Rely Robert Smith among the many of us who’re clinging to their Apple iPods for expensive life relatively than shopping for into streaming providers. Whereas showing on the most recent episode of BBC’s Sidetracked with Annie and Nick podcast, the frontman of The Cure revealed he’s sitting on a cache of the traditional MP3 gamers — every of which is curated to suit a sure temper.
Whereas describing his listening habits, Smith mentioned he doesn’t “stream music on precept and by no means have.” As a substitute, he’ll purchase bodily information and dip into his iPod assortment to revisit sure eras like ’70s disco after a “couple of beers.”
“I’ve acquired playlists, iPods. I’ve acquired hundreds and a great deal of completely different iPods with stickers on them so I do know at nighttime which one’s gonna play which,” he mentioned. “So, they’ve all acquired stuff on them which fits my temper. There’s a lot music I’ve acquired — not in a nostalgic approach, however stuff that I can’t simply transfer about to but additionally means one thing to me, jogs my memory of a variety of instances and folks.
Because of this, it might be “disingenuous” of Smith to say he was totally in tune with latest musical tendencies like brat summer time or Chappell Roan, however that doesn’t imply he didn’t admire their work.
“It will be a bit bizarre if I used to be like, ‘Yeah, it’s my favourite,’” he defined. “I feel what they did as artists is basically incredible. I feel that I’d be dishonest if I mentioned it’s what I hearken to at dwelling. So sure, I’ve been conscious of [Charli] for a protracted, very long time. Chappell Roan, though she’s been doing it for some time as nicely, has solely actually emerged into wider consciousness over the previous yr. However anybody that basically will get out and does one thing, I simply suppose it’s nice.”
Elsewhere within the podcast, Smith addressed Chappell Roan’s very public struggles with fame and parasocial followers. Admitting it was a “sophisticated topic,” he mentioned, “You need individuals to really feel like they’re participating with you. However it’s a modern-world phenomenon that there’s a way of entitlement that didn’t was once there amongst followers.”
He added that there isn’t any attainable technique to prepare for a sudden rise to fame: “When you’re elevated to a place of superstar or success over a fairly quick time period, it’s tougher to take care of issues as a result of you haven’t any grounding in methods to take care of just like the decrease stage.”
Watch the iPod phase and hearken to the complete episode beneath.
As for The Treatment, they not too long ago launched Songs of a Live World, a stay companion to their comeback album, Songs of a Lost World. Learn why the latter venture was one of many best albums of 2024, and seize your bodily copy here.
