Rest in Peace
↧
Donna Summer - I'm A Rainbow
↧
Monica Naranjo performs Ahora, Ahora
Very amazing!
↧
↧
Kylie Timebomb (Listen here!)
Sounds pretty fabulous!!! Sounding glorious in the sunshine.
↧
Christophe Willem - Automatik violoncelle cover
↧
Mr Brightside Agonized? Paloma Faith inspired by The Killers?
I love Paloma Faith. Way too much. And the album is so good. But listening to Agony (a track on her new album) I couldn't stop help myself singing Mr Brightside. The choruses are IDENTIFICAL. If you can’t hear it may I guide you to Le Kid glorious cover (only because it features a female on the vocals). Paloma Faith must be a huge fan of Mr.Flowers.
Compare the two for yourself
↧
↧
Marta Sánchez - Mi Cuerpo Pide Más (new song)
Well its a bit more sleek than the totally bombastic Get Together (or Dancing In Spain). It seems to be an extension to her Miss Sanchez sound. Dontstopthepop approves.
↧
THE FACE INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!
I love The Face. Ever since seeing them strut their booties with Alphabeat I was smitten!
Their pop is relentless, delicious, poptastic and glamorous. When Tamer, Christie and
Francine take to the stage they send affacionades of mirrorball music like me into cries
of delirious pleasure. Today we talk about their new album, Army of Lovers and meeting
in a Soho Alley. I hope you enjoy...
Their pop is relentless, delicious, poptastic and glamorous. When Tamer, Christie and
Francine take to the stage they send affacionades of mirrorball music like me into cries
of delirious pleasure. Today we talk about their new album, Army of Lovers and meeting
in a Soho Alley. I hope you enjoy...
Thank you The Face!
C: Anytime
F: Thank you for the support.
Where do The Face draw their inspirations from?
F: Thank you for the support.
Where do The Face draw their inspirations from?
F: Anywhere there is colour and drama. It could be a Grace Jones performance; a Guy Bourdin
photograph; our friends; each other.
photograph; our friends; each other.
T: I’m honestly inspired by so much. But my musical inspiration is heavily influenced by
Disco and Rock. Growing up my dad played a big part, his music collection was mostly
classical, opera and disco. He was a very stylish man and a great musician.
C: Anything that is fabulous and inspirational.
Where did you all meet?
Disco and Rock. Growing up my dad played a big part, his music collection was mostly
classical, opera and disco. He was a very stylish man and a great musician.
C: Anything that is fabulous and inspirational.
Where did you all meet?
F: Tamer and I met at the BRIT School where we studied. We saw Christie performing in
Soho and basically followed her into an alleyway.
C: Yes that's true, it was in an alleyway.
T: I met Francine at the BRIT School, but it wasn’t till after BRIT perhaps a year later one
fateful night that we met at a party and really began to adore each other, realising how many
of the same things we had in common. We both met Christie in London in an alley way
outside a sex clinic in Soho, we had seen her sing previously. We struck up a conversation,
next thing we knew, we were singing in the alleyway and everything after that progressed
pretty organically.
Would it be fair to say you sound a little bit like ABBA, Madonna, Kylie and
Scissor Sisters and Grace Jones?
F: Unfair due to the level of flattery! Even if we're the littlest bit comparable to the
heavyweights you mentioned we’re happy.
T: Well that is an honour. They are artists we truly respect and love.
C: To be compared to them… hey, I'm very happy with that.
heavyweights you mentioned we’re happy.
T: Well that is an honour. They are artists we truly respect and love.
C: To be compared to them… hey, I'm very happy with that.
Are you determined to have fun with pop while still messing around with the
norms and traditions that often stereotype the genre.....
T: Absolutely! It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
C: As long as we love our music and our fans do then we will always have fun with it.
F: We're determined to have fun and make good music. As far as
confounding stereotypes we've been doing that all our lives so if that comes across in our art, so much
the better.
You’re working with pop heavy weights Le Kid and Anders Hansson?
T: Indeed.
How did that come about?
T: Our managers approached them, they took a shine to us and wanted to be a part of the
project. We were totally over the moon.
F: We were told that they took a look at one of our images and were intrigued. Thankfully
we could actually sing when we met them in person so it all grew from there.
project. We were totally over the moon.
F: We were told that they took a look at one of our images and were intrigued. Thankfully
we could actually sing when we met them in person so it all grew from there.
What is it like working with Felix?
T: AMAZUAL!
C: We had such a great working relationship with him. We had fun but had serious moments
too so it was a great combination!
F: Felix is very smart, as is Marta. They both have a great pop sensibility but quite a wry
sense of humour. It's a dichotomy but that's what we like. Anders’ enthusiasm is boundless.
There is certainly Swedish feel to the look and sound of The Face. There are moments
when I see shadows the mighty Army Of Lovers, BwO and Alcazar? This is a good thing!
Did any of these bands inspire The Face?
T: They are all brilliant bands.
F: We styled ourselves for all our promo photoshoots and performances to date, so I'd say our
look is definitely British, but the flamboyancy has probably contributed to our mutual attraction
with Swedish pop artists, who value glamour as well. We have always been huge fans of
Army of Lovers, and musically, Swedish pop is so much at the forefront it really inspires
everyone.
C: We were very fortunate to have Alexander Bard write a song for us, which we recorded
with Anders.
Which bands have played a pivotal role in influencing the group?
F: We styled ourselves for all our promo photoshoots and performances to date, so I'd say our
look is definitely British, but the flamboyancy has probably contributed to our mutual attraction
with Swedish pop artists, who value glamour as well. We have always been huge fans of
Army of Lovers, and musically, Swedish pop is so much at the forefront it really inspires
everyone.
C: We were very fortunate to have Alexander Bard write a song for us, which we recorded
with Anders.
Which bands have played a pivotal role in influencing the group?
F: Love Roisin Murphy, Scissor Sisters, ELO, MJ, Grace Jones, Queen.
C: MJ, Scissor Sisters, Prince, Donna Summer and many more.
If The Face were to cover one song it would have to be something like Army of Lovers
Crucified! Now that would be epic! What songs would you cover and incorporate into your
setlist?
F: Love that song! We quite like unexpected covers, sung in harmony.
We like to surprise our audience with a new interpretation.
C: There are some. Maybe we’ll record them for the album.
T: Let’s see shall we....
Would you like to pursue more of that Swedish side to The Face?
C: Definitely
T: Absolutely!
F: We're lucky we’ve been embraced by a place with such a rich musical heritage and we'd like
to make more music as long as they’ll have us.
You give everything in your performances. The stage is yours. Do you have any pre-stage
rituals?
T: We do.
F: Just one but it's a secret.
C: No one knows apart from us.
The Face is very much about team-work and you can really see that onstage. There’s a lot of
love circulating in and around the project – you must be itching to release the album.
C: Everything we do is teamwork - that's why it works so well. Itching is not the word!!
T: We want to make sure everything is in place.
F: Before we had management or producers or labels, we would sing and party together, and
we take that energy into our performances. The industry is not always easy and we’re all still here
because we love our band and what we do.
How is that coming about by the way?
T: Actually it’s coming along very well, we have some more work to do. But hopefully soon.
C: We will keep recording and see. We enough songs for an album already.
While I love the Scissor Sisters I ain’t feeling Magic Hour at all. But I am sure it works live.
But the album was a bit of a white wash for me. Listening to your music I was so taken
aback. You’re providing music that's like a firecracker of pop which recalls the
groundbreaking force of the Scissor Sisters when they first arrived on the scene…..
May I be so bold to say that The Face are the band who’ve picked up where the Scissor
Sisters clearly dropped the (mirror)ball. Was that your intention….? (and is the comparison comfortable with you?).
But the album was a bit of a white wash for me. Listening to your music I was so taken
aback. You’re providing music that's like a firecracker of pop which recalls the
groundbreaking force of the Scissor Sisters when they first arrived on the scene…..
May I be so bold to say that The Face are the band who’ve picked up where the Scissor
Sisters clearly dropped the (mirror)ball. Was that your intention….? (and is the comparison comfortable with you?).
F: We are bona fide Scissters. I personally love the direction of Magic Hour it really captures the New
York club kid and vogue house scene we adore - very Paris Is Burning. We have a lot of the same
influences and are inspired by the Scissor Sisters a great deal so the comparison is one we welcome.
C: We love them and I think the new stuff is great too. I think the world wouldn't be the same without
the Scissor Sisters in it.
T: I love how creatively fearless they are - one of my favourite bands. I think Magic Hour is a
beautiful piece of work.
Let us talk about your song Tallula!!! That is an absolutely epic pop song of polemic proportions.
Pop never tasted so big! Did the gay icon Talulah Bankhead provide inspiration for that anthem?
F: Nope, the song is named for a drag queen.
C: Yes, my mum. (Only kidding mum, haha)
Love Stuck is gonna be the next single....When is getting a release?
C: Yes, my mum. (Only kidding mum, haha)
Love Stuck is gonna be the next single....When is getting a release?
T: It's out now in Sweden and will be on Spotify soon. (Swedish Itunes Link)
And lastly, if I was to set up a The Face tribute band I’d call it The Bum. Because your music
makes me bum whiggle. A Lot. If you three could join any tribute band which act would it be…
and what would you call yourselves?
C: Mmm, that’s a tricky one.
T: Hahaha. Thanks I look forward to seeing The Bum perform. I think if I made a tribute band it might be for the musical ‘Hedwig & The Angry Inch’ We’d be called The Fabulashes (but disco legend Sylvester already took that title)
F: I’ve always wanted to be in a band called ‘Curl Up & Dye’ since seeing it in a movie as the name of a hair salon. We could perform tracks from the musical ‘Hair’.
***
Amazing
↧
Fabio Lendrum returns with Out Of Water
Fabio Lendrum is back! Initially turning heads with his poptastic tracks Trouble, Dark Star and New Romantics Fabio then took out some time out to take stock of life and also refine his sound. Well, after working with some massive names in the industry on both sides of the Atlantic he has premiered two new songs that absolutely scream "I'm back bitches!". Out of Water is a throbbing dance-pop tune that manages to include the frailty and emotion of Robyn's epics With Every Heartbeat/Dancing On My Own with pop rifts which would make Stuart Price bounce with pride. Constantly incredibly euphoric, there is a shadow of melancholia in both the a-side and its b-side Anything's Possible that clearly illustrates Fabio has managed to interweave subtle narratives whether it be through his delivery or the delicious melodies. The result? An amazing explosive dance sound unique to Fabio that feels both incredibly personal and yet also intelligently epic thanks to Lendrums gigantic slabs of relentless electronic synths that underpin the polemic production.
Welcome back Fabio. Can't wait for more.
↧
ALEXANDER BARD INTERVIEW "Why do people even still listen to Radio 1?"
First off, although threatened by other music genres the thrust of pop continues to be as hard as ever despite the tremendous discrimination it faces from those within the music industry as well as those who classify it as “throwaway”. Why do you think this is?
To begin with, pop means popular, so compared to other genres that are fairly stable over time, pop is tautological if used as a genre: If something becomes popular, it is redefined as pop. Most of the pop songs we hear in the charts and on the radio today would have been considered electronica, house, techno, R&B or hip-hop ten years ago. So the music industry doesn't really have a bias against pop, it has a bias against its very lifeblood: commercially successful music! I just regard this tendency as an expression of self-loathing, and something I don't want to be a part of. What we should do is instead differentiate between commercial (pop) and non-commercial (not-so-pop) music and then also possibly between good versus bad commercial music. I love music, but I hate snobbism.
Do you think mainstream society has a love-hate relationship with pop music?
Of course it does. We all have a love/hate relationships with all things popular. Hey, I have a love/hate relationship with the United States! Sometimes we feel the general taste is horrible and sometimes we have to agree that we like and enjoy something popular. And sometimes people surprise us with their good taste and longing for that which is fresh and innovative and sometimes they disappoint us with their bad taste and urge for safety and predictability. But the same thing goes for television, film, fashion, all popular culture. It's not specific for pop music.
This draws me to Scandanavia. The term Scandipop has arisen as a subculture of music its own. This genre proudly declares pop and all its glorious colours rather than discretely hides it away within a private sphere. Why do you think Scandinavia, namely Sweden, has this jubilant relationship with pop?
Because Scandinavians tend to be a lot less snobbish than people in the UK and the US. While we are totally aware of what is in and out (otherwise H&M would not be a global brand) we happen to live in en egalitarian and almost classless society. So we spend a lot less time positioning ourselves as superior/inferior in the social games that for example the British are obsessed with (which is also why Stockholm lunch meetings take maximum a third the time of those in London). So there is no reason for Scandinavians to nurture any snobbishness in itself, we can just differentiate between good and bad quality without attaching any of these categories to our own identities. This provides a more openminded and creative environment for making music, for example. You will never hear a Scandinavian musician romantically speaking about his or her class the way a Goldsmiths student does in an NME or Pitchfork interview in the UK. Who cares?
Indeed, many songwriters whether they hail from Denmark, Norway or Sweden manage to write absolutely amazing toplines with dreamy middle eights. How did this come to pass? Sweden is the land of amazing pop music? Is this the result of something in the water?
It is the result of an old obsession with MELODY. And while arangements these days are totally minimailized; beats, sounds, and melodies are more important than ever. Now if you attach this obsession with melody (can you be more melodic than Abba, I doubt it) to the modern Scandinavian obsession with all things technology (hardware and software, The Pirate Bay and Spotify, Nokia and Ericsson) you have the formula for a highly successful musical environment, where of course also success breeeds success. Stockholm is now to pop songwriting and production what Nashville is to country music and Guangdong is to plastic toys. And it is likely to stay that way for decades to come if you judge by Nashville's continuous success.
Eurovision is a great example of this. Not only did Sweden win, but a large percent of the songs came from Sweden or were the result of a collaboration with a Swedish songwriter/producer? Is there a system-wide socio-political drive towards the arts in Sweden?
Well, 10 of the 26 finalists in this year's Eurovision Song Contest were written and produced by Swedes and Sweden also won the entire contest with a huge margin. But believe it or not, most of the elite of Swedish songwriters and producers do NOT participate at Eurovision at all. Neither Robyn, Lykke Li, nor Gravitonas would ever participate as artists, just as an example. And Max Martin and Carl Falk are busy writing #1 hits in the UK and the US and Fredrik Hult and Andreas Öhrn are busy doing the same in Japan. So none of them do Eurovision at all.
Its interesting. Loreen's single essentially gets the Europe-wide vote of support with her ESC win but also more importantly global Itunes sales and glowing chart positions. Yet radio 1 refuses to play it. Is this snobbism, as you say, or something more illicit? A condition particular to Radio 1 in the UK?
Snobbism bordering on racism. Loreen is a Swedish-Moroccan singer not using UK songwriters or producers. So Radio 1 act snobbishly and in a racist manner against her work, definitely. They wouldn't dare to treat a UK-based singer with her success story in this disgraceful manner. Why do people even still listen to Radio 1 in the UK? Can't you decide your own taste without being told what to like? It's musical Stalinism to me.
The acts you’ve been involved with: Vacuum, Army of Lovers, BwO and now Gravitonas discursively play around with social norms whether it be via the music and/or through the imagery. Is this an underpinning strategy behind your creative output? To watch the jouissance of release play-out as the music you’ve created is consumed by us?
Yes, I do hope so. There is absolutely no point in starting "just another band" as if I had an urge to expose my ego or fill up my bank account. I much prefer to be ahead of the time I live in, and do something nobody else does before they do it. Making a commentary on the society we live in should be the driving force of all art, to begin with. Making a "soundtrack to the times". This is of course where Gravitonas come into the picture and can be hard to understand at first. If only because there are no other bands or projects like Gravitonas around. Yet. But that's why it needs time to develop and grow and will be all the more relevant for it.
In each act you’re involved with there seems to be a wide range of interesting dualisms at play. Gravitonas reminds me of Morrisey and Johnny Marr. The frisson between the two of you is fabulous to hear within the music but takes the listener to a didactic position of involvement. Is this the grounding place of Gravitonas?
Yes, Gravitonas belong to a long line of acts based on a strange and twisted male-to-male relationship. Basically it's Adam vs God or Jesus vs John The Baptist in The Bible and it goes on from there into contemporary popular culture. Because patriarchy is now the most despised phenomenon in the universe, it is of course also creatively the most inspiring to work with (the way camp culture was fun to twist around with during the Army Of Lovers years when AIDS ruled the world). So yes, Gravitonas is most of all a "neo-patriarchal" band. Precisely because in popular culture we can play around with our dreams, drives, desires without having to attach them to the power struggles of everyday life (so while I'm of course a feminist I'm also extremely attracted to the concept of Patriarchy, the general theme of all things Gravitonas).
I adore this. Gravitonas takes it elsewhere. Doesn't allow it rest of its laurels and naturally the blogs, sites and communities that adore pop have swallowed this whole. Do you think it a must for pop practitioners to do this….
Well, pop fans do have enormous SENSITIVITY. It is as if they can FEEL the new and daring before it appears. And in an age where the new and daring no longer can use shock value to have an impact (which is why Lady Gaga really is just the mass market heterosexual version of what Divine did in the 1970s within camp culture) but has to play around with the collective subconscious, this INTUITION of the great pop fan (now armed with his or her own blog) is more important than ever. Gravitonas' strategy was therefore to take everything we did online and go 100% digital to avoid mass media exposure and let the theme grow slowly. And now it pays off with mass market success around Europe and in North America, but in a way not seen before. Gravitonas for example ressurected the old concept of the "imported record phenomenon" of dance music the 1970s. Music that travels across borders even before the record company knew it was on their roster. Tiesto played Gravitonas "Religious", a few weeks later we had a Billboard Club Chart hit in the U.S. Without intermediary agents!
Into this, what do you make of Scissor Sisters and their latest output of work? For me, a once interesting pop group has managed to become boring. I might be alone in this thinking but i was shocked to find a group once defined by the brilliant New York electro-cabaret-pop scene releasing an album that wasn't all that fun.
First of all, I'm a HUGE Scissor Sisters fan. But I also sense the problem they have arrived at in their career: The concept of a band with two openly gay men and their faghag female friend and fruitfly male friend was perhaps fresh and innovative in the 1990s but feels dated today, a bit like if Army Of Lovers would still be around. It is a concept that may still have relevance to people in their 40 and 50s but at least in Scandinavia there are no Scissor Sisters fans in their 20s (where pop music is most important socially) since they don't feel the concept is relevant to THEM. They can't identify themselves with the band in a society where everybody is queer and goes to mixed clubs and don't give a shit about who goes to bed with whom. At least now Scissor Sisters have moved away from their former obsession with retro Elton John songs (which prevented them from breaking in the States; the British love all things retro, the Americans hate it, Lex Robbie Williams, the ultimate pastiche artist which the Americans refused to embrace). But Scissor Sisters feel strangely alien to and uncomfortable with their new 21st century sound (as does Madonna on her latest album) and this is where the problems begin. Which explains why I feel much more at ease listening to Rufus Wainwright doing his Cole Porter-again-I-refuse-to-be-modern timeless music compared to the over-A&R-ed mishmash that is now Scissor Sisters.
Are you saying the focus groups may of got the better of the Scissor Sisters?
Listen, pop culture involves two things: Creativity in songwriting, production and performance. And relevance to fans. Relevance means that you REFLECT something, maybe even everything, in the lives of your supposed fans. At a minimum your music is the wallpaper to the lives of your fans. But the connection gets even stronger when you play the role model, become a close friend, even a mum, dad or sibling replacement, or some other intimate figure of reference. What used to be called an "idol" in a more narrow sense. Now, if your band doesn't reflect how people live their lives today but rather how their parents lived, it's going to be hard for you as an artist to become emotionally relevant outside of your music. This is usually what happens when even an established artist flops: The record they've released is not one of their best works, AND their relevance to fans has been lost. Then, who's supposed to buy or stream your record? I don't see junior Scissor Sisters people in clubs anymore. So I understand their problem now to connect. But I see Gravitonas male-male couples (typically the straight and gay guys together as best friends) everywhere and we HOPE to be relevant to them.
You’ve just worked with the British band The Face. What inspired you to write for the Face? You very rarely write for others….
My colleague Anders Hansson was asked to work with The Face and then invited me to co-write a couple of tracks. The Face are clearly a new variation of the theme that was Human League in the 1980s and then Alcazar which I wrote and produced for twenty years later. So it's a format (one guy, two girls) that I'm quite comfortable writing for. Maybe time is ripe for another band with this setting to rule the pop charts in the 2010s? That remains to be seen. In any case, The Face should work in Japan!
Would you consider writing for Kylie or Lady Gaga for example?
"Crying At The Discoteque" was actually put on hold for Kylie Minogue already 12 years ago but by then Alcazar's original was already climbing the charts in Italy and France so the track stayed permenantly with Alcazar. Lady Gaga though seems keen on writing all material for herself and is not very generous with credits to her collaborators and artists anyway. Those who don't appreciate their songwriters and producers are no fun to work with anyway. But then again, what would thses women need me for when they have all the world writing for them? And looking at my past, I'm almost totally a songwriter for MALE and not female voices. I rarely work with female and even less so female solo performers. Why should I when I'm personally much more attached to male voices? So call me if Jake from Scissor Sisters wants to make a solo record instead, haha!
Sexuality and pop has often clashed with sublime results. One might say you couldn't have one without the other. If you walked into a sex shop you can now purchase items that disembody the human body by allowing customers to require all forms of external body parts. The immense popularity of these products exposes the heightened development of bodies without organs in the very real public sphere. In the pop sphere, has this been realized in the digitization of music or do you think we’ve not yet seen potential re-ordering impact of the stratification of our bodies?"
You know if any band is post-sexual (not a-sexual, folk music has always been a-sexual, nobody wants to sleep with Bob Dylan or Mumford & Sons) it is Gravitonas. It is far more interesting now to explore intimacy and even transcendence in relationships BEYOND sexuality. Lady Gaga is probably the last sexually explicit superstar (and I count Nikki Minaj into that category of the lasts too, as she is the black Gaga while Gaga is the white Minaj). I'm genuinely tired of sex and constant sexual innuendos. Lady Gaga's "Judas" was such a TIRED idea (which also explains why it flopped so hard despite the over-the-top promo video). And if using religious symbolism, why pick Catholicism in a world oversaturated with Vatican symbolism? Why not build a new religion for a new age and then set a soundtrack to that? Then you also understand where Gravitonas are at. Keep fingers crossed now we can also make it work, haha! Time to stand and deliver!
I always thought Lady Gaga was non-sexual. I don't think she realizes this. I understand the thrust to find something beyond sexuality but when identities are scrutinized to the forensic level do you think its possible to reach this space? And how so?
No, Lady Gaga is sexual, even acting out her sexuality for all to see, but she acts within an environment that has now become so oversexualized that nobody pays attention to her sexuality. So it becomes kitsch. The fact that her most devoted fans are to be found in kindergardens says it all. Army Of Lovers did kitsch for real, for the love of kitsch. I don't believe Lady Gaga gets that. She has an army of fabulous stylists, total talent, I love them, but the result is hollow bordering on cynical. She's a walking catwalk soundtrack. That gets dull very fast and suddenly Adele came along and even the gay crowd turned over to her. Why? Because Adele is real, amazing songs, amazing voice, a personality, and all real. What more could you ask for? Unless Lady Gaga delivers some realness in a post-Adele world, I don't see her last even remotely as long as her hero Madonna has.
Yes, but then again what did you make of the recent Madonna album?
I'm afraid it's a totally irrelevant record. It hurt to see Nikki Minaj upstage Madonna at the Super Bowl and when I heard the album I felt the target group for that record sounded like they would be younger even than her own daughter. Madonna should do a Celine Dion and move to Las Vegas and perform "Like A Prayer" there on stage every night. Quickly! She is NOT with it anymore.
Are Gravitonas going to release the debut album in one whole go - or will it be somewhat like Robyn's Body Talk?
***
↧
↧
MONICA NARANJO MAKE YOU ROCK
A TOTAL WTF. DONTSTOPTHEPOP'S SINGLE OF THE YEAR.
↧
Parade Light Me Up
Parade are back (Finally!). They are now one of Dontstopthepop's favourite girlband. Collaborating with Tim Powell of Kylie, Annie, Spice Girls and Girls Aloud has meant they've assured their new single is a delicious explosion of power pop of the kind that is perfect for the summer. Released on the 1st of August I can even envisage this song as a perfect alternative theme tune to the 2012 Olympics. What I love about Light Me Up is its a nice trinket of a pop song that refuses to order the listener to somehow get down to the club and get wrecked (I am looking you Black Eyed Peas! JLS!). The command is actually in the catchiness of the song itself. Its brilliant like that. Welcome back!
↧
The Gustav Efraimsson Interview
Dontstopthepop is back from its summer break. Returning with an interview with Swedish songwriter Gustav Efraimsson. He was had cuts (and big hits) on releases by Eric Saade, Marta Sanchez, Edurne, September, Nexx, New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys and not to mention Snoop Dogg. Not only covering the sparkling world of pop, we also wanted to talk about the approaches for budding young songwriters coming into the music industry and the possible avenues they could take...
![]()
Gustav, how did you start songwriting?
I started out as a discjockey when I was 11, playing at school parties. As I grew a bit older I got to DJ at nightclubs every Friday and Saturday, but to be honest, I wasn’t very good at doing nice mixes and stuff like that. On the other hand I was great when it came to feeling the crowd and knowing what would be the perfect next song. I actually think I developed some kind of ”hit feeling” during my almost 10 years as a DJ. When I started college I attended a music production class. I was hooked as soon as sat foot in the big school studio and the teacher Pär Holmertz (who was involved in early recordings with Lenny Kravitz, Madonna and Mariah Caxrey) quickly became almost like a mentor to me. So one time while we were sitting in class some American guy rushed in with two flight tickets and begged our teacher to come with him to Switzerland later that day to do a mix. I was enormously impressed! I saved money and finally got myself a real DAW. It was a system called Ensoniq Paris and I loved sitting on my parents PC every night recording songs. Eventually I met a guy at school who also was into songwriting, started a band and got to work. Even though we were awesome (not) I hope the songs from that period aren’t online somewhere.
You started with Spanish pop princess Edurne.....
I had the pleasure of working with Edurne on her two first albums and it’s was nothing but great. Her debut single ”Despierta” (”Erase Delete Be Gone Now” in English) back in 2006 was one of my first cuts and reached #5 on the Spanish Singles Chart while the following album peaked at #3, so I have a lot to thank Edurne for.
Hand on heart, love that song. How did "Despierta" eventually come about?
I wrote the song together with Swedish songwriter Adam Alvermark in early 2005. We couldn’t come up with any good lyrics that day so we just sang fake words to remember the melody and sent it to a great lyricist called Andreas Karlegård. A few days later we got a sheet of fantastic lyrics back and recorded the song with a demo singer here in Stockholm. I was unpublished at the time but both Adams and Andreas publishers really liked the song and started to look for a suiting artist to record it. A year later someone at Andreas publishing company sent it to Sony Music in Spain that was looking for songs for their new popstar Edurne. They loved the song and decided to cut it, translate it to Spanish and record it with Edurne for her debut album. It was also chosen to be the first single and gave both me and Edurne a career kick-start. Later that year I got to produce her song “Te Falta Veneno” (her biggest hit to date if my Spanish sources are telling the truth) for her re-release of the debut album and the following year I produced “No Mirar Atras” for her second album.
Do you write your demos with a popstar in mind?
Nowadays I mostly get to write together with the popstar I’m hoping to release the song. The few times I actually write without the artist I’ll just try and do whatever feels right that day. Those songs written on pure feeling are usually my favourites.
So a track like the one you did with Edurne can sit in the vaults for a year until it finally gets to spread its wings and fly?
Yes, a couple of months ago I got a song cut I wrote back in 2004. We had an american artist working at The Kennel for a week and she didn’t really like the song ideas we had prepared for her, so instead one of my publishers, Pernilla Svanström, played her some old songs and one of them finally ended up on her new album. Thats the longest I’ve waited for a cut so far.
So when writing for Edurne did you commission demos with certain phrases and lyrics in Spanish?
No, that was one of those “feeling” songs. But sure, that can be a good thing to try so if you have a great hook in Spanish, use it.
What advice would you have to someone who had a talent for writing killer hooks in some suburb of Sweden how best could you explain the whole process of what you do, especially if they wanted to get into the industry...
I imagine it being easier today as you can make really good sounding demos on most home computers with free music software. Even the professional products like Logic Pro are now very cheap in comparison to when I started, so my advice is to start playing around with the software, learn about how equalizers and compressors work and record your songs. If you’re a pure songwriter without the necessary computer skills maybe you can team up with someone who knows his or her way around the computer. Then there are millions of ways to make your songs heard.
Would they require publishers?
The traditional answer would be Yes. I have a publisher (The Kennel) that finds great homes for my songs which lets me focus on my songwriting and producing. Once you start getting cuts it feels safe to have a team behind you that make sure all contracts are in order, the royalties from around the world are coming in and so on. But, today there’s Youtube and lots of other great places on the Internet where an artist can break through. I mean, look at Justin Bieber. The only limit is your imagination.
And how important is it have a manager to overview your demos?
For me it’s very important cause I write so many songs and really don’t have time to finish all demos. I usually sit down with my publishers and my manager Mr Hayden Bell once a month and together we decide on which songs I should focus on finishing and which songs I should leave. I usually love all songs I’m involved in so it’s hard for me to just let some of them go. On the other hand, if I don’t I end up working on songs that probably won’t get cut anyway.
Are publishers and managers essentially the link between you as a songwriter and the popstar (or record company)?
In the beginning when you don’t have a big network of your own, yes. After a few years when people in the music business know who you are and what you’ve done, it’s of course easier to make contact on your own. I actually prefer to have my manager or publisher doing that for me cause it makes me feel much cooler. Haha! ☺
Sweden is pretty notorious now for providing great songwriting talent. Why do you think is so?
We have great public music schools in Sweden that every kid can go to for free. That along with our tradition of very melodic folk music is probably the biggest reasons. I guess we just grow up listening to big catchy choruses in everything from folk music, rock to schlager. Then of course the people behind production houses like Cheiron, Murlyn and RedOne has given Songwriting more attention in Sweden and paved the way for the rest of us world wide.
Would you say the education system is simply there for it?
Considering we have free public music schools it feels like the system really encourages young kids to start playing an instrument. We even have songwriting schools on university level, still free of charge.
Some pop writers are moving away from publishers....Is this trend something you’ve experienced in Sweden?
It was the other way around for me actually, cause I started out with a manager before signing an exclusive publishing deal. At first the goal for me was to get a publishing deal, but I got a great advice from Mr Pelle Lidell at Murlyn Music (now head of a&r, Universal Publishing Europe) saying that it’s bad for you to sign a publishing deal early in your career when you don’t have that many cuts and things in the pipe. You’ll just end up with a shitty deal. Build your name first and then, when the publishers need you just as much as you need them, sign a good deal instead.
But to go back the question: No, I don’t think that’s a trend in Sweden yet. All my songwriter friends are published or want to be published.
You had massive success last year with Marta Sanchez. How did that come about?
Funny story actually. I got a mixing job for a Spanish debutant rapper called D-Mol. He was about to release a 5 song EP and needed a better sounding mix then he already had so Universal Spain called and asked me to do it. While I was already involved the famous rum brand Bacardi had heard a snippet of one of the songs, “Get Down” and thought if was perfect for their international summer campaign. They needed it to be re-written and re-produced which also landed on my table so I did new chords for the chorus, wrote a complete new bridge and changed the form of the song making it more commercial. Bacardi got us to change the title to “Get Together” so it suited their campaign better and then got Marta Sanchez to feature on it. Eventually it was D-Mol featuring instead so in a few days it went from a small mixing job to co-writing, co-producing and mixing a international single from one of the biggest names in latin music. I’m glad I took that mixing job. ☺
She’s the second Spanish performer you’ve written for. Do you think there is a pretty strong affinity between Spain and Sweden at the moment?
For me it’s been great, but I don’t know if there are any other Swedish writers doing business down there. (Ed: just check out Soraya/Pastora Solers recent releases for slices of Spanish Scandipop)
Do you think it took you some time to “crack” the industry?
I’m not sure I’ve “cracked” it yet, but it took a few years to understand how record label a&r people work. Many up’s and down’s during the way has given me a different attitude towards good news. In the beginning publishers could tell me to “order a new BMW today” and stuff like that because they claimed I had a huge cut coming (that didn’t make it on the album). I still love good news of course, but I’ve learned that a cut isn’t a cut until it’s actually out. When you have the cd in your hands or you can buy it on iTunes, that’s when it’s a cut. Not when someone tells you it is. Might sound a bit cynical, but that’s how it is. ☺
What songwriters do you admire?
Wow, there are so many but my favorite band has always been AC/DC so I guess I have to mention Angus and Malcolm Young. Then of course my fellow swede Max Martin who is nothing but a genius when it comes to writing great pop songs.
Who would be your dream artist to work with....
There’s something in Kelly Clarkson’s voice I’ve always loved so I must say she’s pretty high up on my list. Then I would say Snoop Dogg, but I’ve actually just did a song with him so that dream has already come true. Haha!
What song do you wish you’d had more time to perfect before the artist went ahead and released it?
Oh, no. Almost every song I’ve ever done! I’m never completely satisfied and can always use another day with the song I’m working on. Sorry for that not so controversial answer.
Lastly, if you had to give any advice or help to a youngster wishing to write songs for other acts what would you say?
Send your demos to record companies or music publishers...
***
I started out as a discjockey when I was 11, playing at school parties. As I grew a bit older I got to DJ at nightclubs every Friday and Saturday, but to be honest, I wasn’t very good at doing nice mixes and stuff like that. On the other hand I was great when it came to feeling the crowd and knowing what would be the perfect next song. I actually think I developed some kind of ”hit feeling” during my almost 10 years as a DJ. When I started college I attended a music production class. I was hooked as soon as sat foot in the big school studio and the teacher Pär Holmertz (who was involved in early recordings with Lenny Kravitz, Madonna and Mariah Caxrey) quickly became almost like a mentor to me. So one time while we were sitting in class some American guy rushed in with two flight tickets and begged our teacher to come with him to Switzerland later that day to do a mix. I was enormously impressed! I saved money and finally got myself a real DAW. It was a system called Ensoniq Paris and I loved sitting on my parents PC every night recording songs. Eventually I met a guy at school who also was into songwriting, started a band and got to work. Even though we were awesome (not) I hope the songs from that period aren’t online somewhere.
You started with Spanish pop princess Edurne.....
I had the pleasure of working with Edurne on her two first albums and it’s was nothing but great. Her debut single ”Despierta” (”Erase Delete Be Gone Now” in English) back in 2006 was one of my first cuts and reached #5 on the Spanish Singles Chart while the following album peaked at #3, so I have a lot to thank Edurne for.
Hand on heart, love that song. How did "Despierta" eventually come about?
I wrote the song together with Swedish songwriter Adam Alvermark in early 2005. We couldn’t come up with any good lyrics that day so we just sang fake words to remember the melody and sent it to a great lyricist called Andreas Karlegård. A few days later we got a sheet of fantastic lyrics back and recorded the song with a demo singer here in Stockholm. I was unpublished at the time but both Adams and Andreas publishers really liked the song and started to look for a suiting artist to record it. A year later someone at Andreas publishing company sent it to Sony Music in Spain that was looking for songs for their new popstar Edurne. They loved the song and decided to cut it, translate it to Spanish and record it with Edurne for her debut album. It was also chosen to be the first single and gave both me and Edurne a career kick-start. Later that year I got to produce her song “Te Falta Veneno” (her biggest hit to date if my Spanish sources are telling the truth) for her re-release of the debut album and the following year I produced “No Mirar Atras” for her second album.
Do you write your demos with a popstar in mind?
Nowadays I mostly get to write together with the popstar I’m hoping to release the song. The few times I actually write without the artist I’ll just try and do whatever feels right that day. Those songs written on pure feeling are usually my favourites.
☺
So a track like the one you did with Edurne can sit in the vaults for a year until it finally gets to spread its wings and fly?
Yes, a couple of months ago I got a song cut I wrote back in 2004. We had an american artist working at The Kennel for a week and she didn’t really like the song ideas we had prepared for her, so instead one of my publishers, Pernilla Svanström, played her some old songs and one of them finally ended up on her new album. Thats the longest I’ve waited for a cut so far.
So when writing for Edurne did you commission demos with certain phrases and lyrics in Spanish?
No, that was one of those “feeling” songs. But sure, that can be a good thing to try so if you have a great hook in Spanish, use it.
What advice would you have to someone who had a talent for writing killer hooks in some suburb of Sweden how best could you explain the whole process of what you do, especially if they wanted to get into the industry...
I imagine it being easier today as you can make really good sounding demos on most home computers with free music software. Even the professional products like Logic Pro are now very cheap in comparison to when I started, so my advice is to start playing around with the software, learn about how equalizers and compressors work and record your songs. If you’re a pure songwriter without the necessary computer skills maybe you can team up with someone who knows his or her way around the computer. Then there are millions of ways to make your songs heard.
Would they require publishers?
The traditional answer would be Yes. I have a publisher (The Kennel) that finds great homes for my songs which lets me focus on my songwriting and producing. Once you start getting cuts it feels safe to have a team behind you that make sure all contracts are in order, the royalties from around the world are coming in and so on. But, today there’s Youtube and lots of other great places on the Internet where an artist can break through. I mean, look at Justin Bieber. The only limit is your imagination.
And how important is it have a manager to overview your demos?
For me it’s very important cause I write so many songs and really don’t have time to finish all demos. I usually sit down with my publishers and my manager Mr Hayden Bell once a month and together we decide on which songs I should focus on finishing and which songs I should leave. I usually love all songs I’m involved in so it’s hard for me to just let some of them go. On the other hand, if I don’t I end up working on songs that probably won’t get cut anyway.
Are publishers and managers essentially the link between you as a songwriter and the popstar (or record company)?
In the beginning when you don’t have a big network of your own, yes. After a few years when people in the music business know who you are and what you’ve done, it’s of course easier to make contact on your own. I actually prefer to have my manager or publisher doing that for me cause it makes me feel much cooler. Haha! ☺
Sweden is pretty notorious now for providing great songwriting talent. Why do you think is so?
We have great public music schools in Sweden that every kid can go to for free. That along with our tradition of very melodic folk music is probably the biggest reasons. I guess we just grow up listening to big catchy choruses in everything from folk music, rock to schlager. Then of course the people behind production houses like Cheiron, Murlyn and RedOne has given Songwriting more attention in Sweden and paved the way for the rest of us world wide.
Would you say the education system is simply there for it?
Considering we have free public music schools it feels like the system really encourages young kids to start playing an instrument. We even have songwriting schools on university level, still free of charge.
Some pop writers are moving away from publishers....Is this trend something you’ve experienced in Sweden?
It was the other way around for me actually, cause I started out with a manager before signing an exclusive publishing deal. At first the goal for me was to get a publishing deal, but I got a great advice from Mr Pelle Lidell at Murlyn Music (now head of a&r, Universal Publishing Europe) saying that it’s bad for you to sign a publishing deal early in your career when you don’t have that many cuts and things in the pipe. You’ll just end up with a shitty deal. Build your name first and then, when the publishers need you just as much as you need them, sign a good deal instead.
But to go back the question: No, I don’t think that’s a trend in Sweden yet. All my songwriter friends are published or want to be published.
You had massive success last year with Marta Sanchez. How did that come about?
Funny story actually. I got a mixing job for a Spanish debutant rapper called D-Mol. He was about to release a 5 song EP and needed a better sounding mix then he already had so Universal Spain called and asked me to do it. While I was already involved the famous rum brand Bacardi had heard a snippet of one of the songs, “Get Down” and thought if was perfect for their international summer campaign. They needed it to be re-written and re-produced which also landed on my table so I did new chords for the chorus, wrote a complete new bridge and changed the form of the song making it more commercial. Bacardi got us to change the title to “Get Together” so it suited their campaign better and then got Marta Sanchez to feature on it. Eventually it was D-Mol featuring instead so in a few days it went from a small mixing job to co-writing, co-producing and mixing a international single from one of the biggest names in latin music. I’m glad I took that mixing job. ☺
She’s the second Spanish performer you’ve written for. Do you think there is a pretty strong affinity between Spain and Sweden at the moment?
For me it’s been great, but I don’t know if there are any other Swedish writers doing business down there. (Ed: just check out Soraya/Pastora Solers recent releases for slices of Spanish Scandipop)
Do you think it took you some time to “crack” the industry?
I’m not sure I’ve “cracked” it yet, but it took a few years to understand how record label a&r people work. Many up’s and down’s during the way has given me a different attitude towards good news. In the beginning publishers could tell me to “order a new BMW today” and stuff like that because they claimed I had a huge cut coming (that didn’t make it on the album). I still love good news of course, but I’ve learned that a cut isn’t a cut until it’s actually out. When you have the cd in your hands or you can buy it on iTunes, that’s when it’s a cut. Not when someone tells you it is. Might sound a bit cynical, but that’s how it is. ☺
What songwriters do you admire?
Wow, there are so many but my favorite band has always been AC/DC so I guess I have to mention Angus and Malcolm Young. Then of course my fellow swede Max Martin who is nothing but a genius when it comes to writing great pop songs.
Who would be your dream artist to work with....
There’s something in Kelly Clarkson’s voice I’ve always loved so I must say she’s pretty high up on my list. Then I would say Snoop Dogg, but I’ve actually just did a song with him so that dream has already come true. Haha!
What song do you wish you’d had more time to perfect before the artist went ahead and released it?
Oh, no. Almost every song I’ve ever done! I’m never completely satisfied and can always use another day with the song I’m working on. Sorry for that not so controversial answer.
Lastly, if you had to give any advice or help to a youngster wishing to write songs for other acts what would you say?
Send your demos to record companies or music publishers...
***
↧
Kylie - Flower
Popstars and ballads seem to be a bit of a rarity these days despite the pop leviathan that is Adele and her polemic album sales. The general urge is to release a single for the clubs that tend to scrape the bottom of the dancefloor barrel. So when a popstar releases an astonishingly beautiful ballad one has to pay to attention. Flower is a stunning piece of work first heard by fans on her X tour. A cousin of Kylie's equally wonderful Bittersweet Goodbye, Flower basks in the splendid sunshine that initially sparkled when Kylie departed PWL and joined Deconstruction. Even in the video you can almost feel the dark presence of Nick Cave ready to scribe his words and fists onto the tragic Eliza Day.
Flower is also a break. A break from the heady dance pop eruption that has been spinning around since, er, Spinning Around. While there are indeed roots of Flower that trace back to her earlier songwriting such as Say The World - I'll Be There and No World Without You, the song is a clear breather from the glorious poptastic intensity we often receive from KylieWorld. Rather, Flower proffers the opportunity to take stock, sit back, order a lush red merlot and reminisce over the twenty five years of incredibly powerful pop music and equally amazing iconic pop moments. More, not only is it a perfect introduction to the impending Abbey Road album but also a toast to the next enthralling and exciting stage in Minogue's career wherever it may blossom next.
↧
↧
OMG OMG OMG! Listen to Kylie's Abbey Road Sessions Album Here
First of all - how amazing does Never Too Late sound? Oh and Confide In Me - absolutely 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaa'. You can preview the album here thanks to the lovely lovely lovely lovely people over at HMV Digital. I am speechless. On the snippets alone it sounds like dipping into sun-kissed waters with the troubles of the day evaporating into the atmos. Not to mention Kylie's gorgeous voice. I am too excited about this album to actually form proper words to form a review right now. Least to say I'm blissfulized. Yeah, it doesn't exist in the Oxford English Dictionary but it perfectly describes the way I'm feelin solely on the little trinkets currently available right now at HMV online. CANNOT WAIT.
↧
Loreen - Heal - The Album Tracklisting
So here it is! Heal! The much anticipated album from Loreen. I am in Spain at the moment where Euphoria is still riding high in the charts and radio play. So the timing couldn't be perfect.
“Heal” is set to be released worldwide on 26th October. Fans of Robyn and Kleerup will absolutely love it.
1. In My Head
2. My Heart Is Refusing Me
3. Everytime
4. Euphoria
5. Crying Out Your Name
6. Do We Even Matter
7. Sidewalk
8. Sober
9. If She’s The One
10. Breaking Robot
11. See You Again
12. Heal (feat. Blanks)
2. My Heart Is Refusing Me
3. Everytime
4. Euphoria
5. Crying Out Your Name
6. Do We Even Matter
7. Sidewalk
8. Sober
9. If She’s The One
10. Breaking Robot
11. See You Again
12. Heal (feat. Blanks)
↧
Monica Naranjo wows with Make You Rock
Monica Naranjo is the Spanish Queen of Pop. With every release she constantly breaks the mold and Make You Rock is a yet another fine example of her revolutionary approach to music. This rather scary video seems as if it consists of all the bits one might've expected to be in the Ridley Scott prequel to Alien Prometheus mashed-up with the iconic Nicole Kidman film The Others. The powerfully haunting video gloriously borrows beautiful aspects of HR Giger backed with a stunning anthem which samples Bronski Beats iconic Smalltown Boy.
Make You Rock marks Monica's third English release after her recent dance collaborations with Brian Cross Crying For Heaven and the single Dream Alive. However Make You Rock is unlike the aforementioned previous two releases as it belongs to a project captained by Monica called CommunityBeat where the artists takes power. In a time of crisis when politicians blame the creative community for the immoral actions of bankers, Make You Rock sees Monica celebrate the multitude of artists around the world in their bedrooms and studios where their art is exposed to the world beyond regulations, borders and the traditional underpinning controls mainly in part to the birth of the internet.
Hence the lack of physical format on Make You Rock. Thus, for Monica, this release will cut out the middle-man. She is in absolute and total control. The song, CommunityBeat and video is her answer to the paradigm created by the 15-M movement in Madrid. Into this aperture, Monica pushes art and pop together in ways beyond the norm ensuring the artist is closer to the speakerphone and music lover. This is artpop that never tasted so real or delicious. Amazing. I'd love an entire album of Monica Naranjo dance-pop anthems like this. Why? Because she just takes it to the next level.
↧
KYLIE MINOGUE ABBEY ROAD SESSIONS REVIEW
Take a step back into time. Sparkle right back to May 1997 and Kylie Minogue was in the midst of readying her Impossible Princess album. In its inept ability to get its head around a woman expressing multifaceted sides of her sound and career British media decided to label her the awfully reductive title “indieKylie”. Not quite realizing it was when she was with PWL she was in fact an independent musician and her mid-1990s move to Deconstruction actually marked the first time she belonged to a major record company. Splitting hairs I suppose, but my point is rarely do you see male performers reduced to such stifling categories and labels. Into the penumbra of “IndieKylie”, Minogue found herself promoting Did It Again a few months later where she & William Baker wonderfully deconstructed the previously mentioned tacky categorization of her career with a deliciously mischievous video by Pedro Romanyi.
Just before unveiling Impossible Princess live, Steve Anderson and Kylie decided to do something incredibly special. It totally bucked the current imagined label of “IndieKylie”. It was one of the first appearances of Showgirl Kylie – the Kylie we’ve seen don corsets studded with crystals, diamonds and sequins. Kylie performed a brand new version of I Should Be So Lucky at the grand opening of Crown Casino in Melbourne with an Anderson arrangement that gently kissed goodbye to its glorious Hit Factory trademarks and it re-emerged as a torch ballad with glistening beautiful strings that shimmered into the memories of the lucky ones in the audience that night. Fans would see Kylie repeat this performance during her Intimate & Live tour in 1998 and most importantly, it became Anderson and Minogue’s step towards the Abbey Road Sessions. Ever since, Steve and Kylie have constantly tucked-in a stripped down re-worked re-imaged re-corseted re-interpretation of her hits. Whether it be for a radio station, a part of a tour or bonus track, this Abbey Road album has often been whispered about, wished upon a star or two and desired by every one of her fans. So, given this huge context and genesis’s does the album work?
In many ways, proceedings begin relatively small. All The Lovers is re-woven into a warm-blanket you run under during severe frosty mornings. The crisp yet smooth vocal arrangements surround the aural passages with love, depth and immediately tell the listener its story. Because of its drastic re-working, the lyrics come to the fore and suddenly phrases and couplets of the song take on different meanings. The same applies to On A Night Like This. The drama of the track takes over, upstaging the pop-dance original from 2000 and it becomes a contender for the next James Bond anthem. The vocal arrangements here really come into their own and reconstruct the follow-up to Spinning Around into a bombastic hegemonic and tempestuous torch ballad.
Better The Devil You Know re-emerges into a summery Sunday sunshine affair led by dreamy backing vocals and a simple piano. As Kylie’s stunning vocals embrace the speakers it becomes clear Anderson & Minogue have re-constructed the 1990s poptastic anthem into a lost Burt Bacharach gem that perhaps could’ve been demo’d by Dusty Springfield on her Memphis album. The revision is both amazing and masterful. Better The Devil You Know wonderfully becomes a song you could play next to something on the now iconic Carpenters album Close To You. The easy mood is carried on into Hand On Your Heart where Kylie systematically re-illuminates every phrase and lyric giving the Kylie hit a new sense of longing, story and meaning.
![]()
The acoustic magic is innately present in the stripped back piano led I Believe In You. Kylie’s voice needs recognizing at this moment. The likes of Annie Lennox and Tori Amos would dream to have this version on their future releases such is dream-like quality of Kylie’s voice and delivery. Come Into My World teases out a melancholic sense of yearning not realized or recognized in the original production. To me, the re-working unravels a feeling that promises an uneasy sense of lack and sorrow. In other words, Come Into My World re-emerges as a hegemonic story of unrequited love. This is quite astonishing. Perhaps because Kylie and Steve have indeed stripped away the song once before only in the past it almost felt like an angelic Christmas song. It was during her Showgirl tour and Kylie appeared perched on a moon. The two versions, both re-arranged, tell a completely different story despite containing exactly the same lyrics.
The Abbey Road Sessions thus emerges as a very special project indeed. For in each song, Kylie masterfully becomes the narrator of stories conveyed through re-arrangements of pop hits we all love. Well-adored hooks, lyrics, couplets and phrases suddenly take on completely different layers & meanings. You thought that was a happy pop song? – oh no!
As Kylie re-writes & it becomes evident that you can envisage the likes of Julie London & Helen Merrill raise their eye-brows, order a second martini and turn up The Abbey Road Sessions. Indeed, Finer Feelings - a symbolic inclusion as it was this single that brought Anderson & Minogue together in 1991 - gloriously now sounds like a surprising hybrid of Massive Attack and something you’d find on Julie London’s album Around Midnight. The sweeping ambient strings marry with Kylie’s sumptuous voice that ensure it becomes the definitive version of the song – the original seemingly banished. This album is clearly not a cheap exercise in re-covering ground but a journey in reclaiming the originals and upstaging them. Confide In Me is arguably a rather great example of this. Anderson and Minogue take the 1994 epic single to stratospheric heights as they pour petrol over a forest fire, add dynamite into the mix and then some kerosene into the blaze. This Confide In Meis evil, wrought, feverish, sensual and dangerous. Fused into its new dna, are traces of John Murphy’s absolutely spine-chilling In A House In A Heartbeat track that interwove itself around Danny Boyles 28 Days Later. Confide In Me becomes a indomitable leviathan of broken love and dark tears. The ride is thrilling.
If Confide In Me was a re-worked opus rejoicing pleasure, lust and loss realized in the battlefield of love, Slow protrudes, pervades and penetrates. It sighs, purrs, and oozes like the objects of desire in the burlesque houses of the 1930s in Paris and Berlin. The electronic vibes of its original are discharged but because the silky sensual susurrus of the song is brought to the fore, this new bluesy re-arrangement tingles, vibrates, beats and climaxes. Slurp! The mood of the entire album jumps up with a stompy version of Kylie’s first ever single The Loco-Motion. Stylized with delicious echoes of the Little Eva original and traces of the girlband versions by The Chiffons & The Vernon Girls. In many ways, taken altogether the album is thus complete, airtight and totally contained by the time we get to the end of Loco-Motion. It is a real ‘let them eat cake’ moment when a read of tracklisting reveals that there are a further six more songs left to go. With its sassy brass, kick-ass hand-claps and yummy middle-eight, The Loco-motion is the poptastic cherry atop of a very very delicious cake. We are utterly spoilt.
The strings barge back onto the album with Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. The backing vocalists again do a marvelous job amplifying the intense message of intoxicating addiction that this re-imagined version re-emerges as. The string arrangements spiral, twist and exalt as Kylie conveys her extended sonnet of addiction and obsession. In many ways, a result of violent passion of the type exposed in the intense re-interpretation of Can’t Get You Out Of My Head is provided in the tragic Where The Wild Roses Grow. The duet with Nick Cave is the only previously released song on The Abbey Road Sessions that isn’t drastically different to its original. However in this version the danger of the story is brought closer to the bone. The scarlet red of the lovers violence is more vivid, fluid and present. Nick Cave peels away the safety heard in the original so the rawness of the lyrics realize the power and horror of the story. There are also moments when Where The Wild Roses Grow also seems like a lost Johnny Cash original.
![]()
When DSTP interviewed Steve Anderson about Flower he said was “one of the most important songs we have ever written and I was honoured to be chosen to write it with her.” So its incredibly hard to describe or review the immensely personal song. As such I am going to chicken out. Suffice to say Flower shows off Kylies amazing voice much in the same way Confide In Me, Bittersweet Goodbye, Ocean Blue andLove Is Waiting has in the past. What follows Flower is arguably the song that started it all – I Should Be So Lucky. The version she performed all those years ago when she opened a casino in Melbourne. Fans will have something like this arrangement on their Intimate & Live album but this is the first time the beautiful torch ballad treatment has ever been recorded. It becomes evident a Kylie jazz album would be pretty much perfect for Minogue. This version of I Should Be So Lucky sounds like it could’ve sparkled on a soundtrack sung by a young Judy Garland during her classic MGM years. During the Light Years campaign, fans were treated to guitar-led fusions of summery acoustic tracks that found themselves on b-sides to the likes of Please Stay and Spinning Around. Listen back to The Good Life, Paper Dolls and Ocean Blue and the re-worked Love At First Sight fits with ease with that special great tome in Kylie’s early time under the EMI umbrella.
![]()
Ultimately this paves the way to Never Too Late. The perky PWL pop trinket is radically transformed into a beautiful easy jazz blues ballad that sounds like it could’ve been on a Blossom Dearie album around 1958. A spine-tingling piano arrangement wraps around Kylie’s excellent yet shockingly heartbreaking vocal that heightens the songs story of unrequited love. The beauty of Never Too Late can not be understated and displays the sheer talent of all those involved in making this album emerge. Under three short minutes, this version of Never Too Late highlights the intrinsic high standard of skill involved in the entire project as a whole.Steve Anderson and Kylie wonderfully re-dress Never Too Latewith glistening diamonds and stardust befitting a song that belongs to the Blossom Dearie songbook. Into this, Never Too Late engenders the notion that The Abbey Road Sessions is not solely a celebration of Kylie’s career but also her voice and the incredible tenderness Steve Anderson and Cliff Masterson have for her hits as they re-write them into timeless classics. Ultimately, it becomes apparent that The Abbey Road Sessionsis an album of stories one of which is a key narrative being of processes – the journey of ‘hits to classics’ and it is because of this that the sixteen songs embody a magic work of art.
↧
↧
LOVE SHOT ME DOWN ALBUM REVIEW - (Its extremely good)
Last year saw Willem put out one of my all time favourite pop album. Prismophonic by Christophe Willem. Combining the electronic strands of Kylie Minogue’s Aphrodite with the bolds of neon fragility of Robyn’s Body Talk, Christophe Willem delivered a collection of songs that go to the core of why I love pop music. Written and recorded mostly in London with mostly British songwriters it very much seemed like a love letter to the British pop music scene so a release an English version of Willem's Prismophonic (re-titled Love Shot Me Down) this December (via Sony) seemed very natural indeed. So, on the eve Willem previews his first ever English album in London (tickets) it seems right to revisit the fabulous album.....
Starlight 11/10
(Richard Stannard - James Wiltshire - Russell Small - Amanda Wilson - Tom Kent - Hawk Wolinski)
Poppers-o-clock alert! Where the hell did I put that glowstick! This includes a sample of Ain’t Nobody by Chaka. And it totally works. Starlight features the production lines of Freemasons (twitter) + Biff (twitter) and you can feel their magic sparkle over the anthem in the waiting. Christophe doesn’t mess with a club classic in the way Cher Lloyd abused Buffalo Stance. Rather, this is one mighty tribute to the genre of sound that courses through the album like a river that has broke its banks. Pure electro heaven. Put this song on, pass the poppers, let the muscles expand, get onto the podium, take centre stage and dance!!!
Best Lyric/Bit: "What your giving me is starlight! Starlight!"
Automatic Love 11/10
(Joakim Olovsson – Björn Olovsson - Isabel Guzman - Pär Andreas)
Check those credits people! Its Isabel Guzman! Its Tortuga (twitter)! Though the explosive pop anthem hails from Sweden, it is made for the dancefloors of London. Madonna would start a killing spree to have on her album. This so bombastic, it catapults itself into a place of pop brilliance and consumes the aural passages with delirious dancetastic pleasure. Automatic Love also includes one of the finest middle eight of the last twelve months so much so that the inner organs have found their dancing boots and are on the guestlist of Fabric by the time the song is over. Pure pop perfection.
Best Lyric/Bit: "I gotta reload (Oh!). Trigger my soul (oh!). Oh! (oh!)"
(Franck Deweare / Jean-Pierre Pilot - William Rousseau - Olivier Schultheis)
I originally despised this song. Especially after the sublime high of Starlite, Cool appears like an unsightly stain on diamond encrusted disco hotpants. Moreover, when placed next to the other pop anthems that follow Cool screams everything but its title suggests. However, in English it sounds vastly better.
Best Lyric/Bit: "Someone stop me cuz i'm going crazy! Crazy! Crazy! Cra-cra-crazy!"
Timeless 11/10
(Steve Anderson - Karen Poole)
I loved the French version of this but my heart has enlarged on listening to the English. It was always absolutely stunning. But, the re-issue of the album is worth it for Timeless alone. The album suddenly emerges as a love letter to London’s club world and its sparkling nightlife. Herein, the throbbing baselines wrap around a breathtaking classical string arrangement. Delicious. This is an opus.
Best Lyric/bit: "So before they bring the curtain down, lets stay locked inside the moment now to remind us....that we're timeless."
Safe And Sound 10/10
(Steve Anderson - Karen Poole)
There are two brilliant dance-pop albums of the last ten years that I hold close to my heart. One being Light Years by Kylie Minogue and the other is Robyn’s self-titled album that contained the hits Be Mine and With every heartbeat. Both Kylie & Robyn also included ballads in amongst the pop-club epics. The stunning Bittersweet Goodbye and chilling Eclipse. Safe And Sound is now a member of that club. Breathtaking.
Best Lyric/Bit: "Hold Me, lay my head down until I'm Safe and sound"
Lasers & Sparklers 11/10
(Christophe Willem / Steve Anderson – Jamie Hartman – Tina Harris)
WOW. This is like putting on a really nice moisturizer and then feeling the softness of the skin the day afterwards. Or that breezy feeling when jetlag has lifted and you're at your destination. And the sun rises above the clouds. Body clock tells ya, you're still in the mess of London, but the warmth on the skin tells you you're miles away. Watching the sun rise over the sea with the closest of friends. You've left the streets of London and now your feet are in between the warm sands of some far away place as the hot sea lashes the shore. One of the finest pop songs of the year. By the way, love the organ in the middle eight. Altogether absolutely amazing.
Best Lyric/Bit: "I saw beautiful vistas, moonscapes, pauses and pictures"
Tears Will Dry 10/10
(Kylie Minogue - Richard Stannard - Ash Howes - Carl Ryden - Seton Daunt)
Steve Anderson (twitter), the albums exec producer, and Christophe invite the one and only pop legend Kylie Minogue! With touches of Fever, Give It To Me & Aphrodite, Tears Will Dry is the icing on the cake if the cake was a drug called pop. Yummy.
Best lyric/bit: "I wanna show all I know. And give it time to glow"
When You Dance With Me 10/10
(Steve Anderson - Lisa Greene)
I love Lisa Greene. I can’t wait for her album. Lisa and Steve have wrote some of my favourite songs for popstars together (Breathe On Me by Britney for example). The collaboration of the two with Christophe repeats the wonderment first realized in songs like Breathe On Me, Dentro Me, Hypnotic, Roll Over and State Of Grace. At first, When You Dance with Me starts of small but by the end it comes out of its closet and sparkles like a firework. Its only a return visit to the song that it emerges as a throb that emerges into one permanent climax perpetually erupting into pop deliverance. Constantly stunning.
Best lyric/bit: "I only dance like I dance when you dance with me"
Love Shot Me Down 11/10
(Richard X - Hannah Robinson)
Written by legendary Richard X (twitter) and pop pioneer Hannah Robinson (twitter), Love Shot Me Down slides in-between the dark nightclubs of Berlin and the neon-lit corridors of East London. Here we have a type of song that Jake Shears would pant for. This is the lovechild of George Michael’s Fastlove and Star People layered with the spunky dna of trance hits by Infernal such as From Paris To Berlin. Glorious
Best lyric/Bit: "Love shot me down thru the heart again"
Falling 11/10
(Sarah deCourcy - Steve Reed)
Absolutely fucking speechless. If it was ever possible to capture the beauty of a falling snowflake via sound without it ever melting away Falling does so. Written by Sarah DeCourcy (twitter) and Steve Reed (twitter), Falling underscores why, for me, Prismophonic was one of the pop albums of 2011. Yes, Coldplay are amazing writers and Fix You is a brilliant song but Falling runs circles around Fix You and still manages to feel so at home on an album that also contains songs written by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Isabel Guzman and Richard X. It simply seals the deal. Punctures through the need for classification, alienation and correlation. Epic.
Best lyric/bit: Impossible to pick.
Best lyric/bit: Impossible to pick.
↧
THE STEVE ANDERSON K25 INTERVIEW
Steve! I think a congratulations is in order – its been twenty years since you first collaborated with Kylie! An immense achievement. How does it feel?!
To be honest until you mentioned it I hadn’t really thought about it like that and it certainly hasn’t felt that long but overall I would say it feels amazing.
Did you recall doing those early remixes+initial steps in the industry…..?
I was lucky enough to get an apprenticeship/teaboy job at DMC Studios after creating some mixes for their subscription service. One of the perks was getting to play with multi-tracks that came into the building which an unknown remixer would never have had access to otherwise. This turned into me creating two remixes a month for them and that’s really how I learned the craft I guess. Luckily a few people saw something in that and gave me a break remixing for labels including the ones you mentioned. Ultimately without DMC I wouldn’t have had that springboard to show what I could do and also work around such brilliant and talented people who I learned from all the time.
Can you recall what was running through your head when you wrapped-up on the finer feelings remix?
I had actually remixed “Step Back In Time” for DMC before that as I was (and still am) a huge Kylie fan so I remember getting that multitrack and being blown away by her vocal on it. “Finer Feelings” came from someone at PWL loving what we were doing with Brothers In Rhythm which up until then had been predominantly house music so taking on a gorgeous mid tempo was quite a risk but of course we loved the song and just embellished what was there with a whole load of piano, strings and choir - been doing that ever since!
Would you have told me to get my head checked if I had told you that you’d end up doing that version of Finer Feelings once again twenty years later with an orchestra and at Abbey Road Studios? It is been a remarkable journey.
It has and I didn’t really think about the significance when arranging the Abbey Road version as I had such a clear vision of how I thought it should be. The song is so fantastic that it was perfect for that cinematic feel and her vocal on it is extraordinary. Also it was a great excuse to put a “Lawrence Of Arabia” kind of orchestral arrangement to it which i did as always with the brilliant Cliff Masterson.
That Finer Feelings remix – what did you want to do with that remix?
On the original 1992 remix it was purely about making the rhythm section tougher and the orchestration more lush - everyone was influenced by Massive Attack then so that’s where we were headed but probably came off a little more cinematic - as always.
Why do you think the collaboration between yourself and her works so well?
I think we just get each other - she inspires me more than anyone I’ve ever worked with and there’s always a real thrill when I know I’ve done something thats going to make her smile.
Do you think “it just works” because you know the DNA of nearly every Kylie song she’s released.... On nearly every release you just have your head around every track every time she puts out a new album?
I wouldn’t say every song she’s released but I’ve worked on a fair bit of it especially this year with Anti Tour where we kept adding songs! Also the reinvention thing is great but sometimes I love just going back to the original versions and maybe just beefing them up a bit which is what we got to do with “Spinning Around” in Aphrodite and now that version sits just as comfortably at The Queens Diamond Jubilee and Proms In The Park.
Gotta ask as its Christmas time...A Kylie Christmas album! In ten or twenty years?
Wouldn’t that be perfect? Its amazing there hasn’t been one already. Its all about timing as always but I’m sure when its the right time then it will happen - how could it not...
Get tickets for the Christmas last show tomorrow here
You've got actually Christmas show coming up called Santa’s Little Belter. Whats that all about?
Santa’s Little Belter is an special Christmas edition of our Little Belter show at Madame Jo Jo’s - its so much fun and of course a great excuse to do as many great Xmas songs as possible. This year we’ve added a new arrangement I did for “O Holy Night” as its one of my favourite Xmas songs and perfect for Elouise to truly shine on.
You’ve also taken on the masterpiece by David Foster Grown Up Christmas List! What inspired you to do that beautiful Christmas classic?
I love Amy’s voice and her Xmas album is one of my favourites, especially this song, so I jumped at the chance of including it in the show. I am a huge fan of David Foster and was lucky enough to work with him on Kylie’s performance with Rod Stewart on his ITV Christmas show recently.
Santa’s Little Belter also includes a fantastic performance of The Weather Girls glorious disco tune Dear Santa (Bring Me A Man). How did you not crack up recording Terry Ronalds bit as the naughty elf on the track?
Terry often records guide vocals for everything we do and they are always a scream to listen to. However there is a serious side as its a great reference for the actors or singers when they come to delivering it themselves.
Dynamic is a big thing in a lot of the work you produce (in remixes, shows aswell as productions and songwriting)…..this year saw a multitude of Steve Anderson related “stuff”: tours, releases and musicals. Been a busy bee! What keeps you going?!
I just love my job and having the opportunity to work with incredibly talented people. I’m not very good at saying no if I think something is going to be fun and challenging as I’m always learning which is the best part.
2012 started with the Little Belter show tour in the UK that includes a soundtrack that again re-imagines classics and “remixes” them for a 2012 audience. And with Hurly Burly too – you revise contemporary classics & give them the burlesque treatment. From your perspective was this part of the point and logic behind the music of both shows?
Little Belter was about creating a show around Elouise’s amazing voice. She is a unique mixture of Bassey/Garland and Streisand so it gives us the chance to revisit some amazing old songs and rework some new ones to suit the way she sings. Also just singing the songs isn’t enough so Terry Ronald’s writing and her performance really brings the show to life and invites people into her world for a bit plus its a lot of fun alongside some beautiful heartbreaking moments.....Hurly Burly is all about the fun! William Baker, Terry Ronald, Ashley Wallen and I have loved burlesque as an art form for so long so the chance to work with Polly Rae and her fabulous girlies has been a real labour of love and one that has taken us on an incredible journey including three West End runs and shows in Australia and South Africa. I firmly believe the current version of the show is the strongest ever so I hope it continues to go from strength to strength. I actually think it good that I have ways of getting those ideas out there especially with Hurly Burly, otherwise they might end of up on something they shouldn’t! Everything is arranging at the end of the day which is just an extension of remixing. I have an ability to be able to hear a song in my head completely stripped away from its original music and re worked so its very lucky I’ve been able to do that as a job.
Hurly Burly saw you, William, Ashley W and Terry Ronald work with Polly Rae create a series of burlesque postcards, backed with a modern soundtrack, that celebrated pop and merged that together with the world of burlesque – a genre usually housed in the home of cabaret. Was this your intention?
Yes - it was about old fashioned Benny Hill/Carry On fun - very British and very classic but with a contemporary twist especially in the music and song choices. Basically if it made us all laugh out loud it went in. You would be surprised how easily the ideas came together as its just our sense of humour.
Steve with Elouise
With Little Belter what did you and the creative team set out to do with regards to the music in it.
Little Belter is like a watching an amazing boxer go 20 rounds to win a prize fight. Elouise taking on the biggest songs in the world and knocking them down one by one whilst taking the audience on a journey with her. Musically I was adamant with both shows it had to sound classic so we used a lot of real instruments especially brass as well as employing the genius talent of Francis Goodhand when it came to something like transcribing a new arrangement based around a scratchy mono recording of “As Long As He Needs Me” from the Judy Garland TV Special to enable us to re orchestrate it as closely as possible.
Although there is the central story of the singer in Little Belter, could you also make the argument that Little Belter is in many ways also about the importance of songs and the underpinning role of the arrangers that have provided the canvases that allowed the likes of Judy, Dusty, Barbra and Shirley to paint their gorgeous pictures on?
Absolutely. There are so many different versions of classic songs and these are all down to the arrangers who were very often uncredited.
And, if so, I would say the same of Abbey Road. As for me it really does celebrate the glorious melodies by Matt and Mike of PWL. Abbey Road brings to the fore some of that excellent chord progression and as such the album celebrates that....
Yes. The structure of the PWL songs was so classic and very much in the style of Motown where it was all about chords and melody and so much less about being cool and credible. That’s why the songs stand the test of time.
The Hurly Burly Girls
If there is one moment you could take from Hurly Burly and Little Belter what would it be? For me, it has to be the Geisha Medley. And in Little Belter it's a toss up between Smile and No More Tears.
My favourite thing in Hurly Burly is probably “Bad” as it just works so brilliantly and the build up alongside Polly’s bed routine is so superb. I also have a real soft spot for our Marie Antoinette medley as its a bunch of songs that you would never put together but works so well. From Little Belter my favourite is “As Long As He Needs Me” as its a real showstopper and she absolutely nails it every time.
With Hurly Burly wrapping up its South African stint and Little Belter setting off to Australia what other shows do you have up your sleeve…
We have a new show which has just opened in Miami called |Orchid which is a cross between Moulin Rouge and Cirque Du Soleil with a strong burlesque influence. Its William Baker, myself, Terry Ronald and Ashley Wallen again but much more of a Broadway cast mixed with incredible circus performers. The music is very much still modern pop but its less bawdy than Hurly Burly - it still has its moments but there is more a narrative throughout. It also has an incredible star in Lexy Romano who inspired the new version I arranged of “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for it (Hear it here). I'm also thrilled that I am going to be working with Leona Lewis again on her UK tour. I absolutely adore Leona and its so inspiring having a voice like hers to arrange for.
With the Australian stretch of Little Belter how will it differ from the UK version of the show?
We are literally just getting started on it now but the idea is to be bigger more spectacular than ever before - it has to be done especially in Melbourne which I regard as my second home anyway plus I have so many great memories of Crown Casino. Its such a fabulous venue so I can’t wait to put the show in there.
Talking of taking things to new territories – lets talk about Christophe Willem. You must be delighted to see his English album finally coming out!?(see below for the DSTP review)
Finally is the word. Christophe and I had the original idea to record the album in both languages at the same time which was hard work for him but he loves a challenge. Also most of the songs were originally written in English and then adapted to French for the Prismophonic album. So yes I am thrilled its coming out as I am so proud of what we did alongside such an incredible team of contributors including Freemasons , Biff Stannard, Richard X , Karen Poole, Sarah deCourcy , Jamie Hartman and Hannah Robinson. Hopefully it will be on iTunes early next year.
I loved his London show this month and would love to see him do a few more dates here.....
Me too - its one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to so I hope he gets to do more.
You were of course the executive producer for his album….that included so many brilliant pop talents….would you ever be up for producing Kylies next album?
Thanks - who knows whats to come but I’m so happy I got to produce The Abbey Road Sessions and Prismophonic as I think they show both sides of what I do equally well.
I’d love Christophe to release an acoustic version of the album. In London, he did some wonderful stripped back version....
Me too - he did the most beautiful stripped down version of “When You Dance With Me” with Sarah at that show which you could tell really affected people. I think it would be great if he did a more acoustic album , maybe some of his songs and some covers. His voice is incredible and the tone so superb - with the right arrangements and production I think an album like that could be so very special.
And..for Kylie? Musically…If we get a 12th studio album next year…what would you like it to sound like?
I would like it to sound like Kylie being in the best place in the world doing what she loves.
Is it true there’s going to be a Denise Van Outen project hitting the west end soon?
Yes. Terry Ronald and Denise have written a fabulous one woman show which is hopefully opening early next year. As Denise has an incredible voice there are plenty of opportunities for a few songs and I’ve reworked some classics in a very different style - can’t say too much at the moment but we couldn’t be more excited! I love Denise - she’s got the most wicked sense of humour and is a much bigger talent than people probably know - hopefully this show will be able to show this. I’d love to say more but I don’t want the Basildon mafia turning up!
If I could only pick one I would say Kylie’s Proms In The Park was my highlight. It was the realisation of so many years of planning and I honestly could not have been more proud of her.
***
Part two of Interview Coming Soon!
↧
THE STEVE ANDERSON K25 INTERVIEW PART TWO
So lets get into the nitty-gritty behind the sparkle! 2012 has been amazingly busy year for Kylie celebrating her 25thyears in the music industry. Lets start with Anti-Tour. Hearing Bittersweet Goodbye and Disco Down live was amazing.
Anti Tour was without doubt the most fun rehearsal period we’ve ever had. Just the freedom to try things out and rediscover amazing album tracks and rarities and all in the Melbourne rehearsal studio we used for Intimate And Live. I always say that a lot of her album tracks are better than a lot of peoples singles and I think this tour proved that. Nothing sounded like filler , it was all killer! Also working on the PWL songs was a dream especially “Enjoy Yourself” which is pure happiness personified. I loved how she found her new “PWL voice” too and the audience reaction was one of the loveliest and warmest I’ve ever witnessed. It was also really special to hear “Bittersweet Goodbye” sung live as she just sounds so beautiful on that song.
What is the story behind Bittersweet Goodbye?
We were writing at Real World and in those situations especially in a residential studio sometimes you just wake up with an idea which is what happened here. I went into the studio and started playing piano and then I think she came in with her lyric book and almost instantly started singing along. As with all the really good ones it happened very quickly and I think we had finished the demo in about 2 hours including the middle section which is so dream like.
When Kylie came to you with those lyrics what went through your head?
I just thought it was a beautiful way of saying goodbye and that people would adopt the lyrics to their own situations and hopefully love the song because of that. I’ve always wondered whether the tracks The Good Life, Paper Dolls, Bittersweet Goodbye and Ocean Blue belonged to a specific KM project/album as they certainly sound like they could be a part of an acoustic Kylie album – a sound you evoked on parts of the recent Abbey Road album. They gloriously show off Kylie’s warm tones in her voice. Was there a moment in time when you and Kylie were going to do an album with Paper Dolls and the like?
The thing is , when we get together to write we just do what we feel like. We never try to pitch at an album or sound so often we write something we love that happily sits on a b-side and that’s fine with us. If you take something like “Harmony” for instance - the sun was shining at Real World and we just wanted to do something really bright, warm and summery with a lovely lyric. We knew there was no way it was going to fit on an album but that’s not a good enough reason not to write it. Similarly with “Thats Why They Write Love Songs” and “Flower” - we just loved writing them and knew maybe one day they would find a place in the world - one has and one hasn’t - yet...
How on earth did you and Kylie put together the setlist for the anti-tour?
There was a massive list and a few of us pitched in ideas but ultimately it came down to her in the end. Of course we could have gone on forever but we had a limited rehearsal time plus the pre production time for me was about the same as it would have been for a world tour so we needed around 22 core songs which is what we ended up with until she started adding extras here and there. Obviously you can’t please everyone but the hope was that there would be something in there which resonated with individuals one way or another - for some it was “Tightrope” and for others it was something like ‘You’re The One”. For me it was “Things Can Only Get Better” - I absolutely love that song.
There was a real family feeling of the night I went to. Felt like a bunch of mates getting a little too much drink and going through postcards of their most memorable holiday moments. The room was one big smile. A little cliché to say this but did Kylie and you notice the love in the room? It was like big ball of happiness!
Absolutely and it was the same everywhere we went. I still think it was fantastic thing for her to do and the first time anyone like her has done something like that - so perfect for the beginning of a year of celebration.
Given its success would you and Kylie consider doing another set of similar concerts in ten-five years or so?
One thing at a time Bobby.
Ha! If so, can I suggest Love Is Waiting. Kylie sounds amazing on it! The production sounds fucking fantastic!?
Thank you - her vocal on that is one of my favourites.
I much prefer Love is Waiting to songs like Time Will Pass You By. Seriously shouldn’t of been a bonus track! I loved Kylie’s vocal on it.
In honesty I do too but at the time M People were very successful , also on deConstruction and both songs sounded similar so there was only room for one. The vocal is extraordinary and is one that Terry Ronald co-produced hence the full on adlibs at the end!
What I loved about Anti-Tour was the chance to hear You’re The One. And performed live! That was an absolute joy. What was it like revisiting it?
It was a real treat to be able to finally finish it as we didn’t quite get there the first time around at Real World. I love the extremes of the vocal from being so gentle to quite demonic in the middle section. I really hope the Anti Tour version comes out one way or another.
Ultimately I think people were scared by how dark the record was so they brought the Manic’s songs into the frame to fix that. Everything gets its chance eventually and we were lucky enough to do that this year on tour.
Impossible Princess is now considered a lost pop masterpiece (Q MAG). What was that like? – the creative side. When you both finished the track Dreams for instance. Was there a tangible feeling in the studio when it came through that “this was it!”?
It was long I tell you that! I think when we finished “Dreams” I was just relieved as it went through about 10 versions to get to that. Ultimately the creative process for IP really pushed everyone to their limits which was a good thing but I’m just not sure people were ready to hear that side of her. That album has the most incredible lyrics on it and its just a shame a lot of people didn’t get to appreciate that but everything happens for a reason and what followed probably wouldn’t have happened without IP.
How do you feel about it all now looking back…What are the most fervent memories of that period?
I don’t really have any negative memories - yes it was hard work but I love that. We were so fortunate that the label gave us complete creative control and that she was in an amazing place to finally get out a lot of emotions in the songs. There was no need to do something that sounded like what was on the radio - it was just lets see what we can do if we push ourselves. The whole thing was an organic process which in hindsight may have been seen as a little self indulgent especially from our part but the challenge was to change what had gone before and push an artist to areas they had never been to before which I think was achieved albeit not with the level of success that was required.
I seem to recall the constant challenging of the established PWL sound by Kylie and her new label. (Through music and its consequent promotion.) It was like the critics refused to listen the product itself and instead scrutinized everything else…. You put an immense amount of work into those albums and yet the music had to climb and challenge a completely unanticipated, wall…one of history and stereotypes. I personally marveled at the experience of watching Kylie growing as an artist – why do you think so many quarters in the music presses avoided the development?
Its easy to pre-judge anyone based on what they’ve done before and some people will never change which is fine. Its not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fair enough.
Though I distinctly remember Kylie fans becoming very aware of promotion and marketing in relation to her identity being an issue rather than the music itself. It was like Kylie had to defend herself all the time and there was a refusal to let the music just speak for itself…..
My only real frustration over the years is when people attack her vocals especially in an increasing world of people miming all over the place. Luckily Abbey Road seems to have finally dealt with this but there’s always someone wanting to have a pop which is just a bit sad.
Looking back at the album as a whole one thing I would say – the inclusion of the Manic Street Preachers tracks on that album seemed obtuse considering the rest of the work on it. For sure it made it very interesting. Though personally I would’ve much preferred Tears, Love Takes Over Me, and Take Me With You instead. Those certainly seem to make a more “cohesive” Impossible Princess album to my ears. What did you make of those two songs on the album? They’re good songs but do stick out.
I actually liked both songs but they did stick out on an otherwise electronic album. I guess we’ll never know what would have happened if something like “Too Far” had been the first single. deConstruction showed incredible nerve when they chose “Confide In Me” from the first album but I think were more influenced by other people with the second.
Beyond You’re The One, if you could finish one unreleased song from the Impossible Princess sessions what would it be….
I would love to record “Stay This Way” with orchestra.
Before we leave Impossible Princess, as previously mentioned, it has been described as lost gem. What is favourite song on the album?
Mine is “Drunk” just because when it goes to those chords at the end I still get goosebumps - we wouldn’t be allowed to put those chords in anything anymore in today’s climate but then it was just lush.
So back to k25! When you construct a song with Kylie where does it start? Does that long-term friendship come into it with you and her. It’s just not as simple as laying down vocals on a backing track or demo. Is it a mixture of a sunny morning, a good coffee, a fantastic melody and her lyrics and…. see what happens on that given day?
I’ll give you a for instance with “Flower” as she has talked about this recently. That day she called to say she probably wouldn’t be coming in as she had a cold or something but I persuaded her to anyway. I had been working on a piano idea which had been in my head since I woke up that day so put a rough structure down. When she got there she told me she probably wouldn’t stay as she was just not in the mood after which I grabbed her lyric book with all the rough ideas in it and stumbled on some rough lyrics with the word ‘Flower’ in the title and basically said ‘we’re writing this’. I played the piano part I had been working on , she started singing and probably the best song we have ever written together was completed in a few hours and she was smiling from ear to ear by the end. So no, not always coffee and sunny mornings but as corny as it sounds if the magic is in the room then its the best feeling in the world.
In many ways Anti-Tour was a flip-side to the Abbey Road album. How did it come about this year in particular? Being so different to Aphrodite too.
Anti Tour came about because of Aphrodite. Everyone was wondering how on earth she was going to top that tour so why not go the complete opposite and go stripped back , no dancers, no production and predominantly no hits! Abbey Road is just something we have talked about for a long time and thankfully the time was right to do it for K25. I still can’t quite believe we did but couldn’t be happier with the results.
Each song and re-interpretation has a backstory of its own. In many ways we could make this interview all about Abbey Road. I’ll try to limit myself! So lets start with Lucky! Am I right in thinking that if you wanted to source the origins of the album you could look at the torch ballad version I Should Be So Lucky performed at the Crown Plaza? In this then, album didn't just come out of the blue. It has history.....
One of the first live arrangements I did for Kylie was “I Should Be So Lucky” on the Intimate And Live tour which was the first time it had been treated as a ballad. I think she did a warm up gig at Crown so maybe thats where it got its first airing but it was a centrepiece of the tour and led into “Dancing Queen”. Over the years we have played with what we call the ‘torch’ version of “Lucky” but its really only Kylie fans that know it so by putting it on “Abbey Road” it opened up a whole new audience plus we got the chance to purely do it with vocal and orchestra.
I Should Be So Lucky sounds like something Dusty or Doris would sing. Magic. Was that the intention? To totally strip it back and celebrate those sumptuous melodies+harmonies with just her voice and a string arrangement?
Exactly.
How did the arrangement for Never Too Late come about – it almost sounds like Blossom Dearie performed the cover.
We are lucky enough to have one of the best piano players in the world in our band so after trying a somewhat disastrous uptempo version of it I suggested we just take it right back and try it with piano and vocal. I also wanted it to get really small at the end - outside of that it was David Tench playing beautifully and Kylie singing the words with complete conviction and honesty so they almost took on a brand new meaning. Its my favourite track on the album.
You, Kylie and Blossom met in New York a few years – what was that like?
It took a while to track her down but we did eventually meet her which was a real honour. She still had her wits about her for sure and we even talked about her playing piano on something later that year. Sadly she passed away a few months later but she was a lovely lady and it was one of those moments I will never forget. Also she got to hear Kylie’s versions of “Try Your Wings” . “I’m Hip” and “You Are There” which is something we wouldn’t have dreamed would happen when we were recording them.
I love “I’m Hip!”. Whose the particular superstar producer that knows Kylies friend….?
I think she changed it to Pharrell Williams at the time. It was a few years ago.
Back to Never Too Late! You’ve just let it be….Let Davids’ music and Kylies voice just do the work. Is that right?
Its a fantastic song - yet again PWL wrote quite sad songs which were hidden in glossy uptempo pop - its actually completely heartbreaking.
Seeing the release of Flower proves that's the Jazz stuff will eventually come out – just has to find the right time/context. Is that so?
I wouldn’t call “Flower” jazz to be honest but I see your point. I think there is plenty of time for everything so no rush to do something like that for a while yet.
For me, Flower (and the entire album) seriously showcases her voice
I think because of the nature of the record its easier to push the vocal more to the front and also the way we recorded was so effortless and with very few takes. I just let her get in the mood and deliver the song often choosing believability over technicality which is something that can’t be done as easily on a pop album as it needs to be stacked up with loads of backing vocals and production. There are some of my favourite vocal performances by her on Abbey Road and it was a joy to record.
What Kylie hits were attempted but didn't quite get off the drawing board?
Not really. We had a 2 week rehearsal session before we went to Abbey Road and the list we started with was the list that we ended up with. We tried a few songs a few ways but once we decided it had to be songs everyone had heard of and we weren’t going to do album tracks and b sides as it would make it too much of an introspective thing then the songs really chose themselves. It was more about lyrics than anything else too.
What was it like to be at Abbey Road Studios?
Without doubt the best recording experience of my entire life and one of the best overall experiences too. There was an initial fear of being intimidated by the legend of the place even though I had worked there before. However it couldn’t be further from the truth as it is the warmest , most loving environment to be around and just having our band set up in Studio 2 for two weeks with the best microphones and engineers in the world was a dream. I loved going to work every day and would go back there in a heartbeat.
Is it true some of the album recorded in the same place Yoko and John had decided to live for a month?
Legend has it that they did live in the corner of Studio 2 for a month. So many stories of that place yet when you are there you feel its your own just for that little piece of time.
On A Night Like This was Colin’s idea to do it in the new time signature. As soon as I heard that I immediately pushed it to go bigger (as always) and made sense to give it a bit of Bond! Add Terry Ronald’s immense backing vocal arrangement to it and thats what you get. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head was more tricky as I’ve done so many versions of that song. Originally we were going to do the Live Lounge version which is really chilled out but William Baker thought we needed something more dramatic and he was absolutely right. I came up with the arrangement idea the day after and that was that. Its actually a lot faster than the original which makes it even more menacing.
In that version of Head – I love that moment when everything pulls-in and Kylie goes “YEAH”. Its like a big shotgun! Who pulled the trigger on that one? I mean it could’ve gone large.
She did - as always. Just knows exactly what to do at precisely the right moment.
With Confide In Me…a song which was already “up there” with regards to strings and drama…where could you go with it? – did you mix together some of those earlier remixes like the Big Brother Remix? Am I wrong in that I hear that in there?
I felt that we should go against the grain with “Confide In Me” as it was already a massive string song so stripping it back to this Mazzy Star kind of darker world could be really interesting. Its not often I do ‘stripped back’ but a lot of people are surprised to find out that a lot of the music I listen to is quite stripped back. I love Rick Rubin and T Bone Burnett’s productions and it seemed the ideal opportunity to do something like that. Of course it gets big in the end but the idea was take one groove and just play with dynamics. And yes there is a little vocal reference at the end from the remix which I’ve always loved so seemed right for her to add in that bluesy voice she also uses in the middle of “You’re The One”.
For me, that is now the definitive version of Confide In Me. I absolutely love that that's happened. The magic you can hear in the revisionism. I love that. It sparkles. What is intrinsic on this album is the dynamism in her voice. You can really hear that in this new version of Confide In Me (but also the likes of Slow too). This album really shows off that dynamic in her voice. Was that a priority to bring to the fore for Abbey Road?
I’m always about showing off her voice with whatever we do but specifically on this album its allowed more space to shine…..
***
↧