Though Africa is the predominant theme, Bloody Rain has a global sound, with Pee Wee Ellis, the Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale, and the Israeli trumpeter Avishai Cohen. Wherever I am, I’ll compose with Tony on acoustic guitar, and we record what we make on a mobile phone, and take it from there. In many cases, though, I’ve no idea where the ideas come from.
Lots of these topics can be found in many countries, though the problem of child soldiers is obviously more African, as is of course the case of the stolen Nigerian girls. In the case of “No Beyoncé”, it was a story from Bradford, in which a girl admitted she’d seen her father kill her sister. The individual song ideas usually came about because of a news article. Why choose Africa as a theme? Did you have to research these topics specifically for the album? Are they issues that have troubled you for some time? What did the other members of the band contribute? Apart from some of the solos, which we added later, we recorded live, which adds to the immediacy of the sound. I have such a great band now, and thanks to PledgeMusic could hire some brilliant soloists. They’ll think about the topics without being forced to, which is how good music should work. Music like this can make people think, without wagging a finger at them. I think it combines the sheer joy and fun of music-making with serious subject-matter better than I’ve managed before. Why do you say that? How does it fit in with the pattern of your work so far? I met Richard Coles at college, studying Brecht He’s good at allowing what really happened to be the beauty.
What I learnt from Tom Waits, whose songs I have covered on several albums, was that the bum notes are good too. I write each lyric as a poem, then dissect it afterwards. When I started I had no training, so I picked it up like an A Level English student. We would both write, then meet in Foyles to discuss what we’d written. I co-write a lot of lyrics with Johnny Brown, who formed the Band of Holy Joy in the Eighties. I thought I would be that singer that Tom Waits would write for. SARAH-JANE MORRIS: It’s taken me a long time to find that quality. What have you found most difficult about that process? How do you go about it? Can you describe the process of writing the music and lyrics of a new song? MATTHEW WRIGHT: You say in the making-of film (next page) that “it took a long time to become a decent songwriter”. Despite the complexity of writing for large and diverse ensembles, it combines a visceral lyricism with intense moral and political engagement. Her latest album, Bloody Rain, performed with a stellar ensemble of rock, soul, jazz and world musicians including Dominic Miller, Pee Wee Ellis, Seckou Keita and Courtney Pine, is all about Africa. She has acquired a large cult following in Italy, where she regularly tours.
Since then, she has begun writing her own songs, a long, tortuous journey of discovery, and become more closely associated with soul, jazz and world music than pop, with regular performances at Ronnie Scott’s and the Jazz Café. From the start, she has championed important causes, taking part in the Red Wedge tour with the Communards, performing 'Gay's The Word' fundraising concerts with the same band, and - if only YouTube had been around then - narrating the history of the Labour Party with Tony Benn as a rap at the ICA, in a freedom of speech concert in support of Salman Rushdie. She decided, however, that the baubles of a mainstream pop career did not suit her commitment to music that mattered, that had principles, that told important stories.