00:00Hello, this is Gilbert O'Sullivan and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:05With a career spanning 55 years and counting, revered singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan
00:11is still delighting fans with new music and international performances at the age of 78.
00:17The Irish-born musician first found mega success in the UK and US with 70s hits Alone Again
00:24Naturally, Claire and Get Down.
00:26His latest album Songbook pays tribute to those early songs by including pared-down
00:31versions of 11 tracks from his outstanding catalogue.
00:35And one new one, A Kiss is a Kiss.
00:38We were lucky enough to sit down with the illustrious artist virtually to talk all about
00:43it as well as his current tour and what's to come next.
00:47This is a Life Minute with Gilbert O'Sullivan.
00:52Well, it's a stripped-down version of many of my best-known and well-known songs, plus
00:58one new one.
00:59It's just a project that started last year.
01:01We did a concert in London at the Barbican, which is a well-known theatre, and the head
01:05of the record company was there.
01:07And the concert consisted of myself on piano and the guitar player, Bill Shannon, just
01:10doing it this year, and we do it again next year.
01:13After the concert, they really enjoyed it and they felt that it would be nice to replicate
01:17that on record.
01:19So that kind of led to us spending a couple of days in a small theatre in London, no audience,
01:24and over two days, a couple of versions of each song, so it was pretty much live.
01:29Very little overdubbing then.
01:30Mixed, and there it is.
01:32Then it's out.
01:33It's me on the piano singing, Bill on guitar playing and backing me and stuff.
01:38That's the set-up, and it works really well.
01:40The stripped-down versions are kind of nice for people because they get to hear the words
01:44clearer.
01:45And you get criticism with the band a bit too loud and people say, you know, we didn't
01:49get to hear it, we'd like to hear the words.
01:50So in that sense, it's worked out really well.
01:53Well, you'll see there's 12 songs, 11 of them are a mixture of old, and then we have one
01:58new song.
01:59There's no Get Down, which of course was a big hit in America.
02:02It's just an interesting collection, I think, that you've got your Nothing Rhymed, you've
02:06got Alone Again, and you've got Claire.
02:08There's a couple of album tracks people are not used to hearing from particular albums
02:12and stuff.
02:13I think the mix is quite good.
02:15I hope so, anyway.
02:25It's generally the melody first.
02:27I think that will dictate pretty much how the lyrics will go.
02:30Occasionally you have a title.
02:32I mean, there's a song on this album called Dance at Dreams and 45s.
02:35I always had that lying around and stuff, so by picking up on that, when I felt it was
02:40a good melody to go with it, that kind of led to me doing that.
02:44But mostly it's the melody that will kind of set out how I want to approach it lyrically.
02:50To be able to write music, you have to hear and like good music.
02:52I don't think you can be a good songwriter if you don't like what's going on around you.
02:56I'll buy everything, because you're always learning.
03:00The way the marketplace is today, the way the business is today, it doesn't bother me.
03:04What I do isn't rocket science.
03:06I mean, there are more songwriters today than there ever were when I first started and stuff.
03:10I used to say in an audience, how many people in the audience are decorators and stuff?
03:14So maybe three hands would go up in a 1,500 theater.
03:18I'd say, how many songwriters in here?
03:21Hundreds would go up, because everybody writes songs these days, which can be no bad thing
03:25if they're good songs.
03:26That's the thing I enjoy.
03:27It's the key to everything I do.
03:29Without the songs, I wouldn't be talking to you.
03:31Yeah, I love the craft of songwriting.
03:32You don't know if it's a great song.
03:34What you do is, when you've finished what you think is a good song, that in a way is
03:38success, because that's you, just you.
03:41Nobody's heard it.
03:42Nobody's involved in it other than you.
03:44So when you've written what you think is a good song, that's a nice feeling, because
03:47that's something you have control over.
03:49Whereas, when the record is released, it's in the hands of record companies and many
03:53other things.
03:54That's the important factor.
03:55As I did on my own, alone again, naturally.
04:01With all my songs, the writing is there.
04:03I was happy with Alone Again.
04:05I liked the subject matter.
04:06I didn't experience it, but I had an understanding of what somebody might be going through to
04:10contemplate suicide.
04:11I know the sadness you feel when you lose a relative or a parent.
04:15So those kind of issues are interesting as a lyricist to be able to write about them.
04:18There are other songs which are just simple little rock songs or straightforward pop songs.
04:24When I got interested in music, it was just like what I heard on the radio.
04:27The Everly Brothers are fantastic.
04:28Early Beatles, fantastic.
04:30Those are the big buzz, the influences you have as you go through your life.
04:34So it's always about music you hear, certain tracks by certain people.
04:38As I said earlier, I buy everything just to like to learn from it.
04:41That's how you keep in touch with what's going on.
04:43You can't be a contemporary songwriter if you don't like what's going on around you.
04:47Sabrina Carmander, her two albums, the production is great, very contemporary production.
04:52That's a cool song.
04:53Please, Please, Please is a really good pop song.
04:55She's a very good pop songwriter.
04:58Just like I'm a huge fan of Bonnie Raitt.
05:00I always loved Bonnie Raitt.
05:01Joni Mitchell, I'm a huge fan of Joni Mitchell.
05:04But I buy out, you know, all the contemporary stuff.
05:06The Beatles were the catalyst for wanting to be in a band.
05:09When they came on the scene, they could write great songs and they couldn't read music.
05:13So we kind of identified with that and you kind of felt, well, if they could do it, maybe
05:16we could do that kind of thing.
05:17So that led to it.
05:18Then you join a band.
05:19I was a drummer in a band, drummer in a second band, drummer in a really good band.
05:23That didn't quite work out, which led to me going off on my own to try and break into
05:28the music business, coming to London, big London.
05:32Making my first record in 1967 was a thrill.
05:35It wasn't a hit, but it was an experience that I hadn't had at that point.
05:39A big time producer, musicians.
05:41So I enjoyed the experience, learned from that.
05:43Went through to a point in 1969, after failure here and there on the way up, that I needed
05:50solo representation.
05:52So Gordon Mills, who managed Tom Jones, Hang About Humperdinck, I wrote to him as the manager
05:56for the biggest solo artist in the world to see if he would be interested in me.
06:01He's an ex-songwriter.
06:02He co-wrote his novel, Unusual, for Tom Jones, so he knew about song.
06:06So while he didn't like how I looked, he liked the songs and he invited me to his home.
06:10I had to play more than he had heard on the tape to be sure that I was good enough for
06:14him.
06:15And that led to the first success that I had in 1970.
06:19So that was a major good decision.
06:22Claire, the moment I met you, I swear.
06:28I think it's the fact that I write songs which are, people seem to like them.
06:32I'm not dependent on the past.
06:34If I couldn't write songs now, I wouldn't be talking to you.
06:37I'd become a gardener or something, I don't know.
06:40But it's the songs that keep me going, it's the songs that interest me.
06:45People seem to like them.
06:46Which is, you know, when you're making new albums, I've done, I think somebody told me
06:50I've done about 21 albums now.
06:52So it's nice that the current albums you're putting out in the last couple of years and
06:57this year, they're critically well-received, so I think that's a positive thing going forward.
07:02I go right back to the first record, that was a highlight.
07:05The first cover of one of my songs by a very well-known American singer called Tom Rush.
07:10He promoted people like James Taylor and stuff.
07:12So he did one of my early songs.
07:14That was a big thrill.
07:15But I suppose the best thrill would have been to have the first success with a song called
07:19Nothing Rhymed, which was a major hit all around Europe.
07:21Not in America, but pretty much everywhere else.
07:23So that was an incredible feeling to get that.
07:31So the variety is the key factor too, because when we do a concert, it's a two-hour concert,
07:35all the songs are mine.
07:36God forbid, if somebody out there didn't like them, I'd be in trouble.
07:40Well, they get a mixture of fast, slow, medium, funny, serious, over two hours, break in the
07:46middle.
07:47The simplicity, the up close and personal approach seems to work really well.
07:52Audiences seem to like that approach with us.
07:54Oh, may that continue.
07:55Yeah, well, no alcohol.
07:58So alcohol is out.
07:59Exercise is important.
08:01I do voice exercises, which I have on a screen given to me by its teacher.
08:05So I do those every day, because the voice is the key factor.
08:08Without the voice, you're in trouble.
08:10I'm 77 years of age.
08:12As one gets older, it becomes more difficult.
08:14You have to work really hard, and I do work hard to retain that good vocal element, because
08:19without that, I think I would stop.
08:20It's the most important factor after writing the song.
08:23We'll carry on promoting this.
08:25We start concerts again on the 12th of this month.
08:27We go back to Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, a few other places.
08:31And then next year, we'll have a new album, which we'll start recording in the new year.
08:35Most of the songs for that, I have written.
08:37The 12th song on this album, which is a new song, that was meant to be on the next album,
08:41but we decided that for the live album, we would put a new song on this album.
08:47So that's pretty much the imminent future.
08:53To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV, on iTunes and all
08:57streaming podcast platforms.
Comments