Well you can’t have any control over how people are gonna receive something. The thing is, we’ve got a long story that’s running, and I don’t mean a story as in a fictitious story but myself and Kara DioGuardi who are the contempory band. We are committed to each other and have made loads and loads of recordings that people haven’t heard and we’re working on a whole future for the band. This was just an entry point into the arena of rock & pop music and it’s been interesting the way it’s been received, divided, analysed and turned upside-down. At the end of the day, a year ago nobody had ever heard anything to do with us but now all over the world from Japan to Russia people know the name Platinum Weird.

It seems to have taken on a life of its own.

Yeah, people have got this sort of strange idea in their consciousness and it’s up to us to go forward and develop it which we’re very excited about. We’ve just arrived in London together and we’ve been talking, all last night actually (laughs) drinking a few vodkas and we think that we’re strong songwriters and were destined to meet and are destined to be together. We’ve written so many songs in the last year and we are still recording & we think its interesting that people have this odd sort entry point. As it unfolds and develops, we’ve kind of created ourselves into a kind of histrionic band because that’s the way we feel we are and should be perceived.

The album sounds very natural.

It was. That album is a mixture of things from a period dating right back to 1973/74 when I was writing songs but not confident. It was a mixture of getting those snippets and snatches and then recording some new bits over the older stuff. When recording we used vintage gear and played live so it was true to the recording of that period as was possible.

Kara’s basically a one woman radio play list isn’t she.

(Laughs) Yeah she is.

She has an amazing ear for a great hook. That must have made it really easy for you too.
[Kara’s writing credits include; Pink, Hilary Duff, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Pussycat Dolls, Kelly Clarkson and a whole host more.]

What’s amazing about Kara is that she walks into a room and she just absorbs the atmosphere and just sings off the top of her head and these incredible melodies and bits of lyrics come out and you just go "bloody hell, that’s a hit” its incredible.

At what point when the pair of you were writing together did you decide these songs were just too good to give away and you wanted them for yourselves?

It’s a funny old story how it all came about. We are, for some reason connected at the hip creatively and we can’t help it. If we are in a room together we can just write together very naturally. We have no idea why this is. Unlike Kara who has been writing for lots of people who have commissioned her specifically. When we write things we have no idea what we are going to do with it or anything we are just writing for the fun of it and it seems to be the perfect combination. Partly I think because I’m English and she’s American and we have different sensibilities. So in a way like Fleetwood Mac sounded like a weird hybrid because of Christine Mcvie & Mick Fleetwood (UK) and then very extreme sort of American with Stevie Nicks and erm…what was his name again? [Lindsey Buckingham-SW], yup that’s him.

It must be very satisfying for you as well, to find that sort of writing chemistry once in your career with Annie, and then to find it again with Kara must be mind blowing.

Yeah it is, and both with women for some odd reason.

  I know all songwriters find it hard to pick a favourite track because they are all your babies, but is there a particular track that for you says "Platinum Weird?”

 Erm, well the album that you have is "Make Believe” right?
 SW: Yes it is.

 Well there is a whole other album that we are just finishing that has got some  of those songs on there, but I think "Will you be around” has captured this sort  of melancholy but has a great hook and it’s the kind of song that’s very simple, not many chord changes or anything but can go on and on and on and take on orchestration, or become a theme or something like that.

What I liked about the album particularly is that just when you think you know where a particular song is going. Along comes a bit or orchestration, or a hook, or guitar lick and moves it somewhere else. I’m specifically thinking of "Picture Perfect”, which is my favourite track on the whole album. The melody is very strong and then you come in with a very Lou Reed / Bowie harmony which lifts the song again.

Funny you should say that, because a lot of people have been saying about us "Oh what is this?" "This is fake" or "this is not right." You know if a new young band came along today, with an album like ours with all those songs on it people would be going "Bloody Hell”. You’re right about "Picture Perfect” everything about the song and the structure and the twists and turns in it. Its serious song writing and when its flips into the chorus "It’s a long way back” you are just not expecting it at all.

 Well I’ve always thought it’s the mark of a great song if it can be stripped back to its barest and be done acoustically.

Yeah, absolutely.

 I remember hearing you do a lot of Eurythmics stuff acoustically.

Yeah Annie and I always did a lot of that.

It’s a great guitar album and throughout your career there have been some very cool lines and motifs running through many of your songs. Do you write mainly on guitar?

Yeah, I do but I tend to back off during recording and not strum guitars everywhere. Rather I go for little classic phrases and motifs. I actually like writing on piano though I’m a terrible piano player. So whereas on guitar I know all the tricks and know I this can go here or I can do this but with the piano I don’t know what I'm doing so I tend to end up in odd places that piano players wouldn’t necessarily go.

So will the world get to see Platinum Weird on tour at some point?

Yeah, our managers in America are formulating something with our agent. We’re actually thinking of having once a week our own sort of club in L.A which we are going to call "Rock Fabulous” - a rock alternative to "Ghetto Fabulous” which is associated with hip hop. We think is that there is a certain period of rock music or a kind of writing and certain bands captured it at a certain times like The Small Faces caught it, and obviously The Stones caught it. There’s certain bands come along and it’s a mixture of rock music but its got really strong melodies but not in a kind of laddish anthemic way.

You are in London to induct Bon Jovi into the UK hall of fame tonight. How did you come to write with Jon Bon Jovi for his Destination Anywhere album?

I was at somebody’s house and Jon was there, and there were a couple of acoustic guitars and we started playing them for fun and we wrote this song "Midnight in Chelsea” in about ten minutes. I just started playing and singing [sings] "Midnight In Chelsea” and it just turned into a song and we said lets record it and that’s how it started.

Finally Dave, If I don’t ask this I’ll only get asked why I didn’t. So here goes: Is the Eurythmics door now firmly closed or is there any possibility of you and Annie working together again?

We’ve done so many things and been in so many situations and each time we start something-just for fun- it turns into a great big circus.. So we tend to just like do our own thing yet we hang around as friends a lot. For instance she has just been in Los Angeles recording in a studio that I co-own with Glen Ballard (producer/writer Alanis Morissette, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Michael Jackson) so I saw her everyday and she would come to my house for dinner and so forth. So these days it tends to be more of a friendship.

Well enjoy the show this evening and the partying, good luck with Platinum Weird and thanks for taking the time out to talk to me.

Thanks Saul, it’s been fun.