Adam Ant: Still black leather pants, pirate garb after all these years?

This time last year, Adam Ant was revisiting "Kings of the Wild Frontier" in all its glory, working the stage with a youthful exuberance most entertainers half his age would be advised to envy in black leather pants and dashing pirate garb.

The Anthems Tour that brings the legend back to Arizona is more focused on the singles, offsetting such obvious A-sides as "Dog Eat Dog," "Antmusic," "Stand and Deliver" and "Goody Two Shoes" with B-sides and rarities, some of which he says had never made a setlist prior to this tour.

"'Can’t Set Rules About Love' is one that I’d never done before," he says. "Another one is 'Gotta Be a Sin.' But we’ve kind of arranged them in a way so that they fit in with the singles that are better known."

He's even playing "Young Parisians," his first release with Adam & the Ants, which turns 40 this year.

Because the tour is based on giving concertgoers something of an overview of Ant's career, the star agreed to walk us through his history, sharing memories of important milestones on the road to this year's tour.

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Young Parisians

Question: "Young Parisians" is such a different vibe than what you went on to explore on subsequent releases. And it didn't sound at all like something one might picture having cut out of the U.K. punk scene of the '70s. How did that type of song become your debut single?

Answer: Well, it was a bit deliberate. Obviously, it being our kind of first single, we had signed to Decca Records, who they’d kind of missed out on punk a bit and decided to sign us, I think, as a last-ditch effort to grab a punk band while there were still any left.

So I decided that I would do “Lady” and “Young Parisians.” And instead of “Lady” being the A-side, which would have been, I think, more predictable and what they kind of wanted and expected – a very fast, four-to-the-floor, quite savage kind of single – we chose to do something completely opposite. Which if you’re trying to get hit records, it wasn’t great news. But it was something that I decided to do.

So “Young Parisians” became the first offering. I think people were completely nonplussed by it. They couldn’t quite work out where we were coming from. But that’s the joy of music. You’re thinking about the next concert and getting a record out by any means necessary. It’s not about sales or the business. It's all about making the record.

It’s a song I’m quite happy to play. Time has been kind to it. It’s a bit of a fun, a change of pace. It’s good to be bit closer to the audience now and again. And that song does lend itself to that intimacy.

Zerox

Q: Your second single, "Zerox," had more of a post-punk vibe. Do you recall what you were going for with that one?

A: The sound of it was very firmly in my mind. I could actually hear it before we did it. So it was just a question of going into the studio. I remember going into Roundhouse Studios in London. It’s such a great feeling to enter a proper studio, to be able to experiment and get to the sound you wanted.

I was like a kid in a candy shop. I remember it being a very exciting experience. Like, for instance, we could actually open up the grand piano and hit the strings with a drumstick to get that dong-dong-dong sound. It was our first opportunity to really get involved with studio recording and using the voice as an instrument, overlaying different harmonies to get that power.

I just remember having a strong direction. There was no doubt about it in my mind. It was just a question of going in there and laying it down with the band. I think we got the backing tracks done live because we were pretty much a live band.

Kings of the Wild Frontier

Q: Having had some success with your third single, “Car Trouble,” I know you went through major lineup changes, but what inspired you to change up your sound as much as you did in the sessions to make “Kings of the Wild Frontier?”

A: “Car Trouble” is very much in the vein of “Zerox.” It’s one of my favorite songs. All the elements of “Kings” were born with those two singles, I think – the approach we took to not only the vocals but the drums. You can hear on “Car Trouble” the drums that seem to have become two drum kits.

So by the time we got to “Kings of the Wild Frontier,” the idea of having two drum kits was a good one. And we were able to incorporate that into the sound. I think they’re really very, very important songs.

Q: “Kings of the Wild Frontier” is such an odd, experimental album. Did you expect those songs to do as well commercially as they did when they sounded so different than anything else that was out there?

A: Chris Merrick Hughes was producing. And we were recording it in such a remote studio down in Wales, there was nowhere to go. We were in this little barn, this little farmhouse. So we weren’t sidetracked. We just got down to it.

The sound really began with "Dog Eat Dog." That was the first song in my mind to become the key to the "Kings of the Wild Frontier" album. Once we did "Dog Eat Dog," it opened the door to all the rest of it. You have no idea when you’re making it. If you go in and say, “Oh, we’re going to make an album that’s gonna sell this many,” you've already lost. You just go in and make the best record you’ve got.

Prince Charming

Q: Was there much pressure going into "Prince Charming" after the success of "Kings of the Wild Frontier," and how did that play out in the creative process?

A: There were great expectations. Obviously the followup album is always all-important. That’s the one that everybody is looking for any problems. The "Prince Charming" song itself was again quite experimental, stripping it down to that one massive beat and then the vocals. It’s a grindingly slow song, a very unusual song, “Prince Charming” after “Dog Eat Eag.”

And we’d been touring pretty much nonstop on “Kings of the Wild Frontier.” Then we were in Air Studios in London to record. And a lot of the songs were written on the road.  It was a completely different experience.

Obviously, things came to focus more around the singles. And at that point the videos had become very, very important, too. It was almost like writing a song and then I’d be sitting down, storyboarding a video also.

With "Stand and Deliver" being on the album and "Ant Rap," there were three singles on every album as far as we could see. It had a gatefold album sleeve. You get the opportunity to make your dreams come true. And we did.

And then we went and did the Prince Charming Revue, which was very different, more like an opera really, with a proscenium arch set and a miniature sort of theater. We had a galleon. It was enormously expensive to do. But "Prince Charming" became more theatrical, completely different from the "Kings of the Wild Frontier" experience.

Stand and Deliver

Q: Stand and Deliver was your first release to top the U.K. charts. Was that a big deal for you?

A: Yeah, I mean, you can never imagine. You’d be walking down the street and taxi drivers would roll the window down and shout “Stand and deliver” and all that stuff. It was a lyric that I think people really got off on.  I think it’s important to have a title that people can really get onto and sing right away.

Friend or Foe and going solo

Q: Why did you decide to make your next release a solo record? Things were going well.

A: I think we were just exhausted, really. You know, you're always looking back on things and think woulda, shoulda, coulda. But I think certainly a break would’ve been good. A holiday. If there had been a nine months or a year gap between the "Kings" project and "Prince Charming," I think we probably would have stayed together. But I think we were just exhausted.

And also, within the group, Chris Hughes was first and foremost a producer and he wanted to produce more than play live. And some of the other guys wanted to go to different parts of the world and have a bit of time off and I really wanted to get on with it and do the next album.

So it just seemed a good move at that point to be able to go solo and get on with the work, get on with the touring. Not everybody likes touring. Not everybody likes to meet the demands of it all. And I quite respect that. So I think we did it at the right time. It didn’t get ugly. We just kind of decided to do our own thing. And I just went solo.

Goody Two Shoes

Q: "Goody Two Shoes" was obviously your first giant U.S. hit. What do remember about the making of that song?

A: "Goody Two Shoes" was a very fast-moving song. It’s got that driving beat.

I spent quite a bit of time doing the storyboards on that one. I had been trained to make short films, so that was a chance to really try to interpret the lyric. It’s set in a big old hospital, using the space that’s available and putting a nice bit of “Jailhouse Rock” in the middle. And track trampolines while people are dancing all over the place. It is a quite literal nod to the lyric but really moving at a fast pace. I mean, really, really moving at a fast pace.

It was done in a flash. We were focusing so much on getting it done that once you’re done you kind of move on to the next one. So that was what was happening. But I remember, it was a couple of days shoot to do that and to edit everything together. And a whole bunch of my close, personal friends were extras in it, which is always nice to see. But it was quite a number. And Graham Stark was in it. He was in the Clouseau films – playing the butler, looking through the keyhole.

Q: What kind of impact did the success of that single have on the crowds at your shows here in the States?

A: The USA is a much bigger place than you could ever imagine if you come from a small island like Great Britain. You go over there and suddenly, you’re a little fish in a massive pond instead of being a big fish in a little pond.

I just focused on playing as many venues as I could and not relying on the videos. The videos were great for getting people who had never seen the band before to go and see them. That helped enormously.

And "Goody Two Shoes" was the one that MTV played quite a lot. Because we had made these videos prior to videos becoming the norm. But I always felt it was important to do the traditional as well as the new.

Strip

Q: You worked with Phil Collins on the two singles from “Strip.” What do you recall of that experience?

A: He’s a great guy. I just loved the sound he got on “Something in the Air Tonight” and he had done a song for Frida called “I Know There’s Something Going On.” I loved the sound of that as well. He recorded that one in Polar Studios, a digital studio in Stockholm. So the sound was very unique.

We went over and recorded the two songs with him there. And him being a drummer, he sort of picked up on the drum orientation of Adam and the Ants. And he was only too happy to come and produce those two singles. You learn from working with somebody like that. So that’s what I wanted and that’s what I got.

Vive Le Rock

Q: You worked with Tony Visconti on Vive Le Rock. I assume that was pretty exciting for you. I know you’re really into glam. What was it like to work with someone who had worked with David Bowie and Marc Bolan?

A: He was very much, first and foremost, a gentleman. He was very calm. He’s a very disciplined guy. We learned a lot from working with Tony Visconti. And I think we got the sound we wanted. A very nice man, indeed.

Manners & Physique

Q: The album after that one, "Manners & Physique," was a real departure for you, working with Andre Cymone. What inspired you to go in that direction?

A: Basically, I decided to branch out a bit. Andre and I shared the same management in Los Angeles. And I got to know Andre. He was a very nice guy. And we decided to try and give me a little bit more of an R&B base on "Room at the Top" and "Rough Stuff" and stuff like that. And those songs sort of came out of that interest in that kind of music.

With every album, we tried to start from scratch rather than just rely, for instance, on the early indie sound of “Dirk” or then “Kings” or “Prince Charming” or “Friend or Foe.” Every album’s completely different, musically and visually. So again, it was an opportunity to start from scratch and work in a completely different arena, which I did.  And I’m pleased I did. It’s good to open up a bit.

Wonderful

Q: "Wonderful," the title track to your next album, became your third Top 40 hit here in the States. What do you recall of the making of that song?

That was (Adam and the Ants guitarist) Marco (Pirroni), myself and a lady called Bonnie Hayes. So that was a very nice collaboration. It’s just a love letter, really. I’d never really sung a love song. It’s just a general comment on the way love is perceived in songs and art. So that was nice. It was interesting to incorporate new ideas.

Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar

Q: In 2013, you came back with your first album in 18 years, "Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter." What brought you back to the studio and how did it feel to get back into the creative process?

A: I just missed it. It’s something you do. It’s part of your life. I’d written a book. I’d done some acting. I had a family. My daughter was born. So I took a break from music because I’d been doing it pretty much non-stop from 1976 to 1995. It just took a bit longer to get back to doing it. But I really looked forward to doing it and playing live also. So it’s a question, just missing doing the thing that you’re best at. It’s a slightly different record, quite a bizarre record, different than any record I’d ever made before.

Q: What is the status on the followup to that one, "Bravest of the Brave?"

A: Well, I tend to announce things when they’re ready. It’s a work in progress.

For now, I’m kind of dealing with the catalog and songs that have already been recorded. But it’s not ready yet. You just keep working on these things until they’re ready. 

Adam Ant

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. 

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $40-$198.

Details: celebritytheatre.com.

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