- Hi Andy. Thanks for being so kind and finding some time in your busy schedule for this interview. So, our first question is: this year Erasure is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and this is also the year of your first solo album release. What was the reason for you to wait for so long before having the courage for this solo project?

   - I think it takes twenty years to be safe with Erasure. I feel kind of that I made my apprenticeship in music. I didn’t want to rush off really quickly with Vince, because now when some people in a group leave after two years or one year saying: "All right, I’m gonna go on my own", I didn’t want to do this. So, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

   - Tell us about this album – what is it like? What is your favourite song on it?

   - My favourite song is “Electric Blue” on the album. It’s a very simple song. My favourite work of Vince is Yazoo, the first album, “Upstairs At Eric’s”, so I always wanted to make this album, I was always thinking in my head: I’m gonna make this.

   - “Electric Blue” contains the songs you recorded together with Claudia Brucken and Jake Shears. Did you ever consider working with the singers you have adored for most of your life, such as Debora Harry or Kate Bush? Is it possible that we will hear these new collaborations on the next Erasure album?

   - This will be a dream for me – to work with Debbie Harry and Kate Bush. I would love to do an album of only female duets, with gay iconic singers: Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand...

   - Madonna?

   - Oh – well, if she would. She probably would now, for sure!

   - What does Vince think about you releasing this solo album? Isn’t he jealous?

   - No, he’s not jealous, he’s kind of… I think it’s a shock for him, because he’s got a baby recently it’s two months old, I saw him in New York, he’s like a father with eyes like this [shows wide eyes]. But this is fantastic – I’m doing this, going around, touring, DJing, going to Moscow – this is fantastic!

   - What do you think about the potential audience for your solo album? Will it be fans of Erasure only – or do you think it will attract people who never cared for Erasure before?

   - It’s really strange because we just came from America, and all the placed we’ve played – there wasn’t many people, maybe two hundreds at the most, but those were very young and mostly straight people. So, I was kind of like: how do you know me, how do they know Erasure?! They all know Erasure as well, and it’s not by their parents. And the old people have a story of how they know Erasure. One boy said: I had a boyfriend who was in the marines and they found an Erasure CD in the car of the boyfriend, the guy he was in love with. Everybody had a story of how it’s connected.

   - The "Other People's Songs" album was initially supposed to be released as your solo project, but it turned to be another Erasure record. Don’t you feel it wasn’t the right move? Maybe it would had been a better idea to have this cover versions album released as the first Andy Bell album instead of “Electric Blue”?

   - I’m quite pleased, because if I had released a cover versions album, people would have thought I can’t write my own songs, that I’m stupid, so maybe it’s good.

   - Recently you started a new career as a DJ. What brings you more pleasure – performing onstage or standing behind the sound mixing desk?

   - Performing onstage – definitely. But I’m really really nervous before I play records, more than being onstage performing live. I love playing records, but I think it’s really strange, unless people can’t see you. They notice you, so when you play Yazoo or Erasure, they know you as Andy Bell, they go: can you give me an autograph, have you got this, can you play this. Otherwise if they don’t know who you are, it’s better.

   - What music are you fond of now? What albums released during the last year you would recommend spending money on?

   - Ladytron.

   - You know, here in Russia there are much more people who are truly into Erasure than you could ever think of, however all through the band’s existence Erasure never visited our country. We would very much like to have Erasure performing in Russia. Is there a chance for you to come to Russia together with Vince?

   - I think we will next year, I think we have to now. It’s been twenty years. I’m ashamed!

   - What do you think about Russia in general and Russian people?

   - Well, I don’t really know. I kind of love people – just people – and last night was fantastic. But I don’t want to – because I’m in Erasure, because we’re staying in a hotel, going to the nice places – it’s decadent, I don’t want to think that would be my impression of Russia, because not everybody is rich...

   - Let’s get away from the music subject and speak about something completely different. What’s going on in your family? What do you think about children and have you ever discussed with Paul the possibility of adopting a kid? If so, would you prefer to adopt a boy or a girl?

   - No.

   - Andy, if you could have lived for a while inside a woman’s body (provided that you can choose the body), whose body of all the women who have ever existed in this world would you have chosen?

   - I don’t know. I would be a real slut as a woman. I could be a whore... Pamela Anderson!

   - What kind of dreams do you have most often at night?

   - I don’t dream very often, not really. I don’t know!

   - Imagine you wake up in the morning and there are absolutely no plans for the day. How will you spend it?

   - I’ll sleep all day.

   - Have you ever been surprised by your own actions? If so, please tell us more about it.

   - I don’t think I’ve ever been surprised by my own actions. The only time I surprise myself is when I’m good. Like last night, if I had said – I’m not going to go out, I’m gonna stay here, gonna go to bed early, then I would have been surprised.

   - What is the brightest memory from your childhood?

   - Brightest memory from my childhood is probably playing in the back garden with my sisters and thinking that you could dig a hole to Australia in the garden, hiding. We used to play bombs, getting them wet, throwing up in the air and waiting till they come on the floor.

   - Do you enjoy being on your own? Do you ever feel lonely?

   - I don’t enjoy being on my own, I do feel lonely. I don’t mind my own company, but I don’t like being on my own.

   - Do you sing in the shower? If so, please mention a few songs.

   - I do sing in the shower for warm-ups, but it’s not often that I sing of my own freewill, only if I know I’m doing a concert. But I sing non-sense, no songs.

   - Andy, you have traveled all around the world. Is there a place besides your home where you could settle down for a long time – a city or maybe an exotic island?

   - I don’t know. I would quite like to go to Tahiti – never been there before. But I think I could settle down anywhere, doesn’t matter.

   - After all these twenty years – how many more years do you think Erasure will still be in the showbiz?

   - Another twenty.

   - Tell us about further Erasure plans. There is a rumour that you are going to release an acoustic album and to have a tour with a band of musicians.

   - Acoustic tour with live musicians which begins in April. We’ll have a B-sides album, with all the B-sides, and a nursery rhyme album. Vince has sent me already six new songs, music, so we’re working on this.

   - When can we expect a brand new Erasure album?

   - In 2007.

   - Who would you like to remix your solo (and future Erasure) songs?

   - Remixing? I don’t know, because it changes all the time. Ladytron or Tiefschwarz or… it changes all the time.

   - What is your favourite cover artwork of all the Erasure albums or singles?

   - My favourite one is “I Say I Say I Say”.

   - During the last tour you performed only a few songs from the last album “Nightbird”. Is there a special reason behind that?

   - Always nobody knows songs from “Loveboat” – they don’t know, “Erasure” – they don’t know and “Cowboy” - some, so that’s why. It’s really boring, but people only want to hear hits. It’s really boring.

   - Speaking about that tour, we also noticed that you didn’t care much to change the songs arrangements, most of the setlist sounded too close to the studio versions. Why is it so?

   - Because it is the studio versions. All the music is put into a computer, so Vince has 16 lines of the original music.

   - "Phantasmagorical Entertainment" was one of the brightest Erasure performances ever. Are you planning to organize something similar in the future?

   - If we make 5 million pounds in one year, then we can do it!

   - You are goodlooking, famous, talented, rich. You can afford yourself just about anything. So, when everything is available to you, is it difficult for you to find new emotions, new excitements, new ways of making yourself happy in our everyday routine life?

   - It’s lovely, now it comes to person, like anybody, and now I have a new boyfriend after 20 years, so can you imagine how is this? I’m not gonna say – Paul, goodbye. He’s in my heart. But it’s really exciting. I never thought I could be a monogamous, but now I know that I can.

   - Please be so kind to say a few words to the Russian fans of Erasure, we will really appreciate that.

   - Spasibo! [“thanks” in Russian]. I’m not Japanese, but it sounds Japanese. I really didn’t think of playing here, honestly. I was so afraid to come here. Now I’ve come and done the scouting for Vince – now Vince, you have to come.

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