It’s almost five years since Saint Etienne released their last album Words and Music, but a new release is scheduled for the start of Summer 2017, which is welcoming news for anybody wanting some light relief from the negativity of Brexit and Trump headlines.
Despite a fairly lengthy gap between the Saint Etienne catalogue of records, the band have been playing gigs and celebrating anniversaries – notably the 25th birthday of their Foxbase Alpha album.
Their lead singer, Sarah Cracknell, has also continued putting out music of her own. In 2015, Sarah released her critically acclaimed album, Red Kite. Late last year she also issued her dreamy, sun-kissed, acoustic-electronica track, ‘We Look At The Stars’ with London-based dance duo, Lisbon Kid.
We met up with Sarah in Soho – one of her “favourite places in the whole world” – to chat about new music, her love for Marc Almond, the trials of juggling a collaboration with David Essex and baby-sitting, and how being a mum has affected her role as a singer-songwriter.
‘We Look At The Stars’ – the recent collaborative piece with Lisbon Kid, aka Rui da Silva and Danny de Matos – was inspired by her visiting parts of North Devon to see her boyfriend of the time.
We used to lie on this cliff and look at the stars, because there was so little light pollution. When it was a clear night, it was amazing! You just feel so small and insignificant that you forget all your troubles.
In 2007, Marc Almond released his Stardom Road album, which featured a collaboration with Sarah called ‘I Close My Eyes and Count To Ten’ – a rework of the 1968 song by Dusty Springfield.
He’s just the most darling man. I fell in love with him, he was brilliant! He was really easy to work with and really supportive. He’s a bit of an icon, so I was a little bit in awe and a little bit shy, but he made me feel at ease.
Last year, Saint Etienne were part of the line-up at OnBlackheath, an annual 2-day music, arts and food festival held in London.
I love doing a shorter set. Not because I’m lazy, but because you can pack it with all the fun, uptempo stuff. I also love playing a tent at a festival because if it’s raining everyone comes to see you!
2017 sees Saint Etienne reconnecting with producer Richard X for a new album, scheduled for release early summer.
I can’t tell you too much about the album because I haven’t been given permission, but it’s coming out in June. It’s quite varied style-wise. The last album, Words and Music was quite dance-orientated, but this new one is more eclectic. It’s got elements of dance, but it’s got other stuff going on. It reminds me of our earlier work, so it’s quite varied, which is really good I think! We recorded it in a studio in Finsbury Park with a a wonderful engineer called Pierre and a brilliant American guy called Shawn Lee. He’s a really talented guy, an artist in his own right, he’s amazing. He plays lots of instruments, which is handy for us, so he plays things that we can’t play like the drums. They don’t drink tea, though, which is really awkward for us. I remember the first day we arrived in the studio, we asked everyone is they wanted a cup of tea, but they’re coffee drinkers so we then had to take our own mugs, teabags and milk to make our own!
● ‘We Look At The Stars’ by Lisbon Kid ft. Sarah Cracknell is out now. The new album by Saint Etienne is released later this year.
