Read The Daily Record’s interview with Adam Ant, discussing his appearance Friday, July 20 at MPAC!

Daily Record: “Adam Ant plays New Wave and newer fare in Morristown Friday”

By Bill Nutt

Adam Ant is best-known in this country for his percussive New Wave songs, such as “Antmusic” and “Goody Two Shoes.”

It may surprise some casual listeners, then, that Ant’s body of work also contains a number of more intimate, personal songs.

One of the people who was surprised by that realization was Ant himself.

On his current “Anthems – The Singles” tour, Adam Ant is revisiting not only his hit songs but also deeper cuts.  As he reviewed the songs he wanted to include in this retrospective, Ant effectively rediscovered songs from his 40-plus-year career.

“I found that I had slower songs, songs from the heart, that I didn’t realize were there,” said Ant.  “These were songs I had never really thought about doing live before.”

The U.S. leg of Ant’s “Anthems” tour will include two New Jersey stops:  the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on Friday, July 20, and the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park on Saturday, July 21.

Ant stressed that these performances are not simply greatest hits.  He is delving into rarities and b-sides, some of which he has seldom (if ever) played live.

“It felt right, playing with this band,” said Ant.  “We know each other really well.  I thought we could do some of the more intricate songs.”

Ant also emphasized that he is interested in doing more than recreate original recordings.  “The songs have always grown, musically,” he said.  “We always try to push them a little bit more.  I won’t do medleys; I take each song as seriously as possible.”

That serious approach, even to seemingly playful songs, springs from Ant’s love of music.  Born Stuart Leslie Goddard in London in 1954, Ant developed his appreciation for words and music at an early age.

“The Beatles affected everybody,” said Ant.  (Coincidentally, his mother at one time worked as a house cleaner for Paul McCartney.) “I listened to Jimi Hendrix.  Later it was people like Bryan Ferry and Lou Reed.”

He also credited quirky singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman, whose “Modern Lovers” album is considered a forerunner of New Wave.  “He had incredible songwriting, with a lot of fun and humor,” Ant said.

In the late 1970s, he started fronting the band Bazooka Joe, for whom the Sex Pistols opened. Later, he led the group Adam and the Ants, taking inspiration from still another musician: James Brown, whom he saw live.

Brown’s band, which had two drummers, gave Ant the idea for the percussion that propelled many of his songs.  “As a singer, I would use my voice in a percussive way,” Ant said.  “I listened to a lot of ethnic music, and I’d incorporate it into my music.”

Ant said he considered himself fortunate to have emerged when he did.  “We were the first generation of punk,” he said.  “We had that harder edge.”

But as a man who enjoyed Jonathan Richman as much as he enjoyed the German group Kraftwerk, Ant disliked being pigeonholed in one genre.  “I’ve always tried to do something new,” he said.  “That’s why every album sounds different.”

The late 1970s and 1980s also saw the explosion of videos.  “I enjoyed those,” said Ant.  “I had had art school training, and I would do storyboards, and we’d go out and shoot them.  They were also like short movies, with fun and drama.”

However, by the mid-1980s, videos seemed to the tail wagging the dog.  “You started getting big budgets and Hollywood directors involved,” Ant said.  “The innocent days when you could run out and shot a video in a day were over.”

Over the years, Ant released 10 singles that went to the Top Ten in the United Kingdom.  He also appeared on stage, besides acting in numerous films and TV episodes during the 1980s and 1990s.

In the past decade, he has been ramped up his music career.  In 2013, he released “Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter,” his first album of new material in 18 years.

Ant is currently concentrating on his live shows, which he relishes.  “I’ve never felt less than 100 percent exhausted when I leave the stage,” he said.  “I’ve never shortchanged an audience.  I love the music I make, and I hope other people like it, too.”

IF YOU GO

ADAM ANT

WHAT: The musician, who emerged in the punk/New Wave movement of the late 1970s, will offer a retrospective that includes hits (“Antmusic,” “Strip,” “Goody Two Shoes”), b-sides, and rarities.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, July 20.

WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown

TICKETS: $49 to $99

INFORMATION:  973-539-8008 or www.mayoarts.org