From the first album I'm playing bass on a lot of the tunes, and piano on a lot of 'em, and drums, and guitars. I did that on almost every album.
I guess you go too far when pianos try to be guitars.
Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin
As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player.
In New Order, I played about 95% of the synths. It's not much fun for the other guys in the band when I'm playing my synth parts.
Andy Chase and I were keyboard players originally, and we became guitarists later. But it's fun for us to focus more on the keyboard stuff sometimes.
The real producers back in the day didn't sit there and play every single instrument. They made sure the record had the best performance out of everyone involved possible.
Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.