Why did Elton John fear it was 'inhumane' to record album with Brandi Carlile?
Elton John has shared that he was fearful if it was “inhumane” to record an album with Brandi Carlile due to the current state of
the world
- LOS ANGELES — Legendary
singer-songwriter Elton John has shared that he was fearful if it was
“inhumane” to record an album with Brandi Carlile due to the current state of
the world.
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- The ‘Tiny Dancer’ hitmaker has teamed up with the country
star on new LP ‘Who Believes in Angels?’ but he began having doubts about the
project due to the global political climate until his friend persuaded music
had an important role to play in uniting people and offering positivity,
reports ‘Female First UK’.
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- He told Rolling Stone UK, “Brandi wrote a song called ‘A
Little Light’, which was on the day that Israel invaded Gaza. “Brandi was
staying at her house next door, and I had all the newspapers on the table, and
I was saying, ‘Why are we doing an album when all this is going on? It seems
inhumane to be recording’”.
-
- He continued, “And she said, ‘We’re going to see the
positive, we musicians need to bring the world together. That’s our purpose’.
She went away and wrote these lyrics about being positive and that really
turned the album around”.
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- As per ‘Female First UK’, “When the idea for the project was
first discussed, Elton was determined the pair stay away from “power ballads”
because he wanted to defy expectations. He said: “I didn’t want it to be one
line hers, one line me. I wanted it to be harmonies. I wanted it to be a proper
duet record”.
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- Brandi added, “We kept the ballads to a minimum because he
was like, ‘Everybody will expect us to get together and do power ballads. Let’s
do uptempo, positive, uplifting songs’. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of
an amazing assignment”.
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- Once the pair had found their way with the record, Brandi
and Elton, along with his co-writer Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt
quickly got into their stride.
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- Elton said, “I didn’t want to go back and make an album I’ve
done before. I wanted to push Brandi and she pushed me, and Andrew pushed both
of us to an intense degree, Bernie as well. And in the end, we were just
roaring. We were recording a track a day, and instant first takes”.
