Claire RICHARDS

INTERVIEW

BY:

DANIEL MAY

Claire Richards, one of the greatest and most unmistakable voices in British pop, is back with her 2nd Album Euphoria which brilliantly showcases Claire’s powerful and stunning vocals on a lovingly curated collection of covers of songs by female singers who have helped shape Claire as an artist and singer. The title and sense of intense pleasure it promises captures what the album means to her and what she hopes it will mean to fans.

We have been spoiled this last four to five years, Steps have had so much in terms of new material, this is now an overdue hiatus that you are all planning on taking. Has it been gruelling for you or have the last few years been fun?

No it is great, it’s always great but I think you can tell when you are coming to the end of a period of time where you think we have all just got to take a step away from everything because it is very intense being in Steps world. It’s a different kind of vibe compared to everything else we do, it is quite intense. We are five strong characters and we have all got very strong opinions, so it is like fighting for your voice to come out a lot of the time. Not actually fighting, just to be heard because we all like to talk quite a lot.

It’s great, but it kind of lasted longer than it should have done because of the whole Covid situation and we ended up doing one more album. ‘What Future Holds Part One’ was the only planned album because of the tour being put back a year, trying to breathe extra life into it I suppose. Then we ended up doing Part Two and then we released like four albums. That’s a lot.

When it comes to taking a break is it a collective decision?

This time we just said, ‘We need a break’, because in that period of time it’s nice to go off and find yourself as an individual again, so we all go off and do our individual projects. It gives you a little boost to go back to Steps and I think it is rewarding to be able to do that. This time however we hadn’t really put a time limit on it. We have got a gig in a couple of weeks, we are doing Brighton Pride on 6th August, which is our only gig that we are doing this year. It is one that we have wanted to do for a long time and it’s possibly the only opportunity we will get to do it, so we said yes. At least until the end of this year we are not going to talk about what might be next and then we will just go from there. If we had a time limit there would be pressure and it takes the pressure off us all. Yes, we all have to be in the same place at the same time, mentally as well as physically, but generally we know when we are ready.

You mentioned about Brighton Pride, that’s going to be a scream. Do you find that concerts that are specifically for an LGBT audience are a bit more loud? How do they compare to other concerts?

I think when it is an outdoor festival there is definitely a significant difference. I think when you do an arena show, everybody is there to see us and everybody knows what they are going to get. But I think, some of those outdoor festivals, if it isn’t a Pride, sometimes people are a little more subdued can I say. I love doing Prides, it sums us up in a nutshell and selfishly it gives me what I want as a performer from an audience. It definitely puts a smile on my face, that’s for sure.

How does it work in terms of rehearsals or are you always ready?

Well, the older I get the less ready I feel! To a degree, yes. All the choruses are here, it doesn’t take much to remember a chorus. Sometimes over the years routines change and formations have changed. It does take a little bit of remembering.

Is it safe to say you will get the vocals right but you might veer off in the wrong direction?

Yes, you might see me wondering around at the back of the stage but the words will be right. I will be singing my heart out. If you just see me singing and standing still, it’s because I’ve forgotten the moves.

I read that Steps were the first ever mixed group to have a Number 1 album in four separate decades. How amazing is that?

It is incredible and obviously it’s not like we have had a 40 year career. We have released albums in the 90’s the 2000’s the 10’s and the 20’s and it is incredible. It’s actually spread over, as it was last year 25 years, and it is what dreams are made of in a way. You never set out to think you are going to achieve those kinds of things but it’s amazing. It is very humbling and it gives me a little bit more confidence in being proud of Steps. I am proud of Steps and everything that we have achieved but sometimes I always wonder about other peoples perceptions of us as a band. Some people kind of thought we were a bit of a joke in the 90’s and we were a bit of a novelty band but I think statistics over the last few years do speak for themselves. We have got a track record and we have got such a loyal fan base that keep giving us those things it makes us want to continue on, keep releasing albums and performing to a standard that we always have done. We are always mindful of that and that is why there was quite a big gap with no new material. When we first came back with ‘Tears on the Dancefloor’, it took us a long time to devise that was what we actually wanted to do because we had such a legacy from the 90’s and the 2000’s and there was a real chance that we could mess all that up by releasing new material in 2017. That balance of how do we do that, still makes it what our audience wants and expects, but thanks to the team that we have got around now, they continue to help us and we have managed to achieve that so far.

Let’s get onto your new album Euphoria. The songs are so different and they all complement each other. The title is Euphoria, why was that not the first single to be released?

Most of the album was recorded at the beginning of this year. We started working on it a couple of years ago and it has evolved and changed a bit from when we first started. I recorded most of it in February/ March/April and for weeks we were trying to come up with a title, between myself, my producer Steve and my management. I have to admit, I was struggling. I knew the essence of what I wanted to say and I also wanted it to be strong and powerful, but nothing that we came up with was right. I had been through every word in the dictionary, all of us, and nothing seemed right. Then, quite late on, in relation to when the show was, I was asked to do the Eurovision Village just before they streamed the actual contest for all the people that had bought tickets for the Saturday night in Liverpool. In the whole week leading up to it they had acts playing and for some reason I was asked to headline. I had my set list ready for the summer shows that I was already doing and we were having conversations about what the set lists should be and someone said you should probably do a Eurovision song. I think it was my manager who said you should do Euphoria it is the perfect song for me and it is one of the best Eurovision songs ever. I think I did make some sort of comment on stage that night about her winning and this was all on a WhatsApp conversation, in the back of a car on the way to the album cover shoot. So we were shooting the cover of the album and didn’t have a title. Then we decided we were going to do Euphoria and I was like ‘Do you know what that is actually a really good album title’. So I sent that in a message to the group and as soon as I sent it everybody said ‘oh my goodness, YES’. I then said it is such a shame we should have done it for the album and my manager asked ‘have we got time?’. We still had a week before the deadline, so he said do you think you could get in and do a vocal and get it ready and we decided to do it. As soon as I heard it with the intro and everything I said it has to be the first song on the album. By this point we already knew ‘I Surrender’ would be the single and to a degree there is an element to it. It is quite a recent cover compared to the rest of them. ‘I Surrender’ is over 20 years old , so compared to the rest it is quite new and I think sometimes when you do a cover , especially as a single, there needs to be enough of a gap. I think Euphoria is great.to have as the opening song, it is great for live shows and it fits perfectly with the theme of the whole album.

You mentioned I Surrender which is a fabulous song. I know you love Celine Dion, but that key change! Are you wise, that must be a nightmare singing live?

I know. It hasn’t actually been in the set up until now because nobody knew about the album or it was going to be a single. But my next show is in a couple of weeks, and I obviously haven’t sang it since I recorded it but it is a song I have done quite a lot over the years and I did sing it on tour every night in 2012 with Steps, but it’s been a while... Celine’s vocal is incredible on it and it’s an epic song. People just don’t write songs like that anymore, her song is a ballad and I have only ever sang it as a ballad, but now it is more upbeat.

In this album you have two duets, one with Andy Bell and one with Delta Goodrem. Did you have the opportunity to record with them live or was it all studio magic?

Even when I record with Steps we are never in the studio together, as generally it is down to peoples schedules. Especially with Delta, she lives on the other side of the world anyway, so she recorded her vocal in the Maldives, which is so much more glamorous compared to where I did mine. Andy did his with the producer that he is working with and who is very good friends with my producer so it worked out well. Delta did hers in the Maldives, I think she was in a show, and she sent it over to us. I am just so grateful to both of them that they managed to get it done and I think they both sound great. I am so excited that I have got the two duets on the album and I am so happy with both of them.

How do you pick someone to do a duet with?

With No More Tears, I knew I wanted to put that on this album as it is one of my all time favourites and I was obsessed with it when I was younger. I was also obsessed with Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer. It was like a revelation to me up until I came across that song. I had only ever sang it as a ballad and I would be trying to find anyone who would sing it with me at a karaoke, and there wasn’t that many people that wanted to.

My producer, my management and I sat in my kitchen and we were trying to figure out who would be best to do it with. Then Steve Anderson, he knows Delta, said she was wanting to do more of this kind of music and he suggested Delta. I said, ‘Are you joking?’ He said he would ask her and he did. He then rang me a couple of weeks later and said, ‘Are you sitting down?’, she said YES! She was the top of the list and it has just worked out so well. It all just feels like everything is falling into the right place at the right time. I feel really lucky that it has happened that way because it doesn’t always go to plan. Up until now it just feels so right and I think the fact that the duets have worked out and each song has gone really well, I feel like everything happens for a reason. I’m really excited and happy about the whole album.

13 songs made it onto the album. When you look back is there any that stand out and you wish you had put on the album?

We had a list of songs and there were a few that we tried that right from the start you either know or you don’t know if it is going to work or not. Even just singing something through once, you get a feeling of whether it is going to work. There are some other songs that I would have loved to have done but they were ballads and I wanted this album to be big and euphoric. I wanted it to be an album that gets people up and makes them happy, apart from Goodbye to Love, because I just had to include Karen Carpenter in this album. She is my ultimate idol, my ultimate influence, that is the reason I sing how I sing, there is so much of her influenced in me. The Carpenters up tempos are not necessarily conjusive to this album. Goodbye to Love was the first song that I ever sang to an audience, outside of my home and my parents, and again it is the reason why I started singing properly. We have slowed it down a bit and got rid of the electric guitar, and I think it is a really beautiful ballad. It felt right to put it on the end and rounded off everything perfectly.

Do you have a favourite song on the album?

I don’t think I have a favourite. I think Goodbye to Love is the one I feel more connected to in terms of where I started and where I am now. I think I was 11 when I sang that song at a school assembly! I don’t know how I did it, I didn’t want to, I think a teacher told me to do it. I was a very good girl during my school days. If my music teacher hadn’t told me to do that I might not even be here today so I have got a lot to thank him for.

People love to see you tour and join live concerts. You have a few booked in August and September. Do you have any others that me be joining the list before Christmas and any possibility of Belfast or Dublin?

I am always on the lookout for things coming in. I don’t have anymore booked at the moment. As soon as the album is released and we see how it goes I would love to do a little tour and I would really like for Belfast or Dublin to be included as I love going over there and performing. If I get the opportunity, then absolutely 100 per cent. I would love to do my own little tour. We will just have to wait and see. People will just have to buy the album and demand it. Lol.

Can you reveal what the second single is going to be?

To be honest, I don’t know if we are necessarily going with singles there are focus tracks. Next week I am going into Radio 2, it’s going to be Summer Night City.

I have to mention Cooking with the Stars. Was this a while ago or when did you take part in the programme?

We recorded this in April. I was still recording bits of the album, but it was quite an intense record. I think we recorded it in an entire week, but it was really great fun. It was very, very stressful, very intense, and who knew that cooking a curry would be so nerve wracking! Give me a time limit and I fall to pieces. I can cook anything you ask me to cook, as long as I have got time to make a mess and just do it in my own time, but that was intense. However, I made such lovely friends and everybody was such a laugh and so funny, the time just flew by. It was a lovely experience.

I read that you were going through pre-menopausal symptoms when you were taking part in The Masked Singer. How are you feeling now?

I seem to have become a bit of a mouthpiece for it, in a very, very small way. I think it has actually really helped me hearing other people talk about it and hearing their experiences and knowing that it is going to happen to all of us. There is no getting away from it, however it depends on what extreme. Some people get away with it and don’t really have any symptoms, some people get even more extreme symptoms than I have had so far. I think it is really interesting to learn that this whole peri-menopause thing as I never really understood it. It is actually very different and you can start getting symptoms younger. I am 45 and I really noticed it during The Masked Singer, mostly because I was on my own most of the time. I get nervous but the anxiety and palpitations that I was getting and there was nothing I could do about it. It almost made the experience really difficult for me because I couldn’t calm myself. Normally there are techniques I would use and I can calm down but this just wasn’t normal. I was getting an upset tummy which would never really happen, it was out of the ordinary for me. It is recognising those symptoms as something that is not normal, and I have only been on HRT for about a month, so it has taken quite a while for me to address it and do something about it. I knew it was happening and it was getting worse, and I am now addressing it and managing it. Things are better and I am definitely much calmer.

Thanks for taking the time with us Claire.

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