Fiat Lux have had an unusual career trajectory; following a string of wonderful mid-1980s singles, (and a mini-album, Hired History), the band went on hiatus for the small matter of three-and-a-half decades or so, before a return that was as majestic as it was unexpected. A flurry of activity has seen two brand new studio albums, 2019’s Saved Symmetry and 2021’s Twisted Culture plus, at long last, a release for their ‘lost album’, Ark Of Embers that deserved to rub shoulders with any synthpop album you care to name from the time of its 80s gestation.
And the good news continues for fans of the band, with sparkling new album Desire and Belief arriving in just a couple of weeks, and a new single, ‘Clear Sky’ making its way into the world last week. The trio, consisting of original members Steve Wright (vocals) and David Crickmore (guitar / bass / keys) joined by Will Howard (on his birthday, no less!) who replaces the late Ian Nelson, who sadly died in 2006, on saxophone, chatted to God Is In The TV about the new album, the upcoming live dates and thrashing a well-known Liverpool band at table football!
GIITTV: You made the new album in the traditional way in a recording studio, whereas the last one was recorded during lockdown with the sharing of files and so on. Was it nice to be back to normal in that way?
David Crickmore: Yes, I think so. I think it helped. It helped with the creative process because we were able to try things out a bit more and we weren’t kind of throwing files to people somewhere else to say, “Right, well, it needs to go a bit like this!” Especially with Will. It gave him a bit more creativity in the process rather than just the kind of correspondence course in me trying to make a keyboard sound like a sax and then telling him to play the same thing!
Will Howard: Yeah absolutely. It just gives that immediate feedback, doesn’t it? When I try something out for one of those saxophone sections and yeah, immediate feedback. “Oh, could it go a bit like this or could you sing me a line?” or something like that and we’ll be able to make it work.
Steve Wright: Also when it when it comes that kind of thing, David and I…he’ll find a drum thing and I’ll find a keyboard thing and he goes, “Oh, I like that bit. I like that bit.” And that’s how sometimes things are born, which you can’t do when you’re 50 miles apart or 40 miles apart, can you? It’s that kind of instant thing. That’s good. Like on the track ‘All The Stars Have Died’. The words came from a different song that they weren’t fitting right at all. David had this sound that he recorded in 1981 – the keyboards are from 1981!
DC: In a similar way, the second track on the album, (‘Spirit Of The Age’) has a fragment of an Ian Nelson idea on it.
That’s lovely. My next question was actually going to be, did it take a while to come together? So, I didn’t think you would say 1981…
DC: Well, in that sense, I suppose it did, but in terms of actually making a record, it’s probably been a sort of a year-long project. From start to finish, I think, yeah.
If you don’t mind me saying, ‘Am I Dreaming’ reminds me of later, goth period Gary Numan…
SW: Yeah, I can see that. But yeah, it’s got a gutsy sort of element to it. It’s dark. It’s dark.
DC: I I remember one particular day where I spent all day putting a tone generator up the back of a Minimoog, which you can do. There’s an input in a Minimoog that allows you to put an external source in and then use that with filters and it made a really interesting noise and that formed the basis of a song. It was just a distinct sound which you couldn’t get just from using a Minimoog. But the combination of that and this old tone generator that I found knocking about in the studio – the two things togther just made this weird eerie sound and that was that!
It’s a brilliant track, Will’s sax really takes it into another dimension towards the end there.
DC: Isn’t it brilliant? We’d pretty much done the song and Will came in and we said to Will, well, what the hell can you do on this?
WH: Thanks!
SW: I played it to someone and they gasped! It has that emotive energy with the sax coming in that that just moves it into another plane. Will has been with the band two years longer than Ian ever was now, you know…
WH: And that’s one of those examples that I don’t think that could have happened in the lockdown sessions because there was a bit of back and forth and I took a first run at it and maybe got 80% of the way there, and we just had to really figure that out.
There are tracks called ‘Summer Solstice’ and ‘Winter Solstice’ on the new record. Did you record them at that time of year?
DC: The ‘Summer Solstice’ one was definitely a summery invention and the bird song that begins it was recorded for a project I did for the BBC, when I used to live in Oxenhope in West Yorkshire and they wanted a dawn chorus from every different part of the country. I thought, “Oh God, am I really going to have to get up at 4:30 in the morning?”, and so I set up some ambient mics on a timer! It occurred to me that it would be a good way to wake up the record nicely. And I’ve deliberately cut that quiet so that people will turn the volumes up on the record player, so that when the next song kicks in, it’ll have some impact!
We just wanted to conceptualise the record, bookend it with some solstices and what have you! And I think that kind of works for it and it has a flow.
The new album is self-produced, would you ever really want to work with a producer these days?
DC: Idon’t know. Only if Hugh Jones (producer of Ark Of Embers as well as albums by Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds and many more) decided to come out of retirement. I’d go for that. He taught me all I know!
SW: I’ve sent Hugh a message saying “Hi Hugh, are you there?” No reply.
DC: I did get a Christmas card from him! He wishes to be remembered to you!
SW: Ah, thank you! We have sent a copy of ‘Am I Dreaming’ to Cult With No Name, Eric and John. They’re going to do a mix of it.
Record Store Day 12” single, maybe?
DC: That kind of thing, yeah. We were talking to the record company about Record Store Day things. I don’t know whether we’ve left it too late now, but we shall see.
And you’ve got some concerts coming up shortly as well?
DC: That’s right, yeah, we’re doing a couple of specific launch dates which we’ve got properly arranged now. So, because the record label 9X9 Records is a Liverpool-based affair, they’ve arranged the Rough Trade venue one, which is on 13th February and then the following Friday after that we’re doing a Birmingham one at The Victoria.
SW: China Crisis…have we mentioned them?
DC: Not yet!
SW: Nothing’s arranged yet, but we played with them at The Brudenell (Leeds) some time ago. Our friend saw them and got talking to Eddy (Lundon, China Crisis singer) and said “Did you know Steve named his son after the (China Crisis) song ‘Christian’?” Nothing’s happening yet but our people are talking to their people! They want to get out there and support the small venues…
DC: …Which means you play more gigs as a result of that. Our relationship with China Crisis goes back to when we both used to use Amazon Studios in Liverpool, when we were doing the Hugh Jones stuff, they were there in the other studio…
SW: We used to thrash them at table football!
What are you planning for the gigs?
DC: We’ll be doing maybe about half a dozen tracks on the new album and then the rest of the gig will be staunch favourites.
SW: I always wondered about doing the staunch favourites. David’s always said that we have to do that! I’ve been to quite a few gigs of late, Level 42, Human League, ABC, you know, that kind of thing. You want to hear the hits, don’t you? You do. They must get fed up with doing, you know, ‘Love Action’ and all that. But you know, that’s what you want to hear.
I heard Martin Fry (ABC) being asked that same question, and he said he never tires of playing the old hits, he’s very happy that people want to hear them…
DC: Yeah, that’s the attitude you should have, really, I think. I mean, you’ve only got to look at Live Aid to see what happened to the people who went, “Oh, here’s my latest record”.
Will – how did you come to be in the band?
WH: I think I remember playing ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey on my sax, and David, you were producing the session?
DC: Well, yeah, that’s right. It was a BBC job and I was doing the live sound for this outside broadcast, which Will’s band had been asked to participate in, because in those days BBC had this penchant for going into shopping centres around Christmas and making a nuisance of themselves with a PA and stuff, you know! So I talked to him afterwards and we exchanged numbers.
The new album sounds somehow ‘bigger’ than its predecessor, Twisted Culture?
DC: Yes, it’s COVID-related as this time we were in a proper studio and that gives a lot more scope to make it sound good, whereas the other one was just done with a limited amount of studio kit in a small box basically with nobody around (during lockdown). So yeah, it benefits from having the full Panopticon studio, which is like a little mini-Abbey Road really.
And what’s the story with the album sleeve?
DC: Well, it’s a landmark around here, actually, but it kind of chimes with the desire and belief thing, you know, it also has a heart shape to it as well. So you know, desire, belief, all these things and it is something we pass when either Steve’s coming to the studio to meet me or vice versa. It’s up on the hills in North Yorkshire.
SW: I must mention Jeff Henman, who’s designed it because, he’s done all sorts to it, you know, cut bits off, puts bits of sky in, but that’s how it looks. But things needed doing to it, obviously. He’s eschewed the fee and he said it should be donated to the Anchor Project in Bradford. Very nice.
OK then, a difficult one to finish with…if you could work with anybody or get somebody to guest on one of your records, and it could be somebody who’s alive or somebody who’s not alive anymore, who would that be for each of you?
DC: An interesting question because in for the whole duration, Fiat Lux have been resolutely without any collaborators and we’ve kind of been very fixed on the whole…
SW: George Harrison. The Travelling Wilburys had some great tracks.
DC: Interesting, I’m not against that idea!
WH: The first thing came to mind was someone like Aretha Franklin or some singer like that. Just those, those kind of vocals are…
DC: You’d put Steve out of a job!
WH: Yeah, sorry, Steve!
SW: No worries, I just turn up anyway!
DC: It would be interesting to collaborate with Brian Eno to see what he would take out of what we do! I think he’s an interesting character, Brian Eno, and I’ve always liked most of the things that he has collaborated on.
Desire & Belief is out on 9X9 Records on 6th February 2026.
Fiat Lux play Rough Trade, Liverpool on 13th February 2026 and The Victoria, Birmingham on 20th February 2026.
See fiat-lux.co.uk to order the album or buy tickets.
