A funny thing happened when Simple Minds first hit the comeback trail -- the band members found they weren't as forgotten as they thought.
"We were invited on a lot of these alternative music radio Christmas shows," says Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr, over the phone from Los Angeles. "The other bands that were playing were things like Hole and Black Crowes and Cranberries, Grant Lee Buffalo, Live -- you know, all the new gods. And we were, like, 'Where do we fit in here?' I mean, we were glad to be asked, but we were [puzzled]. And the radio people would say, 'Your thing works. It still works.' "
Seeing as it had been four years since the Scots alterna-rockers had released their last album, "Real Life," Kerr and company had reason to wonder how well their return would be received. That's especially so since the new Simple Minds album, "Good News from the Next World," features a reduced line-up -- Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill are now the group's core -- and a new, lean sound.
Perhaps the most striking difference between the current Simple Minds and the band that cut "Don't You Forget About Me" is that keyboards are scarcely present in the new material. What
happened to all the synths? "They're in the pawnshop," Kerr quips.
In truth, the shift in sound began with the departure of original keyboard player Michael MacNeil and Kerr's desire to work more closely with Burchill. "Simple Minds began as Charlie and I when we were kids in school," he says. By renewing that connection, Kerr felt he could get back to what mattered most in the band: songs.
"The goal is to write some great songs," he explains. "Write some songs that are undeniable in themselves. If they work on the piano or the guitar, then they're gonna work no matter what goes on in terms of the production. And I think from now on in, that's the tack we'll take. I mean, with a song like 'Hypnotised,' Charlie and I feel we've hit some kind of new peak with that song as songwriters.
"It's great to feel you're hitting a peak. And the effect of hitting a peak is that you want to hit another peak."
Kerr, by the way, is a lot more interested in hitting creative peaks than he is in matching the commercial peak the group hit in the '80s. It isn't that he dislikes success, mind; it's that experience has taught him what a ruinous effect success can have on the music. He even goes so far as to blame Simple Minds' commercial success for the artistic failure of "Real Life."
"There was a part of us on the last record that wasn't even there," he explains. "It was so great to get any kind of success in the '80s, but with that success comes this baggage that almost becomes an industry within an industry. There were a lot of things going down between accountants and lawyers and all this stuff, and the producer had much more rein than normally.
"This is the irony: When you start the band, you give almost your whole life to it. Ten years down the road, between all the commitments, you're lucky if you can get two days a week spent on the music, between meetings about tours and videos, the maintenance of the band, and dealings with management, accountants and such. And the irony is, none of that stuff can exist without the music in the first place!
"So we really had to head for the hills and get lost in the music again," he concludes. "And as the music got reinforced, we got reinforced as people. We love this stuff, and I'm not giving it up. I'm not going to kick back and relax, I'm not going to go into autopilot."
Read their Minds
To hear excerpts from the Simple Minds album "Good News From the Next World," call Sundial, The Sun's telephone information service, at (410) 783-1800. In Anne Arundel County, call 268-7736; in Harford County, 836-5028; in Carroll County, 848-0338. Using a touch-tone phone, punch in the four-digit code 6158 after you hear the greeting.
Simple Minds
When: Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: Radio Music Hall, Washington
Tickets: $22.50
Call: (410) 581-7328