The dark knight returns 

By Irwin Soonachan, correspondent

Driven by a keyboard riff reminiscent of an engine turbine, "Cars," Gary Numan's agoraphobic masterpiece, topped the charts worldwide in 1980. Other Numan hits like "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "I Die: You Die" are more popular in his native England than in the United States, but the early 1980s image of Numan - a futuristic paranoid android - remains one of the memorable snapshots of that era. Though less commercially viable, Numan's recent effort - "Pure," available on Spitfire Records - shows that he is still a very capable songwriter. For more on Numan, visit his website at www.numan.org. 

HostingTech: What websites do you like to visit? 

Gary Numan: I don't have any websites that I visit on a regular basis. I do not use the Web for entertainment at all, just information as and when I need it. I look for information on products I might be interested in buying and places I might be going to visit - pretty much anything, really. 

HostingTech: Do you ever assume other personae on message boards or in chat rooms? 

Gary Numan: I never go to chat rooms. I had a sneaky look at a Numan chat room once, and was stunningly disappointed. It was filled with trouble-makers finding fault with everything I do and fans too intense for their own good arguing in my defense. 

It was destructive, depressing, and quite sad. I already have all the friends I need and would rather discuss serious matters face to face. However, I'm quite prepared to admit that I could be missing the point entirely. 

HostingTech: In your music, you seem both attracted to and fearful of technology. How do you really feel about the Internet? 

Gary Numan: I have never gone along with the view that it will change the world beyond recognition and that people's lives will be forever altered. Nor do I believe that it can be completely ignored by people with some kind of techno fear. Like any new technology, people will embrace it to a greater or lesser degree, and it will, with time, find its natural place in the lives of everyone. Personally, I love it. I'm reasonably antisocial, and it enables me to learn without having to interact with humanity to any great extent. I find humanity slightly intimidating because of its unpredictable nature. The Internet takes away an entire layer of worry from me. It also gives me a huge amount of information and it enables me to communicate with the world in a way that I find more comfortable. 

HostingTech: Do you think the Internet has drawn people closer together or driven them apart? 

Gary Numan: Speaking personally, it has enabled me to stay in touch with people I would not have bothered with before. It gives me the ability to stay in touch, but at arm's length. I hate using the telephone and have a bad phone phobia, but, at times, that speed of communication is needed. E-mail gives me that speed, most of the time, without the need to use the phone. It's definitely made me closer to my fans. I run my website single-handedly so fans know that anything written on the site, or any design, I did myself. That gives us a very direct connection and I think it is preferable to having some third-party company running the site for you. How it has affected people beyond that, I really don't know. 

HostingTech: What things make you feel paranoid? 

Gary Numan: Waking up is usually enough. Breathing adds to it. Looking out of my bedroom window at the world finishes me off. I trust virtually no one and believe virtually nothing until I'm proved wrong. I like machinery. If machinery lets you down, you can be absolutely positive that it didn't do it on purpose. You can't say that about people. It's made me surprisingly hard emotionally, but very resilient. 

HostingTech: Do you ever get tired of being a pop star? 

Gary Numan: I get tired sometimes of trying to become a pop star again. I haven't been a pop star for a long, long time. I'm known to some, liked by a few, and unknown to most - hardly a description that brings the word "star" to mind. If the truth be told, I'm not even trying to become a pop star again. Been there, done that, and it isn't as great as some people imagine. Just a few rungs below pop star, however, can be very cool. A few rungs below pop star gives money enough to be comfortable, recognition enough to massage the ego, but not famous enough to destroy any chance of a "normal" life. I'm trying to be a two-rungs-down rock star. 

HostingTech: I hate to do this, but I'm obligated to ask you: What kind of car do you drive? 

Gary Numan: I have two. My day-to-day car is a Mitsubishi pickup truck. My other car is a thing called a TVR Cerbera 4.5, which is a British-made sports car. It goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and 0 to 100 in 8 seconds. It's very quick.