Peter Hook on Joy Division and Dead Souls

Published January 30, 2015 | By skrufff

Peter Hook headlines Rio Music Conference (RMC) next week, DJing both at Cave Club and RMC’s idyllic Copacabana base the Pestana Hotel as well as doing a Q&A in-depth interview with me (Jonty Skrufff) at the conference.

The hugely influential bass player and original punk will be sharing stories and insights from his New Order experiences to his adventures co-owning Manchester’s infamous acid house institution the Hacienda as well as the earliest part of his career with seminal alternative post-punk legends New Order.

Hooky last chatted to Skrufff about Joy Division in 2001 . . .

Skrufff: Joy Division produced some remarkably dark songs such as Dead Souls, which went delved far into spiritual matters and death, did you get heavily involved in all that mystical stuff?

Peter Hook: “Yeah, if I was going to give an overview of astral projections/ mysteries of the universe/ Bermuda triangles, then I’d say, ‘Yes, we do have an interest in the occult.’ Not an overt influence. I know Ian (Curtis) was very deep and had a lot of feelings about things but I think you have that when you’re young. As you get older you realise that karma is the only thing that matters. If you do well to people, you’ll get well back and that’s as plain as the nose on your fucking face.”

Skrufff: How much did you actively investigate the occult?

Peter Hook: “We did flirt with a lot of things like that but more subconsciously than consciously. ‘Dead Souls’ provided the inspiration for ‘The Crow’ for instance (the occult Hollywood revenge thriller in which actor Brandon Lee was accidentally killed, before filming was completed.) ‘The Crow’ is very dark. They asked us to do the track, but in the end they got Nine Inch Nails to do ‘Dead Souls’ and it sounds just like Joy Division.

Joy Division was like a subconscious outpouring for us, because we weren’t like that personally, we were the biggest bunch of pissheads (alcoholics) you’d meet in your life. We’d all get on stage, then suddenly this wonderful force used to come out. We were very serious about the music right from the start, we were never flippant so maybe that made use look dour.”

Skrufff: I read about you all seeing the Sex Pistols on their 1976 Anarchy tour; did you see yourselves as punks back then?

Peter Hook: “It was about the way you dressed; you wanted to rebel against your parents, the establishment and the fact that nobody fucking liked you. You were a punk and everyone thought you were shite! We probably were.

Joy Division was a punk band and in those days we were fucking shit. I felt very much a punk and very much an outsider, actually.”

Peter speaks at RMC on Wednesday February 4 at the Pestana Hotel (DJing later on the rooftop terrace bar) then at Cave Club in Thursday night.