Psychedelic Furs: The Boys That (Re)invented Rock & Roll

As the British band approaches its 50^th anniversary, they’re still making great new music

The Psychedelic Furs burst onto the London postpunk scene in 1977. As the group’s name suggests, the Furs came on strong with a dark, brooding approach that drew from punk and ‘60s psychedelia, setting them apart from many of their contemporaries. From the start, their rough-hewn sound was a hit with critics, earning the band an underground following.

Led by brothers Richard (vocals) and bassist Tim Butler, The Psychedelic Furs broke through with their third LP, 1982’s Forever Now. A single from that record, “Love My Way” was an international hit and a U.S. Top 40 single. The band got another commercial boost in 1986 when a re-recorded version of the title track from their second album was used as the theme song for a popular John Hughes-directed film. The group continued with well-received albums and tours into the early 1990s, and then the Butler brothers put the band on hiatus, launching another group, Love Spit Love.

But by 2000, the group restarted, and has continued ever since. Unlike many of their contemporaries, though, the Psychedelic Furs have written and released new material rather than coasting on the success of decades past. I spoke with Tim Butler about the Psychedelic Furs’ past, present and future.

When the Psychedelic Furs’ self-titled debut album was released in 1980, it was remarkably different from much of what was going on musically at the time. In those early days, what was the vision for what the group wanted to do?

There was not really any concrete vision. When we started out, we couldn’t really play well, so we sort of went for more of the Velvet Underground-y, elongated songs. We’d jam around and stuff, trying to work out our instruments, basically. The whole sound of songs like “India” was just everybody [in the band] trying to be noticed; it was like a wall of chaos. We were huge Roxy Music fans, too. Because Roxy Music has very interesting song arrangements; not your usual verse / chorus / middle eight / verse/ chorus. So we took our cues from those two bands.

Todd Rundgren produced your third album, Forever Now. That choice was controversial in some quarters; everyone seemed to have an opinion about it. What were your feelings about it at the time?

We thought it was great. We – especially Vince [Ely], our drummer at the time – were big fans of his. We were wanting to move on to start using strings and horns. Todd had produced an album called Faithful, with covers of songs by the Beach Boys and other bands in that era; he used strings and other interesting instruments and arrangements. So we thought he was a perfect choice when he offered to produce Forever Now, and we went into it really excited.

Along with Made of Rain, it’s my favorite Furs album.

From where did the idea come to have Flo and Eddie [Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles] sing on that album?

That was Todd. And at first we didn’t want it; we were like, “Oh, they’re a couple of old farts from the ‘60s.” Todd said, “I don’t want to use them [just] as ‘backing vocalists.’ I want to use them as a different instrument, because of their vocal ranges.” So they came in. We didn’t go to the studio with them, because we were dead against it, but we allowed Todd to try it out. And when we heard “Love My Way,” we were like, “Okay! What else can we use them on?” We were totally sold. They’ve done backing vocals for everybody; they’re a couple of cool guys.

Another thing that set that song apart was the fact that we used marimba. That was an idea we had when we made demos in England. And it made a refreshing sound on the radio: Todd on marimbas, and Flo and Eddie.

Tell me about a Psychedelic Furs track that you feel is perhaps overlooked among listeners.
I’d say “Only You and I” from Forever Now. It’s not often pointed out as a fan favorite, but it’s one of my favorite tracks. I think it’s great because of the song structure, which was a move up for us after [1981’s] Talk Talk Talk.

The 1980s were a time when pop songs started being added to film soundtracks. How did the use of “Pretty in Pink” in the film of the same name affect the group’s trajectory and fortunes?

Oh, it was good and bad. It was good because it got us through to a lot more people. But the bad is that a lot of our hardcore original fans thought we’d sold out, so they gave up coming to see us!
Thank goodness now, those fans – and younger fans – are coming back to see us. I guess they’ve forgiven us for the pop faux pas!

In 2020, the Psychedelic Furs defied the odds and released an album of all new material, Made of Rain. Forty years after your debut, you made an album that got great critical notices. Not many bands from the ‘80s have been able to do something like that. Why do you think that you succeeded in that regard where other bands have not?

When we got back together, it took us a while to have the confidence and the nerve to record songs. We had songs, but we were sort of worried that [some of them] weren’t going to fit in with our catalog. But when we finally had songs that we thought were great, we did it pretty quickly. We didn’t go to the studio wanting to recreate the sound from the eighties; during the time in between, you’d hear other music and you’d get influences. So we went in there and put our heads together.

What’s great about Made of Rain is that the songs were played in one or two takes; we rehearsed them, but then we went in, recorded one or two takes and picked the best one. And then we overdubbed over the top of that, which gave it a freshness, as opposed to rehashing over and over again, which we did on [1987’s] Midnight to Midnight. We took too long on that one; it’s overproduced and lacking a certain energy.

Is the band continuing to work on new material?

Yes, but as with Made of Rain, we’re not forcing ourselves to [work within] any particular time. Basically, we’re still promoting Made of Rain, because when it came out, Covid was happening; we couldn’t tour. So we’re sort of making up for that. After the tour, we’ll probably think about writing new songs.

Does the set list for the current tour survey the Psychedelic Furs’ entire history?

Oh, yeah. On this tour, we just got back from Spain, and we’ve been playing some songs that are much demanded but that we had rarely or never played live. So I think the audience will be really happy.

Forty-plus years on with the Psychedelic Furs, what keeps it interesting for you?

Just going out there and playing for the audience and getting the reaction from them; there’s nothing better. There’s no drug that could replace seeing an audience singing your songs while you’re playing them. It makes all the work we put into it worthwhile.