FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1980: Sebastian Faulks (Sunday Telegraph)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

1980: Sebastian Faulks (Sunday Telegraph)

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I am going to wrap up…

The Kate Bush interview archive. Before I do, I have trips to 1982 and 1985 to tick off. Maybe another one from 1980. I am forever indebted to this website for producing interview transcripts involving Kate Bush from throughout the year. This one, from July 1980, sees Sebastian Faulks of the Sunday Telegraph speaking with an artist just shy of her twenty-second birthday. After two studio albums in 1978 and The Tour of Life in 1979, Bush was in the studio making Never for Ever. The album would be released in September 1980. It was an exciting time for an artist undergoing this sonic and production transformation. Maybe there was still this critical perception of her as being weird or unusual. However, after the tour, it was clear this artist many diminished and mocked was a bona fide star. Never for Ever would take her to a new level. I wanted to highlight this interview because there are some great insights and exchanges. Aside from there being an air of patronising. As with so many interviews, there is misinformation, misconception and condescension. How long would it take for the media to treat Kate Bush with due respect and like any male artist?! She was still being portrayed as and handled like a child or some oddity! However, there are moments – where Kate Bush speaks – that makes the interview interesting and worthy. I have edited it to tighten it slightly, though most of it remains intact:

“At 19 Kate Bush was hailed by the pop press as the most important pop singer of the decade. She combined ethereal and elusive beauty with a seaside postcard suggestiveness; her high-pitched voice suggested pathos, humour and drama.

She followed the hit single "Wuthering Heights" with a best-selling album, The Kick Inside, and won every available award. The only doubt was whether she could perform for an audience; whether she had the physical stamina, and whether the songs had enough variation to compensate for the fact that prolonged exposure to her voice rendered it less a dramatic wail than an irritating shriek.

After six months preparation Kate Bush set off on tour in January 1979. Accompanied by a troupe of dancers, jugglers, musicians, and engineers she traveled round the country, arriving at the London Palladium in April. The Daily Telegraph reviewer wrote of her show: "It beggars belief... a stunningly original stage performance... she has struck the balance between the vivid and the simple and it is devastatingly effective... a dazzling testimony to a remarkable talent."

The show was a new departure in the pop world for the way it incorporated elements of dance and circus entertainment, and for its original use of specially-designed cordless microphones, which allowed Kate Bush to keep both hands free as weaved, danced, and tumbled about the stage. For each song she adopted a new persona, aided by lightning costume changes. Male dancers rocked her gently as she became a serpentine oriental seductress; motor bikes roared as she turned into a strutting leather queen; silence descended as she metamorphosed into a lonely waif at the piano; and then she rose up through the dry ice clouds for "Wuthering Heights", a woman wailing for her demon lover.

Now here she sits in the canteen of the Abbey Road Recording Studios, this tiny grinning girl whose feet dangle some inches from the ground when she is in the studio chair. Her hair, naturally a dark gypsy brown, is currently a fashionable bronze-pink. Her face is pixie-ish and when she smiles she has a dimple - but only on the left and so high up that it almost looks as though she is squinting. She is wearing skin-tight black satin trousers, shaggy boots and a loose black jumper. She would look more like 21 were it not for her tiny childish fingers.

For the past three months Kate Bush has been shut in the basement of the building recording songs for her autumn-released new album. She says she feels like a flower without sun, wilting, but she does not complain much because the new record is crucially important to her. There is a slight air of panic in the studios. Kate has a unique talent, but there is a feeling that the Palladium shows displayed every aspect of it to the greatest possible extent. She has to try to find a way of transcending the limitations of her voice and it's wearing qualities.

She herself scorns such suggestions. "People said I couldn't gig and I proved them wrong. I'll just have to prove them wrong again. you see, the new album represents a new direction for me; it's where I'm at now, not last year. I'll just keep on creating, keep on performing."

But there are, in fact, no plans for another tour. "Maybe next year... I need five months to prepare a show and build up my strength for it, and in those five months I can't be writing new songs and i can't be promoting the album. The problem is time... and money."

Information is a key work for Kate Bush. She is like magic, fastening on to glittering slabs of knowledge and half-glimpsed images - a dip into the books of Gurdjieff, the Caucasian mystic, a clutch of old films, a fashion magazine, a science textbook, an overheard conversation. "All artists are thieves. You eat what you steal, digest it and it becomes a part of you. You never just copy, of course." This mad eclecticism is what made her stage shows intriguing

"I have to keep an eye on her, you know," says Kate Bush, glancing over her shoulder. "I mustn't let her get out of hand." She looks down. "Sometimes, it's funny, I feel sort of... inferior to her, you know, and I can feel myself starting to behave like her in real life." She is talking, it turns out, about her stage self. "It's frightening," she adds. And then: "you've got to behave appropriately for the situation whether you find yourself in a social situation... I just want to be a human being, you know; I'm a human being first and foremost."

This is a not untypical slice of Kate Bush conversation. A great deal of what she says is pure rock cliche', but it is illuminated from time to time by oblique and original comments. All are delivered with equal charm and sincerity, with an edge of surprise always cracking the almost consonatless London accent.

School bored her and though she had some good friends she preferred to lock herself away in her room. "I worked out this dance and mime to The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby. I just lived in the world of the song for days and days, dancing it, getting it right." Meanwhile she also listened to Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly and a new group just appearing on the British scene, King Crimson. ANd then she started writing her own songs, "mostly about myths, spirits, that kind of thing; not fairies... stronger than that."

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

What happened next was like something from a fairy story. When she was 14 she made a tape of her songs and, via a friend of a friend, it found its way to David Gilmour, guitarist from the Pink Floyd group, Gilmour, who has a reputation for helping new talent, paid to have proper recordings made and played them to EMI, who signed her up at once. She was to start recording for them when she was a little older, "when I felt ready to handle the situation."

So Kate - as she was by now - left St. Joseph's School, Abbey Wood, with armfuls of O-levels, a recording contract and a windfall legacy from her aunt tucked away in the bank.

The next step in her education was to study with the mime and dance artist Lindsay Kemp, of whom she speaks in tones of awe and gratitude. "the first time I saw him it was like a whole new world opened up for me. He did more than I'd ever seen done on the stage before and he never opened his mouth!"

She has worked hard at her dancing and is lucky enough to have long legs, which give a sinuous elegance to some of her less orthodox movements. She smokes and stays up late, though she has been a vegetarian for the last five years - which, she says, makes her feel much better in body and mind.

Kate Bush was brought up a Roman Catholic, but "it never touched my heart." She now professes to a vague humanistic belief in the central premise of most religions - that we should be kind to other people.

She is a curious mixture of naivete' and sophistication. Her avowed aim is to lay herself open to as many influences as possible - to go on gathering information and "carry on learning."

What she has yet to do is learn how to be selective - to filter the various stimuli so that she can see what is useful and what is dross. Her second-single, "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", was a touching and subtle song about the different ways in which the ageing process effects men and women, which she wrote when she was just 13. Yet her latest single, "Breathing" is about the environment - that corniest of all rock standbys - and sounds far more like the work of a teenager.

Time is short and the pop public is fickle. If the new album is a flop and there is no tour in prospect, Kate Bush has only the frequent impersonation of her on televisions (for which she is very grateful) to keep her in the public consciousness. She does not seem worried. "I'll just carry on performing. It's the only thing I know how to do."

She is very young to be facing such a watershed in her life, but luckily she has the resilience of youth as well as its vulnerability. In the long term she would like to have children, but it would be unfair to them, she says, to think about that just yet.

She lives in a plant-filled flat in a 19th century house in one of the quieter streets of Lewisham, southeast London. She and her brothers each have a floor. "A very ordinary flat," she calls it, "though I like it because it's got all my things in it. It's just far enough out to be nice and quiet. I'd like to live in the country really but the flat's best for the moment, while I'm working in London, because I can't drive, you see."

She is understandably reticent about her private life. When she is not working she says she likes to sleep. "then I like to catch up on things - go and see my parents, go and see friends. And I like to catch up on all the films I've missed and I just like watching telly." She is also a keen cook. She makes her own bread an any number of vegetarian dishes - "Being a vegetarian makes it that much more of a challenge."

As for boyfriends, she says, "yes, sure I have one; I have lots of boyfriends, you know, I really like people."

Simon Drake, a musician who worked on her shows, once said: "There are more young men in love with Kate Bush than any other performer." Her reaction to this is: "An incredible compliment! I love it when people say I'm attractive, because I don't really see it myself - I don't think I'm beautiful. But it's the nicest thing you could say!"

And there is no false modesty of disingenuousness in that remark. It is odd that Kate Bush made her name as a performer because the audience never knew what character she would appear to be next; yet she is so irresistible as a person because she is quite guileless”.

You can still sense a distinct tone that is mirrored in other interviews. It is angering that (mostly male) journalists didn’t understand her music and was asking some inane and silly questions. However, as I like to uncover interesting things in interviews from important times in her career, this one struck my eye. As I say, there may be a few more coming before I finally wrap up The Kate Bush Interview Archive. It is fascinating reading her words from years gone by. How her career developed and the fact she was doing so much promotion. In every interview, she is professional, calm, intelligent and interesting. Proving that she is one of the most special and fascinating artists…

OF her time.

FEATURE: Pictures of You: Robert Smith at Sixty-Five: The Best of The Cure

FEATURE:

 

 

Pictures of You

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Sheehan

Robert Smith at Sixty-Five: The Best of The Cure

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THERE is a lot of talk and speculation…

about a possible new album from The Cure. The band have not released one since 2008’s 4:13 Dream. The iconic group are led by Robert Smith. I am going to end this feature with a playlist of The Cure’s hits and deep cuts as Robert Smith turns sixty-five on 21st April. The only constant member of The Cure, Smith is one of the most distinct and talented artists of his generation. I want to come to a biography of the amazing Robert Smith ahead of his birthday:

“Robert James Smith (born April 21, 1959 in Blackpool, England), a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, has been the lead singer and driving force behind English post-punk band The Cure since its founding in 1976.

Highly influenced by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and even David Bowie he started playing guitar at the age of 12. Smith has played the 6 and 12 string guitars; 4 and 6 string bass guitars; double bass; piano; drums; violin; trumpet and trombone, in various combinations.

Robert is the third of four children born to Alex and Rita Smith. His siblings are Richard, Margaret, and Janet (who is married to Porl Thompson, the lead guitarist of The Cure).

Smith grew up in a Catholic atmosphere and went to St. Mary's high school in England as a teenager. However, he is not religious, but sometimes he feels that he wishes he was. One example of his desire for belief is in the aptly-titled Faith.

Smith has written or co-written the bulk of The Cure's music and lyrics in a career spanning 35 years. He has also been involved in other musical projects, including a stint with Siouxsie & the Banshees and his side-project with Steven Severin called The Glove. He has also contributed vocals to a number of independent projects and performances, among them the B-side of the Faith cassette which is a 30 minute track from a movie project - Carnage Visors.

Robert Smith is instantly recognizable for his image, which includes deliberately smeared red lipstick and messy black hair that some have compared to a large spider. He first used Siouxsie Sioux's lipstick while he was high on opium. Smith's image has contributed to the frequent classification of The Cure as a goth band, a moniker Smith rejects. Smith is also known for his distinctive wavering singing style.

Smith's lyrics are frequently poetic and as frequently inscrutable. Smith has stated that they are often the product of some "altered state," such as drugs or sleep.

Smith met Mary Poole in school when he was 14 years old. Smith explains that his class was asked to choose partners for an activity. He mustered the courage to ask Mary and, as he says, got lucky. They have been together since and were married in 1988. The song "Love Song" was written as a wedding present for Mary. They have agreed to remain childless.

In October 2004, he stood in as one of three guest presenters for John Peel on BBC Radio 1, a week before the DJ's untimely death.

"Just Like Heaven" is reportedly Smith's favorite pop song that The Cure has produced and easily one of the public's most popular in which he details a lost love: " found myself alone alone alone above the raging sea / that stole the only girl I loved / and drowned her deep inside of me. "

Public opinion has often been that, according to the music he writes, Robert Smith must be a deeply depressed soul. However, this quote disputes that sentiment:

" At the time we wrote Disintegration…it's just about what I was doing really, how I felt. But I'm not like that all the time. That's the difficulty of writing songs that are a bit depressing. People think you're like that all the time, but I don't think that. I just usually write when I'm depressed." -Robert Smith in a 1989 interview

Smith is the only member who has been in The Cure the whole time it has existed. When asked who their favorite lineup is, most fans will almost always mention Smith along with Simon Gallup, Porl Thompson, and Boris Williams.

Collaborations

In 2003, Robert Smith worked in collaboration with the band Blink-182 on the track "All of This" off their album Blink-182.

In 2004, Blank & Jones remixed " A Forest" featuring Robert Smith on vocals. There is an EP+ Bonus DVD with 4 audio remixes, The music video featuring Robert Smith and an interview by Blank & Jones with Robert Smith that takes place before the video shoot. That year, he also provided vocals for Junior Jack for the club hit "Da Hype". In November, he joined Placebo onstage at their Wembley arena gig to sing Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" and Smith's own "Boys Don't Cry." Robert Smith also co-wrote and supplied vocals for the Tweaker song "Truth Is".

In 2004, Junior Jack also did a remix of the song Da Hype on his album Trust It featuring Robert Smith.

In 2005, Robert Smith teamed up with Billy Corgan, the former lead singer of both the Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" on Corgan's first solo release, TheFutureEmbrace.

For more than two decades, Robert Smith has been hinting at a solo album which has never materialized. It is often believed that most of his solo writing ends up in The Cure, with such closer tracks as "Homesick", "Untitled", "Treasure", "Bare", "Going Nowhere", but Smith denied this, crediting those songs to other members:

" I didn't write "Homesick" and I didn't write the music too. It's another misconception. Out of the 12 songs on the CD, I think I only wrote six musically… "Untitled"… (to Simon ) You wrote that one ? …It was Roger . So it couldn't have been a solo album and if I'd done on my own it wouldn't have sounded anything like The Cure anyway apart from my own voice. The Top album could have been a solo album but it's not true the way we worked in studio " – Robert Smith in a 1989 interview

In 2001 Robert was going to end "The Cure" and work on his solo album. He was convinced otherwise by producer Ross Robinson, who himself is a massive fan of The Cure. Ross told Robert that he "had to make at least one more Cure album, the Cure album". This is why the 2004 album is simply titled "The Cure" (says Smith in an AOL interview). Making that album reminded Smith of why he enjoys doing what he does and another Cure album is due out in April of 2006, putting the solo album on hold once more”.

In addition to their being this speculation around new music from The Cure, Robert Smith himself is still in the music news. He is one of the artists who signed an open letter warning against the predatory use of A.I. in music. On 21st April, we celebrate the sixty-fifth birthday of a legendary songwriter and singer. Whether you are a fan of The Cure or not, you cannot deny Smith’s influence and brilliance. We all wish him…

MANY happy returns.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Beyoncé – BLACKBIRD

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

PHOTO CREDIT: Blair Caldwell

Beyoncé – BLACKBIRD

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I do not normally…

include cover versions in Groovelines. Considering how celebrated Beyoncé’s cover is of The Beatles’ Blackbird, I wanted to feature it here. It is from her new album, COWBOY CARTER. The original, written by Paul McCartney, featured on The Beatles’ eponymous album of 1968. Whilst it was interpreted as a song about civil rights, McCartney never really said it was until much later. Not until the 1990s. I think many Beatles fans, prior to the 1990s, probably felt that Blackbird was about a literal blackbird. Beyoncé’s version is quite radical in terms of the sound and vocal. Bringing different things out of the lyrics. Giving new depth and meaning to a classic song. COWBOY CARTER is one of the most celebrated albums of the year. Among Beyoncé’s very best. Many have singled out BLACKBIRD as a highlight. It also features the brilliant Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. I want to go deeper with this song. There are a few features that are worth spotlighting. Rolling Stone recently celebrated the revisionary brilliance and power of Beyoncé’s reading of Blackbird:

“It’s a stroke of Beyoncé’s revisionary genius that brings the story of “Blackbird” full circle. She claims the song as if Paul McCartney wrote it for her. Because, in so many ways, he did.

Paul tells the story of writing it in his 2021 book The Lyrics. “At the time in 1968 when I was writing ‘Blackbird,’” he recalls, “I was very conscious of the terrible racial tensions in the U.S. The year before, 1967, had been a particularly bad year, but 1968 was even worse. The song was written only a few weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. That imagery of the broken wings and the sunken eyes and the general longing for freedom is very much of its moment.”

Paul wrote this song as a dialogue with Black America; Bey’s “Blackbird” is part of that call-and-response, proof that the song always meant exactly what McCartney hoped it would mean. It’s one of the most profound and powerful Beatles covers ever, right up there with Aretha Franklin’s “The Long and Winding Road.” 

“I had in mind a Black woman, rather than a bird,” Paul says of the song in the 1997 book Many Years From Now, by Barry Miles. “Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a Black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.’”

Paul was especially moved by the Little Rock Nine — a group of teenagers, the same age as so many Beatlemaniac fans, who caused a nationwide racist outrage in 1957 when they tried to enroll in an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to block the kids from setting foot in the school. Writing “Blackbird” in the summer of 1968, with high-profile anti-Black violence in both the U.S. and the U.K., he turned that into the song. “As is often the case with my things, a veiling took place so rather than say ‘Black woman living in Little Rock’ and be very specific, she became a bird, became symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem.”

“Blackbird” is a song with a long history in Black music, from reggae (the Paragons’ gorgeous version from 1973) to jazz legends including Ramsey Lewis, Sarah Vaughn, and Cassandra Wilson.No song has a deeper dialogue between the Beatles and the Black America that gave them their voices. Anderson .Paak put his spin on “Blackbird” in 2013, years before he ended up contributing to Paul’s album McCartney 3 Imagined, with his funk remix of “When Winter Comes.”The Beatles’ sidekick Billy Preston, who plays with them all over the Get Back movie, gospelized it in 1972, as the flip side of his Number One hit “Will It Go Round in Circles.” His version is on the superb Ace Records anthology Come Together: Black America Sings the Beatles.

Beyoncé brings all that history to her version. There’s also a Paul-like playful humor in the way she makes a horse the star of her album cover. (Could Chardonneigh be the new Martha?) In other words, she is Macca Fierce.

But most of all, Bey’s version ties in mostdirectly to Sylvester’s disco version of “Blackbird” from 1979, the most outrageous and radical version ever. She evokes this song’s history in queer Black disco culture— connecting it to her whole Renaissance project. Sylvester was the first gay Black pop star who was out of the closet, as far as the public knew. Tragically, he also become one of the first stars to pass in the Eighties AIDs epidemic. But in 1979 he was back in San Francisco as a hometown hero, after breaking big nationwide. “Blackbird” is his falsetto-disco celebration from Living Proof, one of the Seventies’ greatest live albums. He was on top of the world: There was an official “Sylvester Day” in San Francisco, where he received the key to the city from the mayor, who happened to be Diane Feinstein. That night he headlined the War Memorial Opera House, and did the most beautiful “Blackbird” ever heard — until now.

Sylvester claims “Blackbird” for himself and his community. He trades call-and-response vocals (“Y’all ready, girls?”) with his backup singers, eternal disco legends Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, the Two Tons o’ Fun. (They later blew up as the Weather Girls, belting their classic “It’s Raining Men.”) When they sing “You were only waiting for this moment to arise,” you can feel the whole crowd rise to join them. They’re not hiding out in the shadows anymore. They’re spreading their wings. It’s their night to fly. This is their song, and their moment.

Beyoncé has always loved reclaiming rock & roll as Black female performance. It’s one of her artistic passions — check her mind-blowing versions of the Doors’ “Five to One,” Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” and even Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire.” She turned the Yeah Yeah Yeahs into “Hold Up.”Long before Stevie Nicks had her grand 2010s comeback, Destiny’s Child got her back on MTV with “Bootylicious.” Most spectacularly, the Lemonade classic “Don’t Hurt Yourself” is Beyoncé channeling Memphis Minnie’s “When the Levee Breaks” through Led Zeppelin, with Jack White wailing on guitar. But “Blackbird” is different, because McCartney wrote the song explicitly about Southern Black women and their struggle through American racism in the 1960s.

When Paul performed in Little Rock in 2016, he met for the first time with Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, two of the Black women who incited so much racist controversy by trying to enter an all-white high school. Meeting these two heroes had a profound impact on him. “Incredible to meet two prisoners of the civil rights movement and inspiration for ‘Blackbird,’” Paul said at the time. “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock,” he told the crowd that night, introducing the song. “We would notice this on the news back in England. So it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started.”

But “Blackbird” is also in the tradition of his songs about everyday women and their unseen struggles— “Eleanor Rigby” and “Lady Madonna” with the Beatles, “Another Day” and “Jennie Wren” and “Little Willow” solo. (His empathy for his female characters was always radically different from other male songwriters of his generation, to say the least.)

PHOTO CREDIT: Blair Caldwell/David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images

Bettye LaVette did one of the most emotionally cathartic versions in 2020, a gritty old-school R&B performance at 74, singing the lyrics in the first person. She felt a deep connection as soon as she heard it, saying, ‘‘I wonder if people know he’s talking about a Black woman?’” She made it the centerpiece of her 2020 album, Blackbirds, where all the other songs were popularized by Black women singers — Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Ruth Brown. “It is about the road that I came across on,” she told the crowd at Farm Aid 2021. “This song was written by Mr. Paul McCartney. But it is about me, and them.”

From their earliest days, they played songs by Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, the Shirelles, Little Willie John, the Marvelettes — always aspiring to live up to that spirit. On their early U.S. tours, they refused to allow segregation at their shows in the South. (McCartney, 1964: “There’s no segregation at concerts at England, and in fact if there was, we wouldn’t play ‘em, you know?”) “Rock & roll is Black,” John told Jet magazine in 1972. “I’ll never stop acknowledging it: Black music is my life.” For both Paul and Ringo, that connection remains at the heart of their music. When Ringo turned 80 a few years ago, he hosted his Big Birthday Special livestream to raise funds for Black Lives Matter. He sat at his drums and told the worldwide audience, “Let’s say it again: Black lives matter! Stand up and make your voice heard!”

That’s why it meant so much to McCartney — more than any of them — to hear how his African American peers responded. Aretha’s versions of his songs always meant the most to him, because she heard that same Black history in these songs. When he wrote “Let It Be,” he sent her a demo in hopes she’d record it, even though he knew she would sing rings around him. (Her “Let It Be” came out in January 1970 — months before the Beatles version.) She did “The Fool on the Hill,” another song inspired by the civil rights struggle — for years, when Paul did it live, he added a sample of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Most of all, Aretha claimed “The Long and Winding Road,” leaving all other versions (including McCartney’s) in the dust.

For Paul, as with the other Beatles, the connection to Black American music was deep, but it was especially important for him that it to be a two-way dialogue. Beyoncé’s “Blackbird” is one that really completes the song — a profound moment in her history, the Beatles’ history, and this timeless song’s history. In so many ways, “Blackbird” has always been waiting for this moment to arise. And Beyoncé makes the song rise higher than ever before”.

Echoing and reiterating some of what Rolling Stone said regarding Blackbird’s history and meaning, The Guardian note how timely this new version is. Although many artists have shared their take on The Beatles’ Blackbird, few are as potent and moving as the one on COWBOY CARTER. Of all the cover versions of the song, I think that Beyoncé’s is the best. A natural and unforgettable highlight from COWBOY CARTER:

“Written just weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the lyrics, especially the opening lines, are steeped in metaphor and symbolism. McCartney went on to tell GQ how “in England, a bird is a girl [or was in 1960s slang], so I was thinking of a Black girl going through this – you know, now is your time to arise, set yourself free, and take these broken wings”. There’s perhaps an equally oblique – if not exactly hidden – reference to the Little Rock students themselves in the line “all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free”. (Shortly before John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, he claimed to have contributed one “important” line to the song, although took the identity of the line to his grave.)

The finished recording – which features McCartney, his guitar and tapping foot, along with blackbird sounds from an effects tape – took the Beatle 32 takes before he was happy with it. Years later, in 2016, McCartney played Little Rock and met Thelma Mothershed-Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, two of the original students, and tweeted that it was: “Incredible to meet two of the Little Rock Nine – pioneers of the civil rights movement and inspiration for Blackbird.”

Beyoncé is by no means the first artist to cover Blackbird. The likes of Billy Preston, Sarah McLachlan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Dandy Warhols and even Dave Grohl have all had a go. But her version has a deep resonance: a spiritual interpretation with subtle strings, it pointedly features the Black American country stars Brittney Spencer, Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts – musicians who have struggled to gain a foothold in the notoriously gate-kept Nashville establishment in which women and Black artists are often marginalised. By introducing the song and its historic meaning to her vast, largely youthful audience, Beyoncé has given this timeless, but always timely, gem a new moment to arise”.

I want to finish up with an article from the BBC. They write how BLACKBIRD is the key to COWBOY CARTER. It is an extraordinary and individual rendition of a song that means to much to so many people. Over fifty-five years after its original release, it is still being interpreted and covered by artists. It shows the power and genius of Paul McCartney’s songwriting:

“It feels appropriate, then, that Beyoncé has not only covered the song, but used it as an opportunity to showcase the talents of four other black women. On Blackbiird – the name slightly tweaked to reference that Cowboy Carter is the act ii of a three-part musical project – Beyoncé collaborates with four black female country singers: Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts. Adell, who released her debut album Bunny Buckle last year, has built a huge following on TikTok, a way of bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of country music and forging her own path. After Beyoncé announced her new country direction at this year's Super Bowl, Adell tweeted: "As one of the only black girls in the country music scene, I hope Bey decides to sprinkle me with a dash of her magic for a collab." (It's not clear yet if Adell was a last minute addition on the album, or if she already knew something we didn’t).

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Beyoncé is not the first black artist to cover Blackbird: musicians including Bettye LaVette, The Paragons, Anderson. Paak, Ramsey Lewis and more have put their take on McCartney's song. But as with everything Beyoncé does, the choice is intentional and when she, helped along by four new exciting voices in country music, sings: "You were only waiting for this moment to arise," it feels like a significant moment.

Cowboy Carter is both an act of defiance and a valuable lesson in cultural history

Research by digital publication The Pudding found that, out of 182,848 songs played across 29 country music stations over 19 days in 2023, just 14 were by black women. Even the force of Beyoncé's star power wasn't enough to get her access to the club; when she performed her song Daddy Lessons with The Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards in 2016 she faced a backlash from some who thought she didn't belong there. In a statement apparently referencing this, posted on Instagram before Cowboy Carter's release, she says the album was: "born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn't. Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive."

Beyoncé has taken the up the challenge to show that she has just as much right to take on country music as anyone else – and she's also used it as an opportunity to showcase the talents of others. Amid the headlining grabbing appearances from Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Post Malone and Willie Nelson, the album features lesser-known artists old and new, including banjo player Rhiannon Giddens and Nigerian-American singer Shaboozey.

The Linda Martell Show pays tribute to one of the most significant yet underappreciated female country singers of all time. Martell – who also appears on the track Spaghetti – was the first solo black female country singer to achieve significant commercial success – despite only releasing one album, Color Me Country. The record gave her several big country hits, and she was the first female black country singer to appear at the prestigious Nashville venue Grand Ole Opry, but she frequently came up against racism from both the industry and public and her career was cut short. With an appearance on Cowboy Carter, more people might now realise the contribution she made.

Beyoncé recently said that she she was "honoured" to become the first black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, but she also knows she is standing on the shoulders of many other musicians who have grappled with a genre that continues to be hostile to them. On this album she makes sure we're aware of who many of those are – from the trailblazers of the past, to the voices of the future.

But while Cowboy Carter is both an act of defiance and a valuable lesson in cultural history, Beyoncé herself has said that, one day, she hopes the music can stand on its own – whatever genre. "My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist's race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant”.

It has been interesting featuring Beyoncé’s cover of Blackbird. I am not sure many people expected it to feature on her new album. Among a small selection of covers (including Dolly Parton’s Jolene), we see Beyoncé’s gifts and ability as an interpreter. She makes the song her own, though she also makes it an anthem for others. If you have not heard Beyoncé’s version of Blackbird, I would thoroughly recommend it. It is perhaps the standout of her…

STUNNING new album.

FEATURE: Do You Remember the First Time? Pulp’s His 'n' Hers at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Do You Remember the First Time?

Pulp’s His 'n' Hers at Thirty

_________

ONE of the most important…

albums of the 1990s turns thirty on 18th April. Pulp’s His 'n' Hers was a breakthrough for the Sheffield band. Their fourth studio album, it followed 1992’s mediocre Separations, His 'n' Hers was an instant classic. Pulp would follow this incredible work with Different Class a year later. It was a real period for them. Produced by Ed Buller, many publications have listed Pulp’s His 'n' Hers as one of the best albums of all time. You can get the twenty-five anniversary edition of the album here. To celebrate the upcoming thirtieth anniversary, I want to bring some features in. That give us background and context. Why and how His 'n' Hers is such an important album. I will end with a couple of reviews. I will start with NME’s piece about His 'n' Hers on its twenty-fifth anniversary. It is fascinating to learn why His 'n' Hers is so enduring and important:

“Pulp had been kicking around for sixteen-years by the time their fourth album His ‘n’ Hers arrived in the April of 1994. Sixteen years – the earliest of them under the quite terrible moniker of Arabicus Pulp (a merging of the title of a 1972 Michael Caine thriller and a brand of coffee Jarvis Cocker had found in the Financial Times commodity index) – that encompassed a debut gig at Rotherham Arts Centre, a little bit of John Peel Show-exposure that most thought would be the summit of the band’s achievements, as well as a period where the singer, Jarvis, would perform live in a wheelchair, after falling out of a window trying to impress a girl.

So much misery has seeped into British soil since the peak of Britpop, that much of the music which once felt so shiny and hopeful then, jars in 2019. The 18-30 fuelled hedonism of Blur’s Girls And Boys feels obscene in an era of zero-hour contracts and the crippling neurosis of social media.

Oasis once sang that you might as well get on the white line, which doesn’t scan in an austerity hit country that can’t afford to pay its rent, let alone buy drugs. And let’s be honest, the whole thing feels uncomfortably unrepresentative of the multicultural landmass that is modern Britain. When Suede’s Brett Anderson adorned the cover of Select Magazine in 1993, pouting infront of the Union Jack, it felt like a challenge for British musicians to raise their game and create a scene to be proud of. Now, it feels a bit like a flyer for a particularly fey pro-Brexit rally.

Released just weeks after the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and thereby positioned at the arrowhead of seismic pop cultural upheaval, His ‘n’ Hers is the exception, in that it’s a record that largely reflects the state of Britain even now.

As a record created by a band hailing from Sheffield, the heart of The Industrial North, this might be because the landscape the band are describing – one in which kids steal cars for kicks, where broken people break each other further, where everyone is just trying to find some glimmer of light in the darkness – isn’t indistinguishable from the state of your atypical northern metropolis all these years on. These are geographical areas still untouched and unloved.

It’s because, within an era where we’re recontextualizing our understanding of masculinity, Jarvis’ early nineties musings on love, sex and romance sound ahead of their time; Pink Glove, for example, is a pop song very much about sex, sang by a man who obviously really enjoys sex, and yet it’s concerned primarily with a woman’s enjoyment of it. There’s an awful lot of songs about sex on His ‘n’ Hers. Do You Remember The First Time? Babies. Lipgloss. Most of them sordid. And yet unlike the incoming machismo that would ultimately drive all the freaks and dreamers from indie, all of them sound like they’ve come from the mind of a man who actually likes women.

His ‘n’ Hers has endured because it’s a record that sounded out of time even when it arrived. Made by people who looked like their outfits had been acquired at an Oxfam closing down sale, produced by Ed Buller – who the same year, would bring his ethereal touch to Suede’s excellent Dog Man Star – it’s a record that manages to sound completely in thrall to the great pop of the past – Roxy, Bowie, Human League, Scott Walker, Serge Gainsbourg – while also quite unlike anything that had been heard until that point and nothing like anything that’s followed since”.

I am flipping to a feature that was written in 2014. Marking twenty years of His 'n' Hers, Stereogum discussed how Pulp had this amazing three-album run that started with their 1994 masterpiece. Even though His 'n' Hers was a success in the U.K., it did not crack the U.S. During a time of Britpop – where Pulp were seen as a Britpop band. Perhaps albums like His 'n' Hers were too unfamiliar and out of step with the U.S. scene in 1994:

“If we take the band’s taste in their own back catalog seriously, this week marks 20 years since Pulp first mattered. His ‘N’ Hers was the first Pulp album to chart in the band’s native UK (#9), as well as their first to produce charting singles: “Razzmatazz,” “Lipgloss,” and “Do You Remember The First Time?” It was successful as a reinvention, too, essentially washing away the collective memory of the long-running experimental synthesizer group and replacing it with the image of the most studious, most prurient band doing this new thing called Britpop. Whether it was fair or not, Pulp were associated with a scene that made Cocker seem downright professorial at 30, and this was before he even had his now-trademark beard and glasses. It, Freaks and Separations aren’t without their charming moments, but His ‘N’ Hers changed the conversation. Pulp weren’t necessarily angling for the top of the charts now, but they’d put together how to get there.

The seeds for Pulp’s second act were planted prior to His ‘N’ Hers, but just barely. In his great 2011 retrospective on the band, The Quietus editor Luke Turner identified “My Legendary Girlfriend” as the “moment where the brilliance of Pulp as a pop band — seedy, intense, original, yet with a catchiness and wry everyman approach that could make them chart-toppers — first became really clear.” The track first appeared on a 1990 12″, then a 1992 7″, then finally as the obvious standout on Separations, and Candida Doyle’s insistent synth showed Pulp’s keenness for playing fast and loose with the chasm between dance music and rock. The song wasn’t a hit, but you can see its importance on His ‘N’ Hers tracks like “She’s A Lady” and “Acrylic Afternoons.” Pulp’s early recordings are marred by a lack of confidence and youthful inexperience that “My Legendary Girlfriend” obliterated. And then every song on His ‘N’ Hers obliterated it.

His ‘N’ Hers also saw Pulp become Pulp in the most crucial way of all: Jarvis Cocker came into his own as a lyricist. There were inklings of his libidinous erudition before, including on “My Legendary Girlfriend,” but his work on tracks like “Babies,” “Pink Glove,” and “Razzmatazz” placed him firmly in an acerbic class of his own. Sometimes he dressed his prurience in innocence (“We listened to your sister/ When she came home from school/ She was two years older/ And she had boys in her room”) and other times pushed the limits of good taste with an analogy (“He doesn’t care what it looks like/ Just as long as it’s pink and it’s tight” almost certainly isn’t about a glove). Whatever his approach, he was successful in shining a harsh and honest light on human sexuality that still remains uncommon in pop. He didn’t just sing about sex, either, even when he was singing about sex. He filtered it through musings on the British class system, gender politics, crime, familial dysfunction, and addiction. His ‘N’ Hers was Cocker’s breakthrough. It’s no coincidence that the book that collects his finest lyrics is called Mother Brother Lover — it was on His ‘N’ Hers that he started using those easy rhymes less for ease of melody and more to paint complicated relationships within a pop context. To this day, he’s peerless.

For better or worse, it’s impossible to talk about Pulp in 1994 without talking about Britpop in 1994. The two most enduring albums lumped in with the movement that weren’t by Pulp — Blur’s Parklife and Oasis’ Definitely Maybe — came out that same year. Britpop’s shift from NME-approved buzzword to actual genre tag was well underway, and if you trusted the music weeklies, Britain’s soul was at stake in the Oasis-Blur rivalry. Despite having been a band since 1978, the success of His ‘N’ Hers felt just out-of-nowhere enough to make Pulp seem like a part of this new wave sweeping Britannia. Their Sheffield origin made them outsiders to a London-driven scene, as did their intellectual bent, but all catchy guitar music coming out of Britain in 1994 was being called Britpop, so the tag stuck. What’s remarkable about listening to His ‘N’ Hers, Definitely Maybe, and Parklife one after the other 20 years later isn’t just how great they all are, but how little they resemble one another. It’s liberating to hear them free of the context of their alleged movement. If anything, it makes it seem even more incredible just how much amazing guitar pop was coming out of Britain at the same time. Pretending Britpop was a cohesive, tight-knit scene was a convenient way of explaining its quality, but it’s more impressive without being shoehorned into an easy context”.

Before getting to some reviews, I am bringing in a 2023 feature. It suggests that His 'n' Hers was the birth of modern-day Pulp. Listening back to His 'n' Hers thirty years later, you can feel this sense of confidence and excitement. It was wonderful watching the album come out! How it made people aware of the true brilliance of Pulp and the genius of Jarvis Cocker:

“Thrust towards the limelight

His ’N’ Hers may have thrust Pulp towards the limelight, but, like many of the characters Jarvis sang about, they always seemed more comfortable as voyeurs – a recurring subject throughout Pulp’s career, but one never so perfectly explored as on “Babies.” Spying on a female friend’s sister having sex? Check. Turning it into a confused daydream in which “I want to give you children” presages the thought that “You might be my girlfriend”? Why not. Finding yourself caught in flagrante with the sister “because she looks like you”? Seems the only outcome…

Desperation; thwarted romantic ambitions; an anthemic tune that distracts from some of the grubbiness – this was Pulp’s rebirth in full effect. But there was biting satire here, too. “A promo video is simply an advert for a song” ran the title card in front of the “Babies” video. But for the full power of Jarvis’ sardonic observations, you have to turn to His ’N’ Hers’ opener, “Joyriders.”

Nothing joyful here. The song’s scuzzy guitar riff sets the tone for a bunch of vandals causing a ruckus in a small city center (“We don’t look for trouble/But if it comes we don’t run”). But while the bluster is undercut by the declaration, “We like women/“Up the women, we say/And if we get lucky/We might even meet some one day” – delivered with minimum flash for maximum droll humor – the buffoonery careens into a truly sinister ending. “Mister, we just want your car/’Cause we’re taking a girl to the reservoir/Oh, all the papers say/It’s a tragedy… but don’t you want to come and see?” No details are given, but such is Jarvis’ masterful storytelling, we have everything we need – or want – to know right here.

Where “the modern-day Pulp was born”

And so His ’N’ Hers’ opposing strands become clear: deep yearnings and adolescent fumbles pitted against pent-up frustrations that tip over into something altogether darker. “Have You Seen Her Lately?” mixes small-town gossip with a lifeline for lost souls; “Lipgloss” and the masterful “Pink Glove” look at what happens when the glamour’s gone and the rot has set in; and if “Do You Remember The First Time?” presents itself as a synth-pop anthem for indie dancefloors the world over, its mix of bravado and self-analytical desperation is pretty much impossible to find anywhere else in chart history.

This, Jarvis has said, is where “the modern-day Pulp was born.” For those who’d missed His ’N’ Hers’ release, on April 18, 1994, they couldn’t fail to take notice of the group’s triumphant Glastonbury headline slot the following year. But while that would make Jarvis and co household names overnight, His ’N’ Hers bears witness to the true Pulp: coming around uninvited, peeking through your blinds, and rummaging through your underwear… hiding in cupboards, just waiting to catch a glimpse”.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews. AllMusic are among those who have given His 'n' Hers a passionate review. If anyone has not heard this 1994 work of brilliance, you really need to seek it out. Although many fans will say Different Class is the best Pulp album ever, one cannot underestimate and overstate the importance of His 'n' Hers. I wonder whether the band will mark thirty years of their fourth studio album. It would be interesting to hear how they see it all these years later:

“Pulp had been kicking around since 1981, but for all intents and purposes, their 1994 major-label debut, His 'n' Hers is their de facto debut: the album that established their musical and lyrical obsessions and, in turn, the album where the world at large became acquainted with their glassy, tightly wound synth pop and lead singer Jarvis Cocker's impeccably barbed wit. This was a sound that was carefully thought out, pieced together from old glam and post-punk records, assembled in so it had the immediacy (and hooks) of pop balanced by an artful obsession with moody, dark textures. It was a sound that perfectly fit the subject at hand: it was filled with contradictions -- it was sensual yet intellectual, cheap yet sophisticated, retro yet modern -- with each seeming paradox giving the music weight instead of weighing it down. Given Pulp's predilection for crawling mood pieces -- such effective set pieces as the tense "Acrylic Afternoons," or the closing "David's Last Summer" -- and their studied detachment, it might easy to over-intellectualize the band, particularly in these early days before they reached stardom, but for all of the chilliness of the old analog keyboards and the conscious geek stance of Cocker, this isn't music that aims for the head: its target is the gut and groin, and His 'n' Hers has an immediacy that's apparent as soon as "Joyriders" kicks the album into gear with its crashing guitars. It establishes Pulp not just as a pop band that will rock; it establishes an air of menace that hangs over this album like a talisman.

As joyous as certain elements of the music are -- and there isn't just joy but transcendence here, on the fuzz guitars that power the chorus of "Lipgloss," or the dramatic release at the climax of "Babies" -- this isn't light, fizzy music, no matter how the album glistens on its waves of cold synths and echoed guitars, no matter how much sex drives the music here. Cocker doesn't tell tales of conquests: he tells tales of sexual obsession and betrayal, where the seemingly nostalgic question "Do You Remember the First Time?" is answered with the reply, "I can't remember a worst time." On earlier Pulp albums he explored similar stories of alienation, but on His 'n' Hers everything clicks: his lyrics are scalpel sharp, whether he's essaying pathos, passion, or wit, and his band -- driven by the rock-solid drummer Nick Banks and bassist Steve Mackey, along with the arty stylings of keyboardist Candida Doyle and violinist/guitarist Russell Senior -- gives this muscle and blood beneath its stylish exterior. The years etching out Joy Division-inspired goth twaddle in the mid-'80s pay off on the tense, dramatic epics that punctuate the glammy pop of the singles "Lipgloss," "Babies," and "Do You Remember the First Time?" And those years of struggle pay off in other ways too, particularly in Cocker's carefully rendered observations of life on the fringes of Sheffield, where desperation, sex, and crime are always just a kiss away, and Pulp vividly evokes this world with a startling lack of romanticism but an appropriate amount of drama and a surplus of flair. It's that sense of style coupled with their gut-level immediacy that gives His 'n' Hers its lasting power: this was Pulp's shot at the big time and they followed through with a record that so perfectly captured what they were and what they wanted to be, it retains its immediacy years later”.

I am ending with a review from the BBC. Without doubt one of the 1990s’ biggest and best albums, there will be so much love for His ‘n’ Hers on 18th April. Even if it is thirty years old, it has not dated or lost any of its brilliance. It still sounds like nobody else by Pulp! This distinct, original and fascinating album from the Sheffield band:

“Released in 1994, His ‘n’ Hers was Pulp’s breakthrough album some 16 years into their existence. It finally gave them a taste of success as well as introducing Jarvis Cocker to the general public, just as Britpop – Parklife was released the week after, and Oasis were readying their second single – came along as a then-refreshing shot-in the-arm.

From the opening Joyriders – “Oh you, you in the Jesus sandals, wouldn’t you like to come and see some vandals?” – it was clear the move to a major label had sharpened their sound and focus into a very appealing Alan Bennett / Roxy Music hybrid.

His ‘n’ Hers presented insights into the sort of behaviour that might land one on a register of some kind today: being inept with women, hiding in wardrobes watching your sister having sex, failing to turn your husband on, illicit affairs while the old man’s away. Such observations, such cheeky voyeurism, over cheering art-pop set Pulp aside, into a field of one, attracting a vast army of the misfits they’d eventually celebrate.

Singles included the trebly Lipgloss and the we’ve-all-done-it furtive fumblings of Do You Remember the First Time, beside a new mix of the majestic Babies.

But these weren’t the only highlights. There’s also the northern Gaynor disco sheen of She’s a Lady; the detailing of the tease and eventual boredom of fetish with Pink Glove; the throbbing narration of David’s Last Summer; and the bosom-shifting gossip detail of Have You Seen Her Lately?

Best of all, it was all served with an air-punching atmosphere of triumph, an almost celebratory feel. It seemed so far away from the mildly unsavoury fare that peers like Suede were offering.

Apparently it missed out on the 1994 Mercury (Music) Prize, to M People’s Elegant Slumming, by one vote. That didn’t matter in the grander scheme, as Pulp would soon go supernova – Common People and Different Class were just a year away. But His ‘n’ Hers remains a glorious notice of where the Pulp story really begins. A classic, basically”.

It is amazing to think that His ‘n’ Hers was so close to winning the Mercury Prize. No matter. In the scheme of things, it has endured longer and made more of an impression than M People’s Elegant Slumming. As we head towards the thirtieth anniversary of Pulp’s breakthrough, it deserves to be heard and experienced…

BY a whole new generation of fans.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts - Pi (π)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts

Pi (π)

_________

A track that I have…

mentioned before but not expanded on, Pi (or π) is included on the first disc of Kate Bush’s double album, Aerial. Released on 7th November, 2005, it is one of her most astonishing albums. Split into two distinct discs the first, A Sea of Honey has more traditional and conventional album tracks. Like the first side of 1985’s Hounds of Love which, in many ways, is similar to Aerial. The second disc of Aerial, A Sky of Honey, is a song suite featuring nine short songs. They are set over the course of a single summer’s day. The second track on Aerial, following King of the Mountain, it is bold placing from Kate Bush. As producer, she would have wanted that track there for a reason. King of the Mountain was the single and a relatively straightforward track. Leading into an odder and more oblique song like Pi is quite brave. It pays off. From there, we go into Berite. One of the lesser-loved tracks on Aerial, it is a paen to her then-young son. The fourth track is Mrs. Bartolozzi. Some would argue that the sequencing on the first disc is not great or doesn’t create a good flow and balance. I think Kate Bush got it right. Pi is high up but, as it is a long song (6:09) and quite unusual, it needs to be high up. There is a whole other feature and conversation to be had when it comes to Aerial and its tracklisting and order. Twelve years after she released The Red Shoes, Bush put out a double album. She had to make sure, in addition to making sure the quality was high, putting the tracks in the right order for the best listening experience. I think that she did that. I am going to come to a feature that tackles Bush’s reading of pi. This mathematical constant is probably one that few people know in full. When Bush recites pi/π, there is a different version to the real one. First, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia gives details about one of Kate Bush’s most unconventional track. As this is her, that is quite a claim! A track that I never hear people talk about. They should:

“π’ is a song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her eighth studio album Aerial in 2005. The song described a man who has “a complete infatuation with the calculation of π”. She actually sings the number to its 78th decimal place, then from its 101st to its 137th decimal place. The difference between the two works out like this:

Real Pi: 3.
1415926535    8979323846    2643383279    5028841971   6939937510
5820974944    5923078164    0628620899    8628034825   3421170679
8214808651    3282306647    0938446095    5058223172   5359408128

Kate Bush Pi: 3.
1415926535    8979323846    2643383279    5028841971   6939937510
5820974944    5923078164    06286208
8214808651    3282306647    0938446095    5058223

Cover versions

‘Pi’ was covered by Anne Sofie Von Otter and Brooklyn Rider and Göteborgs Symfoniker.

Kate about ‘Pi’

I really like the challenge of singing numbers, as opposed to words because numbers are so unemotional as a lyric to sing and it was really fascinating singing that. Trying to sort of, put an emotional element into singing about…a seven…you know and you really care about that nine. I find numbers fascinating, the idea that nearly everything can be broken down into numbers, it is a fascinating thing; and i think also that we are completely surrounded by numbers now, in a way that we weren’t you know even 20, 30 years ago we’re all walking around with mobile phones and numbers on our foreheads almost; and it’s like you know computers…
I suppose, um, I find it fascinating that there are people who actually spend their lives trying to formulate pi; so the idea of this number, that, in a way is possibly something that will go on to infinity and yet people are trying to pin it down and put their mark on and make it theirs in a way I guess also i think you know you get a bit a lot of connection with mathematism and music because of patterns and shapes…

KEN BRUCE SHOW, BBC RADIO 2, 31 OCTOBER 2005”.

I do love how there is a bit of an error – whether intentional or not – in Pi. Where she sings the constant mostly correct and in sequence, though there is this difference. It is a reason (among several) why the song is so interesting. This feature takes us inside a really intriguing and hugely original song. One that I feel should not be relegated as a deep cut that does not get played or examined:

“I have been listening to Aerial, the new album from Kate Bush, and it just gets better with every hearing.

One of my favourite tracks is "Pi":

"a sentimental ode to a mathematician, audacious in both subject matter and treatment. The chorus is the number sung to many, many decimal places." - Observer Review

But something kept nagging me about the song. Was Kate really singing Pi to 150 decimal places?

I got hold of the lyrics and checked them against an online version of Pi. All was well for the first 53 decimal places but then Kate sang "threeeeee oneeeee" when she should have sang "zeeeeeeerooo" instead. She recovered for the next 24 digits but then it went to hell in a handbasket when she missed out the next 22 digits completely before finishing with a precise rendition of her final 37 digits.

PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

It may seem a bit pedantic to make a fuss but if you are going to sing Pi then you should make an effort to get it right.

"Sweet and gentle and sensitive man
With an obsessive nature and deep fascination for numbers
And a complete infatuation with the calculation of PI

Oh he love, he love, he love
He does love his numbers
And they run, they run, they run him
In a great big circle
In a circle of infinity"

If Simon Singh can get Katie Melua to re-record her song because of a error about the age of the universe then maybe I can get Kate to re-record Pi.

Real Pi: 3.
1415926535    8979323846    2643383279    5028841971   6939937510
5820974944    5923078164    0628620899    8628034825   3421170679
8214808651    3282306647    0938446095    5058223172   5359408128

Kate Bush Pi: 3.
1415926535    8979323846    2643383279    5028841971   6939937510
58231974944  5923078164    06286208
8214808651    3282306647    0938446095    5058223

In case anyone is worried about the accuracy of the published lyrics I did check the audio against the published lyrics and can confirm that they are the same”.

In spite of the fact that it is quite a rare and under-known song, Pi (π) was featured on The Simpsons' twenty-sixth-season finale, Mathlete's Feat. I want to bring in some press and words about Pi. In 2005, The Guardian reviewed Aerial. They discussed the merits of songs like Pi, and how the tracks are positioned well. They have their place and purpose:

“But Aerial succeeds because it's all there for a reason. And because the good stuff is just so sublime. 'King of the Mountain', Bush's Elvis-inspired single, is both a fine opener and a total red herring. Bush's juices really get going on 'Pi', a sentimental ode to a mathematician, audacious in both subject matter and treatment. The chorus is the number sung to many, many decimal places. It's closely followed by a gushing ode to Bush's son, Bertie, that's stark and medieval-sounding. The rest of disc one (aka A Sea of Honey) sets a very high bar for disc two, with the Joan of Arc-themed 'Joanni' and the downright poppy 'How to Be Invisible' raising the hair on your arms into a Mexican wave”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an alternate publicity shot for Aerial/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

I wanted to highlight Aerial’s Pi and include it in this Deep Cuts feature. It is a song that I have hardly hear played on the radio. It is one of those songs that would have passed many people by. If you have not heard the track, then I would suggest that you check it out. Then go and listen to the entirety of Aerial and see how it fits in. A song that builds up with this beautiful and quite spacey introduction - that reminds me of Pink Floyd - and then turns into this gorgeous and tender song. Some intriguing and wonderful lyrics (“Oh he/love, he love, he love/He does love his numbers/And they run, they run, they run him/In a great big circle/In a circle of infinity"). Some exceptional bass work from Eberhard Weber and great additional vocal work from Lol Creme. Such an arresting and interesting song. It switches mood and direction. Elongating some numbers and skipping over others. Giving the song a rare and unusual energy and sense of consideration. Almost mystical and sermon-like. Even if Kate Bush does not quite recite pi perfectly, I think that her strange, magical and fascinating song is…

A perfect ten.

FEATURE: Far Out: Blur’s Parklife at Thirty: Celebrating a Classic and Ranking the Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Far Out

Blur’s Parklife at Thirty: Celebrating a Classic and Ranking the Tracks

_________

ON 25th April…

IN THIS PHOTO: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Alex James/PHOTO CREDIT: Fiona Hanson/PA Images via Getty Images

Blur’s third studio album, Parklife, turns thirty. I have already written one feature about it. For this one, I want to get on to ranking its sixteen tracks. Although some might say there is a clear and unarguable top three, many might debate the middle and lower end of the rankings. There is no denying the quality and impact of Parklife. There are those who say that it is a quintessential Britpop album. One that defined an age and inspired Britpop around it. I do think that Parklife was atypical in that way, Something that occurred and succeeded on the fringes of Britpop. I want to bring in a couple of contrasting and interesting features about Parklife. One that embraces it in Britpop terms, whilst the other feels it should not be seen as a Britpop album. Perhaps labelling it and trying to narrowly definer it does not do justice to its breadth, depth and range of emotions. I am going to start with a feature from 2014. Marking twenty years of Blur’s Parklife, Stereogum looked at an album that was a breakthrough for Blur. Two years after Moden Life Is Rubbish – which was sexcellent and underrated -, they released their first masterpiece. A big step forward from them:

“This is sort of weird to think about, but Parklife was at the time positioned as something of a comeback for Blur. After seeing some moderate success with early singles like “She’s So High” and “There’s No Other Way,” (which hit #8 on the UK Singles Chart) Blur had departed from their more Madchester-indebted beginnings and approached what would become the Britpop sound with 1993’s Modern Life Is Rubbish. That transition was a strained one. Blur may have flirted with pop success during the Leisure days, but they weren’t taken seriously critically, and were seen as a ripoff of and studio cash-in on bands like Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses, and the Charlatans. As Michael wrote in his anniversary piece for Modern Life Is Rubbish last year, Blur returned from their first, by-all-accounts miserable tour of America with a frontman possessed: to dethrone bands like Suede and take the mantle as the era’s eminent British band, to assert an identity of Britishness sonically and thematically. Blur’s sophomore album had to change their lives and prove something. It was to be a departure from the last generation of British music Blur had at first been lumped in with, as well as a sharp rejection of the American grunge movement. Modern Life Is Rubbish achieved the latter, allowing Blur to crystalize that idiosyncratically English identity Albarn was seeking, but it didn’t make them stars.

With Modern Life Is Rubbish failing to produce major singles, the making of Parklife had a make-it-or-break-it vibe to its creation, partially due to the band’s precipitous financial footing at the time. It of course wound up catapulting them to superstardom, boasting four hit singles (“To The End,” “End Of A Century,” “Parklife,” and “Girls & Boys,” one of the only Blur songs aside from “Song 2″ that I’ve ever heard in public in America). The album was massive, and depending on your allegiance and preferences it basically comes down to this, Definitely Maybe, or Different Class as the quintessential and most pivotal Britpop album. There’s a reason we chose this week to do Britpop Week.

In hindsight, Parklife is the second installment in a trilogy that begins with Modern Life and ends with The Great Escape. Each of these are high up on the list of my favorite albums, period (as are Blur and 13, but I digress), and there have been different moments when each one had its time as my favorite spot amongst the three. I assume I’m in the minority here, but there’s also been a lot of times where Parklife was actually my least favorite of the three. This is not the most rational critical take, and I am aware of this. Modern Life was indeed a manifesto and a confident artistic statement on its own, but Parklife refined the vision, perfected and deepened Albarn’s panoramic take on a certain slice of British life and culture in the ’90s. The Great Escape took it one step further — a glossy, overblown, final act that threw the same themes and images of Parklife into a sort of pop art overdrive. That’s actually why I liked it the most for so long; it was the disturbed and disturbing hangover to Parklife. (Also, it had “The Universal.” Also, it had “He Thought Of Cars” and “Entertain Me.”) There was nowhere else they could take this version of themselves after that, and they needed the reset button of Blur. You could likely make the argument that there was nowhere they could take this version of themselves after Parklife, really. There are strands of Britpop that go back further than 1994, and the genre splintered and mutated even into the ’00s depending on how you look at it, but no matter what parameters you apply to it, Parklife remains definitive. Albarn said it all here.

There is impressive range on most of the Blur albums, but it’s particularly staggering on their Britpop trilogy. Parklife wasn’t my entry point into listening to Blur, but two of its songs were: “Girls & Boys” and “This Is A Low.” These could not be further apart tonally or sonically. “Girls & Boys” blew my mind when I first heard it. That near-indecipherable first line that opens it, and thus opens Parklife. The way the guitars first slash in under Albarn drawling “On holiday” during the first verse and then keep scraping as Albarn sings “Love in the ’90s/ is paranoid.” The fact that there’s a lyric that goes “Love in the ’90s/ is paranoid” in the first place, and the fact that it’s the first of Albarn’s many proclamations about the times-they-lived-in. That hilarious and brilliant and nonsensical chorus: “Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls/ who do boys like they’re girls who do girls like they’re boys.” I didn’t know who the hell this guy was, but I wanted to hear more.

Where “Girls & Boys” starts Parklife off with a squiggly bit of dance-pop equal parts trashy and snarky, “This Is A Low” essentially ends it with what remains one of Albarn’s best sad songs. And while he’s wielded wit and condescension ably throughout his career, Albarn excels at a dark song: “Sing,” “Resigned,” “Beetlebum,” “Tender” (or, you know, all of 13), Gorillaz’ “El Manana,” The Good, the Bad, & the Queen’s “Herculean.” But “This Is A Low” still stands out. Most of Parklife is jaunty and spiky and acerbically tongued, and then “This Is A Low” comes along as this entirely crushing conclusion. The power is mostly in that chorus, which is built on a melody that seems to be the exact aural embodiment of every shade of despair and loneliness available in the human condition. The importance of Graham Coxon’s guitar solo(s) cannot be overestimated here, though. The way the guitar rises up out of one refrain, a gradually overwhelming tide of distortion, and then twists and echoes against itself sums up just as much anguish as Albarn’s vocals. It does something truly powerful when it groans to a halt, then calls back out insistently right before the last intensified refrain comes in. It’ll bring you to your knees. It might be the best moment in all of Blur’s catalog.

Last month at South by Southwest, I saw Damon Albarn twice. He is a very different performer solo than with Blur — more subdued, playing balladeer rather than frontman. Bizarrely, even in talking to people ten or fifteen years older than myself who had ostensibly been standing around waiting to see him, I found myself repeating a similar explanation: “The singer of Blur? No? He was also behind Gorillaz?” Without fail, it was the latter that people recognized. That’s part of the fun of this whole Britpop Week and of looking back at a record like Parklife — there’s an evangelism streak to it, an urge to geek out about artists that are only, still, tangentially known Stateside. That makes the process of revisiting this stuff invigorating, and Parklife still stands as one of a handful of pinnacles in the whole narrative. It’s a rare thing to come around to a landmark album’s twentieth birthday and still feel the need to climb onto something, demand people’s attention, and let them know there is a brilliant song called “This Is A Low” on a brilliant album called Parklife, and that they are missing out. Intellectually, you know it’s not true, but it doesn’t matter: two decades on, Parklife still has the sound of something that’s just starting”.

Reaching number one in the U.K., Parklife is one of the most successful and acclaimed albums of the 1990s. Most people define it as a Britpop album. It does a disservice to the meaning and importance of Parklife. An album that has richness and its own sound. In 2014, Time argued how Parklife should not be seen as the cornerstone of the Britpop movement. Thirty years since its came out, I hope there is reassessment and positioning of this wonderful and timeless album:

“There was a time when everyone you knew knew songs from Parklife by heart. Parklife wasn’t underappreciated — but it was misunderstood.

Britpop fractured; there was no way that something that big couldn’t. By mid-1995, with new albums due from both bands, there was an apparent feud between Blur and Oasis that divided fans. Oasis had a proletarian appeal, eschewing the observational, dryly comedic lyrics that made Blur famous for passionate exhortations for listeners to “roll with it.” They reminded the public that they were “free to do whatever [they] like if it’s wrong or right [because] it’s alright,” never mind the lack of clarity on what “it” actually was. Consequently, Blur was derided as pretentious, insincere and overly intellectual. As Oasis’ stock rose, so did the belief amongst listeners that sincerity was synonymous with quality, and Blur’s Albarn found himself under fire from fans and critics for not singing about “himself.” As the larger genre limped towards irrelevance over the next couple of years — arguably culminating in Be Here Now, Oasis’ unexciting third album — the whole thing was declared little more than an exercise in 1960s nostalgia gone wrong by critics embarrassed by their wholesale embrace of it years earlier.

Listening to Parklife again today, one of the first things you realize is that there really isn’t that much of the ’60s in there. That’s not to say that the album isn’t filled with references and outright theft at times (“Jubilee” sounds like a close relative of David Bowie’s ”Boys Keep Swinging”, although not as close as Blur’s later ”M.O.R.”), but unlike Oasis’ fondness for the Beatles discography, Parklife’s lending library runs across decades: you can hear hints of XTC, Ray Davies, Gary Numan and the English New Romantics of the 1980s, not to mention the jazzy French romantics of the 1960s throughout the album.

For all that Parklife is the work of a young band — “the mind gets dirty as it gets closer to thirty,” one line goes, with the big three-oh still seeming like a distant destination — it’s a remarkably confident, even cocky album. (A line from critic David Quantick about the Beatles recording Revolver and realizing “we are young and we can do anything” — that combination of talent and the invincibility of youth — comes to mind.) But Parklife is also a kind one, as well. “We all say, don’t want to be alone” Albarn sings in “End of A Century.” In “This Is A Low,” he sings of melancholy as something that can bring comfort: “It won’t hurt you/ When you’re alone, it will be there with you.” Even the album’s “comedy” songs show empathy towards their target characters. “Jubilee” is an outsider hated by all, who would love to be accepted but “no-one told him” how to do it, or where to go. For all that the Blur of this era would be attacked for being too arch and unemotional, Parklife is as warm and inviting as anything Oasis (or any other Britpop band) released during the same period.

Parklife may have inspired other bands to reach into their record collections, but it has a breadth and heart that so much of what followed lacked (including the band’s own The Great Escape, which feels cynical and uninspired in comparison). It has an inclusiveness towards music that stands at odds with the small-minded attitude that ended up defining so much of what Britpop became. In many ways, Parklife is larger than the genre that grew up around it, holding it up as a standard-bearer so proudly. It sounds as fresh today as it did 20 years ago — a summation of British pop music up to that point in all its occasionally contradictory, throwaway glory”.

I am going to end by ranking the fifteen tracks from Parklife. They all have their own merit, though there are some that stand out from the pack. I am referencing SPIN and their 2023 feature that provided a track by track guide to this genius album. Whatever you think of Blur’s third album now, one cannot deny the significance of its release. How it had this massive impact when it arrived on 25th April, 1994:

“SIXTEEN: Lot 105

Like side one, side two also ends with another mostly instrumental novelty. “Lot 105” isn’t much to speak of, but like the Beatles’ “Her Majesty,” it’s a cheeky addendum to a serious closer — one last fleeting expression of fun and creativity before we all go our (hopefully) merry ways”.

FIFTEEN: Far Out

The album’s second “side” begins with this sparse, trippy number, which has the distinction of being the only Blur album track written and sung by bassist Alex James. Here, he sounds like Syd Barrett staring into space during an astronomy lecture, as he plaintively muses on the names of various moons and stars.

FOURTEEN: The Debt Collector

This horn-laden, instrumental fairground waltz serves as a demarcation between the vinyl and/or cassette sides of Parklife.

THIRTEEN: Clover Over Dover

This harpsichord-propelled ditty is another musical left turn, the repetitive rhyme scheme of which almost obscures the depression inherent in the lyrics (the narrator fantasizes about jumping or being pushed off Southern England’s famous white cliffs).

TWELVE: Magic America

Blur is about as quintessentially British as modern rock bands come, but it has flirted with the U.S. since the beginning, and “Magic America” is one of its more overt winks in that direction. The song balances disdain and curiosity with lines like “fifty-nine cents gets you a good square meal / from the people who care how you feel.”

ELEVEN: Jubilee

“Jubilee” joins “Message Centre” as the album’s most uptempo, guitar-forward tracks, with the band giving off strong T. Rex glam vibes while Albarn turns his critical eye to a teenage slacker who won’t leave his couch and video game console.

TEN: Tracy Jacks

Blur returns to familiar motifs in this Kinks-y character sketch, which explores the ennui of the working class (“Is a golfing fanatic / but his putt is erratic”) and its potential breaking points. By the end, the title character has been arrested for running around naked and has bulldozed his own house to the ground (“It’s just so overrated”).

NINE: Trouble in the Message Centre

Coxon cranks his amps on this cautionary tale of rave culture excess, which fades into a memorable wordless singalong.

EIGHT: London Loves

We’re back in “Girls & Boys” territory with this jaunty, electro-pop number, as the rhythm section and Albarn’s cooing vocals attempt to rein in guitarist Graham Coxon’s angular riffing.

SEVEN: Girls & Boys

Blur rode the album opener’s undulating bass line and pulsing Eurodance beat into what was then new territory for the band: a top-10 placement on the U.K. singles chart and worldwide airplay in clubs and on dance floors. The subject matter was inspired by a Spanish vacation Albarn took with then-girlfriend Justine Frischmann of Elastica, during which he was bemused by the obligation-free hookup scene prevalent in the local bars. Maybe modern life wasn’t so rubbish after all?

SIX: Badhead

Parklife calms down a bit with this song, which meditates on a relationship the narrator seems to have given up on: “Today I’ll get up around two / from a lack of anything to do.”

FIVE: Bank Holiday

Ninety seconds of terse, punk-tinged energy, “Bank Holiday” packs in as many pints and BBQ revelries as it can before it’s sadly “back to work again.”

FOUR: End of a Century

Parklife’s fourth single is a catchy, coming-of-age reckoning that feels more autobiographical than the surrounding tracks: “Your mind gets dirty / as you get closer to 30.” The song also touches on Albarn’s relationship with Frischmann and how couples often find themselves starting at the flickering light of a TV rather than at each other.

THREE: …To The End

Albarn is thankfully back on the mic for this song, on which his soaring choral vocals interweave with the echoing French refrains of Stereolab chaunteuse Laetitia Sadier to create one Blur’s most enduring ballads. It’s the only track on Parklife not produced by Street, with the similarly named Stephen Hague manning the boards instead. Blur recorded another version with Albarn singing the vocals in French, and in 1995 remade the entire song as a duet with French singer Francoise Hardy.

TWO: Parklife

The album’s ebullient title track is perhaps the quintessential Britpop song, propelled by Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels’ deadpan Cockney verse narration and the band’s beery, pub singalong choruses (with Coxon handling the sax part). “You never knew exactly what the song was about, and I still don’t,” which is part of the magic of it,” Daniels said years later. “What I do know is that as soon as it began to get played on the radio, dustmen started apologizing for waking me up in the morning.”

ONE: This Is a Low

Ever the showmen, Blur saves one of its best for the ostensible album closer. This fan favorite is replete with British place-specific name-checks, shipping forecast allusions, soaring choruses, and an epic Coxon guitar solo. Albarn was scheduled to undergo a hernia operation the day the song was recorded, and when pressed for lyrics, drew from a handkerchief James had given him that was embroidered with different geographic locales. This top achievement contrasts with and crowns an album full of pop oddities”.

On 25th April, we celebrate thirty years of Blur’s Parkllfe. An album that sounds so fascinating and playable to this day, go and play it if you have not heard Parklife for a while. Even if there are one or two tracks not up to Blur’s best, some of their biggest songs can be found on Parklife. Embraced and acclaimed by critics at the time and since, we are going to love and respect Blur’s Parklife..

TO the end.

FEATURE: Simpler, Lesser, Slower, Weaker: Why a Worrying Trend Regarding Songs Lyrics Should Give Artists Pause

FEATURE:

 

 

Simpler, Lesser, Slower, Weaker

PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Tarazevich/Pexels

Why a Worrying Trend Regarding Songs Lyrics Should Give Artists Pause

_________

EVEN though a recent study…

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

showing how songs lyrics are getting more repetitive and angrier only takes us to 2020, one suspects there has not been a radical shift in the past four years or so. Maybe not surprising to some music fans, it is reported that lyrics are simpler and more self-obsessed. What could be causing this?! Are platforms like TikTok and trends there contributing to a sense of repetition and a lack of originality? Also, given the state of politics and how the world has changed since 1980, maybe lyrics have reacted to that in some way. I guess music does shift and we will see change again soon. It is concerning that, especially over the past few years, a lot of song lyrics have gone in one direction. This article from The Guardian shares findings of a study that suggests a homogenisation of song lyrics:

“You’re not just getting older. Song lyrics really are becoming simpler and more repetitive, according to a study published on Thursday.

Lyrics have also become angrier and more self-obsessed over the last 40 years, the study found, reinforcing the opinions of cranky ageing music fans everywhere.

A team of European researchers analysed the words in more than 12,000 English-language songs across the genres of rap, country, pop, R&B and rock from 1980 to 2020.

Before detailing how lyrics have become more basic, the study pointed out that US singer-songwriting legend Bob Dylan – who rose to fame in the 1960s – has won a Nobel prize in literature.

Senior study author Eva Zangerle, an expert on recommendation systems at Austria’s University of Innsbruck, declined to single out an individual newer artist for having simple lyrics.

But she emphasised that lyrics can be a “mirror of society” which reflect how a culture’s values, emotions and preoccupations change over time.

“What we have also been witnessing in the last 40 years is a drastic change in the music landscape – from how music is sold to how music is produced,” Zangerle said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Gouw/Pexels

Over the 40 years studied, there was repeated upheaval in how people listened to music. The vinyl records and cassette tapes of the 1980s gave way to the CDs of the 90s, then the arrival of the internet led to the algorithm-driven streaming platforms of today.

For the study in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers looked at the emotions expressed in lyrics, how many different and complicated words were used, and how often they were repeated.

“Across all genres, lyrics had a tendency to become more simple and more repetitive,” Zangerle summarised.

The results also confirmed previous research which had shown a decrease in positive, joyful lyrics over time and a rise in those that express anger, disgust or sadness.

Lyrics have also become much more self-obsessed, with words such as “me” or “mine” becoming much more popular.

The number of repeated lines rose most in rap over the decades, Zangerle said – adding that it obviously had the most lines to begin with.

“Rap music has become more angry than the other genres,” she added”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Pou/Pexels

It is not to say that this trend cannot be reversed One does worry that a more homogeneous or less flexible Pop mainstream might not create fast or natural improvement. It is clear that social media might have contributed to a more recent change. The fact that a simplicity and repetitiveness is more impactful and digestible to a new generation. Music is getting more personal I feel. Artists writing more from a first-person perspective. Whilst there might be explanations and reasons as to why lyrics are simpler than they once were, one wonders whether it is a bad thing. I guess those looking for something deeper and more fantastical and brighter has choice. We are in a time when all kinds of artists can be accessed through streaming services. Are these new findings a simplification? Although thousands of songs have been researched and studied, the fact is that there is a lot of other music that has not been included. Maybe the Pop or Rock mainstream has become simpler or angrier. Does that mean that all other music has followed suit?! Perhaps it is not the case that artists are writing more repetitive songs because of a lack of imagination or lyrical ability. Perhaps less poetic and diverse as pre-1980, I suppose listener demands and tastes have enforced this change. With streaming services meaning we are perhaps looking for songs that are shorter and more memorable, artists have had to adapt. Radio playlists are quite competitive. If listeners relate to lyrics that are angrier or have a certain vibe, that does mean that other artists are going to replicate that to fit in.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Burrows/Pexels

That first ten to fifteen seconds of a song is crucial. Getting the listener hooked. Maybe few would tolerate a slow build or an extended introduction. In order to get people listening and stay with the song, maybe there has been this forced compromise. I don’t feel that all lyrics conform to the angrier, simpler and more repetitive model that has been suggested. There is ample music out there where one can appreciate. I do wonder whether things can and should change. Again, nobody is saying lyrics are worse. It is obvious that things have altered since 1980. As we become more reliant on streaming and perhaps have less patience for more complex songs/lyrics, is there a way back? I think that artists do need to take these new findings quite seriously. There is a danger than song lyrics will become indistinct. When we look back at music from now a couple of decades on, how will we view and assess them? I guess sone could say that some of the most popular Pop of the 1960s relied on quite simple lyrics. The Beatles were not immune. It is this more self-serving and angrier nature of lyrics that makes me feel artists are trying to be more revealing and direct. Maybe they are seeing what is happening in politics and the wider world and, as such, their lyrics absorb this. I do hope that things change in years to come. That we can still retain a certain simplicity and repetitiveness to some lyrics, yet also have a swathe of songs where there is something a bit more expansive and original. Discovering that so many song lyrics are simple, repetitive and angry is, quite frankly, quite…

PHOTO CREDIT: lil artsy/Pexels

ALARMING to see.

FEATURE: They Say, No, No, It Won't Last Forever! Searching for the Lyrics to Kate Bush’s Ivor Novello-Winning The Man with the Child in His Eyes

FEATURE:

 

 

They Say, No, No, It Won't Last Forever!

Searching for the Lyrics to Kate Bush’s Ivor Novello-Winning The Man with the Child in His Eyes

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THERE are a couple of things…

I want to discuss in this feature. I have discussed The Man with the Child in His Eyes before. Released on 26th May, 1978, it was the second (U.K.) single from her debut album, The Kick Inside. After a number one with Wuthering Heights, she followed it with a track that reached six in the U.K. It reached three in Ireland and actually got to eighty-five in the US Billboard Hot 100. There are a couple of reasons as to why I am revisiting this song. For a start, it is almost forty-five years since the track won an Ivor Novello. Bush won for The Outstanding British Lyric. Actually, Wuthering Heights was nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically – though it lost to Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street (which it beat for The Outstanding British Lyric). In the same ceremony, George Martin was given the Outstanding Services to British Music. You can see more of the winners here. I cannot find the exact date of the ceremony, though we are coming up to the forty-fifth anniversary. If this site is to be believed, it does seem like she won the Ivor Novello on 29th April. That was when she was performing a run of shows for The Tour of Life. That day, Bush was at The Amsterdam Carre Theater. It is not the only time Kate Bush has a connection with and honour from the Ivors. In 2002, she was given the Outstanding Contribution to British Music award. That was a few years before Aerial was released. In 2020, Bush became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy. With that last honour coming when she was sixty-one and the first when she was twenty, it goes to show that she has been celebrated and recognised as a world-class and influential songwriter for decades now. It still amazes me a song she wrote when she was thirteen won her an award and got so high in thew charts. Such prodigious talent at such a young age! The Man with the Child in His Eyes remains one of her most loved and beautiful songs. This pure and gorgeous moment that appears just before Wuthering Heights on The Kick Inside.

There has always been a bit of mystery regarding the subject of The Man with the Child in His Eyes. As she was thirteen when she wrote it, I detach the song from the romantic or sexual. Maybe more of a teenage fantasy, instead it seems more to be fictional or imagined. There are those who think that it is about Steve Blacknell. As we source from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia: “Born in Lambeth, South London on 6 September 1952, Steve Blacknell started out as a toilet cleaner in a mental hospital in Bexley, Kent. During this time he had a relationship with Kate Bush – before she became famous. During this time she wrote The Man With The Child In His Eyes, which Blacknell claims is about him”. I never felt this was true. Kate Bush herself never said it was about Blacknell. She has said it wasn’t about anyone specific. I consider it more of a poem that turned into a song. Other says it was written about her mentor, David Gilmour. It is the mystery of the song’s origins that gives it so much power and appeal. I always like to think this teenager imagining a few lines and it formed into this evocative and beautiful song. I have said before how the one thing I would love to own related to Kate Bush is the Cathy photobook. Consisting of photos her brother John Carder Bush took from her childhood, it is an intimate and fascinating look at Kate Bush before she was Kate Bush. Cathy. At home in East Wickham Farm, Welling, we get this access to someone who, not many years after the photos were taken, would choose a career in music and soon be a major name.

I do often think about The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Specifically the lyrics. If there was this rare and unique item that I could have then that would be it. The original handwritten lyrics. In 2010, Steve Blacknell put up Kate Bush’s handwritten lyrics of The Man With the Child in His Eyes for auction via the memorabilia/auction website 991.com. I guess its owner would never consider re-auctioning them, but I would love to know where in the world they are. I love how authentically juvenile yet classic the lyrics are. Written in hot pink felt tip pen, there is a blend of the child-like and elegant. Something pure and historical, this is the template or starting place of a song that would win an Ivor Novello award about seven or eighty years after the song was written. Kate Bush recorded the song in 1975 with David Gilmour acting as executive producer. Laying the track down in AIR Studios in London. Bush was accompanied on the song by an orchestra. That was an experienced she said terrified her. Regardless, her vocal performance is flawless. Compare the vocal sound of that – which she recorded when she was sixteen – and the one for Wuthering Heights. Even though they were recorded a couple of years apart, you feel like you’re listening to two completely different people.

Bush made her debut (and only) live U.S. T.V. appearance on SNL in 1978 and performed The Man with the Child in His Eyes. During that performance, Paul Shaffer played piano. In the same way as Kate asks where her man is during this classic song, I wonder where the lyrics now are. A man perhaps lost sea or missing, what about those beautiful hand-written lyrics that one could imagine her penning in her bedroom when she was thirteen. The mix of excitement and focus as she composed those words. Why a pink felt tip pen?! I always would have though there’d be a fountain pen or something like that. I guess, as she was so young, she would have had a selection of felt tip pens and felt that hot pink was perfect for the task and look of The Man with the Child in His Eyes. There are so many treasures and precious rarities out there fans would really love to possess. I think that these lyrics are what I would pay anything for. A rare piece of Kate Bush history hanging on my wall! I pine and yearn for these lyrics. I have been wondering why Steve Blacknell decided to release for auction words that, if not directly about him, where given to him by Kate Bush. It does seem mad that he would let these out of his grasp! Regardless, they are now somewhere else. I am not sure what state they are in, though I do hope that whoever has them has kept the page clean and protected so that no damage is done to these important and award-winning words. I guess the fact that the lyrics – or a love letter depending on whether you feel The Man with the Child in His Eyes is about Steve Blacknell – were sold for £10,000 means they would be out of most people’s price range (including mine).

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with Steve Blacknell

Looking at this source, we learn more about the song and those lyrics. Steve Blacknell discussing his relationship with Kate Bush and how he went from a toilet cleaner at a psychiatric hospital to working in the music industry. No doubt Kate Bush gave him a certain confidence to pursue his dreams and to move into the industry. He in turn obvious motivated her a lot. Just reading about how the two came together and how they briefly inspired one another intrigues me! It is a shame that these lyrics are not in a museum or somewhere that the public could see:

“But Steve Blacknell, Kate's first boyfriend, revealed the story behind the music as the hand-written lyrics went on sale at music memorabilia site www.991.com.

Penned in girlish pink ink and featuring circles instead of dots over the 'i's, the piece is part of a package which features hand-written lyrics to another track from The Kick Inside.

Steve Blacknell, 58, of Hythe, Kent, said: 'By the spring of 1975 she had become my first true love.'

'All I really knew about her was that she wrote songs, played the piano and lived in a lovely house with an equally lovely family.'

The pair would 'plot their destinies' together, with Kate vowing to dedicate her life to music, and Steve also planning a career in the industry.

Steve, who was working at the time as a toilet cleaner in a local hospital, said: 'She had her heart set on becoming a global star and I was going to be a flash DJ.'

'One day I would introduce her on Top Of The Pops. In the summer of 1975, I finally got my break and landed a job as a marketing assistant with Decca Records.'

'It was then that I finally thought I was equipped to hear her music and it was a day I'll never forget. I went round to her house and she led me to the room where the piano was.'

'I thought "Oh my God". What I heard made my soul stand on end. I realised there and then that I was in love with a genius.'

Steve took Kate to gigs by groups such as The Incredible String Band and Camel, but as her career took off, their love faded.

Steve added: 'As things hotted up for her, so our relationship cooled and we drifted apart.'

'But I've been told by those around her that I was indeed The Man With The Child In His Eyes and I know that those words were given to me by someone very special.

'They say you never forget your first love and in my case it's as true as it is for anyone. It's true too that she went on to charm, enlighten and entrance people all over the world.'

'I'm proud to have known and loved her, and proud to have shared such amazing times with the genius that is Kate Bush.'

Julian Thomas, of 991.com, said: 'This is one of those items that comes on the market once in a blue moon. We're expecting a lot of interest because Kate Bush is a highly collectable artist”.

I have been thinking a lot about Kate Bush’s 1979. During The Tour of Life, when she was twenty, she was taking her first couple of albums around the U.K. and Europe. In the middle of all of this, Bush won an Ivor Novello for The Man with the Child in His Eyes. This majestic and sublime song she wrote when she was thirteen was given this big honour. Maybe Kate Bush would not have wanted the original hand-written lyrics to the track to leave the hands of Steve Blacknell. Perhaps they are not that sentimental to Kate Bush now. I don’t know the name of the person who has the lyrics for The Man with the Child in His Eyes. I keep imagining how this piece of paper of such importance is out there somewhere. I do not know of any other Kate Bush written lyrics that has been auctioned. There are fan letters and things like that, yet there is something special and more impactful when you think of the history of The Man with the Child in His Eyes and the way the song would grow into this award-wining and much-loved track. Considered one of her very best, the song won a prestigious Ivor Novello almost forty-five years ago. The way those lyrics Bush wrote when she was thirteen transformed into what it did is…

AMAZING to think.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential May Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Maya Hawke

Essential May Releases

_________

WE are barely into April…

and yet there are some terrific albums out next month I want to encourage people to pre-order. Some of the year’s potential best arrive. I am going to start with the very best out on 3rd May. It is a busy month. Five wonderful albums are out on 3rd May alone. You will want to investigate these. The first is Charlotte Day Wilson’s Cyan Blue. An artist one might think of or know as a collaborator (she has sung with the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD), she is a tremendous and established solo artist. Her new album looks sensational. You can pre-order it:

“Toronto-born-and-raised singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Day Wilson announces her highly-anticipated sophomore album Cyan Blue via Stone Woman Music / XL Recordings. First single, “I Don’t Love You” is a stark and devastatingly beautiful confessional, highlighting Wilson’s immaculate production skills and chill inducing vocals laid atop smooth groove piano chords and soft drums.

Cyan Blue finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she’s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful  innocence. “I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again,” Wilson explains of making Cyan Blue. “Before there wasn’t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her.”

Working with producers like Leon Thomas (SZA, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (H.E.R, Daniel Caesar), Cyan Blue demonstrates Wilson’s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on Cyan Blue, she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies.  “Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity,” Wilson reflects. “But that was a bit stifling, like, ‘Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure.’ Now, I think I'm getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I'm more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment.”

While this is only her second album, Wilson’s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, CDW, followed by 2018’s Stone Woman and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released Alpha.  Over the past decade, she’s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson’s 2016 breakout single “Work.” Additionally, she’s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there’s no sound Wilson can’t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over”.

The second album from 3rd May I want to point people in the direction of is Jessica Pratt’s Here in the Pitch. What I have noticed about so many albums that have come out in the past few months is how striking and memorable their album covers are. I don’t feel this has always been the case. I do really love an album where the cover beckons you. It gives an impression of what to expect. That is the case when it comes to Jessica Pratt’s new album. One that you need to pre-order:

“On her fourth album, west coast artist Jessica Pratt expands the scope of her artistry, placing her sharpest songs to date within an ever-broadening pool of influences including spectral '60s pop, Hollywood psychedelia and bossa nova. Whereas Pratt's 2019 record, Quiet Signs, floated elegantly in the ether, Here in the Pitch is entrenched in more earthen characteristics, as the title suggests, and her craft is emboldened with a newfound gravitas”.

I really love Kamasi Washington. I was not aware that he has a new album coming out. He does. On 3rd May, Fearless Movement is released. I am really excited about this. Reading details about the album adds to this excitement and anticipation. If you have not heard Kamasi Washington before, have a listen to his past work. He is well worth investigation:

“Kamasi Washington releases his new album, Fearless Movement, via Young. Washington calls Fearless Movement his dance album. “It’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music—expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.” Dance as an embodied form of expression signals a shift in focus for Washington. Where previous albums dealt with cosmic ideas and existential concepts, Fearless Movement focuses in on the everyday, an exploration of life on earth. This change in scope is due in large part to the birth of Washington’s first child a few years ago.

“Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up,” says Washington. “My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality—realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”

The album features Washington’s daughter—who wrote the melody to “Asha The First” during some of her first experimentations on the piano—as well as a host of collaborators new and old. André 3000 appears on flute, George Clinton lends his voice, as do BJ The Chicago Kid, Inglewood rapper D-Smoke and Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, the twin sons of West Coast legend Ras Kass. Washington further enlisted lifelong friends and collaborators Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat and more”.

You can see which other albums are due out next month, as I am aware I am omitting some pretty good ones that you might want to pre-order. I will continue with 3rd May. Sia’s Reasonable Woman is an album that I am really looking forward to. Here are some more details about an release that you will want to check out and add to your collection:

“Nine-time Grammy nominee and multi-platinum global superstar Sia has cemented her role as one of today’s biggest stars, sought after songwriters, and captivating live performers. She has partnered with Diplo and Labrinth to form the group LSD. Sia has written global smashes for today’s biggest acts including Beyonce, BTS, David Guetta, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Ozuna, and many more, cementing her role as one of today’s biggest stars. Reasonable Woman is her tenth studio album”.

Before moving onto 10th May – a day after my birthday -, there is one more from 3rd May that you should know about. An album that is going to be hugely received and applauded. The Lemon Twigs’ A Dream Is All We Know is going to be another wonderful work from the U.S. duo. You can pre-order it now:

“Following the release of Everything Harmony, which garnered acclaim from Questlove, Iggy Pop, Anthony Fantano, The Guardian, and countless others, The Lemon Twigs—the New York City rock band fronted by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario—have once again captured the attention of the music listening public. Set for release less than a year after their last album, A Dream Is All We Know is a joyous affair. As the title suggests, it’s less of a sober look at the darker side of life, and more a hopeful sojourn into the realm of dreams.

Michael’s line in lead single and album opener “My Golden Years” – “In time I hope that I can show all the world the love in my mind” – serves as a statement of intent for the whole collection of songs, as the brothers race against time to create as much quality pop material as possible. On track two, The Lemon Twigs invite listeners into a bubblegum paradise with euphoric harmonies and biting clavinet (“They Don’t Know How To Fall In Place”), followed by an existential space age epic (“A Dream Is All I Know”), and, elsewhere on the album, a baroque pocket-prog tune (“Sweet Vibration”), a two-part nightmare-comedy that doesn’t let up (“Peppermint Roses”), and more.

Equipped with the songwriting chops of a lost era (somewhere between The Brill Building and 10452 Bellagio Road) the new record was carefully arranged and produced entirely analog in the brothers’ Brooklyn recording studio. Most of the tracks were constructed with the two brothers swapping instruments and layering all the parts themselves, but one exception to that rule was “In The Eyes Of The Girl,” which was co-produced by Sean Ono Lennon in his upstate New York studio.

While the album is chock full of progressive pop ideas, it closes appropriately with an ode to early rock and roll on “Rock On (Over and Over),” contextualizing the band as part of a lineage of rock and roll that’s never really stopped. For The Lemon Twigs, it took almost a decade for critics and audiences alike to present them with the major accolades they’ve earned this past year. While their initial records were appreciated for the musical proficiency they displayed, the brothers’ past few records have communicated their ideas with more clarity and emotional resonance. In other words, “It took too long to say ‘rock on”.

Let’s move to 10th May. A packed week with some really interesting albums out. There are two particular ones that I want to highlight. The first is Jordan Rakei’s The Loop. A tremendous artist who needs to be on your radar, here are some details if you are interested in pre-ordering the album:

“Grammy-award nominated Jordan Rakei is a renowned multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter who, over soon-to-be-five studio albums, has been on a wide-ranging journey that explores the outer reaches of his inner psyche, traversing themes of emotional evolution, personal growth and family with unwavering sincerity. Always positioning himself in and amongst the bigger questions in life, he has navigated his musical journey with passion and precision, unveiling something new about himself through his songwriting at every turn. The Loop is by far Rakei’s most cohesive and evolutionary work to date following an impressive career of previous releases, each of which have demonstrated his natural curiosity and capabilities in exploring new sounds”.

One more 10th May album you need to consider is Keeley Forsyth’s The Hollow. This may be an artist you are not aware of. If you are curious and want to pre-order The Hollow, then here is some information that might make your decision easier:

“The wilds of Keeley Forsyth’s adopted home in the North of England seem to inhabit this, her third record. An often bleak and foreboding landscape surrounds the Yorkshire town in which Forsyth resides. The moors, on clear days, visible from her home studio window, impact upon a music that often feels made of these places. Windswept, rain soaked and blinking through the low-lit landscape. It is here through the gloaming mist that the storm breaks and the fox tears at the throat as the Red Kites circle to scavenge whatever’s left. “There was a sound I had in my head. One to reach, that hovers above and is slightly less grounded. But a sound and feeling that nonetheless is inevitably tethered to the soil”.

The title for the new collection derives from happening upon a long-abandoned mining shaft whilst out walking. At once alluring and hazardous, forced into a hillside, “there appeared a room and ever darkening hallway carved out of the ground. A place to be swallowed by, but also to emerge from”. It’s this push and pull that is reflected in the tone, craft, and preoccupations of The Hollow. The past lurking within and haunting the present we now occupy. A connection to time that places us within it, facing what is gone and what may come. But also, perhaps the harsh notion that time has no concern as to whether we are here or not. “There is a bleak dust that hides on the cracks”.

The unique elemental voice with which we are now familiar from her critically acclaimed previous recordings sits centrally confident in a world that is of Forsyth’s making. Drawing upon personal experience without being overly literal or illustrative, Forsyth’s cathartic reflections are exorcisms in song. Songs peopled by a legion of empathetic characters and voices all of whom share something of herself. We hear an artist making sense of her life, willing to expose vulnerability without ever appearing or sounding weak but also as she states, “not wanting to dictate or control the meaning of these songs to those who may listen”.

There are experiments with an expanding field of collaborators and approaches. Forsyth’s good friend Matthew Bourne returns to end the record with the delicately paired down ‘Creature’. Colin Stetson was invited after Forsyth attended his solo live show, admiring his singular approach, at once technically brilliant and emotionally captivating. “We decided to try something together. I could hear the marriage of these sounds, both very human expressions, coming from the control of breath and breathing”. The resulting track, ‘Turning’, is a feverish cyclical dervish with Stetson utilising a range of saxophones to create a Glass-like arpeggiated stampede for Forsyth to ride alongside”.

There are six big albums that are out between 24th and 31st May. I want to get to those soon. First, there are a couple from 17th May that I need to point you towards. Portishead’s Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album on 17th May. One of the most distinct voices in all of music, Lives Outgrown is going to be among this year’s very best releases. If you are thinking of pre-ordering it, then here is a bit of background and detail:

“Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown. Featuring 10 beautiful new songs recorded over a period of 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford and Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).

Lives Outgrown is, by some measure, Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus”.

One more album from 17th May worth getting hold of is girli’s Matriarchy. One of this country’s finest and most important artists, I am really looking forward to the new album. It sounds like it is going to be unmissable. Here is where you can pre-order the superb Matriarchy:

“Sophomore studio album from alt-pop icon girli. Matriarchy is a rebirth for the celebrated, multi-faceted artist, as girli further explores her sound and takes the reins with full creative control, truly cementing her place as a cult figure and ambassador for the next gen of LGBTQIA+ music.

girli's passions have always migrated beyond music and she continues to use her platform to ignite conversations around feminism, sexuality, identity and mental health, opening up topics that most have always shied away from. Representation matters more so now than ever, and girli is ready to rewrite the rules.

Milly Toomey (AKA girli) has been on an explorative journey of self-discovery, only to conclude that she can't be boxed in. Her power is her vulnerability. Her courage is deep-rooted in years of self-reflection, feeling misshapen and not feeling as though she belongs. The North London native will forever use her platform to forge a new femininity, one that is bold and unrestrained. The new music comes fresh off the back of girli's 2023 EP why am I like this?, which includes previously released singles, 'Cheap Love', 'Imposter Syndrome' and 'I Really F**ked It Up”.

I shall come to the final selection of albums out next month worth pre-ordering. Moving to 24th May, there are three particular albums that I am highlighting. The brilliant Bess Atwell releases Light Sleeper. I am a fan of Bess Atwell, so I am interesting in hearing what Light Sleeper has to offer. For anyone pre-ordering the album, here is some more information about a wonderful artist whose new album is sure to win some passionate reviews:

"You called yourself broken, but that's just what people are, that's how the light gets in," sings Bess Atwell in the opening moments of Light Sleeper, before gentle hums of strings and shuffling snares make way for the Brighton singer's voice at full pelt, singing with a newfound rawness

"Light Sleeper is about the willingness to feel," the Brighton singer- songwriter explains. "Somewhere along the line I had become very afraid of feeling."

A huge part of this exploratory new era was Aaron Dessner, who produced Light Sleeper. His isolated cabin studio Long Pond, in Hudson Valley, was once Bess' desktop background, but she never thought she would end up star-gazing on its veranda and noodling away on the same instruments used by her heroes, not to mention a certain pop star...

The immediate trust between the pair clicked the moment Atwell walked through the doors of the iconic recording space; Dessner showed her around and then promptly left her alone to play on the many instruments at the heart of her favourite The National songs. As Atwell puts it, they seemed to speak the same musical language. "I trust his ear and I knew we had the same vision" she says.

Since the release of 'Already, Always' Atwell has been through a number of personal transformations including tapering off antidepressants, after "years of avoiding it". Reflections on her upbringing and re- evaluations of some of her experiences led to a autism diagnosis in May 2023, which has helped her to make sense of many different moments.

Motifs of sleeping and waking run throughout Light Sleeper, which constantly stirs and settles, Atwell embracing the full range and rawness of her voice like never before. By the title- track, which closes the album, twinkling, starry synthesisers lead her to a place of quiet realisation: "I'm ready to be a light sleeper again/To wake up and feel everything/I can carry the weight of it".

Another rising artist you might not be aware of (but should) is La Luz. The U.S. band will release News of the Universe on 24th May. I am interested in pre-ordering it, so if you are of a similar mindset, then Rough Trade offer up these words about La Luz and News of the Universe. An album I think should be in people’s collections for sure:

“I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law.”

With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on News of the Universe, the new full-length from California rock band La Luz.

News of the Universe is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. It’s also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one.

But is there any band in the world more suited to capturing the chaos of change in all its messy beauty than La Luz? Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia. Yet if Cleveland has spent years writing songs about ghosts, what lurks in the shadows of News of the Universe is nothing less than death itself. “There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth,” says Cleveland.

The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. Working with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress.

Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful”.

Prior to moving to 31st May and albums from that week you will need to check out, there is one more from 24th May I feel you’ll want to pre-order that comes in the form of Lenny Kravitz’s Blue Electric Light. A musical master and legend, I have been following his music since the 1990s. It does seem that his new album is going to be among his very best. Here is where you can pre-order Blue Electric Light:

“Timeless. Explosive. Romantic. Inspiring. How else to characterize Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz’s 12th studio album? Kravitz’s mastery of deep-soul rock ‘n roll is a long-established fact. As a relentless creative force—musician, writer, producer, actor, author, designer—he continues to be a global dynamic presence throughout music, art and culture.

Blue Electric Light is an impassioned suite of songs, that broadens this distinction and is the latest contribution of a man whose music—not to mention his singular style—continues to inspire millions all over the world. On the album, Kravitz's talents as a writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist resonate as he wrote and played most of the instruments himself, with longtime guitarist Craig Ross”.

31st May has a selection of strong albums that are worth further focus. I am going to spotlight three that are particularly strong. Bat for Lashes’ The Dream of Delphi is going to be another year-best contender. From the awesome Natasha Khan, you can pre-order The Dream of Delphi here:

“The Dream Of Delphi is an ode to motherhood created in LA, Natasha’s second home, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a sonic archive of a time when Natasha birthed her daughter Delphi earth side. The record weaves together ten song poems, documenting the polarity of navigating both an exterior world that was seemingly turning upside down, whilst also experiencing theprofoundly personal and transformational early moments of mothering Delphi, named after the Greek Oracle, the ancient future teller. The music became Natasha’s sanctuary, born out of stolen trips to the studio, where each track was improvised and completed in a few hours and chronologises her diary like offerings over a period of two years;  from “The Midwives Have Left”;  to writing a “Letter To My Daughter”; and all the way through to “Waking up”, as well as a cover of her daughter’s favourite song, “Home”.While the storytelling behind Bat For Lashes’ previous albums have traditionally used otherworldly narratives and female lead characters (e.g. ‘Laura’, ‘Daniel’ and ‘The Bride’), for the first ti me, The Dream Of Delphi is about Natasha’s personal experience of the magical and sometimes melancholy intimacy of early motherhood. This record creates a more private form of mythology around the music than her previous work. The Dream Of Delphi touches on more of an instrumental “Bat For Lashes” world, and shows Natasha to be both a confident composer and craftswoman of intimate landscapes. While the music creates a more womb-like, ambient space for the listener, it still leaves ample room for her signature dream pop songwriting to vibrate through. Natasha has worked with Brad Oberhofer, Mary Lattimore and Jack Falby on this record”.

Two more to go. The first – or penultimate – is Maya Hawke’s Chaos Angel. The musician-actor is a sensational and unique songwriter who people need to hear. She is amazing. If you are a fan or someone who is new to her work but wants to get a copy of Chaos Angel, then here is where you can pre-order it:

“Maya Hawke is a musician, songwriter, actor and producer - She has released two lauded albums of music to date, Moss (2022) and Blush (2020), both of which showcase her natural gift for songwriting and storytelling, as well as a knack for striking visual presentation with sleeve designs of her own creation - "Therese," the lead single from Moss, garnered global attention with its mesmerizing Brady Corbet-directed video - and tens of millions of streams - and saw Maya make an impressive network TV performance debut on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Now 25 years old, Maya's third album, Chaos Angel, takes the spare, viscerally honest songwriting she has made her name on and goes deeper and bolder. Both her most sonically sophisticated and thematically nuanced collection to date, it feels like a culmination. Across these 10 songs, Hawke catalogues upheavals, revelations, foibles, and broken promises, all while navigating the patterns we repeat while reaching towards growth, wandering astray, and finding our way back to some core understanding of ourselves.

Chaos Angel is also a document of Hawke coming more fully into her own as a musician. More adventurous in the studio after her previous two albums, Hawke leaned into her ambition. Many of these tracks are still anchored by acoustic guitar and Hawke's graceful yet conversational vocals, but their surroundings are more intricate and lush than ever before. She reconvened with longtime collaborators Benjamin Lazar Davis and Will Graefe, with Christian Lee Hutson serving as producer”.

There is one more album from May that I had to highlight and could not pass by. It is Richard Hawley’s In This City They Call You Love. One of the world’s very best songwriters, Hawley’s albums are always truly movable and filled with beauty. His upcoming album will be no exception. Here is where you can pre-order a copy:

“The new album by Richard Hawley, In This City They Call You Love and sees Richard ditch the distortion pedals and go back into making voice most prominent. Following the universal acclaim for Standing At The Sky's Edge, the award-winning musical based on his songs, Richard Hawley returns with In This City They Call You Love, his ninth studio album and his first since 2019's Further.

In This City They Call You Love features 12 outstanding songs, many of which can be described as 'vintage Hawley' and are amongst some of the finest ballads he's ever written. Gorgeous melodies and arrangements are accompanied by his emotive and sonorous voice, which sounds better than ever, and will make this a crowning moment in a hugely successful recording career of almost 25 years”.

May is a very strong month for albums. Lots of variation and some standouts! If you are already looking ahead and thinking about which ones are worth pre-ordering, then I do hope that the above has given you some useful guidance. From Richard Hawley to Bat for Lashes through to girli and The Lemon Twigs, we are treated to a bounty of stunning music. I am sure at least a few of the album above are ones that you will want to…

ADD to your collection.

FEATURE: Under the Leaves, Away From the Party: Looking Ahead to a New Edition of An Essential Kate Bush Biography

FEATURE:

 

 

Under the Leaves, Away From the Party

Looking Ahead to a New Edition of An Essential Kate Bush Biography

_________

THERE have been a few editions…

IN THIS PHOTO: Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush author, Graeme Thomson/PHOTO CREDIT: Graeme Thomson

of a superb and must-read Kate Bush biography. Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush is a book I first got back in 2019. I think I have bought a few copies since then. First published in 2010, there was an updated edition that came out in 2012. The latest edition, published in 2019, included writing and reaction to Kate Bush’s return to the stage for Before the Dawn (2014). It showed that you can never predict Kate Bush! There is always something going on. Fortunately, given how much has happened since 2019, there is another edition coming. With new words, foreword and testimonies, author Graeme Thomson announced that Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush is coming out in July. The cover looks gorgeous! It is not the final cover yet, as Sinéad Gleeson will be added to the one that will be chosen. I am excited to see what comes from it! Before moving on, I want to focus on the book as it is at the moment. I would advise anyone to pop into their local bookshop – or a Waterstones if they can – and maybe get a copy of the 2019 edition. It is good preparation for this new edition. First, here is some overview about a must-own Kate Bush biography from an author who brilliantly and passionately takes us into the life and career of one of music’s most distinct and respected artists:

“This latest edition of Under The Ivy is fully updated to include analysis of Bush's stunning return to live performance in August 2014. Her run of London concerts was the most unexpected and eagerly awaited pop event of the 21st Century. An acclaimed study of one of the world's most enigmatic artists, Under The Ivy combines a wealth of new research with rigorous critical scrutiny. Featuring over 70 new interviews with those who have viewed from close quarters both the public artist and the private woman, this compelling biography offers numerous fresh perspectives on a unique and elusive talent. Under The Ivy examines Bush's unconventional upbringing in south London, the youthful blossoming of her talent and her evolution into one of the most visually and sonically creative artists of the past 35 years.

It focuses on her unique working methods and pioneering use of the studio on landmark albums such as The Dreaming and Hounds Of Love, her core influences and key relationships, her profound influence on successive generations of musicians, and her most recent releases: Director's Cut, on which Bush reworked 11 songs from her back catalogue, and 50 Words For Snow, her first album of new material for six years”.

I do really love Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. It has been an indispensable and wonderful companion. I have referenced the book so many times when writing Kate Bush feature. The news of an updated edition coming in July has been met with celebration and praise from so many Kate Bush fans. I am going to get to some reviews of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush prior to focusing on the new edition. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia collated some positive reviews for Graeme Thomson’s masterful guide and insight into the genius Kate Bush:

“Mojo added: “Mapping a path through the life of this enigmatic songwriter is not easy, but Graeme Thomson’s superb book manages to do just that.” The Anti-Room wrote: “Apart from the sheer wealth of information – from studio recordings, to childhood trivia, music critic Graeme Thompson has vast knowledge of his subject. His enthusiasm and general interest are part of the reason this is such an engaging read. Media perceptions of Kate as fey or eccentric are challenged and the stories he has gleaned from countless sources shape a more accurate picture of a fascinating creative talent. A must-read for fans and recommended for any fans of biography.” Classic Prog Rock: “It’s certainly a book that will keep Kate’s very many fans pretty happy for some time to come.” And finally, the Irish Times: “The best music biography in perhaps the past decade… an absorbing, painstakingly researched and downright fascinating book…. After this magnificent read… you will come to appreciate her work that bit more. And if that isn’t the point of music biography, what is?”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith

Prior to moving on, I want to bring in this review of a book that should be on everyone’s shelf. Even if you are thinking of ordering the forthcoming edition of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, I would still urge people to buy the existing edition. I do wonder what Kate Bush news and events might come about prior to July. Also, years from now, I would not be surprised if Graeme Thomson released another editions. Especially if a new album is announced:

“Kate Bush seems to reveal so much of herself in her songs despite being more of a storyteller than a self-dissecting singer-songwriter. So much of her own intense connections to family, sex, love, and nature bleed through her tales of soldiers, ship-wreck survivors, ghosts, monsters, talking houses, and amorous computers. In reality, Kate Bush is an extremely private person, but the personal air of her music breeds a great deal of curiosity, empathy, and speculation in critics and fans alike.

Biographer Graeme Thomson is clearly a fan, though his work also requires him to be a critic. That work puts him in the tricky position of balancing his gasping admiration with professional distance, to respect the artist for whom he has so much respect while also telling her story with honesty and thoroughness. He did an exceptional job of traversing that tightrope with Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, which examines her life, music, work methods, and frustrating relationship with the media. Thomson waves away the rumors incessantly fluttering about her like moths. Ill-informed and disgruntled journos love to paint Bush as a pretentious thrush, a pampered rich girl, an airhead speaking in constant “Wows” and “Amazings!”, a recluse, or all false impressions bundled together. The author calls out the less spectacular moments of her career (such as The Red Shoes) with all due frankness and as much tact as he can muster. He also gets deep into fascinating little side roads of Bush’s career, such as her collaboration with Donald Sutherland on the “Cloudbusting” video.

Thomson originally published Under the Ivy in 2010 when Kate Bush’s career may have seemed like it had wound down. She hadn’t released an album in five years at that point. A year after the book’s publication, Bush revisited some old material on Director’s Cut and released an album of new material, 50 Words for Snow. Since then she has done the unimaginable by staging concerts for the first time in 35 years with her triumphant “Before the Dawn” series at the Hammersmith Apollo. Thomson rightfully sensed this would be a good time to revisit and revise his landmark biography, and the updated edition subjects Bush’s post-2010 work to the same scrutiny, praise, and criticism that her first four decades received in the first edition—his intense look at “Before the Dawn” gave me a serious yen for a DVD release of the show”.

You can pre-order a copy of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. Taking in events and updates that have happened in Kate Bush’s career since 2019, it will be fascinating to see what Graeme Thomson includes in the updated edition of his biography. With more fans aware of her work, this is going to be a truly go-to volume for them. I am so excited to own my copy:

“The critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinéad Gleeson.

Detailing everything from Bush’s upbringing to her early exposition of talent, to her subsequent evolution into a stunningly creative and endlessly fascinating visual and musical artist, Under The Ivy is the story of one woman's life in music. Written with great detail, accuracy and admiration for her work, this is in equal parts an in-depth biography and an immersive analysis of Kate Bush's art.

Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums and inescapable influence, Under The Ivy is an eminently readable and insightful exploration of one of the world's most unique and gifted artists. The text has been updated to include coverage of Bush’s return to the top of the charts in 2022 following the extraordinary resurgence of ‘Running Up That Hill.’ An eye-opening journey of discovery for anyone unfamiliar with the breadth of Bush’s work, Under The Ivy also rewards the long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis.

“The best music biography in perhaps the past decade” The Irish Times

“Superb.... A compelling examination of an artist in a constant state of becoming” Mojo

"Penetrating textual study potently combining interviews and research" The Beat

"Excellent... expertly unravelling her contradictions and motivations" Record Collector

"I’ve never met Kate Bush. But on occasion we may have shared the same dream about the afterlife of Elvis Presley – a fact I learnt while reading this wonderful book. She’s beguiling and eccentric and in thrall to a singular vision. She’s also smart in not dispelling her mystery. Over the years she has come to occupy a unique place in the British psyche. She’s now part national treasure, and part pop Athena with her devoted acolytes. Under The Ivy is respectful, but it gets us pretty close to the temple. This is the perfect book for aficionados or even the merely curious" Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout)

"Graeme is a fantastic biographer, warm and wise. He brings Kate’s interior and exterior lives to life, in vivid colours, in this wonderful book" Jude Rogers, author of The Sound of Being Human

"Peers deep into the weeds of this extraordinary woman’s work. Under The Ivy brilliantly fleshes out the stories behind the Bushcraft, without reducing any of her music’s enduring magic" Rob Young, author of Electric Eden and All Gates Open: The Story of Can

"Written in prose that from time to time seems linked umbilically to the very same ‘otherworld’ from which Kate Bush’s art manifests, Graeme Thomson’s style of storytelling penetrates the surrounding truths and myths. In doing so he presents us with the rarest of things: a portrait of Kate Bush incarnate" Jim Kerr (Simple Minds)

"There is no shortage of books written about Kate, but when Under The Ivy first appeared it felt like the definitive text. Probing, exhaustively researched, with a huge attention to detail, it was immersive and engaging. Graeme Thomson is clearly an admirer of the work, but avoids any hagiography" Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations and Hagstone

"An absolute joy for the Kate Bush fan, indeed any music fan, delving deeply and passionately into the world of one of our most important and cherished artists. A fascinating and richly rewarding read, this book explores in exquisite detail a truly unique vision and uncompromising approach in what has been the creation of some of the most incredible and intoxicating music ever recorded" Emma Pollock

"This is writing about music, and one of the key songwriters and performers of her or any time, that demands to be read not only by fans and connoisseurs, but by anyone interested in art and those who make it" Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us and Greatest Hits

"It’s such a well written and detailed book.... satisfyingly in depth and revealing and just as its title suggests a door to a secret garden, we get unseen glimpses of a private life and the connections of that world to one of the most influential and important artists of my life time. Absorbing, revealing and immersive" Kathryn Williams, singer-songwriter and author of The Ormering Tide
Publication Date: 11.07.2024
ISBN:9781915841353
Extent: 432 pages
Format: Paperback”.

On 11th July, we will get a beautiful and updated version of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. It is one of my favourite music books ever (you can also buy the audiobook). I will review the book when it comes out in July. In the meantime, I wanted to make people aware who may not know about this revised edition. With a foreword from the brilliant Sinéad Gleeson, this is going to be a fascinating book. I do think that every Kate Bush fan…

NEEDS to order a copy.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from the Best Albums of 2024 So Far

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Tyla/PHOTO CREDIT: Annie Reid

Songs from the Best Albums of 2024 So Far

_________

FOR this Digital Mixtape…

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé

I am going to put together songs from the best albums of the year so far. It has been a busy and fantastic year for new music. Although it is a subjective measure, I am taking songs from the best-reviewed and received albums of 2024. There will be ones that you know, though there may be a few albums and artists you might not have heard of. The playlist shows what a strong and varied year we have had so far for music. Quite an exceptional array of work from some tremendous artist. As we are now in April, we can look back at the first few months of the year. Take a listen to the exceptional collection of tracks from the best albums of this year so far. Looking at the quality in there, it bodes well for the rest of 2024. It is intriguing to thing just how many wonderful albums will be released…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Smile/PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Lebon

BEFORE the year is through.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Fabiana Palladino

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Fabiana Palladino

_________

WITH her eponymous…

debut album now out in the world tomorrow (5th April), there is new attention and focus on Fabiana Palladino. The London-based artist is an exceptional talent that everyone should know. Do go and get her album. I will come to some spotlighting and attention around the amazing Fabiana Palladino. I will also include some biography. First, Rough Trade provide some details about an extraordinary album:

“Fabiana Palladino releases her hotly anticipated self-titled debut album. The UK vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer releases Fabiana Palladino via Paul Institute / XL Recordings.

Made in the wake of the end of a long relationship, the album is an intimate record that sees Fabiana Palladino confront complex questions about love, loneliness and normativity in relationships. The result is a 10-track full-length of shapeshifting sonics that draws inspiration from the big R&B, Soul, Pop and Disco studio productions of the 80s and 90s and filters them through a modern lens. Written and self-produced by Palladino, the album features performances from renowned musicians and close friends including Paul Institute co-founder Jai Paul, her father and legendary session bassist Pino Palladino, brother and Yussef Dayes bassist Rocco Palladino, renowned drummer Steve Ferrone and strings from Rob Moose.

Speaking on the new music and album, Fabiana Palladino says:

“A central theme of the album is aloneness. Whether it’s a song where I’m searching for connection with someone else, or trying to embrace the aloneness, it tends to come back to me, who I am when I’m alone, what I feel when I really look inwards. I’d say it’s a pretty introspective record overall. The songs are often about trying to go deeper into yourself, exploring your true feelings and how they then relate to and affect your relationships with others.

ARTWORK CREDIT: Nicola Delorme

“Stay With Me Through The Night” is the first song I wrote for the album. It was at the end of a tricky period where I hadn’t written music for nearly two years, and it came out in a bit of a flood, I barely even remember where or how I wrote it, but I knew it was going to be an important song for me. It ended up being the centrepiece of the album, a song that encapsulates a lot of the feeling and emotion of the rest of the record and musically it brings old together with new, which became a theme across the record…a way of combining my influences with a modern perspective.

Rhythmically the feeling of the song comes from funk and disco, I was thinking about the piano playing of Patrice Rushen and Michael McDonald, Chaka Khan’s ‘What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me’, Bernard Edwards bass playing on Chic’s ‘Good Times’, and The Bee Gees ‘Spirits Having Flown’ but we tried to take the track somewhere else in other aspects of the production to bring out the big feelings in the song. It situates us in the emotional world that I tried to create for the rest of the album.”

Fabiana Palladino first broke out in 2017 as one of Paul Institute’s founding artists after her shadowy R&B-influenced spectral pop reached Jai Paul, who founded the label alongside his brother A.K. Paul. Releasing three singles in four years, she caught the ear of critics - Pitchfork likened “Mystery” to “a scratch track from a big-budget 80s studio that’s been smuggled out on reel-to-reel tape” – but Palladino’s output remained slight. The intervening years have seen her working as an in-demand session musician for the likes of Jessie Ware, Sampha, SBTRKT and Laura Groves while intensely striving for pop perfection in her own music. Last year, she formed part of Jai Paul’s band for his live debut (which she also supported solo) on his hugely celebrated comeback tour”.

I am keen to explore Fabiana Palladino more. She is an artist that may not be known to everyone, though I feel that she will be very soon. One of our most remarkable songwriters'. A truly distinct voice. Emerged Agency give us some more background on one of my favourite rising artists. This is someone that I am very excited about in terms of how far she will go in the industry:

“For more or less a brand-new artist, Fabiana Palladino faces an unusual level of anticipation. The London musician broke out in 2017 as one of the Paul Institute’s founding artists after her shadowy, classicist R&B influenced pop reached Jai Paul, who started the label alongside his brother A. K. Paul. Releasing just three singles in four years, she caught the ear of critics – Pitchfork likened “Mystery” to “a scratch track from a big-budget 80s studio that’s been smuggled out on reel-to-reel tape” – but Palladino’s output remained slight while she worked as an in-demand session musician for the likes of SBTRKT and Jessie Ware, cycling from one tour to the next. This year, she formed part of Jai’s band for his live debut (which she also supported), the most wildly awaited performances in years. “I’m taking it one bit at a time because it is very strange and a bit overwhelming,” says Palladino.

All the while, she was intensively working on her self-titled debut album - Fabiana Palladino - in secret. Written and produced by Palladino, it has been a long time coming, partially because of her playing commitments but also because of her perfectionism. “I have a horrible fear of putting something out and regretting it,” she admits. Covid slowed things too, amplifying the sense of loneliness and isolation that runs through the album, in which she confronts how a life should look in the absence of traditional relationship and family structures. Made in the wake of the end of a long relationship, it’s an intimate, after-dark record that exudes the toughness and femininity of Janet Jackson circa Control and Annie Lennox on DIVA, exerts the classic songwriting of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell and subverts the classic romantic Motown duets of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell to unpick normativity in relationships.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fabiana Palladino (@fabianapalladino)

Palladino’s references are all big studio records, a sound that she strove for while self-recording at home and in the XL studio. “I wanted to push myself production-wise,” she says. “I wanted high-production value sounds because I grew up listening to music that was made in studios, played by great musicians and recorded by brilliant engineers, and I really appreciate that.” This sleek, distinctive record is testament to her growing confidence as a producer, encouraged, says Palladino, by Jai. Early on, she would send him demos and ask him to produce them. “He would say, ‘You’ve already produced it – it’s there.’ Palladino’s dad, Pino Palladino, is one of history’s most famous session men: she learned from him the integrity it takes to work on other people’s ideas, and gradually understood how to apply it to her own work. “I like creating other people’s vision, being solid and consistent,” she says. “Being an artist is a totally different headspace.”

It’s one that Palladino seems to conjure effortlessly. The self-titled album feels like a classic pop album: its nimble melodies haunting and sensual, the writing elegantly whittled down to turn complex questions about desire and satisfaction into immediate hooks. “I’m getting closer / Still it’s on my mind / What we’re all about / ‘Cos I don’t even know if I want you around,” she sings on the “Closer”, which gasps and glints as two would-be lovers dance around a grey area. “When I go to sleep I’m tired but I can’t dream any more,” she sings on “I Can’t Dream Anymore”, thrust forward by heaving bass that resonates with exhaustion and frustration at the uncertainty. “I had a significant relationship that ended followed by a period of a few years of like: what the hell am I doing?” she says. “People are getting married and having kids around you, and I was not in that at all. There’s a certain amount of pain in having to accept that that’s not the way it’s gone. But also: how can I embrace that and create power for myself? I feel amazing about it now, and so happy that my life has gone in that way.”

Fabiana Palladino underscores that push and pull. “The songwriting is relatively traditional,” says Palladino, “but the production isn’t. It’s trying to disrupt certain expectations.” Palladino’s pop career is finally taking flight but that doesn’t mean the anticipation is over”.

There are a couple of interview that I am going to bring in before closing and rounding things up. NOTION featured Fabiana Palladino early last month. Among other things, she discussed stepping out from the shadows of others, and words of wisdom with Jessie Ware. Everything I read about Palladino makes me feel that she will be releasing music for many years to come. A very special talent:

“Fabiana Palladino is a perfectionist. Since releasing her debut single, ‘Mystery’, through the Paul Institute in November 2017, the singer-songwriter from London has remained a compelling enigma. Two tracks came in the three years afterwards, ’Shimmer’ and then ‘Waiting’, before the elusive Jai Paul and his brother AK signed her to the label for a full-length album. Agonising over the intricacies of a 10 track project, the Robyn-approved artist feared putting out a body of work that felt incomplete; she found the process challenging at times, balancing her high standards with the realities of recording a debut.

From what we’ve heard so far, Fabiana Palladino has been worth the wait. ‘I Care’ emphatically introduced us to the record’s retrofuturism, which takes R&B classicisms and morphs them into something inherently their own. Of course, Jai is on hand to provide a steely feature, crooning in mumbled tones to complement Fabiana’s plaintive pleas. “What do I have to do to make you care?”, she questions on the hook, ruing the emotions of a non-committal lover. Released earlier this year, the follow-up single, ‘Stay With Me Through The Night’ is comparably upbeat, as disco funk grooves and toe-tapping drums, from Chaka Khan collaborator Steve Ferrone, take centre stage. Yet still, the lyrics mourn a romance gone wrong.

Loneliness and isolation are key themes across the project. Made after ending a long-term relationship and written during COVID lockdowns, despite the album’s wealth of contributors, composing it was predominantly a solitary experience. Having worked as a session musician, recording with the likes of SBTRKT, Sampha and Jessie Ware, stepping out into the spotlight as an artist in her own right is something Fabiana is finding hard to grapple with. Last month, she played two debut headline shows – one in London and one in Paris. For someone who’s previously remained in the shadows of others, the performances left her feeling exposed. Nevertheless, with Fabiana Palladino nearing its release, and more tour dates planned later this year, she’ll have to get used to the attention.

Talk to us about Fabiana Palladino, the self-titled debut you have coming out in April on Paul Institute / XL Recordings. Why was now the right time to release it? In an interview from 2018 you spoke about a forthcoming EP, was that scrapped or is this its more fleshed-out incarnation?

So that EP was pretty much finished by early 2020 but around that time I signed an album deal with XL / Paul Institute and decided I wanted to expand the EP into an album instead. It then took me three more years to finish the album, which was definitely not the plan – I hoped to finish it within a year but I’m quite slow, also a perfectionist, and there were various setbacks due to Covid and just general life stuff getting in the way. All that said, this really feels like the right time to release this album, it’s been a very long time coming but I feel good about the timing of it and ready to share it with everyone.

What was your proudest moment while making the record? Did anything surprise you about the creative process?

Honestly, I’m not sure I ever felt proud during the making of the record, I’m pretty hard on myself and found the process really difficult at times – I was questioning whether it was good enough pretty much all the time. I drove myself pretty nuts. Looking back though I guess I’m proud of persevering through my own neurosis and actually managing to finish it? There were some very special moments during the making of it though and I never stop being amazed and surprised by the way a song can expand from a tiny seed of an idea into a really meaningful thing, especially with the help of the collaborators I’ve worked with. So I feel really proud of what we created together.

Jai Paul features across the project, someone that you’ve worked closely with for many years now. Why do you think your sounds complement each other so well? And how do you think he elevates your work?

It’s a combination of things – partly that we have a lot of shared influences and reference points, but also that we have quite different approaches to making music that seem to complement each other somehow. I’m pretty traditional and Jai is a bit more free thinking. It’s an instinctive thing when we work together, we don’t really discuss much, there’s an unspoken understanding of what will work / not work that makes it a really natural process. Jai elevates my work beyond what I ever really could have imagined – he really is a visionary producer and has an originality that is so exciting to me.

What do you hope that people take away from the project

I hope people find ideas and feelings that they can relate to in the music. Although I worked with collaborators on the album and their contributions are super important, it was a mostly a solitary experience making it – both physically as I made a big chunk of it during lockdowns, but also emotionally – I felt quite alone at times, not necessarily in a negative way, but I was exploring the reasons for that in the music and lyrics, trying to make something that people can connect to and maybe make them feel less alone, to feel seen and heard. All my favourite music does that for me.

‘Stay With Me Through The Night’ is such a jam, but there’s definitely a plaintiveness to it. How did the single come about and how do you think it represents Fabiana Palladino as a whole?

Thank you! It’s actually the only song that made the cut from the EP. The original demo was a bit more plaintive feeling, but when it came to making the album version we just felt like it needed try and make it a straight fire groove. My dad put some bass on the original demo, which had electronic drums that Jai had programmed (some of which are still in there) but then he had the idea to ask Steve Ferrone to play live drums on it and it took the song to a whole new level. Steve played on my one of my favourite records ever which is What Cha Gonna Do For Me? by Chaka Khan. Rhythmically it’s got that old school feeling which is very much up my street but we tried to keep some sort of modernity with the production. I think it represents me because lyrically it’s vulnerable and direct, but the music is uplifting (I hope) ’cause in the end I just wanna make people feel happy and dance. It’s also got that balance of retro and modern which I love to explore.

The track comes alongside your debut music video. How did it feel putting yourself out there like that? It’s beautifully shot…

Yeah it was nerve racking for sure but I felt very supported by the team of people who worked on it who were so encouraging of my initial vague idea and developed it into something really great. I’m still trying to get my head around how I feel about putting myself out there like this. On one hand I’m self-conscious about it but on the other hand I am really enjoying this side of things, getting to create art in a new way and show different sides of myself and the music is super exciting.

Many of these artists you first connected with on MySpace. The social media site is often cited by people for its collaborative and creative forces. What do you think music today could take away from that era?

Yeah MySpace was important for a lot of us! I liked that it was super fun and creative and didn’t take itself too seriously. It didn’t feel like a ‘professional’ platform for artists, in that it wasn’t really trying to sell music or gain any sort of streaming numbers, as far as I remember. It really did feel like it was more about just sharing music and making genuine connections with people you often ended up actually meeting and collaborating with, with no real agenda, just the possibility of creating together.

What’s next for Fabiana Palladino? With this debut album around the corner, is there anything else that you’re looking to achieve in 2024?

The main thing will be performing the album live over the next few months, as well as putting out the next few singles and the visuals we’ve made for them. Aside from that I’ll be playing a few more shows with Jai which will be fun. I’m looking forward to getting back to writing with a friend who I was working with last year, as well as writing my second album which I’m thinking about a lot… My aim for this year is to just create as much work as possible”

I am going to move on to a feature from CRACK It is amazing that, in 2014, Fabiana Palladino opened her inbox and found an unexpected email. When she read the message – a request to collaborate from the elusive and revered Jai Paul – she naturally assumed it was a prank. Since then, Palladino has really made her mark on music and collaborated with some incredible artists:

“Her childhood was soundtracked by her parents’ soul and Motown records, and she’s grateful for this informal early education by Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. But it was the music on the radio that captured her attention. “I mean, I was very uncool in terms of current music,” she says, perhaps a little too earnestly. “I was into pop music, whatever was mainstream, like Craig David and Spice Girls.”

That interest in pop and R&B laid the foundations for her own material, which is built around traditional song structures and a silky falsetto, and polished off with sleek yet subtly experimental production. She’s still drawn to the superstars of those genres, most notably Kate Bush, Brandy and Janet Jackson. “I always loved everything Janet represents,” Palladino explains, wide-eyed. “She is obviously super feminine sometimes, but that 80s period was so androgynous and, musically, the production is quite hard. That feeling of strength about her was interesting and exciting to me.”

While at university, Palladino started to pursue music-making, but only tentatively. She remembers feeling nervous as coursemates began to clock on to who her dad – famous for his work with The Who, Gary Numan and D’Angelo – was. “I remember suddenly feeling very aware that people knew and then had an idea of me,” she explains. “I used to have an idea that if my dad played on anything [I wrote] people would just see me as what you now call a ‘nepo baby’.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Cosgrove

It would be easy to feel sorry for Palladino at this point. She’s sweet, self-aware, and extremely talented; it must be frustrating to live in the shadow of a (male) relative. But at the same time, nepotism is deeply entrenched within British music and arts. So I remember the instruments hanging around the house, the studio visits, the industry family friends. A week later, when I ask how she feels about her advantaged position, she explains further. “There are many ways in which having musician parents has benefitted me, [such as] instruments and recording equipment. In a practical sense, it was easy for me to explore music, and I know for most people that is definitely not the case,” she admits. “I can acknowledge the leg up I had and still be able to feel like what I do is valid and worthy on its own terms.”

It was around 2007 when Palladino started uploading her early demos to MySpace. Though it didn’t stir up much interest at the time, she says, it’s where she connected with like-minded artists such as Ghostpoet and Sampha, who she collaborated with for the former’s Survive It (2011) and her own, since-deleted track, For You (2014). Soon after, she began working as a session musician for some of London’s most talked about indie and electronic acts: SBTRKT, The Maccabees and Jessie Ware.

Between tours, Palladino would fervently write her own music. “I’d come back and be like, ‘Right, I’ve got a week.’ I’d just be locked in my bedroom making songs,” she tells me. One such song was Shimmer, a sparkling synth-pop ballad she would later tidy up and release officially in 2018. It was an important period for Palladino and she looks back on the time fondly, but after several years, she found that session work was no longer creatively satisfying. She enjoyed supporting artists she loved but lacked the time to focus on her own projects. “I could’ve carried on making individual tracks, but there’s no way I would’ve had the time or focus to make an album,” she adds.

This idea of self-progression and being at ease with yourself resonates with Palladino’s own story. Now, aged 36, she finally feels ready to release her first full-length project. The album was written after the breakdown of a significant relationship in 2019, which forced her to move back in with her parents in the suburbs and confront life’s big questions all over again. “I thought, ‘Wow, how did this happen? I’m in my early thirties and single again, and what does that mean for me?’” she recalls, more quietly now. With people around her getting married and having children “left, right and centre”, she began to ask herself, ‘How can I take ownership of that and for it not to be this sad, tragic thing? Do I want that traditional life or not? And if I don’t, what does that look like?’

PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Cosgrove

Palladino navigates these questions of loneliness and independence throughout her self-titled album. The lyrics are frank and unabashed, like on the low-lit groover Stay with Me Through the Night, in which Palladino confesses that she “never could make up ‘cos I’m bad at admitting that I’m wrong”, and pleads for “one more try”. She finds strength in being direct, she says: “I didn’t want to obscure anything. Yeah, I feel very vulnerable, but I chose to be.”

Fabiana Palladino is her most ambitious sounding release yet, drawing on the production techniques of big studio projects she has long admired to embellish her earlier, more DIY approach. With its tight, syncopated drums and steely attitude, Can You Look in the Mirror? nods to early 2000s releases by Darkchild and Rich Harrison, while the spectral slowburner I Care (featuring Jai Paul) has a cinematic sheen. “When you look back at the budgets and time these people had, you know, we had very little of that,” Palladino smiles. “It was almost a challenge of, how shiny can I make it sound?”

Taking her time to build up to the album is something Palladino is grateful for. But it’s taken a long time to reach this state of mind; though there are traces of her all over the music world, from her session appearances to recording credits in liner notes, for years she was concerned that the lapses between her releases would make her look unproductive, or unsuccessful.

"It's so much cooler to be an overnight success, isn't it? But the fact of the matter is, for some artists, it just takes ages to get to the stage where they're able to make a record"

PHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Cosgrove

“There’s so much focus on your digital footprint, how it looks when people scroll through your Instagram or releases,” Palladino says, sighing. “I have these long gaps where I was off on tour, doing other things or just distracted,” she shrugs. “It’s so much cooler to be an overnight success, isn’t it? Or just to be the person of the moment. But the fact of the matter is, for some artists, it just takes ages to get to the stage where they’re able to make a record.”

She also worried that she’d missed the boat altogether. As we finish eating, she recalls an interaction with an industry figure who said he would never sign an artist over the age of 25. Palladino was 20 years old at the time and the comment stuck. “I had that in my head for years. Years,” she emphasises, pulling on her sleeves.

It’s part of a wider culture of ageism and misogyny in the music business, Palladino acknowledges now. “I bought into it because it’s just so insidious,” she says, frankly. “But now there’s Jessie, Kylie, Robyn – people who are older than me. I’d be delighted to be making that kind of music. Why is there a limit on age? It makes zero sense.” She’s still figuring it all out, Palladino admits earnestly, but she’s finally learning to enjoy the process: “It’ll only get better, I think”.

Out tomorrow, Fabiana Palladino’s eponymous debut album is going to make a big impression. I think it is going to be among the most important debut albums of the year. She is a spellbinding artist that people unaware need to connect with as soon as possible. You need to listen to what she is putting out. We have in our midst…

SUCH an extraordinary artist.

___________

Follow Fabiana Palladino

Official:

https://www.fabianapalladino.com/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@fabianapalladino__

Instagram:

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FEATURE: Be That Movie Queen: Kate Bush and Gered Mankowitz: A Magical and Hugely Fascinating Creative Collaboration

FEATURE:

 

 

Be That Movie Queen

ALL PHOTOS: Gered Mankowitz

Kate Bush and Gered Mankowitz: A Magical and Hugely Fascinating Creative Collaboration

_________

RESPONSIBLE for some of the…

very best and most memorable photos of Kate Bush, I have been thinking about Gered Mankowitz. Even though other photographers had a longer collaboration and working relationship with Bush – including Guido Harari and her brother, John Carder Bush -, there is something very special about Gered Mankowitz. I have included him before and written about his importance. I wanted to revisit this amazing photographer, as I am thinking back to Kate Bush’s first couple of albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart (1978), and the sort of whirlwind around her then. I am going to be returning to photographers who have made such an impact and been responsible for some of the very best shots of Kate Bush. I want to start by highlighting a book that is among the ones I really want to own. In addition to John Carder Bush’s Cathy – which is the Kate Bush purchase that is top of my list -, the amazing WOW! from Gered Mankowitz is fascinating. We get this close look at his iconic shots of Kate Bush when she was in her late-teens/early-twenties. He was shooting her when she was coming through and establishing herself as an artist. Someone who I would love to speak to one day. I don’t know if there are more shots of Kate Bush that has yet to be released that he took. It is clear that WOW! is a real treasure trove. Here is why people should get it:

“WOW! Kate Bush by Gered Mankowitz features the very best work from Gered Mankowitz’s incredible 1978 / 1979 archive of Kate Bush photographs, with the majority of photographs previously unpublished. Each copy is personally signed by Gered Mankowitz.

As with all previous Ormond Yard Press volumes, it is a book on a spectacular scale: a hardcover volume housed in its own printed slipcase and measuring 24 inches high x 18 inches wide (60x45cm) when closed, 24 x 36 inches (60 x 90cm) when open, with 96 pages of photographs. The physical scale may be large, but the edition size for WOW! is reassuringly small – just 750 individually signed and numbered copies are available to collectors worldwide.

Kate was a wonderful subject and I worked with her over several sessions throughout 1978 and into 79. She was always a delight and an inspiration to work with. I am immensely proud of the work I have done with her and will always be grateful to have been associated with such a gifted artist from the very beginning of her long and important career. I am tremendously excited to be launching WOW! and hope that it excites you too”  Gered Mankowitz

WOW! is a book on a spectacular scale: an ultra-large-format 96 page limited edition hardcover which measures 24 inches high x 18 inches wide (60x45cm) when closed. When the book is open, a double page spread measures 24 inches high by 36 inches wide (60cm x 90cm). The physical size of WOW! may be large, but the edition size is reassuringly low. Just 750 are being offered for sale worldwide.

WOW! includes approximately 250 images, and contains the very best material from Gered Mankowitz’s archive of Kate Bush photographs. The vast majority of photographs are previously unpublished. The book is housed in a handsome printed slipcase, and each copy is personally signed by Gered.

WOW! defies the normal ‘coffee table’ convention. Much larger than a traditional coffee table volume, it is slim and elegant at the same time. WOW! is housed in a beautiful custom slipcase which reproduces the front and back book cover art. All our publications seek to redefine the book as more than just a book – and as a piece of art in its own right. With this in mind, the cover of the book and slipcase have been deliberately left free of text so that nothing detracts from the power of the images”.

I think that Gered Mankowitz is one of the most important figures in Kate Bush’s career. At that pivotal time when she was emerging and her face was being seen everywhere, we had this experienced photographer charged with taking images that were distinct and different. There is a shot of Kate Bush, intended to be the cover of the Wuthering Heights single, that was scrapped because it showed her nipples. Instead of the image being cropped, it got out into the world and Bush’s family felt that it was inappropriate and maybe sexualised. Kate Bush was cool with it, though it remains one of those missed opportunities. The actual shot is amazing. The expression Kate Bush gives shows how Mankowitz was able to get the best from his subjects. In 1978 and 1979, there needed to be this steady and experienced photographer who could easily work with Kate Bush. Someone she trusted. If people like Guido Harari had a longer time working with Kate Bush, I think that Gered Mankowitz’s shots of Kate Bush are among the very best. In 2014, when Kate Bush took Before the Dawn to the Hammersmith stage, the Big Issue spoke with Gered Mankowitz about his time working with the legend. Like I have done in the past, I am sourcing the entirety of the interview, as it is too good and important to be edited down:

“Gered Mankowitz, the photographer with Kate Bush in his eyes, who shot the iconic the Wuthering Heights image and captured Kate in several photo shoots between 1978-79, discusses ‘that’ famous leotard shot, and why Kate was always in control of her sexy image…

I was brought in to create the launch image for Wuthering Heights and I think what makes Kate brilliant is her unique talent, her extraordinary energy, her vision – everything she does has a tremendous vision.

I remember her to be somebody who worked very hard. She was very young, 19, when it came out and she was wonderful to work with. Very energetic, very frenetic, quite difficult to tie down sometimes, to get her to focus on making an idea work, she wasn’t very experienced in having her photograph taken at that time, which was part of the challenge. But her individuality shone through.

I don’t think I had to draw it out of her, it was there, it was bubbling out of her. When I first went to the record company to discuss the session she wasn’t there but they played the video of Wuthering Heights that they’d made. It was quite obvious that she was a unique and special talent, not just because the music was so extraordinary but because of her individual look, her beauty and movement and style.

She had a really special quality, which stood out instantly on record and visually. I knew that I had to be at the top of my game to produce an image that was going to complement and support this extraordinary talent, and that’s what I tried to do. I always try to break these things down so that they are as simple as possible.

I had to be at the top of my game to produce an image that was going to complement and support this extraordinary talent

I only had a very loose connection with the record company. They already had a cover for the album The Kick Inside, but they didn’t have an image of Kate, it was quite obscure and it wasn’t as up-front of Kate as they wanted it to be. But I sense that they weren’t quite sure where they were going with her.

What they seemed very certain of was here was a unique and special talent and that they had somebody who was pure gold, but they were being led by her and I think that they weren’t sure who they were getting.

I wouldn’t want to suggest that she was in control of our session, but she was very much in control of the way she looked when she stepped out of the dressing room and I saw her for the first time ready for the camera I was blown away and knew it was going to be something special.

We did the very famous leotard pictures. I chose the leotards to make visual link with dance, that was the point of choosing and selecting them, I wanted to keep it extremely simple, I hope that in the portrait there would be a visual connection with dance which was clearly very important to her.

During the same session we reproduced the image of Wuthering Heights that she’d recorded for the video because everybody wanted stills of that but in those days they just couldn’t take them from the film. She did the whole dance for me. [Big Issue: “Wow!” Gered: “Wow indeed!”]. The only thing I didn’t have was the dry ice she had in the video, but it was spectacular.

We did four big photo sessions together between January 1978 and March or April 1979 and dance was always very high up on the list and a lot of the pictures we did are her moving, her different leotards, leaping, spinning, dancing and expressing herself like that and that was so important and trying to capture that in a very graphic way.

She could just look at the camera you would melt. You sense that she was really special and felt Wuthering Heights was going to be a big hit and I know that EMI was going to really get behind it. What nobody knew was how huge she would be and how important.

I had worked with a lot of people who had become incredibly successful for one reason or another – The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, who had that same charisma and presence as Kate, as did Annie Lennox and Suzi Quattro. What you recognise is talent and charisma but that doesn’t necessarily turn into longevity.

We know you’re going to move from one single, one album to the next and hope that the artist and everything in their support structure around them is going to remain intact and supportive, and that the artist will build a fan base that is solid enough to support them.

The one thing that was very clear was here was a very individual and unique special artist. There’s always terrible pressure on people especially if your first record is a huge hit. I don’t think that any of her records have been as big as Wuthering Heights but she’s big enough, talented enough and clever enough not to be overwhelmed by the success.

She would appear to be completely in control of her career, and she’s managed to maintain her privacy. When she makes an appearance [in public] she’s thought about it, and considered it, and the response to it is always huge.

The one picture that in a way is inescapable is the pink leotard Wuthering Heights picture. It’s one of those pictures that become iconic and represents so much, and that doesn’t happen very often. It has a life of its own and it has energy. I think it’s a beautiful portrait of a very beautiful young woman. 

The Big Issue: There has been discussion over the years whether her sexuality was being exploited – depending how it’s cropped, it’s quite graphic…

Gered: It didn’t occur to me at that time that [the nipples visible in the full-length shot] would be a problem. I know that it was pretty edgy for the late ’70s but it wasn’t sort of discussed or thought about a great deal. That was how she looked and I wasn’t going to say to her “I think you should cover up”.

She looked absolutely gorgeous. I’m looking at a cropped version of it now and it still has all the power that it did then. Her breasts might have been titillating to a few young boys but her beauty and her serenity, her stillness are what really make this a special photograph.

She used her sexuality throughout her performance

She certainly knew what she was doing, that’s how she came out of the dressing room, looking like that, and there was no attempt by anybody to make her look like that. That’s what she looked like and I don’t think it’s exploitative at all. I think it’s very, very beautiful.

I’m the photographer and I took that picture, and I don’t see how I could have exploited Kate Bush. She was in control of it.

But she used her sexuality throughout her performance – look at the Babooshka video or any of the records and promotional videos and stills, certainly in those first three or four years of her career she was a very sexual person and I think that came across in the way she moved, looked and the way she sang.

For me that makes any discussion or debate about whether the picture was ‘exploitative’ redundant. She wasn’t like Miley Cyrus trying to draw attention to herself through her sexuality. She’s a very strong woman and as a strong woman you know that she’s aware of everything that’s around her and I completely reject any possibility that the pictures were exploitative, it reflects her beauty and her power and serenity, and her comfortableness with it.

The Big Issue: It’s such a direct portrait, you feel like you know her, her face looks so open but she’s not giving anything away, it gives you chills still to look at it now.

Gered: It often is the case that in the beginning when an artist makes a really profound impact it’s often their first moments that are sort of welded into the public consciousness and that’s one of the most gratifying things. Going back to my favourite image, I’m incredibly proud and thrilled to have been associated with Kate Bush at this early stage. It’s fantastic to hear you say that [above] about it”.

There are a couple of reasons to me returning to the incredible Kate Bush photos Gered Mankowitz took. I have been wondering what is left and whether there are other shots as yet unseen. I am still keen to own the fabulous coffee table book, WOW! Over forty-five years ago, Gered Mankowitz had privileged access to this amazing young artist few knew would become a huge name. These were the early days. It was a remarkable time! The range of shots that he took are so full of nuance and layers. The way Bush bonds with the camera. It is hard to select a favourite of his, though I do think that it is either the fantastic Wuthering Heights cover where she is in the pink leotard. I also love the ‘Hollywood’ photo, as it is worlds away. The pink leotard shot is Bush as a teen still. She does look very young and shy, yet there is this great look in her face. So many different possibilities. What was she thinking?! Compare that to the black-and-white shot where she looks like a Hollywood star, and it could have come years later. So mature and different! It shows how adaptable Kate Bush was and how skilled Gered Mankowitz was. Such a close and great working relationship, it is one that she would then take to other photographers. Kate Bush always invested and committed to ensuring that she was a perfect subject. With many people pigeon-holing and defining Kate Bush in 1978 and 1979, I do think that Mankowitz’s went a long way to showing how complex, stunning and awesome Kate Bush was. Many assuming she was some odd English artist that was maybe a novelty. With some amazingly eye-catching and physical shots, it did help to bring about a reassessment in some. These photos will endure for decades. I have included some here, though I would compel people to seek out as many as possible. Gered Mankowitz’s 1978 and 1979 photos are some of the very best…

EVER taken of Kate Bush.

FEATURE: You Know I’m So Good: The Amy Winehouse Biopic, Back to Black, and the Legacy of the Hugely Missed Icon

FEATURE:

 

 

You Know I’m So Good

The Amy Winehouse Biopic, Back to Black, and the Legacy of the Hugely Missed Icon

_________

THERE is so much out there…

IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse in 2006/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

regarding how influential Amy Winehouse was. How she still is. What a legacy she left behind. We sadly lost the icon in 2011. On 12th April, a new film opens. Staring Marisa Abela in the lead role, Back to Black is going to be a passionate and sometimes emotional and hard-hitting biopic about the icon. It is a film you will want to see. I am going to get to some recent interview with Abela about her role as Amy Winehouse and taking on such a huge thing. I am going to end by looking at the influence and uniqueness of the much-missed Amy Winehouse. She is someone the likes of which we will never see again. Such a phenomenal talent! I am going to start with some news and reports about the Amy Winehouse biopic. NME. They highlight how director Sam Taylor-Johnson says Amy Winehouse’s family had no real involvement in the film. They did not dictate how the film was made and what needed changing:

“Named after Winehouse’s breakout sophomore – and final – studio album, the film will star Industry’s Marisa Abela as Winehouse herself, and outlines her years living in London, alongside her rapid rise to fame.

Speaking in a new interview with Empire, director Sam Taylor-Johnson said Winehouse’s family didn’t contribute to the film.

She added: “It was important to meet with them out of respect. But they have no involvement in terms of… like, they couldn’t change things. They couldn’t dictate how I was to shoot. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it.”

The director also confirmed that Winehouse’s father Mitch has seen the biopic.“I know he saw the film. I wasn’t there. I haven’t spoken to him. I think he keeps his feelings pretty much to himself. The important thing for me was not to have any of that noise in my sphere while making the film,” said Taylor-Johnson.

“And I didn’t need the family’s approval. All the music rights were approved by Universal and Sony. So what I wanted as much as possible was the truth of Amy, and Amy’s relationship was that she loved her dad, whether we think he did right or wrong.”

Writer Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated with Taylor-Johnson on Nowhere Boy, said the film wanted to tell the story from the singer’s perspective, using her lyrics.

He said: “It’s a creative film. I know a lot of people still can’t understand that, still can’t get their head around it. It’s my take on Amy’s life and then it’s Sam’s take on Amy’s life. And then it’s Marisa and Jack [O’Connell]’s take on Amy and Blake. In the end, it’s all subjective, but you hope that opinion is accepted and embraced by your audience.”

Winehouse’s parents previously stated that they approved of the film and said in a statement: “We are thrilled that StudioCanal, Focus Features and Monumental are making this movie celebrating our daughter Amy’s extraordinary music legacy and showcasing her talent in the way that it deserves.”

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film has been confirmed for release in the UK on April 12, 2024 and on April 11 across Australia”.

I am going to get to an interview with Marisa Abela soon. First, Rolling Stone noted how Abela trained like an athlete to prepare for playing Amy Winehouse. It is also impressive that Abela took vocal training so that she could sing these classic and instantly recognisable songs. Someone who put so much of herself into this role. It is testament to the passion and commitment of Marisa Abela. Someone whose performance  is definitely going to take her acting career to a new level:

“ONE DOES NOT simply wake up one morning and embody Amy Winehouse. According to vocal coach Anne-Marie Speed, Back to Black star Marisa Abela trained “like an athlete”” to transform into the “Valerie” singer.

In an interview with The Guardian, Speed opened up about the process of preparing Abela to play the lead in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s upcoming biopic. The two worked together between September 2022 and January 2023, when shooting started for the film.

In those months, Abela had to learn to sing, play the guitar, master Winehouse’s accent and generally get in shape for the role. “It’s full-time preparation, it’s like an athlete,” said Speed. “People really underestimate how physical voice production can be. They don’t see it, but it really is. You’ve got to get the body working in the right way to truly support what’s happening and to produce the voice.”

Getting Abela’s voice to match one of the most instantly recognizable, soulful voices of the modern era was a challenge. “You want [the vocal performance] to be very close, but not an impression. Because otherwise, you might as well just mime to her recordings,” said Speed. “I was seeing her [Abela] four times a week for two-hour sessions for about three months before we started shooting. So it’s a big, big commitment.”

The first teaser trailer for the much anticipated biopic Back to Black was recently released by Canal Plus. The clip showcases Industry actress Marisa Abela as Winehouse, who intones, “I want to be remembered for just being me.”

The trailer also offers glimpses of Jack O’Connell as Winehouse’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, and Lesley Manville, who plays Winehouse’s grandmother, Cynthia Winehouse. It’s soundtracked by Winehouse’s 2006 song “Back to Black.”

In addition to being directed by Taylor-Johnson, Back to Black is written by Matt Greenhalgh. It also stars Eddie Marsan as Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, and Juliet Cowan as Winehouse’s mother, Janis Winehouse-Collins. It was made with support from the Amy Winehouse Estate, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing.

Winehouse, who died in 2011 following years of drug and alcohol problems, has previously been the subject of several documentaries. In 2015, Amy won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Taylor-Johnson previously said she has felt a longtime relationship to the story.

“My connection to Amy began when I left college and was hanging out in the creatively diverse London borough of Camden,” Taylor-Johnson said in a statement last year. “I got a job at the legendary KOKO club, and I can still breathe every market stall, vintage shop, and street… A few years later Amy wrote her searingly honest songs whilst living in Camden. Like with me, it became part of her DNA. I first saw her perform at a talent show at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho and it was immediately obvious she wasn’t just ’talent’… she was genius.”

When the film was first announced in 2018, it was reported that proceeds from the biopic would benefit the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, shared a statement at the time confirming her family and estate’s support. “We now feel able to celebrate Amy’s extraordinary life and talent,” he said. “And we know through the Amy Winehouse Foundation that the true story of her illness can help so many others who might be experiencing similar issues”.

I am going to focus on a great and detailed interview from Harper’s Bazaar. We get to know a lot more about Marisa Abela and how she took to playing Amy Winehouse. There are similarities between Abela and Winehouse. It is very clear that this role meant so much to her. Even if some have reacted negatively to the trailer or Abela’s resemblance to Amy Winehouse, it is clear that she embodies so much of Winehouse. An actor who has spent so much time getting it right. On 12th April (in the U.K.), we will see this transformation on the big screen:

“The more I got to know her, the more I felt a major connection to this spiky Jewish girl from London who had a lot to say, and was really quite unafraid," she says. As someone who also grew up in a Jewish household, Abela felt a kinship with her. "I remembered how I felt when I was young, seeing that woman who was proud and cool, wearing a big Star of David in between a cleavage and a nice bra. I understood what a Friday-night dinner would look like in her home, the humour in her family. I loved how effervescent she was, how huge a soul, how she just permeated any room she was in. But also, her relationship to her art form, and wanting to be good. That was the most important thing."

This was Abela’s starting point for getting into character: "Once I framed her in that way, I felt I was in a position to take on this role. I never wanted to trick anyone. Sometimes you audition and you say you can ride a horse, speak Spanish or sword fight, when you can’t. I was never, ever going to do that here. I was not going to put myself on the chopping block unless I knew I could do this."

So when it came to the audition, Abela was the only person who came make-up free and without Winehouse’s trademark beehive. She spotted Taylor-Johnson and Gold clasp hands as soon as she began her performance, and knew that the session had gone well.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jem Mitchell

Once the role was hers, Abela threw herself into it with almost obsessive drive. She moved to Camden for four months to immerse herself in "Amy bootcamp": working 10 hours a day with a personal trainer; singing lessons; learning to move. She physically shrank herself to mirror Winehouse, who suffered from disordered eating and an addiction to heroin and alcohol. "I had help to do it safely; I consulted a dietician and was being monitored," Abela says. "Feeling frailer and smaller helped – I hadn’t understood, before, how much that affects your tempo. During her Frank era, Amy is fast and loud and boisterous with her arms, her movements are big. Once I started to change, I realised that you can’t physically make those same movements. It’s uncomfortable to sit. You’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re more exposed."

One of the remarkable aspects of Abela’s performance is her ability to capture Winehouse’s voice; she was not originally meant to sing in the film, but ended up recording with the star’s original band. "I had no idea how close I could get to singing like Amy. But why not work as hard as I possibly could to do it?" she says. "That’s how I felt with everything: her movements; her dancing; her thought processes. How close can I get to her? How can I unravel a psychological truth that will excite people again?"

PHOTO CREDIT: Jem Mitchell

The Winehouse in the film is softer than we have seen her previously. It depicts the first time she meets her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, their relationship, and her desire to have a child. The movie also shows how witty Winehouse was. "Performing her songs sometimes felt like stand-up routines. She’s the most amazing lyricist." Abela is drawn to characters who embody huge contrasts. "Maybe the most exciting way of conveying vulnerability is finding the one place where she feels incredibly confident," she says. "Because that’s where she’ll always run to, rather than leaning into the state of being vulnerable."

She has long held the belief that self-consciousness is the enemy of good acting, and did entertain the idea of inhabiting the role at all times. "I thought, maybe I’m not going to be taken seriously if I’m not torturing myself in order to play this part. But I’m not a Method actress. I wasn’t walking around my flat as Amy. The work was enough for me."

Meanwhile, Yasmin returns to our screens in Industry season three later this year. Despite all this, Abela takes the gloss and publicity in her stride. On a normal day, she lives in her flat with her boyfriend, the actor and writer Jamie Bogyo, whom she met at Rada. "He’s smart and funny, we have a lot of fun together," she says, smiling. "He’s my best friend... and we can talk about the work... Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it hasn’t happened to me yet, but I think staying grounded is easier than people make it out to be." As her career goes stratospheric, it’s likely to be the biggest challenge she faces”.

I am going to end with an NME feature from 2021. Ten years after Amy Winehouse’s death, they collected people together to share their memories and love of Amy Winehouse. From Jake Shears to Laura Mvula, we learn why Winehouse made such an impact on others. I do not think that we will ever see anyone like her again:

“Think of the icons who have changed the shape of popular music forever, and few tower as high as Amy Winehouse and her unmistakable beehive. Breaking through in the early ‘00s like a gale-force wind that gleefully rucked up pop’s carefully-ironed tablecloth, the sharp-witted, soul-and-jazz-loving Londoner stood out in a landscape of shimmering US pop stars and perfectly choreographed girl bands. Fusing vintage sounds with her biting storytelling, Winehouse was refreshing, exciting and – above everything else – a raw and honest voice.17:34

Amy Winehouse died a decade ago this Friday (July 23), aged 27, leaving behind a huge musical legacy. Following her passing, countless artists paid tribute to an enormous talent. “Amy changed pop music forever,” Lady Gaga tweeted in 2011. “I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues.” In another post, Adele thanked Winehouse for “[paving] the way for artists like me”, adding that she “made people excited about British music again whilst being fearlessly hilarious and blase about the whole thing. I don’t think she ever realized just how brilliant she was and how important she is, but that just makes her even more charming.” The late George Michael accurately called her “the most soulful vocalist this country has ever seen.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse in 2004/PHOTO CREDIT: Ram Shergill

Now, 10 years on from her death, fans, collaborators and fellow musicians pay tribute. “I still remember the first time I heard her on the radio, I was totally hooked,” recalls Shannon, a long-time Amy Winehouse fan who became hooked on her 2003 debut album ‘Frank’ in her early teens, and went to see some of the star’s earliest headline shows. Years later, she was at V Festival with her mates when surprise guest Winehouse casually sauntered on stage to perform ‘You’re Wondering Now’ and ‘Ghost Town’ with The Specials.

Every time she watched Winehouse live was “just magic,” Shannon says, adding: “She totally allowed herself to be completely raw and vulnerable – and that voice too! She was my first proper music idol. She was just so cool, and the music blew my mind.”

That 2009 appearance with The Specials wasn’t Amy’s only unexpected link-up – she also performed with The Rolling Stones (at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2009) and Prince (in London in 2007), among others. Scissor Sisters’ lead singer and solo artist Jake Shears also recalls heading out on little-documented tour of “end-of-year college banquets” with the star early in their careers, soundtracking the dinners of a couple of hundred students each night. “I like thinking back to that time because you just just never know where everything’s going to end up – it was early days for us,” Shears tells NME. “It was such a cool time.”

A chance encounter with The Zutons’ lead singer on a night out in Winehouse’s regular stomping ground in Camden, meanwhile, led to her wildly popular cover of their staple song ‘Valerie’,  which remains one of her most popular songs 14 years after its release. “Years ago I was in Camden and I was in The Hawley Arms, drinking and all that,” recalls the band’s vocalist Dave McCabe. “And then Amy Winehouse turns up”.

Though the pair had crossed paths at the Mercury Prize in 2004, they barely knew each other, and later that night, “this lad” at the pub started bad-mouthing The Zutons. “He basically started telling me how crap I was, and how great [Winehouse] was, and at the time I was like, ‘Fair enough’”. McCabe laughs. “By about the 10th time, he was just being a bit annoying. I ended up just turning around to him, and told him to fuck off. Then [Amy] turned around to me went, ‘No – you fuck off!’’

Eventually, McCabe stormed off down the road with Winehouse in hot pursuit. “She goes: ‘Come back! I really like ‘Valerie’. I’m not really arsed about you, but you must be alright ‘causes you wrote that song.’ So we worked it out, and I went back. I think if we hadn’t had that argument… That moment was very personal. I’d like to think it’s what pushed her [to record the song herself]. Maybe something good came of all of that stupid argument?” he laughs.

Along with Winehouse’s ‘Frank’ collaborator Salaam Remi, Ronson produced half of Amy Winehouse’s landmark second album, 2006’s ‘Back to Black’. Together, they made for a formidable pairing – from the parping ‘Rehab’ to the smoke-stained regret of ‘Love is a Losing Game’, they forged a pop sound that dabbled in retro influences, and would influence the entire musical landscape after the album’s release.

Though ‘Back To Black’ was Winehouse’s masterpiece, her slightly lighter debut album ‘Frank’ still established Winehouse as a fearsomely talented songwriter. ‘I Heard Love Is Blind’ finds Winehouse’s narrator bluntly defending infidelity with increasingly creative twists of logic: “​​Baby, you weren’t there,” she insists, “and I was thinking of you when I came”. And the matter-of-fact ‘Fuck Me Pumps’ is both biting and hilarious, meticulously mocking a woman and her garish shoes.

“Her legacy is beyond comprehension,” singer-songwriter Laura Mvula tells NME. “I think people will still be unfolding it for decades to come.” The Birmingham artist, who recently melded her love of soul, jazz and blues music with bright, disco-tinged pop on latest album ‘Pink Noise’, cites Winehouse as a huge influence – “particularly her vocal style”.

Mvula explains: “I think I was subconsciously imitating her when I was younger and first started to sing – not even as a solo artist, but just when I was learning what my voice was. If you listen to ‘Frank’, that’s the music that raised me, this neo-soul expression that she managed to birth in the UK and give its own identity. That is huge – no one’s done that since; not as authentically, transcending and also celebrating race at the same time.”

While forging a new kind of neo-soul, it’s also fair to say that Winehouse rarely minced her words – and had little patience when she was compared to less innovative artists releasing music around the same time. Case in point: her slightly tongue-in-cheek dislike of Dido – which culminated in the singer pelting a billboard for the singer’s album ‘Life for Rent’ with an apple during an appearance on Popworld in 2004. When Amy Winehouse did feel passionately about a new artist’s talent, however, she supported it relentlessly.

“She was really supportive,” says singer Dionne Bromfield, Winehouse’s goddaughter and a MOBO-nominated singer. “I think she really saw a lot that I didn’t really see in myself at that age.” The best advice Winehouse gave her? “Be true to yourself,” Bromfield says. “Amy was someone who wore her heart on her sleeve. I think that is probably why she connected so well with people: people felt like they were almost talking to their friend or hearing their friend talk when listening to Amy.”

Bromfield has been working on a documentary about her relationship with Winehouse: Amy Winehouse and Me: Dionne’s Story airs on MTV UK on July 26. Though various other tributes are set to come out to mark 10 years since Winehouse’s death – the BBC are releasing Amy Winehouse: 10 Years On, while her mother Janis Winehouse has also made her own film, Reclaiming Amy – Bromfield hopes that her own personal celebration of a friend and mentor can show her own unique relationship with the singer.

“Amy was a very very funny person and I really wanted that to come across,” she says, adding with a laugh: “She was a really good cook if you could actually manage to get her to finish what she was cooking, because she always used to want to potter around a bit. She was really good at meatballs, and she used to do a really banging chicken soup. I mean, that’s a proper Jewish woman there with her chicken soup.

“She loved comedy stuff: when I watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air now I actually just remember all of the times watching it with her, and can almost actually hear her laughing at certain gag lines. And – oh my God – she would kill if I didn’t call her ‘Auntie Amy’. Jesus Christ! I really wanted to allow people to see this side to her.”

Bromfield sang with Amy Winehouse on several occasions, but their final performance at London’s 3,000-capacity Roundhouse – just a couple of days before the singer tragically died in 2011 – stands out as a treasured moment: “It was the last time that I actually saw her, and the last time that she was seen by the public. I really wasn’t expecting her to be there. She was at the side of the stage, and was just like: ‘I wanna come on and dance’. It was just really nice. It was the first time she’d ever actually seen me perform properly, but it was also the last time that she’d see me.”]

Pondering why Amy Winehouse continues to be so influential a decade after her passing, Bromfield puts it down to one rare quality that so few artists have in such staggering abundance. “I just think it’s the honesty,” she says. “Her personality came through with her music, and I think that is really what people love about her. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever get another Amy”.

One of the most important and talked-about music biopics of recent years will be realised and seen on 12th April. I am interested to see how critics and audiences react. The past couple of years have seen some so-so music biopics cover icons like Bob Marley. It is always a massive responsibility and hard balancing act getting a biopic right. There is no doubt Back to Black cannot do everything and please everyone. Even so, with that timeless catalogue and Marisa Abela truly committed to doing justice to Amy Winehouse, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film will be a huge thing. It will go to show, when it comes to the amazing Amy Winehouse, just…

HOW special she was.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Cerys Matthews

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Dean Chalkley

Cerys Matthews

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THERE are a few reasons…

why I want to celebrate the great Cerys Matthews. Not only does she turn fifty-five on 11th April. One of our most respected and phenomenal broadcasters, you can listen to her BBC Radio 6 Music show Sundays at 10 a.m. There is also The Blues Show with Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 2. You can follow Cerys Matthews on Instagram, Twitter and her official website. This may have a bit of a random approach. I wanted to celebrate a phenomenal broadcaster and artist. Also, on 12th April, Catatonia’s third studio album, Equally Cursed and Blessed, turns twenty-five. One of my favourite albums of the 1990s, it features incredible tracks like Dead from the Waist Down and Karaoke Queen. I am going to drop a track in from that album. I also want to come to a few interviews with Cerys Matthews from a few years back. There have not been many recently. I would love to hear from Cerys Matthews. An incredible broadcaster whose music tastes are like nobody else’s, she is someone who I have enormous respect for. Before getting to interviews from Cerys Matthews, a quick review and nod to a very special album that turns twenty-five soon. This is what AllMusic had to say:

“Equally Cursed and Blessed is another breath of fresh pop air from Catatonia. Cerys Matthews' distinctive vocal roars and whispers are in full force throughout these tracks, and the blend of songs on this release surpasses all of Catatonia's prior collections. The first single, the weeping "Dead From the Waist Down" features a full string section, and the magnificent "Karaoke Queen" is backed by a disco beat and razor-sharp guitar hooks. Pure pop like "She's a Millionaire" helps color the album on the brighter side, while the dark, brooding "Bulimic Beats" adds depth. Closing the album is the excellent "Dazed, Beautiful, and Bruised" where Matthews sends off an abusive former lover. Equally Cursed and Blessed could easily be Catatonia's chance to break into the United States, because with music like this, you simply can't go wrong”.

I want to source a few interviews with Cerys Matthews. A few years ago, The Home Page spotlighted and celebrated a wonderful and celebrated woman. As they say, Matthews is a “ferocious talent( Cerys Matthews MBE is) celebrated musician, award-winning BBC radio presenter, composer, theatre curator, documentary writer and best-selling author. She talks to Rosalind Sack about life in her creative family home in West London and why it is community, rather than things, that give her home soul”:

“Where do you live and why?

My home is in Ladbroke Grove, West London, where I’ve lived on and off since the late ‘90s. I live with my husband and we have five children between us. Two of those are adults now but they’re in and out as well, so it’s quite busy, which I like. That’s not to say that I don’t also love chucking everyone out on a Monday morning – which I do! I love the peace but, like everything in life, it’s the contrast that really defines what everything means. My home is like a little cottage, which is unusual for London; you look out of the windows and you just see greenery. Being a bit of a country girl at heart, I love that. We have a tiny garden and I plant potatoes in pots and lots of mint and we have a cherry tree.

What makes your house a home?

My collection of books and records, and a few guitars. Apart from those, I can’t collect many things because of the sheer size of our family and the logistics of living in a cottage. So I’m quite strict in that sense. I probably wouldn’t be that strict if space wasn’t such a huge issue, but I’d never move because this is where I like living. I know everybody here; I know people who work in the area, I know the families, the schools, the postman, the shopkeepers. It’s the people you’re surrounded by everyday that give your home soul. Home is less about things and more about community.

PHOTO CREDIT: Oli Green

You recently released your book, Where The Wild Cooks Go – a glorious mix of recipes, poetry and music from around the world. Can you describe your kitchen at home…

When I’m in the kitchen I’m like the captain of my ship. When I’m cooking over the gas I can look down into the area where we all hang out and there’s a table and the garden beyond and it feels like I’m at the helm. It’s tiny, there’s only room for one, so when I’m cooking I can’t do anything else. So there’s an element of peace while doing something I love. We have a big old dining table which we eat around when we can. In fact when I first moved to this house, I found it in the garden. It’s solid oak, so I just sanded it down, oiled it and we sit around there. I like a bargain!

It’s the people you’re surrounded by everyday that give your home soul. Home is less about things and more about community.”

What was your childhood home like?

I was born in Cardiff and we lived there for the first few years of my life in a house that was really similar to my home now. It was a ‘70s new build development, terraced, with young families in each of the houses that spilled out of the front door onto a communal lawn area. In a strange way I’ve kind of regressed with my house in London to the same kind of mass-produced houses for young families that we grew up in in Cardiff. There’s this idea that the kids can use any of the terraced houses as their home, and they do. It is really is quite idyllic in that sense. It’s very ordinary, but I like ordinary.

What’s on your bedside table?

Books. I love books, and music obviously as well. Because of the nature of my radio show I’m sent a load of books on a load of subjects and I’m always behind on my reading, I can never read enough.

Can you describe your front door?

It’s bright red. The housing community where I live was built by the architect Terry Farrell. It’s ex local authority originally built for artists who didn’t have enough money, that then reverted into private housing in the ‘80s. It comes with its own committee and because Terry Farrell painted the doors red you have to keep them all that colour, which I don’t mind. We have one of the only defibrillators in the area so there’s this idea that we can, to a certain degree, self-care. There’s a lot of elderly people (I don’t like the word ‘elderly’ any more, I’ll say ‘people of experience’) who live here alone and there’s a really lovely element of co-caring. So if someone breaks their hip, we take them to hospital, pick them up, make them soup. This kind of model should be looked at by central government when they build houses and housing communities, because it makes a huge difference to safety and love and contentment.

What’s the first thing you did to your home when you moved in?

I ripped out the kitchen and moved it from the front of the house, which is the darkest part, to where it is now, right in the middle of the house. We have a record player, so there’s almost always music playing and there’s lots of wood, so it looks and feels more like I have my hob and my fridge in the lounge. I’m fussy with my food and I try to buy sustainably where I can. I’m also passionate about knowing the nuts and bolts of dishes so I don’t buy readymade pastes or readymade spice mixes, which also allows you to eat with less plastic and less packaging as well. I like to know how it works, even it is quite basic, because I also like to cook quick.

What are some of the most memorable things that have happened in your home?

We used to have discos when the kids were really young. They’d love them. They could happen at any time of the day; we’d dim the lights, whack up the volume on the music and have dance competitions on the rug. I loved those times.

If the objects in your home could speak, which would have the best story to tell?

My father’s family were lead miners and somehow my father’s great grandparents stopped mining and opened a hardware shop in Abercynon. They must have earned quite a lot of money because they had a huge photograph taken of themselves, which must have been extortionate at the time. I’m talking maybe 90cm by 60cm and it’s framed on the kitchen wall. They’re dressed in their glad rags; so she’s wearing this gorgeous long-length, corseted, high-necked, low-sleeved, jet black dress with severe pulled back hair and little round wire glasses, and he’s stood up with a big old moustache, his gold pocket watch and one hand on her shoulder. It’s quite a stern black and white portrait and sometimes it feels like their eyes follow you around the room. My mum felt it was too spooky and used to keep it in the attic, but I love it”.

Rather than source interviews where Cerys Matthews talks about her music influences and relate that to her broadcasting, there are these interesting insights into her home. Her cultural influences. A more rounded impression of the wonderful broadcaster. Elle Decoration interviewed Cerys Matthews in 2020. If you have not heard Matthews’ shows on BBC Radio 6 Music and 2, then I would thoroughly recommend that you do. She is one of the most passionate broadcasters out there. Someone who is essential listening:

“As frontwoman of indie outfit Catatonia, Cerys Matthews was at the forefront of 1990s Welsh cultural renaissance Cool Cymru. Now a beloved broadcaster on BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, she’s a staple of the summer festival circuit as both presenter and performer, and was awarded an MBE for services to music in 2014.

That same year, Matthews co-founded wild craft, food and music weekend The Good Life Experience – ‘a festival for curious types like me’– and has since penned Where the Wild Cooks Go (Penguin, £25), a collection of recipes, cocktails, music and poems that delves into the folklore of fruit and vegetables. ‘It’s like a history of the world through the prism of tomatoes.’ Here, she shares her, typically eclectic, cultural influences…

Growing up in Wales, in the heart of a minority culture, makes you realise early on that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I try to throw the net as wide as I can when looking for great recordings, regardless of origin and language.

I’m currently listening to guitarist and singer Snooks Eaglin – his voice is like velvet. One of my career highlights was interviewing New Orleans musician and performer Allen Toussaint (right) just before he died. He told me stories of being in a band with Snooks when they were teenagers and the image of these brilliant musicians, young and carefree, will stay with me forever.

It’s impossible to pick out a favourite guest from my 6 Music show – it’s the smorgasbord of people that I enjoy best. One minute I’ll be chatting to Stephen Fry about Greek myths or astronaut Helen Sharman about being the first Briton in space, then we might enjoy poetry with Michael Rosen and a chat with one of the engineers behind The Shard, Roma Agrawal. I like to think of the show as the Sunday papers in radio form.

My most memorable travel adventure was trekking to the Everest base camp in Nepal last year with my two sons. The terrain changes, the plants change, the weather changes on a sixpence, and then you see your first glimpse of the elusive Everest – unbelievable. The Nepalese and Sherpa culture is beautiful. I totally recommend doing it – it is doable, we saw an 81-year-old walking the trails.

A recent cultural highlight was a trip to see our 3.2 million-year-old ancestor, ‘Lucy’, at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. During my stay, we ate great vegetarian and vegan food, drank tej – local honey wine – and visited the cultural hub Fendika on a Friday night for some of the best live music I’ve seen.

If I won the lottery, I’d buy a Picasso for my house – Le Rêve would be nice – and a massive indoor hammock in which to lie and look at it.

I’m looking forward to the end of this most peculiar chapter, but thus far it’s been okay. We’ve been trying to do those slow things at home – sowing seeds, reading, cooking to Spotify playlists and just spending time with each other”.

I am going to finish off with yet another 2020 interview. I would like to see some new chats with the amazing Cerys Matthews. She is someone who has a lot of fans and dedicated listeners. The Guardian spent some time with Matthews in 2020. I was keen to highlight her ahead of her fifty-fifth birthday. I know we will be hearing years (and decades) more of Cerys Matthews on the radio:

“What’s your Sunday morning ritual? 

I sneak downstairs at 6am while everyone’s sleeping. I curate my radio show myself and sometimes I’ll hear something on a Saturday night and want to make last-minute changes. It takes me two seconds to get dressed. The joy of radio! I chuck on a bobble hat, puffer jacket and trainers and head to work.

What does Sunday feel like? 

Wide-eyed and free- form. I think of the day like a Sunday paper – you go from one topic to the next. It’s why Sunday morning is such a wonderful time to be on air. People are pottering, enjoying their hobbies – so I can turn down the tempo.

How do you wind down? 

At 1pm – show over – the team and I prepare for the following week, and then I head home to my kitchen. Cooking is my second passion – and eating sustainably. Cutting down meat is one thing, but we also need to see where our veg and fruit comes from. How does Yorkshire puddings with vegan haggis sound?

What’s playing? 

Early blues: Jimmy Smith, Mississippi John Hurt and John Coltrane. It’s always jazz for me on a Sunday – it’s moody and thought-provoking.

A favourite spot? 

La Bodega on Tavistock Square in Notting Hill, where you can eat delicious chorizo, tortilla and paella and watch Spanish TV.

A perfect evening? 

Vintage films: Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel.

Do you miss the day off? 

I spent the 90s as a touring musician, rolling from gig to gig with no weekends – that was hard. But music is my passion. So my show isn’t just work – it’s part of my ritual. It’s less arduous than making sure the homework is done. The rest of Sunday is sacrosanct”.

I shall end it there. Even if I have not touched on her broadcasting start and favourite music much, I hope the above gives you a better understanding of and inside into Cerys Matthews. She celebrates her birthday on 11th April. I wish her many happy returns! It has been a pleasure discovering more about…

A broadcasting queen.

FEATURE: Commitment to Fans or a Cash Grab? Why Billie Eilish’s Comments About Artists Who Release Multiple Vinyl Formats Rings True

FEATURE:

 

 

Commitment to Fans or a Cash Grab?

PHOTO CREDIT: Jorge Fakhouri Filho/Pexels

Why Billie Eilish’s Comments About Artists Who Release Multiple Vinyl Formats Rings True

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I can appreciate…

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish photographed in 2024/PHOTO CREDIT: Gilbert Flores/Getty Images

that artists want to provide options to their fans and there is this attractiveness when it comes to vinyl. There are options to release multiple vinyl formats and colours. You can have a standard black vinyl. We have so many colours and designs that artists can utilise. The issue is, at a time when we need to be sustainable and think about the environment, should artists be putting out various versions of the same album on vinyl?! Unless you are releasing it on recycled vinyl and something that is quite responsible when it comes to environmental impact, we need to be economic and sensible regarding these multiple formats and reissues. Billie Eilish recently revealed in an interview how she finds it frustrating when artists put out multiple vinyl formats. NME give us the details:

“Billie Eilish has criticised artists who release multiple vinyl formats to boost album sales, calling the practise “really frustrating”.

The artist made the comments in a new interview with Billboard, where Eilish and her mother Maggie Baird discussed their history of environmental activism – and in particular, their work towards making vinyl more sustainable.

“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging,” Eilish began, “which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money.”

After Baird interrupted to point out vinyl sales “counts toward No. 1 albums”, Eilish responded: “I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is.

“It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right,” she added, “and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f–king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.

“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that sh-t.”

Artists producing multiple vinyl variants to increase album sales is a common practise; Swift’s 2022 LP ‘Midnights’ was sold in five different variants, eventually becoming the first album to sell better on vinyl than on CD since the 1980s.

Eilish’s own second album ‘Happier Than Ever’ contained eight vinyl variants of the record; however, each vinyl was made from 100% recycled vinyl with sugar cane shrink wrap. Mst vinyl releases will typically use “virgin vinyl”, which contains plastic resin, along with single-use plastic shrink wrap”.

It does tend to happen with the bigger artists. Not only will they put out a new album on multiple vinyl formats. There will then be the reissue shortly after where there are extra tracks. Taylor Swift might be one of the most prominent artists who is culpable when it comes to repackaging an album and putting out a ‘new’ version shortly after the original. I do hope that artists reflect and there is a bit more awareness of the wastefulness.

PHOTO CREDIT: Juan J. Morales-Trejo/Pexels

I do realise that artists might be reacting to demand. Vinyl sales are continuing to climb. There is that temptation to exploit that somewhat by putting out multiple vinyl options. It can seem like a cash grab. If you have a new album out, by all means have a few vinyl options. A few different colours that means you are producing the same amount but giving some flexibility in terms of the look of it. Many artists also release on C.D. and cassette. That gives fans enough option. I think one of the biggest worries is when you get excessive amounts of vinyl options when an album is initially released and then there is a new version of the album shortly after. It means that fans are not really getting too much for their money. They might buy this reissue or expanded edition to support the artist. It does seem like a quick and easy way of making money. How do you restrict this?! You can’t really limit artists or say that they should only release one version of an album and then not have a reissue. It does seem quite opportunistic when you get these deluxe or expanded editions. Artists do need to be aware of the impact this has. Of releasing so many vinyl options. Billie Eilish is right when she points out how damaging it is. Even if vinyl sales rising is a great thing, the effect that mass production has on the environment is huge. Until a recyclable or more sustainable version of vinyl can be realistically rolled out and replace what we have at the moment, there is this conflict and awkward situation. It is angering when larger artists are thinking about their numbers and using vinyl reissues as a way of boosting sales. Having a run of colours and options initially. Then putting out an expanded version. Maybe an anniversary release will come out a year or so later. There does need to be this awakening. With Billie Eilish’s comments in mind, artists do need to be conscious about the environment and stop using vinyl as a way of increasing sales. Give fans options but not take advantage. Let’s hope that this warning…

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Varshavskaya/Pexels

SINKS in.

FEATURE: The Retour of Life: Almost Ten Years Since the BBC’s Kate Bush Documentary, When Will We See Another?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Retour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Almost Ten Years Since the BBC’s Kate Bush Documentary, When Will We See Another?

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IT is almost a decade…

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Jon McCormack

since the last television documentary about Kate Bush. The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill was made and released around the time of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. A perfect opportunity to focus on a music icon, it featured contribution from fellow artists, fans and those who collaborated with her or were instrumental in terms of career – such as Del Palmer, Elton John and David Gilmour. I am going to come to a positive review for that documentary. I am glad something was made around Kate Bush, though it felt lacking. At only an hour, no true fan of Kate Bush can say it was either authoritative or comprehensive. It skimmed the surface and gave new fans a taster and insight. Apart from that, there were definite drawbacks. Entire albums are largely skimmed over. It wasn’t really a deep dive or provided any surprises. There were some good contributors, though there were some odd inclusions, omissions and decisions (including leaning too heavily on Steve Coogan!). Songs from Kate Bush were played by people on their phones rather than speakers. Baffling considering how committed to great sound quality Bush is and how lousy all music sounds through phones! The whole documentary had a distinct low-budget and televisual feel. It is okay for an easy watch, though it is hardly visually interesting or has anything in it that stands in the mind. There has been nothing since for those who want more. For those who want a proper and authoritative representation of Kate Bush. No matter what the BBC or anyone else says, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill was not comprehensive or  complete. So limited and full of gaps – with some problems and a rushed feel – I do worry that the BBC will stubbornly feel their 2014 documentary is complete and there is no need for another. Why should Kate Bush only have one documentary made about her?! It  made me think about how something different and properly passionate needs to come to the screens.

PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith

I am not completely down on the documentary. It did give you a glimpse into Kate Bush’s career. Some big names got to speak about her. I have covered this before though, with each year that passes, there seems to be this urgency and notable gulf. I will start with some information about The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill. This is what the BBC said:

“Documentary exploring Kate Bush's career and music, from January 1978's Wuthering Heights to her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow, through the testimony of some of her key collaborators and those she has inspired.

Contributors include the guitarist who discovered her (Pink Floyd's David Gilmour), the choreographer who taught her to dance (Lindsay Kemp) and the musician who she said 'opened her doors' (Peter Gabriel), as well as her engineer and ex-partner (Del Palmer) and several other collaborators (Elton John, Stephen Fry and Nigel Kennedy).

Also exploring their abiding fascination with Kate are fans (John Lydon, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) and musicians who have been influenced by her (St Vincent's Annie Clark, Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes), Tori Amos, Outkast's Big Boi, Guy Garvey and Tricky), as well as writers and comedians who admire her (Jo Brand, Steve Coogan and Neil Gaiman)”.

I want to finish this section with a review for The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill. It has its plus points for those who want an overview and more general look at the career and influence of Kate Bush. Although it does feel dated now, it is good that there was a celebration for Kate Bush. The Guardian had their say:

“When Kate Bush got her £3,000 record deal from EMI at 16, she used some of it to pay for dance classes with the legendary choreographer Lindsay Kemp. In last night's The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill (BBC 4), a documentary about the singer-songwriter broadcast on the near-eve of her first tour in 35 years, he remembered how he had to coax her forward from the back row – . "She was as timid as hell … but once she started dancing, she was a wild thing" – and a few months later found an LP pushed under his door.

It was Bush's first album, The Kick Inside, released in 1978, with the song Moving dedicated to Kemp. "I didn't know she had any aspirations to be a singer," he says. "She never talked about herself." Fellow contributor Elton John called her "the most beautiful mystery", and recalled how at his A-lister-stuffed civil partnership ceremony she was the only person anyone wanted to speak to.

Guests, contributors and soon even formerly ignorant viewers like me were in awe of the talent displayed and then intelligently discussed and dissected by John, Kemp and other respected experts, such as David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, John Lydon, Tori Amos and Del Palmer, Bush's bandmate and partner from the 1970s to 1990s. Neil Gaiman was on hand to hymn her fearlessly literary inspirations and lyrics, from – of course – Wuthering Heights (from which she derived her first single, in March 1978) to Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses in the title track of her 1989 album, The Sensual World.

Bush herself appeared only in old interview footage – so young, so fragile, so shy, but full of the sureness and certainty that only talent brings – but what emerged was a wonderful, detailed portrait of that talent. Although it gave her precocity its full due (she had written The Man With the Child in His Eyes by the time Gilmour came to listen to her when she was 14), it also gave proper weight to her evolution and her later, less commercial, still astonishing work. Why it chose to close on a stupid jarring joke by Steve Coogan, I do not know. But the rest of it succeeded in making Bush and her work less of a mystery but no less beautiful for that”.

It is maddening that there has been nothing more expansive on the screen about Kate Bush since 2014! Since then, Before the Dawn has taken place. She has reissued her studio albums more than once. There has bene a lyrics book, a number one success with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – thanks to Stranger Things –, in addition to her being announced as this year’s Ambassador for Record Store Day. New artists are influenced by her and carrying on her legacy. There is scope for established fans like Björk and Big Boi to join the likes of The Last Dinner Party and Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine) who can unite to express why Kate Bush means a lot to them. It seems a lot since 2014 has happened that could be added to a documentary willing to give Kate Bush more than an hour! It seems unlikely that a British broadcaster or production company would want to commission anything. They may want involvement from Kate Bush. Whilst not impossible, it is less likely that she would be involved. It would not be visual anyway. A best-case scenario is her providing audio interview so that this can be integrated into the documentary and narrate important parts of her career. Maybe a Netflix or Apple TV+ production. With more money and investment from the U.S., it would afford opportunity to create something visually impressive and expansive. Include more of Bush’s music.  A new documentary would not to be a multi-part thing. Maybe a feature-length documentary. Running between two and three hours. Even though it would seem restrictive or not quite as long as it could be, it would give much more time to explore all of Bush’s albums, her live work, her influence and so much more. Not only could the singles and interview/live footage get HD remastering. We could gave songs or hers represented through animation and different visual techniques. I have been thinking about the recent video for The Beatles’ I’m Only Sleeping and how that gave new insights and nuances to the classic song.

I know there have been audio documentaries and various bits about Kate Bush since 2014. When you add it all up, there has not been too much! Considering how she is reaching new generations and she is very much inspiring so many people and very relevant, the reluctance to finance a genuinely and inarguably compressive documentary that is impressive, visually brilliant and goes deep is beyond me! I know most Kate Bush fans would like something new. There would be the money out there. Plenty of people would want to contribute. Maybe a chance to get members of Kate Bush’s family like her brother John (Jay), son Albert (Bertie) and Paddy (her brother). Getting Kate Bush on board now might not seem as hard and implausible as it would have been in 2014. She has been in more retrospective mood and is keen for her music to reach new audiences. I also feel like, if she does not want a big part in the documentary, she at least would give her permission for her videos to be used. For a filmmaker to produce something magnificent and enduring. An artist like Kate Bush warrants more than she has got. In terms of putting something on the screen. Next year sees some big anniversaries. Hounds of Love turns forty. Aerial is twenty. Never for Ever turns forty-five. It is a big year that provides perfect excuse to put together a new Kate Bush documentary. One that has different angles and structure to ones that have come before. A unique selling part in terms of the narrative, depth and detail. Mixing animation and different visual aspects. Incredible and varied contributors speaking in between these legendary tracks and some remastered and HD clips. It would be passionate and complete! As we look ahead to the tenth anniversary of Before the Dawn – which compelled the BBC’s 2014 Kate Bush documentary -, we must consider the fact nothing since has come to light in terms of a television documentary. It begs the question as to…

WHY has it not happened?!

FEATURE: Live Through This: Courtney Love’s Women and An Important Spotlighting of Female Artists Through the Years

FEATURE:

 

 

Live Through This

IN THIS PHOTO: Courtney Love/PHOTO CREDIT: Victor Boyko

Courtney Love’s Women and An Important Spotlighting of Female Artists Through the Years

_________

I wanted to spend some time…

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicholas Hunt

looking at a new series that will be on Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds very soon. It features a host of amazing female artists played and discussed by the incredible Courtney Love. The Hole lead will explore women who have meant a lot to her. Those who are influential and deserve recognition. Before getting to that, there is also another series. One that features her late partner, Kurt Cobain. The BBC has more details:

“On Friday 5th April, BBC Radio 6 Music will remember Kurt with Kurt Cobain Forever. 

Each hour from 7am-7pm, presenters Nathan Shepherd (sitting in for Chris Hawkins), Deb Grant (sitting in for Lauren Laverne), Mary Anne Hobbs, Craig Charles and Emily Pilbeam (sitting in for Huw Stephens) will play a track by the lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter of Nirvana. 

The songs will be introduced by voicenotes from famous fans of Kurt, including musician and producer steve albini, Michael Azerrad (author of Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana), Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai, Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and 50FootWave, musician Nuha Ruby Ra, painter and author Billy Childish, Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, Carlos O’Connell of Fontaines D.C., Lia Metcalfe of The Mysterines and more.

A collection of programmes dedicated to Kurt Cobain will also be available on BBC Sounds from Friday 5th April, including: the Kurt Cobain Forever Playlist; Nirvana Live, featuring recorded live tracks performed in Seattle, Reading and New York (first broadcast in 2023); The First Time With…Dave Grohl, in which the former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman shares his musical milestones with 6 Music’s Matt Everitt (first broadcast in 2015); Nirvana at the BBC, featuring Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Butch Vig in conversation from the BBC archives (first broadcast in 2023); and Deep Dive into Nevermind, in which Butch Vig, Bat For Lashes, Teenage Fanclub, Breeders, Wu Lu and many more share their memories and passion for Nirvana’s seminal LP, with the album played in full (first broadcast in 2021). 

On BBC Radio 2, Jo Whiley will be playing tracks from Nirvana’s album Nevermind and sharing listeners’ memories in her show (from Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th April, 7-9pm) and Dermot O’Leary will mark the anniversary by playing a Nirvana track in his Saturday show’s weekly vinyl slot (Saturday 6th April, 8-10am)”.

It is a coincidence of timing, though it is quite moving that we are remembering Kurt Cobain and his legacy whilst also featuring Courtney Love as she explored artists who have made a difference to her. I think that Courtney Love’s Women is a series that everyone needs to hear. The BBC press release lets us know what we are in store for:

“This April, BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds present Courtney Love’s Women (8 x 60m) – a candid and raw new music series, in which the legendary Courtney Love shares the ultimate soundtrack to her life as she reflects on the women in music who have shaped her journey, her sound and her next chapter.

With incredible access to one of music’s true icons, Courtney Love’s Women is an unique and personal glimpse into Courtney’s life as she celebrates women in music - the music they made and the music that made them.

Across eight episodes, the founder and lead singer of Hole takes listeners on an intimate and unfiltered, era by era journey through her life and the music that made her, alongside her friend and renowned music-podcaster and writer, Rob Harvilla.

Samantha Moy, Head of BBC Radio 6 Music says: “Courtney Love is an icon and a trailblazer - her influence on music and culture over the decades is undeniable. At 6 Music, we invite artists to share their stories directly with their fans and our listeners and I’m very proud that Courtney will be hosting a series of incredible shows for us in April. Halfway through the series, on Friday 12th April, we’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of Courtney’s most powerful works – Hole’s ‘Live Through This’ - by dedicating the schedule to her music, the music that influenced her and the artists she’s inspired in Courtney Love Forever.”

IN THIS PHOTO: BBC Radio 6 Music’s Deb Grant

Throughout the series, Courtney recalls: her formative years, in which she discovered disco through the record collection at a childhood care home; reciting Sylvia Plath poetry for a Mickey Mouse Club audition; her love of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone; her time at an all-girl boarding school in New Zealand and in juvenile detention; couch-surfing across America; her struggles with drug abuse; her acting career – which resulted in a Golden Globe nomination for her role in The People vs. Larry Flynt in 1997; how she attempted to creatively matchmake Stevie Nicks and Billy Corgan; hanging out with Debbie Harry at a Limp Bizkit album launch at the Playboy Mansion; Gwen Stefani; her relationship with Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain; taking pandemic guitar lessons with The Big Moon’s Juliet Jackson and much more.

Courtney Love’s Women is not just the perfect listen for music fans or fans of Courtney and Hole - it’s also a varied soundtrack across musical eras, championing female artists along the way.

Episodes 1-4 will be available on BBC Sounds from Monday 8th April and broadcast on 6 Music on Monday 8th – Thursday 11th April, 11pm-12pm.

Episodes 5-8 will be available on BBC Sounds from Monday 15th April and broadcast on 6 Music on Monday 15th – Thursday 18th April, 11pm-12pm

To listen search Courtney in BBC Sounds.

6 Music’s celebration of Courtney Love continues on Friday 12th April with Courtney Love Forever.

On the 30th anniversary of Hole’s second album, Live Through This (which was released on 12th April 1994 on DGC Records), 6 Music will be celebrating Courtney Love throughout the day (7am-7pm).

Presenters Emily Pilbeam (sitting in for Chris Hawkins), Deb Grant (sitting in for Lauren Laverne), Mary Anne Hobbs, Craig Charles, Huw Stephens will play one track per hour by Courtney Love: Celebrity Skin, Doll Parts, Violet, Malibu, Miss World (from Reading Festival 1994), Miss Narcissist, Mono, Awful, Petals, Olympia (from a John Peel session in 1993), Starbelly and Plump. Tracks will be introduced by voicenotes from musicians and other famous fans of Courtney including Lambrini Girls, Sprints, The Last Dinner Party, the producers of Live Through This – Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade – and Kate Nash.

All tracks played throughout the day on 6 Music will be from artists who have influenced Courtney, her riot grrrl contemporaries, and acts that have been influenced by her.

A Courtney Love Forever collection of programmes, featuring performances and interviews with Courtney will be available on BBC Sounds from 12th April”.

It is going to be an amazing celebration of some wonderful women. I think it is quite a timely moment. There are not many series where female artists are highlighted. Giving over that amount of time to their influence and importance. The music industry is still one dogged by sexism and misogyny. Not giving enough opportunity to women. We are also in a moment when women are dominating music. Producing the best music around. The landscape is slowly shifting. We hope there will be equality and proper recognition very soon. I hope that people tune in. Such an icon herself, it will be fascinating to hear about the women who have made a big difference to Courtney Love. There will be some new discoveries and some familiar names. I am really thrilled and intrigued to see and hear these wonderful women being celebrated. I also hope that we get similar series in the future. An opportunity to hear female artists at the front. In an industry that has always been so male-focused and heavy, it is justified and encouraging that some truly amazing women are…

GETTING the recognition they deserve.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Tiffany Calver

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

Tiffany Calver

_________

IT has been a while since I last…

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

did an edition of this feature, though I am compelled to return to Saluting the Queens to recognise the incredible D.J., Tiffany Calver. One of the most talented and respected D.J.s and broadcasters in the country, I am going to spend a little bit of time spotlighting and exploring this amazing human. Before getting to some interviews, I want to bring in some biography regarding Tiffany Calver:

“It’s about supporting what I believe in, the people I’m a fan of,” she says of her mission statement. “I’m more of a specialist, I’m not a party DJ. I’m picky, I’m selective, I’m credible.”

Her impressive list of achievements include her position as the first ever female host of the Rap Show on BBC Radio 1, Drake’s UK & Europe Tour DJ, launching her own record label ‘No Requests’ (via Polydor), performing at Paris Fashion Week and winning a number of awards such as: Music Week Women In Music – Rising Star (2019), DJ Mag – Best of British – Best Radio Show: BBC 1Xtra Rap Show with Tiffany Calver (2020), Urban Music Awards – Best DJ (2017), ARIAS Radio Academy Award – Best Specialist Music Show – Bronze.

Be it holding down a festival stage with an energy packed DJ set, interviewing the world’s biggest artists or tastemaking and sharing new music via her weekly radio show, Tiffany brings an unparalleled commitment to her craft and a unique ability to build strong connections with artists from all corners of the globe”.

You can follow Tiffany Calver through her official website, via TikTok or on Instagram. For those not in the know, she hosts the must-hear The Tiffany Calver Show on Radio 1Xtra Fridays, between 9 and 11 p.m. In addition to recently appearing on cover of DJ Mag, she also has some great gigs coming up. As we can see from her Instagram, there is a pretty big one happening in April:

“Surprise! I’m headlining Earth Hall on April 27th and you need to be there! I’m so excited to bring @norequests back to the ends in London and the first one of 2024 is going to be a real vibe. Jump on the link in my bio to have access to tickets first when they go live on Friday!! 🎉

Dalston is literally where it all started for me as a DJ hustling for gigs and to get on flyers so to be coming back to it with something so special means everything. I’ve been dreaming of playing at this venue. Might have to run a couple 2015-2016 alibi/visions throwbacks just to pay homage!”.

@tiffanycalver Replying to @𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐒 ♬ original sound - Tiffany Calver

I want to mix in a few interviews to give you an idea of where Tiffany Calver came from, who she is, plus a little about her life away from the decks and microphone. I want to start with an interview from Culted. Published earlier this year, Calver discusses how she became a D.J. Even though she is still so young, her C.V. is one of the most impressive out there. A major talent who is going to go on to be recognised as one of the most import ant D.J.s and radio voices of her generation. I would advise anyone who has not heard her Friday evening show or seen her D.J. to correct that at some point this year:

“I want to take it back to the beginning with you. Was music something you grew up surrounded with?

I always say this but my baby tapes genuinely have the best soundtrack. Biggie, En Vogue, Busta Rhymes, Lil Kim, SWV… My mum and dad were really into their music. They were young and grew up in the rave/UKG era. Dad had a whole DJ set up that I used to drool over. Literally. Everything from R&B, Garage, Jungle and Hip Hop. You name it, they played it to me so I’ve always been into most genres thanks to them.

By the age of 17, you moved to London to experience the city life and its music scene. Do you remember any venues and/or artists you were instantly drawn to?

When I first came to London I remember just having a ridiculous amount of access for the first time to go to an unlimited amount of live gigs. I’d never had that before,  so I was pretty obsessed with going out and getting in the crowd at things. I’d manage to get in for free because I’d review them for some of the music blogs I wrote for at the time which at that age, was everything! When I started going out and experiencing the nightlife world it was all about Dalston. Visions, Birthdays, Alibi, then maybe you’d catch a bus to Oval Space for the Livin Proof parties…man. You just had to be there.

It wasn’t long until you made your way into the industry, blogging for MTV and SB:TV. Was there a moment where you realised that music was, professionally, for you?

Oh I knew from around 16 that this was the world I wanted to be in. One thing about me is I always have to know what I’m doing. Serious Virgo. I didn’t know just how far I would go by any means but I just wanted a piece of it. I wanted to be immersed in it, and to contribute to pushing it forward however I had the access to do it. I never in a million years saw just how far back the curtain would get pulled for me, back then.

How did you make that step from being a music writer to music maker, by way of DJing?

I started using Virtual DJ because I didn’t have the money to buy a controller let alone CDJs! I would post mixes I made on my computer to SoundCloud and one of them took off and hit around 50,000 plays which was massive for me at the time.

I really wanted to be on radio since I was a kid. When I came to London I’d tried my hand at getting an internship or apprenticeship at BBC, Rinse FM and all the local stations to no avail. I studied and tried to follow all of the blueprints that you’re taught to follow and it didn’t work.

Having worked alongside massive artists such as Drake and Beyoncé, you still make it a point to highlight and support emerging artists. Who are some artists you would recommend our readers to tune into?

Everyone starts off as an emerging artist and I think people have to remember that. Instead of looking at the shiny things, sometimes look at the diamonds in the dirt. That’s far more rewarding, exciting, and fulfilling and if we want to keep this thing going – we have to pour into the future superstars from the beginning.

The underground scene has always been such an exciting space to listen to and support because it depicts what is really going on in the world as opposed to what “trends.” I think that listeners love to feel like they are discovering someone on their own nowadays – and with more music being released day by day and apps at everyone’s fingertips that becomes more of a reality for the world.

I’m really into Humble The Great, BXKS, Cristale, and P-rallel and watching their individual rises at the moment. I think this year will be the year of the producer/DJs too. It’s going to be a great year for Publishing. Africa is still in such a strong position to hold more and more space.

I’m into artists who add something unique in flavour to their music and don’t follow the algorithm. That’s what the world needs more of”.

Let’s move to GQ now. This takes us back to last year. One can only imagine how hectic and intense it can be for a world-class D.J. Someone who spends a lot of her life on the road or in the radio studio at least. GQ were at home with Tiffany Calver. We got to discover a bit about how she relaxes, and what she does to recharge away from the crowds and the intoxicating energy she must get from her D.J. gigs:

“Let’s begin with the bedroom, sleep, and anything to do with winding down and relaxing in the evening. What do you use?

I think that I’ve come to terms with the fact that, with my job, I’m never going to have the perfect sleep or nighttime routine, because even when I get myself into a good routine I have a 3am DJ set in Bristol or something and it’s completely out of whack again. I’m constantly on jet lag and trying to fight that.

When I come in after a night out working and the adrenaline is high I have to smother myself in lavender spray or something to try and chill out. I have a lot of essential oils and a Neom diffuser, and I just absolutely drench it in lavender oil. I've always wanted to be one of those people that reads a book in bed, but I get stimulated way too easily — I’ve even implemented a no TV rule and we don’t have one in our bedroom anymore. I’ve also started listening to ocean sounds on a timer on Spotify when I can't sleep.

I got a new sleeping mask from Drowsy and it’s insane. When I say it wraps around your entire face…it’s completely black out, you can’t see anything. It’s like a pillow for the face. I have this terrible habit of falling asleep on my stomach and I’d wake up and have lines on my face, but this has been helpful.

I also remember how important it was for me to invest in a good set of pillows and a really nice duvet from Dusk. I love Dusk. I’ve been traveling so much DJ'ing and I just wanted to come home and have it feel like a hotel bed. We also got a new mattress which has changed the game as well: it’s a Nectar Hybrid. I just need all the help I can get.

 What is your skincare routine? How do you stay looking fresh after the late nights?

I’m such a massive fan of products that leave my skin feeling well moisturised and hydrated and hopefully getting rid of the impact of the club. I have a lot of fun with my skincare. It was something I didn’t pay much attention to in my early 20s, especially things like SPF.

I’ve just started using and am obsessed with Dr Dennis Gross' Dewy Deep Cream: that is amazing. You can use it day or night, but I use in the day because it has a citrusy smell. I’ll always go in with a serum before that as well. I have a Dr Barbara Sturm Vitamin C one that someone recommended. My favourite serum brand is Skinceuticals: I’m obsessed with the B5 serum. And then for SPF I use SuperGoop SPF50 Everyday Lotion and I really love it; it doesn't hurt my eyes and it doesn't affect the colour of my face.

On my lips, I use the Laneige sleeping mask in lemon sorbet. My face wash is also a constant staple: Zo skin health. I was recommended them by Clara Amfo and Mabel; their skin is great. I also love my new perfume which is Louis Vuitton Spell On You. I did not realise how expensive it was until I got to the till but I'm making it work!

What about the living room. How do you chill out? Are you a home workout person?

I think I’ve touched my Peleton twice…it's so painful! I don’t understand! It’s just not comfortable…but also I’m just making excuses.

I spend a lot of time in the living room. It's the one place where I get complete escapism. I’m obsessed with my Erewhon candle in Neroli Sandalwood, and it is gorgeous. I’ve been back two weeks from the US and it's nearly gone. I’ve always got a candle lit.

We’ve also got this gorgeous Soho Home dimmable lamp, I put that on low with a candle. It’s where we relax and go to the depths of Netflix. I’m loving Disney Plus at the minute, too: they have such good documentaries. Tonight we’re watching the Spencer Matthews documentary Finding Michael. I can’t shout enough at the moment about the Ryan Reynolds documentary [Welcome To Wrexham], it’s the best doc series I’ve ever seen. They did such a great job.

What DJ essentials do you have in your home?

So at the minute I have a CDJ 2000 and a DJ 900 Nexus mixer and that's essentially what I use in the club. It took me ages to save up for that. I think I used the money from the Drake tour, but now I’m dying to upgrade to the CDJ 3000 because the tech on those is unreal. And then I have the classic KRK speakers. They do the job and don't piss off my neighbours too much. I also have an Ableton MPC Push: it’s very dusty right now because I’ve been in L.A., but the plan is to eventually release some original music and remixes. I'm heavily into Ableton and how aesthetically gorgeous it all looks but also the production software and the little accessories that can help with producing.

You always need some Sennheiser headphones too, but I keep it quite simple and cute. On my show I get to play whatever I love… it’s such an incredible opportunity and it's a privilege to be on a station like the BBC and have that freedom where they trust me to be a tastemaker. So I’m making sure I have taste!

What else is on the cards at the moment what with your record label as well?

I've definitely got my head down with the record label: there's some incredible new signings that we’ve got and we’re developing. Being within Universal I’m not trying to have a major label, but something small and niche and boutique that looks after and develops new talent. And that's what I want to provide, something a bit different sonically. I feel that's needed, especially in this world of AI and algorithms. It’s nice to find risk takers who want to challenge themselves and make something a bit rebellious”.

When researching for this feature, I came across this interview from NOTION. They spoke with Tiffany Calver at London’s Tate Britain. She explained how artist influences everything. That it is a universal language. Calver discussed, among other things, the beauty of creativity, and the female artists who influence her. It was another intriguing and arresting side to a major talent and someone who is inspiring a lot of D.J.s and broadcaster coming through:

“Tastemaker Tiffany Calver meets us at Tate Britain to discuss the beauty of creativity, the renaissance of hip-hop culture, and the female artists in whom she finds solace.

“How does art help to inspire your creative process?

I don’t think that a creative process exists without art. There’s always this thing about originality, but I’m not sure originality really exists because we are constantly influenced and inspired by things around us – especially creativity. You can’t escape it, it’s the thing that connects everyone, a universal language. You know, you don’t have to speak the same language as someone else to feel something – and that’s the beauty of art. It’s a feeling. It’s not something you have to say, but something you can project.

How do you think that galleries spark inspiration?

I think that people can find gallery spaces and museums quite intimidating because there can be this seriousness around them. For me, the way I got into going to galleries was through my job and travelling. I’d be in a city and would want to see something different – without the intimidation of ‘this is a serious thing to do’. So me and my friends would go into museums and make it our own experience – it could be as childish or mature as we wanted it to be. We’d make humour out of it, we’d smile, we might cry sometimes, we might have a conversation around a piece of art. And I think that’s the beauty of museums. It’s being able to see something from the 1700s or the 1400s and there’s still something in it that inspires you.

In your opinion, how can art influence and connect everyone?

You have to take the pressure away from it. I think places like the Tate are really special when you don’t look at them through such a serious lens. When you just come here and be, stand, look at something and think about how you feel. It’s also the fact that these spaces are available to us and free. You can come and get inspired in ways you never thought you would. I’m inspired being here today, and you can look back and be like, how would I even connect with a room like this? You know, I’m a 90s baby, I’m in 2023, how can I connect? But you do, and I think that’s why these places are really special.

PHOTO CREDIT: Serena Brown

Is there a specific period of art that you’re interested in?

I’m not really stuck to one time period. I like walking into galleries and looking at all walks of life and all periods of time, because you connect in ways you never thought you would. These aren’t things you’re reading in a history book, or being taught in class. These are reflections of how somebody felt in a moment of time that we will never be able to visit. We get to visit through these pictures, instead, and feel those feelings.

What type of art inspires you?

I love all kinds of art. Everything is art to me. Anything that brings me peace and lets me escape from the world for a minute, whether it’s a song I love, a photograph, a film. There are so many different varieties of art that just help you to breathe for a second and find peace. Or maybe not, maybe it’s finding anger, finding sadness – but you find something in it.

Do you find yourself particularly influenced by female artists?

Oh, 100%. I think that’s literally what has raised me. And in all forms, whether that’s Tracy Emin and how outrageously unapologetic her art is, literally heart on her sleeve. I think that’s beautiful. Whether that’s going back to musicians I was raised on, through my mother, through my grandmother. You know, I love someone like Nina Simone; one of my favourite samples in history is “Sinnerman” and I think that’s something that was passed down to me. That’s art. The art by women that most connects to me is the outspoken art, the rebellious art of the time. The people that chose to stand up or be unapologetically themselves, and do what they wanted to do. That’s what inspires me the most.

How do you think the worlds of art and music collide?

I come from the world of hip-hop. The thing I loved and that got me obsessed with hip-hop from when I was a kid, was the fact that it meshes so many different worlds without meaning to. When hip-hop first started, there was dance, there was street style, there was sneakers. All of these exciting elements make you who you are, and I think there’s been a renaissance of that in recent years.

Like, there’s Slawn, who’s connected to Central Cee – [Cee]’s got Slawn painting a double-decker bus and posting it on Instagram and these kids are seeing it and getting inspired. I’ve got a 14-year-old brother who tells me how cool it is, and it brings art into the conversation in a less forced way – because sometimes it can feel like it’s forced on the younger generation to be interested in art”.

@tiffanycalver I hear this is what u gotta do to get bookings nowadays #content ♬ original sound - Tiffany Calver

I am going to finish off with a recent NME interview. The D.J. discussed why it is important to fail – in terms of some actual constructive and wise advice -, imposter syndrome, and finding her own tribe. When she was being interviewed, Calver was speaking on a panel in celebration of International Women’s Month:

“Tiffany Calver has shared her advice to aspiring music industry creatives, encouraging them to “fail as much as you can.”

Speaking on a panel in celebration of International Women’s Month, the UK rap trailblazer collaborated with Sondr to host a talk with fellow DJs and UK club titans Bossy LDN founder Izzy Bossy and Hannah Lynch of Girls Can’t Sync. The event was held at east London creative hotspot BeauBeaus and was part of the Telford native’s Tiffany Calver & Friends series – in which she highlights her talented peers.

told the audience that the internet has made it so “there is so much at your fingertips” that can give you a fighting chance to succeed no matter where you’re from. “You have the opportunity to really self-promote yourself,” she said, “really put yourself out there.”

There was always a need for Calver to “find [her] own tribe,” and she did eventually in London. Speaking to the panel, she reiterated the importance of community: “Don’t look too high, sometimes look forward, look around you, look at what the people around you are building. Genuinely, those are the relationships that will keep you going, the people championing you now will take you higher and further, they’re just as important.”

IN THIS PHOTO: (From left to right): Tiffany Calver, Hannah Lynch and Izzy Bossy at Tiffany Calver & Friends International Women’s Day panel talk/PHOTO CREDIT: FilmsByEks/Press

Calver eventually learned to DJ on the Virtual DJ app and then had various radio shows on NTS, KISS FM and the controversial Radar. She also put on her events at the London nightclub Birthdays where she flew in international DJs with her retail salary and had the likes of Little Simz freestyle there. “I used to get all these people down to London with my little Topshop money and let them sleep on the floor of my dad’s flat,” she revealed.

All the exposure led to her being handpicked to be the face of BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Rap Show in 2017, becoming the first female presenter to host the show. Calver said the opportunity came from a random X/Twitter DM.

Speaking about when she took on the role, she told the crowd that she felt pressure to excel. “The hosts before were [Tim Westwood] and Charlie Sloth,” she said. “They were just two guys with massive egos and there is that thing, especially in rap, of that bravado you have to put on and I’m some neeky girl.

But she decided “not to create a persona or a character or have this bravado” and sought advice from Annie Mac and Clara Amfo, who both present primetime shows on the BBC. “In terms of me, there wasn’t really a woman to look at in the hip-hop space here that embodied that show,” Calver said. “It was great I had women to speak to who had already started in the career I wanted to get into”.

An undeniable queen of the music industry, Tiffany Calver is a wonderful D.J. and modern icon. Someone who is one of the most important voices on the airwaves. A tremendous D.J. who is among the very best out there, I feel everyone needs to know about her. Countless people do. In years to come, I can see Tiffany Calver going from strength to strength. Worldwide gigs as  D.J. More radio opportunities and so many honours will surely come her way. I was very keen to show my respect for…

THE simply brilliant Tiffany Calver.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Karin Ann

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Karin Ann

_________

A tremendous artist…

PHOTO CREDIT: Cameron Lindfors

that I am quite new to but would recommend to everyone, Karin Ann is in my sights. She is a Slovakian Pop singer-songwriter of Czech descent. The New York Times described her as the voice of generation Z in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2020 and 2021, Karin Ann performed as a support during the NoSory Tour of the Polish singer, sanah. In August 2021 she also became the first Slovak ambassador of the EQUAL campaign of Spotify - thanks to which her single, in company, was promoted in Times Square in New York. I am going to come to some interviews with this incredible young artist. Someone that should be on everyone’s radars. Last September, Numéro Netherlands featured the wonderful Karin Ann. It was a year that saw her put out wonderful singles such as favourite star and put me back together:

“Hello Karin Ann. For our readers who haven’t had the luck to get to know you yet, could you please introduce yourself and describe your musical style?

That’s quite an interesting question. I’m not very good at this, but I’m an artist. I sing and write songs, and I also try to get involved in the visual aspects of my work. In terms of my musical style, I’ve experimented with various genres over the years because I’ve been pursuing this for a while. I’ve dabbled in everything from pop to rock and pretty much anything and everything in between.

I enjoy exploring different musical avenues, but currently, I’m leaning more towards a folk-inspired direction with some influences from the 70s. Right now, I’m really focusing on honing my lyricism.

Where does your passion for music come from, and when did you know exactly you would become a singer?

I’ve always had a deep love for music. It’s been a part of my life since I was a child.

My mother is Czech, and she’s a big fan of musicals. So, growing up, I was introduced to Czech musicals along with music from iconic bands like the Beatles and Queen. I’ve always had this passion for music, but I never really considered pursuing a career in it, especially because it’s not strongly encouraged or supported in Slovakia.

Originally, I thought I’d pursue visual arts. I was passionate about drawing and various forms of arts and crafts. I even went to school for graphic design. However, I encountered an injury that forced me to leave art school. It was a lifelong dream, and suddenly, I couldn’t pursue it anymore.

When you have a means of self-expression that’s taken away from you, it’s natural to seek alternative outlets. That’s when I started writing songs. There wasn’t a specific moment when I thought, ‘This is becoming serious; this is my path.’ It began as a way to express myself and have fun, and over time, it developed into something more significant. It’s a wonderful coincidence and a beautiful artistic journey that I’m currently on. It was a challenging time, but it ultimately led to something different, and I genuinely appreciate what I’m doing now. I suppose everything negative can have a silver lining. 

In an interview, you described yourself as an introverted person, even though you address taboo topics in some of your songs, like in ‘looking at porn’. How do you reconcile your introverted personality with your willingness to tackle such bold and provocative subjects in your music?

I think it’s just that I don’t really think about people hearing my music when I’m making it. I’m never writing with the thought in my head, ‘Oh, this is how many people are going to hear this.’ I’m just writing whatever comes to my head and whatever I’m experiencing and whatever I’m seeing and whatever that eventually turns into is what I end up putting out.

I don’t realise that people hear my music until I am performing it live. Even when you see a number on social media your brain can’t comprehend that until it’s 3D.

You have been described as Europe’s version of Billie Eilish. How do you feel about this comparison, and what distinguishes you from her?

I’ve always admired her. She’s been a favorite artist of mine since 2015. I love her music and her art. However, when people draw comparisons, it can turn into unnecessary competition. I believe every artist is unique, and I don’t want comparisons to taint my appreciation for her or other artists. I’m subconsciously inspired by her, but I’m focused on my own path and style. I hope people can see that and view any comparisons as compliments rather than competition

You’ve been a prominent advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, even making waves on Polish state broadcaster TVP. What are your experiences as an activist in Eastern Europe, and what challenges have you faced in promoting LGBTQ+ equality in the region?

It’s been challenging, especially growing up as a queer person in Eastern Europe. However, I’m optimistic that things might be improving, thanks to the efforts of many young people advocating for change. The more these issues are discussed in mainstream media, the greater the chance for change. I’m using my platform to address important matters, and I see many young artists doing the same. It’s essential to remember that even one person’s actions can have a ripple effect when they share their message with others. We’ve come a long way, but there’s still much progress to be made.

Your lyrics touch on a wide range of topics, from gender equality to mental health. Could you elaborate on your songwriting process and how you approach these themes in your music?

I don’t have a specific formula for writing songs. I usually write about what’s on my mind at the time, as it helps me process my thoughts and feelings. I draw inspiration from life experiences, observations, and conversations with friends. Sometimes, I start with random notes on my phone, and other times, a song can come together in just a few minutes if something is weighing heavily on my mind. There’s no one way I write songs; it varies each time. When I’m in a session, I’m focused on songwriting, but when I’m on my own, it’s more about letting the words flow naturally”.

I am going to end with a couple more interviews. The first is from Gay Times. It was published back in October. I round up with a more recent interview. Gay Times spoke with Karin Ann around the release of favourite star. She said how she wants to create a safe space for queer people:

“With her profile on the rise, Ann has used her platform to speak out on behalf of the community and uses her songs to address topics of mental health, belonging and gender equality.

The singer’s activism extends past her powerful lyrics too. During a live performance on the Polish state broadcaster, TVP, the singer brought onstage a pride flag in support of the LGBTQIA+ community. “It was very difficult for me to be who I am where I grew up (Čadca, Slovakia). I just want people to have something to relate to and to feel safe in,” she says.

Now, following the release of her new alt-pop single, ‘favorite star’, we caught up with Ann to hear more about her musical style and making her mark in Europe and beyond.

Your new single ‘favorite star’ is out now. What inspired the story behind the song?

I wrote this song recently in London and it’s about how you don’t fully realise the effects that somebody had on you. Whether in relationships or friendships, when you spend a lot of time with somebody and you learn about them. Sometimes, you don’t realise how it affects you and what you end up carrying from that person even if you don’t talk anymore

What inspired the queer premise of the ‘favorite star’ music video?

I’ve filmed two music videos for my songs (‘a stranger with my face’ and ‘favorite star’) back to back. We saw similarities between the songs and how we could show a story that relates to both songs. From the beginning, I didn’t want to do a straightforward idea. We ended up playing around with the idea of a 1950s Hollywood spy story. And, through that, we ended up going down the queer route and taking inspiration from real-life events.

Who are your favourite LGBTQIA+ artists right now?

There are so many! Lately, it’s been Renee Rapp, Halsey, Phoebe Bridgers, Maya Hawke, and Ethel Cain

You speak out about LGBTQIA+ rights in Eastern and Central Europe. For you, why does it feel important to address these topics?

I am a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and, naturally, it is important to me to talk about these issues in mainstream media so the conversation can reach groups outside of the community, which is the only way change can happen. I also grew up in Eastern Europe where it’s not widely accepted to be a part of the community, and I want to create a safe space for [queer] people.

Would you describe this as your creative mission as an artist?

Growing up, I knew how I felt and [I want to create] a safe space for anyone who doesn’t feel like they belong. I always found comfort in music and in the community surrounding musicians. As much as people find community and comfort through my music, it works both ways. They find a community through me and I have a community through them”.

I will end with a new interview from NME. Her debut album, through the telescope, is out on 10th May. It is an exciting new chapter for her. An artist who has faced a challenging past few years or so. There are a few parts of the interview that I want to bring in, as they give us more insight into Karin Ann. We also get to know a bit more about her upcoming debut album:

“It is difficult to pin ‘Through The Telescope’, Karin’s debut album (released May 10), to a specific sound, though it shares the pillowy, barely-there instrumentation of Clairo’s ‘Sling’ era, with vocals that veer from whispering to jazz-inflected singing but never lose a sense of intimacy. Through explorative songs that discuss losing faith (‘I Don’t Believe In God’) to the unfamiliar thrills and frisson of a new love (‘She’), the record represents Karin’s teenage state of being: articulate, outspoken and extremely online.

A true child of the internet, she attests her broad worldview to being able to speak directly with other young, LGBTQ+-identifying musicians online; Karin says that, when she was younger, she connected with Norway’s Girl In Red via Facebook. “I found these artists around the time I started questioning my sexuality,” she says. She grew up in the shadow of the queer pop explosion, dubbed ‘20gayteen’ by Hayley Kiyoko – think: the mainstream breakthroughs of Troye Sivan, Halsey, Kehlani. “They spoke of liberal ideas and going against the system – things that I didn’t always see back home.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Keeler for NME

Karin was raised in Žilina, a mountainous region in northwestern Slovakia. She grew up in an environment that allowed her to explore any sport she put her heart to, from figure skating and ballet to archery, while also pursuing other creative endeavours like theatre and music. There’s a throughline to be found between the freedom of her childhood and her earlier material, which sounds like a musician exploring a multitude of avenues – from unabashedly dramatic riffs to pop gloominess à la early Billie Eilish – in order to figure out her identity. “I’m just chasing this feeling / The one that I see on silver screens,” she sang on ‘Almost 20’.

In 2021, on one of the latter’s largest television channels, TVP2, Karin made a statement against eastern Europe’s storied resistance towards queer rights. “I would like to dedicate this to the LGBTQ+ people here, because I know you don’t have it easy. You deserve to feel safe,” she said, wrapping the Pride flag around herself as she performed her single ‘Babyboy’. The speech made headlines across Poland, resulting in TVP2 firing their breakfast programme editor and claiming Karin “[caused] discomfort to many viewers”. This controversy had a “big effect” on her, she affirms today: it finally made Karin feel more comfortable not just in her own skin, but her mission statement.

One of Karin’s key touchstones while working on this album was Maya Hawke, who’s been releasing beaming, ambient folk songs when she’s not starring in Stranger Things. Having “obsessed” over her 2022 LP ‘Moss’, Karin requested that her team put her in touch with producer and Hawke collaborator Benjamin Lazar Davis; the pair clicked “instantly” while working together, and Davis went on to connect Karin and Hawke via FaceTime.

“At first, I didn’t even want to make an album. I have always been headstrong but I was struggling to handle the pressure and was in a shit position with my health. I was thinking about quitting music – the stakes were that high,” says Karin. “But then I got on this call with Maya, and she really changed my perspective on songwriting. She got me out of a rut.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Keeler for NME

Behind the scenes, Karin’s personal life had been unravelling. Following the release of her high-octane ‘Side Effects Of Being Human’ EP, she slogged through the summer of 2022 on a schedule that was “locked down minute-to-minute”. She had to push through dozens of performances and press commitments while quietly battling tetany – a condition that results in involuntary muscle cramps, which for Karin could last up to an hour at a time.

She recalls having to run out of an interview before a show in Rome in order to manage a severe flare-up. “I didn’t even make it back to the green room. It felt like a mixture of a panic attack and a seizure; I couldn’t walk, nor barely breathe. My tongue went numb. Afterwards, I knew I was at breaking point.”

It would be weeks before she would actually find out what was happening to her. During this period, Karin took a break from all work and social media, and returned home to spend time with her dogs, taking each day as it came. She knew the first step to recovery was to momentarily stop thinking about music altogether.

“I had to get better at saying ‘no’ and setting boundaries,” she says. “I had to ask myself questions like, ‘How much am I willing to do before I sacrifice my health entirely?’ ‘How far do I really want to push myself this time?’”

And yet, here she is, smiling. Karin beams as she discusses how she has managed to channel the emotional toll of her illness into her most expansive music yet. Still wearing a full face of makeup from our photoshoot (bar the heart-shaped lip paint), Ann’s laughter is warm and frequent. The pain is still raw, she says, but she is ready to move on.

Karin is now gearing up to play live again, starting with two offshoot shows at SXSW here in Austin. She is feeling reflective and ready to tell her story. There is an autobiographical thread through both her songwriting and the way she expresses herself; she wants people to see her struggles as well as her triumphs”.

If you have not checked out Karin Ann, then make sure that you do now. An artist who is like no other, I hope that we see her added to festival bills in the U.K. There are fans here that would love to see her live. I am quite new to her work, yet I am compelled to follow her. An inspiring, empowering and wonderful artist, in Karin Ann we have…

A singular talent.

____________

Follow Karin Ann

PHOTO CREDIT: Cameron Lindfors

Official:

https://karin-ann.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/itskarinann

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@itskarinann

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/itskarinann

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7t7hXBcoQ0dywVEXB0TOYZ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI9AWHbpwk8ZpcrR3K3YOcQ

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/karinannmusic/