¶ Intro / Opening
🎵 Music
¶ Joan Armatrading: Career and Impact
Hello there and welcome to another edition of Soda Jerker on Songwriting. This is Simon, here as always with Brian. Today we'll be talking to an Ivanovello winning Grammy and Brit Award nominated singer, songwriter and guitarist of over 40 years standing. Whose intimate style and unique blend of folk, pop, rock, blues, and jazz has won her sundry accolades, international acclaim, and innumerable devotees.
In twenty twelve she released her twentieth album, Starlight, and as we record this episode she's currently part way through her first completely solo tour, which will last until the end of twenty fifteen. We are delighted to welcome the fantastic Joan Armor Trading MBE to the show.
40 years standing
Her legs will be tired. I think that's the standard you can expect throughout folks.
Yeah, it's not gonna get any better than that. You know, I realised the other day that the first time I ever heard of Joan was in the Beano. For anyone overseas, the Beano was a very popular children's comic here in the UK. It's still going strong I think actually. And I was an avid reader as a kid and they brought out a special book for the fiftieth anniversary. This is about twenty five years ago.
Ha ha.
And uh my elder sister got it for me and still have it somewhere and in there was a section about famous people who'd appeared in the comic over the years and and there was Joan. Wow. Yeah, she popped up in an instalment of Tom, Dick and Sally in the early eighties.
Amazing. Shout out to D C Thompson and Co. I was always more of a bunty man myself. Yeah.
That's fickers.
Anyway, um I actually can boast of having shared the stage with Joan. Get out. When I received my degree in 2001 from Sir Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Joan was present and she was made a companion of the Institute on that day at the Philharmonic Hall.
Wanna drop a few more names there? I got my Lipper diploma through the post. How was that for a kick in the teeth?
Yeah.
But anyway, I don't need that stuff. I was educated in the College of the Streets.
Got a PhD in how to make ends meet?
Exactly.
Anyway, I could talk about my showbiz pals all day, but we should probably get on with the episode in hand. Joan will be with us in a few minutes, but first we'll provide you as always with a little background info.
Arguest was born on the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies in nineteen fifty and moved to Birmingham, England at the age of seven. Her first forays into music came in her early teens when she began playing the piano that her mum had recently installed in the front room of the family home. She was composing her own music almost from the off, and a short while later she obtained her first guitar from a local pawn shop.
Joan soon developed her signature vocal and guitar playing style and began performing her own material around Birmingham in her late teens. In 1968, she met the lyricist Pam Nester, with whom she would collaborate extensively on her 1972 debut album, Whatever's For Us. A few years later, Joan signed to AM and released her second long player, Back to the Night.
Followed swiftly by an eponymous third album in nineteen seventy six, which was to prove her commercial breakthrough, and featured the beguiling love and affection, one of her most enduring and best loved songs.
To the Limit Me, Myself, I, Walk Under Ladders, and nineteen eighty three's The Key, which featured the stupendously catchy hit single Drop the Pilot. She released several more highly regarded albums on A and M until the early nineties when she left the label. Following the release of What's Inside on RCA in nineteen ninety five, Joan took an eight year break from recording, returning with the almost completely self performed Lover's Speak in two thousand three.
In the interim, Joan received some thoroughly deserved honors for his substantial contributions to the music industry, most notably the nineteen ninety six Ivan Avello Award for Outstanding Song Collection and, of course, in two thousand and one an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen, Oh, and she also has more honorary degrees than you can shake a stick at.
As well as being the consummate songwriter, performer and recording artist, Jonas also ventured into radio presenting, and in two thousand and nine hosted a BBC Radio Four series which featured interviews with their favourite guitarists. A second series of interviews followed in twenty eleven.
She was also generous enough to host a two part Radio two series in twenty twelve showcasing up and coming young British songwriters for which she'd actually conducted a nationwide search, and many of those artists were also opening acts, weren't they, for Joan on her UK tour around the album Starlight?
That's right, and a really good album that is too, as we've come to expect from this hugely talented lady. I think she played everything except drums on it as well, which she's pretty much done for the last three or four albums. Wow, as well as arranging and producing them. The word is self sufficient.
Is that not two words?
No typhonated.
Fair enough. If you'd like to hear some tracks from Starlight, not to mention Joan's nineteen other albums, do please check out our Spotify playlist for this episode. Just head on over to Sodajaker dot com, select Joan's episode page and the link will be beneath the episode player. We'll also post it on Twitter and Facebook too.
If you're not already following at Soda Jacker on Twitter or liking us on Facebook.com slash Soda Jaca. then we have no choice but to hold you in contempt of court until you do so. Once you have, feel free to get in touch with your feedback and guest requests, or simply to engage in some good natured bants.
Use that word again, Brian, and you and me are done professionally. You can keep up to date with our guest activities and book tickets for her upcoming shows at joanarmoring.com, follow her on Twitter at Armor Trading Joan, and like her on Facebook at Facebook.com slash JoanArmorTrading. So now it's time for what you've all been patiently waiting for?
Here's our chat with the great Joan Armand.
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I wanna know I'm gonna do it.
¶ Innate Passion for Songwriting
We've been listening to your music all week long, and one of the main things that comes across is just your sheer love for writing, I think. It seems to be as natural as breathing for you.
You've got that right. Yes, that's um I'm at my happiest when I'm writing. Absolutely love it. I've been writing since I was fourteen. Um, actually I was writing before I was fourteen, but that's the age I give because that's the age I can remember best and when I really started to write songs as opposed to little funny stories and jokes and limericks.
Mm. And then when the piano arrived,'cause my mother thought it was a great piece of furniture when it arrived in the house uh I just started playing. Um I wasn't taught, I was self taught with all the things that I played. And I just immediately started making up my tunes.
We read that you were writing long before you even bought your first record, which seems to go against the usual process that a lot of songwriters have described to us.
Um I was right in let's say from the age of twelve, say. And I was never a and I'm still not a big record buyer. So I wasn't following anybody of the day. I wasn't buying lots of records. I wasn't going to concerts and stuff like that. Um I think music was just it was just in me, really. It was just there to be let out.
So with that transition to the guitar then, was there something about the guitar that was more alluring to you in some way?
He had a guitar and I saw him he played a song called Blue Moon. I've seen him play that and that's the only thing I've seen and heard him play. Right. But he would hide that guitar. So I I wasn't able to play it, I wasn't allowed to touch it. Um And he would hide it away. And I think just the fact of not being able to have anything to do with the guitar made me want to have something to do with the guitar. Right. Then I saw a guitar in a pawn shop
cost three pounds and I said to my mum, Can I have it? And she said, Well we haven't got the money but if they'll swap the um guitar for these two old prams that I've got she said I could have it, which is what happened. They took the two old prams, I got the guitar, which I still have. And th and I just started to t teach myself to play the guitar. And it's the same with both instruments. In terms of the piano.
I always say you could dust the piano when you're making music. So I would put my hands on the piano, hit some chords, didn't have a clue what the chords were. I couldn't tell you if it was an A or an F, I wouldn't know. But I know it sounded nice. So I would go to the next thing and then whatever sounded nice, that's what I would keep. Of course later on I I know what the chords are, but initially I didn't. And it's exactly the same with the guitar. I would put my hand into shapes
and um, you know, just maybe hit a couple of strings or do this again not knowing what I was doing. Sounded nice, would use that. But then, as I say, later you get the book that says, um This is what a D is and this is what a G is and stuff and you go from there. But um I never got anybody to show me how to do any of these things. And in actual fact uh if I would ask later on when I started my career and different
guitarists would be in my band or something, I'd say, Oh, how do you do that? They'd say things like, Well, you know, some people take a long time before they get to a stage where they can play really well. So they would never show me. And I I just thought that was the weirdest thing that they would just give that kind of an answer instead of just saying, Well, you know, in order to do this you just do this.
They would never do it. So I could never get anybody to actually show me how to do something. So I just figured it out myself and found a book. Although initially the books that you would get when you're starting, all the books that you would get would be quite difficult because you don't know what you're doing. So sometimes looking at a book wasn't that helpful. It's a little bit like reading a a manual for a piece of equipment, like a computer or something.
Until you figure it out, the manual makes no sense.
Yeah, sure.
So it's a little bit like that with the with an instrument. Until you figure out certain things, the books, they're no help at all.
We love the story about you y taking your guitar to work in Birmingham to play it during tea breaks. Is that actually true or is it just another rock myth?
That's true.'Cause I was so into writing that I would just have my guitar all the time and the place that I was at, um, the boss of my boss asked me one day if I would teach his daughter to play the guitar. I can't actually remember if I did do it. I I have a feeling I didn't. But m my boss didn't like that idea and um I was let go.
You must have absorbed a lot of styles and cultures growing up in that area.
No, you see I'm I'm a very lone loner person. Not a lonely person, but I keep myself and kept myself very much to myself. So I you know, I wasn't a mixer. I didn't uh I didn't mix with a lot of people, I didn't go jamming with people, I didn't didn't have that association. So pretty much as I am now, very kind of on my own sort of thing.
¶ Unique Creative Process and Studio Control
That's interesting'cause you've managed to write in so many different styles, we would have assumed that you'd have absorbed cultures from those experiences.
No, no. It's only because I love music that I know all these styles. Music is everywhere and I love all types of music. So, as I said before, I haven't got a record collection as such. You know, all the stuff that I've got it was given to me and even then it's very small. It's embarrassingly small for somebody who's in the music business.
But I know what music is supposed to be and I heard it. You'd hear stuff on the radio, you know, you hear things so you know what jazz is supposed to sound like, what classical music sounds like, what blues sounds like, pop rock, country. You know all the stuff. And if you like it certainly in my case because I like it, I want to be able to see if I can write something that's like it.
You know, so I want to see if I can write a jazz song and a blues song and a country song and a you know, folk song, whatever it is, I want to see if I can do it. So, um, I just have a go.
Well we love it when you rock out on songs like Drop the Pilots. Yeah. It has such a great power pop feel, that one. Do you remember what came first with that song?
Um, I have a feeling that it was probably the words that came first. It's not always the case that the words come first. Um, but I have a feeling with that one that it was the words that came first. because a song dictates itself. So sometimes it's lyrics first, music first, sometimes both together, sometimes on the piano, sometimes a guitar, sometimes a riff, sometimes a whole melody, you know, whatever the song says I have no kind of set way of
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We were wondering how important rhythm was in that process because some of your guitar playing gets pretty funky doesn't it on songs like Like Fire and Is It Tomorrow Yet and those sorts of songs.
Yeah, rhythm is it's very important. The whole arrangement of the song is very important to me. When I write I arrange and I like to know what's going to happen during the course of the song. I like to know, is it going to be very rhythmical? Is it going to be lots of changes? Is it going to have counterpoint? Is it going to be just
kind of a straight melody with no kind of shifting and changing. I I like to know exactly what's going to happen. And when I go into the studio, I go in with a complete song. I don't go in hoping that everybody else is gonna know if a chorus should go here and a another verse should go there. When it says written by Joan Albert Trading, it's written by Joan Albertrading. It's not written by Joan Albert Trading with the help of a producer and some other musicians.
Right.
I like to know exactly what I'm doing. So when I'm in the studio it's a quick process because I'm going in completely prepared. I'm not going in wondering what's gonna happen.
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You often make use of really interesting phrasing too, don't you? Especially with the vocals, even on massive hits like Love and Affection, where you say really laugh and then there's the pause and it's not standard stuff in a lot of ways, is it?
Um yeah, it's just it's again, it's all just a part of composing if you like, you know, it's being able to play with this thing and make rhythms just be interesting. And I I have to kind of own up to some of it being again quite natural for me to want to to do that.
Some of it is planned and some of it is just that's how it just came out. And when you write, um, you know, you've always got to look out for the things that are not planned but happened and are great to know that you've got to keep it. I always say that you might think, okay, I'm gonna write this song in D, and when you put your hands on the key or the guitar, it comes out in a G. Well, you've gotta know that actually that's where you need to stay.
Right.
Don't think it's just a mistake and you go back to original thought because sometimes the original thought i is not as good as this accident.
Right.
you've got to know how to keep it and writing is all about s it's all about self editing. It's all about being very present and being aware of what's happening.
So something like those low vocal parts on love and affection in the chorus, is that something you would write in advance or is that something that just happens?
Well I did that in advance.
哇
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¶ Instruments, Sounds, and Inspirations
So will you ever start a song on the guitar and then decide perhaps that it should be a piano song and then switch?
No, that doesn't really seem to happen. The songs on the piano tend to be very melodic. Weakness in me, those kind of songs. Whereas you mentioned light fires tend to be more rhythmic when it's on the guitar. Um No, I I can't think of a song that I started on the piano or guitar and switched. Can't think of one.
Right. Do you have particular guitars you like to write on? Are you superstitious in that way?
Um no, I w swap about all the time, so I might start a song on uh on a strat say and finish it on a Gibson or I might start a song on an on an electric and finish it on acoustic, you know. It depends again on the song because each guitar changes how you play, how you feel, how you think. So I don't write on one particular guitar all the time. It it swaps about and as I say, even during the song I might change the guitar. The piano
It's great because you can especially you know, digital pianos, you can swap the sounds and the sounds will make you write differently as well. And that's quite an important part different sounds. I know certainly if I don't feel as if the sound is right for what I'm doing, it's quite difficult to play well or to think well. So the sound is very important in writing.
So a song like I'm Lucky, would that be you on a keyboard changing the sounds and veering more into the sort of synthesizer territory?
Yes, that was written with the synthesizer. So all those things you're hearing, that's how I wrote it. Right.
Nice.
With that sound, because that sound makes you do what it's doing, you know, and it's going down, down, down, down, I find that sound. Um that's another one that the phrase I'm lucky came first. Not the whole lyric, but the phrase I'm lucky came first. And then I just kind of worked out the the synth part. to go with the I'm lucky bit and then just carry it on from there. But yeah, again, the sound is really important. Sound helps to
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We also like um show some emotion for the way it starts like a a jazz standard and then breaks into that funky riff.
Yeah.
Also the way you use the words over the chorus works so well. Do you have any memories of actually coming up with all that stuff?
I have a very vivid memory of coming up with the idea for uh show some emotion because I was with some friends and um Myself and the friends, we were all talking, but there was s another group of people, it was actually some men, and they were all talking with each other.
And I noticed this one chap who was he was talking with everybody and laughing and everything, but you could tell it's you know, it says put expression in your eyes. He was laughing, but his eyes weren't laughing. Everybody else when they laughed, their eyes kind of joined in. Uh but when he laughed it was it was kind of he wasn't there. And uh that made me wonder kind of what was happening with him, why why was he laughing but not laughing?
So that's how I came up with put expression in your eyes. And then it's just a matter of I knew that I wanted it to be on the guitar.
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¶ Solitary Craft and Creative Independence
Some of the songwriters we've spoken to have said that they've written songs in a matter of minutes. Yeah. Since you don't have to consult with anyone necessarily in your process, does that mean that sometimes your songs are quite quick?
Yeah, it again it depends on the song. Some songs you literally feel as if you're singing something you know. It's almost like it's not something you've written, it's just you're just playing a song you know. And it's as quick as that, you know, quick, quick. And other songs can take quite a while to formulate, whether it's the lyrics or the melody. And there's no there's actually no telling which song will be like that.
You can't say well okay, this is a great idea, I'm sure it's gonna be written in two seconds. It's it's just how it works. Uh Drop the Pilot was very quick to write. Right.
Please.
And I've written songs that have taken three months. But in terms of taking three months, I wouldn't use that song. The way I write is when I write, I have to finish what I've started. And if it's gonna take me three months to me there's something wrong. So once I finished it I'm not gonna be that interested in it, but I have to finish it. I don't have lots of unfinished songs lying around. Everything I write I tend to try and finish that song and then decide from there if it's good or not.
I have to do that because um I don't suffer from any kind of uh writer's block or stuff like that. I think that's the reason that I don't is because I always finish everything. It's not that everything's good, but I finish it. And I think if I don't finish it, I might not be able to finish the one that is gonna be good.
Me Myself Eye is is kind of a nice way to sum up a lot of your work and processes, isn't it? You know, you're so independent. The opening melody on that one has so few leaps and seems almost deliberately kind of monotone. We love that. Do you remember writing that song?
Um, yeah. Written on the electric guitar with the deader deader as you hear it. Um And written because it's not I think I mentioned earlier, I'm not a lonely person, but I do spend a lot of time on my own. Um, certainly in the early days, not so much these days because, you know
Yeah.
when you're traveling with a band and stuff like that. But I still try and spend a lot of time on my own. Um but me myself I was very much that, you know, I I am independent and there's nothing wrong with liking your own company. And as a writer and a writer who writes completely on their own, I spend a lot of time on my own. And it's a happy experience. It's not
you know, I've got friends and stuff, so it's not like I'm lacking in anything. But that me, myself, I was just really to say, it's alright to be on your own. It's alright to have this independence. It it's alright to not kind of need everybody else, that's really what that was all about. You know, it's it's about me saying it's all
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You have actually co written in the past though, haven't you? I think early on you had the songwriting partnership, didn't you, for the debut album?
Yes, the very first album, uh, Pam Nesta Well, I as I say, was writing since I was fourteen. Pam, uh, when we met, knew that I wrote songs and one day asked me to put some music to some poetry that she'd written. So I took that and kind of made them be lyrics. Um, we've never been in a room together. I've never written in a room with anybody. I I don't think I could do that. So that was never that kind of a writing thing.
um I would take the lyrics that she wanted me to put some music to her, take them away, I'd do whatever I wanted to the lyrics and then uh and then I sang them. So we never sang together either. It was never that. She's not on the album in terms of singing, we've never performed together. So that thing that I said about being completely my own is true. I I've never written in a room with anybody. I don't know that it's something I could do. Uh I've never tried it.
Do you think you might in the future?
Don't think so.
Right? Okay.
I don't think so. I'll never say never. Who knows? But uh I haven't got any plans on it.
And how about writing for other artists? Is that something that you've considered?
Well I write and other artists have can sing the songs that I've written and have done, which is nice. And have done a really nice job, some of'em. So yeah, that's you know, the songs are there, like everybody's songs.
All the people who write songs and are solo artists for sure are hoping that other people will sing their songs that they've written. Initially when I started out, that was my wish that um I would just be this songwriter and everybody would sing the songs and I could just be in the background. But when I took my music to the different record companies they all wanted me to be the singer, so I ended up being the singer.
¶ Inspiration, Routine, and Song's Direction
We were listening to the song Starlight earlier, which is a relatively recent one of yours, with X Factor back on our screens Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays now. Felt like a very timely comment on that sort of fleeting fame.
Yeah, that was twenty twelve that came out. Um yes it's it's it actually is saying, Go for it. That's really what that song is saying. It's really saying go for it which I completely believe that uh if you're true to yourself and you have that talent and you really want to try and make it Um, then have a go. You don't want to be a a little old person thinking, Oh, why didn't I have a go when I was twenty? Because, you know, if if you're sixty it might be a little bit harder.
You seem to be old at twenty seven these days anyway, so uh I I mean I I haven't watched any of the X Factor this time, but in general I used to like the X Factor just for the the thing of people going onto it. and just having a great time. And you could see some of them were on it literally just to have a great time.
You could see some of'em knew they couldn't really sing, but when would they ever get the opportunity to play in front of an audience of three thousand people and a television audience of millions? When would they get that opportunity apart from this? So definitely have a go. To me, it's like uh somebody saying I want to go backpacking around the world.
you know, then do that or go bungee jumping, do that. That's a really nice experience. You're not gonna do it every day. And a lot of them will never be successful. We know that. But look at their faces when they're up there really enjoying it.
I don't like it when it's uh the cruel part when y you know, you're you're laughing at them and they don't realise that they're being laughed at. I don't like that aspect. But I like the aspect when you're laughing at them and they know really actually yes, I d I do realise.
Yeah.
But I'm not great. And it's lovely to see people get that opportunity, don't you think?
Sure, yeah.
Absolutely.
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Here I am.
We were thinking also about your routines for working these days. Do you actually write regularly to some kind of routine or are there periods where you don't write at all?
Yeah, I don't write at all. Lots of times. Um, but I'm very lucky because quite often I want to write. So I just write when I feel like writing. Uh if I don't feel like it I don't. But I'm lucky that I very often feel like it. So, you know, I don't think I must get up at nine and write from nine till five and then have a break.
I'll write from nine to five if that's what it is. Or I'll write from uh twelve in the at night till five in the morning if that's what it is. I'll just write whenever that takes me. I won't write for three months, six months, a year, whatever, and then I'll write. I just go with the go go with the flow, but I never panic about anything because it's it's there, it's always there.
And do you have some kind of process of documenting your ideas in a notebook or something like that?
Um, if I think of an idea like I'm on tour and I won't I'll never write on tour. The only song I've written on tour is a song called Call Me Names. But um I do jot down things. So I'll jot down ideas So that when I'm at the writing stage then, you know, I can go back and refer to some of those ideas. Probably most of them won't ever get used, but they're there. They might spark something else.
We wanted to ask about Call Me Names actually,'cause that's a a really interesting one lyrically and and has a great title. We wondered what memories you had of how you went about writing that one.
I was in Santa Barbara in America And um there's actually these two guys Two guys who um were always arguing and uh basically beating each other up. And uh they were like an old couple. And that's uh that's why I wrote call me names.
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So are there particular chord sequences that you return to? Because you know they've got a certain character and can help you sort of develop an idea.
Not that I'm aware of. Let me let me think about what you just said.
Um
D I don't think so because when you write on the piano the temptation would be always to write in C because you know it it's all there, isn't it? But on stage I'm playing Back to the Night and Back to the Night is in uh I think it's in E flat or something, A A flat. And I'm thinking, why did I choose all these black keys? And I do that for lots of songs. I again because the song for me dictates the key it needs to be in, I'll just use that key. And I've written songs that
Really they're inappropriate keys for me. But the song works in it, so I'll keep it in the key. That's kind of how it works. Some songs in a higher register just sound better and some in a lower register just sound better. So you just have to go with wherever the song tells you it needs to go. So I don't think I've got uh something that I go to every time.
¶ Album Cycles and Future Goals
Well, um from the same album as Court Me Names, uh another song we wants to mention is The Dealer. Which we think's just a really interesting one, such a sort of haunting melody and we love that line, All these people want the number of my phone. It's kind of sinister, we like that. Do songs tend to come in a batch or are they written across different years and in different places?
They come in a batch. And I don't have songs that were from the last time I wrote or the last album and now put them on the next album. The songs on whichever album you hear, they were written about the time of the album. When I'm in the writing frame of mind, then I tend to just write and write and write and write to just keep going. It's just you're on a roll, then you know, you just kinda flows. And then when it's ready to not flow it just stops.
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Uh there just a couple of other songs we wanted to mention before we we finish. Um Kind Words and a Real Good Heart was another one. That's one that makes use of quite high pitched vocals in in the verse. Will you experiment with different types of vocal delivery when you're writing or is it again just a case of flowing out and you just go with your instinct?
That one I did want to sing high, but uh the thing that I said about letting the song take you where it wants to, it holds true. But now and again, like there's a song called um What Do You Want? And that's very low and I want you to sing very low. Um So yeah, sometimes you I just think it'd be nice to do that, it would be nice to do that. But in general I just let the song take me where it wants to
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Well, we think it's really effective. You know, songs like Warm Love or secular songs where you take it up to that high pitch, it always really has a great effect, we think.
Yeah, it's nice. I'm on tour at the moment and for some of the local talents, you know, last time I took fifty six on the twenty twelve tour, I took fifty six local artists around with me and each opened a a show. Uh this year I'm taking twenty-one and uh a couple of the girls have got this very high kind of bird-like voice, you know, and it's so sweet to hear that high voice.
And sometimes when you hear certain pop singers, girl pop singers, they've got that high register voice, very girly, almost childlike. It's a lovely sound, I think. It's a very sweet sound. I like to hear it.
So we take it that you're not writing at the moment since you're playing live, but do you have a bunch of new stuff stockpiled that you're gonna be working on?
Uh no, I've I've written down some ideas but uh yeah, as I say I don't write on the road. So when I've finished this tour which doesn't finish until the end of twenty fifteen. Wow. So I won't be writing anything until twenty sixteen. Um but yeah, then I'll really get and I'm really looking forward to it actually. I I can feel already now that
at the yes, I can't wait to write stage, which is great. That's a good place to be. But I I can't I've I've got too many things to do when I'm on the road. It's it's very distracting on the road. And uh some people write on the road. I don't know how they do it because There's just too much going on. You you know, you you're doing interviews, you're travelling, you're doing the sound check, you're doing the gig, you've got to meet people. I mean, it's just there's just too much going on.
To be a creative.
We should stop asking you questions and let you write some songs. Well it's been a total pleasure looking back over your career. You know, we we noticed you won the Ivor Novello, you've had the Grammy nominations, you've got your degree, you've got your MBE. Is there still anything left for you to to do as a songwriter? Are there still challenges you want to approach?
Yeah, absolutely. And um I never talk about the things that I want to do. I just try and do them and then once I've done them then I'll talk about them. Like I did my degree and I never told I did it once I was on tour, so my tour manager had to carry my books. Um but so the ban I'm not even sure all the band knew, but tour manager certainly knew. Um but I never told my family, I didn't tell friends.
Um, and then once I'd done it and got my degree, then I told everybody. You know, and I tend to do that with the different things that I want to do. I tend to just go about it, do it, and then once it's done I'll share it.'Cause I don't want to be asked if I've done it. You know, I don't want somebody asking me every two minutes, Did you do that yet? Did you do that yet?
Great stuff. Well we can't thank you enough for talking with us today. It's been an absolute pleasure.
My pleasure.
Okay then brilliant. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye bye.
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¶ Reflecting on a Unique Legacy
That was Joan Armor Trading speaking to us from a hotel room somewhere in the UK while she's out on tour. Very kind of her to take the time to speak to us and we were just thrilled to get the chance to talk to her, weren't we?
Absolutely, yeah. Lovely insights into a process there as well. Mm-hmm. Um, I liked what she said about writing in particular keys and how songs need to be sung in the keys that they're written in, especially if you're hitting certain high notes.
Yeah, definitely. I think you might have mentioned it in the interview, but secular songs, that's another one that it has that very sort of uh exposed falsetto in there which, you know, some people might shy away from attempting really, but it sounds great, really works in practice, you know. Um
So effortless, isn't it? Writing. She just
It seems to be, yeah, it's kind of enviable, isn't it?
As she said, she can dust the piano and write a song.
I love that phrase. But yeah, that that total confidence in what she does is is very inspiring. The idea that she can be out on tour until the end of like next year. But know that at the end of it she can sit down and she will come up with the goods. You know, total unwavering faith in what she does. It's a it's a great example.
For sure. And she is just a unique voice and a very distinctive artist. We love her songs and it's been a total pleasure to speak to her. Thank you, Joan. Thanks also to Michael for helping set that up. And uh people should just check out the Spotify playlist now if they don't know the stuff.
Definitely.
Well I guess that me, myself and Bri are out of here.
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