Few artists can combine longevity and creativity as well as Alison Moyet. Releasing her ninth studio album, Other, last month, Moyet has sold over 23 million records since her professional debut in 1982 as one half of synthpop duo, Yazoo. Together for just over two years, her partnership with Vince Clarke, formerly of Depeche Mode, provided the springboard Moyet needed to launch her own successful solo career with debut Alf, just one year later.
Moyet’s idiosyncratic, emotive vocals and their far-reaching range set her well apart from her 1980’s contemporaries. Winning two Brit Awards and an Icon Silver Clef along the way, Moyet’s success isn’t just limited to making and recording music – she’s also had successful stints in the theatre and London’s West End. Singing in punk, rock and blues bands in and around her native Basildon from the age of 16, Moyet is an artist who has never been afraid to cross genres, reinvent or try new things. Indeed, whilst making her ninth album, Moyet managed to broach an entirely new area after starting a college course in sculpture.
“It’s just always something I’d intended to do for a long time and I just thought sod it. Every year there’s always something on but I’m just going to sign up.” The timing of the course couldn’t have been worse: a few weeks after enrolling, Moyet’s manager called telling her that everything was in place for her to start recording the new album. “I signed up to start and then my manager called and said ‘okay, we’ve got the deal set – you’ve got to start making an album now.’ So that’s just how it was.”
“I live in Brighton so I’ve been commuting to London at six o’clock in the morning, going to college all day and then going to another part of London to record the album in the evening and then writing at weekends.” Where most would no doubt give up in a tired heap at the thought of such long days, Moyet, conversely, seems to embrace every second – a work ethic and resilience that has continuously propelled her forward during her long, successful career.
“I love it! I’m so verbose – I stutter and my mind scatters so much that with singing, I’ve realised actually that being forced into bars, it settles my mind. Also, the same thing for art – it’s the only time I’m doing something where I’m not thinking about anything else at all. The great thing about it too is that the two disciplines have been informing one another. A piece I’m working on at college now has been informed by one of the songs I’ve written on the album called ‘I Germinate,’” Moyet enthusiastically tells me.
“Both the disciplines I’m dealing with have got so little to do with any industry or any marketing or anything like that. I wanted to write this album as something that was really quite separate from what else was going on. [When I write], I’m not listening to anything, and most of the writing is based on improvisation. For example, when I write, I’ll have a very basic backing track and I won’t listen to it until I’ve got myself into record. Then I’ll just start improvising without even knowing what the chord structure is.”
I wonder if this is a change in style for Moyet, having been writing songs now since she was a teenager. “No, I think I’ve always worked in that kind of way,” she tells me. “Or certainly in the last fifteen years. Before I [was] writing the lyric that gets unpenned, cut down to fit a general structure of a song. In this case, the structure of the song was adjusted to have a greater fidelity to the poem.”
The album is one of the most lyrically rich Moyet has written, with many songs taking on a poetic, stream-of-consciousness like structure. “Words are really important to me and they are becoming more important to me. For one particular song [‘I Germinate’] I’d written that poem and it was just one that I couldn’t abridge in any way without losing the stream of consciousness that the track describes.”
“I know that the people who have stuck with me are used to the fact that I am going to travel [in words] and they’re happy for me to do that. I think there’s a thirst for a little bit more depth in the wordplay, in lyricism, because lyrics like ‘do it to me all night long’ [laughs] doesn’t resonate anymore! When you get to certain places, it’s like ‘I’ve heard it! I’m so tired!’ Gift a word unheard if you really want a different language.”
Part of the lyricism comes too from the subject matter Moyet is dealing with. Song ‘The English U’, was inspired by her own and her mother’s relationship with language. It’s a song Moyet’s daughter also sings on.
“It’s an interesting one because that sort of details with the subject of my dyslexia and the fact that my mum was a grammar-Nazi. When I lost her, I lost her to Alzheimer’s. Yet where she’d forgotten other things, the one that she could remember was grammar. The only time she’d talk is when somebody said something wrong or something was spelt wrong. I just remember, even though I found it hard to remember who she was before the disease, I could always remember the fact the English ‘u’ really mattered to her.”
Unlike some of Moyet’s previous albums, Other sees a significant shift in being less an album about emotion, and one more about observation. “It’s not so much that it’s not about emotion, but it’s got less of a romantic narrative and I think it’s because my life has changed so radically over the last five years. Before, I lived in quite a remote place, or at least I made myself remote, and as such you only have to live in your own head a lot of the time – and there’s questions of how you fit in with other people.”
“Now I live in Brighton where I just walk everywhere and as a middle-aged woman, you have an invisibility about you which I really celebrate – I really love that. So [the album] is far more observational and empathetic – it talks more about a human condition. That was starting to happen a bit on The Minutes anyway, but it deals with the town, it deals with the things that I see, and the things that I notice when I’m walking.”
Whereas some artists crave the limelight, for Moyet, the invisibility that has come with middle age has brought her a new kind of solace. “In terms of my life, it is much more improved by it because there’s a much greater sense of normality. In terms of my art, it’s a better thing because I feel free of the constraints of the industry because you do get to a certain age and you’re deemed very much on the periphery of that.”
“But those are things that I am happy about because I actually find that it’s all been too ensconced in it and it means it affects all your creative choices. You end up compromising. There’s been no compromise with this. I’m aware that my audience is going to be smaller, but it’s going to get smaller anyway. That just happens. I’d much rather that and be confronted with people who are celebrating my music as opposed to the tyranny that it is to be constantly made to pretend you’re still in your twenties.”
For an artist whose image has been tirelessly scrutinised throughout her career, Moyet speaks honestly about the medias obsession with her image. The album’s title perhaps also gives some clues to this and of Moyet feeling othered: “some of us have always felt othered,” a quote from Moyet on the album’s press release begins, “I no longer wish it were otherwise.” Moyet seems to be embracing otherness, using it to a powerful creative advantage.
“When we feel ‘other’, we feel so alone with that. As you grow up and you get older, you realise that, yes, you’re an island, but there are so many islands and we’re all islands in the same kind of sea. You can recognise one another, and the things you have to do to completely fit into a mainstream society are not things that you always celebrate. You don’t always want what the majority has.” Moyet then brings up the issue of body image as we delve further into the topic of otherness.
“It’s funny. I had a Twitter conversation with a stylist who said that she’d seen me at the Isle of Wight. She thought I was great but was like ‘why oh why do you dress the way you do?’ and not being flattering and all this kind of stuff. You want to say to some people, ‘you have to understand [that] I don’t want to turn into…’ – I sound like I’m biting back here or something! – but I feel like saying ‘you have to understand that truly some of us just don’t have the same priorities as you.’”
We discuss at length the issues of female image and the music industry, both of us annoyed that in 2017, we’re still, unbelievably, in a situation where a woman’s appearance is still seemingly more important than her art. “It’s like they see their selves as so much better turned out than me, and probably the majority would agree – but I don’t see it that way. I don’t want to look like you, I don’t want what you have chosen to make yourself fit in with…I don’t give a fuck. But they just don’t get it. They don’t get it.”
“I defend everybody’s right to do anything – if you want to spend your life worrying about the way you look, that’s your business. I wouldn’t judge you for it, but just please don’t assume that we all have the same ideas and [that] some of us fail and some of us don’t fail. Some of us actually choose not to engage with that stuff. It’s not even that we can’t engage with that stuff, it’s just that it means nothing.”
“You just want to go, ‘oh for fuck’s sake! I’m going to be 56 next week – I’m a granny. Really? Do you still want me to worry about my tits?” Moyet’s outlook is candid but one that clearly comes from having dealt with image scrutiny for over 35 years in the business. I tell her I don’t have a question about body image because I don’t feel it relevant when asking her about her music and art. “Exactly that – exactly that,” she says, in agreement. “And that’s what I said to this woman [on Twitter]. It’s like, ‘tell me what the blokes on the main stage were wearing’ – no mention of that.”
Our talk turns to the huge world tour Moyet has ahead. I ask her how she feels about the prospect and she laughs. “Well, you know – catch me on a good day and I’ll say yes, [I’m looking forward to it] but that was a good day and I was doing a good five or six miles a day and going to the gym every day. Strong as an ox and I thought – ‘yeah, I can do that!’ Then of course, since I’ve gone to college I’ve got no time to do anything so it’s back to being a lard couch potato,” she says, laughing some more.
One of the things most infectious about Moyet is her no bullshit attitude and humanity. Despite her being one of the most famous singers and performers in the world, she talks openly about the difficulty of touring but also about the joy it brings her. “The voice is in good shape. I played a gig last night and I feel very vocally strong. I’m aware that’s something that can’t be eternal. There’s still so many things I want to do and so many places I want to sing. I just thought I’ve got to do it now or there may never be another chance again.”
“As you’d expect, [the tour] is going to cross the length of my career. There’s going to be a lot of prominence on the new album and on The Minutes (Moyet’s last album) because it’s more of an electro line-up that I work with now. But then I’ll also do the hits and I’ll do songs from the 90’s and Yazoo stuff as well. There’s things in there that people know, and at the same time there’s stuff that’s searching.”
The world tour comes at a time where Moyet seems to feel much happier and contented with her work, voice and touring band. We start to talk about what she is most looking forward to. “I’m excited to be going back to Australia and New Zealand again, because I played there once before but retrospectively it wasn’t a happy time. It was a band that I had – a big band – the rhythm section didn’t get on with the brass section who didn’t get on with the vocalists [laughs], so there was no harmony. You felt like everybody was dialling it in.”
“[Now] I’ve learnt my craft and what makes me happy on stage and what makes me feel physically good on stage. And in knowing those things, there’s a greater commitment to the show that you’re giving – I don’t dial anything in. Every show I’m doing is the most important one. That sounds like tripe, sounds like something everyone says, but it’s the truth. I have a very poor memory. I’m not a nostalgic person – I don’t carry stuff. I’m in the moment and when the moment is there, the moment is everything.”
One of Moyet’s most successful tours came recently through the re-formation of Yazoo. Moyet tells me it was important to do based on the abrupt way the duo ended, despite their success together. “We were both sort of like tortured creatures in our own way for different reasons and that impacted on our ability to bond together at the time. It was such a significant time – both of us achieved so much in that period. Vince completely consolidated the fact that he was a world class songwriter and that he could continue outside of Depeche Mode. For me, it gave me my first springboard. So really, really significant things happened at that time.”
After breaking up, Moyet achieved phenomenal success with her debut record and Clarke went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell. “I wish we had been in a place where we could have celebrated them better together, but we had no connection. It was also the fact that I started as a live musician. Live music happened and then recordings back then – I think it’s when you’re playing live that you truly understand the meat of what you’ve written, you understand what’s worth keeping and what you should discard. We never did that with the second album. I never got the chance to sing it live.”
“I needed to complete that cycle – both to play the second album live and just to say, ‘thank you’ to Vince. We were lucky for whatever we had together. His relationship with Andy was so much more fruitful for him and he was happier in that. But that little interim relationship we had was very significant.”
From punk, to synthpop, to ballads and jazz, Moyet’s career has been characterised by a fluidity many cannot match. Looking back, she thinks her music has reflected different periods and feelings in her life with realism. “I think I’ve always made the music that reflects where I am at that point in time – even when you come across songs where you can feel me being disengaged – well, that’s the truism of where I was at that point, where I wouldn’t have cared about it, where I didn’t feel it. And then other times where I’ve really fought for it and fought for my creative freedom – that’s been the biggest fight.”
“When you are a bit of a cash cow, that becomes more of a problem because people just think that ‘if she has a flop maybe she’ll come back to the mainstream.’ I think they just don’t trust the point that I’m not motivated by fame and I’m not motivated by money. I’m a cheap date! I was lucky enough to have made enough to put a roof over my head when I was younger. I don’t desire objects – I don’t desire things.”
Being a true artist, and one who has longevity, is always about creativity, according to Moyet. “What makes an artist is one who will continue to create when they are not always in demand. You see it with everybody. I remember right back with Elton John how he was sort of dismissed in the late 70’s and yet he was one of the greatest performers of his generation and beyond. If you are only motivated by success then you give up. And that’s what the difference is I think.”
Moyet’s success hasn’t just been about being in the charts. She has successfully trod the boards in the West End, acted in theatre and even made the accompanying music for a Shakespeare project with the BBC. “Yeah, I’ve got a bit of the old ADHD going on – my eyes are always flickering and I’m interested in trying new things often. For me, it’s always about participation. When music is in my life, I’m making it rather than consuming it – same with art. I’m making art rather than watching it. It’s just a case of always wanting to put my body into different situations – putting my mind and energy into different things.”
“Doing theatre worked really well for me because that was a time when I’d made a record, Hometime, which my record company would neither release nor let me out of my contract. I had this impasse. I have historically had some social issues and I just know it’s a dangerous place for me to be isolated for too long.”
After suffering from agoraphobia, Moyet was house bound for years and had an eight-year career sabbatical. “I needed to keep myself out and this opportunity came up. As an old punk, musicals were not something I ever aspired to do. It’s not something I watch and I don’t go and see them. Yet the very fact I thought ‘oh jeez’ when I thought of it was enough reason to try it. I’m as much motivated about doing things that I don’t want to do to see how I can turn that around to things that I do really want to do.”
One of the biggest successes for Moyet in recent years has come from her partnership with producer Guy Singsworth. As well as producing Moyet’s last two albums, Singsworth has also worked with Bjork, Madonna and Imogen Heap, to name a mere few. “Guy’s such a perfect foil for me. He’s very egalitarian. Sometimes you have to really stake your claim as a woman when you’re working with a man. Sometimes they do attempt to ride roughshod over you or the assumption is that you can’t truly have a creative mind. I’ve faced that before where people are just like ‘yeah, okay, you’ve sung the song, now we don’t need your input here.’ It’s like ‘no, you so do because you’re missing the point.’”
“The great thing about Guy is he entirely trusts me. He trusts what I do and I trust what he does. There’s very little editing of one another. It’s not dissimilar to how it was with Yazoo really. He will work on the sounds and he paints around the songs that I write.”
After all the highs and inevitable lows that come with a 35-year long career in the music industry, it feels as though Moyet has reached a point where the freedom and success she had with Yazoo has come full circle. I ask Moyet if she feels she has been able to make this album in the way she has because of where she is now both personally and professionally.
“Yeah, I think so – especially after having been a part of the mainstream. In Yazoo, obviously on the first album we had as much freedom as we wanted to have, but that was a bit different. I think that’s what I’ve earned now. I think I’ve earned the right to do just as I will.”
Alison Moyet is currently on tour. Check here for tour dates and ticket information
