Will Young Interview
Will Young is back with his fourth album, ‘Let It Go’, featuring the single ‘Changes’. The album will be supported by a UK tour throughout November and December.
How was the Cadogan Hall gig last night?
It was really good, thanks. They’re funny those things, I suppose they’re quite nerve-wracking. I’ve never done showcases before, it’s weird. It’s journalists and 500 fans, I should take them more seriously! My thing is that if I don’t think about it then I don’t get nervous! If I say it’s a showcase then I shit myself, so I just get on with it.
Was last night the first time you’d played a lot of the new songs live in front of people?
We’ve been doing the festivals, but it’s different going from the festival vibe to stuffy Cadogan Hall vibe. So that was kinda weird, cos I hadn’t done an indoor gig for… um, TEN YEARS! Um, no, I haven’t toured for almost three years.
Have you missed touring during that time?
No! I’ve been in the studio and I quite like that little bubble. As you get to the end you get bored and want to get out there again, but only towards the end of the album. I started the album in Brighton, and finished in Brighton, how weird! That was up from Kemp Town in… it’s opposite the nudist beach, that’s all I know!
How have audiences been reacting to the new songs?
I think it went alright, I mean, they didn’t throw things. I don’t know, how do you gauge it? I could really gauge it at festivals, cos people didn’t leave - that’s the more nerve-wracking thing about festivals. It’s a bit of a dangerous thing doing new songs – it’s that awful thing at festivals when someone goes “and now I’m going to do stuff from my NEW album” and you can practically hear everyone going “eugh, God”. I’ve never done it like this, performing new songs before the record’s out, it’s a proper old-school way of doing it which I’ve never done cos of the way I came into singing. I feel like the album’s been out for months. It’s out next week, thank God!
Are you looking forward to the full tour starting in November?
I am, I haven’t done a theatre tour for about five years. It’s nicer to do smaller gigs, it’s simpler and I think I’m more confident so I don’t feel like I need to have lots going on behind me.
Have you got any onstage visuals or anything?
I’m going to jet in! I’m going to bungee jump onto the stage! No, I haven’t actually, I don’t think it’s really needed. I prefer tiny tiny gigs. I try and do it as much as I can, though for some reason it seems to be more complicated, in the pop market you can’t just decide to do a gig, I don’t understand why! I now do acoustic gigs and I sing with a big band at Ronnie Scott's every few months and it makes me happier.
Do you prefer being on tour or recording?
It’s such a different performance, singing songs live compared to singing in the studio. Different mikes, different way of singing. In the studio it’s just me and the writer, and you don’t really have to sing out so much in the studio. I sing lazily in the studio I think – I can’t get away with it live! I find it hard to begin with on tour and also suddenly you have an audience which freaks you out a bit. I love the bubble and routine and creativity of recording. You can turn up and do anything, and you know where it comes from – it’s quite weird and quite cool at the same time. But then you do write the songs for an audience, so I don’t think I prefer one over the other.
Who have you got supporting on the tour?
I haven’t got supports acts at the moment actually! It’s a funny thing with support, you can either get a support act who give you money or you go with someone that you like. On the last theatre tour I had Rodrigo Y Gabriela, they were brilliant, and then I went to America four months ago and they had a massive advert on TV, so I thought that’s quite cool. So I haven’t made a decision yet, it’s going to be quite last minute, that’s not very professional is it!
What should fans expect from ‘Let It Go’?
It’s really hard, it’s one of those questions you get asked a lot - “how is this different from the last album?” – I normally just end up stealing people’s lines from reviews if they’re good, which they have been so far! I haven’t personally looked at reviews for four years, I haven’t read an interview for four years. I think I’m getting the best reviews I’ve ever got. But I think if you don’t want to believe the really bad reviews, then you shouldn’t believe the really good ones either. But yeah, it’s a hard one to answer, I guess I’ve kinda embraced pop.
The producers you’ve worked with on the album - Freemasons, Matt Prime (who’s worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Jamelia), Eg White (Adele, Sam Sparro) – are all ones that most people would associate with pop…
Yeah, people like Mike Spencer and Steve Lipson, but they’ve done quite interesting things. Steve’s like a second dad to me, he’s a bit of a legend, and he came from the Trevor Horn Art Of Noise thing – you know, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes To Hollywood – so he’s always done pop, but he’s also done all the Annie Lennox albums, so he’s associated with quite interesting pop. Even people like Mike Spencer - he’s done Jamiroquai, but he’s also done Kylie and Alphabeat - hopefully it’s not like bubblegum pop, which I think is kinda dead anyway.
What was Biff Stannard like to work with, who’s worked with Kylie and the Spice Girls?
Biff lives in Brighton, we did a load together, we’re really good friends. The song that’s on the album he actually ended up producing, so all the songs we wrote together didn’t get on, which is a shame. They were really good songs, they just didn’t fit on the album. But it was a great way to get back into writing, it’s scary, it’s like starting a new book! Biff’s fantastic, he’s a complete laugh, so funny. He’s got a proper studio, I always feel like a proper writer and I’m in his studio.
Where do you do most of your songwriting?
Normally in the studio. I’ve got a little thing at home, but I’m so shit with computers. Actually, I set it up, then I had a leak so everything got bust and I haven’t set it up again yet.
Before you began recording, had you worked on many new songs since the last album?
Yeah, I always think you should do it the whole time, if I had the time now I’d still be writing. I’ve got all these songs that I keep on revisiting when it’s the right time.
When you started working on the album did you have a wishlist of people you wanted to work with?
I did actually, yeah.
Did you get to work with most of them?
Yeah, apart from Prince. Aim high! I really wanted to work with Greg Kirsten, who’s a friend of mine. He did The Bird And The Bee, you’ve got a check them out – there’s one song called ‘Will You Be My Fucking Boyfriend’, it’s hysterical. He’s done all the new Lily Allen album, so I was really pleased to get with him, but then it didn’t quite work out, which is quite often the way! Oh and I almost got to write with the Guillemots, but then it didn’t happen, cos of their album. I always think you don’t have to work with pop writers – that’s why I wrote with Sia, and I’ve done stuff with Nitin Sawhney and the guys from Groove Armada.
Last album you bought:
Joni Mitchell: ‘Court And Spark’.
Last DVD you bought:
Entourage: Season One.
Last film you saw at the cinema:
The Duchess – Ralph Fiennes is brilliant in it.
Last gig you went to:
Sia at V Festival.
‘Let It Go’ is released on 29th September 2008 by RCA Label Group.
Interview held on 26th September 2008 in London.
Written by Will Martin.
