Speaking with Ian McCulloch, one simply cannot forget that the man is one of the pioneers of Eighties post-punk. That's because he's quick to remind you. "At certain moments I've got the best voice on the planet," he says in his distinctive scouse drawl. "I do certain things better than other people, but, you know, David Lee Roth does his thing a lot better than I can do it."

With his still-wild personality, yet considerably calmer hair, McCulloch has just turned forty and is finally finding his feet. The late Eighties saw the breakup of his decade-old band, Echo and the Bunnymen, the death of drummer Pete De Freitas and a fairly unsuccessful McCulloch solo career, while the late Nineties brought the self-proclaimed "best comeback in the world" with the release of Evergreen and, now, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?, out in the U.S. this week. "Lyrically it's more on the edge than I've ever been, because it talks about real things about me in this life," he says. "In the past I was avoiding confronting things. This album is definitely reflective, or indicative, of where I'm at. But it's more the age I am rather than the place I'm at in life."

Over humming strings and acoustic guitars, McCulloch's unmistakable velvet voice sings of days past and dreams lost -- so personally that it plays like a solo effort. "I want people to say it's him writing his songs, but within the context of Echo and the Bunnymen," he explains. "If it was an Ian McCulloch solo record, I don't think I would've spent as much time or careto get it exactly how I want it."

It may not be a solo album, but it features just two founding Bunnymen -- McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant. Bassist Les Pattison was forced to bow out on the second day of recording to tend to family matters. McCulloch has grown used to such disappointments over the years, but nothing can tarnish the Bunnymen's triumphant past. "We were always tipped to be the biggest band in the world ... from 1980 to 1984," he says. "And we were so self-destructive. Even more, we never had that ambition to play stadiums."

And now, the Bunnymen have found where they belong, with their crooning frontman going the way of the ballad. "I just realized that's the way it had to be," McCulloch explains. "When you're trying to write certain kinds of words that you want people to grasp, to draw them in, there's somethingabout singing slower songs...and it suits my voice."

With a colossal degree of introspection throughout the album, themes of guilt and apology show up -- as they often do with McCulloch. At times, the album seems to speak directly to his loyal wife Lorraine with lines like, "When we both grow older, will you love me then? / Through all of my games / You were there by my side," (from "When It All Blows Over.")

Of course the ever-wily McCulloch will not so easily forfeit his badass image by acknowledging his softer side. "There's a little bit of that, but there's lines like 'I've got what you want / When are you gonna get me?'" he quips. "Which is the other side of the coin. Also, I say 'What am I gonna be?/I'm gonna be me,' so throughout all of it is the repetition of that's what you get with me."

The most telling song is the single "Rust," an autobiographical look at McCulloch's own experience with growing older that has already received accolades in the U.K. "The kid who's one in a year's time will have doubled his life span, so he's twice as old as he was, so we all go through it," he says. "Most people say this life is not the world I wanted or the seed I planted. But that's kind of good. I'd probably be bald, living in Greece feeling greasy." He laughs. "I didn't even mean it like that...feeling sweaty."

So, why, after twenty years in the game, is McCulloch asking the proverbial question, "What Are You Going to do With Your Life?" "You stack everything up of what you've done and what you want to do," McCulloch explains. "This album is a reminder to meself that I came in at thirteen listening toBowie, dreaming about things."

Is that a trace of modesty?

"And it's one of the best album titles of all time," he adds. "It's fantastic!"

That's more like it.

LIZA GHORBANI
(June 24, 1999)