Anneli Drecker � �Peace and Love XX�

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12 Apr, 2006

For those who like heavenly voices, the Norwegian band Bel Canto was and still is obligatory food. Thanks to the angel like voice of the front woman Anneli Drecker, Bel Canto succeeded in gaining international success at the late eighties and mid nineties on the Belgian Crammed Disc label. After her first solo side step with �Tundra� in 2000, we now see Anneli Drecker return in 2005 with the more upbeat album �Frolic�, again out on EMI Norway. While distribution outside Norway is once again close to zero, we don�t want to let you all miss out on this opportunity to get to know her work a bit more. So we rang a pregnant Anneli in Troms�, Norway around Christmas and got her to talk about her recent output and the future of Bel Canto. (By Bernard Van Isacker)

SL. You have gone for a very danceable approach for this album compared to your previous solo album �Tundra� released back in 2000.

AD. Well, I was lucky to have been able working with the Prague Orchestra, but it would be stupid doing the same thing over again, wouldn�t it? I had so many good programs and producers with me this time and there was really no space for it. I also needed to be more direct this time as people told me that �Tundra� was a bit too gloomy. The album was released at the same time when I split up with the father of my child and so the press was really focusing on it. It was not self-destructive but perhaps a bit too personal� Well, for me it wasn�t, because a track like �All I know� was composed back in 1999. Now I have songs like �Strange little bird� and �My Emily� which are quite epic in a sense.

SL. Speaking of �My Emily�, it�s a song that could well be suited for Morten Harket's voice, a coincidence or is there more behind it?

AD. (Laughs) Well, I made that song for Morten Harket. I came home one day after I had met him. He was in a meeting with someone talking about his possible new solo album and I had a short talk with him. So I thought, why shouldn�t I make a song for him? So the song was in fact written with his voice inside my head. The song came up when I was on the bus back home so I had to sing it into my mobile phone. When I got home I recorded it directly, in fact the vocals you here on the album are the vocals taken from my demo for him. But then it never happened as the song became too personal and too private in a way. But it is a good way of thinking like that. I started doing that more, pretending I am someone else, using my voice in a different way. Then you really have to think about their vocal range. On �The monkey trap� for example I didn�t pretend being someone else, that was really scary (laughs)! He has never heard it, unless he bought the album. I didn�t want to be pushy, you know, I am not really good at selling myself as a composer.

SL. You should, the track is excellent.

AD. � you are right, but I can make many songs for his voice. I don�t want to intrude and prefer him asking me things personally, because I know him. I fell so much in love with the song itself anyhow and the lyrics went so personal� Anyhow he didn�t do the solo album and instead went on recording a new A-ha album so I thought: I might as well just release it. If he wants to pick it up, he can because it has only been released in Norway and in Belgium via iTunes I think (laughs). There is no marketing or promotion around it really� So far it has only been released in Norway (Editor�s note: in April 2005 via EMI Norway). I have some contacts in England now but it is a slow process, plus the fact I am pregnant now for 7 months I won�t be doing big things. I also spoke with the management of R�yksopp who wanted to give me some advice on who to contact and things like that. But since I have no management it all is really up to me in the end. EMI Norway have finished their work here and since I am not a business woman� (laughs) The market out there is impossible, there are so many artists out there that want to be signed you know. I know that people abroad will possibly copy the CDs because they are quite expensive to get from Norwegian online shops. But I have come to the point that I do not care, I prefer that people can hear my songs� I prefer buying though, being an artist I have to support other artists, it�s a dilemma.

SL. For the electronics on this album you seem to have been listening a lot to Afrika Bambaataa?

AD. (Laughs) Yes, very much, Afrika Bambaataa is even sampled on �Desire�. It is taken from a sample CD that I used, and I filtered it. I like Bambaataa a lot just like I like a lot of the stuff Adrian Sherwood did. You know, most people do not realize I do most of the programming because there are other names credited for this album as well. I mostly like to program myself, like with �My Emily� and �The monkey trap�, where I sampled Blancmange. In fact Blancmange wanted 50% of the publishing and that�s why they are credited as fellow composers. But for me it is an honour, I�ve loved them since 1982 so I don�t care about giving them those 50%. It is due to Gareth Jones that the sample got in that mix, he suggested it after I played him the Blancmange song. �Why don�t you just sample it�, he said and so there you have it (laughs). That�s what you get when you are a girl! Having said that, the sample was colouring the song, it did not really have much power in itself. It�s a bit stupid because I made that version as a kind of remix. My version was without the sample, but I was so stupid playing the remix for the record company and of course they wanted the remix. My version was more African, dark, epic and scary and did have a syncope rhythm instead of the four on the floor it has now. They wanted it to fit in with the other songs so they convinced me using the remix� I regret it now, the song would have fitted the �Tundra� album better though, I think.

(�)

To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 54!

Side-Line issue 54
Anneli Drecker CDs

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