Back To The Future

UK art-punks Wire have always been renowned for marching to the beat of their own drum, having been steadfastly doing things their own way since starting out in London back in the heady days of 1976. Hence it's no real surprise that their latest album, Change Becomes Us, is based predominantly on ideas that had been lying dormant for over three decades.

When the band's original incarnation combusted in 1980 after three albums they left behind a swag of material that had been introduced to their live sets but not yet committed to tape, and even though they've been an active concern for much of the intervening period – Change Becomes Us represents their 13th studio effort – they'd never returned to those left behind songs until recently, when they decided to revisit them with fresh eyes and ears.

“It was a project actually; it wasn't necessarily about the material per se, it was more a matter of timing,” explains vocalist/guitarist Colin Newman. “When we did Red Bark Tree – which came out in early 2011 – we did a lot of touring for that, and during that time we were working Matthew Simms into the band, who'd joined us in 2010. We felt by the end of all that touring that we'd got pretty good as a unit, and it would be a pity not to take that energy somewhere. Meanwhile there wasn't really any new material because we'd been on the road, and writing wasn't the first thing that anyone was thinking about. This idea had been around for a while – there was a bunch of material post-[1979 third album]154 that didn't go anywhere really in terms of being recorded simply because the band dissolved. It's fairly well documented that the band physically fell apart, so there was no band to make the record. Some of that material was really good, and what was absurd about that situation was that musically the band was still very interesting, but socially it was fucked so it was a weird period that the music came from.

“The idea to revisit it had been discussed at various times before, usually in terms of us playing live – a few years ago we had a typical Wire-esque idea of doing a Don't Look Back-type show of an album that hadn't been released, in fact had never been recorded, and no one else knew what was on it. Surprisingly there weren't any takers, so then it occurred to us that maybe we should record it; not like, 'Let's record it like we're going back in a time machine', but more along the lines of, 'Here's a bunch of new material, let's see what we can do with it'. And of course as soon as the band touched the material it ceased to have anything to do with the past – it was all about the now. It's always about the now.”

Nonetheless it proved a slightly surreal experience revisiting their original ideas and creations after all this time, but one that the band ultimately enjoyed immensely.

“For me it's always been annoying that we had all of those starts – and in some cases very, very primitive sketches – of potential songs,” reflects bassist/vocalist Graham Lewis, “but it was purely because of circumstances that [revising them] became the right thing to do. We needed some material to work on after 2011 because we'd toured extensively and Matt Simms was very much integrated into the group, and the new version of the band had its own sound – which is always what you're looking for – and when we were playing the then-new material things were developing and hopefully going forward because the material doesn't stay in one place, you're not just trying to emulate it.

“So when we went to the pieces with some it was obvious we were going to be able to do something with them, but there were several things where it was really like shots in the dark – perhaps there was a riff which we thought was okay, or a small piece of text or lyrics which we figured might work. Then over the process, with Colin chopping things up and gradually mixing, it became evident what was missing or what needed strengthening, and in terms of lyrics and text there were things that had to be completely rewritten from scratch because they just didn't stand up. I don't suppose many people get the opportunity to do something like this – I'm not sure that I'd like to do it again though! And I don't think it's possible.”

“Ultimately they become new things so at the end of the day it's a bit of a con – anyone who's expecting to get the missing fourth album is going to be disappointed,” Newman smiles. “You just physically can't go back in time.”