Interviews
Rupert Wates talks to Britsound
Interview with Rupert Wates, November 2007. Rupert Wates's album Coast To Coast was picked as a Top 10 UK Album of 2007 by Britsound.
Rob Quicke: Joining me in the studio for a Britsound live session is Mr. Rupert Wates. Rupert, thank you for joining us today.
Rupert Wates: Well, thanks for having me Rob.
RQ: Welcome and I understand you just moved to New York and you literally are an Englishman in NY!
RW: Yes
RQ: And how is it going so far?
RW: Very glad to be in NYC. The other day was a beautiful day, a beautiful fall day. I was in Harlem and I said to myself, “I’m very glad to be here. There is no where else I'd rather be than this particular time and place"!
RQ: Well, that's good to hear. Now you’ve just released your second album, Coast to Coast, which is available from RupertWates.com. Coast to Coast suggests a journey, a road trip. Tell us about that.
RW: Well, it is literally true that I've taken a road trip from one side of America to the other and I think actually for English people America really represents the road more than anything else. More than fast food more than the White House more than Britney Spears, Hollywood. It's the road that attracts many English people anyway I think. The freedom, the size of the place, the sheer size of the place and the scope of the road and it's very inspiring for me to take journeys. It always has been, particularly in America. What I see and hear and experience is very inspiring and gives me lots of ideas. But also of course there is the idea of the spiritual journey, which is an ancient cliché. And I think the album is partly about that as well making a certain journey of self discovery, etc.
RQ: You are a cultural outsider...you're British. You're in America and this is now your home. What does that do to your songwriting, and your observations?
RW: I suppose it does give me the viewpoint of the outsider.
RQ: Are you pretty critical in your observations?
RW: No, I love America. I love America and everything it stands for, but I do see certain trends right now in America, which I feel need to be addressed by writers and artists everywhere. There are certain trends in America today, but I think they are aberrations from what America really stands for me. But I don't want to turn on people’s toes and if you write a song that is preachy or dogmatic then you've failed as a writer. That is not what songwriting is about. You want to write a good song first and foremost and perhaps suggest points of view without necessarily taking sides too overtly. That's politics, that's preaching. That's not what I want.
RQ: So you live here now. Your home is now America. When you think back thirteen years ago to when you were one of the finalist for the UK entry to the Eurovision Song Contest and you played on the BBC in front of 50 million viewers, what do you remember of that time? Are you proud of that time or do you think of yourself as almost being a different person?
RW: You're dredging up dark secrets from my past here! Yeah, I think of myself rather as a different person in those days. Yes, it's true; I was a bit of a novice, actually when it comes to songwriting. I was still finding my voice really in every sense. Yes, I think I've changed a lot since then, and I was really working with other singers at that time, which I needed to do in order to find myself as a writer and to find my own voice. Leaving London, leaving Britain has helped me to do that I find.
RQ: Let's talk about the album. I really like the production. It's lavish in many places. Talk about, And The Wave Will Sing. How did that song come to you and particularly the chorus with the vocal choir in the background? It's very powerful…tell me about that song if you can.
RW: Well, it's a traveling song. It's a song about being on the road. Most writers will probably say the same. I got a musical hook in my head initially for the chorus. It seemed it asked to be written, to insist on being written. And the phrase about a singing wave came into my head. I think that was probably actually from a Phillip Larkin poem. He's one of my favorite poets. I think there isa similar line in one of his poems. I think it was, "and the wave will sing...the wave will sing because it is laughing..." or something. I can't remember what his line is, but it's quite a nice line. That led on to ideas about the environment calling to me.
RQ: Let me ask you about some of your musical influences. Who really inspired you? You mentioned George Harrison and I believe you talked about Nick Drake. Who else have really had a major impact on who you are today?
RW: Nick Drake is certainly one and of course like any kid in Britain in the 70s, I grew up listening to the Beatles, who will always be an influence, I think. Others were people like Bob Dylan. Though I've never really enjoyed his recordings. I must admit. I admire him as a writer and I think I enjoy him more as an influence than asa performer. I think he's influenced everybody, actually. Really, almost everybody you hear in some way or another. Whether you can hear it or not I think his influence is there. And Joni Mitchell is another one who I've always admired and enjoyed. I saw her live, actually, with one of the best bands I've ever seen about 20 years ago now. I saw her in the States with a fantastic band, Pat Methany etc. I tend to like individual songs or individual albums by an artist rather than slavishly following artists all through their career. I'm not really a fan of anybody. I'm a fan of songwriting, you know.
RQ: Let me ask you about the song, "After the Rains", because you wrote that years ago, over ten years ago...
RW: Yes
RQ: And it's a song that has been very successful for you. You won several songwriting awards for it. How do you view that song now? Are you happy still to play that?
RW: Yes, I'm still happy to play it and I still like the song. The fact that I wrote it a long time ago has given me a certain detachment from it. I can see it for what it is.
RQ: And what is it?
RW: It's a good piece of songwriting. Fora long time I never really knew how to do it. I never knew how to perform it. And it's only recently, in the last couple of years literally, that I've come back to it and performed it in the way it always should have been done, with just a guitar and some voices. It also works with piano. Just singing it really in the right way, delivering it in the right way and not trying to present it as something other than it is, because when I wrote it ten years ago acoustic singer-songwriters were not in vogue, you know. They weren't fashionable. You wouldn't turn up with a guitar in those days. But, now you can. And so songs like, After the Rains, have come back into their own. I wasa different person in some ways when I wrote it, when I was a lot younger. I didn't really fully appreciate it, perhaps. But, now I do and I can recognize it for being a good song. I still like it,and that must mean something if I still like it after ten years or so, you know.
Links:
http://www.rupertwates.com
Rupert Wates in Session with Britsound
