SB : "we were a very troubled band. It was a though we were thrown together and all we had in common was a shared history and similar ideas. Roland and Harry were my friends but that didn't make for a great band. The Birthday Party worked because of that friction, but Crime doesn't work like that.

I also ad some screwy ideas about how to sing. Competing against Roland required a fair amount of gusto. I grew up with this idea taht, to be emotional, I had to sing hard. Then I discovered that that was a very two-dimensional approach and it loses the impact. The strongest sense of feeling I've ever got from someone is when they've spoken softly and slowly with intensity. Now I know how to recreate that on our records.

There were too many expectations in the old Crime. There were conditions and compromises. In this Crime, there are no expectations. There's no need. We were thrashing about in the dark before. I feel quite limitless now because I have a strong feeling that, whatever is created, will be right at that point in time. The First Crime was limited and was unsure where it was going. There were too many conflicts of interest. I don't regret any of the previous stuff. It was very necessary. It's just that I'm doing now what I've been wanting to do all along"

BA : "we became more focused. We used to have a preponderance of negative emotions. If it was difficult for people to find joy in a record like 'Room of lights', that was because we didn't have muck joy in our lives. Listening to those early records is like beeing clubbed over the head. Now we want to make beautifull, haunting, complexy layered, multi-dimensional music with a fundamental thrust about it. Naturaly, we want to be remembered'.

BA : "but there still a sense of imploding,". We're always an incredible tension here. This interplay between the instruments that's like like the tension between separation and blending. They're always coming together and pulling appart. You think it's all gone quiet then these terrible monsters emerge from under the glass surface'

SB : "it's almost surprising that it's actually worked. In a way, I was thinking of the way a lot of Australians moved to Britain to find their roots. Then they find it dissatisying. It doesn't answer the questions they've been posing. But they know that it's necessary to go in the first palce. That's why I like beeing Australian. I liked the options I was given as a kid. Through all those options. I got a better overview. It's easy to sink into a Londoner or a Mancunian. That was never an option for us because we didn't really fit into Australian culture. I don't think anybody really does. I'm not even sure what it was.

Australia is a very mythical place. I have a lot in common with the peopl I associate with in Berlin, which is another stateless place. Berlin doesn't really exist. Germany is similar to Australia in some ways. If you read anything written about German history, it starts at the end of the last war. Australia's a bit like that. We have this tenuous connection with the rest of the world through our roots. It's a very unrealised place.

First of all, people tried to imitate Britain. That didn't work because the soon felt resentful about beeing seens as a second-rate Britain. So they came up with this rather dubious notion that they would have no culture. This created the yobbo culture. Within that, we existed and reacted against it. There is a sense of not belonging that gives a sense of freedom. In the past, perhaps we had too much freedom. In a way though, it's good not to have a strong sense of history.

Eventualy, you discover that you can relate to people on a far more basic, intuitive level. That's a good place to be".

BA : "we have now moved to London"

SB replies : "we are now living in Berlin.

John Wilde... They dont seem to sure

BA : "things look up. Things do look up. Not that we were ever totally despairing. Even when we were plumbing the depths, we were aspiring heavenwards"

SB : "People can't criticise us for beeing gloomy and self-destructive anymore. Our songs are about how to live, how to survive, how to get througt, how to realise what you do well. How to enjoy all that. It's very big".