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kill or cure
composers
Written by: Statham / Kerr / Burchill
publisher
℗ Warner Chappell Music Ltd / JKMC–Bucks Music Group Ltd / Hornall Brothers Music Ltd (2014 - 2017)
℗ Warner Chappell Music Ltd / BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd (2018 - )
background
"Simon Hayward's treatment of the new Lostboy! AKA song
Kill Or Cure? (written with Paul Statham) is definitely shaping up as something special; a
probable Lostboy! AKA live set opener!" - Jim, 1st October 2010
"I first heard Kill Or Cure? on Jim's iPod while waiting for a flight to Italy
during the summer electro promo dates. The music was written by Paul Statham and I initially thought it
was going to be a song for his Dark Flowers project. I said to Jim, "We're having
that, it's excellent!" He then confirmed that indeed it was a Lostboy 2 contender."
"Paul's recording is really cool. More organic and delicate with the
filtered loops."
"Things went a bit quiet regarding this track, though in my head I had
some ideas of how to develop this song. Indeed, to my ears, this was the
perfect electroset opening track, building on the bass groove. Last week I finally received the multitrack components (impeccably recorded
by Paul) and pretty much had the song finished in a few hours (I'd already
done a rough version)."
"Jim called while I was in transit with Sample Minds to our gig last Friday
and said he loved it."
"With the first free download, Paul remixed my version of
What Goes On, this time I get to remix one of his songs. The rest as
they say is history." - Simon Hayward
"I first met musician/composer/producer Paul Statham when executive producer
Martin Hanlin suggested that we should hook up with a view to working together on ideas
for my then newly planned solo project LOSTBOY! A.K.A."
"Setting off on that chilly morning from London's Victoria Station, I had no idea how productive the relationship would
turn out to be. Although I do recall that on entering Paul's workplace and casting my eyes
around both his music and book collections, I had the instant feeling that we were were very much on the same wavelength.
This more than turned out to be the case and over two consecutive mornings we produced four demo recordings."
"The Simon Hayward remixed version of
Kill Or Cure? comes originally from those sessions back in Feb'09,
I do hope you like it and I look forward to performing this song on the upcoming
Lostboy! AKA Electroset Tour." - Jim, October 2010
The ElectroSet Rehearsal Demo received its radio debut on the Billy Sloan show of the
17th October 2010.
It has since been recorded by Simple Minds and was released on the
Big Music album.
MH: Martin Hanlin here on KX 93.5, The Real McCoy Radio Show with
special guest today, Jim Kerr, from Simple Minds, discussing the tracks from the
great record Big Music. We're onto a track Jim,
called Kill Or Cure, written by yourself and a guy called Paul Statham,
who I know you've worked with before, and it's great to see this track on here because he's a great writer. Another writer – harking back
to what you said earlier about – influenced by Bowie. But he works really well with you.
JK: Yeah, he certainly does. You mentioned Iain Cook, and we'll be talking about
Owen Parker in a minute and Paul was the third writer – outside
of Charlie Burchill and Andy Gillespie – who we worked with.
And it's thanks to you because the connection with all these guys goes back to my own solo project with Lostboy
and Paul had written a track with me on that called Return Of The King
and that really comes out of the Bowie world as well.
JK: But a year ago, and I think you probably played some of the stuff on your show Martin,
Paul put together a beautiful project called The Dark Flowers that,
coincidentally, was my introduction to the sound of Catherine AD, who will now tour with
Simple Minds. It's amazing how it all goes around. But there are people who, you walk into their work environment,
and you just know by the books on their shelf... they've got the same books as you, the exact same records as you, they've got the
same incense as you and you just know "We're going to get on here." And Paul and I have
written a ton of songs – we've probably written about twenty songs – and it was a pleasure for me to work with him and his Dark Flowers
because it was the style of song that otherwise I wouldn't have worked on. So it was great to be stretched like that.
JK: I was really happy that Kill Or Cure made it onto the album.
Towards the end it was really Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg – the final
producers and mixers- that were pushing for Kill Or Cure. I always liked it but I
was not quite sure that it was going to sit right on this. Anyway they came up with a treatment that kind of made it a lot more youthful
sounding somehow. First it took me, it was one of these ones they said "We've got a new angle on this. We're really excited about it.
We'll send you it tonight." I was in Germany. "We'll send it to you tonight. We've chopped and changed some of the format. Think you're
really going to like it." I thought vibed. I was like "Great" I'll get back tonight after the gig and check this out." Got back, put
it on, I was like "Jesus. What's that?"
MH: [Laughs]
JK: And I made the mistake of e-mailing them instantly. And I was like "I don't get this? I really don't know what
this is all about. It's just not what I thought it was. I'm really not sure about this guys. So... sorry." And I didn't know, but
they got that, called each other, and went "What a bummer. We think this is great and Jim's
so strongly not getting it." Anyway, the next day, it came on random on my iTunes, and it came up again, and I was like "Oh, hang on a minute"
and halfway through I went "I can see what they're doing here. Oh, I can see why this would work" and even though I wasn't on the inside
jumping up and down I was on the outside more than calculatingly going "I get it. I see why this will work even though I wouldn't go on
stage tonight and play this in this format. But I can see why this will work on the record." And I called
Paul, who by this time had heard it, and said to
Paul "What do you think?" and he was amazing, he went "You know what? I really didn't get it this
morning but now I've listened to it half a dozen times and I think it's fantastic" and I was kind of "Yeah, that's what kind of happened
to me as well."
MH: So I mean we're talking about the tracks on the album and you know, the process, the album has twelve tracks on it and
with Simple Minds you're looking at sometimes about twenty-five or even thirty or forty songs to melt down into the tracks
you want so every song has been through this process and Kill Or Cure gets through this stuff.
How much do you – you give a lot of credit there to Andy and Gavin who worked with
you there on it – how do you remain open to that outside influence Jim? You have so many songs,
and I know how much you like the songs, you put so much into every one of them, how do you decide?
JK: This is where it is hard to describe although hopefully, through the conversation tonight talking about the album, hopefully
I've managed to articulate well but there are certain things I can't really summarise. Sometimes you just have a hunch "This is a great song but
it's not for just now." And trying to say that to someone, they go "OK, tell me why?" "It's just not its moment yet. I don't know what it is.
It could be that the lyric isn't quite there or something in the rhythm isn't there or something's not quite right about this." The thing is that
it's great, but something is not right. The diamond needs to be polished and I don't know how to polish it. And I don't feel – this is where I
get to call the shot – is because I've got to sing and I can't sell this now, I can't sell it to myself. I don't believe in it fully enough yet.
I mean I'll jump up and down, hand on heart, because I would never bullshit, I would tell people "Hey, that's a good tune but, you know what, the
difference between good and great is colossal. And good is no good anymore." But once you explain to people that you have to do the work, you
can't always have a bull's-eye, you have to do the work and if you do the work and you stretch the muscles and sometimes it's hard, you'll be
working something for a week and by the end of the week, you take it home, you go "Yeah, It's great" and then by Saturday you go "It's not."
And we have been tricked by it – because there is something great about it. But something great about it and it being great is a different
thing. And sometimes you get tricked. Sometimes you get bewitched or beguiled by something and then you've got to go "Yeah... but." You hear
it with different ears once you get out.
MH: Absolutely.
JK: And visa-versa. Sometimes you think "Yeah, it's alright" and then you're "This isn't alright. It's fantastic!" So that's
what you have to call it – intuition, instinct... I was recently reading about the great painters, about the Picassos and the
Chagalls – they would turn a half finished painting to the wall for three years – wouldn't even look at it. It frustrated them,
they knew they hadn't got it, they would turn it to the wall for three years and then turn it around one day and go "Oh! I know how to fix this!"
And in a way we sort of did that with the track Big Music as well as I explained to you. And then,
of course, the differences with you get tracks like Honest Town which just appears – it's like
"boom!" You could put that out tonight. But that's hard for the writers, because they're in there and they've said, you've just got to say to them
"Look. It's just the way it is. Sometimes songs take forever. There's this song I'm very excited about – that you introduced to me, a guy called
Steve Eddie, a song called Fireball – God, I've had that for seven or eight years
and I played that this last month and I just know that its time has come.
MH: We'll play this track and then we'll talk more about this song writing thing when we get to the next track. So this
is a track number ten on the vinyl album of Big Music. It's Kill Or Cure by
Kerr, Burchill and Statham.
Martin Hanlin
The Real McCoy
KX 93.5
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lyrics
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The wine is poured right by your table,
The way you dress does not deceive.
I try to turn but I'm not able,
The door is locked, you have the key.
You can Kill or Cure by just commanding.
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discography
ElectroSet Rehearsal Demo (4:51)
Produced by: Simon Hayward
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Album Version (4:12)
Produced by Andy Wright, Gavin Goldberg and Simple Minds
Mixed by Gavin Goldberg
Assisted by Lewis Chapman
Additional Programming by Paul Statham
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downloads
live history
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