It was 2008 and Kanye West dropped 808s & Heartbreak. Among his many influences came Gary Numan.
We recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Gary Numan where we spoke on a number of things including his brand new album, Intruder and his thoughts on being cited as a musical reference to Kanye West.
Numan said, “Quite often I think when influence is used well, you wouldn’t necessarily see it anyway. Influence used properly, really ignites your own ideas.”
“An influence is like a spark. It goes in and it ignites your own imagination and all your own ideas pour out, but you wouldn’t have opened that door to that part of your imagination without that spark.”
He continued, “So yes, the influence is important, but you often won’t hear it. The music that you make because of the influence will often be unrecognisable to the influence that ignited it.”
Has Numan listened to West’s 808s & Heartbreak? Well, no. And he probably won’t, but that’s not for any reason in particular, other than the fact that he doesn’t really listen to music these days.
He said, “If I get a spare hour or two now, the last thing I would ever do is just put on an album on and just listen to a record. I think maybe because it’s become my life and so I think it’s difficult to listen to an album without analysing it and pulling it apart.”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
“So no, I haven’t listened to Kanye’s album. My eldest kid, Raven saw a Tyler the Creator interview a few weeks back where talked about me and was very lovely. But I’ve not listened to his album either. I’m not been assey, I don’t mean it that way. I would, but just I don’t, really listen to music.
Numan catches all of mentions he has received from other artists. “Trent Reznor and all these other people, Prince, even Bowie have said all these lovely things over the years,” he says.
“But I mean I’ve listened to some of it over the time and it’s very rare that I can clearly hear me in it. But it’s just lovely to know that you played a part in the process. It’s very flattering, I’m really proud of it. But I don’t chase it, so to speak.”
For more on this topic, follow the Classic Rock Observer and the Hip Hop Observer.
