Steve is touring for his fourth ablum with Bronsji beat called Rainbow Nation.I talked with Steve while in San Pedro California.

Highwire Daze: It's been a while since we have heard new material from Bronski Beat. What is the current line-up and how did the project come together?

Steve Bronski: The new line-up is Jonathan Hellyner on vocals. Then there is myself on additional keyboards and doing the sequencing is Ian Donaldson. How it got together is that Jon Foster wasn't well. So we decided to go with some different songs that Jonathan and I had written about five years previous. The songs seemed strong enough for a good album. So, Ian came in and did a lot of the sequencing and programming. Then we went to Italy and came back with a beautiful new full CD project.

HD: The cover of the new CD Rainbow Nation is a bright rainbow and a colorful world. Where did the name for the new album come from?

Steve: The title came from a song by The Urban Cookie Collective called Sailed Away. It mentions the Rainbow Nation in it and I though it was a great explanation of what Bronski Beat is about. So it stuck.

HD: You used to be on MCA records. Where is your new label XYZ from?

Steve: It's near Frankfurt Germany. It makes it quite difficult, being over here in the states, between the time difference in Germany and here, to get any business done while we are currently touring in the USA. Actually, to do any business, we have to do it in the middle of the night, here in the states, to catch them at work over there.

HD: While looking at the dates the songs for Rainbow Nation were recorded, I noticed one song was written recently called Tell Me Your name. How did the new song get onto Rainbow Nation?

Steve: It had started out that we were going to do a totally different song and we couldn't get a groove right. Jonathan had come up with a musical line by humming it and that's how it started. We recored it in Italy when the final labum was being put together. We actually ended up writing Tell Me Your Name in aboput fifteen minutes. Some of the best songs come quickly. It was suprising to hear this title and song come out of Jonathan really. We actually thought that itwas sort of a cheeky Gay song. But I thought about it and said yes to it. It reminds me of Sylvester. So, I couldn't stop listening to it even while we were at our hotel in Italy.

HD: You usally use more electronical sounds and instruments like keyboards for most of your known sound. An acoutic guitar is heard on Rainbow Nation and i fopund it to be very different for the most part coming from a mostly synth pop dance band to be using it. Not that on here it's a bad sound to mix in, but why did you use a classical acoustic guitar on the new album?

Steve: Oh, you are talking about the very last song on Rainbow Nation called Difference. I played all of the chords on it. I used some other sensational session musicians to do the rest for me. The actual song came together because of Jonathan's brother finding out about Jonathan being gay. However, even though different from each other, Jonathan's brother accepted him. I decided to to do it acousticlly. The label thought it was a very strong song after it was finished.

HD: How did the acoustic version of your hit song Small Town Boy come together and arrive on this new album?

Steve: Small Town Boy 94 acoustic version came together because I would play it that way at parties. Someone suggested that I record it and so I did.

Bronski Beat is continuing their tour in the States and are headed to tour in Europe and In Japan soon. Currently Bronski beat just released the first single form the album Rainbow Nation called Kiskin' Up The Rain so request it and don't forget to pick up the new album as well. Steve Bronski has just finish producing Los Angeles local group Exhibition's new song called When Iam Old available now on Exhibition's debut called Unhibited.