SPILL FEATURE: EVERYBODY WANG CHUNG TONIGHT – A CONVERSATION WITH JACK HUES OF WANG CHUNG

EVERYBODY WANG CHUNG TONIGHT

A CONVERSATION WITH JACK HUES OF WANG CHUNG

Founded by Jack Hues, Nick Feldman, and Darren Costin (who left the band in 1984), Wang Chung was the soundtrack to many people’s lives back in the ‘80s. Originally called Huang Chung, they had a bunch of fantastic hits in the ‘80s, including “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, “Dance Hall Days”, “Let’s Go”, and “Hypnotize Me”. Recently I had the chance to talk to Jack Hues of Wang Chung about the golden age of new wave music, their hit song “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, his experience creating the soundtrack for To Live and Die in L.A., their current tour, his love for the mastering and remastering process, and what the future looks like for Wang Chung.

Wang Chung was one of the defining bands of the 1980s and was part of the golden age of new wave music. In the ‘80s new wave music dominated the charts, was constantly featured in big movies in which both the music and movies would eventually become timeless classics and shaped the culture of the time. Reflecting on being part of this monumental time in the ‘80s, Hues comments, “I guess when you are in it, you don’t have the same perspective certainly that you have now when you are looking at the ‘80s from 40 years in the future. You see it as a coherent thing. When you’re in it, it seems very incoherent. Wang Chung was one of a number of bands competing on the grid. I guess I always had a strong sense that we were given amazing opportunities. For instance, in ‘83, when we signed to Geffen Records and started making Points On The Curve, which had “Dance Hall Days” in it, we were recording that in Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles made their albums. That meant something to me, that was powerful. I was just talking to my friend here recently about growing up in a small town in the U.K. in Gillingham. Gillingham is like 40 miles outside of Central London. Then you’re driving down Sunset [Boulevard] and seeing your face on the side of a building, and you think, OK, I’m in Hollywood. You can personally measure these things in a way. I guess retrospectively, you see that Wang Chung meant something to people, and the fact that we’re still in the frame, there’s an enduring quality to it, and people are still in a sense discovering the music, so that’s very cool.”

One of the most instantly recognizable songs from the ‘80s is “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” back in 1986. The catchy and captivating blend of funk, dance, and new wave had everybody Wang Chunging it. Chances are if you listened to the song, the line: “Everybody Wang Chung tonight” caught your attention due to it being a quite bizarre (what exactly did it mean to Wang Chung?) yet, incredibly charming line. Hues states that the line was “Completely spontaneous. It was an ad-lib when we were doing the demo, almost like a placeholder line that I thought would be replaced with something more meaningful. When we worked with Peter Wolf, who produced that record, the demo was quite slow really, and there was heavy, in my head, at least, heavy irony about writing a song called “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” because even in the ‘80s it seems like it was this golden age, the news was still this kind of nightmarish scenario; Reagan was president, wars, and all the stuff we have now, although maybe not as intense as it is now. But maybe “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” was the perfect tagline because it was absurd in a line of itself. Of course, people put in their own, well that’s what it means for me, so I like that. I always think that art is about seeing yourself and finding a space for yourself in it, so we certainly gave people that.”

Being such a pivotal band in the ‘80s allowed Wang Chung to experience some tremendous things that the band will never forget. Hues shares some of his fondest memories. “Recording Points On The Curve in Abbey Road Studios was certainly one of them. Meeting Paul McCartney in that process was an amazing experience. Also, I can remember certain shows, playing these massive stadiums and stuff like that.”

His time working on the soundtrack To Live and Die in L.A. is one moment in particular that he cherishes and has tons of great memories. “One of the most enduringly great aspects was doing the movie soundtrack To Live and Die in L.A. and becoming friends with Bill [William] Friedkin. Bill had a reputation in Hollywood for being incredibly difficult, a maverick, and downright scary to some people, yet my relationship with him was incredible. He was always a nice guy to hang out with, very bright and intelligent. He worked with people like Harold Pinter, and he did an interview with Fritz Lang; he was a sort of a heavyweight or intellectualweight. He wasn’t just some goofy guy who made movies. His whole career was being on the outside always. This sort of introduction, as it were, to Hollywood people, the producers, the guys on his team, the stunt doubles, seeing Willem Dafoe and John Turturro, that was transformative, in terms of as a person in a way your horizons are, the way you look at the world. Hanging out with someone like that, you download a lot of information, not just what he’s saying, but the whole kind of way he’s living, the people you meet through him. So that’s a powerful experience.”

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

Hues mentions that Wang Chung had “a lot of freedom” when it came to creating the soundtrack for To Live and Die in L.A.. “That was partly due to the fact that we didn’t see the movie. We just wrote music in a very kind of, spontaneous way. Bill [Friedkin] approached us directly to do the soundtrack. Like a lot of artistic projects, if you choose the right people, those first few decisions you make, in a sense, dictate the outcome in a way much more powerful than other developmental things. He was using one of our tracks to sort of play for atmosphere while he was watching the daily rushes, and that’s what he wanted, so he came directly to us. He didn’t send some minion or music supervisor to have a conversation and all. He did it himself. He knew what he wanted.; I want a load of music like “Wait”, and that’s what we gave him, plus a whole load of other things because he wanted an era of music, and we didn’t have that, so we came up with a load of stuff in the studio. We had a week to do it because Geffen [Records] didn’t want us to do the soundtrack. They wanted us to focus on making another pop record. Even the word pop record sounds dismissive in the language. It’s not. It is a highly developed craft trying to do that stuff along a very narrow set of rails. So, you’ve got to be able to do that and I always found it very hard. I couldn’t be creative in a big space, especially when I feel like a beginner in the space, I always find it very stimulating. So, movie soundtrack, OK, let’s do one.”

Hues found that there was “a big difference” when creating a movie soundtrack compared to a pop record and loved how spontaneous the process of creating To Live and Die in L.A. was. “[To Live and Die in L.A.] felt more like making a jazz record really rather than a pop record. Points On The Curve and Mosaic, which had “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, were much more focused and disciplined, almost to the point where it wasn’t fun. It was work. And To Live and Die in L.A. was fun.

According to Hues, “To Live and Die in L.A. has the most character in terms of it reflecting Nick [Feldman] and I in a quite undiluted sort of way, which isn’t to say the others don’t. People aren’t going to say that sounds really different to other Wang Chung records. But I guess we produced it ourselves. We had more autonomy with it. I think when you’re working with producers, although it’s a great experience because they push you in certain directions, it develops you as a musician and a person because you’ve got to be resilient. To hang on to your vision of what it is.

“There’s a great quote on my Facebook feed at the moment from Joni Mitchell, where she is saying; ‘I heard record companies just want people who are compliant and do what they say and produce the product they want. As an artist, your job is to do exactly the opposite,’ and I kind of always felt that, and I think, in a way, the Wang Chung legacy, if you like, does include some of that. I mean, obviously, we toed the line. Again, in the ‘80s, the music business was running the show. The bands weren’t running it. Like in the ‘70s, I think the bands were running the show and the music business adapted to try and work it out. But in the ‘80s, there was a formula, and you had to be on message. But within that framework, I think we managed to create something quirky.”

Currently, Wang Chung is on a tour called “Abducted by the 80s,” and joining Wang Chung on this tour are several other notable groups from the ‘80s; The Motels, Men Without Hats, Naked Eyes, and Animotion. You do not want to miss this tour if you love the ‘80s, especially new wave music. Hues briefly mentions how this tour got started. “It came out with us experiencing these retro package tour things. There’s one that we did, which was called “Lost 80s,” which was a few bands, maybe as much as seven or eight bands, which means each band plays a small number of songs, and I’m happy with that. People come along to see a variety of bands, and it’s been brilliant for us. Each band brings its own audience to the show, and people love the ‘80s, and it’s geared up around that, obviously. We’ve been asked to play longer sets, so how can we do that? So “Abducted By The 80’s” is actually the title of one of the songs on our last studio album, which we released in 2012, an album called Tazer Up! and “Abducted By The 80’s” is a very quirky song on that record. So that title stuck.”

ABDUCTED BY THE 80’s TOUR POSTER

“So, we thought of some other bands that might be interested to work with us. We love The Motels. Martha [Davis] is great; in fact, her whole band is great. We’ve only done a few shows, but we’re already huge fans of each other. I love their live sets. There’s so much space in it. They’re great, and the songs are great, it is really good. And then Pete [Byrne] with Naked Eyes, we’ve done a lot of work with him in the Lost 80s stuff. So, there is a sense of atmosphere on this tour, and people seem to really get into it, and there is a lot of music and not so many changeovers.”

On this tour, Wang Chung has been playing some of their ‘deep cuts,’ which they have had a really great time doing. At the moment, Hues enjoys playing “Eyes of the Girl” and “City of The Angels” live. He notes, “We’re doing a track “Eyes of the Girl” which is from Mosaic, which we’ve never done live before, and we started playing it, I think we did the ‘80s cruise earlier on in the year, and we were playing long sets and Nick [Feldman], and I were like let’s see if we can work that up so we’ve been playing that. We do a version of “City Of The Angels”, which is one of the instrumental soundtrack bits from To Live And Die In L.A., that’s really fun to play because it is sort of like a prog rock piece and is about eight minutes long, no vocals, and you’re kinda kept in the structure of it.”

Hues also enjoys the remastering and mastering of records, stating, “I’m really into recorded sound. I have a good sound system at home and buy a ton of vinyl. I think rock, pop, and jazz albums sound brilliant on vinyl. Classical stuff I’m more into streaming it these days, these high-res streaming things that really give you the breadth of sound. So remastering and mastering in itself is a dark art, having made these solo albums myself. The mastering process was the one thing I spent money on, apart from some session guys. Mastering is worth spending time on, but you’ve got to get the right guys. I’m looking forward to that process because I think there is a lot of detail in the Wang Chung tracks. If there’s anything that gives that durability is the fact that there are a lot of layers in the tracks, so you can really listen into it and hear the synth parts and little sequences and stuff. There’s a lot of detail to bring out there, and also, they’re quite tough-sounding records, so it will be nice to bring that out, especially the soundtrack of To Live and Die in L.A.. To remaster that soundtrack will be really cool.”

As for the future of Wang Chung, Hues explains that they are in a “Retro space. We’re releasing this greatest hits package called Clear Light Dark Matter and the plan is to have a double vinyl release. Album one would be the greatest hits but remastered, which they’ve never really been done before, right through Huang Chung to Tazer Up!. Then the second album will be outtakes and rarities that have never been released before. So that would include our very first single, which was on the little independent label, and the demo of “Dance Hall Days”, so I think something for fans who’ve been with us for a long time. There will be some really new stuff on there. That’s the next main project we’re involved in. That will be a prologue to re-releasing the back catalogue in remastered editions, and I think the time is right for that. Next year is the 40th anniversary of To Live and Die in L.A., and we’re hoping to do something special for that, too. Having said that, I’ve released a couple of solo albums in the last few years, and I plan on releasing a third solo album early next year.”

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Photo Credit: Armando De’Ath

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