Published on: Thursday, August 31st, 2023
Post ID: 3129102
Photo by Neil Hughes
If we start at the very beginning, what got you hooked on music in the first place?
There was always music at home as my father was a classical guitarist and my mother sang. I heard the Sex Pistols in 1977 and much to my father’s horror I got an electric guitar and started a punk band. When I was 18, having developed an interest in other styles, I asked him to teach me the classical guitar, which he kindly did. I’d still say my guitar style is somewhere between punk and classical.
When the “Unbelievable” single hit in 1991, your band EMF became a worldwide phenomenon. What was that like, having a number one hit in the US on your first release as a band?
No one saw all the hard work that came before, I had been in my previous band Apple Mosaic for eight years, had had two record deals and never sold a record, but I learned a lot and when I met James Atkin and the rest of EMF the pieces fell into place. We got a deal within six months and had a number one record a year later. It was so exciting being young and touring the world with my friends doing what I had been dreaming of since getting that first guitar.
Having written a hit song like that, is there any pressure attached to follow up with something equally successful? If so, how does that affect you creatively as a songwriter?
Oh yes, when you are signed to a major record company there is always that pressure and I’m not sure I respond well to that. EMF reacted by going dark on our second album STIGMA, which was not what the record company wanted. However, it is our fan’s favorite album. I would say as a songwriter, you have to write for your own reasons, that might well be for the joy of pop music, but it must come from inside not because you’re trying to please someone else.
Since then, you’ve been involved in writing music for an array of artists and have had songs with the likes of Beyoncé, Shakira, Jordin Sparks and many more. Was transitioning into songwriting for others always something you had in the back of your mind even when you were young?
Not really, it’s something I fell into with my friend Amanda Ghost who I wrote with a lot with on her solo albums. We happened to be in an office in New York and in walked Jay-Z and Beyonce. She asked us to write on a backing track that she liked, as a duet for her and Shakira. Several people had tried and no one had cracked it. We wrote “Beautiful Liar” in half an hour in a hotel room, as they had booked a studio for that night. We used to take weeks to write songs and when it was a hit we were so surprised. Needless to say, that started off a whole new era for us, we wrote a bunch of hit songs and ended up with jobs at Epic Records in New York. Crazy.
You’ve also been involved in writing for Broadway. How is writing for the stage different from writing “regular” songs? How is it having to think about narrative, context and dialogue, for example?
I did that with Amanda too. It was actually really easy – I have spent the whole of my career looking for subject matter and how to find an emotional focus. When you have the plot of a musical, it’s all there for you. I am an ex-punk indie pop songwriter and I’m not sure I could write a Broadway musical if I tried, but putting Leonard Bernstein through an EMF filter, now that could be really interesting.
Looking back on your career so far, what are some of the standout moments to you on both a personal and professional level?
I love making music with people I love. Meeting James Atkin from EMF was a special moment, we just clicked and we had so much fun with the rest of the band writing and recording EMF’s first album “Schubert Dip.” I think you can hear that. It was a great time when hip-hop bands like Public Enemy and electronic dance music were being played in the clubs alongside The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen, it was inevitable that bands like EMF, Happy Mondays and Jesus Jones would start mixing it together. I met Chuck D from Public Enemy in New York in 1992 and told him about that, that was a good moment.
You’re a Superior Drummer 3 user. What’s your favorite feature of the program and how does it help in your day-to-day work?
It was Ralph Jezzard’s idea to use a Roland TD-50 electronic drum kit and Superior Drummer 3. We worked with Ralph on the new EMF album (he also produced “Unbelievable” and our first two albums, so it’s great to have the dream team together again). At first I was skeptical, but when I heard it I couldn’t believe how authentic it sounded – and the level of control is incredible. It is very intuitive and you can control it as you would if you’d just recorded live drums and then save it. We love The Rooms of Hansa SDX kits with the big rooms but used different snares and kicks depending on the song. My favorite feature is the velocity sensitivity, using this on the snare you can balance the power and groove of a beat that’s what EMF is all about.
On a more personal note, what’s the greatest part about working with music and writing songs for living?
The possibilities. The greatest moment is when you start to make something and dream about what it could be. The process is a rollercoaster, there are times when it’s working and you are on top of the world and others when it sounds like shit and you have to work through it, or maybe give up and start all over and dream of the possibilities again.
What’s next on your agenda?
EMF’s new album THE BEAUTY AND THE CHAOS is out in November and we’ll be touring to support it in January and February 2024. Oh yes, and my Leonard Bernstein punk dance musical.
