Ten minutes really isn’t enough time to interview a major talent like Imelda May, but the inimitable Irish pioneer runs a tight schedule, and there are an awful lot of other folk who want to speak to her too, so 10 minutes it is. She is an absolute delight to talk to and I feel like we could have chatted all day and night, so it’s a shame the conversation had to come to such an abrupt end. No warning or anything, the call just suddenly became disconnected. What follows is pretty much the entire conversation before that moment, sadly, had to happen…
Your forthcoming album, Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. is a quite devastating record in certain places – and I mean that in purely a good way – but given the drastic change of direction, are you apprehensive at all about the way it will be received by your fans?
Imelda May: (thoughtfully) Yes and no. I’ve always been curious about these things anyway, but I have always followed my heart in whatever I do. And I have always listened to all different types of music, so I wanted to find some way of incorporating as much of that stuff into the new album.
Even though it is a dramatic shift in musical style, somehow it makes perfect sense. What do you put your success in such a transformation down to?
Imelda: (laughs) What a great question! So far all everybody keeps asking me about is my change of hairstyle! What do I put my success in the transformation down to? Well, it made sense to me anyway, and I wanted to reflect how I was feeling at that time in the songs; it’s the only way. There wasn’t a major plan or anything to do something completely different, again it was just a case of following my instincts. I love that my record company can’t tell me to do anything. I will never be forced into a certain direction, so they just have to go along with what I want to do. I honestly had no idea what I was going to write, so I just had to stop and think about it. I ended up writing about 38 songs, 11 of which made the album.
So will we be getting a deluxe edition of the album at some point, with bonus tracks that never quite made the album?
Imelda: No! I always “over” write. I just continually write and write, and eventually, when I’m happy that enough of them are good enough, we make an album.
And T-Bone Burnett was involved this time around, right? How did he get the best out of you during recording?
Imelda: Again, what a great thing to say! People normally just ask what he was like to work with! I think the main thing that T-Bone did was that he gave me space to be myself; he let me do my thing. Previously, I’d always produced all my own albums, although admittedly the last one was co-produced, so this was the first one to be produced by somebody else. Not that I wasn’t putting me oar in here and there of course! I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out, but he did an amazing job. One big thing that he taught me was that what you don’t do is just as important as what you do. That was a big thing for me. Then he hired the right guys and we agreed on which direction each song should take, and it felt right, you know? We’re very similar too – he’s really deadpan and funny and we share a similar taste. Plus, I normally do my vocals completely on my own, so it was nice to have somebody there with me when I did those this time. I hope I’ve learnt from him and taken some of his brains from the experience. I feel lucky because he’s like the coolest guy on the planet.
I was sorry to hear about your marriage break up, and of course, because of that, you lost a key band member too. Was it hard to start afresh? What kept you going?
Imelda: Well, I kind of knew it was coming anyway. Darrel (Higham) wanted to leave the band anyway, as he could see I was moving in a completely different direction but we are really good. I did backing vocals on Darrel’s upcoming album, and whilst it wasn’t the easiest thing; we are rooting for each other. We’re very lucky, a lot of couples aren’t but we’re real good. Our focus is on our daughter and as long as she’s happy, we’re grand.
So that was that then! No time to ask my further questions about her long-term champions Jools Holland and Jeff Beck (both of whom feature on the new album), her imminent UK tour, or any of the questions other GIITTV editors and writers wanted me to ask. Mind you, given that one of those questions was “Can you fly a kite?”, perhaps it’s better this way…
Imelda May’s stunning new album Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. will be released on the 7th of April on Decca.
