Peter Hook’s time with Joy Division was a period the musician described fondly to BBC Radio Scotland’s Vic Galloway. It was a turning point in figuring out his sound as a bassist. Hook’s interactions with his bandmates, especially with the late Ian Curtis, helped him capture the authentic sound we still hear in his playing today.
Curtis was known to suffer from epilepsy and depression. Before he tragically took his own life when he was just 23 years old, he was the lead singer and the skilled lyricist that people in the industry were getting to know. Besides having that talent, he was also a cheerleader for his bandmates, specifically for Peter Hook.
The bassist was trying to find his sound by dabbling in different notes to see what he could do. Curtis’ support and encouragement during practices, whether it be for him to keep doing specific notes or words of affirmations to help Peter in his path, the late singer was a helpful soul who ultimately helped Hook create the sound that is unique to him.
Peter Hook gave insight into how he had found his true sound:
“Sadly, I have no idea how I arrived at the signature sound. It wasn’t planned, and the only credit I can give for it is to Ian Curtis himself because whenever Ian heard me play like that in any shape or form, he would encourage me into playing like that, so yeah, I mean, it became that I couldn’t hear my amplifier over Bernard’s amplifier which was a Vox AC30 which was as loud as hell and sounded absolutely amazing.
I had a Sound City 120 Head and a 10-pound 18-inch bass speaker, and the reason it was a 10-pound was that it sounded like a 10-pound. So the thing is that I was on the back foot, shall we say, and the only time I could hear the amplifier was when I played high on the strings on the D and the G and went high, and every time I did that, Ian Curtis would go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that sounds great! Do that. That’s it, that’s okay, keep on doing that.’ Literally, every time we practiced, he would go, ‘Okay, okay, play high, play high!’”
So it is safe to say that Peter Hook’s lucky to be in a band with Ian Curtis to receive the motivation and inspiration to be able to create his sound, which we’ve kept hearing in his future career with New Order and Peter Hook and the Light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMxjYlPocBc
