Interview #21: Gabrielle

Gabrielle, one of the most successful UK female singer-songwriters of the past decade, is still going strong 11 years after her now classic first single, “Dreams” put Gabrielle into the Guinness Book Of Records for the highest entry ever for a female artist making their debut. (The tune subsequently spent three weeks at number one.) At the time she beat everyone to the thought that it might be a one-off glimpse of success; that it couldn’t possibly last.

Yet here she is, four years into a new century, with ten Top 10 hits, three huge-selling albums – the widely acclaimed ‘Rise’ notched up more than 1.2 million purchases alone – a ‘Greatest Hits’ that went on to shift 2.6 million units worldwide, two BRIT awards, two MOBOs and an American Music Award, and about to release her fourth fantastic album – Play To Win.

I like Music caught up with Gabrielle in April 2004 to chat about her new album, formula one racing and the joys of songwriting.

“I like music because… it makes me feel alive.” Gabrielle

“Getting my first Brit was the first highlight of my career, and another was when the Rise album went to number one, because I’d never had a number one album,” remembers Gabrielle, who, despite focusing on her dreams never thought for one minute that she’d achieve all that she has.

See… Dreams Can Come True!
“I’m really impressed. People fantasise about success in their lives, but I couldn’t have even imagined this. It’ll be 11 years this June, and I’m like Oh my God! I’m really excited, I never imagined it, but I’m truly honoured and chuffed,” says Gabrielle.

“There are a lot of people out there who’ve supported me throughout my career, but without the people buying my records I wouldn’t be here, so I’m always kind of truly indebted to everybody who went out and got the records. I just love writing and performing songs. So it’s far better than any dream I could have had.”

Gabrielle sang Dreams Can Come True and she’s living proof that they can indeed. “I can sing that with conviction,” she nods, and advises musicians and artists who are trying to achieve their dreams to be themselves and believe. “Just believe in yourself and stay focused,” she says. “Some people lose sight of their goals and their dreams and wonder why they’re not achieving anything, so you have to stay true and accept that the road is not always going to be straight and easy, it’s going to be very windy with lots of ups and downs. You need to focus to stay on track. And just believe in yourself.”

She also advises that musicians don’t sign anything until they’ve signed up to the Musicians Union. “They’ve been instrumental in my career, and if I’ve been in trouble, music industry lawyers can be pretty extortionate. So pay the fee and become a fully paid up member of the Musicians Union and just follow your dreams.”

“Music and performing are my life apart from the kids. That’s all I need.”

‘Ten Years Time’, one of the album tracks asks ‘where do you want to be in 10 years time?’, so where does Gabrielle want to be in 2014?

“Doing what I’m doing but with more live shows,” she smiles. “The album comes out in May, but I’ve got to wait until October or November before I can go out on the road with the band and perform the songs. So in ten years time I want to be on the road earlier, with my band, at a town near you, and just performing. Music and performing are my life, apart from the kids. That’s all I need. The highlight of my life was when my son was born, because that was truly an amazing experience for me, and it changed my perception of life forever in really good way.”

With a son and two nieces running about her house, Gabrielle tends to get away to the studio to write. “When I’m writing my songs I’m rarely at home, because it’s very noisy,” laughs Gabrielle. “So I like to go to the studio and jam with the boys.”

And it’s there that album number four, ‘Play to Win’ was created.

Winning Notes
‘Play To Win’ finds Gabrielle extending her renowned lyrical style into new musical areas. A self-confessed “pop kid”, as much a fan of Adam & The Ants and Wham! as the heavy soulsters [Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder] in her mum’s record collection, Gabrielle has this time allowed her penchant for sheer unadorned song-writing to take her away from the groove-dependant end of R&B, towards a more melodic, confessional blend of pop, soul and country.

Weeping guitars, rolling pianos and purring organs abound on belting tunes like the first single ‘Stay The Same’ and the cryingly sad ‘You Used To Love Me’. “I had the guy from Nickleback in my mind when I wrote ‘Stay The Same’”, says Gabrielle.

‘Give And Take’ and ‘Ten Years Time’ share the anthemic quality that made ‘Out Of Reach’ such a favourite of female 20-somethings everywhere. ‘War Of Two Minds, meanwhile, is a beautiful country soul ballad that comes alive on Gabrielle’s sensitive, understated vocal. And fans of her old funky R&B style will love the groove of ‘Picking Up The Pieces’, a welcome echo of Gabrielle triumphs past.

Production duties on ‘Play To Win’ are once again shared by Gabrielle’s favourite Dublin-based team of Stannard & Gallagher, and London’s Jonathon Shorten.

“Style-wise it’s just the music,” says Gabrielle. “You can’t really pigeon hole it, it’s just got meaning. It just naturally happened, and it’s just diverse, so everybody can relate to it in a way.”

You can tell Gabrielle has a lot of fun making her music, and enjoyed making ‘You Used To Love Me’ and ‘Stay The Same’ really fast while jamming in the studio. “I thought this is great, and had a lot of fun. Stay the Same was done in minutes.”

“You Used To Love Me was another song I had a lot of fun with, because when I was trying to write that song initially I actually wrote a different vibe to it, the music was different, and I couldn’t finish it,” explains Gabrielle. “And my thing is; if I can’t finish it I haven’t lived it yet.”

The answer came when they decided to speed up the song, playing the guitar and singing faster. “It was fantastic, because they totally accommodated me, so I was able to start and finish ‘You Used To Love Me’ in half an evening. I was ecstatic with the end result, because I was able to write the song from start to finish, when I’d been thinking I can’t write it anymore I haven’t lived it, but ‘Used To Love Me’ was born that way. I knew all about that emotion that day.”

The Craft Of Songwriting
“Songs are so important – what you say to people, what message you bring, what stories you have to tell, what experiences – and how to put them inside a melody that lingers in your mind. All the people I really admire, the Carole Kings, the Elton Johns, The Beatles and the great soul guys like Marvin and Stevie, they all wrote great, great songs. Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever be that good, but it’s definitely the place I’m starting from on this album,” says Gabrielle, who somehow manages to get a really emotive lyrical flow into each song that resonates with people of all ages. So what is the Gabrielle process of making music?

“I go in to the studio and have a good old gossip with the boys, and then they start playing some brilliant tunes or start jamming on the guitar, and I’ll start jamming vocally, coming up with melodies, and sometimes they’ll play me a piece of music and I’ll just dig deep,” explains Gabrielle of her songwriting craft.

“I do that with my songs, because I always maintain that the music speaks to me, so I know exactly what I’m going to write depending on the kind of music, and I think that’s inspiration. But my songs are very personal, and often about something that’s happened in my life.”

Gabrielle aggress that her music has always been somewhat biographical. “And I write from the heart, it’s got to be true,” she says. “I can’t just write it. I’ve got to be feeling it because at the end of the day I’ve got to sing it, so I tend to write from personal experience.”

A Girl’s Girl
And it is Gabrielle’s ability to relate to people everywhere, that has made her music speak volumes and touch so many. Gabrielle is essentially a girls girl, and ‘Out Of Reach’, the theme song to the hit Hugh Grant & Renee Zellweger romantic comedy ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’, firmly positions her in our minds as a girls girl who understands.

“My favourite Bridget Jones moment was when she ends up going to a party dressed as a bunny and nobody else is dressed up, so everyone looks at her in horror on the lawn,” Gabrielle laughs.

“But the soppy I moment I love to this day, when Darcy says ‘I love you just the way you are’, and I thought, ‘it would be nice if a lot of men really said that’. So that’s my favourite soppiest moment,” says Gabrielle, who confirms she’ll definitely be taking her girly mates to see the next Bridget Jones film.

Despite having sold millions of records and being a superstar, Gabrielle is lovely, down-to-earth and ‘one of the girls. More jaded now, she used to get starstruck when first on the scene, particularly if Ben from Curiosity Killed The Cat was in the vicinity.

“When I met him I was like a kitten, I was so excited, and he was so lovely,” remembers Gabrielle. “And I’ve still got his autograph, and my wristband and the photo. That was up in my old house, but it’s not up in the new one yet. It will be though. He’ll think I’m a stalker,” she laughs.

Stating her home as her favourite place on earth, “the one place I feel safe and have all the people round me that I love,” homebody Gabrielle admits to hoarding stuff, like many of us, with some rather impressive memoirs. “I’m Cancerian so I hoard everything. I recently found the wristband from a Prince party I went to years ago. He did a big concert in London, and he had an aftershow party at Bagleys, where I’d never been before or since. He came over to me and said ‘I love your style’, but I was wearing a hat and a big coat that looked like a spiders web down to the floor, so he couldn’t miss me, but I’ve still got the wristband and my pass. I’ve got so many of these things, let alone all the other crap I’ve got, so I need to have a sort out,” she nods, determined.

But with her new album out soon, she knows she might not find the time. Especially with a tour to plan and plenty more songs inside her head.

Gabrielle sings in the shower like you and me, but she gets peeved when she can’t get to her Dictaphone to record those awesome melodies that come to her randomly.

“What I’m really upset about is that melodies will come to me anywhere, so I’ll be in the shower having some good old groove with a melody in my head, but by the time I get out of the shower I can’t remember,” she frowns.

“Or someone will say a line, and I’ll think ‘ooh that’d make a great song title’ and a melody will come to mind and then will disappear. I’m not as anxious as I used to be, because before I’d be really annoyed and would feel I’d missed this opportunity to have this great song,” she laughs. “But that’s silly - you just have to go with the flow.”

Since Gabrielle’s first hit 11 years ago, the music industry has changed in some ways but not in others.

Gabrielle explains, “There are a lot more bands that aren’t around now. What’s different for me is that I knew more of their names back then, if I’m honest. And there’s all this reality TV ‘how to be a popstar’ and increased opportunity, and they’ve shown that it’s not as easy as it looks.”

“They’ve shown behind the scenes, and it doesn’t seem as glamorous now because you never used to have an insight into what happened behind the scenes.”

Times may change but one music and entertainment industry constant has been the importance of image. “It’s always been about image, both when I started and now in Fame Academy and Pop Idol. With The Jacksons and Supremes, it was the same, but we just didn’t know that then, we were just presented with these marvellous looking people, and were like, oh my god! But, in reality, there was more of a selection process behind the scenes, and we’re just more aware of it now, but image in music has always been there.”

Living Life to the Full
Playing to win has long been a philosophy of Gabrielle’s, as has living life to the full. One full-on life-living experience took place at Donington Park motor racing circuit, last summer. In specially extended two-seater Grand Prix cars, former World Formula One World Champion Damon Hill and Minardi team boss Paul Stoddard chauffeured a bunch of celebrities round the track at speeds often approaching 200mph. Chris Eubank and his wife were seen to leave their vehicles decidedly green about the gills. Later, a well-known female TV presenter was taken away in an ambulance to recover. Meanwhile, a certain unassuming singer-songwriter from South-London was pictured jumping from the cockpit screaming with delight and begging for more. That Gabrielle can be so… unexpected at times.

“They all thought I’d bottle it,” she gleefully recalls of her high-speed escapade. “To be honest so did I - especially when Murray Walker told me to expect it would feel like I was about to die every time we entered a corner. Thanks Murray: you can invite me again.”

“We did five laps and I didn’t want to stop and we got to meet Damon Hill. It was amazing, but I nearly didn’t do it because I didn’t want everyone to see me looking like a teletubby in the formula racing gear,” she laughs.

No fear there, Gabrielle always manages to look divine, sound amazing and, with her passion and focus, she’s often the first past the winning post.