Moyet: What I enjoyed about Yaz was the fact that the sources of the songs came from many different arenas. What prompted you to take the plunge back into the electro-pool? THR: You’ve been away from electronic music for some time. And I wasn’t a natural cash cow - someone where he could say, “I’m definitely going to reap rewards on this.” So when you’ve dealt with people not even taking your phone calls and then you enter the chart higher than you have for a quarter or a century and get the reviews of your lifetime, of course that’s a vindication, and joyful.
He was working in his downtime and in between records. I had only Guy Sigsworth who musically believed in what I was doing, and he effectively funded it, because I wasn’t paying him. Do you really think that me getting my tits out on some program is going to get anyone to look at my art? It got to the point where I had to make this record off my own back.
I’ve had loads of deal offers, but all for covers or unless I would do reality television. However, in this instance, I’ve had to battle for years to get a record label to even speak to me about new material. Moyet: It’s been well reported that I threw away all my old gold discs because the idea of having some token on my wall that tells me when I’ve been successful and made a lot of money means nothing to me. THR: You must have been chuffed, as they say, at the U.K. I want to be able to sing the words in the way that I would speak them, and obviously I don’t walk around with a mid-American drawl. But as I’ve gotten older, I’m more fixed with my European-ness and just the fact that I want to have a greater honesty in what I’m doing. The Hollywood Reporter: Congratulations, first of all, on being a British singer who puts out a record without any American intonation.Īlison Moyet: When I started singing, the fashion was to apply an American accent. NEWS: Margaret Thatcher and the Rise and Fall of the Great British Pop Protest Song She recently spoke to THR about that voice, her struggles with fame and why she does not appreciate compliments about her newly svelte figure. The Minutes is a far cry from Yaz’s more excitable highlights, but Moyet has never been in more powerful voice. Written and produced in collaboration with Guy Sigsworth (known for his work with Bjork and Madonna, among others) and filled with ruminations on aging. The Minutes sees Moyet return to electronic music. She even gave the stage a whirl, treading the boards as Mama Morton in a West End production of Chicago and in the comedy Smaller. Moyet eschewed chart trends, instead recording covers of Michel Legrand and George Gershwin songs. Later albums, like 1991’s Hoodoo, were less polished and accessible.
But Moyet, always uncomfortable with the attention that came with high-charting records, resolved to steer her career in more idiosyncratic directions. 1 smash across Europe and produced hits like “Love Resurrection,” “All Cried Out” and “Invisible.” A subsequent cover of the jazz standard “That Ole Devil Called Love” was even bigger and opened the door to multi-generational mainstream success. Her first solo album, 1984’s Alf, after her nickname, was carefully designed to launch her as an international superstar. Moyet and Clarke remained together for two hit albums, 1982’s Upstairs at Eric’s and the following year’s You and Me Both, before disbanding. Moyet cites the lack of a personal relationship to accompany their working one as the chief catalyst for the dissolution. PHOTOS: 11 British Actors Invading Hollywood’s ‘It List’ “I thought you made a record, you gave it to a plugger, the plugger took it to the radio stations, all the radio stations played it, everyone bought it and then you had a hit record.”
“I really thought that was the trajectory,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. Two months later, the song was climbing the U.K. Clarke approached Moyet to sing on his first post-Depeche demo, a song called “Only You.” She agreed, thinking she might be able to use it to launch her own career.
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