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06 AUGUST 2017
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The piano chords during the verses of
Lifetimes remind me of Elton John’s
Bennie AndThe Jets – is he a pianist you
guys have ever deliberately thought of as
an influence?
Elton John is one of our biggest
influences! We both grew up on his songs
and went to his live concerts as kids, and he
was a huge inspiration for the way Josephine
learned contemporary piano. In fact,
throughout every recording process Anthony
always instructs Josephine to “play less like
Elton." Elton's style is all about the travelling
and the movement and the beautiful little
piano melodies that weave their way around
the vocal melody. Josephine is in love with
Elton’s style, whereas Anthony recognises
the occasional need for simple, static chords.
You most often sing in unison
on the same note (instead of
harmonies), which is an unusual
thing. Did you plan it to be a
distinctive quality about your
music, or did it just unfold that
way?
It just happened that way!
But we have since realised it is a
distinguishing feature of our music
You’ve said you initially released songs
on SoundCloud with the intention of
pitching them to other artists. How did
you navigate out of the old approach (that
you were going to let your babies go to
someone else) and into the new (keeping
the babies)?
The first album began as a writing project
so our own personal lives aren't really
reflected back in any of those first 15 songs.
We wrote Ultralife however, in the midst of
a mammoth touring schedule, which was
simultaneously incredible and difficult. Touring
is a bizarre, one-of-a-kind experience; you get
the depression, and you get the adrenaline –
you are living both extremes of humanness.
And so listening back to Ultralife, we can see
us internalising both elements, and battling
with the need for independence vs the need
for our family and friends back home. So
in that way our songwriting is a lot more
personal.
Do all songs begin their lives on the piano,
or do you ever begin with beats?
All the songs start at the piano. We are
big believers in the importance of being
able to strip a song back and play it with just
chords and a melody. The best songs can be
peeled back to their core and still translate
emotionally. It's very easy to disguise an
average song in glittery production.
– you can put any kind of production under
our dual vocals and it still sounds like us. It's
a liberating anchor to work with. We really
took advantage of it on this new album, as
the consistency of the dual vocals meant we
could experiment with different musical styles
and production ideas.
The term 'ultralife' pops up on Heavy, as
well as the album's title track of course. Is
it something you’d heard elsewhere, or an
original phrase you guys came up with?
We came up with it! We've since
discovered it's a brand of battery (!) but it
popped out whilst we were writing Heavy and
we fell in love with it as a concept so then
went on to write the song Ultralife.
There’s some warping of your voices, in
the background, on gorgeous closer
Waste. Is the phrase “elf-like words”
in this song or did I imagine it to
match that little creature melody?
You have imagined that! There are no
concrete lyrics; it's Anthony losing his
mind in the studio. We wanted to play
around with our voices a little bit, and
Waste was the perfect opportunity to
do that. It has so much space. ZKR
Ten years ago, two exceptional British voices met whilst
performing at the London ColiseumTheatre. A decade of firm
friendship on, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe are each seasoned,
decorated and adored musical theatre performers in their own
rights, but have solidified their musical connection with their first
ever joint album. Together includes classics and favourites from
the stars' careers, such as Music Of The Night (Phantom of the
Opera), When You Wish Upon A Star (Pinocchio), and You'll Never
Walk Alone (Carousel ). The pair are due in Australia for five colossal
dates in October; tickets are on sale now via Live Nation. ZKR
Together
by Michael
Ball and Alfie
Boe is out now
via Decca/
Universal.
Ultralife
by Oh Wonder
is out now via
Dew Process.
BALL & BOE TOURING
05/10 - 16/10
OH WONDER
JosephineVander Gucht and AnthonyWest are
OhWonder; we asked them about the alt-(lolly)
pop goodness of breakout album Ultralife.
st154_095_MUSIC Room 2_v2.indd 1 21/7/17 4:10 pm