We need music and we need love more than ever
As her new album is due for release, Irish singing star Imelda May tells MARION McMULLEN why she is spreading the love
NOEL GALLAGHER, Ronnie Wood and Miles Kane all feature on Imelda May’s new album and she says all the songs are united by one thing ... love. “Every song,” she says proudly. “I didn’t realise while I was writing it. When I write, I just write what I feel like writing. I just go with whatever comes out. I take inspiration where it comes and I just keep writing. Afterwards, when I looked back, when I looked at it as a whole piece, I realised that the common thread through it all is very much love.
“And it’s love of all kinds, not just romantic love, but love of the planet, of the Earth, love of ourselves, love of each other, there’s lustful love, fighting for love, universal love. I’m happy about that because I think putting an album like that out into the world is the album I want to put out right now. I think we all need music more than ever and we need love more than ever.”
The track Just One Kiss certainly captures the spirit of love.
“I did two videos for that one,” says the 46-year-old singer.
“The first one was all lust and passion and then at the end I had my parents kiss and it got such a reaction. People were messaging me and I thought let’s do another and we’ll get people to send in videos of themselves kissing each other, babies, their, dog or their cat or their horse. I was so delighted with that.”
Just One Kiss also features former Oasis star Noel Gallagher on vocals and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood on guitar. They are long-standing friends and shared a stage in a Dublin blues club when Imelda was 16.
“I have known Ronnie a long time and he asked me to sing on his album,” she says. “It was the Chuck Berry one and we did a little mini-tour just before all the lockdown stuff. He just said, ‘Give us a shout anytime’. So I did, I asked him. He’s brilliant, Ronnie is amazing. He plays on a couple of tracks on the album.
“I was wanting to ask Noel to sing with me on this song because I just thought he would be brilliant. I love his voice. I love his vibe.
And then I thought, ‘I won’t ask him because I am sure he gets asked all the time’ and then we were just texting and here we are.”
Her forthcoming sixth studio album, 11 Past The Hour, also features Miles Kane of the Last Shadow Puppets, with contributions from feminist thinkers and activists such as Gina Martin and Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. Most of the album was written before the first lockdown, but its release was delayed by the pandemic.
“I took time off to write and I was geared up into getting everything out into the world when lockdown happened,” says Imelda. “I did do some more writing then, a few remote kind of things at the tail end of it. You find a new way of doing things and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
“I’d like to say I’m techie, but I’ve been roping my boyfriend in to do all that for me because I’ve no interest in that side of things. I know I should learn how to do it, but it doesn’t interest me. I’m great at learning anything that interests me, but if not... pffht.
“I mean nobody knew how to do Zoom a year ago and now I prefer it. It saves me getting changed to go into London all the time.”
So what has kept her sane during the lockdown? “I’ve never been sane,” she laughs, “and I’m OK with that. My life doesn’t fall into the normal bracket. Like everybody else I’ve just had to adapt, but writing has always been the great thing for me. I’ve been extremely busy getting the album ready. It was supposed to be out earlier, but the tour kept moving back and that kind of moved the album back and it got to the point I was too excited about the album to do that any more and I said let’s just get it out there. I can’t sit on this album and wait any longer.
“Even doing the photoshoot was different. I remember at one point, before the lockdown came into place, we were looking at booking this beautiful theatre for a photoshoot and it ended up with a couple of us walking around a forest because you were only allowed to have people outdoors so my whole photoshoot was done outdoors but it was beautiful.”
Imelda says she has only been able to get back to Ireland to see friends and family once in the last year. “I miss people, but everybody is in the same boat. I’m happy to do this if this is what needs to be done. I don’t mind at all. If we had cracked down earlier we would be in a better position now.
“It’s one of those things. If you just get on with it, it will be better in the end.
“I live in hope. There have been pandemics in the world before and we’ve got through them so the time will come when we can tour again.
“The entertainment industry’s on its knees, we’re hanging in there, but I don’t know how, I don’t know what it’s going to be like when we go back, but I do think we will all appreciate small things more, like hugging each other and seeing our family, and sitting together and singing songs at the end of the night.
“All those simple things we will get great pleasure from.”
I was wanting to ask Noel (Gallagher) to sing with me on this song because I thought he would be brilliant. I love his voice, I love his vibe.