Jazz Monthly.com Interview with simply red

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Mick Hucknall

Smitty: It’s my great pleasure to welcome a cat that has always seemed to be switched on to great music. He’s one of the most vocally seductive singers in the business. He has a stunning new CD entitled Stay. Representing the incredible band, Simply Red, please welcome the totally melodic and totally harmonic Mr. Mick Hucknall. Mick, how are you, my friend?

Mick Hucknall (MH): Wow, that was quite an intro. Thank you very much.

Smitty: You’re so welcome. Hey, man, congratulations on some great songs here. You’re writing some great songs.

MH: Thank you. We spent about two years on them and we feel we’ve gotten something quite substantial.

Smitty: Yes, it’s very cool. Your music seems to capture every emotion that’s common to humanity. Your songwriting is something that your audience totally identifies with. Talk a little bit about your songwriting and how you keep your audience in mind when you’re writing.

MH: Well, I think that’s a good analysis because that’s what I’m trying to achieve. I want to be able to relate to people on a human level and get into their homes with a certain sincerity that relates to their lives.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely, man, and you’re accomplishing your goal, my friend.

MH: Fantastic.

Smitty: Yeah. Talk about how you discovered your voice, I mean, because you have such a unique voice. How did you discover that?

MH: Well, I’m still discovering my voice actually. I’m trying to sort of represent it in a way where you witness the growth of somebody’s playing ability throughout their lifetime.

Smitty: Yeah.

MH: And this can apply to horn players or to singers, and you listen to how they develop totally throughout their lives, you know, and from starting out professionally as a 24-year-old when I did my first recording, now I’m 46 years old, I have more bass in the voice.

Smitty: Yes, you do.

MH: But because I’ve taken care of my voice as well, I can still hit the high notes, so it’s just kind of developed in that way over the years and it’s still growing. It’s not actually vocally in recession yet. That’ll probably happen when I get into my sixties, I would think.

Smitty: Well, I think you’re gonna last longer than that. You’ve got a great voice. And speaking of your voice, what I really like about your music over the years, going back to your songwriting, your lyrics are fantastic and your voice seems to make those beautiful words just come to life, and I think that’s a beautiful thing when your voice can just bring so much life and reality to your songwriting.

MH: Well, I’ve tried to learn from people who are considered very good at that in different ways, you know. I’ve noticed that in the performances of somebody like John Lennon, I’ve noticed it in the work of Frank Sinatra, somebody like Neil Young. These people can…they sing you a song but you feel that somehow like they’re telling you their story.

Smitty: Yeah, I know what you mean.

MH: And that kind of intimacy is something that I try to attain and try to share with the listening audience.

Smitty: Absolutely. Let’s talk about this new record because I think it’s some of your best work that I’ve heard, and you always seem to have a great band to support you in your music and I think that’s very important. You have some great musicians working with you.

MH: Well, that’s what I try to have. I’ve always had this question from people as to why the band’s called Simply Red as opposed to just using my name, and I’ve always insisted that it’s important to call it Simply Red because it’s out of respect of the musicians that I work with.

Smitty: I totally dig that vibe, man.

MH: And it would be really hard to be a band if I called it only by my name, and I think that the choice in musicians and how I work with the musicians is very, very important in how the music’s created.

Smitty: Absolutely, and that atmosphere and rapport is always so cool. Yeah, man, you’re absolutely right. I love that. One of my favorite songs on here is “So Not Over You.” Man, what a song, and it just sounds like one of those songs that you can really get into and realize, and it’s something that most humans deal with. Talk about how that song developed to land on this record.

MH: Well, I was given a demo of the song and it wasn’t quite right for me, so we did a little work with my co-producer Andy Wright. We changed the lyrics around a little bit and the structure of the song to try and make it more relevant to where I’m sort of at with my own life, because then I think if you do that, again, you get a kind of a sincerity that you can’t really get from an academic way of handling the song. I, in my own personal life, I split up with a girl several years ago that I’d never really got over and then I spent sort of a wild time being a bachelor for about five or six years, going off the rails and living the high life, and I could never get over this person, and I’m happy to say that now I’m back together with this person now. We’ve been living together for about two and a half years and we’re about to have our first child in the end of June. And the song really represents that, I think, you know? It just says that I could never get over this person and I’ve been very lucky enough to be able to get back with the person that was so special to me.

Smitty: That’s a special story for you, man and congratulations on getting back together and the baby as well.

MH: Thank you very much.

Smitty: Absolutely. And I’m very curious about “Money TV.”

MH: Yeah, well I look at the kind of culture that we’re living in, this kind of consumer age, and how in some ways it could be seen that it somehow cheapened our lives in a way, a kind of a 24-hour culture where everything’s available, anything you could want is available, but I just feel that somehow we’re living the life of excess without living the life of taste, and we did this song that’s really about this kind of…just like another song called “The Death of the Cool” and “Little Englander” that are on the tail end of the album. I’m just trying to sort of take a…it’s a take on life, you know? It’s a take on contemporary life that isn’t as rosy as people make out to be, really.

Smitty: Yeah. Once again, I think that’s such a cool thing to express yourself in your music in such a way that we all totally identify. Many of the things that you’re talking about in your music are things that you’ve experienced but we as the audience have experienced as well, so there is that very cool attraction to your music and then your voice just really lays it on so cool.

MH: Well, I’m trying to share that with people. In some ways, I think almost the music in a way has a duty to sort of represent and relate to where we are.

Smitty: Yes.

MH: And good or bad, and of course you want to always keep the message positive and give people a sense of hope. But at the same time you also have to sometimes try and give people a reality check on the way they’re living and just ask a few questions about whether or not you think that’s the right way or the wrong way.

Smitty: Yes, man, I love that, that’s very cool. That’s one of the reasons why I love what you do and what you’ve done over the years with your music because it’s just so all-encompassing. What’s the release date for this great record? April 24, 2007.]

MH: They’ve got different release dates all over the place. It’s April 24th in North America. It’s already out over here in London.

Smitty: How’s the record doing in London?

MH: Well, we charted at No. 4 and we charted Top 5 in most all of the European countries and on the European chart, where it calculates the average sales throughout Europe, we came in at No. 2.

Smitty: Wow!

MH: So we have the second biggest album in Europe this week, which is pretty good. I’m pretty thrilled by that actually.

Smitty: Yes indeed. And I’m not surprised because we expect that from you. It’s just always good when you release a record.

MH: Well, I never take that for granted because as every year goes by you’ve got people coming in and coming into the music, making music, and in some ways it actually becomes harder to maintain your position than it is actually being something fresh and new. So you have to try and create something fresh and new within your own kind of scene.

Smitty: Very cool, my friend. Well, Mick, I must tell you that I am just totally excited about this new record. Congratulations on the great charting in Europe and London, and we look forward to seeing you in the U.S. and hearing some of this fantastic music live, my friend.

MH: Well, I look forward to coming over. Thank you very much. You’ve been kind.

Smitty: Very cool. We’ve been talking with Mick Hucknall from Simply Red. The great new record is called Stay and you must pick up this record. It’s some fantastic music that you must put in your CD changer. Mick, thanks again, my friend, and much success to you the rest of the year.

MH: You’re very kind. Thank you very much.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.simplyred.com and www.myspace.com/simplyred