She might be considered the darling of the British indie pop music scene, but there’s nothing frivolous about 48-year-old Sarah Cracknell. She is best known as the frontwoman of St Etienne, the British band that formed in 1990 and has continued to fight the good fight against the banal, the inane and the average in pop (and that will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a concert at the
National Concert Hall in Dublin in September).
Taking a step outside the St Etienne zone, however, is something that Cracknell has rarely attempted; her first solo album, Lipslide, was released in 1997, and 18 years later arrives her second (you'd hardly term it a follow-up), Red Kite. The two records couldn't be more different, but then, as she implies, there are generations between them.
“I don’t know if I had ever thought about doing another solo album,” she says from her home in Oxfordshire, where she lives in rural isolation with her two children and her husband, Martin Kelly (a second-generation Irish man and the joint managing director of Heavenly Recordings and Heavenly Films).
Cracknell has a rethink. “Well, actually, I had occasionally thought about doing one, but the situation just never presented itself. I mean, yes, life does get in the way, and St Etienne are always busy. It might seem from the outside that we’re not really doing much, but we do other things that are connected to each other. There was a little gap in the band schedule, and I’d had a couple of songs just floating around that I had written last year with a friend. I’d also met various people, musicians, where I live in Oxfordshire, and so the writing and recording all fell into place.”
It was also, she says, a matter of her two children growing up and fending for themselves, which allowed her more time to devote to her own creative pursuits. “Oh, yes, they’re a lot more self-sufficient these days. In fact, now that I mention it, there’s one of them I haven’t seen for hours.”
Whereas Lipslide was rooted in dance and electro-pop rhythms, a combination of things imbues Red Kite with a very different sound and style. The new album is an embarrassment of riches, rooted in dreamy folk-pop that in turn is in languid thrall to the baroque settings of the best of 1960s British pop. Unlike, for example, Rockferry, Duffy's 2008 debut album, which also mines a rich 1960s pop seam, Red Kite isn't anywhere close to strategic, engineered pastiche. Instead, Cracknell's record sounds fresh while retaining crucial aspects – the sensibilities and sonic qualities – of the 1960s sound. Was that part of her modus operandi?
“I definitely didn’t want it to sound like a nostalgia record. I wanted it to sound current and modern, while also bringing in baroque pop sounds: people like Ennio Morricone, and styles such as 1960s garage. I wanted to do all of this without it sounding like a pastiche.”
Job done, even down to the lyrics, which are as character-driven and cinematic as any she has written for St Etienne. “I always write in a very similar way, and if there are any autobiographical elements in the songs they’re usually hidden within because I’m definitely not a confessional songwriter. I’m fairly private, really. Not with my friends . . .” Here comes another rethink. “Actually, even with my friends I’m a little bit private . . .”
Cracknell puts this down to being quintessentially English. “Oh, I’m not someone to moan about things. Maybe ‘moan’ is the wrong word to use, but I never complain about anything. I’m very much the kind of person who carries on regardless, even if I’m in pain. It’s just part of my personality. I don’t mention it if things aren’t quite right. It’s probably a British thing, don’t you think?
“My husband’s father is Irish, and so he’s far more vocal if he’s upset about something. My husband comes from a family of five, and his father is from a family of seven, so it’s about people trying to get their voice heard, isn’t it? Oh, hold on, I know why: I’m an only child, so there you have it.”
- Red Kite is out on Cherry Red Records. St Etienne are at the NCH on September 8th
'I JUST WANT A FAIR HEARING': CRACKNELL ON RED KITE
"I have no expectations as to who or how many people will buy Red Kite, listen to it, or what kind of impact – if any – it will have. The only thing I really want is for people to not assume they know what my second solo album is going to sound like.
"I suppose I just want it to get a fair hearing, and for it not to get written off as a stylistic companion piece to the first album. Not there will be any comparison points. My first album, Lipslide, was a melting pot of ideas that had been floating around for some time. Red Kite was written with one specific aim, so they're very different."
