Band Meeting – with Charlie Dore
Charlie Dore is on tour nationally with dates here in the south west and we got the chance to ask her some pertinent (and impertinent) questions
I’ve heard tell you started off by training in acting… What went wrong!?
Hmm. I think I may have to send you to your room for opening with a cheeky first question! Assuming you were just checking to see if I was awake….I wouldn’t say it went wrong… Acting was and always will be something I enjoy doing, but music kept tugging at my sleeve and offering me opportunities I wanted to accept. The more I played live, the more I enjoyed being in that world. I’d been playing guitar since I was about 13 so it felt a natural progression.
OK, Sorry lets start again… How much has the music industry changed since you had a hit with ‘Pilot of the Airwaves’?
Enormously. It’s both blessing and curse. As everyone knows, the advance of technology has made producing music easy and accessible for anybody with a computer or a phone. That’s the blessing. The curse is that the advance of technology has made producing music easy and accessible for anybody with a computer or a phone. By that I mean there’s a lot of identical-sounding music out there whatever the genre, personally I’d still vote for originality. A positive aspect is that now we have easy access to amazing and original artists from all over the globe. One other difference though…don’t forget that back when Pilot was all over the radio artists and songwriters used to get paid when they released their music!
When playing live, although there are two of you on stage, you have considerably more than two instruments… what’s that about?
It’s just how we write the arrangements. We like to include the detail when we play live too! Lots of songs start out being written on different instruments so if we can physically fit them into the car, we’ll have them on stage.
Aside from your own recordings you’ve written songs for other artists like George Harrisson, Celine Dion and Tina Turner – how much of a thrill do you get from hearing other artists performing your music.
It’s always a buzz when another artist wants to record a song I’ve written or been involved in. And of course if it’s a big artist it’s an extra thrill to think that it’s possible the song will be played in front of a big audience. A little song, perhaps with a lyric written at my kitchen somehow being performed in front of thousands of people. That’s exciting.
The reactions on hearing the end result on record tend to vary enormously, from ‘My God, that’s wonderful! I wish I’d thought of that!’ To ‘Oh dear…. Oh well!’
Do you have any special favourites?
Probably ‘Refuse to Dance’ by Celine Dion because her voice is so extraordinary. I thought it was brave of her to include the song as it wasn’t like any of the songs she was recording at the time. It’s a lot darker, not typical of her work, even many albums later..
When writing songs, is it collaboration or leave me alone, I’m busy here!
If the song is for me I prefer to incubate the idea and at least know where ideally I want it to end up before playing it to someone else. If it’s a song for someone else I’m happy to collaborate from the off.
Where do you do your recording nowadays?
Usually at home in my studio if it’s for me. If it’s for someone else I often work whever my co-writer is working. It’s refreshing to travel to other spaces.
I particularly love a song where you were inspired by and used a leaf blower as a drone – does that sort of thing happen often?
Sometimes inspiration does come from unlikely sources. The birds on that song aren’t unusual in music these days, but certainly having recorded so many birds in our garden over the past few years – just because I loved the sound, I knew I’d have a great resource to draw from. Sometimes just tapping a biro on the side of a glass of water has been the beginning of a rhythm-driven song.
Are you creating music 9-5 or do you go when the inspiration hits.
Usually when the inspration hits, unless it’s a commision with a deadline. Quite often my better ideas have arrived when I was supposed to be doing something else. The trick is chasing those down as soon as possible because if you leave that moment hanging in the air for too long, when you come back to it, Pouff! It’s gone.
You continue to play live all around the country is playing live a compulsion?
Maybe more a habit than a compulsion. I feel lucky to be able to still do this and I get enormous satisfaction from it all.
Charlie Dore is on tour nationally and here are the nearby September dates and venues:
- Thursday 12: Fougou Music, Torquay
- Friday 13: Hatch Barn, Kingsbridge
- Saturday 14: Plough Arts Centre, Great Torrington
- Sunday 15: Folk on the Moor, Wotter (near Ivybridge)
Tickets are available now, and can be purchased through Charlie Dore’s official website and at all major ticketing outlets. Early booking is advised to avoid disappointment.