In den britischen Telefonbüchern muß es wohl tausende von Stephen Jones' geben. Allein in Wales, wo der Name Jones herkommt, muß es so viele Stephen Jones geben wie Sandkörner am Strand von Tenby; dort, wo die Surfer auf den Wellen reiten und man ein herrliches Badeerlebnis hat, wenn es die Sonne gut mit einem meint. Ich hatte vor fast drei Jahren ein herrliches walisisches Badeerlebnis und fühlte mich beinahe wie in Kalifornien. Dann ging es weiter ins superromantische Herz von Pembrokeshire und an den White Sands Strand.
Eigentlich will ich ja über Stephen Jones, vormals Babybird, sprechen, aber weil ich gelesen hab, dass er jetzt auch ein Haus im walisischen Pembrokeshire besitzt (das hat ihm wohl sein 'You're Gorgeous' Hit bezahlt), ist mein Wales-liebendes Herz gleich übergegangen ...
Beinahe geheilt von Traurigkeit
'Almost Cured Of Sadness' ist das bereits 10. Album von Babybird, pardon, Stephen Jones, jenem Briten, der Mitte der 90er Jahre zu plötzlichem Ruhm kam, nachdem er zwischen 1989 und 1994 über 400 Songs zuhause im Wohnzimmer eingespielt hatte und dann Einiges davon ganz knapp hintereinander auf fünf Alben veröffentlichte. Diese vielgesuchten und schwer aufzutreibenden Alben gibt es jetzt auch zusammengefasst als 'The Original Lo-Fi' (Sanctuary Records).
Welcome back, Stephen!
Beim raschen Durchhören von 'Almost Cured Of Sadness' hätte ich nicht wirklich gleich gemerkt, dass es sich um den ex-Babybird-Mann handelt. Ein 'You're Gorgeous' ist nicht zu finden, auch kein 'Good Night' oder 'Aluminium Beach'. Aber das macht nichts, schließlich war auch das letzte Babybird- Album ('Bugged', 2000) kein 'You're Gorgeous'-Abklatsch und das davor ('There's Something Going On', 1998) auch nicht. Ein bisschen vermisse ich den tiefen Bariton, in dem Stephen Jones immer gern sang, auf dem neuen Album frönt er mehr dem Falsetto.
Im Interview zum neuen Album
How did it first take shape?
"The way I write has never changed. I always start on a four track or an eight track tape recorder and just record ideas. I start off with drums and then add things to that. It hasn't changed in ten, fifteen years, it's always been the same way. Success has never changed anything that I do." (lacht)
How long did it take?
"I started work on this four, five years ago. I always go back and look at old demos that I've written and see if there are ideas or tunes in there. So, it's just kind of stretched from the period that I was recording on Echo. It's sort of just stretched from there, and I just collected things, collected lyrics and then I kinda put them on to the songs."
What were you trying to achieve with the array of effects and odd noises that swim in and out of the melodies?
I think it's just simple. You put effects on your voice and it automatically sounds more like an instrument, it's not so naked. That's the immediate reason for doing that. When you record your vocals in a big studio, you're often encouraged not to sing with any effects on it, and I find that really difficult. It's a bit of an excuse, because you should be able to sing it without any effects on, but I find it's a bit of an accompaniment to have some echo or reverb. It blends it into the music, what echo and reverb do. It's like smoothing over a piece of wood with sandpaper, it just blends into the whole effect of the song. So, my voice sometimes becomes not like a voice, and it's not so important if you miss the lyrics, it's more of an instrument."
Why sing in a falsetto so much?
"A lot of the early albums - the Lo-Fi Cycle, the first five albums - I was writing at home, and that would always be in small flats or next to other people's houses or in semi-detached houses or wherever. I would always be conscious of the neighbours or other people I was sharing a house with, so I would always keep my voice very quiet or use a child like high voice. So, I've done that before, so I've just kind of returned to that now."
Are you trying to step away from being a vocalist, or frontman, despite being a solo artist?
"Yeah, I've always been uncomfortable with being a frontman. That's the obvious thing you get with a band - you get forced to the front and it's lots of responsibilities with that, which I've never really enjoyed. So, that's probably why I hibernate in studios and work the way I do."
What happened to Babybird?
"Well, it's gone. Babybird was always just a little tag for those first albums that I did on my own. So, it was never meant to be Stephen Jones's Babybird, it was just a name which describes something simple and fragile, and that's what these four-track demos were. In a way it could fit to this album, but it was just becoming synonymous with the success, the success I had all those years ago, and I think people would hear the name and then they would associate it with certain singles."
Österreich |
6.3.2003 | 17:39
