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Gary Numan in LA and OC: Brit electro-rock artist Numan has moved from new wave to more industrial vibes in this millennium, and new album Intruder is suitably intense. Hear to for yourself at the Fonda and the Observatory.

This writer spoke to Numan back in 2017 about his impressive career to date. “I had a really dodgy period, mid-’80s to mid-’90s. I was increasingly unhappy with what I was doing. The career had started really well, and I’d done well everywhere around the world, and then it started to fall apart, and rather than write the songs I really wanted to write, as I had been doing before, I started to listen to advice on what I should and shouldn’t be doing — A&R people and all sorts of different people — and I lost my way for quite a while. In 1992, I was pretty much dead and buried. I didn’t have a contract, and there were no obvious signs I was ever going to get another one. I did an album in ’92 called Machine and Soul, which is a pile of shit, if I’m honest. I had to come back from that a bit, but I did.”

There were four years between Intruder and 2017’s Savage (Songs from a Broken World).

““When I first started, I used to just churn them out at the end of each year and then tour them, but my tours were smaller,” he said. “I don’t think I toured America for, like, sixteen years at one point. That’s not the case anymore. The touring now is quite extensive and goes on for a year and a half – maybe two years from when the album comes out. I can’t write when I’m touring, so that adds to the gap between albums. The kids definitely have a major effect on that as well. That plays a big part if I’m honest — I love my family, and I do like to spend as much time with them as possible. The other thing is, if you are away a lot touring, then when you get back, you really just want to be with them for a few months. It all just drags out.”

Gary Numan in LA and OC: The event takes place at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23 at the Fonda; then at 7 p.m. on Sunday, February 27 at the Observatory. I Speak Machine also perform.

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