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Will Young: I resented my Pop Idol link to begin with | Music Week: Home Stream

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1GbyNAF on May 15, 2015 at 05:19AM


Will Young is “an all rounder, a blinder” says his new record label boss, Island president Darcus Beese. The singer’s latest album, 85% Proof, is “the easiest A&R job” that Beese has done “in many a year”. Released on May 25, it’s Young’s sixth and was produced by previous collaborator Jim Eliot (Mikky Ekko, Ellie Goulding) and Mimi Stilwell (of electro-pop group Kish Mauve). It’s Young’s debut on Island after spending 10 years at Sony.

“He’s written a record that is personal to him and he quite eloquently has put it together [himself],” says Beese. “The brilliant way in which he described this album to me was that he wanted it to be something he could play on the Other Stage at Glastonbury. I went, Okay, that’s a vibe and a direction, and he actually nailed it. Don’t ask me what an album sounds like that should be played on the Other Stage at Glastonbury… but he nailed it!”

85% Proof was recorded in two five-day sessions, and written between June and August last year. Young has helmed the project at every step. Adds Beese: “Will had the whole vision himself visually too, he’d gone in and hired dancers independent of the record company and was doing rehearsals to his music. He went out to Thailand and filmed stuff that all ended up feeding into a lot of the content that he’s been doing. He’s a one-man army when it comes to making the record and the visuals and feeding all that back in.”

Renowned director, WIZ (who’s made videos for artists including Massive Attack, Oasis and Marilyn Manson), helped Young create a dark abstract video to go alongside Like A River. “I did a dance workshop for [Like A River], and I was thinking, I don’t really know why I’m doing this but I’m going to do it. I showed it to Island and they went mental,” says Young. “Darcus was like, This is amazing! I’d never really had that before. He goes, This is what you are, you’re a visual artist, you do cabaret… right, we’re just going to shoot this song. He stumped up insane money for a single video.” The first video release from 85% Proof was directed by Chino Moya (St Vincent) and features Young as a low-rent preacher in a high-technicolour fantasy world singing upbeat track Love Revolution (out on May 18).

The album complements Young’s newly-found lateral mindset. “[The music] has been inspired by what’s going on in my life. As I’ve become more interested in the world again, I’m like, We need to have some love, it’s a very Buddhist thing, more empathy for others and more understanding. There’s a song called Joy, where I’m really happy, and a song called Sexy, which is such a great title! There’s Gold, which is saying to someone, Look up at the ceiling and there is gold, do you not realise? That came from wanting to write a country song.”

85% Proof is the follow up to Young’s No.1 album Echoes. Released in 2011, it has sold over half a million copies. The album featured stand-out single Jealousy, which reached No.5 on the UK Singles Chart and has since been certified silver. Young isn’t feeling the pressure of expectation for a repeat performance though, thanks to patience from Island. “I’ve just got to put it out there,” he says. “Island aren’t scared, you can’t be scared. You’ve just got to deal with things as they come along. If I think, This has to be No.1, I have to buy a Ferrari, I have to get more and more and more… it’s like, I have enough, and I’m very content with that. As long as I can carry on doing music, and everything that’s involved in it; photos, putting thought behind the lyrics, melodies, production, the way it’s created, then I’m happy.”

Young’s career in music started when he was crowned the surprise winner of Pop Idol in 2002, beating teen (and Simon Cowell’s) favourite Gareth Gates to the post. After signing to BMG, which later became Sony BMG, his debut single, Anything Is Possible/Evergreen, became one of the 40 most successful singles in history at the time, reaching 1.3 million sales in its first week. “Sony were great, I had some really good people around me,” says Young of his time at the label. Names of note include video commissioner Mike O’Keefe (“he’s amazing”), radio plugger Leighton Woods, publicists Annette Millar and Richard Crossley, as well as former Sony chairman and CEO Ged Doherty, who was “a big supporter from the beginning”. The late Jo McCormack (who died in 2013 from cancer) was also “a huge part” of Young’s music during his tenure at Sony.

The Island deal was signed in 2012 after Young’s 10-year Sony contract came to an end. Island’s heritage, alongside its charismatic president, was the deal-maker. “Why would I not go with Island? I just got a sense that they were music people. I’d come to the end of my contract and it was time for a change,” he adds. It’s not the only change - after a similarly long-running 19 Recordings/XIX Management deal, Young and manager Faye Farmer moved to IE Music, not least because the singer likes what co-founders Tim Clark and David Enthoven have done with Robbie Williams.

“19 and XIX had really changed, gone into fashion and sports, there wasn’t a music department in the UK, it was just me and Faye my manager there,” Young explains. “I kind of knew that I wanted to go to IE. I’ve never been managed by men either, and I thought that would be a new experience for me. So I met them in their little office, which used to be a garage, around two years ago, and they said, Yeah, we’d like to do it, and that was it.”

Their strategy is “just about the music”, says Young. “I think you can overthink things, if you don’t have the content there’s no point. I think people sometimes get in a flap and get too caught up with the marketing and not caught up with concentrating on making good music. [Tim and David at IE] and David Joseph at Universal just said, Take your time. I was like, Brilliant!”

Alongside his music, in recent years Young has starred in theatre such as The Emcee in Cabaret (for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award), presented an ITV documentary on surrealist artist Magritte, written blogs for the likes of Huffington Post as well as a best-selling autobiography, and fronted a campaign for Stonewall. He has also started teaching and mentoring other singer/songwriters.

You’ve managed to have a really long career, which seems rare these days – especially for artists who graduate from TV talent shows. Why do you think that is?

I think to be a singer you have to have a stubbornness and a determinedness about you. After winning the show I remember really clearly thinking, I’m not going to screw this up, this is my dream job, I’m not going to let this go. You’ve got to have that strength and toughness and I think every person that makes it in any field has got to want it, and you’ve then got to get rid of the shit that surrounds it, focus on the music and choose the right people. I’ve always had the right people.

Have you ever felt tainted by the Pop Idol talent show franchise?

I did to begin with. I think the only thing that I felt is not being able to get on to Jools Holland. That used to be an annoyance of mine, because I thought, Oh, if I wasn’t from Pop Idol I’d probably get on. Yeah, I did resent it for a while but I never resented the fact that people invested in me.

What are Island’s plans for you?

They are so relaxed. Because they’ve been doing it for so long, they don’t get in a flap, so I know they are really keen. David Joseph [at Universal] and Tim and David [at IE] are like, Why have you not done more international? I don’t understand why the first single off my last record didn’t go international because it was good enough.

Was that because it was being pushed but not picked up?

No, I don’t think it was being pushed. And I’m really excited about that, and quite focused on it, because I think I should be doing more internationally. I realised the other day I could be the person that comes into I’m A Celebrity in Italy and they go, Oh, he’s the guy that had a No.1 eight years ago. I’m that person in Italy, Germany, Amsterdam, South Africa, I could go do I’m A Celeb in Holland. I’ve had moments [in other countries] over the years, but I know Universal are really behind it. They are finding a label in America, which I think we’ve done.

How is Island different to Sony culture-wise?

I think they are really bedded-in as a label, there’s been so much that has changed in Sony, it was BMG, Sony BMG, Sony, there were so many chairman changes, X Factor came in and became their fourth quarter, which changes things. I think there was a general drop in new artists. There were a lot of managerial and structural changes in terms of how people work, they moved buildings, that’s a lot going on for identity. Island have been Island for over 50 years now. That’s not a criticism of Sony, it’s just what happened and my time at Sony was a really happy one. Island just have this… they embrace music in this way that is so enveloping and you feel it, I just feel it when I walk in. Grace Jones, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Florence… it’s just there. They’ve taken a 360 approach to my career that has given me more confidence; I don’t think I had that at Sony.

How much of an influence has your manager Faye Farmer been during your career? You’ve worked together for 13 years.

She is a tour de force that lady, I owe my career to her, I genuinely do and we are both so happy at IE. There are people that have been with their managers for a long time, I know Kylie was one of them, Robbie has been one of them. I always think that’s quite telling, because you bed-in that relationship and you know what each other is thinking. There are difficult moments, when people are coming up and requesting things, and you just get a glance and it’s like, boom, you know what to do.

What are your hopes and ambitions for the new album, 85% Proof?

I’d like it to do well; what is well? I suppose it’s to get played on radio, that’s important. I want it to be heard and the videos, visuals and photos seen by as many people as possible. That can be a frustration because there is only so much as an artist you can do about that. I can’t force radio play; there are some radio stations that don’t play me and it’s their perogative and that’s the way it goes. That can be frustrating but, at the same time, social media means you can get stuff out there in other ways. That’s really cool and empowering. There was a time when video budgets were getting squeezed, I had a conversation at Sony and someone said, Do we need a video? I was like, It’s one of the things I love the most! Now budgets are growing again with [the arrival of] YouTube and Vevo.

You can make a pretty good music video fairly cheaply too.

Yeah, I’ve just done a video in Thailand in a food market for £100. I got 12 people with phone cameras, I found someone with a drone and there was a guy at the front of the market in Phuket Town who people would pay to see karaoke, and it was really crap! I said to my brother, I’ve got to a do a video here, so we organised it. I got a song called Promise Me, managed to get them to play it, I mimed it, and there’s all these old people sitting, just watching. It’s brilliant, it’s a video! I’m going to put that out at some stage. Particularly for new artists, how great is it that they can [put material online and] get seen.

Final question, what would you change about the music industry and why?

I’d change the fear, you can’t do anything in fear. You can’t predict things, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to put stuff out there.