I’m the envy of men (and some women) everywhere before I even begin my interview with Sharleen Spiteri. Apologising for waking her up at an ungodly hour of the morning, she laughs and says with a yawn, “Oh, it’s alright – I’m lying on top of my bed, talking on the phone – it’s not exactly taxing work!”
Indeed, life could be a lot worse for the Texas frontwoman at the moment, with her solo debut album Melody having recently been released to critical and public acclaim. Considering she’s had a highly successful career with rootsy pop-rockers Texas, we must ask the obvious: why decide to travel the solo route at this stage of her life?
“You don’t really think about it like that,” she states. “You know, at the end of the day, selling records enables you to make the next one, so that’s always the way it works. It’s gonna be 20 years in January since we released ‘I Don’t Want A Lover’, and I’ve gotta say, I feel very lucky that I’ve managed to hang in and do it for this length of time.”
So it’s got nothing to do with the fact that she turned 40 last year, and a ‘now-or-never’ attitude to making a solo record?
“Not at all!” she laughs. “It was just another number to me, to be honest. I had a party, because of the pressure from my mates – but to be honest, turning forty was kind of the last of my worries, having been through the last few years and come out the other side.”
Spiteri’s referring to the end of her relationship with magazine editor Ashley Heat, a break-up which inspired most, if not all, of Melody’s heartbreak-heavy lyrics.
“I actually sat down to write a Texas record, and it just didn’t come out that way,” she explains. “This wasn’t about going into the studio and playing as a band – it was very insular, and that was the way I needed to make it.
“I gave everything with Texas, obviously, but I think I’ve given more away with the lyrical content here, and I did question myself over that. I can hide in Texas, believe it or not, but I couldn’t do that with this record. There were times I did try to mask it, or make it so it was from someone else’s point of view, but I came to the conclusion that I could hold my head high – it’s not a vicious or vindictive record.”
The fact that Melody is also self-produced (apart from one track, co-written and co-produced by “old friend” Bernard Butler) testifies to Spiteri’s personal touch. With many of the songs radiating ’60s and ’70s golden-era soul-pop, I ask what she thinks of the new, young female brigade who are also borrowing heavily from that period.
“I’ve gotta put my hands up – I borrowed from that era for a long time,” she laughs. “I’ve always done the Marvin Gaye thing, The Supremes thing, it’s always been something I’ve been influenced by. For me, Amy Winehouse, and Duffy, and Adele – that’s the kind of music that I love. It’s the music that I want to hear and the records that I want to buy.
“It’s a really good time for music, and especially for women in music – we’re writing really good songs, and a lot of people don’t point that out. These women are writing the songs of a generation, at the moment.”