Lissie interview: Bonus bits

Saviour of FM rock Lissie Maurus releases her second album, Back To Forever, next week. While the record doesn't break any boundaries (Pat Benatar could have won a Grammy for it in 1982) it's also excellent - a fist-pumping, singalong, bundle of joy.

The new single is Sleepwalking - a dreamy breakup ballad that, thankfully, sheds its similarities to The Stereophonics' Have A Nice Day after the intro ends.

Already on Radio 2's A-list, the video has just premiered on YouTube.

Lissie - Sleepwalking

I interviewed Lissie earlier this year, a couple of days after her UK comeback gig. We discussed break-ups, summer jobs and being "big in Norway" - and you can [read the BBC article here]. But there are always some quotes that get excised due to the 1,000 word limit, so here's a few bonus questions.

It's strange that we're speaking in April, but the album doesn't come out 'til September.

I think there's a strategy to it. If the album didn't come out in the spring, it made more sense to put it out in the fall than the summer. Those are things that they [the record label] know through market research and things.... The stuff that luckily I don't have to think about, because I'm business-minded, but not to that degree,

Why didn't you spend the extra time recording a Christmas song?
I should probably think about writing a Christmas song one of these days. Write some hits and let the cheques roll in!

How do you go about writing lyrics?
You have to consider 'is this going to be a pain in the ass to sing?'

On the album, there's the song I Don't Want To Go To Work: That phrase is very jarring, so you have to sing "ay-on-wanna" instead of "I. Don't. Want. To." It sounds silly, but I have to think about whether I can sing something night after night without destroying my vocal cords.

One thing I noticed with this new record is that some of the songs have really high notes. I was like, why did I write this song so high?

The thing is that high, strained notes give a song a sense of urgency, don't they?
Yeah, but take my song When I'm Alone - we never play it in the key it's recorded in. You record in chunks sometimes - so I can sing a really high note when I'm just starting at the chorus, but when you're singing the entire song it's a real workout.

Do you prefer playing live?
Everything grew from loving to perform live. I was in musicals as a kid. I was Annie! And so I think that performing is my forte.

You've really captured your live sound on this album.
Thanks - but I don't think you can ever bridge the gap completely, because in the studio it's too tempting to want to do overdubs. So there's four guitar parts on the record, but on stage we can only play two of them.

What was recording like?
I wanted my band to play on it – because I didn't know them when I made my first record. I didn't really want it to be electronic. I've seen a lot of great bands who use laptops, but I wanted to do something that four people can get on stage and pull off.

I love when my guitar player Eric Sullivan does his solos - and it doesn't maybe always work on record, but I fought for it on a few songs. Like Romance Police – it didn't have that guitar build in the middle, but I said "we've really got to put that moment in the song".

There were more times when I'd be like, "let's put a two minute guitar solo at the end" and the producer and the label would go, "hmm, I don't know about that".

Lissie - Romance Police

It's a more straightforward album than Catching A Tiger. The songs are all broadly country rock.
I wanted it to be more cohesive because the first album felt like a sampler of all the different things I do. They're still in me. I can still pick up an acoustic guitar and play a folk song. I write folk songs for myself that I don't play for anyone. But I wanted there to be that cohesion. For people who liked In Sleep and When I'm Alone, this album from start to finish is in that world.

When I saw you play in Shepherd's Bush in 2010, you were very excited to have two guitars on stage for the first time. How many do you have now?
Still just two. I used to have to tune my own guitar. I can still do it, but it's just awkward when there's that space between each song where it's like, "alright, you guys talk amongst yourselves for a while!"

So what's the goal with this record?
I want to be as successful as I can be, I should say that first. There's a part of me that's slightly afraid of success. I can kind of sabotage myself. But I would love to be recouped. I would love to sell millions of albums and to be able to play to 5,000 people anywhere I went in the world. I'd love to be on Saturday Night Live, on Taratata in Paris or to play Jools Holland again. But I'd also like to be low key. I have to figure out how to do both.

So how do you get away from it all?
When I'm touring I'm on a schedule but then when I'm home I get to decide what I want to do for the day. And I feel like doing nothing!

Get up and go for a hike, then I'll have a long lunch and sit outside a read a book, then I'll have a bath and I'm going to watch Game of Thrones and have a bottle of wine.

I know a lot of people don't have that luxury but I have friends who would be driven crazy by that!

I have months where I don’t really have much to do. But I'm a planner – I know how to use downtime wisely.

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Gary Barlow goes Mumford and six other songs you may have missed

This has been a pretty good week for music - we had a polished video from a re-energised Britney, a mini-movie from The Arcade Fire and a tear-jerker from John Legend, not to mention (great) new albums from Justin Timberlake and Haim. So this week's strays and leftovers are pretty high quality. Have a gander...

1) Gary Barlow - Let Me Go
Gaz breaks out the banjos for his first solo record in 14 years. Let Me Go, basically a speeded-up Hey There Delilah, is precision-targetted at Radio 2 mums.

That's not a dig, by the way - Gary knows his market. He's even booked an advertising space on the bus stop in Coronation Street. Clever boy.




2) Goldfrapp - Annabel (live on Jools Holland)
Looking like Bad Romance-era Lady Gaga, singing like a fallen angel, Alison Goldfrapp graces Later... with her tranquil beauty.




3) Honeyblood - Bud
I picked out this catchy indie-pop gem a last week, and now it's been given a green-fingered video, shot in a stately garden near Herefordshire. It's no Ground Force, though, having been based on the influential, surrealist Czech movie Daisies (which you can watch in full here).




4) Lupa - The Creature
Move over, Lorde, here's a new antipodean singer in town, and this one's only 15.

Lupa is the stage name of Imogen Jones, a classically-trained violinist who's branched out into pop. Her home demos, published on Soundcloud two weeks ago, have already been picked up by influential Aussie radio station Triple J. And rightly so - Lupa's electronically-scored harmonies have a subtlety and sophistication beyond her years.





5) JLS - Billion Lights
The title of JLS's farewell single makes you think it'll be a weepie uber-ballad - but no! Billion Lights thumps like a Hitler's fist on a sturdy lectern.

The video is a three-minute potted history of everyone's favourite colour-coded boyband - their X Factor audition, their first number one, their first arena tour. You'll feel nostalgic, then you'll remember you never really liked them after Beat Again.




6) Wardell - Opossum
OK - this one's two years old, but you should keep your eye on Wardell. Otherwise known as Stasha and Stephen Spielberg, their dad is literally the man who made ET; and Jay-Z has just signed them to Roc Nation.

There's no indication of what their new material sounds like, but this 2011 track, Opossum, has a pleasing bluegrass vibe that reminds me of the Edward Sharpe song on those Peugeot adverts (the one that goes "Alabama, Arkansas - I do love my Ma & Pa").





7) Sampha - Indecision
You've probably heard this all over the radio recently - it's the one with the chorus that goes "let it all work out" over a glitchy, melancholy piano sample.

Sampha is best known for his work with Jessie Ware and SBTRKT, and has just appeared on the new Drake album. This track is from his solo EP Dual, which came out in July. It wears its complexity lightly, letting Sampha's gorgeous voice draw you into its mournful tale of shattered hearts.

Hope those tracks tide you over for the weekend... I'll be back with more on Monday morning.

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John Legend is lovedrunk

One in five pop songs "promotes alcohol to teenagers", according to a new study published in in Psychology Today.

Or rather, that's the Daily Mail's interpretation (musicians have been "slammed for it", apparently).

If you read the study itself, you'll see the figures plummet drastically when you separate songs that glorify drinking ("you get a swimming pool of liquor then you dive in it") and those where responsible adults have an occasional glass of Tesco Chardonnay in the course of a celebration ("let's raise our cups to the stars").

Still, it does illustrate how pop lyrics have got stuck in a rut. The wondrous mayhem of human experience has somehow been distilled into these five essential topics.

1) I am drunk
2) I am in the club
3) I am a strong independent woman
4) I am going to "give it" to you
5) I am Lady Gaga

If you go back to the 60s, those topics would have looked something like this.

1) I love you
2) She loves you
3) Let's all love each other
4) All you need is love
5) What the fuck is that elephant doing on a tangerine bicycle?

It makes you wonder what the smitten teenagers of 2013 have available to put on mix tapes when they want to declare undying love to each other - Mumford and Sons? I sincerely hope not.

But, lo! Coming to the rescue on his gelded horse is lithesome soul lothario Sir John of Legend. He hath written a heartfelt love sonnet for his new bride, which includes such tender couplets as: "You're my downfall, you're my muse /
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues".

All Of Me is beautiful in a "Mellow Magic" sort of way. The video features the real Mr and Mrs Legend cavorting around their beautiful LA home in the buff (but tastefully shot in black and white, so it's ok) and some actual footage from their recent wedding in Italy.

And then they SPOIL EVERYTHING by drinking a glass of champagne, the irresponsible BASTARDS.

John Legend - All Of Me

PS: John's wife, Chrissy Teigen, is well worth following on Twitter. She's goofy, snarky and generally hilarious - even when she's going on about her Animal Crossing village (which is a lot). Brains and beauty, it doesn't seem fair.

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I'm at work, bitch

Listen, I'm too busy trying to attain a Lamborghini and look hot in a bikini to waste 10 minutes writing an "amusing" account of Britney Spears' video for Work Bitch.

However, I have watched it all the way through once and will immediately commence whipping any junior colleagues who step out of formation during our 11am dance routine (I'll buy them a pack of jaffa cakes afterwards, I'm not a monster).

Here's something that'll make you feel old: The video premiere came 15-years-and-one-day after the release of "...Baby One More Time".

Britney Spears - Work Bitch

PS Have you heard the radio edit of this single? It's awful - as pointless as the Rita Ora "we want to party, and party, and party, and party..." abomination. By the time the three minutes are over, you will never want to hear the phrase "You'd better work, work" ever again.

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Katy B has a spooky adventure

I don't know about you, but if I was driven to a remote stately home where people in demonic masks performed a sinister, strobe-lit pagan dance ritual, I'd make a much quicker exit than Katy B manages in this video - even if I'd remembered to bring Scooby and the rest of the gang with me. (Mind you, my exodus wouldn't be impeded by a pair of 8-inch heels, either, so what do I know?)

5am, taken from Katy B's forthcoming second album, is out on 3rd November.

Katy B - 5am

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The Killers premiere Shot At The Night video

As previously discussed, The Killers have a greatest hits album coming out, and new track Shot At The Night is the bribe bonus that'll make most fans want to buy it. Produced by M83, it comes with one of those effortlessly anthemic choruses that seem to spill out of Brandon Flowers' brain almost by accident (the verses, on the other hand, are pretty woeful).

You won't see much of the band in the video, which is a cute little Las Vegas love story. It kind of reminds me of Before Sunrise / Before Sunset, which can only be a good thing.

The Killers - Shot At The Night

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