Adam Ant in the Years Since His Last Album, Ant—Born Stuart Goddard Console—He Wanted to Bring out All Those Different Styles
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SPOTLIGHT end, the right relationship was to release the album on her own label, From the Rib. The 34-year-old rapper started out with hip-hop collective Ruff Ryders in the late 1990s. Her first album was well received, but it was the single from the follow-up Scorpion, “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”—her collaboration with Gwen Chris Crisman Stefani—that won her platinum sales and a Grammy in 2002. L ucy Lip Lock, however, features heavier O nions beats and a more intense tone than her earlier albums. “A lot of the tracks are in- your-face,” she says. “I don’t think it was preconceived, it was just me picking whatever sounded right. I worked with a SPIN DOCTORS lot of different producers, so I picked tracks that would complement each other.” The alt-rockers revisit their blues roots and Producers on Lip Lock include reinvent their sound Eric Schenkman, Aaron Comess,Comess, ChrisChris Barron, MMarkark White Claude Kelly, Salaam Remi and longtime collaborator Swizz Beats. Selecting a ISSUE #26 WHILE TOURING IN ENGLAND it. It sounded amazing. We did it in Embracing theirMMUSICMAG.COM early music created a ISSUE #26 producer is a critical first step inMMUSICMAG.COM Eve’s behind the 2011 release of Pocket Full the encore that night.” rift of sorts among fans of their mainstream songwriting process. “I usually sit with the marpail Kaliari of Kryptonite: 20th Anniversary Edition, Fan reaction was so strong they started hits and those drawn to the blues. Barron A producer before we even go in the studio,” the Spin Doctors made a discovery: playing their old blues music at shows. remembers “looking over at parents and their she says. “Once we’re in the studio you Their future lay in their past. Before the As the tour came to a close, the band— 10-year-old kids and thinking, ‘This isn’t really go back and forth about the vibe, listen to band hit the charts in the early ’90s with Barron, drummer Aaron Comess, guitarist my scene anymore.’” But the instinct to return tracks, and it goes from there. I always like peppy, poppy alt-rock tunes such as “Little Eric Schenkman and bassist Mark White— to their blues roots was bolstered during the being in the room with at least the producer. Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” “Two Princes” started talking about their next record. London run. As Barron says, “We went for a I think it makes for a better song.” Lip Lock and “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues,” their stock in “It didn’t take us long to take the jump to drink after a show in London and there were features guest appearances from such hip- trade was the blues—honed by playing the making a blues record,” says Barron. “We two blokes telling us, ‘We saw the show EVE hop luminaries as Snoop Dogg and Missy New York club scene. said, ‘Hell, let’s just do it. We might as well and figured we’d hear ‘Two Princes,’ which Elliott, and vocals from Cobra Starship’s Two decades later, the band is returning make the record we want to make.’” They was my favorite song when I was 12, but I After a decade of changes, the rapper turns up Gabe Saporta on the lead single, “Make It to those musical roots for their latest release soon gathered in Comess’ home recording really wasn’t expecting much. You guys really the intensity on a new set Out This Town” echo the crossover appeal If the River Was Whiskey. “On the England studio to demo songs from the band’s club caught us off guard coming out and playing of her earlier work. swing of our tour, we had a couple of days and began writing new material. all that blues stuff.” IN THE 11 YEARS SINCE HER LAST return, wasn’t a snap decision. For Eve, Lip Lock isn’t just her return über fans who taped everything we did,” says “It all came together really fast,” recalls Barron and the band are energized album, Eve has been rather busy. She “It’s been a bit of journey. I’ve been to music, but a new way of making and lead singer Chris Barron. “We asked these Barron. “We went in on Tuesday and nailed about their new-old direction. “This is our released singles, made guest appearances trying to put out a record for two years,” says releasing music. “I’ve been calling this my guys what they wanted to hear, and they five tunes, went in on Wednesday and nailed music,” he says. “This is who we were on more than a dozen tracks for other Eve, who was born Eve Jeffers. “In those two record,” she says, “because I come from Ruff were naming some of our earliest songs. five. Then we went out to dinner and said, before Pocket Full of Kryptonite. This is like artists, had her own sitcom, appeared in years, I changed management, lawyers, even Ryders, and there were so many people in I didn’t even remember all the verses ‘I think our demo is our new record. It’s a a new band.” the two Barbershop films, and launched a labels. It took a while for me to find the right the room. For me, this is definitely intimate.” to one, but of course they had a tape of blues record—and it’s fantastic.’” –Nancy Dunham fashion line. But Lip Lock, her long-awaited relationship after leaving Interscope.” In the –Amanda Farah ADAM ANT In the years since his last album, Ant—born Stuart Goddard console—he wanted to bring out all those different styles. “It’s in London—released the odd single, various compilations and his not overproduced and it’s not a slick record,” Ant explains. “It’s The former U.K. chart-topper gets back into memoir called Stand & Deliver: The Autobiography in 2007. But an eclectic choice of songs. I didn’t record with any particular the swing of performing they were placeholders for the new LP, the first on his private label, production sound in mind. I recorded with the kind of technology I Blueblack Hussar Records. “I spent more time with the album, and felt it needed. In that respect it’s quite a surprising record because CREATIVELY SPEAKING, ADAM ANT HAS SOARED OVER THE it was more organic,” says Ant, 58. “It grew from writing a batch of it isn’t, ‘Oh, he’s gone for that sound.’ It’s very hard to put your finger A mountaintops and stumbled on the valley’s floor. Clinically diagnosed ndy Gotts songs with [longtime guitarist and songwriting partner] Boz Boorer on a kind of sound for this record.” with bipolar disorder in 2003, he had fallen off the radar eight and some of my own. Most of the people I collaborated with had Having been away for so many years, Ant has slowly returned years earlier, after the release of Wonderful. He eventually battled home studios, so I didn’t go into one studio with one producer and to performing and is touring later this year. “The album got me back through the disease to release Adam Ant Is the BlueBlack Hussar come out with one sound, like I did with Tony Visconti on Vive Le Rock into the practice of songwriting, recording and playing live,” he says. in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter, his first studio recording in 18 or Chris Hughes on Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming.” “Knowing the business side of things and having your own label, these years. “Bipolar means up and down, which also means light and In fact, many will barely recognize Adam Ant’s latest music as are things you talk about having, and then you have them. It takes time shade,” Ant says. “You do need the light and the dark, and I think coming from the singer who pioneered the New Romantic sound to appreciate what you have. I’m constantly writing now for the next the album reflects that. This record shows both sides, and it would in the late 1970s. The new album reveals his love for blues, jazz one and the one after that. Hopefully it won’t take so long in between.” have been cowardly and inappropriate not to address it.” and bluegrass, and as the producer—his first-ever gig behind the –Steve Rosen 16 17 M mag 26_cs6.indd 16 4/10/13 7:44 AM M mag 26_cs6.indd 17 4/10/13 7:45 AM ISSUE #26 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE.