NENEH CHERRY

Rip It Up, Issue 184, 1 November 1992, Page 10

NENEH CHERRY

Music stars eh. The bigger they are, the harder they are to track down. Hotel receptions take great pleasure in denying their existence, and those assumed names that the record company forgot to tell you always add to the experience. But you know you're going to talk to a really BIG star when you're confronted with the old "try the number in a different country". After about, oh, say, 43 minutes exactly, Neneh (Karlson) Cherry is finally on the other end of the telephone, in Denmark — not Sweden.

"Did you have a hard time finding me?" You could say that, yeah. It was three years ago that 'Buffalo Stance' made Neneh (which you pronounce nay-nah — unless you want to sound stupid) Cherry a megastar. It wasn't simply because of the fashionable rap/dance mixture, she offered pop a strong female figurehead who defied the dance-pop bimbo stereotype, and still had fun.

But that was three years ago,

In her absence, the popular rumour implied she couldn't cope with all the fame and fortune. Many had doubts that she would ever return. She's back this month though with a new album, Homebrew, ready to take on the pressures of success once more. "It's not so much finding it hard to handle, it's more, not being able to take it seriously as something to go and base your life on — do ya know what I mean? And I think that to work as hard as we did promoting Raw Like Sushi, took us away from the thing that we look at as reality — which is making music.

"People kind of create a picture of what they think you are, and then that kind of pushes you into trying to live up to that vision. There is this kind of pressure to be almost perfect — cos if you're not, you're gonna get ripped apart basically." Are you still conscious of that?

"I don't think about it, because I think that no matter

what, through all of this, I want to maintain who I am or I'm not going to be a happy person. "I really feel that looking at all the press around the last album, it was about how strong I was. You know — my family and la de da de da. From my point of view, I get up some days and feel down, other days I feel up — and it isn't about being strong all the time and having this 'attitude'. I mean strong is being weak sometimes — I think that you have to kind of fight for what you are." Have you shied away from giving people what they want? "I think people expect you to do what you've already done -again, and we made a choice about churning out another record to stay on the treadmill. I think that me and the people I work with feel it's a long term thing — and you've got to preserve yourself, otherwise you start to run out of things to say."

All we heard from Neneh Cherry between Raw Like Sushi and Homebrew was the odd com-

pilation track (like the dub version of'Move With Me' for Until the End of the World). Her only new single was taken from the Red Hot and Blue compilation, a re-make of Cole Porter's 'Under my Skin' that meant more to

her than just another stab at the charts. "Well that was one of the things we did in the middle, in the time out. That was really important for all of us to be a part of because we'd lost a dear friend, a family member, my daughter Tyson's godfather, and it was a way of positively channelling our grief. I thought that Red Hot and Blue was going to be a vehicle to release some of the stigma that surrounds HIV and AIDS. It's important to take time away from something that is basically you and put

your energy into something like that. It makes any attention that I can get seem worthwhile." Homebrew certainly shows some of the changes Neneh has gone through recently. It's an emotional rollercoaster that hits the same highs of Raw Like Sushi — but also touches lows that you don't usually find in dance pop. And forget the cliche — you can judge this album by its cover.

"The cover is me in a sort of bus shed with an empty push chair — like the kids have gone — it's one of those pictures. It's kinda a lot softer than the last cover, and not so stancey. "It's basically saying that there isn't anything on the album that's trying too hard — and there's more to it than just having an attitude and being strong, there's a whole cycle of emotions within a person —

and here it is." The album's title is revealing and upfront as well. Ok, so Raw Like Sushi wasn't all that hard to decipher, but Homebrew was actually recorded at Neneh's home — a converted schoolhouse that she grew up in in Sweden. "We knew we wanted to make the album at home, and we wanted our own studio set up, so we could keep on working no matter what. "It's a really good way to finish the album cos we were in a more focused kinda environment, you know, we were out of the country and it was kind of peace making." Is this the Neneh Cherry way of doing things now you're a musical mum? "Haaa Haaaa Haaaa. I think we'll keep making records in the way that we've always made them. I think that our ideas and the way we put our songs together are done in a fairly ragged kinda way. " Generally things begin with a tape machine and being able to develop what you want to do in your own time and in your own space, I think a lot of the time I think that's how it starts, and people end up in big studios and impersonal places they kinda lose touch with what initially inspired them quite often."

And your family are in on it —that's one of your kids sampled on 'I Ain't Gone Under Yet' isn't it?

"Yeah, that's Tyson — watching The Land Before Time, that weird dinosaur movie I mean all over the album there's like weird sounds—lrish builders and god knows what else." Irish Builders?! "Well they're just hammering away in the background here and there. I think the whole album is about keeping the raw edges and the crust in, you know, rather than polishing it and producing the songs into a state where they didn't have any more vibes. We've just kind of let things be, a lot of the time. And a lot of the vocals were done in our living room in our house in London. Like in a song like 'Somedays' — it's the crust in the sample that makes it work."

Has it been fun? The album sounds almost world weary — especially 'Somedays' with that Moonlight Sonata sample. "We try and keep tongue in cheek and not get too serious about ourselves. It's definitely more expressive, you have to discipline yourself to make an album, you know — the laughter and tears all in the one thing. Its fun but it's torturous." The last album was full of uptempo beats that sparkled over serious subject matter but on this one there isn't the same kind of hiding behind the happiness.

"Well it's not really being more serious or down or anything, just more expressive, and taking a different tone with what we do. Obviously we learnt a lot when we made Raw Like Sushi, I think that Raw Like Sushi was based on kinda attitude — whereas this album is more, I dunno..." Realistic? Honest? "Yeah." "The whole vibe of this album is showing a wider spectrum of emotions, sometimes sexy, sometimes hard, soft, weepy, funny — you know. We're trying to push the barriers and not do things in a predictable way"

JOHN TAITE