With The Mission starting rehearsals at the weekend (in Belgium) the four members of the band are starting to congregate in the UK (Simon lives in Sheffield so he’s already here) with Wayne arriving on Wednesday morning. He says, ‘I spoke with my mum last weekend on the phone and she told me to bring shorts as it’s been hot and sunny. Well, I brought 3 pairs with me. Can’t see that I’m gonna need them. It’s cold and wet. It’s the middle of winter in Brazil and it’s far warmer there. The great British summer, eh! Brrr.’ Anyway, as he is now here we thought we’d take the opportunity to ask him a few questions ahead of next week’s shows in Arlon on the 10th, Utrecht 11th, Köln 12th, 13th in Berlin, and the Castle Party Festival in Poland on Sunday 14th.

These photos were sent to us this week from the band’s appearance at the WGT last year and one of Wayne from 2019 when he appeared solo at NCN, both festivals in Leipzig, and we think they are rather spiffy (although there were none, sadly, of young Alex) and are used here with the kind permission of Ives Zander at <www.listentothesilence.net>

Anyway, here’s what Wayne has to say for himself.

Obvious question first: you said that the shows you played last year, 2023, were going to be the last ones for quite some time. 2024 comes around and you announce a whole slew of shows across the globe. In fact, the last time you played in LATAM you claimed that these would be your last ever shows in this particular part of the world. Yet, here you are less than two years later and you’re going back. Why the change of heart, what changed? 

Wayne: The simple fact is we were offered a slot at the Cruel World Festival in LA and it was a great, diverse bill that we wanted to be part of. It also gave us the opportunity to play to an audience that mostly didn’t know or care who we were and I do relish that challenge every now and then. The USA has never really taken to The Mission in the same way as the rest of the world has. A bit like football. (I refuse to use the ’s’ word.) And while the fee was good it barely covered our expenses so we added the extra shows to make a bit of money. After all, playing live makes up the bulk of our income these days ‘cos making records sadly ain’t cost effective anymore. The same with the Castle Party Festival in Poland. We would’ve lost money playing just that one show -  and we’re in no position to do so - if we hadn’t have added the extra shows in Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. And again the same with the Visor Festival in Murcia in September. Hence the other shows in the UK, France, Spain & Portugal. It takes as much time and costs as much money for us to prepare and play one show as it does a 3 month tour. After all I do have 4 dogs and 3 cats to feed and groovy shirts to buy. Anyway, I don’t have to justify anything to anybody apart from to myself and I have the right to change my mind just as much as you do.

The tour of Latin America? Well, those tours have always been fantastic audiences, among the very best in the world in my experience, but so arduous. Yeah, it may seem glamorous but there’s nothing glamorous at all at playing 10 shows in 11 days in 6 different countries, flying every day on commercial airlines, very often very early in the morning after a late show the night before. OK, if you’re 25, but 65? It’s too much. But when Marcos from Dark Dimensions came back to us and asked if we wanted to do another tour but with a travel day between each show, we thought that’d be manageable, and enjoyable. I may well feel differently come October. Ask me again then.

And Dubai? You end the year with The Mission’s first ever visit to the Middle East. How did the show in Dubai come about?

Wayne: We were asked to go and play in a country we’d never played in before alongside a few bands that have become our mates over the last few years - The Chameleons, & IST IST, and the Clayton Troupe who we know from years ago. If by us going there and playing it helps open the doors for more bands to go then that has to be a good thing. And they named the festival after one of our songs - From The Oyster Comes The Pearl - so how could we say no?

Ah, there’s one or two of our online contingent that have expressed their disappointment that we’ve agreed to play in that region of the world but me and The Mission are not led by politics, never have been. There’s always someone somewhere pissed off with whatever we do. I, we, like going to new places and playing to new audiences and experiencing new and different cultures. We’ve always done that. While we certainly don’t condone the policies of the vast majority of the governments of the world it’s not stopped us from going to countries about whom we feel that way. If we had then we would never have visited South America and Eastern Europe for the first times back in the 80s; we wouldn’t have played in the USA, certainly not recently, and most of Europe including the UK if it comes to it. We go to play to people who wanna hear the music, see the show, and enjoy themselves. For me, it’s also a chance to see places, however fleetingly, and make up my own mind rather than just blindly believe what is reported in a media that has it’s own agendas. It’s amazing to me to see how ‘the news’ is reported differently from country to country. Anyway, all politics aside, we’re musicians and what we do is play music to people that wanna share in it with us. No more, no less.

So, are you looking forward to the upcoming shows?

Wayne: Yes, of course. I do still get a big kick out of playing live, and especially with the band as we are now. I feel we’ve been in great form over the last year or so, certainly since Alex joined and settled in. It’s just all the other stuff that comes with touring - the traveling, the poor diet, the lack of sleep which becomes more of an issue as I get older as I suffer from insomnia too which doesn’t help, the ill health - that takes its toll. It takes me longer each time to recover from a tour once I get home. I don’t feel I’ve fully recovered yet from the last North American tour which finished, what, 6 weeks ago. Nothing I can put my finger on but I’m still not 100% right. Ah, it’s the life I chose and I shouldn’t moan as most people would give anything to be in the position I’m in.  It’s the 90 minutes, 2 hours, that I’m on-stage every night that makes it all worth while. That’s my fix.

You’ve suggested that you are writing new songs for a new Mission album. Are we likely to see you perform anything new during these upcoming shows? And do you have any idea when the new album might see the light of day?

Wayne: I am. And I hope so. It really depends how the new songs come together in rehearsal. I do think it’s important for us to get out of our comfort zone sometimes. And while I understand that most of our audience - as they are with most bands - aren’t interested in new stuff and prefer to hear the ‘old’ classics but that gets boring and predictable and not just for us, for our audience too. I remember John Paul Jones telling me once that when Zeppelin were on tour and started playing ‘Stairway To Heaven’ before the album came out no one was interested. ‘Play Immigrant Song!’….or ‘What’s this rubbish? We wanna hear Whole Lotta Love!’

I’m not claiming I’ve written our 'Stairway’ but I’d like to believe there is enough people in our audience interested in hearing some new songs.

As for the album, in my mind, next year will be spent writing and recording a new album for a 2026 release, our 40th anniversary! Unless we get an invite too good to turn down to appear at a festival or two….

How do you see the album being recorded this time? Of your most recent albums The Brightest Light was essentially recorded with the four of you holed up in a residential studio in Lincolnshire playing together in the same room, while Another Fall From Grace was recorded remotely, meaning you all recorded your parts separately at your various home studios? Which way of working do you prefer? 

Wayne: I MUCH prefer recording, at least the basic backing tracks, all together in one room. I love the interaction and interplay. I love the way the music shifts the air in the room and you hear that in the recording. But unfortunately logistics and the expense of getting us all together is restrictive and while we don’t sell records in the quantities we once did we still need to sell enough to at least cover our costs. Sadly there’s no guarantee of that in this day and age of streaming and whatnot. It would be easier and more cost effective, I guess, if we all lived at least on the same continent if not the same country but that ain’t gonna happen. I’m in Brazil, Craig in Maryland, Alex in Asheville, North Carolina, and Simon is in Sheffield.

When it comes to recording vocals and mixing though I’d rather do that when the rest of the band aren’t there. You can’t mix by committee. And recording vocals is a very intimate process and having the rest of the band in the control room while I’m doing it is too intimidating. Just me and the engineer/producer, please. What we need is a rich benefactor who’d be willing to take the risk and put up the money for us to record a new album in the way we’d prefer. Anyone out there with a spare bit of cash?

Alex Baum, your drummer has been with the band for more than two years now. How do you feel he’s settled in? Will he be involved with the new Mission album?

Wayne: Aw, he’s great. He’s given us a new lease of life. Lovely lad to boot. Absolutely Alex will be involved. I’m really looking forward to working with Alex on a creative level rather than just him playing songs already recorded and established. He’s a great drummer and I think he’ll be a creative force in the studio.

Even if the band hasn’t been prolific over the years you have been with various solo projects, collaborations with Beauty In Chaos & others, writing books, and now the recent Archèometre releases with your wife, Cinthya. Where does your drive, your creative energy come from? 

Wayne: It’s a need. And a want. To create. I love music. I live for it. I love collaborating. I love working on my own. I love playing the guitar and the piano. Just for fun. Not with any material end in mind. That’s why I got into doing it. I love all kinds of music and I love being able to shift from one thing to another. I love that I can go from The Mission to working with Cin on the more ambient, soothing, healing kind of music of Archèometre. And then writing words and and vocal melodies for tunes written by the two Michael’s, Ciravolo and Rozen, for Beauty In Chaos. I love that I can do what I want and I am not answerable to anyone but myself.

And yeh, at some point I suppose, I’ll have to put the guitar down for a bit and write a 3rd, and final, book. I love that process too, when the muse deigns to visit me.

Is there anything left for you to achieve that you haven’t done yet? 

Wayne: Tons of stuff. Lots of places I’d still like to visit, new places to go. Lots of songs I still need to write. New chords to find. New words to come up with. New music to make. New collaborations. I still need to fulfil the unrealised ambition of writing music for a film. Yeh, I might have reached retirement age now but I haven’t got any plans to spend the rest of my days lying in a hammock. Too much to do.