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The Kirsty MacColl web site
INTERVIEW
This is an interview by Virgin to mark the launch of the Tropical Brainstorm album in 2000.
Owner of one for the most distinctive voices in pop, Kirsty MacColl has graced records by the Pogues, Billy Bragg and Morrissey. However her solo records have always been equally memorable and magical. And on her latest she goes Latin...
Kirsty MacColl records seem to come along quite occasionally and they all sound very different to each other. Does a lot of planning go into them?
"Well I don't think you start making a new record by listening to what you did on your old one. But there's been totally diverse musical styles on each album, so it wasn't a question of doing one album and changing style for the next album, it was like changing style every song. So this is probably the first album that I've done that's had a continuity of musical style."
So the new record, Tropical Brainstorm, hangs together more as a musical whole?
"I wanted to make an album of popsongs, my sort of popsongs, but using the rhythms that I'd go into by listening to lots of Cuban and Brazilian stuff, so I was never trying to make a purist album. This is not an attempt at the Buena Vista Social Club, this is a pop album, with Cuban and Brazilian and Colombian rhythms on. I didn't try to make the record with a Latin producer, I worked with Pete Glenister and Dave Ruffy and we produced it between the three of us."
"I was introducing them to lots of things that I'd been turned onto from listening to CDs from all over the place. We were working, initially, with computers and using a lot of samples, it was just a lot of fun really. There are an awful lot of rules in Latin music, in each kind of style of rhythm there are many, many rules: you can't use this instrument with that instrument, and you can't have that rhythm going against that clavé sound... so because they [Pete and Dave] didn't know the rules, there weren't any!"
So how did you get into Latin music?
"I heard stuff when I was a teenager which I thought was terribly exciting, because it was so unlike anything that I'd heard before. Then on Electric Landlady [1991 album] I did record with a big Latin band. I did that number My Affair and that was just such a lot of fun that I thought I'd love to do more stuff like that. But I didn't record this record in the same way, I got a few great players down after we'd done the initial tracks. I think the general feel of that music rends to be quite upbeat and I'm quite happy at the moment, so I wanted to make a happy record."
There seem to be quite long gaps between your singles and album - why is this?
"Well, I made my first record 21 years ago and I'm still making records. When New England reached its highest chart position [in 1984] was the day I gave birth to my eldest son. I wasn't really ready to rush in and make an album at that point. Then I got pregnant again straight away and it was around that time that I was asked by various people that I rated to sing on their records."
Why do you think so many people did approach you?
"Probably because I don't sound like anybody else and because I'm quite quick. And because it's a lot cheaper to get one person to do 20 vocals, than getting 20 people in and telling them which parts to sing. I'm also very good at doing vocal arrangements."
Your voice is very distinctive. Do you sing that way deliberately?
"No. I don't think you can change your voice that radically. You can change the pitch maybe - Margaret Thatcher did - but no, I just sound like I sound."
Your lyrics are usually very critical of relationships and society. Are you a political person?
"Well I don't think you can be a completely apolitical person if you don't live in an ivory tower. I think you have to be a bit. There are things I feel very strongly about. In the last few years I've played quite a few benefits for the Cuban Solidarity Campaign. Having spent quite a lot of time in Cuba and been very interested in all things, er, Cuban, as far as the culture goes across the board, I think that it's a really extraordinary little country. I think it's awful that the US have got this blockade going on forever, which is pointless."
So what do you think of the recent rise of "Latin" pop?
"If you listen to the Ricky Martin record, it was a great pop record. In no way was it Latin. They're only calling it Latin because he has a Latino background and he's Mexican. And I mean, Christina Aquilera is just like Madonna, she's making pop music. If you want to hear Latin music listen to Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. People buy Ricky Martin because he's on TV and he's pretty, the same reason they buy Boyzone. It's for little girls. It's fine, but I think my album's quite adult. I didn't choose to do this because somebody said it would be a good idea, because nobody did! And when I started working on this there hadn't been an explosion of Latin music in the pop charts. I just do what I think is going to be the most enjoyable at the time."
What's your motivation for making each record?
"It's my life. It's what I do, isn't it? It's like saying to a painter 'well you've done three paintings, why bother to do more?' you know. You're constantly striving to get better and to create better things. I really love it and I'm really lucky to be doing a job I love. If I keep having ideas, then I'll keep making records. If I didn't have any ideas then I'd knock it on the head. It's a great source of interest and education and pleasure. And everyone needs to have a chance to express feelings and their reactions and their emotions and if you never have a chance to express any of those things then I think you get ill. I get my chance through music."
By Esther Sadler
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