Gary new man

Your new tour has been described as a ‘Best Of’ so fans can expect some of your biggest hits. But has there been a reluctance previously to play your older songs?

I recognise a certain debt to my history and the fans who have been with me for a long time so I do some old stuff, but not that much. I don’t want to do greatest hits tours every time because I’d get bored with that and it’d be a step backwards.

You’ve been busy with media interviews ahead of the tour. Do you welcome the attention, particularly in view of some of the bad press you have had in the past?

The most important function of touring is to generate media interest around your music. I’ve seen plenty of interviews where people don’t want to talk or answer any questions and you wonder what is the point of that? I’m not a liar or trying to manipulate opinion. If someone asks me a question, I give them the answer.

Sometimes in the past that has been used as ammunition to shoot me down, but that has been my own stupid fault for not being more careful about what I have been saying. I had real problems for my first few years, but my relationship (with journalists) has been positive for a long time now.

In addition to the tour, you are playing several festivals this summer. What kind of venue do you prefer?

Festivals are vitally important to me.

My music does not get played on radio so it is very difficult to reach out to new people. The problem with conventional touring is that you are kind of playing to the converted. Festivals are the best way to reach much larger numbers of people who otherwise wouldn’t come to see me, and hopefully dispel any pre-determined ideas they may have.

You’ve done a number of collaborations and appeared on stage with Nine Inch Nails. Anything else in the pipeline?

I’ve done a track with a new band called Officers, who I think are brilliant, and they are going to be supporting me on the tour.

You are moving to California later this year. Why?

I want to get into writing film music and the best place to be is Los Angeles.

I’m also sick to death of our weather, I find it utterly depressing.

That might sound like a trivial reason, but having lovely weather means you can do so much more every day. My girls are eight, six and five and as they grow there also will be better opportunities for them in America. I love Britain to bits, but in the last few years I have begun to wonder why. I am also taxed beyond belief, which drives me mad.

How long do you plan to keep performing and what’s your motivation?

Motivation is easy. Of all the things you do as a musician, touring is the most fun. I love the whole lifestyle and don’t want to stop. However, I am very self-critical and I believe that one day I will wake up and look in the mirror and think I am too old.

If I do this for another ten years, I will be 64 which seems crazy and very unlikely.

Your Wikipedia entry refers to your persona in the early 1980s as being “aloof, alien and androgynous” – would you still describe yourself this way?

I’m certainly not androgynous, I’m too hairy for that. My whole look has changed over the years. I don’t think I’m aloof – especially on stage now, I smile a lot. I’m not trying to stand back and look interesting which is perhaps what I used to do. And as for alien, definitely not, all that’s gone.

Would you do anything differently over the course of your career again?

There are plenty of albums I shouldn’t have done and images I have projected I wish I hadn’t. My career has been full of mistakes and I have been very lucky to survive. You learn from the mistakes you make and hopefully get better.

Do you worry about being seen as cool or uncool?

I had a long period of being considerably uncool, but I’ve never worried about it. It doesn’t bother me on a day-to-day basis.

• Gary Numan plays Newcastle O2 Academy on May 24 with support from Officers. A new limited edition DVD, Machine Music: The Best Of Gary Numan is out on June 11.