Ric Ocasek Of The Cars Calls Their Reunion ‘Fun’ and ‘Positive’

In a recent interview with WXRT radio personality Frank E. Lee following a sold out Cars show in Chicago, frontman Ric Ocasek spoke about the band’s new album ‘Move Like This,’ a release that he says finds the band in “good spirits,” something that largely contributed to the “positive” sound of the songs on the album.

Ocasek said that when the band returned to the studio for the first time in over 20 years, the chemistry was “immediate,” as if no time had elapsed since the last time they had made an album together.

He also said that as he started thinking about making another solo album, a shift in his songwriting instead pushed his thoughts towards the idea of a new Cars album, as he asked himself “who would be the most fun people to make a record with?”

According to Ocasek, it didn’t have anything to do with “well, I wrote these songs and they sound like Cars songs.” Instead, he said that he wanted musical input from “the people that I always loved and thought were the best at playing songs that I write.”

Album producer Jacknife Lee also had a lot of input on ‘Move Like This,” something that Ocasek attributes to Lee's skills as both an engineer and a musician. Ocasek says that it was important for the band to have a producer on this new album, someone that he really respected, so that Ocasek, himself a noted producer, could simply be a part of the band this time around.

In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Lee spoke about the sound of the Cars, stating that he can hear their influence in modern-rock bands like Phoenix, Bloc Party and The Strokes.

The Cars will be back in Chicago later this summer as part of the 20^th anniversary edition of Lollapalooza.