INTERVIEW > INTENSIVE FLAIR: STEPHEN DUFFY

From ‘80s pop star to folk singer to co-writer on Robbie Williams’ latest album, Stephen Duffy has had a phenomenal music career spanning three decades. In an exclusive interview we find out about his latest achievement…

Words: Alan Scally
Photography: James Cumpsty

There’s a satisfyingly circular feel to the career of veteran singer, guitarist and songwriter, Stephen Duffy. He’s spent the last two years working with Robbie Williams on the artist’s Intensive Care album, but this is far from his first link with the ‘boy band’ phenomenon – back in 1979, Duffy was a founder member of Duran Duran, leaving just before the band hit the big time in the MTV era.

In between the Duran and Robbie years, Duffy carved out an idiosyncratic and influential career both as a solo artist and as lead singer with the folk pop group, The Lilac Time. His acclaimed 1985 solo album The Ups and Downs spawned two classic hits Kiss Me and Icing on the Cake, while Lilac Time became indie favourites with their 1987 self-titled debut album as well as follow-up Paradise Circus and more recent Astronauts. He’s also a master of the offbeat collaboration, working with Blur’s Alex James on the one-off single Hanging Around, Nigel Kennedy on solo album Music in Colors and, to maintain that circular theme, teaming up with Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes to form The Devils.

He’s a true British pop institution and now he’s back in the limelight with Robbie on this summer’s sell-out tour. Korg’s Alan Scally met up with him to find out about his latest collaboration, his long, successful career and his relationship with Korg kit.

KORG Magazine: When we first met a year or so ago you were in the thick of things writing and recording with Robbie Williams, and busy setting up the studio in the tranquil settings of the Hollywood Hills. Since then, we’ve seen Intensive Care released and go on to become the biggest selling album in Europe during 2005. And now we’re back in London where you’re getting ready to go on a tour that will see the band perform in front of over two million Robbie fans this year…

Stephen Duffy: Yes, and it’s all outside, it’s all stadiums…

KM: Has this exceeded the expectations you had when you first became a part of all of this?

SD: Well, I didn’t have any expectations. When we first started to write I thought we might have written a couple of songs. To have actually co-written the whole album, and co-produced the whole album, I mean, that was an amazing… that was beyond anything I had thought of.

Because even when we were writing – and we wrote over two years – who knew how much was actually going to end up on the record? So I didn’t even think at any point that I was actually going to do that. It’s all been incredible.

And then to have fallen into being the MD [Musical Director], people just assumed that I would musically direct stuff like Radio when we were doing promo, I was never formally asked to be the MD, it just happened. So then to have done that, something I’ve never done before, obviously I had no expectations of what that was going to be like either, I had no expectations! It’s all been quite incredible. And LIVE 8 being the first gig – I mean, that could have killed somebody, couldn’t it?!

KM: Most people could definitely have frozen to the spot in front of that overwhelming audience.

SD: It was a big deal for me, but it was a big deal for Rob too, because he hadn’t performed in Britain since Knebworth, and we never really prepared that much for it. You know, a couple of days of rehearsals… and he came in and read The Mirror I think! (Laughs).

So it could have been a shambles. My tenure as MD could’ve ended quite quickly!

KM: But luckily it didn’t! Let’s talk about the record. It’s been said that Intensive Care is a much more mature and diverse Robbie Williams record. Did you both set out with a clear vision of the album or did things just follow their own path?

SD: It was a couple of years of experimentation. With Rob having never been in bands when he left school, I mean he joined Take That, but he didn’t have that bit where you’d sign on the dole and muck around, play lots of different styles of music and just sit in your bedroom playing guitar. So he did that when he was 29 or 30. And we did just sit around; we played in lots of different styles and we’d spend one week doing Joy Division or New Order, and then a week doing power pop. We didn’t set out to do this but that’s just what happened… Most of the demos started off as kind of electro, with drum machines and keyboards, and they kind of slowly evolved into what they became on the record.

KM: So did you begin by playing keyboards more than, say, acoustic guitars?

SD: Well, we sat down with the acoustic guitars on the first day, and he said, “this is exactly what I don’t want to do. I want to do everything that I haven’t done.” So we got into playing keyboards, and he hadn’t really played many keyboards so it was one of those amazing things where, everything he played was a hook. Radio was like three little ideas he had that we built up.

When people haven’t played much it’s amazing what comes out, you know. And Tripping for instance; he’d never really played the bass and yet he wrote the bass line. And that’s one of the really interesting things about the record; he does play on every track. At the core of each song is Rob either playing the guitar, the keyboard or the bass. And that, in a way, makes it more personal. And because he’d never played some of the instruments before, that gives it, not a simplicity, but a kind of quirky weirdness at the core of some of the tracks.

KM: I guess that lends a naturalness to it whereas seasoned musicians could fall into patterns?

SD: I don’t see myself as being a musician – you know, I can fingerpick an acoustic guitar and I can kind of play keyboards, I can kind of program a drum machine. So it was very much the case that I wasn’t overpowering his experimentation, and it was very natural because I’m not musically trained in any way. So we could just stand in a room together and jam without him thinking, ‘oh, why don’t you just play’.

And there were some times when we did that. Then there are songs where we’d be standing there and I’d be playing the bass and he’d be playing the guitar and he’d stop and go, “ I don’t know what to do now!?” So we’d stop the tape and he’d play the bass and I’d play the guitar; we’d swap instruments. It’s really odd when you listen back and think, ‘I don’t really play like that,’ and you realise – oh, it’s Rob, not me. It’s an unusual thing.

KM: Which tracks are you most pleased with?

SD: Make Me Pure, because we didn’t demo that, we just went and performed it and it’s got fantastic choir and strings. It was really simple and everything just happened very easily. It took about half an hour! Whereas Tripping took two years from Rob coming up with the bass line to putting the strings on, which was the last thing. And it went through many changes; it sounded like a Daft Punk song for a long time. Rob loved it and we just kept coming back to it. By the time we had fi nished it I’d lost the plot… It became a massive song.

KM: Let’s talk some more about the songwriting process. Did you set out with a specific sound in mind? Were there any genres or periods that you were referencing? Do you both sit down together to work on a tune and lyrics, or do you work on your own and get together when you have enough material?

SD: Rob would come with everything – he led the way and I just followed what he wanted. I think Electronic, that collaboration band, with Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner, that was something that he alluded to on one of the songs, and then occasionally he’d play things like New Order or Joy Division. We were in that kind of area. Manchester I suppose you’d call it!

Obviously, because I made records in the ‘80s people think a lot of the ‘80s stuff on the record was my idea, but it was all from Rob. But I suppose he grew up in the ‘80s after all. Louise by the Human League, that was another record that he talked about.

KM: I get the feeling that he’s a voracious listener of lots of types of music?

SD: He’s got an amazing knowledge of hip hop and rap, really encyclopaedic. He’s got a very broad taste. To like the most extreme rap but also Morrissey. He likes all of that.

KM: You were exploring various pieces of Korg equipment when you were writing. Which instrument proved to be the most inspiring?

SD: We used the Triton Extreme, which we’ve got here [in rehearsals] and the MS2000B with the vocoder. The great thing about them is that, with so many keyboards being rackmounted or in software, for people like me and Rob that’s restrictive – so it’s great to just get your hands on them and just mess around with the knobs and sounds.

When you’re experimenting, the last thing you want to do is to have go up to the guys at the computer and ask them to make it sound like something, when you don’t yet know what sound you’re looking for! We spent hours with the MS2000B vocoder. We used the Triton string sounds for sketching things out. The Triton Extreme is also used on Advertising Space; a very ethereal type of string sound.

KM: What guitar gear did you use on the album?

SD: I used the Vox Valvetronix amp – that’s all over Advertising Space.

KM: Let’s talk about The Lilac Time. Can we expect any re-releases soon?

SD: Yes, the first three albums are coming out in May I think, but everything else has been re-released – the Duffy albums, the album with Nigel Kennedy, Music in Colors, I Love My Friends, Astronauts. So this will be the first time that everything I’ve ever done will be available simultaneously.

KM: Looking ahead then, you’re due to play an incredible stadium tour this summer. What feelings go through your mind when you anticipate an event on that scale?

SD: When we were making the album, I never thought, ‘I’m making the next Robbie Williams album’. I never much looked beyond the week and what we were doing at that point, and just tried to get the most out of what we were doing that week. I think the people that think, ‘I’m going to produce this no.1 album,’ well, they’re only going to come a cropper aren’t they? So at the moment I’ve almost got as far as thinking about the first date in South Africa. It’s all so theoretical.

The only gig I’ve done outside is LIVE 8. Which was kind of useful to have played to all those people. My job is just to make sure the music works and it’s everyone else’s job to make it into a stadium show.

KM: Any tips for budding songwriters out there?

SD: Yeah – write with Robbie Williams! (Laughs).

The only thing I’ve ever really done is write songs. Write what you like – because so many people just try to copy what’s going on. Just do what comes from the heart because you’re not going to be disappointed with that. Kiss Me was the biggest hit I’d had until recently; I didn’t mind the song but I hated the record because it didn’t feel heartfelt – the production of it and even the sentiments of the song. If you become successful with something that you don’t like, it’s a very hollow experience.

Find out more about Robbie Williams’ 2006 tour and the varied musical career of Stephen Duffy at:

www.robbiewilliams.co.uk
www.thelilactime.com

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