How I Got That Sound: Howard Jones

Photo: Simon Fowler

Howard Jones burst onto the scene in the early 1980s with a collection of era‑defining synth‑pop hits such as ‘What Is Love’, ‘No One Is To Blame’ and ‘Things Can Only Get Better’. Asked to select a favourite sound, he circles back to the first of these.

“It starts off with a Yamaha DX7 bass sound — a synthesizer that had just come out at the time. I think I’m right in saying that ‘What Is Love?’ was the first hit song that had featured the DX7. I know that other people had used it on ‘B’ sides and things like that, but ‘What Is Love?’ was the first big hit song that actually featured the DX7.

Howard Jones: The DX7 was impossible to program, so I’m not going to say that I used anything except the preset, which is the cardinal sin among synth players.

“The bass sound is such a great, solid bass sound, courtesy of the the DX7. But the DX7 was impossible to program, so I’m not going to say that I used anything except the preset, which is the cardinal sin among synth players. But I didn’t have time to do 10 years’...