- Sun, 2006-02-26 13:44
Following the release of his critically acclaimed album Separate Ways in November and an impressive series of live UK dates, Teddy Thompson releases his new single Everybody Move it on Feb 27th 2006. Teddy was special guest to Martha Wainwright on her recent UK shows and has just completed his own 15 date UK tour.
We caught up with Teddy to talk about his music, his friendship with the Wainwrights (Rufus and Martha) and singing on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack.
“I like music because… I get paid for it.” Teddy Thompson
ILM: Your album, Separate Ways is out now, packed with timeless well-written songs. Which track did you have the most fun laying down in the studio?
Teddy: I don’t know about fun, because it’s hard work. But I think No Way To Be was a very fun track to do in a way. I mean, it’s a very sad song but the way we did it was fun – very live, very organic. I know that’s an overused word, but musically it was a good song to make.
ILM: Your new single, Everybody Move It is out on Feb 27th. Can you give us your own personal description of its vibe?
Teddy: Basically, it’s from the point of view… when I was a teenager I used to go out to clubs but I always hated them and I just went because everybody else did. And it’s written from that perspective of being the person who doesn’t really want to be there, and can’t dance and just ends up sitting in a corner watching everyone else go by.
ILM: You recently completed your own UK tour and also toured with Martha Wainright. Any hightlights or funny stories?
Teddy: Lots of them. Being on tour is always fun. I had a good time on both of those tours. Funny stories? Ooh I don’t know if any of them are particularly PG-rated, there were a lot of shenanigans going on – other people of course, not myself. I’m much more mature and well-behaved. There was one night in particular in Oxford and we were all staying on the same floor of a hotel, and there was a lot of musical doors banging if you like. Random girls and drummers and stuff and revolving doors and not much sleep. I, of course, was reading a book or doing something sensible. But it was quite amusing, like a Benny Hill sketch.
ILM: What’s your current favourite song to play live and your favourite live experience seeing someone else play?
Teddy: At the moment I think it’s Separate Ways.
The one that springs to mind the most is the most recent one, we saw Radiohead in Paris a few years ago, and they had their own tent they were touring with and had put it up in a parking lot and played different places every night, so they were effectively travelling with their own venue. It was an amazing show, the biggest show I’d ever been to.
ILM: The new single features backing vocals of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, who also appear on Shine So Bright. How did you that come about and how was it working together?
Teddy: We’ve been friends for a while and I’ve worked with Rufus lots of times, and we all live in New York as well, so it’s quite easy to just get them to come down. It’s very nice to have people, contemporaries and friends who do what you do and respect it, so it’s good to do stuff together. So it was great and they’re both really good singers, so easy to work with and it’s quite inspiring to have really good people coming in.
ILM: You guys met when Rufus’s mum wanted you to look out for him. How was that?
Teddy: It was good. In LA when I was already living there and he moved there to start making his first record, so it was good. But I hope I wasn’t supposed to be looking out for him! It was just he didn’t really know anyone in town, so… but it was great. We got on really well right off the bat, which was lovely, and that was ten years ago.
ILM: You contributed two songs to Broke Back mountain, singing on I Don’t Want To Say Goodbye and dueted with Rufus on King Of The Road. How was it contributing to a soundtrack?
Teddy: It’s nice to do soundtrack things. In the modern record cycle, even if you’re pumping out records at a fairly brisk pace, it still means there’s a couple of years between records for the most part, so soundtracks are actually really fun to do, because it gives you something creative to do in between albums, and that’s quite nice.
So, I really enjoyed doing it. The song I sing on my own on was written by the guy who did the soundtrack, and, to be honest, that was quite a weird situation, because the track was already finished and they just sent it over to me and I had to sing over the top of it, so I didn’t feel like I was particularly involved in that process, which was slightly uncomfortable for me, so I wasn’t thrilled by the process, but it came out well.
And then the song I did with Rufus was quite the opposite, it was quite fun and we did it all together.
ILM: What advice do you have for other musicians breaking into the industry?
Teddy: Don’t bother! No, not really… I think you’ve just got to have a strong will to do it in some way. It’s not really something you should bother doing half-heartedly or even 98%-heartedly. If you don’t really want to do it, it will be very difficult, so you’d better make sure you want to do it.
If you really want to do it, you’re doing it for the right reasons. But, it beats working down the mines.
ILM: The songs on your album are so finely crafted and you’ve said you find it easier to write sad songs because they flow out. Please can you describe the Teddy Thompson process of making such graceful music?
Teddy: I don’t know if I can. I don’t write that many songs. I write quite slowly so I’m not particularly prolific. That’s code for, ‘I’m lazy’. So it usually takes me a while to finish a song, with certain exceptions. Sometimes they pop out quicker than others. It’s survival of the fittest as well. I usually have a lot of semi-finished songs on the go, and then I just kind of believe that one is good and I’ll get it finished and make it to the end somehow and others won’t, so it’s probably meant to be. It usually starts out with a bit of both (lyrics and music), with an idea that goes with a tune or a word. And I actually do it more together than most people, I let it come together, the words and the tune together, but you’ve got to slog out different bits and sit down and try and improve the word, the bit, here and there. And then work on the tune a bit more. I couldn’t be teaching one of those master songwriting classed because I wouldn’t know how myself.
ILM: You went to boarding school in Hampshire, which is where I’m from. What was that experience like?
Teddy: It was great, I went to Bedales, which was nothing but good. But no midnight feasts, more like midnight binges on vodka bottles. There were a lot of shenanigans in the fields late at night.
ILM: Preparation for touring?
Teddy: Well, exactly. Just replacing the field with a hotel and there you are.
ILM: And how did you end up living in the States?
Teddy: My dad was living in California and I was one of those people who went to LA for a holiday, after my A-Levels, and I never made it back. So yeah, I got lost on the way home.
ILM: What is in your CD player right now?
Teddy: I just bought the My Morning Jacket album, which I like very much and I’m listening to a lot of George Jones at the moment and Dolly Parton, she’s a miracle.
ILM: If you want to chill out what do you stick on?
Teddy: I’m quite a relaxed person anyway, but I would say probably Nina Simone, just the sound of her voice.
ILM: Can you describe your favourite place on earth?
Teddy: I think I might be in my favourite place on earth. I’m at my mum’s house in London. I love London, it always makes me feel cosy to be back at my mum’s place. So I’m quite happy right here, right now.
Teddy’s new single, Everybody Move It, is out on February 27th 2006.
