Bounce Magazine 78

APRIL 2019 APRIL | ISSUE 2019 | #78 ISSUE | BANANARAMA
#78
loved writing, I trained to be a journalist because
I loved writing, I wrote books, ended up writing
songs.
Keren and I have been friends since we were
children so it’s like travelling the world with your
best friend. I think we write great pop songs, we
just appealed across the board really, I think young
girls really liked us because they saw something
they have never necessarily seen before.
ARE THERE ANY GROUPS THAT YOU’RE REALLY
LOVING AT THE MOMENT, OR ANY GIRL BANDS
THAT REMIND YOU OF BANANARAMA’S EARLY
DAYS?
Most girl bands in the charts have come from
reality shows, which isn’t a bad thing, I think Little
Mix are great, great vocals, great voices.
I don’t really know any other girl groups that were
quite like us. We formed our own group, had this
friendship, it was very different in the 80s.
YOUR DEBUT ALBUM DEEP SEA SKIVING WAS
RELEASED IN 1983 AND YOU’VE RELEASED
AN AMAZING 9 ALBUMS SINCE THEN. HOW
DO YOU THINK YOUR SOUND AND STYLE HAS
DEVELOPED FROM ALBUM TO ALBUM?
Keren and I are about to release our 11th studio
album, so it’s obviously changed; we were
teenagers when we started, we’ve been a duo for
sort of 35 years, our music just evolved.
There are different kinds of technology now; we
write with a friend of ours in a studio in his house,
it’s just very different. It’s great.
SIOBHAN FAHAY RE-JOINED THE BAND FOR
A REUNION TOUR IN 2017, WHAT WAS IT LIKE
GETTING THE GANG BACK TOGETHER AND
BEING A TRIO AGAIN?
We asked Siobhan if she’d like to do a one off UK
tour, it was fun.
She never toured with us, she left in 1988, and 1989
we went on a world tour so she never experienced
that kind of thing so it was really good.
IN STEREO, YOUR 11TH STUDIO ALBUM, IS DUE
FOR RELEASE NEXT MONTH, MAKING IT 10
YEARS SINCE YOUR LAST ALBUM, VIVA. WHAT
INSPIRED YOU TO FINALLY GET BACK IN THE
STUDIO?
We were always in the studio, always writing
songs, released EP’s, Christmas singles.
We concentrated on touring for the past 15 years
with our band, going all over the world. I really
enjoyed touring because we didn’t get to do
enough of it in the 80s.
We felt the fans were asking for an album so we
just collected all our songs and thought let’s put
an album out. It seemed like the right time.
HAVE YOU FOUND THAT YOUR APPROACH
TO SONG-WRITING AND RECORDING HAS
CHANGED DRASTICALLY OVER THE YEARS?
No, not really. I’ve always loved writing songs, it’s
just a great process.
I love being able to write in my house, sitting at
the kitchen table and then suddenly you’d be in
the studio doing the final track, remembering
where it came from, it’s very satisfying.
HAVING HAD 32 TOP 40 UK SINGLES, SOLD OUT
MULTIPLE TOURS, AND RELEASED 10 ALBUMS,
DID YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE WHEN MAKING
IN STEREO?
No, it’s such an enjoyable process. It doesn’t really
matter to me whether it was 5 years ago or 10
years ago, writing is just something I really enjoy
doing.
So I don’t think you feel the pressure, back in the
80s you’re waiting for chart positions, TV shows,
and radio plays and now it’s just really enjoyable. I
don’t feel any sort of pressure or competition.
FOR THE RELEASE OF THE NEW ALBUM,
YOU’RE PLAYING SMALL AND INTIMATE
VENUES, WHY IS THAT?
It’s the way things are done now. It’s like a fan
show, Kylie’s done it, loads of people have done
it, but we’re going to do a Q&A so ours is quite
different.
We’re going to play songs from the new album,
and then tracks that people have never heard
before live, so it’s going to be a mixture of songs.
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