The Fixx Hate That "Saved By Zero" Commercial, Too
Even if you've only turned on a television once in the past couple of months, chances are you've seen and been haunted by the annoying Toyota "Saved By Zero" commercial. Turns out the Fixx, whose 1983 Reach The Beach tune soundtracks the ad in re-recorded form, aren't fans either. In fact, frontman Cy Curnin has more than a few thoughts on the matter. In case you haven't seen the advert, we have that as well. To get the proper context, you should play it 37 times in a row and see what happens.
[Cy Curnin] loves the fact that repeated plays have refocused attention to the Fixx, his new wave rock band from the 1980s. He likes the fat royalty check.But he's not keen on the cheap rerecording.
"I would prefer to have been the one singing it," Curnin says during a recent phone interview from his farm in France. You can hear the real version when the Fixx performs free concerts Friday and Saturday at Green Valley Ranch.
He's amused at the irony of using the song to tout 0 percent car financing.
"It's a bit cheesy," he says. "It was about looking at your own life, not so much about amassing material things but about experiences that lend you to be blissful. It's peeling away illusions we pick up along the way. Our identity isn't the suit we wear or the latest gadget. Our identity is the freedom to pick and choose from all aspects of humanity and to make a stand.
"The song was written from the point of view of the release you get when you have nothing left to lose. It's sort of a meditation. It clears your head of all fears and panics and illusions and you get back to the basics, which is a Buddhist mantra, which I practiced back then, and which I still do. The idea of the song is how great it is to get back to zero."
The theme drives Curnin's life.
Several years ago he moved to France with his new wife and started living off the land and off royalties.
"We are 100 percent self-sufficient," says Curnin, a native of Wimbledon, England. "We're getting back to the roots of it. My wife runs a guesthouse. We run all of the stuff we grow and produce through the guesthouse, feeding people. Tonight there are six people who will be eating some of our pigs."
The Las Vegas Sun story goes on to mention that though the Fixx usually keep their touring to the summer months, they're doing two free Vegas dates this Thursday and Friday at Green Valley Ranch Resort that they hope the shows will prep them for, yes, their new album:
"The reason we're doing the shows in Vegas, actually, is to get our feathers fluffed up to go into the studio straight after. We have done three songs already and have written for more and we're in the process of writing four more. Hopefully by next spring we will have another record."
Good thing he's 100% self-sufficient.
Posted at 2:31 PM by brandon in Commercial Appeal, Video
Tags: The Fixx
God dammit I hate that commercial
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On the upside, Cy Cernin now has an influx of cash to restart that CyWear line of hats referred to in his 2005 VH-1 interview. Oh wait, you can get bracelets now too.
http://www.cycurnin.com/?page_id=54
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