Electronic music pioneer Howard Jones has been a constant presence on the international music scene for the past four decades. With a unique style and sound that invented a new wave all his own, he immediately gained global attention and has sold upwards of 10 million albums worldwide. His ubiquitous hits can be heard on Stranger Things , Breaking Bad , Watchmen , The Carrie Diaries , Superstore , and Bumblebee . He's just released a stellar new live record. Recorded at the O2 Arena in London, LIVE AT THE O2 is out now via Cherry Red Records. Howard Jones performed as the special guest of his great friends, OMD, with whom he first shared the stage approximately 40 years ago. Howard's spectacular and vibrant performance that night is captured on the amazing new live recording. Featuring live versions of many of his biggest hit singles, including 'New Song,' 'What Is Love?,' 'Like To Get To Know You Well," 'Things Can Only Get Better,' plus Howard's cover version of Kajagoogoo's 'Too Shy,' accompanied by friend/current band member and former Kajagoogoo band member, Nick Beggs. And he's still touring, wowing fans all around the globe. While hitting the Northeast on tour a few months back, he stopped by our LifeMinute Studios to catch us up on all the goods he's been up to.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Howard Jones, and you're watching Live Minute TV.
00:06Electronic music pioneer Howard Jones has been a constant presence on the international music scene for the past four decades.
00:13With a unique style and sound that invented a new wave all his own, he's still wowing fans across the globe
00:20and has just released Live at the O2, recorded in London, that's not to be missed.
00:25While hitting the Northeast arenas on tour a few months back, he stopped by our Live Minute studio so we could get to know him well.
00:34This is a Life Minute with Howard Jones.
00:37Howard Jones in the house. Thanks for joining us on Life Minute.
00:41So happy to be here.
00:42So glad to be with you in person this time.
00:44Yes, that's right. It was Zoom before, wasn't it?
00:46Yes, yes, yes. Right after COVID on Zoom. So it's great to have you in real life. You look amazing.
00:51Well, thank you very much.
00:53How are you doing?
00:54I'm doing super well. We're just coming to the end of the tour, and it's gone so well that I'm so buzzed up with it.
01:02We've had amazing reception, you know, sold out shows. We had to add shows.
01:06I mean, and I haven't had that for a while. You know, it's been building towards that, but suddenly it's all like caught fire.
01:12So I'm very, very excited about everything.
01:14That's so great.
01:15There's plans. There's plans to do another leg. I'm sure we'll be doing something this next summer as well.
01:20What are fans going to get when they see you guys play?
01:23I think of my show as being like a hybrid show. You know, my love of technology has always been there since the beginning,
01:29but I was trained as a pianist. You know, I went to music college, classical piano till I was 21.
01:36So I have these two sides to me, which is like, well, hopefully, you know, accomplished playing,
01:42and then the technology side, which I'll try and keep up with.
01:46So the show's a mixture of those two things.
01:48We'll do some banging tunes with the electronics and the sequences and everything,
01:52and then go to the piano with my guitarist and Nick, my bassist,
01:57and we'll do some acoustic songs and involve the audience in that.
02:01So to me, that's the perfect balance.
02:03And I've worked towards that because we've done both things.
02:07I've done the trio where we've, you know, made it mainly acoustic, and we've done the electronic.
02:13Now I'm just sort of marrying the two together.
02:16And the fans seem to really like that because it's sort of, you get a break from all the banging tunes,
02:24and then you can sort of like savour the song side of it, you know, no one is to blame, and life in one day.
02:30And I've got Nick Beggs with me, so we do Too Shy as well, his big, huge hit.
02:44And the audiences love that.
02:46You know, I'm so lucky that I've got so many songs that people know, they join in, you know,
02:50and it's like a sort of celebration, really.
02:54So nice. And I think there's been a resurgence of 80s, have you noticed that as well?
02:58I mean, obviously, I've been touring the whole time since the 80s,
03:02but it seems to be that there's a new generation discovering the music,
03:07and that, I suppose, is the most exciting thing for me.
03:10Those songs they're hearing, they're hearing for the first time, so it's like a new song.
03:15How exciting is that? And they're liking it.
03:18And when I see the young people down the front, and maybe their parents have brought them to the show,
03:22maybe they've been force-fed Howard Jones their whole life, and they're dancing like crazy,
03:28they're getting the EDM influences that we have, and it's very exciting.
03:33And your songs have been in so many things, too.
03:36Breaking Bad and Watchmen, the Watchmen film.
03:39So, I mean, they're seeing it there, too, for the first time, I think, as well.
03:43Yeah, well, that's exciting for me as well,
03:46and to get asked to have my songs in those high-profile...
03:50Well, on Stranger Things, I said, please have the song, please put it in,
03:55because I watch it myself, you know, and I love it.
03:58But I saw, like, you know, it's like, you know,
04:03But they play the whole of Things Can Only Get Better, I think it's in season three.
04:07Suddenly, all my streaming is, like, going through the roof,
04:10and I think, you know, the music business is always surprising me, you know,
04:14the changes, and you have to roll with it all, you know.
04:17My daughter is running my social media, and she is absolutely smashing it, you know,
04:22because she is from that generation.
04:24And I think, you know, it's like, you know,
04:28That's great.
04:29Going back to your first question, I think it's all these things suddenly coming together.
04:33I mean, what I'd love to be is sort of a multi-generation artist,
04:37that kids could come, and all the generations could feel comfortable with being at the show.
04:42That's what I'd love to happen.
04:44I'd say that's happening for you, too.
04:46Yeah.
04:47I mean, I think, you know, it's like, you know,
04:50All the generations could feel comfortable with being at the show.
04:54That's what I'd love to happen.
04:56I'd say that's happening for sure.
04:58And your kids have seemed very helpful.
05:00Your son, you were saying before.
05:02Yeah, yeah.
05:03Jasper designed this T-shirt for me, and he's done a whole set of them for me.
05:07And he comes with me shopping to get clothes,
05:11because we're all into fashion.
05:13It's kind of in the family DNA, you know.
05:16They all help me get great clothes and things that will work for me.
05:20And even when I open the show in this big pink coat,
05:24it's actually my son's coat, and he lent it to me.
05:28We go to second-hand shops and look back through the archives of my clothes,
05:34because I've always kept everything, you know, through the years,
05:38so we can mix and match with new things.
05:40That's all part of the fun.
05:42Being on stage for me is like you want the audience to feel a sense of drama
05:47and, oh, you know, what's he going to wear tonight,
05:50and how crazy is he going to be tonight, you know.
05:52And I always like that when I see artists,
05:55and so it's just a natural thing for me.
05:58That's awesome. That's so great.
06:00And what is it with music and fashion?
06:02I guess it's just a creative thing, right?
06:05There's some connection.
06:07When I started out, I was a one-man band with my synths and drum machines
06:12and my friend Jed, who was doing, like, performance art dancing,
06:18you know, in characters, different characters.
06:21And then we borrowed TVs and had VHS player with videos.
06:27So always the visuals were such a big part of what I did, and the drama.
06:32So that's really just continued, you know, through all this time.
06:38And you started playing when—were you seven when you started playing?
06:41Yeah. My parents were Welsh, so there's a huge musical tradition in Wales
06:47that you sing, you recite poetry.
06:50When you go and visit your relatives, you play the piano.
06:53They were really keen for me to learn the piano.
06:56And, you know, like many people, I hated it at first
07:01because I couldn't go out to play football with my mates and cricket and stuff.
07:06And then I got to the age of nine, and I heard something on the radio,
07:11a tune that I could play on the piano.
07:14And suddenly they couldn't stop me playing.
07:16You know, I mean, I became a nuisance.
07:18What was the tune that you heard?
07:20It was actually Puppet on a String by Sandy Shaw.
07:25And she won the Eurovision Song Contest with it.
07:29And I heard it. Oh, I can play this. That was it.
07:32It just opened the door to me, like, playing other tunes
07:37and learning other tunes and then eventually doing my own.
07:41And at the same time, I really realised that playing all the classical music
07:46was giving me the facility to play.
07:49So it's a little bit of both.
07:50You were self-taught, but you can also play by ear too?
07:53Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
07:55And I've never been particularly good at sight reading.
07:58You know, some amazing classical musicians,
08:01they can see a piece for some and they just play it.
08:03It's always been a struggle for me doing that.
08:05But I can hear things and learn it, you know, that way.
08:09And I've gone back to, you know, doing a bit more study of classical music recently
08:16to learn, you know, just learn basically about harmony
08:20and, you know, any quality input can trigger stuff within you,
08:27you know, even though I'm not a classical musician.
08:29I appreciate what those composers did and how they worked and everything, yeah.
08:35Amazing, so you're still learning. That's great.
08:37Yeah, yeah.
08:38There's always something to learn, I guess, right?
08:40Lifelong, lifelong, yeah.
08:42And then you created that electronic sound.
08:47How did that happen?
08:49I was at music college up in Manchester.
08:51It was the Royal Northern College of Music.
08:53I fluked getting in.
08:55They said I played Bach with a jazz feel,
08:58which was like kind of a compliment really to me.
09:00So I managed to get in, but then two years in,
09:03I thought, I love playing some of this music,
09:05but I really need to get on with my own music.
09:08And I was playing in bands up in Manchester,
09:10and I was on the radio doing pieces, you know, in the middle of the night.
09:15I thought, but I really need to get on.
09:17So I moved, I just quit, and I said, sorry, I've got to leave.
09:20And my piano teacher begged me to stay because he said,
09:23oh, well, play me something of yours.
09:25So I played him some of my pieces that I'd been working on,
09:28and he said, please don't leave.
09:30You know, go on the composer's course.
09:32But my mind was made up, and I left, went back to live with my mum and dad.
09:38Went back to live with my mum and dad
09:40and got this idea for a one-man electronic band
09:43because the equipment was just coming to the level
09:45where you could just about afford it.
09:47I was doing, like, all kinds of jobs.
09:49I was working in factories.
09:51I was giving piano lessons.
09:53I was doing all kinds of jobs for friends.
09:56I had about four jobs to get the money coming in
09:58so I could buy equipment.
10:00And then started doing two or three shows a week
10:04with the synths and the drum machines.
10:07And it just developed from there.
10:10It was because there was no-one around that I really knew
10:13that I could form a band with.
10:15There wasn't a singer around,
10:17so I had to learn how to sing my own songs myself.
10:20I always thought someone else would sing them,
10:22but it turned out that it had to be me.
10:24We played in tiny places, but people really loved it.
10:29It was something new, like, this is a new sound,
10:32and we're going to follow this guy.
10:34And they would follow me up to London when we played in London.
10:38It was a very genuine grassroots build.
10:42And that's what always sort of saddened me
10:46when I finally got signed and the music press said
10:50that it was like a kind of manufactured pop star,
10:53you know what I mean,
10:55but couldn't have been further from the truth.
10:57I was playing everything myself.
10:59I was writing everything myself.
11:02Inventing a new way of doing things
11:04that influenced a whole generation of EDM artists.
11:08The great thing about when you get that kind of negative thing come to you,
11:13it makes you strong,
11:15because it gives you a backbone to really believe in what you do
11:20and to keep, I'm going to keep going.
11:23You're giving me fuel, you're giving me the energy to go.
11:26So in a way, you can turn anything to your advantage
11:29if you have that attitude.
11:31I love it. That's great.
11:34What do you think of music today
11:36with all of the technology at your fingertips now?
11:39Are you a foe?
11:41No, I think it's like everything can be used in a great way,
11:50and then there'll be a few people who want to use it to steal your stuff.
11:55You know what I mean?
11:57It's always going to be the case.
11:59I'm never afraid of new developments, like the AI thing.
12:03It's just people have to be responsible with it
12:06and not use it to destroy the music business.
12:11For me as an artist creating things,
12:15those tools can be really useful to make music
12:18that may be sounds that people have never heard before.
12:22When I started out, they wanted to ban me from the Musicians' Union
12:26because I was using synthesizers
12:28that they thought would be getting rid of people's jobs and stuff like that.
12:33But of course, you end up employing hundreds and hundreds of people to work with you.
12:38And then there was sampling, and then people would go,
12:40oh, this is going to ruin everything.
12:42People are going to just steal your sounds.
12:44Okay, a few people did,
12:46but also we got this explosion of amazing new music because of sampling.
12:52I'm always hopeful that human beings will always choose
12:57the honorable way to use the new tech.
13:01And there will always be a few that don't,
13:03but that's the way it is.
13:06Absolutely.
13:08What inspires you creatively?
13:10I have my Buddhist practice,
13:13and in this nearly 30 years now I've been practicing.
13:16So the wisdom of that teaching really, really inspires me.
13:21And I always try and put that into my work, into my lyrics.
13:24The lyrics are very important to me.
13:26I think of music as being this very privileged position
13:30because you sort of get into people's heads with music.
13:34So I want to make sure that the words that go with the music
13:39are of benefit to the person who's listening.
13:41And they may not need it at the moment or need it most of the time,
13:46but there's always a time when you need a boost
13:50and you need a little bit of encouragement.
13:52And I hope that the lyrics will bring that to people.
13:55And the spirit of the song, the uplifting nature of it.
14:00So that's what I've always thought was my role,
14:04is to do that and to stick to it and keep going with it.
14:09What comes first, the lyrics or the music?
14:12It's usually the music.
14:14And then I've got loads of subjects that I want to write about
14:17and things I want to talk about.
14:19I choose the right vibe of the music to go with that.
14:23And that takes the longest time for me, doing the lyrics,
14:27because it's the most important thing.
14:30The music flows quite well, but the lyrics, they take a bit of time.
14:37Who were your influences?
14:39Obviously my classical piano work was a big influence.
14:44My mother played the radio all the time.
14:46We didn't have a record player or anything at home.
14:48My mother was always listening to the radio,
14:51so I'm hearing the Beatles and I'm hearing the Tremolos
14:54and those 60s bands.
14:56My dad bought me a little transistor radio when I was 11,
15:01and I listened to pirate radio stations.
15:04And then I was listening to, going to see gigs.
15:07Then when I was 14, I went to the Isle of Wight Music Festival
15:11and saw The Doors and The Who and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
15:17and Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix.
15:21I was so fortunate to see all those people on the same bill,
15:26and I've missed out loads of them that were incredible.
15:29And then Stevie Wonder, Keith Emerson, a huge influence on me
15:33with keyboard playing and synthesizers,
15:35Elton John's brilliant songwriting.
15:39I've rediscovered Billy Joel.
15:41Oh, really?
15:42And I'm going through Billy Joel's catalogue,
15:44and it's like, oh my God, the songs!
15:47There's just a million people that you feed on, you know,
15:52and it inspires you to make your own thing.
15:55Did your parents see you become famous?
15:58Yes, they did. Bless them.
16:00They ran my fan club,
16:02and my mother particularly wrote to thousands of young people
16:10struggling with things,
16:12and she wrote to them personally, encouraging them,
16:16and people are still coming up to me now.
16:18And with these yellow sheets she used to write on,
16:21this is a letter from your mother,
16:23and it's like, what an incredible legacy that she left.
16:27And she promoted the values that I have so beautifully,
16:31and she used to do things like send photographs that she shouldn't be sending.
16:37It was like she treated them more like family.
16:40So she sent pictures of Jan, my wife, and the kids as babies.
16:46It was like just sending them to fans,
16:48because to her, they were her extended family.
16:52I mean, what? Isn't that incredible?
16:55I mean, we never charged anything for the fan club.
16:58We just wanted to do it because they're fans.
17:01Look after them.
17:03And then they toured with me,
17:05and the funny thing that happened with that
17:08was that everywhere we went,
17:10and they were on the tour bus with me,
17:12they were in their 60s,
17:14and everywhere we went, they'd get off the bus,
17:17and there'd be fans waiting for them to take them round,
17:21show them the sights.
17:23That's amazing.
17:26I used to say they're more famous than I am.
17:30They've got more love coming towards them.
17:34But I thought that was a wonderful thing.
17:38They had the time of their life
17:40actually meeting the people they were writing to,
17:44and they used to sell the merch.
17:46It was a real mom and pop.
17:48That's beautiful.
17:50But the fans loved it
17:52and that was their connection with me,
17:55so it was great.
17:56That's so great. I love it.
17:58And now you're still keeping that kind of family tradition going,
18:01sounds like.
18:02The whole family's involved.
18:04Yes, that's right.
18:05They've all got their own careers and things as well,
18:09which is wonderful.
18:11But they really support me so well.
18:13It's fantastic.
18:15Tell us a little bit about your new music.
18:18We put out an album.
18:20I've never played the O2 in London.
18:22It's quite an iconic gig.
18:24So we recorded it.
18:25You never know whether it's going to work,
18:27whether the recording is going to be all right,
18:29whether you had technical issues or something like that.
18:32But it all sounded so good,
18:34and we were all really pumped up playing that venue.
18:38So we mixed it with my friend Robbie
18:40and thought it's like a souvenir of the show we're doing at the moment.
18:44So if you want to hear where we've got to with the songs.
18:47I mean, there's the songs on the record,
18:49but all these years later they're much more up to date
18:54and they're the way I want things to sound now,
18:57and it reflects that.
18:58So I thought it would be a good time to release a live album.
19:02How did you twist them when you say a little more updated?
19:05What did you do?
19:06Yeah, well, things can only get better.
19:08We do the song quite faithful to the original,
19:12and then we go into this sort of remix version
19:15that's pumped up.
19:17It's like EDM.
19:19Everyone's up, jumping out of their seats,
19:22and all the young people are going,
19:23Yeah!
19:26But we try and get everyone doing that.
19:28And then things like,
19:29Like To Get To Know You Well,
19:31I put in South American rhythms in the middle.
19:35I always want to present a little surprise
19:38in songs that people know,
19:40so it's not just like the record.
19:42Oh yeah, it's something extra you're getting tonight.
19:45Do you have a favorite?
19:47At the moment, my favorite is Hide and Seek,
19:50which is a slow song,
19:52and I'm always a little bit nervous about doing things
19:55that are that slow live,
19:57because most of the set is really up,
19:59but we've done a new electronic version of it,
20:02and it's got a heartbeat rhythm,
20:05and it just creates an incredible atmosphere,
20:08and then you can go back to the more bouncy stuff.
20:12It's like taking people on a journey during the set
20:15of all different emotions,
20:17and then at the end,
20:19it's like celebrating being alive.
20:22I want people to walk out of the show
20:24with a spring in their step,
20:26and ready to take on any difficulty
20:28and any problem in their life,
20:31and to really be boosted by having seen the show.
20:35That's my aim.
20:36And what's next?
20:37What are you working on next?
20:39I set myself a goal of doing 4 albums,
20:42and I've done 3 of them.
20:44It was Engage, Transform, and then Dialogue,
20:47and now the next one is going to be called Global Citizen.
20:51I'm not quite sure what it's going to be yet.
20:54I'm thinking we'll record it here in America,
20:57because I spend so much time here now,
20:59and I want to record with American musicians,
21:02and it'd be much more of a song-based album,
21:05maybe not so electronic,
21:07because the last 3 were,
21:09but this one to really capture
21:12a lot of different influences from around the world,
21:15you know, global rhythms,
21:17and musically represent the fact
21:20that we're living on one planet, you know,
21:23and then the lyrics will reflect that,
21:26that everything we do affects everyone else,
21:29and we've got to be aware
21:31that we've only got one planet and one world.
21:33We've got to look after it.
21:35And so that's going to be the theme of it,
21:37and I think having as many collaborators as possible
21:40is going to be a way of sort of reflecting that
21:44as a philosophy,
21:46because if I just did it on my own,
21:48that's not really being a global citizen.
21:51It's like, you know, there's a place for that,
21:54but if I involve a lot of people
21:56helping me to make the record,
21:58that's like you have to cooperate,
22:00you have to listen,
22:02you have to have dialogue with people,
22:04and I think we should reflect that philosophy.
22:07You sort of answered this,
22:09but what does music do for people?
22:11Well, I think it's totally unique music.
22:14It can really lift people's spirits.
22:16It can really share a feeling, you know,
22:19of sorrow or happiness,
22:21or it can take people out of their current predicament
22:25and problems and difficulties,
22:28and it can transport them to another place,
22:31you know, for a bit of respite from all that.
22:35Yeah, it's an amazing thing,
22:38and I always get worried when it gets undervalued,
22:42you know, because actually music is so valuable,
22:45and we must protect it,
22:47and we must support artists who are making music,
22:50and we must support young people who are making music,
22:54and there should be music lessons at school
22:58and, you know, choirs, and, you know,
23:01it's one of those things.
23:03Can you see tangibly the value?
23:06No, you can't, but you look,
23:08go to a gig and see how that deeply affects people
23:13and lifts them, you know,
23:15for that moment that they're there,
23:18and hopefully they can carry that over.
23:23So for you, you had that drive that you had to create it,
23:27you had to give it.
23:28You weren't seeking fame or anything.
23:30I never craved attention.
23:32It is what comes with doing this,
23:35but it wasn't the motivation.
23:37It was like, oh, I just, I love music.
23:39I want to do my music.
23:40I want people to hear it.
23:41This is what I can do.
23:42I've been doing it since I was seven.
23:44I want people to hear what I've done,
23:47because that's my contribution.
23:49That's always been the prime motivation.
23:52To hear more of this interview,
23:54visit our podcast, Life Minute TV,
23:56on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.