Alfie Boe's 'Trust'
English tenor Alfie Boe is returning with his brand new album 'Trust' - a unique body of work that's away from anything he's put together before.
We got the chance to chat to him about that new record, his career and what to expect from him in the future.
Has music always been a passion of yours?
Yeah, pretty much, since I was a kid. I've always listened to records growing up and been played a lot of music at home and stuff. Yeah, it's always been a bit of a passion.
When was it that you realised you could make a career in the industry?
I was about 19 years old - I got the opportunity to join a touring opera company and headed out on the road, with them really.
How was that experience?
It was a great experience - I really enjoyed it. I was working in a car factory before that so it was much - very different. A lot of fun. I was in a group performing every night around the country with new friends, earning more money - it was great.
What challenges have you faced to get to where you are today?
Oh man, how long have you got? This is an ongoing thing - you always come up against challenges but you just get through them - it depends how determined you are.
Your new album 'Trust' is different to those you've put out in the past - can you tell us a little bit about that?
What do you wanna know about it?
Everything you've got to tell us!
(laughs) Well you ask me a question about it and I'll answer it for you.
OK - so what kind of music would you say is on this album?
It's sort of, sort of Memphis, Bluesy type stuff. It's got a bit of a country vibe to it on certain tracks, and also a ballad vibe on others and it's really strong music. It's strong music. The players on the album were fantastic musicians that I could only dream of in the past - of playing with - and getting the opportunity to do that now, for that dream to come into reality was fantastic, and they added a completely different flavour to the album, and we created a wonderful body of work that hopefully will inspire people to - fill them with lots of different emotions - that's what you do on an album, you create a body of work that has different colours and different flavours, and that's what we really did.
Did the creative process differ this time around?
It differs on every album you do mate, you know, it depends who you're working with. Obviously the band have different inputs, depending on who you're working with, and the producer has a specific idea in mind, I have a specific idea in mind and then it's a collaboration - you just come together in the middle and meet, basically.
How was working with producer Larry Klein?
Oh man he's a legend really, in the record industry. He's a great guy, great artist, wonderful ideas, and yeah - thoroughly enjoyed working with him - he was a joy to work with.
Sometimes you have artistic differences but that's what happens. You've got different artists, different ideas, but the thing is that you work them through, you talk about it, you collaborate - sometimes I was right on decisions, sometimes he was right on decisions - but there's never a sort of discord there. It's always mutual and you come to an agreement. But there was hardly any of that at all - it was basically get in the studio, work through the arrangements and the repertoire and do as good a job as we can, and give it a really good feel, and that's what the whole album has - it has a really good feel about it. It has a great feel.
You're touring the album and tickets go on sale this Friday - what can fans coming to the show expect from it?
I'm touring in a year's time - my tour doesn't start until next October - and pretty much if they listen to the album and they like it, that's what you're gonna get in the live show. The live show's gonna be supporting the 'Trust' album, but to be honest it's too early a stage to start talking about what the tour's gonna be like - what the show's gonna be like - because I have to put it together, I have to wrack my brains and come up with certain concepts for certain songs. But at the moment all I know is that the music is gonna be great. The music's gonna be wonderful, the band I'm gonna be working with are gonna be sharp, but as far as the image and the concept of the show - we haven't really started working on that yet.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline that you can share with us?
There's always things on the go - always got different ideas.
I'm working on a documentary at the moment on Freddie Mercury - discovering the person that he was.
I also did an episode of 'Mr Selfridge' which will be aired sometime next year - so that'll be out.
But yeah, no, you're always coming up with projects and ideas for yourself, and some of them take off, some of them don't. You just sift out the ones that you think are gonna work out best.
Alfie Boe's 'Trust' is released November 11.
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