First day in the studio recording Funny Little World. Alyce Platt with (L to R, from back)
Bruce Haymes, Stephen Hadley, Claude Carranza, Danny Farrugia and Roger Bergodaz
together material that I eventually hoped would be for
a record. I wanted to do a record that was going to
have lots of integrity, and something that I would
personally listen to, but also accessible. I wanted
people to hear it, I thought oh, I really would love this
to be heard, and what was thrilling more than
anything is that's what's been happening – people are
writing back to me or calling me and saying it's on
high rotation in their car, or I go into a shop and
they're playing it there...
I wasn't deliberately saying ooh, I'm going to put the
violins there, I'm going to put horns in this song
because that's what's going to be popular, that wasn't
the process at all. The process was very organic and
very honourable to the style. I was very influenced by
a lot of 60s bands like Velvet Underground who I
listened to a lot, Serge Gainsbourg – I wanted that
kind of retro sound but in a modern kind of way,
which I think suits me. Then I marry my originals
with some of those songs, I cover Pale Blue Eyes, the
Velvet Underground song, and Tar and Cement,
Different Drum, Jacques Brel... and this all happened
because of that residency that I have at Claypots.
I was very lucky one night someone came in who I
found out weeks later, because he kept coming back
and he was very unassuming – he didn't say ooh, I'm a
manager or anything like that – he actually managed
Ron Peno from Died Pretty. He was fascinated and
curious that Alyce Platt, known for a particular
dimensional profile, had that kind of breadth of work,
that I was doing the music I was doing. Then over
months we started talking about possibly doing a
show together. And the producer Stephen Hadley
also said I'd love to produce an album with you one
day. I said I think I'm ready, I think that's what I'd
really like to do.
The three of us, Mark Louttit, Steve Hadley and
myself talked about songs, what we'd do, who the
people would be who we'd bring in on the project...
and the great thing is that everybody who we
approached said yes. If you read the credits there are