Pet Shop Boys know the secret to staying cool, four decades in

LONDON (AP) — Hen Kiev, AI-generated press releases and the annoyance of fan selfies whereas performing — there was loads on the minds of the Pet Store Boys as the enduring British duo ready to launch a new album.

Their fifteenth studio album, “Nonetheless,” comes Friday — 40 years (and 50 million document gross sales) after Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe rose to fame with the one “West Finish Ladies.” Bands of any longevity — particularly such an extended one — are sometimes requested the cliche: “How do you keep related?” For them, it’s about by no means attempting to be cool.

“That’s one thing lots of people try to do, to be someway cool, which is due to this fact fully uncool, as a result of it’s attempting too onerous,” Tennant informed The Related Press not too long ago. “So now we have simply adopted our personal instincts.”

“We’ll all the time be related in our world,” Lowe added, laughing.

A testomony of that relevance? Traditional Pet Store Boys hits had been used as plot factors in two cult motion pictures final 12 months: a karaoke scene in “Saltburn” that includes “Lease” and a key Christmas scene in “All of Us Strangers” soundtracked by “At all times on My Thoughts.”

That is worlds away from Hollywood previous, the place, Tennant says, “It’s a Sin” was all the time overused for the younger man strolling right into a homosexual membership “decreasing us to this kind of cliche of homosexual disco.”

“Nonetheless” stays upbeat regardless of being written within the U.Ok. through the coronavirus pandemic, when most individuals had been locked down at residence.

“Properly, the climate was good, wasn’t it?” Lowe jokes.

“It was a really productive time,” Tennant provides, noting that the cancellation of their tour eased the strain.

“I believe that’s why it sounds in a method fairly optimistic, as a result of life was completely different. It was a distinct kind of life with no strain, aside from not attempting to catch the virus,” he says.

The primary single, “Loneliness,” addresses the social isolation of the pandemic however was written as a optimistic message. One other lockdown-themed monitor, “Why Am I Dancing?” was Tennant asking himself: “Why are you having fun with this case of being by your self a lot in an effort to truly dance?”

“And I’m most likely cooking on the similar time,” he’s fast so as to add.

“Cooking and dancing, now that’s a bit of podcast thought, isn’t it?” Lowe jokes.

And whereas Lowe says he’d be popping a ready-made pie within the oven, Tennant could be making dal, brown rice and greens or a rooster Kiev.

“You’ve bought a great story for that,” Tennant says, trying to his bandmate.

“I wrote to (U.Ok. grocery store) Marks & Spencer… asking them to alter the spelling of rooster Kiev to rooster Kyiv due to the struggle,” Lowe says. They did ultimately change it.

Regardless of residing by way of massive adjustments in the best way music is consumed, the band stay philosophical. Regardless of new methods of listening and discovering music, “music remains to be music.”

And when it comes to Spotify, whereas Lowe says it has helped him uncover plenty of new music, each hate the app’s suggestions.

“With us, The Pet Store Boys, it would say, ‘Should you like this, you may like Duran Duran,’ so it thinks you’re all ‘80s,” Tennant explains. “And in the event you’re us you say: ‘You may like Years and Years digital pop music or Kraftwerk from earlier than us.’”

“Generally they could simply suppose, ‘Properly you’re homosexual so that you may like Boy George as a result of he’s homosexual as effectively.’ It’s very, very silly,” he says.

Pet Store Boys will carry out 5 particular performances at London’s Royal Opera Home in July, however please don’t run to the entrance of the stage after which flip your again for a selfie.

“I simply intentionally transfer out the best way. Sorry to be a spoilsport however I discover it actually, actually impolite,” Tennant says.

Cellphone customers aren’t all unhealthy for enterprise although.

“You now know when one thing is working as a result of all of the telephones come out,” Tennant explains.

“Cigarette lighters are changed with telephones for a ballad it seems actually fairly beautiful, it’s actually fairly shifting,” he provides.

Synthetic intelligence is altering the trade, however the band doesn’t have any plans to make use of it anytime quickly — effectively, at the least not in its music.

When their publicist known as for a quote on the album for a press launch, they turned to ChatGPT, which described the album as “a celebration of the distinctive and numerous feelings that make us human.” They went with it.

“It’s an excellent quote” Tennant admits. “We kind of agree with it. We usually make some flippant comment, whereas ChatGPT gave us this very earnest description which is definitely correct.”