Robert Smith empathises with Chappell Roan's thoughts on toxic fan behaviour

In reference the ways in which fans expectations have grown into parasocial relationships, Robert Smith notes that, as an artist, "you want people to feel like they’re engaging with you, but it is a modern-world phenomenon that there’s a sense of entitlement that didn’t used to be there amongst fans."

The Cure have just released Songs Of A Lost World, their first album in sixteen years, and in the time they've been away, Smith shared his thoughts on how the landscape has changed. "When we started out, it was kind of enough that we did what we did, and people didn’t really expect, as a consumer, I didn’t expect something more. It was enough to kind of see Alex Harvey or to see David Bowie. I didn’t expect to, like, hang out with them or get to know them, whereas now, it seems almost like that is part of the deal," he continued.

Speaking of Chappell Roan's public struggles with her rise to fame, he says: "It is more difficult to deal with things because you’ve not grounded at a lower level. It took us years and years and years of touring, going around the world and doing stuff, until by the time we’d started to get properly famous, I kind of knew how to respond. I’d already developed that as part of like, who I was."

Smith empathises with how much pressure you can be put under whilst adjusting to the public eye. "Being famous, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, I can’t imagine many worse ways of living, cause it’s horrible being gawked at all the time and prodded and poked and people expecting more of you all the time. It’s a very strange thing."