Bonus Q&A with Mike Peters of The Alarm: Touring, Making 'Forwards,' Coloursound and More

photo courtesy Reybee PR

Here's more from my interview with Mike Peters of The Alarm that didn't make it into my main feature...

Q: The last time we talked about was about six years ago when you were doing your biggest Southern California tour up to that point. This area is a longtime stronghold for The Alarm, isn’t it?

A: Yeah, it’s always great. I love coming to Southern California – San Diego, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino. They’re always really supportive of Mike Peters and The Alarm. We’re grateful to be able to come to a beautiful part of the world and perform. It’s a privilege and an honor.

Q: Tell me about your recent U.K. acoustic concerts.

A: When they say ‘acoustic,’ it’s really a one-man-band that people are confronted with when they come to the shows. It’s quite loud. My guitar is an acoustic guitar, but it plays electric as well. I have a drum going with my feet and it’s like a band. The outcome is very similar to what I’m doing when the Alarm plays. Everyone is on their feet and singing along, joining in. I can also go into some more reflective moments, go deeper into The Alarm songbook. Because I’m up there on my own, I don’t have to guide a band around the stage. I can just go where the music takes me and play songs from all eras of the band’s songbook on this tour. Looking forward to doing a lot more of it as well.

Q: With such a wealth of material to choose from, how do you go about making up a setlist?

A: Basically, when I’m on my own, I don’t have a setlist. I just go on and start with whatever comes to my mind as I’m walking towards the microphone, and I can see the audience and feel out what they may be looking forward to experiencing that night. With the band, we do go on with a setlist, but there are areas of it where I can call it up or change it around. Everyone knows by now that I’m reactive in concert. Things happen. 

We came across this style of playing after the pandemic where we were able to play a lot of songs in a short space of time by creating these wild Alarm medleys. We play like 25 songs inside an hour. We just don’t stop. James Stevenson and myself, we play guitars now where we don’t have to change instruments. To change the sound of the band, we use a special kind of amplifier. We can convert our guitars into bass guitars at the flick of a switch. 

So, I can be playing guitar on a song, right up to the guitar solo, I flick the switch, James switches his and all the sudden, he’s playing the solo and I’m playing the bass. It’s become really liberating. We can also change our amplification at the flick of a switch as well. Not only do we change songs and the way the band’s playing, but we can also change the whole sonic landscape of the whole group as well. So, it’s created some amazing concerts. We’re looking forward to bringing it to America. Hopefully I’ll bring some Mike Peters/Alarm acoustic shows to Southern California in October. I’m speaking at the World Cancer Leaders Summit in Long Beach [Oct. 16-17]. Hoping to put a few shows together around that. That’s the plan.

Q: Before a new album comes out, do you still get anxious to see what the fans’ reactions are? 

A: Yeah. Very much so. Especially nowadays, you get a greater sense of what the reaction is. In the ‘80s, there wasn’t a lot before the record came out. There was maybe one single and the album. The singles would come out after the release. Now, in the modern era we live in, most singles come out before the album. We’ve got four singles up on all the streaming services now. The BBC just played a fifth song...called ‘Another Way.’ 

I’m playing various combinations of the songs during the shows. I can really sense that there’s a strong feeling already from the fans for this record. We’ve got lots of reviews in really lauding the record. It’s amazing really and great to be part of. The fans are as excited as we are about the music. There’s something about this one - there’s a special connection going on with it straight away. I play a song like ‘Next’ on my own and everyone goes crazy for it right away. They all join it and are clapping and stomping along. It’s got something going for it this time.

Q: How did being in the hospital while creating the new songs influence them? 

A: All the noises of the hospital, when you’re there a long time get into your mind and can be quite unsettling when the drugs come in [mimics the sounds]. The heart monitors. All of the sudden they became my little rhythm track; they became my little virtual backing band, almost. It was all very much formed in the hospital, but toward the end, ‘New Standards’ and ‘Next’ had sort of begun live before I had gotten taken really ill. I was able to finish them off lyrically while I was in hospital. There are 12 songs that came out of the project. 10 are on the album. A couple extra tracks will come out during [this album] campaign at some point. It was hard to know what to leave off the album, but I wanted to make it quite relatable to a forward journey and a journey back to life.

Q: Unlike some of your contemporaries who came to prominence in the ‘80s, you put out an album every year or so. What continues to drive you as an artist at this point in your career?

A: A lot has happened in my life. I’ve had cancer and have lived with it since 1995. As much as it’s been a curse, it’s been a blessing as well at times because it’s made me realize how precious life is and how short life is - how much I’ve got to live for. Sometimes you need incidents in your life to give you those kinds of wake-up calls. It can be getting divorced, falling in love, losing your job, having success in life or something happens out of the blue that revolutionizes your life. That becomes your door into new music.

Some bands when they’ve been around a long time, being creative can be quite scary. Some musicians don’t like to be challenged. They just like to be in their comfort zone, playing the songs they’ve played for the last 20 years. Why do we want to play three brand new songs that people don’t even know yet? It can become scary. Some people shy away from that.

Luckily, I lead The Alarm from the front, and everyone has to come along with it. I’m not trapped in a band of equals like in the ‘80s when it started to become like that towards the end - people holding you back, holding the creativity back. I think it can be tough being out there on your own up front, but it also has its benefits. Everybody has to get behind this adventure we want to go on. Luckily everybody does, and I think we all enjoy the challenge. I can see the benefits when we play live and play the songs the band is known for, like ‘The Stand’ or “Strength.’ They’re fresh because they’re sitting in a new context. They’re being played alongside ‘Forwards’ or “Next,’ followed by ‘The Stand.’ It connects the whole thing. It makes the beginnings of the band as alive as where we are today. 

I’d love to hear a brand-new album from The Clash, but I know that’s not going to happen. I used to live for that moment when they were still playing. A lot of fans are like that, like me, they can’t wait for new records.

Q: Going back to the new album, is that a drum machine I hear on ‘Transition?’

A: No, it’s a real drum kit. It started life with a drum machine because that’s all I had when I did the demo. The drum machine part was a bit more Joy Division when I started it. Then we put the real drums behind it. But the spirit of the whole track is still there. Started with the first demo, some guitar parts were there while bringing it to life…you really sense some of that in the background. The pulse was something I created in the studio. That’s something we did in 1984 when we did ‘Declaration’ and ‘Howling Wind.’ A very similar sound. It’s a machine pulse. I was working that song up when I was around the hospital machines [mimics monitor sound]. The respiration machine. That became my rhythm track and led to these cyclic vibes going on in the tracks. We wanted to keep that sense from the demo, from that first 24 hours when I came out of hospital intact. It was important for that moment of creativity and creation was alive in the record.

Q: Who does most of the electric guitar work on the new album, you, or James?

A: I do a lot of it. James came in and finessed the main parts; added some solos. All the main guitar figures were there from the very beginning. That’s why I think the record works. The demos, if I ever share those, they almost sound exactly like the album…it’s all there. That’s what’s good about an artist like James, he can put his ego aside and say, ‘You’ve nailed the guitar riff. You don’t need me to come up with something else. I’ll back this up with a guitarist’s timing'…a lot of people, their ego says, ‘I’ve got to change it.’ When the singer or writer puts it down, they want to put more of their own stamp on it than they need to. Sometimes, you can go too far and take the song away from the natural space it inhabits. 

I’m lucky with James, Jules, Smiley - and George as well - because he helps with music; he’s a brilliant talent. To me, I feel like I’ve got a great team behind me. It's a bit like when U2 were making their records and had Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois as part of the team. Sometimes when you’re the musician and you’re aspiring toward something, you can’t hear what you’re really going for because you’ve got too many things to think about…I feel like my team can be my mirror and help me realize what I’m trying to achieve.

Q: What do you think when you hear a younger band like The Killers cover one of your songs like ‘Rain in the Summertime’ in concert or on record?

A: That was my aspiration when I got into music. My first thing was I wanted to be the guy in the brackets after the song title. When I bought my first album it was Slade’s Alive! [1972]. On the record when I looked at it in the record shop and flipped it over, the song titles had Steppenwolf, John Sebastian. Then I bought David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. I thought it was going to be all David Bowie [originals]. When I got home and played it, I read the inner sleeve notes and there was the song ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together.’ In brackets was ‘Jagger/Richards.’ I thought, 'This is a cover version,' and I realized what covers were then. I always wanted to be that guy in the brackets more than the actual band themselves. To have a band like The Killers sing ‘Rain in the Summertime’ and have my name in brackets that’s like the ultimate honor for me.

Q: Do you still keep in touch with the original members of The Alarm?

A: Yeah, Dave’s been on the last few shows with us and coming to the Gathering for the last 10 years. We played in San Francisco in 2019, brought Twist up for the encore and he did 3 songs with us. Eddie, I speak to a lot. I supported him in 2019, the last gigs I did before the pandemic. He’s got a band called Small Town Glory and I went along and contributed as the opening act for their show. It was really good. We did ‘Bands Reunited’ a number of years ago. That was great. Everybody got to see the band come back together again. That was a good thing. That was enough for me, to be honest. Scratched that itch. It was great to do it. You can’t reform twice. Can you?

Q: I was pleased to see you do another Coloursound album with Billy Duffy. You've known him since before he was in The Cult, right?

A: I knew the Cult growing up. We come from a similar era. I used to see Southern Death Cult a lot. I saw Death Cult play. Then I saw Billy play with Theatre of Hate. He was always my favorite guitarist from my generation. It was always an aspiration of mine to play guitar with him. 

We met through playing football – soccer – at a music tournament in ’96. The Cult had split at that point and so had The Alarm. I said, ‘Why don’t you come up?’ He liked hiking in the mountains which was something I didn’t realize. Same with me. I said “Let’s go hiking in Wales and we did. At that time, he was starting a band with Miles Hunt of Wonder Stuff called Vent. A few months later, he came to a solo show of mine in LA and said ‘I’m not doing anything, why don’t we get together and write some songs?’ I thought, ‘great.’ 

We wrote great stuff straight away and created Coloursound. It took off like wildfire. It was so exciting. We played a gig before we released anything. We played a big show in London. Ian Astbury was at the gig and Eddie from The Alarm was at the gig and the next day it was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we get [The Cult] back together?’ Billy went back to Cult to play at Woodstock and I did the Alarm 2000 era. We never got to properly explore how exciting Coloursound could’ve been if it had been left alone to develop naturally in that early part of the millennium. We’re still great friends.

Q: Back in May, you appeared as part of the all-star group of performers paying tribute to the original garage rock compilation “Nuggets” in LA, a benefit for autism. What was that experience like?

A: It was amazing. I didn’t know too much about him (but) I knew about the MC5. There was special chemistry when we played together. It was electric and we brought the venue to a bit of a standstill. More from Wayne than me. His guitar playing was right on the edge and lit up the room. It was great to do the Van Morrison/Amboy Dukes vocal. I was like, ‘You want me to sing now? I’m enjoying the guitar!’ It was great hanging out with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, and Elliot Easton. It was like an I.R.S. Records reunion.