?

Alex: Yeah.

Dean: And you find yourself halfway through it getting quite sick actually.

Toni: You're not really enjoying it.

Dean: But this time it's good…

Alex: It seems the British press has always labeled your music "Shoegazer" and the US Press have always said "Goth." While Curve truly can't be defined, what would you prefer the press call your music?

Toni: (laughs)

Dean: It's Curve music.

Toni: Yeah, I think every band, you know, hopes that, just never happens.

Dean: There are certain things that are really obvious you know, like hip-hop stuff and there's not many things you can just fall into somewhere . . .

Toni: You know we've got things . . . and we have, you know quite big guitars, and sometimes there's guitars that converge on metal and sometimes they're really soft and the keyboard like Cocteau Twins and you know it just starts going off like this all around . . .

Dean: . . . there are a lot of different things, so it's difficult to for us to say, "It is like that . . . . "

Alex: Do you see a lot more bands taking your approach to music . . .like Sneaker Pimps and Mono? Do you think that they're influenced at all electronically?

Toni: Umm . . . I think the Sneaker Pimps are really clean. You know and they've cleaned it up. . everything . . . so I can't really see the connection because to me the whole thing to the Curve sound is about dirt. You know what I mean? And the sexual side of it . . . you know?

Dean: Rock is rusty guitar and I mean it wouldn't come into their frame. You know?

Toni: And Mono I don't know much about. I have only heard like one thing so I couldn't really comment on it.

Dean: Sneaker Pimps are kind of more dark I think. You know?

Alex: Let's talk about the album a bit. You've received a lot of great press for the album. Do you think this is your best album?

Dean: Yeah I think it is, I mean, because we spent quite a lot of time on it as well. The other ones we only spent about 3 months on and we had a schedule to work with and whatever came out you know in those 3 months that's what went on the record. And this time around . . . it's over a period of a year or so . . . over a year. . .and you come up with some really good things. And then you widdle it all down. We wrote about 35 tracks or something and then widdled it down to 12 tracks. I like it.

Alex: You chose Tim Simenon to produce the album. Was there any particular reason?

Toni: . . .I had met him a couple of times and my husband (Alan Moulder) had worked with him with on Bomb The Bass so there's a connection there . . . because we know like every huge producer in England. You know and they're mates. We kind of wanted to go outside. It was part of changing everything wasn't it? We changed everything management, label, band, the way that we right. You know?

Alex: Do you both write together?

Toni: Yes

Alex: Do you start on the keyboards?

Toni: Usually the drums. Occasionally Dean will come in will have a few chords . . .it's fairly rare.

Dean: We always say that "if it doesn't work between the bass, the keyboards and the drum beat, then it's not working."

Alex: You play bass right?

Dean: Yeah.

Alex: I remember reading that the loop from "Already Yours," is from the film Green Card. Is that true?

Dean: Oh yes it is. It's when they were playing the bucket drums in New York City.

There's a snatch of it yeah.

Alex: Did your relationship with Alan Moulder affect this album as much as the last?

Toni: Well, . . . cause I've been going out with him for 12 years. (laughs) Yeah. Alan has always been involved in our records. He's kind of like the silent member really . . . in a way. He's always supporting us by going, "That's crap," or "That's brilliant, that's absolutely brilliant." He's really like the main stage of supporter of what we do.

Dean: . . .cause the studio is in the house where they live. Alan is constantly about. It's you know. I say to him, "What do you think of this guitar?" It's like a working house this factory thing.

Toni: It's like a music factory.

Alex: What exactly happened that made you want to make another Curve record?

Toni: I think because we were both personally kind of ready to do it, because the reasons that we stopped were not just because we were touring and all this stuff. That was a factor to it but there are a lot more personal factors to it. And I think the reasons that we started up again were because it was a personal choice for it. But we both thought that we were ready to take it back on tour. Because I spent a lot of time thinking "I didn't want to do this again, I want to be a house wife, and be married and have kids and do normal things." And Dean wanted to spend time with his without a doubt. So we just go to a place that we felt we were solid

Dean: We were hammered before. We were absolutely driven mad by it and you know home sick and you start to feel bad about it and you take it out on everybody and freeze everybody out. It all becomes highly emotionally charged. You know you lose your judgement or something you know? So jump off for a little while and get your health back.

Read Part 2

-Alex Reed