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The Kirsty MacColl web site
INTERVIEW
This is an interview by HMV to mark the launch of the Tropical Brainstorm album in 2000.
One of Britain's finest, Kirsty MacColl returns to the record stores this month with the launch of her first studio album in 7 years, Tropical Brainstorm, and a brand new single In These Shoes. Described as "a burst of inspiration from a land where the sun never stops shining", Tropical Brainstorm combines Kirsty's trademark smart and witty lyrics with a new Latin American feel. The album has been 5 years in the making, and HMV went along to chat with Kirsty to find out about about her music, her future plans and what the hell took her so long ….
"When I started writing I was writing very slowly, I was just writing the odd song here and there. I wrote the first song in '95 but I probably only wrote one song that year because I was travelling a lot. I was learning Spanish and catching up with things I'd always wanted to do when I was younger. As the momentum built up with the song writing that's when I thought it was time to go into the studio. I didn't have a record deal so when I got quite a lot of songs together I started recording with my partners Dave & Pete, who produced the album with me, and that started going really well."
"We thought maybe we should start recording the album before we got a deal because we could do a lot of the tracks with just the 3 of us because we were using a lot of samples and programming. We began properly recording last year, at the beginning of 99. After about 5 months of doing that we got a guy down from V2 who had a listen and said he really liked it. He signed us up which meant we could go on with getting some other musicians on the tracks, then we finished recording at the end of August last year, so it was quite a long time getting it together."
How did your interest in Latin/American culture come about ?
"I'd always been interested in it from a number of
angles, I was into the literature and a lot of the authors from that part
of the world and I was into the music. I'd heard Fania All Stars when I was
a teenager and thought 'wow,
that's really exciting'. It was so different from anything that was
going on here that it just seemed that it was from another planet. I went
on to work on David Byrne's first solo album which led to me meeting a
lot of great latin musicians, and then I worked with some of them on My
Affairwhich I recorded in '91, so it wasn't completely
out of the blue.
The fact that My Affair had been the most fun
I'd ever had in the studio led to me wanting to do more of that. It just
took this long for me to get it together because I wanted to know more
of what I was doing before I embarked on that road, I had to learn about
that music by listening to an awful lot of stuff and visiting the countries
where it came from."
What inspires you when you're writing ?
" It's hard to say, I don't really write about big events I write about more everyday life, but I find there's quite a lot of inspiration in that . I think what inspires me is trying not to write trite lyrics, trying not to write 'ooh baby I love your way' over and over again, the exciting thing is trying to find new angles to come from and new ways of putting things."
Is your song writing autobiographical ?
" Some of it is, it's a mixture. There's some that are totally auto biographical and there are some that are semi-autobiographical, and there are others that are complete little films that I've made up in my head with all these characters and I can make them do what I like."
What do you think of the state of the current British music scene ?
" I'm not terribly excited by most of it, I really like Supergrass … I can't think of anything else. I quite like Yo La Tengo. I'm not inspired by boy bands and girl bands I find that all really boring, it's alright if you're 12 but I don't think it's for grown ups, so that's kind of dull. There was a lot of quite interesting dance music coming out a few years ago but I think that's kind of dampened down a bit as well ... so not overjoyed with the state of it at the moment."
How do you feel about the way women are represented these days in the music industry - or about how they choose to represent themselves ?
"I don't find it easy to identify with a lot of them because they're either celebrities for celebrity's sake, who sing their records and look pretty on TV ... or there's a few of them out there with acoustic guitars and no sense of humour , I find that a bit dull, a bit worthy. I'd like to see more kind of out and out pop, fun people that aren't just doing a dance routine while a couple of men are writing all their tunes."
What are the proudest moments from your career ?
"Singing backing vocals with the Smiths ... working with the Talking Heads was fun. I’m pleased if I make a good record and I always try and make good records, sometimes people agree with me and sometimes they don’t , but I don’t put anything out if I don’t think it’s good."
Are there any collaborations you look back on with particular pride or fondness ?
" Working with the Pogues was great and the fact that that song is so good. Fairy Tale of New York still sounds good every year, it doesn't age badly. It wasn't a fashion statement when it came out so it doesn't look ridiculous now... Working with the Smiths was good, I sang on stuff with Morrissey coz he's a mate. It's nice when you work with people that you're a bit of a fan off to start with anyway and you get on really well with them."
What are your future plans ? Is this album the beginning of a long term plan to return to the music scene ?
" I don't feel like I ever retired because I've always had long gaps between albums. I can never understand people who put out an album every year or every 18 months because I think if you're writing the album, then recording the album, then you're out gigging, when do you have some time to actually live your life in order to have things to write about? I think most people must just make their songs up - mine actually have to happen so it's a bit different. I just hope that the album is successful enough so that I get to make another album within a reasonable time, because if your album does nothing and then you get dropped and you have to look for another record deal, that's when the years creep by. "
When will you be touring next ?
" We did a mini tour just to see what the vibe was, going out playing all this new stuff to people who probably thought I was dead. It was great because they were all sold out and the first 8 numbers of the set were brand new. The fact that everybody stayed and was listening intently to every word and that they were all digging the band was great because otherwise I think they'd have all been off to the bar waiting for something they recognised. I think we're going to do a proper British tour in May."
Do you enjoy touring and performing live ?
" I enjoy perfoming now, I used to be so nervous that I didn’t enjoy it and I’d be physically ill for so long before and after that it took it’s toll really badly. I’m much more confident as a performer now, and as a person, and I do enjoy it now, it’s great . It’s very nice when you actually get to meet the mysterious few people that buy your records."
We're going to be linking to your video for the new single In These Shoes. Was the concept for the video yours ?
"No, the concept of the director was mine, we had meetings with various directors and I liked Ben Unwin, who was the guy that we used. What he came up with was this kind of Essex wedding which I thought was great because it was so un-Ricky Martin. It was 'terribly British' and quite 'Carry On', I thought it was really good. I was happy with having an 'Alfred Hitchcock' cameo role, means I don't have to hang around there all day and get tired !"
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