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Someone To Watch Over Me: Album Track - By - Track
8th November 2011
Susan talks us through the songs from her brand new album Someone To Watch Over Me.
Read the video transcription here:
You Have To Be There:
0.08
You have To Be There was exciting very dramatic it was part of a musical written Abba and it was also the flip side a more serious side in that it questioned your very beliefs.
Unchained Melody
0.37 seconds
Unchained Melody was made very famous by the Righteous Brothers in the early 60s and um by Cyndi Lauper. This particular one tended to appeal to a younger audience because most of the stuff that’s on my album really appeals to a wide audience that’s why whenever I get a chance to begin with to appeal to a wider audience not the conventional X Factor which tends to appeal to a pope audience Unchained Melody is nostalgic it’s a bit of both in the relationship… I need your love.
Enjoy The Silence
1.28mins
Enjoy The Silence, do people enjoy silence? You can say a lot with words you can say a lot with music as well, again it’s a much wider audience, a younger audience bit like Coldplay you know that was the kind of arrangement I had. When I was in the recording studio you see they act weird you know it’s like you get a weird look not like the demo but the person who did it you know. I find it challenging, I’m ballad singing most of the time I’m mostly musical theatre, this was something abstract it’s again it’s about having a kind of art if you like. You don’t just do paintings you try to do abstract paintings as well. This is a bit abstract, poppy if you like out of my usual you know.
Both Sides Now
2.38mins
Both Sides Now I keep saying both sides now, now both sides now I’m really reflecting from a 50 year olds view point. Now 50 you’ve lived a bit you look over your life you see some of the regrets you’ve made, some of the mistakes you’ve made. You seen some of the funny sides as well and have a damn good laugh at them. Both Sides Now is about reflecting back on your life as a mature person but also being able to see it as a young person’s viewpoint as well and how they see you. I think some people of my family probably see me as an aunty you know an elderly kind of aunty feel like. Both Sides Now is a younger person looking forward to life and the older person looking back in life, there’s an adjust in position there, both sides now, both sides of life.
Lilac Wine
3.48mins
Lilac wine I like the song because I’m a Elkie Brooks fan its originally a Pearls ballad but this gentle approach its something that makes it your own, you can make it a whole mark of your own, it’s a very gentle piece it flows really well, very gentle.
Mad World
4.17mins
It speaks for itself you can see what’s going on, all the looting in London and the disasters in Japan are 2 examples. Mad word is a social comment it’s a kind of way of having yourself on film but you’re the spectator you looking directly into the situation and you’re actually saying is this real? It’s a mad world doesn’t make any sense, why doesn’t it make any sense? There’s no equality in some ways why is there poor people? Why are there too many rich people? Why are people starving? Stuff like that wee questions like that, that’s what makes me think of in that song.
Autumn Leaves
5.17mins
Autumn leaves well, with the demise of summer it’s about something that’s really dying isn’t it? Summers dying, leaves are turning brown. I lost my mother 4 years ago Autumn Leaves is about the demise of something beautiful she’s a beautiful person my mother and that’s something personal to me; Autumn Leaves is about the demise of something beautiful
This Will Be The Year
5.57mins
This Will Be The Year, well has it been the year? It’s a romantic kind of song really and it reminds me a bit of a film track the arrangement. This Will Be The Year is optimistic they say make you more determined, its about optimism its about having the strength to go on and giving all you can this will be the year to really make it happen. Because when you want something badly enough you want to make it happen and when I went onto BGT I really wanted this with everything I had. And this will be the year to finally make that come to fruition, to make it better, to become that professional I’ve always wanted to be. This Will Be The Year, beautiful song, beautiful piece, almost like a film piece like almost like a Hollywood piece if you like. It’s a bit like Sunset Boulevard, you know with one look I’ll take my thing which is like your thinking of something.
Return
7.17mins
Return, that’s about the soldiers in Afghanistan coming back to their families, I can relate to this as well because my dad did his service in WWII and my mum had two kids she was waiting for him to come back she didn’t believe he would come back at all. So this song has those connotations to it they are waiting for the bread winner to come home to the family. Very powerful, very emotional, very umm I don’t know if there’s a right word for it, it’s the idea of families being broken up, ideas of turmoil if you like, the longing to have your partner back. Sometimes it can be done because they come home and the joy of seeing them again and sometimes it can’t be done because of the circumstances so there’s a sort of just the position of sad and elation in this song.
Someone To Watch Over Me
8.38mins
Someone to watch over me, we all know the jazz version of Gershwin’s song someone to watch over me there’s a someone I’m longing to see that’s one of the verses, who is that somebody? I mean we all meet someone in our life at some point but we always do get the impression that someone is watching over us and that something to me is my mother. So someone is watching over me. I don’t have the detail for anybody just yet
What is your favourite track?
9.17mins
Oh there are so many that I can’t really get into it here, but I think it would be This Will Be The Year, Return, Both Sides Now and probably You’ll Have To Be There…I’ve got more than one
Fans
9.48mins
Well without fans you can’t have record sales but apart from the mercenary bit the idea of having someone close gives you confidence and its like one big happy family you’re providing a service to them, you’re making them happy, you’re entertaining them. They’re very important to me fans because they listen to my music and if they like what they hear they’ll want more. I’ve known some of them for many months now I met some of them in the forum there’s an example and they feel like they’re part of my life now they’re more then just acquaintances they’re close friends. I would say that what I do in a album relates very much to the fans because it can relate to an ordinary person in the street as well if you like where they are in life, life positions if you like where they are and the place where they are, where they are geographically as well so I’d say we’re related to the fans quite a lot.
What was the last year like for you?
10.57mins
The last year? Oh now I went to Shanghai, I went to America, I’m on my third album it’s been very exciting, very exciting busy and varied, I’d like some more please
Career
11.27mins
I think my careers going in an upward direction and I think it’s set to well I’m a very modest person and I think its set to be there for as long as people want me
Have you had time to relax?
11.58mins
I’ve had a couple of days off to relax I just watch television and stuff like that, I’m a very ordinary person. I went on holiday this year a couple of times this year as well, I’ve been in Rome and I’ve been in Ireland.
Someone To Watch Over Me is available to order from Amazon.co.uk Click here to purchase you’re copy today.
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