I’d love to be able to tell you precisely when I first discovered Alice Russell and who it was that got me into her music, namely because at the time, which was roughly 2005, I was so deeply entrenched in the world of hip hop I was, predominantly, blinkered to all other genres around me. However, someone was brave enough to defy my blinkers and insist I give this Alice Russell lady a listen to, and at the time, I probably nodded dismissively, begrudgingly took the cd, chucked it to the bottom of my bag and then, when I knew no one was about (because no one could tell ME about music back in those days), gave it a good listening to. Let’s just say, I was instantly smitten! She sounded like a sassy modern day version of all the great female soul singers I’d grown up listening to and loving and the production on that particular album, My Favourite Letters, had it’s fair share of funked out, hip hop influenced tracks.
Being the inquisitive creature I am, I wanted to know more about this lady and came to discover she wasn’t what I expected at all. Rather than being a hardened soul diva from Detroit, as I had half expected, turns out she’s a lovely blonde lass from Suffolk. I’m not quite sure in my mind why such a voice should come from the mean streets of 8 mile rather than rural Suffolk but, any way, I digress! I’m a notoriously hard one to please when it comes to music and I often have impossible expectations and preconceptions but, her music for me, transcended all of that and I have been a convert ever since.
Alice has just released her fourth album and so we met up to have a chinwag about music, our mutual love of Brighton, Twitter and the importance of Lego over a cuppa and some cake.
How did you get into music?
How did I get into music? My mum and dad are musical but it was classical music. I was in the church choir when I was little. I used to listen to my dad conducting Handel’s Messiah and orchestra pieces, playing with my Lego on the side when I was too young to join in. I used to paint a lot on my own and play with my Lego, I keep getting told not to talk about my Lego (laughing) but it was a really important part of my life! I used to make big cities and listen to the good old radio as everyone does and I used to record the stuff I liked. I just gravitated towards James Brown, Cameo, U2 I liked as well, which is a bit scary, Aretha Franklin and gospel stuff and I just started recording stuff off the radio. So then I just got into it and I started getting pocket money and buying records. I was really into my records as and all the boys were into hip hop, so, from that came a whole lot of other music ‘cos they’d play out stuff and I’d hear it and be like ‘I wanna get that’.
So your parents weren’t playing you Aretha Franklin and gospel music in the womb then?
Nah. It was all classical, Bach and stuff like that.
Did you veering towards the James Brown and Gospel music confuse them?
They’re pretty chilled. I was the third born as well and the other 2 went to music school but I didn’t, I did art and then did music. I think the only Jazz record my dad had was Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong together for the first time and it was a proper old school, thick record. I used to wreck that. He actually bought me my first record player, you know those wooden ones with the speaker in it?
No?
Well I had one of those. It was beautiful, like a wooden box with a speaker in it.
When did you start singing the more soulful stuff?
That’s the thing, I’d always sung but it was singing along to the likes of Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and gospel stuff. That was obviously in my bedroom but there were also a lot of guys in bands, blues bands and when I would get really drunk, I’d get the confidence to get up and do like Summer time or something. Then people would say ‘you’ve got quite a good voice’, so I’d get up and do more and then someone else would hear and be like ‘would you come and sing with our band?’ and just stuff like that.
How old were you when you were when you were in your first band then?
14/15 but they weren’t mine, they were already bands in place. The names were great: ’72% Tomato’, ‘Love like Semtex’. All named by guys. That was pretty funny and it meant I could hangout with the older guys.
Was that fun?
Mmmmm. You learn a lot. It was cute though, there was this little shed which they used to call the ‘Barn’ and we used to put on gigs there, so that’s where I first started performing.
You went to art school?
I didn’t want to do A-Levels because I was a bit fed up with school. So, I went and did an art foundation and then went and did art and music in Brighton when I was 18. I just wanted to get out and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do then. So, yeah I did art, which was fun, and then just found a course which did both.
Did you think then that you’d be doing this as a full time career?
Not really, I’m not that kind of person! I wanted to be a fashion designer, that was what I wanted to do when I was really small.
How did you hook up with TM Juke and True Thoughts?
I met Rob and Paul Jonas, who run it (True Thoughts), before they started the label. When I was there (Brighton) when I was 18. Rob was doing ‘Shaky Wig’ and all those sorts of nights. You remember that? It was at the Concord? So my first dealings with True Thoughts, I was actually managed by them with the band that I started off with in Suffolk. Yeah, so it just went from there and then I met old TM Juke (Alex Cowan) after that and did something on his album.
What’s funny is, I remember ol’ Jukey was a bit younger than me at parties in Suffolk, cos he lived in Suffolk. I didn’t know him when cos I was a bit older but I remember seeing him at parties but not really knowing him because he’s a little boy (puts on cute voice) and he’s got youf on his side!
This is your fourth album. What’s the story with the ‘Pot of Gold’ title?
Well, it’s like a wish really ‘cos we’re so bloody skint and it’s also a lyric in ‘Turn and Run’. It came to me, ‘Poorest beggars on a pot of gold’, the idea that no matter how skint we are, we’ll always do what we do any way.
Wasn’t there an issue with the distribution so it’s been a year in the pipeline?
It was written in 2007 and the year before that and basically we put it out and two weeks later Pinnacle went down. So it went out in the States and in France but hadn’t been in the UK so we had to relaunch it.
How would you sum up this new album?
It’s just like an honest little offering really. It was meant to be an acoustic collection of songs. It’s not as experimental as the other albums it’s more just totally raw. Us just playing, a band that’s been playing together for 5 years, getting together and recording songs with TM Juke.
You’ve done your own version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy on this, how’d that come about?
When it came out, I fell in love with it like everyone else did and we just started doing it live with me and a piano, gospeling it up. One day the pianist couldn’t make a gig so we had backing vocals and a guitar and it just made it, just made us go ‘wow we want to record it’. We kept doing it live and then we did it like that with the backing singers, slowing it right down and listening to the lyrics and we were like ‘got to record it’.
How’s this album been received then?
Well it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s been good feedback so far. DJs have been really supportive, we’ve had good things in the states, in France. We’re going to Paris on Friday to do some PR stuff. We’re doing quite well there.
They like they’re more left field stuff over there don’t they?
They love singers. If you look through they’re history male female singers.
Edith Piaf?
Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, (puts on cockney accent) See they’ve got taste love!
You’ve got quite a broad sound though, like you can definitely hear hip hop influences in tracks like Humankind for example.
Al’s pretty into all that stuff and I was too. I love all music genres like funk, soul.
You write all your own songs don’t you?
Yeah, either with TM Juke or with other people.
Do people send you tunes and then you write the lyrics?
Both ways really. With ‘My Favourite Letters’ it worked more like we’d get the groves together, with this one we’ve done more sitting down with the guitar and both of us just writing together. Sometimes I might have a cord progression and give it to him and he’ll put some beats on it because I can’t do beats, same with Quantic, but they’ve both developed as songwriters because they were producers. Both of them are great songwriters now.
I wanna do another album at the moment where I write everything on my own. I think it would be a bit more introspective and chilled but I think when you write with someone else, it just opens everything up and you push each other in different ways. With me and TM Juke, especially, we just seem to work really fast and spark each other off.
You’re ready to write another album?
Yeah. At the same time as writing that (Pot of Gold), literally quite a few years ago, you know when the Santogold stuff came out? We actually wrote an album that was really similar to all the electro stuff but soul funk. It feels like we always write it and then the other stuff comes out and we’re like ‘oh! Why are we always a year late?’ It’s because we’re touring and we haven’t got a big label behind us. We can write it all but it’s getting everyone in the studio. I’m learning patience basically, the music industry teaches you patience!
Why aren’t you signed to a big, major label?
Ummmm. I dunno, I think my personal view is I don’t think I wannabe. I’ve had friends that have done that and done an album that’s been ready to go and then the label shelve it. Luckily one of my other friends, got it given back. See that’s another thing, sometimes you don’t get your music back! A lot of people, I won’t mention names, but some people you hear live and you hear them go on a major and you hear how the album’s produced and you’re like ‘why have they changed what that amazing act was?’ You see them live and then a year later you hear the track and it’s really over produced and you just think ‘Why are they trying to change them?’ The only benefit is you think ‘god what I wouldn’t give to have six months in a studio.’
So it’s a case of when you have money and time to do it?
Yeah. I mean ‘Pot of Gold’ was literally recorded in 2 days. The main track, like the core band was done in a room this size (we’re sitting in a teeny tiny tea room). Rehearsed for 2 days and then we went into the studio. We just couldn’t afford more time and then the only thing we spent more time on was strings, backing vocals and horns. The funny thing is, it wasn’t meant to be this ‘next, big album’. It was meant to be acoustic, live sessions. I dunno it’s just weird how these things turn out.
I think at the moment, because I’ve been touring so much, I just want to do an album next year.
What would be your approach to this one?
That’s the thing, at the moment I’ve just emailed Quantic because he’s in Columbia saying ‘I want to come over there and do some more stuff with you’. Also, me and TM Juke already have an albums worth of stuff written and ready to go, so there’s that. I also want to do some stuff with my band because they’ve been with me for 5 yrs. They never write with us, so I’d like to do something where we write something all together and release that. Also, I want to do a little trip with the guys we work with in America because we use a different Rhythm section over there, so I want to do some stuff with them. I’m thinking, I’m skint at the moment but get a bit of publishing in and I’m going to put a bit of that aside to go on a little trip. I need to or I’m going to go mad. We’ve been really going hard touring and sometimes you just need to step back and get back to the creative side of it.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear you were playing at KOKO after years of seeing you in smaller venues…
Yeah, that’s the thing, although we’re not sort of on the ‘radar’ like KOKO, (they’re only London gig was at KOKO), we got 1200 people in there and that wasn’t guest list, that was paying customers. I was really chuffed because I was really worried, just ‘cos we don’t get a lot of press support.
Why not?
Because they’ve got the people with the big money and the hard sell and the PR company that are pushing them really hard and that’s who they want to cover I suppose. It’s like in the observer monthly, Jools Holland and stuff like that you don’t really see people that aren’t on the ‘radar’. When he had Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on, arrrgh that really wound me up. When he talked about Ronson and that was his main reference. These are people that have been going for years in their own right and you have to do that because we all assume people are stupid, that they’re not going to be able to listen to those people and be like ‘wow’ and find out for themselves who they are in their own right. This culture at the moment is like everything has to be part of something else. You know? Like we’re all stupid and we can’t look at things that are a bit different.
It is all very formulaic at the moment.
Yeah it’s very boring.
Personally, I think it’s all across the board: the award ceremonies, the charts, the sound etc…
It’s such a shame. Do you remember Parkinson? Back in the day it was actually people that were interesting who weren’t necessarily on the PR train trying to promote something. They used to have people on there because they were interesting and we wanted to watch it. Whereas now, all those talk shows is someone pushing something. It’s like, what’s going to happen to our brains? Any way, I’ll get off my soapbox but that’s how I feel at the moment.
Have you been on Jools Holland?
We’re trying to get on Jools.
What’s Jools saying?
The problem with that is, that’s the only music show so everyone’s trying to get on there. He’s having much more mainstream people, whereas it used to be a leftfield show, now it’s the only real show that showcases musicians and artists, so it’s all the major people. First come first served.
I think you’d be right up his street!
Well it was my ambition to get on there before Christmas but the boys are like ‘I’m over it now’ (laughing). It would be good because it is a platform
So what’s the plan now then?
We’ve got a month touring in November. I’m really going to take a bit more charge of it because literally, the whole year was touring and I had no time for recording but I’m trying to work out now a plan for January. If my plan goes ahead, recording in January.
Two days recording and a new album in spring then?
We’re going to put a little EP out before Christmas if we get our arses in gear.
Who would you want to get on the new album if you could have any one?
I still want to do something with Cee-Lo!
Have your people spoken to his people?
No I need to don’t I?
Are you on Twitter? Tweet him!
I know but you do sometimes and they get so many people following them that they don’t even see you in their timeline.
Is there any underground UK talent that you’d like to give a more established helping hand to?
Ooh, that’s a point. Andreya Triana, (supported Alice at KOKO), she’s just been signed to Ninja tune, she’s a Brighton girl. She’s about to release an album. I like Diplo as well but he’s American. Also, I’ve just done a track with David Byrne on his new album. I’d like to write a song for him sort of thing, like his old stuff but who knows!
For me, Pot of Gold packs a seriously soulful punch which is both modern and timeless, if such an oxymoronic thing is possible. It has been on heavy rotation on my ipod since I got my grubby mitts on it and tracks like Crazy and Turn and Run are personal faves for that Monday morning march to work. Check out the remix cd as well, featuring the likes of DJ Vadim, Ohmega Watts and Mr Scruff. If you ever get the opportunity to see ‘Alice Russell Live’ which is her and her six piece band, do it, you won’t regret it!
www.alicerussell.com
