Interview: Corrine Bailey Rae
Jeff Hemmings talks with the multi-award winning and highly acclaimed British soul singer Corrine Bailey Rae ahead of her show at Brighton Dome’s Concert Hall
The double-Grammy-winning, Mercury-nominated, five-million-albums-selling artist has travelled far and wide since she first emerged as a talent of rare note with her debut single ‘Like A Star’ back in 2005.
It’s a long way from her debut gig at the infamous Duchess of York venue in her home city of Leeds. “I was in an indie band and playing as part of the youth club scene,” she recalls. “And I remember playing the Duchess of York for the first time, and looking out at the audience.
“It wasn’t just our friends and family; there were some strangers there, people who may not have been paying attention at first, but as the set went on they would come in to the room and I remember getting applause from strangers. It’s that thrill you get from playing in front of an audience even if it’s just 100 people. It’s the same feeling you get for big audiences. Time disappears and expands!”
It seems that Rae will never forget her roots, even though she is now regularly playing and meeting rock and jazz royalty. Since her chart-topping self-titled debut, she has had the pleasure of meeting Herbie Hancock and developing a close relationship with him, that began when she was asked to take part on an album of Joni Mitchell covers. “I did one of Joni’s songs called ‘River’ with him. He won a Grammy for that album. That was an amazing experience. I got to meet Joni Mitchell recently when I went to see Wayne Shorter and Herbie play at the Hollywood Bowl a few years ago. She was there. She’s not been well, and she is in a wheelchair, but her eyes lit up. She liked my version of ‘River’, which I was pleased to hear as she is obviously very opinionated.
It’s that thrill you get from playing in front of an audience even if it’s just 100 people
“Herbie and me also did a performance at the White House, part of a concert honoring Paul McCartney (they performed ‘Blackbird’) with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. I’ve enjoyed being on the stage with these incredibly experienced and seasoned musicians who are really free, and improvise a lot. It became a transcendent experience singing with them. It’s opened up my mind to what a show could be, how you interact with people, how free you can be, what you can do with that window of time.”
Her recent album The Heart Speaks In Whispers reflects this heightened spiritualism; the record’s neo-soul grooves are gentle yet sophisticated, intelligent yet naturalistic. “With this record I just want to see what would come out when I created this space for myself. I was playing guitar, piano, and opening my mouth to see what would come out. A lot of the songs came out in that natural way. And I would go back over the tape and see what was there, what the song was about, chase it down & see what the meaning was.
“Like the song ‘Caramel’: ’It isn’t love, but pain that makes you brave’. That first line came out in that way with that melody and that rhythm. And I would hear it back, and try and work out what I was trying to say, what was coming through. I trusted the songs.
“Nature is a big theme on the record, the way it taught me about transformation, peace, that thing of the sublime, that thing about how our lives are constantly about change.
“I feel nature reassures us with those dramatic things that happen, like loss, damage and all these huge forces. When I’m back in Yorkshire, and I’m walking the hills, seeing burnt fields and going back a few months later and seeing how green they are. Definitely nature has really informed me, and my worldview.”
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Thurs 3 November, 7.15pm doors, £22.50-26.50
