Fans love for Marc is still untainted..
New album Chaos And A Dancing Star will keep 80s icon to the fore in a career that has amassed 30 million sales
After miraculously surviving a motorcycle crash that left him critically injured back in 2004, it’s of little surprise to hear Marc Almond still finds himself occasionally reflecting now, all these years later, on his brush with death
Mortality is theme that crops up in some shape or form on his brilliant forthcoming album Chaos and a Dancing Star, due out at the end of this month, which he says reflects the “chaotic times we live in”.
The album’s title plays on a quote from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
It’s a statement, Almond told me, that has informed everything about his craft – so much so that he wants it placed on his gravestone!
But don’t except him to be leaving us anytime soon. “I’m feeling better than ever, thank you!” he told me when I asked how his health is these days.
Did the 2004 accident profoundly change his outlook on life? Was it a difficult experience working on this album?
“Since my motorbike accident in 2004 emotions such as love are elusive,” he exclusively told The Beat, wearing his heart on his sleeve.
“Love is usually a cold imitation as is happiness and grief, but in itself is a different kind of pain. This is reflected in songs like Dust and Fighting a War. I really enjoyed working on this album.”
Younger readers may be forgiven for not remembering how big a star Marc Almond was in his heyday. In a career spanning 40 years, he amassed 30 million sales between his enduringly successful solo career and initial rise with Soft Cell.
He landed two #1 hits in the shape of the Soft Cell classic Tainted Love and his solo smash Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart, featuring Gene Pitney. Plus, there’s been a further seven Top 10 singles and five Top 10 albums.
This iconic and influential figure has enjoyed a fresh renaissance in recent years. Two years ago, 2017’s retrospective Hit & Pieces saw him return to the Top 10 of the album charts, and it was followed by the critically acclaimed Shadows and Reflections set, which became the highest charting solo album of his career so far.
He also reunited with David Ball to say goodbye to Soft Cell with an emotional sold-out show at London’s O2. Could he see Soft Cell performing again?
“We performed our last gig to a sold out O2 Arena in London in September 2018. We really went out with a bang. It was a very special night! That’s not to say that there will never be any new music released though. Watch this space!” he said with a knowing smile.
Marc understandably dislikes being pigeonholed as a gay artist. Did he ever struggle with his sexuality in his teens and did he feel under any pressure from record labels to keep his sexuality a secret?
He told The Beat: “My music over the years has evolved, changed and varied from one project to the other so I really hope that I’m not pigeonholed as purely a gay artist.
“When I first went on Top of The Pops singing Tainted Love with Dave Ball our label and the TV execs really tried their hardest to have us scrub off the eyeliner and take off the bangles. I was even told that I should have a make-believe girlfriend!”
In his refreshingly honest autobiography entitled Tainted Life, which was released all the way back in 1999, Marc spoke candidly about going off the rails with regards drugs and booze during height of his fame.
Reflecting on it all today, he said: “Yes, this is well documented especially in my autobiography, and not really something I am proud of particularly, but proud of having survived it.”
But even during those wild days, he still produced the occasional killer tune such as the 1988 collaboration with Gene Pitney called Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart.
It was “definitely a highlight” is how Marc describes that song with the American singer-songwriter Gene Pitney, who sadly died in 2006.
Marc added: “He was such a gentleman and I learnt a lot from him. I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with so many incredible artists over the years.”
Does he have any anecdotes about his trips to Ireland?
“Just that I have a deep fondness for Ireland, and have over the years worked with incredibly talented Irish people,” he said.
He then added, “I remember Agnes Bernelle well.”
Her name momentarily hung in the air, as he recalled warm memories of his friend, who sadly passed away in 1999. For the uninitiated, Agnes Bernelle was a Berlin-born expatriate actress and singer, who lived in England and then Ireland for many years, after her family fled Berlin in 1936. She appeared in over 20 films and also made stage and television appearances.
During her international cabaret career she collaborated on records with artists such as Marc Almond
himself, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Irish punk band The Radiators. Her album Bernelle on Brecht… was famously produced by Dubliner Philip Chevron of The Radiators and later of The Pogues. And in 1985 she released Father’s Lying Dead on the Ironing Board, again it was produced by Chevron, who sadly died in 2013, only a few short weeks after conducting his last ever interview about life and death with yours truly. Marc added about Agnes: “She was so lovely and kind, and had such a great stage presence.” What’s his biggest regret?
“You can’t live your life having regrets. Well, I try not to,” he said philosophically.
These days, the hedonistic partying is a thing of the past – and all that seems to matter for Marc is the music.
Crafted in collaboration with Ivor Novello-winner Chris Braide – who has worked with heavy hitters like Sia, Lana Del Rey, Halsey – the new album provides another twist in the unorthodox artistry that’s become a hallmark of Almond’s career.
“I love working with Chris Braide so always find joy in the projects that we do together,” he recalled.
“Chris Braide and I started writing songs for our follow up album to The Velvet Trail three years ago. I recorded the vocals in a studio in London and sent them to LA for Chris to then work his musical magic on.
“The initial direction for the album was to go in a prog direction but the writing developed into a more conventional song writing form. Chaos and a Dancing Star is my most ‘gothic’ record since Marc and The Mambas days.”
Impermanence and vulnerability are recurring themes throughout the album. Can Marc tell me why these themes play such an important role in these songs?
“Very few things in the world are permanent and global climate change and the state of politics make us all vulnerable,” he explained.
“On a more superficial level, Los Angeles attracts me more these days than it used to, whereas a younger me would’ve been drawn to the New York energy.
“But places change, you change and things grow on you in different ways as you grow older.”
The lead single from the album Slow Burn Love is an uplifting song with some incredibly powerful-lyrics.
“It was inspired from my past connection to Northern Soul and a nod in that direction,” he proffered.
“I wanted it to have a retro feel, which the video taps into brilliantly with a nod to the films Liquid Sky, Near Dark and David Lynch, and they have captured the look of analogue video amazingly.”
He added: “I like things to be simple and direct and paint simple visual pictures, I like songs as stories. The stripped back element creates a more fragile and vulnerable feeling.”
Inspired by writing in LA, Marc also added some Americana to the album. Referencing the famous cemetery to the stars with which it shares its name, Hollywood Forever addresses suicide and the passing of the Golden Age.
“LA has always had a seductive darkness about it. Hollywood Forever touches on the decay, and frayed beauty representing the ending of golden ages in Hollywood,” he said.
The album was launched with the new track Lord Of Misrule with soulful vocal harmonies, flute courtesy of Jethro Tull legend Ian Anderson.
Marc also noted: “It’s probably fair to say that I wrote Lord of Misrule with Ian in mind as I’ve always thought there was a touch of pagan mischief about him. It’s a kind of alternative Christmas song.”
Our conversation turns again to the Nietzsche quote: “You have to have Chaos in your Heart to give Birth to a Dancing Star.” What is the significance of this quote and what made this the focus of the album?
“You can take this to mean different things but to me it means out of chaos comes something wonderful, something bright, creativity,” he said.
“Out of repression and turmoil whether in life or within yourself comes art and music and creative expression.
“We live in chaotic times and we hope or I hope something positive will emerge out of it.
“I wanted to write romantic apocalyptic love songs and set the songs in fatal end of days settings with a touch of mystic Paganism yet hopelessness. Lovers against a burning sky.”
He added: “It reflects the out-of-kilter world in which we find ourselves living today.”
Does Marc have a favourite song on the album?
“The track The Crow’s Eyes Have Turned Blue, I am very proud of and it stands out as a favourite. It deals with so many of the fears of growing old and our own mortality,” he said.
Crows, he pointed out, are a symbolic recurring theme on this record. “When their eyes turn blue their life is coming to an end. Maybe it is the end of days for all of us, and perhaps this is something we should acknowledge,” he said.
What’s next for Marc Almond? “Possibly a tour in October,” he concluded, but you’ll just have to watch this space!”
Fingers crossed there will be an Irish date included on this tour because it’s a “fun city”, as a popular Soft Cell song goes….
‘‘ You can take this to mean different things but to me it means out of chaos comes something wonderful, something bright, creativity.