Respected singer and songwriter Julia Fordham is about to drop her lovely new album “Earth Mate” and she will then embark on a UK tour, both of which are eagerly anticipated showcases for her extraordinary range and velvety vocals.
Since the release of her self-titled album in 1988 – after her time as a backing singer for Mari Wilson and Kim Wilde – Julia has collaborated with several artists such as Sheryl Crow, Joan Armatrading and Sarah McLachlan. Her critically acclaimed albums include “Porcelain”, “Swept”, and “Cutting Room Floor”, and her biggest single was “(Love Moves In) Mysterious Ways”.
More recently, Julia has stormed the stage on sell-out tours with Judie Tzuke, Beverley Craven and Rumer, as part of the “Woman To Woman” project.
Julia is chatting about her “Track Record” choices from the home she shares with her 19-year-old daughter, Marley, in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles. This move to the US almost 20 years ago also bears testament to her glittering reputation, having attracted the attention of legendary artist Joni Mitchell.
“I met Joni at an art exhibition in London. We were all desperate to get close to her, of course, but she just stopped right in front of me like she recognised me! And I told her I love her work and I’m a massive fan, said I was a singer-songwriter too, and told her my name.
“And she said her husband [multi-Grammy award winner and legendary producer Larry Klein, who was married to Joni between 1982 and 1994] was a fan of mine, and she began naming my songs! Then she took my arm, took me behind the red rope to meet Larry, and she invited me to record at the studio at her home.
“And so I made my fourth album, “’Forward’ in Joni Mitchell’s house! She is my number one favourite living icon, my reverence knows no bounds, and it was the most extraordinary thing. And then I met someone in the US, had a child, and somehow I ended up never coming back.”
From the subject of her family life, it’s a logical step to talk about her new, 10-track album, “Earth Mate”, which is released on 18h October just ahead of her November tour around the UK.
It is as pure and mellifluous as you would expect from a Julia Fordham album, but it’s also as personal and honest as an album gets. Written in the aftermath of that long-term relationship ending, Julia describes the album as a tale of “pipe dreams that turned to smoke and ash…being older but not necessarily wiser.”
“So many people think they’re marrying their soul mate, or why else would they marry, but half of marriages end in divorce,” she reflects. “So the idea came to me about trying to make it with someone who was your earth mate, even if not your soul mate. We gave it our best shot, and somehow a new soul came through us; it had to be us to have this particular kid.
“I’m very proud of this set of songs, and their notion and honesty. I wasn’t actually writing them as an album, just singing songs into my phone as I developed them. I did not sit down to write about my separation, and it was only when I went back to them that I saw the arc of the story they tell. But they came from my heart, and leaving them to one side would have been a cop out.”
- Julia’s 13-date tour opens in Liverpool on 7th November and closes in Cardiff on 24th Nov [see full dates on tour poster above].
- The new album “Earth Mate” is released on 18th October via Triple Four Records.
Julia’s “Track Record”…
1. First song you recall hearing as a child?
I remember being at infant school and hearing “What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, wafting through the window like a beautiful smell. It was the first time I was really seduced by a song, and I still feel emotional every time I hear it.
2. First single you owned?
I was in my twenties before I bought a single; I’ve always been an album artist and listener! I remember buying “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” by Sade. I just loved the artwork and the video. The music and the visual component was such a complete circle, an identity, and I loved the way she was presenting herself. I still love Sade to this day.
3. First LP/album you owned?
“Blue” by Joni Mitchell. Joni will always be a living legend for me, an icon, the benchmark. I think she is extraordinary as a musician, a writer and a player. Her body of work is almost unparalleled, and when they gave the Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan in 2016, though he’s a great artist I really felt it should have gone to Joni. I mean, just listen to “Big Yellow Taxi”, still the best environment song ever written, and long before we knew what climate change was. Her work is profound and layered, sophisticated and masterful in a way I don’t think anyone comes close to. She’s in a league of her own.
That said, my first experience of actually buying an album was rather different. My Mum sent me to our local record shop in Weymouth to buy an album she’d heard about. I got to the counter and said: my Mum’s sent me to buy a record. It’s Neil something. They said: Neil Young?, and I said yes, and took home “After The Gold Rush”. It turned out Mum actually wanted a Neil Diamond album.
4. First CD you owned?
I think it was “Ingénue” by k.d. lang. I remember asking for it in Our Price on Oxford Street (London), having read an amazing review about it in the Sunday ‘papers, but being told they’d never heard of her. As I was leaving the shop, thankfully I glanced over at the Top 40 section, and there it was! I thought that album was just perfection from start to finish – her voice, those songs, the arrangements, the playing. If there were a singing Olympics, k.d. lang would win the gold medal.
I suppose really I was quite late to buying CDs, probably because when my first album came out in 1988, on vinyl and cassette, I shot out like a bloody bullet from a gun and I didn’t sit down again until 1992.
5. Last music you bought, and in what format?
It was Paul Weller’s “66” album, on a streaming service. I saw a snippet of it on Instagram, and I’ve not stopped listening to it all week. It’s like he’s channelling his inner crooner, with some David Bowie mixed in. I’ve sent it to all my friends with a note: I’m going to have to insist you sit down and listen to this.
I didn’t know I was a Paul Weller fan until I saw him at the House of Blues a few years ago, and I learned so much from him in that show, the way he effortlessly went through all his genres. In a way that show gave me permission to do all the things that I do: jazz, folk, pop.
And he looks so authentic, standing there in all his glory with platinum white hair and wrinkled face, and he still looks as handsome as hell. Age registers differently on a man in this business, I think.
6. Which album would you be happy to receive as a gift?
Well, fifty years after accidentally buying it for my mother, I’d really like the commemorative version of “After The Gold Rush” by Neil Young. It has been re-released in a lush, gorgeous vinyl package.
7. Favourite album?
Oh, that’s difficult. Anything by Joni Mitchell, of course. And I loved “The Nightfly” by Donald Fagen. Or maybe Stevie Wonder’s “Songs In The Key Of Life”; the epic nature of that, the quality and musicianship, it was like a benchmark of what was possible.
8. Best record ever made (can be single/album/EP)?
I think it has to be one of those records that influenced how records sounded after it. Stevie Wonder again, perhaps, or something by The Beatles? Or an early Ella Fitzgerald song, they were so beautifully sung.
9. Guilty secret (or anything unusual or perhaps unexpected) in your music collection?
I’m not bothered if I’m perceived as hip or cool, so no guilty secrets! I suppose people are quite surprised I have something as poppy as Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” in my collection – but I think it’s stupendous from start to finish. It’s not normally my genre, but it’s a masterpiece. It packs a visceral punch that’s hard to explain. She just glides over different genres from country to deep-rooted soul to rock.
And when I got to her collaboration with Miley Cyrus, “II Most Wanted”, I wept. I don’t know how they’re recording this stuff. I mean, it’s really hard to smack somebody in the face and seduce them at the same time! If “Cowboy Carter” doesn’t win a Grammy, I do think we’re going to have to start a petition.
10. What does music mean to you and how does it make you feel?
Music makes me feel in different ways at different times, so I’ll be open to whatever an artist is saying to me. Sometimes it makes me feel like I want to get up and dance, and other times it makes me feel like I want to lie down and cry.
Sometimes I will use music to alter a state; if I’m in a bit of a funk, I’ll get over myself by playing Bruno Mars and wondering how the hell he’s singing and dancing like that at the same time. I can recommend this as therapy. But as a musician, music makes me feel curious and interested: who’s playing that? How are they doing that?
11. Which song or album is a guaranteed mood booster?
“Green Garden” by Laura Mvula. The whole album is blindingly brilliant. Whenever I’ve been doing carpool for my daughter and her friends, I am always curious to know what they are listening to, rather than playing them the music I like listening to. My kid introduces me to new music all the time, from Kendrick Lamar to Billie Eilish. But the two things I have played them were Joni, of course, and “Green Garden”.
12. Which song or album would be the soundtrack to a film about your life?
Joni Mitchell, maybe, or Joan Armatrading. So many great songs. Actually, drum roll….I’ll choose “Nick of Time” by Bonnie Raitt. And back to what I was saying about age registering differently for women, I’m 62 now and there’s a great line in this song: “Those lines are pretty hard to take, when they’re staring back at you.”
13. Your favourite driving track, or music to exercise to?
“Brown Skin” by India.Arie. If I’m practicing for a tour, as I am now, I like to drive along singing to an artist with a similar range to me, singing for an hour and a half so I can be prepared for the upcoming shows. And to do that, I have to play artists and songs I absolutely love! India.Arie is a great example of that for me. I would love to work out a way to cover that song!
14. Best song or album for a romantic moment?
“Lovely Day” by Bill Withers. I love the emotion in that song. Though I also remember a boy once singing Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” to me when I was about 14, and realising later on it was a little bit of a courtship move! I don’t think it led to anything else, but I do remember thinking how cool it was that he was so confident to just sing a bit of this song. What a courtship that was back in the day!
15. Which song was played for the “First Dance” at your wedding (if you are married) or which song would you choose if you did get married?
It would be “Lovin’ You” by Minnie Riperton. I remember singing along to that as a teenager and realising I could hit that high note. The friend I was with at the time just stared at me and said: I don’t think that’s normal. I can hit the low notes too! So it’s sort of my party piece, in fact it was the first song I ever sang on television, on The Terry Wogan Show.
16. Your choice of song to sing at karaoke?
If I were at karaoke, it’s probably going to be with my daughter and her friends, so I would pick something they would like, to get them involved and interested. Their current absolute favourite is Chappell Roan, and I’ve noticed that when the kids are really excited about something it’s the predictor of what will be number one. Or I’d sing something for everyone to sing along to, like “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift.
17. Which song takes you back to your childhood – and to which specific memory?
I remember hearing “I’m Not In Love” by 10cc at the Moonshine Disco in Weymouth when I was about 13. Oh my god, what a song! Everyone was slow-dancing, but I wasn’t – I was just standing there thinking: how have they made those voices sound like that? What is happening? It was so unique. I’ve subsequently covered it on a jazz album, but I remember how exciting it was to hear it for the first time.
18. Favourite band?
There are so many bands I love, from Coldplay and U2, back to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Crosby Stills and Nash. I love that Oasis are getting back together, and I wish that I were going to be there (or that I had four days to sit online for tickets!). But I also absolutely love James. Their new album, called “Yummy”, is arresting and alive, infused with juice and energy! We have a lot of great bands, it’s not possible to pick one!
19. Favourite singer?
I’m traumatised by this question. I’m going to be hiding under my bed for about five years, unable to commit.
For me there is a difference between a singer and an artist.
And for all that Joni Mitchell is my favourite artist, I think the greatest singer is probably Ella Fitzgerald.
20. Which song would you like played at your funeral?
There’s a devotional chant singer I absolutely love, called Deva Premal. Her voice is angelic. With her husband Miten, she has a song I particularly adore, called “Om Namo Bhagavate”, and I’m going to pick that as my funeral song.
Interview/words by Lucy Boulter
