Starting off with
1. Relax
2. Love Today
3. Stuck In The Middle
4. My Interpretation.
5, Everybody's Talkin - acoustic
6. Billy Brown
7. Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)
8. Grace Kelly
9. Lolliipop
BRIEFLY .... not verbatim...
Is he being told to remember every moment because he will want to look back on all this.
No people are telling him it's worth getting up at 6am and getting it all over with now because in a month it will all be over and he will be free of all this. Enjoying every minute. Exhilarating.
Interesting how cosmopolitan background may feed into the music?
When you never associate with one particular place makes you a bit footloose. Gets into the music and the way he tells storie and can dip into anyone's life.
Very Now, but doesn't appear rooted in time?
Talks about iPod gneration - consume anything from anyone's music, more of a mash that puts everything into the same pot. Own perspective of 70's 90's.
Once upon a time mentioning Queen in interviews would've been considered uncool.
Nothing these days is off limits. Dolly Parton played next to a piece of Electronica can be perfectly right if played int he right place.
Not about a scene anymore. About context. Completely liberating. Grew up with clssical, cheesey jingles, pop music... the same bucket.
Classical background... Does that enable you to go to places in music that the average guitarist doesn't go?
Perfectly okay to write a song with just chords C F and G, Classical study enables vocal gymnastics, but took away the fear of any time of music. No snobbist attitude.
What were the first records he was into?
Frech records - talks about French legends, baby pop, obsession with reggae as a kid. Being gun-searched to get into a gig at age of 9.
Theatricality about French records?
Rushing through someone's life in 3 and a half minutes.
Recent obsession with Harry Nilsson.
Asked Martin to learn about 20 minutes ago - Everybody's Talkin' - acoustic.
Well done Martin.
At first ever gig - Manumission, Ibiza, after everthing going wrong, people started ballroom dancing to Billy Brown 5am in the morning.
Are you drawn to character study kind of songs.
Can be very effective to build and navigate through simple melody, and play with a pop melody.
Big Girl - you felt like an outsider at school.
Mum is quite big and was picked on because of her size. Butterfly Lounge was original ititle. First acceptance nightclub in the world. Documentary of Victoria Wood. Skinny women not being allowed in. Wrote in 15 minutes and recorded a week later.
Are underdogs things that attract you to write songs about?
A lot of songs are a remedy to some part of his life or a story that needs telling. Extraordinary the effect they have on other people. Get a kick out of fact there are a lot of people out there that are like him. Makes us feel a little more normal.
Grace Kelly
About coming out of education, and coming out from structured system and leaving all that behind, deal with money, girls (giggles) suddenly contemplating being growing up. Went through that in a harsh way as nothing happening in music. Foundation course then degree later. Managed to hide that he couldn't sight read. Relied on feeling in gut. Lost teaching jobs. Had amazing people with him at music college. Living a double life and trying to adapt and Grace Kelly came out of that.
Could've been a bitter song..
No point as you can't go forward. Defence he developed in school.
Singer-songwriter has certain connotation - guy with acoustic guitar, bleating about his girlfriend.
You end up making indulgent record. Look at artists from late 6's, 70s and into the 80's was tied into song and came out big.
Talks about Beck.
Prince perfect example.
You can still get indulgent and get lost in a big studio.
Being rootless in upbringing, not tied to any particular scene/music, does that make you ambitious?
Wouldn't describe as ambition. Just goes for what is available to do.
Do you get worried when people start talking about campaigns?
Have to know the devil you are dealing with - had to learn to play the game - has to pay off debt - try to make campaigns enjoyable.
When did doors start opening?
When he had dealt with how he wanted to sound, dress, bigness of record, that's when people started to want to take risk. Press play. Put the battery in and it would go.
The last 2 weeks have been amazing and mostly due to this next one 'Grace Kelly'.
<Plays Grace Kelly>
Thank you.
This is our last song and one of my favourites. It's called 'Lolllipop'.
<Plays Lollipop>
Tune in HERE QUICK !! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/mika.shtml)
CW