Weekly > Interviews
Helen Boulding
Having earned her time through working with a whole raft of artists in the past, touring with Bryan Ferry and collaborating with The Orb, Chris Difford, Rick Wright and Simon Tong recently Helen Boulding is at last ready to released her debut solo album in February.
The Beat Surrender caught up with her before things got too hectic around the release of New Red Dress, to ask her a few questions.
As a Leeds based magazine I’ve got to start by asking how you’ve come to end up leaving Gods own County and living in the big smoke?
I didn’t want to leave and I miss it so much that I’m back in Sheffield every couple of weeks, but at the time I’d signed my publishing to Warner Chappell and I was finding myself down in London every week working with writers and producers, so I decided to move to London ‘cos I was constantly sleeping on my sisters floor in North London while I was doing my writing and recording sessions. I’m definitely going to go back to Sheffield eventually!
Are you still proud of where you’ve come from and the many successful artists that have come from the steel city such as Pulp, Richard Hawley, Arctic Monkeys and Milburn (to name just a few)?
I’m very proud of where I come from, the music, the people, the characters, the city, it’s a magical place.
Did the fact that local bands were being successful have an influence on you musically when you were growing up?
Not really as my influences weren’t Sheffield acts, but seeing people around you do well is always inspiring as it brings it home (literally) that anything is possible.
2008 is obviously a massive year for you with the release of your debut album, it must be a dream come true to get your first album out?
Absolutely, I can’t wait to get it out there into the big world!
What are your hopes for the album?
I would love as many people as possible to hear it, to love it and to buy it, that would be fantastic!
It’s nice to see a clutch of hotly tipped British female singer-songwriters emerging at the moment with people like yourself, Duffy, Adele, Laura Marling and Beth Rowley all hotly tipped for this year, have you heard much from any of the people I’ve mentioned?
Yes I know Beth very well, we’ve played a lot of the same gigs, in fact before Beth got her own thing going she used to be a fan of my stuff and would ask me for advice on the business.
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Add to favouritesDo you feel at all competitive about other females when they all have records coming out at around the same time as you (be it singles or albums)?
I don’t think there’s any real competition because everyone is different and so only I can write the songs I write with my stories and melodies because I am me and no-one else can be me. So if fans like my music they will want to come and see me because if they wanted something different they’d go to see someone else…. I love a lot of different female solo artist…Bonnie Raitt / Shawn Colvin / Joni Mitchell etc and they all give me something different because they’re true artists.
Who has inspired you musically over the years and made you want to produce the album you have?
James Talyor. Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Crowded House, Tim Harding, The Carpenters, Coldplay, Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Radiohead, Neil Young, The Eagles, Sheryl Crow, Bryan Adams…. I could go on, there’s so many great artists!
Is it easy singing and putting personal lyrics into your songs or do you ever feel that you are opening things up too much?
It’s not hard to write the songs, ‘cos I’m on my own, but sometimes it’s hard to perform a new song, with new emotions for the first time to an audience, that makes me feel very vulnerable.
Final question you’ll be pleased to know! If you are given the chance to sing with one artist, tour with one band and have your next album produced by one producer, which would you choose for each of them?
I would love to sing with Bonnie Raitt / Chris Martin / Thom York / Neil Finn / Tour with U2 or Coldplay or The Eagles and I wouldn’t change the producer for the next album, Youth is my favourite producer and luckily I got him first time.
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