‘I love the Soft Cell shows, we’ve started writing together,’ says Marc Almond
“I’VE always been a rock ’n’ roller. I come from punk music and make controversial songs like Sex Dwarf,” says Marc Almond.
“But now I go to garden centres and like potted plants. And I wanted to make an album to embrace that.
“I didn’t want to make a dark album.”
The Soft Cell singer is explaining how his new solo album, I’m Not Anyone — a collection of emotional covers — was influenced by nature and his move to rural Portugal.
He says: “I wanted the levelling out on the album. There are lots of elements and nature references and there are some melancholic moments. But ultimately it has an uplifting feel to it and is very spiritual.”
I meet a jovial Almond at his East London hotel, where he jokes he is “feeling a bit ragged” after a late night at The Brewery, where he picked up an LGBTQ+ Lifetime achievement award.
He says: “I had two great people giving me the award last night, which was Russell Tovey and Holly Johnson — two really great people, a young, fantastic actor and a musical icon, and I was the filling in their sandwich.
When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you feel like part of the furniture. You feel people see you but they don’t see and you’re taken for granted.
“It was a long, long event but it was lovely and came completely out of the blue.
“Thank God for Holly as we come from the same place — Liverpool. Well, I’m Southport, which is close.
“So even long before we knew each other, we went to the same concerts, so it was really nice to see him.
“When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you feel like part of the furniture. You feel people see you but they don’t see and you’re taken for granted.
‘YouTube wormhole’
“So when you get recognised for things, it’s really nice, and it’s really touching.”
Almond, who turned 67 on Tuesday, says: “This is my 45th year in showbiz and I’ve been around quite a while and done a lot of things, some right and some wrong
“It’s all been a bit of a journey. Every five years is a landmark that I’ve made it another five years.
“I’m an older singer who has been around quite a long time and had a bit of a life.”
“I’ve covered a lot of songs in my career, with this album, I really went for very emotional and spiritual songs.
Throughout his career, Almond has covered classic songs and made them his own, such as Tainted Love with Soft Cell in 1981, Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart with Gene Pitney, and The Days Of Pearly Spencer and Jacky in 1991.
“I’ve covered a lot of songs in my career,” says Almond. “With this album, I really went for very emotional and spiritual songs.
“I have a joy of singing other people’s songs, it’s actually a freedom. I find it very hard to listen to my own records, especially songs that I’ve written myself because you are too in it.
“I am too critical and always think I could have done that better.
“The songs had to have a real emotional attachment so I went to listen to songs I’ve not listened to for a long time and often went down a YouTube wormhole as well, which I love doing.
“Music has changed so much recently because people have more access to music through streaming.
“I love looking up old clips of shows that I watched when I was growing up. This leads on to other things — I think YouTube is a miracle as it has old music, old films and things I remember watching when I was 12 or 13.”
The album includes Almond’s interpretation of songs from Don McLean, King Crimson, Paul Anka, Colin Blunstone and Mahalia Jackson.
Almond says: “The title track is about identity and I love the version with Paul Anka and Sammy Davis Jr. — I just blub when I watch footage of it.
“I went into the studio and did that song in two takes and got really emotional about it. It really is a defiant statement of just being yourself.
“The message is, ‘No one is going to tell me what to do’. It’s (Gloria Gaynor anthem) I Am What I Am without being I Am What I Am. I try not to be too camp about it.”
‘Belligerent and defiant’
Almond likes to express himself in lots of different ways. He says: “I’ve been through lots of identities myself in the 45 years I’ve been making records. I look at old Top Of The Pops and try and identify with that old version of me, which is quite hard.
“I say to myself, ‘What was I thinking?’. The very first Top Of The Pops I was being belligerent and defiant. Five years at art college meant I could express myself how I wanted to.
“I was DJ-ing at night and dressing up. I had wristbands and bracelets and it was my style.
“Looking at David Bowie, he went through so many identities and changes, too. I want to take people on changes and a bit of a journey with me. We didn’t have social media in those days — thank God.”
On the track I Talk To The Wind, Almond teams up with good friend Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull.
He says: “I do a lot of cathedral shows with Ian at Christmas and play Bedsitter with Ian on flute. I was always a huge Jethro Tull fan and he’s a fantastic, creative, wonderful songwriter and musician.
“Very interesting and theatrical.
“I never quite get over the fact that I am on stage with him. I look and say to myself, ‘Bloody hell, it’s Ian Anderson’, and it makes me confident. Working with him on this record is just magical.”
Every year I say, ‘This is my last tour’. But I know the importance of keeping singing — you have to keep exercising your voice.
Vocally, Almond sounds better than ever on I’m Not Anyone. “It’s the first time I’ve sounded happy with myself since Covid,” he reveals.
“I’m pleased people think it’s a good vocal album. I am partially deaf in one ear after my accident (Almond suffered head trauma after a near-fatal bike crash in 2004) and I struggle on stage to get the sound.
“I’ve done a lot of festivals recently and love performing live and I love the energy of it and the rapport with the audience, but I’ve found it a bit of a struggle as I get a lot of asthma and bronchitis, so making this record has kept up my voice.
“I enjoy studio work more than live work as I get to hear myself sound how I really want to sound. Studios used to bore me to tears and I wanted to get out on the stage, but now it’s changed for me.
“Every year I say, ‘This is my last tour’. But I know the importance of keeping singing — you have to keep exercising your voice.
“I know people who have taken a year off and find it hard to get back on the bike again. And when I was younger I had pleurisy and pneumonia so my lungs are scarred and I was a smoker for many years. I try to be horribly healthy these days.”
Almond adds that the album also has a very spiritual feel to it.
He says: “From I Am The Light to the last song, which is Lonely Looking Sky, it’s very uplifting.
‘Scared by the world’
“I tried to look at lyrics of the songs and reflect a bit of the world without getting too heavy or overly political.
“I’ve lived through quite amazing times but the world we are living in today is a bit mad and crazy — it’s brought out the worst in people, just angry and rude people.”
Now living in Cascais on the Portuguese Riviera, Almond says: “Watching Portuguese TV I’m able to watch everything happening at home on the outside looking in. I get scared by the world.
London is this lover that I have affairs with. I decided to go rural and got a little ruin of a place where I plant trees and am at one with nature.
“We are living in weird times and I feel bad for young people.
“We thought when we were growing up it was difficult but we always had naivety and adventure and we didn’t have social media.”
Moving to Portugal after Covid has been a new adventure for the singer.
He explains: “I needed some new experiences in my life. I’ve always been a city person and lived in London for a long time but I felt claustrophobic and needed a different place. But I’m back and forth.
“London is this lover that I have affairs with. I decided to go rural and got a little ruin of a place where I plant trees and am at one with nature.”
Two years ago, Almond returned with Happiness Not Included, the fifth album from Soft Cell — the band he formed with Dave Ball in 1978. They reformed for a second time in 2018.
He says: “I do love doing the Soft Cell shows and we might do another album and we’ve started writing a couple of songs together. Dave’s been sending me things which are really great, a bit different, and I’ve been writing as well.
“Then I’ve got my rock band The Loveless with (former Sigue Sigue Sputnik guitarist) Neal X.
“Neal has played guitar with me for many years. He’s the longest I’ve ever worked with a musician.
“He also worked with Iggy Pop’s rhythm section. We go out and do ’60s psychedelic rock and ’60s garage rock. We don’t do many gigs but I get to indulge.
“I also co-produced Dana Gillespie’s album First Love, who was lovely to work with. She is fascinating and has amazing stories. Production is something I wouldn’t mind doing a little more of.
“I’m touring this autumn and celebrating 45 years of covers — there will be some songs from the new album and some songs I’ve covered over the years.
“This album, even more than anything, this expresses coherently where I am and what I feel. It expresses my age without wanting to sound old or anything like that.
“Bodywise, when I get up in the morning I am kind of reminded I’m getting older, but in my mind I am still about 27. So, I’ve got no intention to stop any time soon.”
- Album I’m Not Anyone is out today.