Been A Long Time: Lemar Discusses Putting Soul Into New Album, ‘The Letter’
| 16th September 2015
Multi-platform selling, double Brit Award winner Lemar is back with a silken smooth new album, ‘The Letter’. A convincing combination of classic interpretations and brand new tracks, the record seeks to expose the essence of soulful sound.
Performing live at The Lowry on the album tour, Lemar’s charisma is as suave as his music, ‘Feels intimate right? It’s like you guys are in my living room’. While maintaining an openly flowing conversation with the crowd and individual fans throughout, Lemar had everyone dancing the night away. Treating familiar and new faces to selected ‘The Letter’ tracks, the entire venue was notably entranced by a particularly beautiful rendition of ‘Never Be Another You’, but also relished the occasional medley of original noughties tracks.
Before hitting The Lowry, VIVA caught up with Lemar to find out more about the making of ‘The Letter’.
Lemar, you’ve just kicked things off with the album tour. How’s it going so far?
Not bad, actually! Day one was really very, very good.
And you’ve recently been through a few changes with management and labels. How do you deal with all of the transitions within the music industry?
It’s a challenge, but if you’re fortunate enough to have a long career, then you’re going to have to navigate at some point. Generally, I’m not the biggest lover of change in life anyway, but you know, it’s something that I have to give a lot of thought, especially with changing management. Managers have such a main and long-term role…but I’m really happy with all of the choices BMG have made so far.
Is steering from the pop-focus to a much more soulful movement something you’ve always intended to do?
Yeah! I’ve always been comfortable singing soul and I think my voice really lends itself to that. I like all sorts of music, whether it be pop, indie, rock…all genres, but there’s what you like, there’s what suits your voice and there’s what resonates most with people; it’s just always connected well any time I’ve done soulful things. I always wanted to do this type of album, you know, one that celebrates that soulful sound in its entirety, so it’s nice to get in down with the right band and producers.
On that note, can you talk us through any of the creative processes that you’ve gone through in the making of ‘The Letter’?
It was very much a collaborative effort. I had the idea for a while, and at the time I was thinking of getting new management, so first I set about that then after, it was all about getting new producers. I think when you’re making this type of album, it really is about the overall sound, you know the voice is important, but it’s crucial to get the musicality just right.
It needs to be a completely cohesive effort.
Exactly! It was so nice working with Larry Klein, and he’s worked with many of the greats. He totally understands that soul vibe, and he appreciates how to adjust the arrangements to bring them into the modern era while still paying respect and homage to the original version. We’ve got some great musicians, some of which worked on the original versions of the tracks, but we also had backing vocals from the Water Sisters. I cover a Diana Ross song on the album and they sang on the original, but it was nice to be able to hear a male take on it. We’ve managed to create some authenticity of sound by having them on the backing vocals, which was a really nice experience.
So would you say these collaborations have aided in your way of producing a more convincing interpretations of cover tracks?
Definitely! There is something that comes through when you’re all in the room recording as a live performance, as opposed to doing it by recording in a studio and everyone else adding their bits in later. It was really nice to be in the one room… alright it’s more challenging, but because of that performance thing it gives a more authentic representation of what can be captured in that moment. It helps you lift up your game as well.
Do you have a favourite track from the recordings, and is it the same that you prefer to perform live on tour?
Actually, after performing live on stage I’d say that ‘Love and Happiness’, went down well, but there’s another song ‘Never Be Another You’, that went down extremely well too.
By Lemar’s new album ‘The Letter’ from iTunes, Amazon or Google Play
For tour dates and tickets visit listings.ticketmaster.co.uk/lemar