WHY I HAD TO GET OUT OF‘TRUMP AMERICA’
G‘You can’t cancel someone’s entire career just because they said something’
olden-voiced British singer Rumer, who recorded such multi-platinum selling albums as 2010’s Seasons Of My Soul and Boys Don’t Cry in 2012, noticed that fans were coming to her live shows with CDs that they had ‘burned’ themselves – ones that contained rarities that could only be found on editions of albums made specifically for markets in Asia and the Americas. It prompted her to release Into
Colour, B Sides & Rarities in 2015.
After two albums where she recorded songs by legendary songwriters Burt Bacharach and
Hal David (2016’s This Girl’s In
Love) and then by lesser-known American songsmith Hugh Prestwood on Nashville Tears in 2020, she returns with B Sides & Rarities Vol.2. She and husband
Rob Shirakbari, who she met while she was recording with Bacharach, trawled through her archive once more to simply give her fans what they want.
‘Well, I thought if people are looking for these less well-known songs I should do it myself properly,’ she says. ‘Originally it was just for merchandise. Nobody wanted a tea towel or a Rumer mug but they did want music.
It’s not completist. These are the ones that I thought would make
a good collection.’
Her voice, often compared to that of Karen Carpenter, is wellsuited to songs on the album such as the Bee Gees’ How Deep Is Your Love, Carly Simon’s You’re The One and Elton John’s Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters.
When she married Shirakbari in 2015, they moved to the US, first to Arkansas, her husband’s home state, then to Macon in Georgia.
But they moved back to the UK earlier this year after more than six years living in what she calls Trump America.
‘It was really for my son,’ she says
‘I’d come back to England for three weeks last year. I’d been in Trump America for quite a long time. Coming back for those three weeks was such a breath of fresh air and I hadn’t realised how much I needed it, to be home and close to friends and family. I wanted my son to have a dose of my culture. It was really just time to come home.’ I tell her that Cork actor Cillian Murphy knew he wanted to move back to Ireland when his children began to develop ‘posh English accents’.
‘Oh, I served him once back when I worked in the Apple Store many moons ago,’ she says.
‘I sold him something and my colleague said, “Do you know who that was? That was Cillian Murphy”. I said I’d never heard of him or recognised him.’ I have to tactfully correct her as she is pronouncing Cillian as if it is spelled ‘Sillian’.
‘Oh thank you, no don’t apologise. I should know how to pronounce Irish names [her maiden name is Joyce]. I tried to watch Peaky Blinders actually, but I found it too violent.’
Rumer says that having lived in the US during the Trump years where American society became ever more polarised was difficult. But she also cautions that a cancel culture where people find themselves lambasted for expressing opinions that others deem insensitive or offensive and then encourage others to shun their work is not helpful.
‘It’s interesting that society has shifted in so many ways,’ she says. ‘People are also in flux. A person might have an opinion about one thing one day and change their mind the next. We mustn’t come down on each other like tonnes of bricks. The idea that people aren’t allowed to be ignorant and get cancelled or vilified as a result, I disagree with that. I think the right thing would be if you don’t think someone is properly educated about something then help educate them. You can’t cancel someone’s entire career just because they said something. “We banish your talent” – that’s just ridiculous.’
One particular song OldFashioned Girl on the new album –a co-write with her husband – she says might be seen as out of step with modern mores. ‘That song is like a punk statement in this day and age. Women have moods. Am I allowed to say women have moods?’ she asks.
‘Anyway, one of our moods is the nurturing female role. I do acknowledge in the song that it is deemed to be old-fashioned but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel like that from time to time. It was important for me to have a child. I’m one of eight kids and I didn’t want to miss out on that experience of having a child. It’s definitely made me strong, more patient and it’s very grounding. Myself and Rob make a really good team. We can do a lot of stuff independently but together I definitely feel more empowered in a team.’