Jim Kerr has no problem saying that when he and guitarist Charlie Burchill formed Simple Minds in Glasgow they had no idea the band would still be a) together and b) putting out new music 45 years later.
“Direction of Heart,” which came out Oct. 21, is Simple Minds’ 19th studio album and the follow-up to “Walk Between Worlds” in 2018. It came from dark times — the pandemic lockdown and the death of Kerr’s father — but despite that the frontman says that he and Burchill “tried to make a feel-good record in the worst of times,” with the uptempo electro-rock flavor of many of the nine songs, including a remake of the Call’s “The Walls Came Down,” running counter to the darkness.
Making “Direction of the Heart” was also a globe-trotting adventure for Simple Minds; Kerr and Burchill began writing in Sicily, where they both live, prior to the pandemic, and continued in Glasgow before turning to Sicily. They then had to record the album in Hamburg, Germany, when they could not get back into the U.K. during the pandemic. The two had writing help from bassist Ged Grimes, while Sparks’ Russell Mael appears on the track “Human Traffic.” The song “Act of Love,” meanwhile, dates back to Simple Minds’ formation and its earliest shows in 1978.
It’s been a long road, including nearly two dozen members through its ranks, but Simple Minds endures and still has plenty of “Heart” to continue, according to Kerr…
* Kerr, 63, says by Zoom that Simple Minds had just begun a world tour in early 2020 when the pandemic lockdown began. “We were about 10 dates in, and then it was over. We would play the night before in Copenhagen or Stockholm and as soon as we would leave the border would close two hours later. So we got back to Glasgow first, and within a few months it was, ‘Well, we better get on with the other thing, which is writing and recording, ’cause there’s nothing else for us to do right now.'”
* The opening track, “Vision Thing,” is about and dedicated to Kerr’s father, who the singer cared for prior to his death. “Dad gave us the first hundred pounds to start the band, to make the first demo tape — and I don’t think a week went past in all these years when dad didn’t remind me that he still didn’t have his hundred pounds back and he wanted it, with interest. (laughs). The song is a celebration of life, really — not only dad, but all the people who raised us I’ve come to realize were pretty cool, the teachers, the guys in the neighborhood. I realize now they gave us the tools, not the tools to be in a rock band but the tools, I think, to negotiate through this life in a pretty good way.”
* Including the 44-year-old “Act of Love” was a welcome dive into the vaults for Kerr and Burchill. “‘Act of Love’ is the first song we played live at our very first gig on Jan. 17, 1978 — a freezing cold night, not many people in the room. We walked on to the sound of our own feet and Charlie hit those chords and I remember thinking clearly, ‘We’re going places’ because it just sounded…dynamite. But by the time we got our record deal a year later we had so many songs, and being easily board and always ‘on to the next thing’ the song slipped down the pecking order and kind of got left behind. But I always thought it was a brilliant riff and from time to time we’d go back to that, and this time it finally happened. It was a bit like finding an old car and you supe her up again and give it current value.”
* Kerr — who has one child each with ex-wives Chrissie Hynde of Pretenders and actress Patsy Kensit — says he’s surprised but pleased that Simple Minds has endured this long. “When we started out, even the Rolling Stones weren’t old guys. You couldn’t imagine this. But I remember at a certain point looking at the old blues guys that were still doing it, whether it was B.B. King or Buddy Guy or whoever. Why would they still do it? It’s written on their faces — that’s how they are. That’s how they make sense of the world. We have to reckon it’s the same for us. This is who we are. So it goes on.”
* Kerr says a documentary about the band is also in the works to commemorate its 45th anniversary. “It’s about to be filmed next year, and things are being set up as we speak. It’s the time; if we don’t do it someone else will do it, and they’ll do their version of it and it’ll be different than ours. We’ve got a story to tell, but it’s not as easy as that ’cause everyone does it, so how is yours gonna be yours? These are the things we’re cracking our brains about at the moment.”
