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Yes men
The Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant gets happy. Sorta.
Neil Tennant jokes about it: In the U.S., he and Chris Lowe are still identified with their 1984 club hit “West End Girls.” Yet, Tennant notes, the rest of the world sees the Pet Shop Boys differently: In Germany, the British electronic-pop duo are “very, very, very mainstream,” he says. We talked with Tennant about the mainstream—as well as his parents’ passing, gay culture and “Obama-ry”—ahead of the Boys’ Chicago Theatre concert Monday 14 in support of their tenth album, Yes.
Time Out Chicago: Yes seems more upbeat than prior work; even the title’s positive. Were you feeling upbeat writing it?
Neil Tennant No, the funny thing is, when we were making it, I was learning to drive.
TOC:Not usually the happiest of experiences.
NT:Well, I passed my test, so I was quite pleased. No, I wasn’t really upbeat at all. My mother died while we were making this album, and at the end of it my father died. They were both 85, but they died quite quickly.
TOC:You wouldn’t know that from listening to the album.
NT:The songs were written before, that’s why. My father really loved the album. He wanted to be alive when it came out. He went through the lyrics and gave them all marks out of five. [Laughs]
TOC:How’d they fare?
NT: “Love etc.” and “Pandemonium” got five out of five.
TOC:Thanks, Dad. Any low marks?
NT: “King of Rome” only got two and a half. But he doesn’t like the downbeat ones.
TOC:Does the album reflect the Obama era at all: the yes of “yes we can”?
NT:This was the Hillary-versus-Obama era when the album was written. So “yes” is just a happy coincidence. But the world started to feel a bit more optimistic.
TOC:You hear it in “More than a Dream”: “Coming soon, something good.”
NT: “Dream” is a bit of Obama-ry ’cause that was the last song written. We’ve always been inspired by the times, and politics is part of that. What we’re not is activist in our songs. Activism in pop music doesn’t really work. Name me one good political song of the last 30 years.
TOC: “We Are the World.”
NT:Well, it’s not political, is it?
TOC:Just kidding.
NT:It’s a good song, though. Chris and I both love “We Are the World.” It’s Michael Jackson’s very best moment, really.
TOC:You guys should do a version of it.
NT:Oh, don’t encourage Chris. He probably would.
TOC:One could read the album’s cover as activist, especially in America: the rainbow-colored ballot-box check.
NT:I’ve gotta be honest: It never occurred to me. [Laughs] I’ve always been a bit wary of the rainbow flag. I don’t like gesturalism, things that appear to mean something without really meaning it, like pink ribbons for AIDS. It probably means nothing’s being done actually…. You call it a check. The tick, we call it—I guess it’s saying, “Vote for the Pet Shop Boys.”
TOC:A lot of people do seem to be ticking yes for the Pet Shop Boys. Yes is seen as a return to form.
NT:Every album we bring out is seen as a return to form. [Laughs] And, of course, America is the only country where we’re seen as coming from the ’80s. But the thing we’ve had in the U.S. is this really loyal following: ’80s-music fans, gay men, electronic-music fans and, my favorite, the regular rock fan.
TOC:Speaking of your gay following, how has your relationship to gay culture changed over the years?
NT:I’ve always been a critic of gay culture. A, does it exist? B, should it exist? Gay culture has become so mainstream that a film like Brüno can assume the public is sophisticated enough about gays to be able to satirize it.
TOC:Is it a bad thing that gay culture has mainstreamed?
NT:When gay was underground, the culture was more interesting. When gay is mainstream, it’s less interesting. It’s a healthy thing but a boring thing.
TOC:What do you do outside the studio?
NT:I read, walk, go and see things. I was just on an island off the Baltic coast of Germany. Rügen, like lots of things, has become quite mainstream. Twenty years ago, it was a wild place. Now it’s full of West German holidaymakers.
TOC:I’m sensing a theme here: You mourn the loss of the underground.
NT:We all should. The underground’s where things developed. Things come to fruition too quickly now, and they don’t really get where they ought to go.
The Pet Shop Boys play the Chicago Theatre Monday 14 at 8pm.
