Saint Etienne - Best of coming with Richard X single collab.

from teletext:

Sarah Cracknell's journey by John Earls (so its must be indie then!!! :lol: )

Saint Etienne singer Sarah Cracknell and an aria from the ballet Wild Swans doesn't sound the most obvious basis for a certain hit.

But Elizia Aria is more familiar as the music from Lloyds TSB's ad with the animated train, turned into a dance tune by Mark Brown of Positiva Records.

"Mark's a Saint Etienne fan," explains Sarah. "He asked me through a mutual friend and I thought, 'Why not?'"

Sarah says writing her part of The Journey Continues was easy.

"I was surprised at how easy it was, to be honest," she laughs. "I had to come up with a top-line melody over the aria and some lyrics.

"It all came about almost instantly. I wanted to make the lyrics general, about a journey, and even they were easy. I usually hate writing lyrics and for once it was a relief to do these."

What had Sarah thought about the Lloyds TSB ad before doing the song?

"Well, I liked the animation, that's very clever," she says. "But it's one of those trendy, overly-clever ads where you get confused what it's for. I thought it was for Virgin Trains!

"I'm sure the bank see it as good publicity, but they have nothing to do with Mark's single. I haven't been given a free overdraft or anything."

The single comes at what seems a quiet time for Saint Etienne, whose last album Turnpike House was in 2005.

"We've just done a single, This Is Tomorrow, with Richard X," says Sarah.

"It's the theme to a film we did last year, which I said all along should be a single. Bob and Pete have finally agreed with me. We love Richard and wanted to do something with him for ages, it's good it's finally come off."

There will be a Best Of to follow in summer, with all the trio's seven albums reissued as 2CD sets in autumn.

"We're also doing the music for a cartoon series," says Sarah, 40.

"All of us love the music from other cartoons, and it's been an honour to be asked to do one ourselves. I can't say too much, but it's Japanese-style animation even though it's British. A whole series is proving a lot of work."

Concentrating on "tidying up our past" rather than writing a new album as yet, Sarah says that spending a year as Artists In Residence at the re-opened London Southbank in 2007 was fruitful.

"Our films and curating the Southbank feeds into the music," Sarah explains.

"To be honest, though, Bob and Pete did most of that work. I'd just think 'Ooh, I haven't seen that film before' and pop down the Southbank occasionally!"

Cant wait to here the Richard X collab - think that will turn out so cool - tho I would love a DVD with all the singles vids on it - dont know whether to buy the one out now or whether there will be an updated version free with the best of...

"We've just done a single, This Is Tomorrow, with Richard X," says Sarah.

 

"It's the theme to a film we did last year, which I said all along should be a single. Bob and Pete have finally agreed with me. We love Richard and wanted to do something with him for ages, it's good it's finally come off."

 

There will be a Best Of to follow in summer, with all the trio's seven albums reissued as 2CD sets in autumn.