Gary Numan: ‘My songs about AI have come true’ | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Gary Numan does not appear to cease. The 68-year-old has been a stalwart within the music trade since his debut in 1976, and when he spoke to me from Palm Springs, he was about to get caught in as soon as once more. “It’s going to be a musical weekend,” he mentioned, getting ready to move out to Coachella together with his daughters, Persia and Raven, who’re additionally musicians. “But, to be honest, I’ve just done my third tour in the last seven months. So, I’m pretty much done with bands for the time being, and crowds.”

It’s no marvel. The British musician and genre-defining icon has had a troublesome six months. In November – simply earlier than occurring stage – he acquired the tragic information that his brother had died. And in January his spouse suffered a “mini-stroke” earlier than medical doctors discovered a gap in her coronary heart. After a variety of surgical procedures, she has fortunately been left largely effectively once more, regardless of being paralysed down one arm. This is one thing his followers will probably expertise by means of his music to return.

Numan confessed that arduous occasions have formed his albums up to now. “A lot of [my music] comes from life,” he defined. “They are very connected.” He went on to recall, for instance, dropping a toddler and utilizing that grief to put in writing songs. Numan additionally chuckled on the notion of writing songs about his beloved canines who had died up to now, as effectively.

It’s not all the time simple for him, although: “Do you know what, I think in some respects, when something is deeply traumatic, like a close relative dying – I remember when my nan and granddad both died, I intended to write about that. I sat down many, many times to write about that, because it was such a deeply upsetting thing. And I didn’t ever do it because I just didn’t seem to come up with anything good enough.”

“When my mum died,” he regarded again. “Who I loved very, very much, there’s not… there’s nothing. I didn’t write a single thing about my mum. I haven’t yet. And so I think sometimes, when it’s a really, really important thing, I suffer from a lack of confidence, and I don’t feel that anything I come up with does it justice.”

Naturally, as all of us do throughout traumatic occasions, Gary Numan appears to be trying again on his life. But his followers recognise him greatest when he’s trying ahead. During the Seventies, when he grew to become the poster little one for synthesisers and electronica, he spent a whole lot of time pondering using synthetic intelligence.

“I do tend, often, to write about where I think humanity is going in the future,” Numan shared. “Based on different things. Way back when, in ’79, I did [an album] called ‘Replicas’ that essentially looked at AI, strangely enough.

“You know, what would occur if a machine took over? How wouldn’t it view humanity? Would it see us as an ally? Would it see us as an irrelevant nuisance?–Which is what I assumed. [That] it might simply discover intelligent methods to do away with us with out us realizing, by creating an elite blah, blah, blah, you recognize?”

Laughing to himself, he went on: “It’s an entire album all about that concept, which bizarrely, has really come true in a method.”

Numan is still raging against this AI machine this year – live and in-person. In July and August Gary Numan will be playing the Halifax Piece Hall and London’s Crystal Palace Bowl, respectively. There, he’ll once again remind his fans why he has branded the “pioneer of digital music”.

London’s show, in particular, will be a special occasion for the Hammersmith-born star. “My native gig, so to talk, was the Hammersmith Odeon [now the Eventim Apollo],” Numan explained. “So, yeah, I’ve all the time seen London as like my house metropolis. Before I had any success within the ’70s, we used to drive out and in of London – doing these little pub gigs – and I might all the time drive previous the Hammersmith and say: ‘someday, we’ll be there someday.'”

Fast forward to 2026, and instead of performing at the 4,000-person Eventim Apollo, he’ll be taking on the 15,000-capacity Crystal Palace Bowl. With that number of people in mind, the Cars singer promised to tailor-make the setlist to keep everyone happy–including himself.

“I’m fairly egocentric with it, actually,” he confessed. “It’s crucial to me that after I look down on the set listing in the course of the set, and I’ll see what songs subsequent, it is vital I look down at that music I believe: ‘Oh, nice, I like this.’ I do not [want to] look down and go, ‘Oh, f**ok me, not that one once more, I’ve been doing that for almost 50 years. I’m sick of it.'”

Within that, Numan added, he likes to find some older songs like ‘Metal’, ‘Films’ and ‘Cars’, but not in the way one might expect. Instead of playing them note-for-note, he attempts to ‘modernise’ them, bringing them more in line with songs that were written decades later. He said: “I do attempt to rework them a bit bit. So that they don’t seem to be strictly true to the unique report. They’re very comparable, however I’ve made them heavier.”

In terms of new music, Numan was more-or-less tight-lipped. However, he did reveal: “By the time we get to those reveals I hope to be a few good couple of months within the studio, engaged on new stuff.”

Tickets for Gary Numan’s shows at The Piece Hall and Crystal Palace Bowl are still available now from both official and resale markets. Fans can use the links below to get their fix.

• July 31, 2026 – Halifax, The Piece Hall
• August 06, 2026 – London, Crystal Palace Bowl