da INTERVIEW maggio 2007 intervista di Ingrid Sischy Elton's tip sheet: the British are coming! The British are coming! INGRID SISCHY: So, Elton, spring has sprung. What's in heavy rotation on your stereo right now? ELTON JOHN: Well, the person who is on fire at the moment is Amy Winehouse. I don't know if she's influenced by old Motown groups and the Shangrilas or people like that, but her second album, Back to Black [Universal Republic], sounds like a great '60s record--it's brilliantly written and very soulful. It's quite extraordinary, because even though it sounds so of a time in the past, it also sounds so much like the present as well, which is an extremely difficult thing to do. She's got an incredible earthiness to her. She's got a voice like a Nina Simone or a Mary J. Bilge or a Dusty Springfield, and she's steeped in history--this girl has old bones in her. Her lyrics are also extremely frank, which was actually the title of her first album [Frank, 2003]. She has a remarkable look, a remarkable attitude, and is everything a rock 'n' roll star should be. Her second album is only recently out in America, but it has already been to No. 1 in Britain, so the English have taken her to their hearts. INGRID SISCHY: Why does England always seem to get there first with so much new music? There seems to be real divergence between what Britain loves and what America loves. ELTON JOHN: Well, there's a diversity on the music charts in Britain that you really don't find as much in America. Just looking at female vocalists, for example, in the last few years Britain has produced Joss Stone, Corinne Bailey Rae, Lily Allen, Lady Sovereign, now Amy Winehouse--all very different artists musically, and all very good at what they do. It's the same way on the boys' side too. Right now we've got guys like Mika and Just Jack and James Morrison and Paolo Nutini. Then we've got bands like Klaxons, the View, the Kooks, and the Fratellis. There's a movement in Britain back to songwriting and melody, and it's producing so much innovative stuff. INGRID SISCHY: Why do you think the States isn't there? ELTON JOHN: Record-making in America is still very much under the influence of hip-hop, which has gotten itself in a lot of trouble by becoming very formulaic. But as with any genre of music, the real talent will, of course, survive because they've got more to offer than mumbling and grumbling on a record: They know how to write songs. For example, Akon's album, Konvicted [SRC/Universal Motown], is very soulful, but it's also a very strong pop record. Why do you think Mary J. Bilge had the biggest hit of her career with The Breakthrough [Geffen]? Because it's an album full of great songs. What's the biggest hit that Beyonce ever had? "Irreplaceable." Why? Because it's a song. A producer who really understands the power of the song right now is Timbaland. He works with all different kinds of music, but there's always a tune or a melody involved. That's why Justin Timberlake's album [FutureSex/LoveSounds, Jive], which Timbaland produced, was so good--Timbaland knows that, at the end of the day, people will want a song in their lives to remember. The lack of memorable songs has meant the death knell for pop music being played on the radio in America. INGRID SISCHY: What about the so-called savior--satellite radio? ELTON JOHN: Satellite radio is helping. People are turning to it as an alternative. But it still has a long way to go. INGRID SISCHY: The Internet? ELTON JOHN: The Internet gives talent an opportunity to come forward. Everybody has a MySpace page now. But it's still not the same as being played on the radio nationwide, where you're exposed to millions of people at once. The state of the radio in America is one of the reasons why there's been so much more talent coming through in Britain than in America in recent years. I think there's going to be another British invasion. You've got singers like Paolo Nutini and James Morrison coming through who have already had big hits. You've got Lily Allen. You've got Amy Winehouse. These people are genuinely talented, and the exposure they've had in Britain is a direct result of their music being heard on the radio. INGRID SISCHY: The sheer size of the United States also makes it a massive country to conquer. It's almost like a bunch of little countries: the East Coast, the West Coast, the Southeast, the Midwest. ELTON JOHN: True. You can be big in Detroit and not big anywhere else. You have to work for two or three years to really make it and cement yourself in the States. U2, the Police, myself--we all had to do that to establish ourselves in America in the first place. Artists like John Mayer who've already had huge hit records still play across the country to cover every little crack. It's great training, because you don't just have a hit record and then suddenly sell out everywhere-- you have to earn your corn. INGRID SISCHY: So what else should people keep an ear out for? Pardon the pun. ELTON JOHN: [ride] Well, first let me mention two albums that've been out for a while that people may have missed. Ron Sexsmith, who has been around for a long time, released an album a few months ago called Time Being [Ironworks]. It's out of Kiefer Sutherland's record label. Mitchell Froom produced it, and it's one of the best albums I've heard in a while. Sexsmith has always been a great songwriter, but this is probably his finest work yet. It's like a great album by Jackson Browne or Nell Young or Joni Mitchell. The Shins' latest record, Wincing the Night Away [Sub Pop], is another one I've been playing a lot. They were kind of an underground band until they had two songs on the soundtrack to the Zach Braff movie Garden State [2004] a few years ago, which brought them to greater prominence. Wincing the Night Away is just a great pop record. Sophie Ellis- Bextor, another British singer, is another one to listen out for. She had a dance hit several years ago called "Murder on the Dancefloor" [from her 2001 album Read My Lips]. She has an album coming out [Trip the Light Fantastic, Fascination] around now--the single "Me and My Imagination" is already doing well in England and should do well in America too. I'm very proud of the music charts in England at the moment, because there are newcomers on there all the time and the oldies also get a look in as well. I just think it's a particularly creative and exciting period. It's happening: Britain is the place for new music once again. .