JUDIE TZUKE
Rock songstress on her latest endeavour
Tell us about your new set.
It feels like a story of the last 11 years of my life, and my whole career – survival against the odds, beating cancer, losing my home, being alone in Covid lockdown and lost in the trauma of it all. I feel lucky that I can make something positive out of it, writing songs to release the pain and anxiety of the way that I exist in my world and heal some of the most painful experiences, and remind myself that I’m alive and how much I love and appreciate my family, friends and audience. We feel similar things and go through similar situations, so it’s comforting to think that I wasn’t alone.
What film could it soundtrack? One that starts in a difficult place, gets worse, then starts again with hope for the future – Titanic![laughs].
If you could re-visit any of your albums, what’d you change?
I’d re-record Understanding [1980] and make it slower. It’s almost impossible to sing.
Is there anything still unissued? We’re checking through some songs as we speak, and I hope to release some on Waifs And Strays.
Have you done anything that fans may not know about?
I wrote and sang two or three tracks with Morcheeba for their Dive Deep, and there are so many songs that I’ve written for other artists. Kirsty Hawkshaw put some to dance music with Tiesto, Hybrid & BT. I wrote and sang with Freemasons on some of their albums. There have been various DJS remixes with some of my backing/lead vocals, and quite a few Ibiza chill-out albums with remixes of Stay With Me Til Dawn. I also have a sample on the new James Blake single. With whom would you like to make a split 7”?
Hozier, Scott Matthews, Fink.
What was your first record?
Jimi Hendrix, Hey Joe.
What’s the last album that you bought?
TIGY Thoughts I Give You.
What records were most influential on your style?
John Martyn, Jackson Browne,
Paul Rodgers, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Little Feat, Thin Lizzy, Bonnie Raitt. Was anyone in your family a musician?
My dad really wanted to be and he put us children through the torture of listening to him attempting various instruments. He didn’t master anything, but he did fund Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber while they wrote Jesus Christ Superstar. Many afternoons, when I got home from school, Andrew would be at my dad’s apartment, writing and playing our piano. What’s the oddest circumstance that inspired a song?
Blue Chair, with Morcheeba. As I arrived at their studio, I was asked to write a song about a piece of furniture, because they wanted to re-create a song vibe that related to their album sleeve for The Big Calm, which pictured a sofa that, coincidently, had a friend of mine reclining on it.
What’s your most prized music item?
My guitar, bought in 1972. It was half-made for Mary Hopkin by Tony Zemaitis, until she decided she wanted a flower-shaped sound hole. I was 16, and it was £150 – a fortune.
What record are you looking for? A lost video of For You, directed by Mike Mansfield. I’d love to see it again and show it to my daughters. Which of your songs would you segue?
Welcome To The Cruise and Unsinkable. There’s a connection to my first and latest albums. They bookend my career.
Would you change any of your artwork, given the chance?
I Am The Phoenix. I had an artist friend who did a painting for me, but my label wouldn’t let me use it. They used their own artist, which I really didn’t like, and I was criticised in the music papers about what a terrible album sleeve it was! What backstage incident makes you laugh most?
In Central Park [New York, 1980], with Elton John. We sat in the backstage mobile dressing room and drank a whole bottle of whiskey, to calm our nerves before we played to 450,000 people. It didn’t work, and I was so nervous that I don’t remember much about it. Other than it took 20 minutes, instead of 30, as we played so fast!
Which albums, on first-listen, are the most startling that you ever heard?
Marvin Gaye What’s Going On, Joni Mitchell Blue, Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key Of Life, John Martin
Solid Air.
Do you plan a book?
Yes, maybe at some point, though I’m dyslexic, so I’d need the right person to help.
Is there a myth about you that you’d like to set straight?
I’m not difficult.
Of all the people that you’ve worked with, who taught you the most?
Paul Buckmaster, genius string arranger, taught me that my music came from what I felt, not what
I’d learned, and producer Paul Muggleton reminded me that what I had to say matters.
“IN COVID LOCKDOWN I WAS ALONE AND LOST IN THE TRAUMA OF IT”
Judie Tzuke Jude The Unsinkable CD, LP are on Big Moon, 5 April.