Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan Runtag, but
Speaker 1: enough about me. My guest today has won seventeen Grammys
Speaker 1: and sold over a hundred million records by my count,
Speaker 1: both as a solo artist and as a member of
Speaker 1: the police. For over forty years now. His work has
Speaker 1: been a bridge between music of all different cultures, so
Speaker 1: it's fitting that his latest record is called The Bridge.
Speaker 1: Like so many artists over the last two years, he
Speaker 1: began working on this album as a kind of self
Speaker 1: therapy while in lockdown. Before long, a loose theme began
Speaker 1: to emerge. The songs are populated by characters in a
Speaker 1: state of transition, an unsettling place between life and death,
Speaker 1: health and sickness, between relationships, between worlds, all looking for
Speaker 1: the bridge to a future that's safer and happier. Though
Speaker 1: the forward thinking musician has long been a champion of
Speaker 1: environmental and humanitarian causes, this desire for a writer future
Speaker 1: certainly feels more acute in two, but the serious subject
Speaker 1: matter is bolstered by some of the strongest melodies he's
Speaker 1: crafted in years. The lead single, if It's Love opens
Speaker 1: with a Whistle, a first in his extensive back catalog.
Speaker 1: As near as I can tell, it's a welcome note
Speaker 1: of whimsical optimism amid a deeply thought provoking record both
Speaker 1: intimate and immediate. The Bridge stands proud alongside his formidable
Speaker 1: list of classics. I'm so happy to welcome to the show, Sting.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
Speaker 1: Your new album, The Bridge is fantastic. It's it's a
Speaker 1: much needed adventure for those of us stuck at home.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so vary musically and emotionally. I can't
Speaker 1: begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a very good start to an interview. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm flatted. Um. The album, I mean, it came together
Speaker 1: during the pandemic for someone who's been on tour and
Speaker 1: on the move really more or less for for so
Speaker 1: many years. Did the opportunity to sit still more comparatively speaking,
Speaker 1: I guess impact you creatively. I think, to be honest,
Speaker 1: making an album is usually usually cloised, it away for
Speaker 1: weeks on end in the same place, So it actually
Speaker 1: isn't that much of a novelty for for recording artists
Speaker 1: to be stuck. It's very hard to make albums on
Speaker 1: the road. We tried but failed. Um, So in a
Speaker 1: way it was it was a way to cope with lockdown, um,
Speaker 1: even though I was out of my work cycle you know,
Speaker 1: which is recording, uh, touring, thinking recording, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: this was halfway through the the the touring cycle. So
Speaker 1: I just said, okay, this is the universe saying you
Speaker 1: have to get back in the studio and do some
Speaker 1: work otherwise you go completely nuts. To ask you more
Speaker 1: about the title the Bridge, It's a metaphor of that
Speaker 1: that crops up at one form or another throughout the album,
Speaker 1: and it's certainly a time they want, given the unsettled,
Speaker 1: uncertain world that we all find ourselves in unfortunately these days.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me more about what the bridge means
Speaker 1: to you? It's a it's a useful metaphor, and as
Speaker 1: you say, it does recur on on the record in
Speaker 1: almost every song. I think all the characters I'm writing
Speaker 1: about are in some sort of transition, um, between love affairs,
Speaker 1: between life and death, health and sickness, as as we
Speaker 1: all are, of course in in this current um climate
Speaker 1: of crisis. You know, the climate crisis, the pandemic, you know,
Speaker 1: the political crisis. All of us are looking towards a
Speaker 1: route to a safer future. Um. We have different ideas
Speaker 1: of what what that is, but we're all looking for it.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a metaphor. It's um, you know, a bridge.
Speaker 1: It's it's a it's a spiritual bridge if you like.
Speaker 1: Whatever that means that the vacant concept. But um, it's
Speaker 1: something we we searched for. It's not iron or steel.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just hopefully there. And you've said that
Speaker 1: this theme kind of revealed itself to you sort of
Speaker 1: late in the process when you're looking back at that
Speaker 1: the songs that that you've that you've written so far.
Speaker 1: Is that a regular occurrence for you? Do you often
Speaker 1: finish the song and read it back and learn something
Speaker 1: about yourself, almost like a good dream reading or something. Well, once,
Speaker 1: once I've finished, you know a fair number of the songs,
Speaker 1: I will lay them out and look at them and
Speaker 1: see if there's any connecting tissue between them. And I'm
Speaker 1: often surprised that there is. And because it's the songs
Speaker 1: are created subconsciously. Um. And this theme of the bridge
Speaker 1: came after looking at a nine or so songs, and
Speaker 1: then I wrote the song called the Bridge. So in
Speaker 1: a way, that was it was organic in that in
Speaker 1: that sense, it wasn't like I started off with an
Speaker 1: agenda at all. I was just allowing the music to
Speaker 1: tell me a story. And if you allow allow it
Speaker 1: to if you if you allow that process to happen, um,
Speaker 1: you know, miraculously it appears. And I don't quite understand
Speaker 1: how or why, but not being lucky enough for it
Speaker 1: happened on a number of occasions. I mean, your songs
Speaker 1: are so character driven, and they say and in screenwriting
Speaker 1: that the characters tend to write themselves after a while,
Speaker 1: they sort of behave according to their own internal logic
Speaker 1: that you've given them and almost take it from there.
Speaker 1: Do you find that in the case and your songs
Speaker 1: that the characters almost wind up in the driver's seat
Speaker 1: by the end of the writing session actually do and
Speaker 1: it's driven by rhyme? I think rime is a very
Speaker 1: interesting phenomena in music. Uh, there's a there's a truth
Speaker 1: to rhyme. You know, when things rhyme, we tend to
Speaker 1: accept them as being gospel, you know. I mean that
Speaker 1: maybe a trick. At the same time, there is a
Speaker 1: rus to rhyme, and if you follow a rhyme scheme, um,
Speaker 1: the mystery of a story opening out is it becomes
Speaker 1: very apparent. You know. I started one song called the
Speaker 1: Bells of St. Thomas, you know, with just one line
Speaker 1: I woke up in some rich woman's bed, and then
Speaker 1: the rhyme just kept, you know, opening our possibilities for
Speaker 1: this character to explore. And I had no idea what
Speaker 1: it was about when I was writing it. I'm still
Speaker 1: not sure, but it's kind of evocative. I think, what
Speaker 1: an opener. I woke up in Antwerp and some rich
Speaker 1: woman's bad I was going to ask him, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's not biographic, but um, you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: lot of time in Antwerp. Um. It's an interesting city
Speaker 1: sort of it's in Belgium, but it's also very Dutch,
Speaker 1: and it's on the on the coast to the North Sea,
Speaker 1: and it just has a has a mood about it
Speaker 1: that is kind of what's the word, it's mysterious. It's
Speaker 1: a mysterious town. It's also where you know, the Flemish
Speaker 1: artists lived, which became another strand in the story of
Speaker 1: the work of Peter Rubens. I love how these historical
Speaker 1: figures crop up in in some of these songs. I mean,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite tracks on the record is the
Speaker 1: Book of Numbers, inspired by to me, one of the
Speaker 1: most compelling historical figures, Robert Oppenheimer. Can you talk a
Speaker 1: little more about about the story in that song, because
Speaker 1: it's so powerful to me. Well, Oppenheimer has has dropped
Speaker 1: up twice in my work, once in Russians Um many
Speaker 1: years ago, and this time he appears as a ghost
Speaker 1: UM haunting I suspect the bar near Los Alamos out
Speaker 1: in the desert, and he's the ghost is haunted by
Speaker 1: the idea that he needs to repent for what what
Speaker 1: he's invented. You know, there's a wonderful YouTube footage of
Speaker 1: Oppenheimer talking um with an incredible will, regret and compassion
Speaker 1: um recording the bag bad geta. You know, I you see,
Speaker 1: I'm become deaf and he could not reconcile what it
Speaker 1: invented with his humanity, and that that tragedy is kind
Speaker 1: of stays with stays with me. Oh, it's an incredible
Speaker 1: clip for anyone listening who hasn't seen it. I recommend
Speaker 1: watching it. It is uh trying to read the emotions
Speaker 1: on his face as he as he said, just to
Speaker 1: rationalize inventing, you know, unleashing inadvertently the atomic bomb in
Speaker 1: the world and what it's real world repercussions. It's um,
Speaker 1: it's a study in character and a study and emotion.
Speaker 1: It's pretty extraordinary. I mean I called it the Book
Speaker 1: of Numbers because you know, it's one of the first
Speaker 1: books of the Bible, and it's it concerns the wandering
Speaker 1: in the desert and the census where they counted the tribe,
Speaker 1: but they counted everything, which I can I thought to
Speaker 1: be the metaphor for the beginning of math, you know,
Speaker 1: on the beginning of math leads to leads the science,
Speaker 1: and science eventually leads to the ability to destroy ourselves.
Speaker 1: So uh, it's it's a it's an interesting conundrum being
Speaker 1: a human being, absolutely, I guess. On on the on
Speaker 1: the flip side of the desert water is a recurring
Speaker 1: theme on this record as well. I mean, having grown
Speaker 1: up I think quite literally in the shadow of a shipyard,
Speaker 1: I imagine that must be a really primal touchdown for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was born right next to the river on the
Speaker 1: shipyard and quite close to the North Sea, and I'm
Speaker 1: very very attracted toward I'm also very afraid of water. Um.
Speaker 1: I think it's a fearsome element. Traditionally it symbolizes the feminine.
Speaker 1: Um symbolizes the subconscious and both of those things that
Speaker 1: I'm deeply interested in. And um, as you say, water
Speaker 1: crops up again and then again in this and on
Speaker 1: this album as sacrament as a cleansing agent. Uh news. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what is a powerful symbol for me. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of I mean hearing you say that water is related
Speaker 1: to to the feminine, that's sort of feminine energy I
Speaker 1: feel like on this this album as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, from the broken Promise of Captain Bateman to
Speaker 1: you know, reference referencing God's daughter and rushing water and
Speaker 1: as in addition to the many water references in general.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me that you say that because I
Speaker 1: thinking back now, I can I pick up on a
Speaker 1: lot of those references. Well, I'm glad you do. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm essentially agnostic. I don't belong to a faith. Agnostic
Speaker 1: meaning I don't know, but um, you know, I used
Speaker 1: the word spiritual before, but I think I'm going to
Speaker 1: only define spirituality as curiosity. I'm curious about why we're here,
Speaker 1: about what what this whole thing is. And that's my spirituality,
Speaker 1: not not any dogma, just curious. We had, of all
Speaker 1: of the songs and all the characters on this record,
Speaker 1: the one that seemed to me to have the most
Speaker 1: of you, and it was seemed to be Harmony Road.
Speaker 1: Uh assessment. I do come from the wrong side of
Speaker 1: the tracks, um and managing it like that. Well, managed
Speaker 1: to escape my postal code or what what was signified
Speaker 1: by that through music, through education. But I've never forgotten
Speaker 1: my humble upbringing, and I think that story is a
Speaker 1: you know, a powerful one. It's a powerful archetype for
Speaker 1: all of us that you can move out of your
Speaker 1: uh predicament if you like. So. Yeah, how Many Road
Speaker 1: is kind of biographical though I never stole a car,
Speaker 1: not once. Well, we'll put that out there, put that
Speaker 1: on record. I mean a lot of touchstones. Do you
Speaker 1: bring me the hills at the border too, I mean
Speaker 1: those hills up by Scotland near Hadrian's Wall. I mean
Speaker 1: that area must also have a strong connection for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we know, I come from a border town that changed
Speaker 1: hands between the English and the Scots over hundreds of
Speaker 1: years and the Vikings, and you know, it was a
Speaker 1: war zone basically after the Romans left, there was this
Speaker 1: war zone. And um, that natural border between England and
Speaker 1: Scotland was was haunted by ghosts as well as bandits
Speaker 1: and in clans who would you know, rape and pillage
Speaker 1: a lot. So there's a lot of there are a
Speaker 1: lot of battles fought. And I just wrote a ghost
Speaker 1: story about those hills that they're they're kind of mysterious achieving.
Speaker 1: It's you're gonna you're gonna hang up on me for
Speaker 1: this question. Do you are you open to spirits? Do
Speaker 1: you believe in I had to think they call them ghosts?
Speaker 1: But do you do you feel those presents and interact
Speaker 1: with them or is that something that you more are
Speaker 1: open to but haven't really seen much of firsthand experience of. Well,
Speaker 1: once again, I'm I'm agnostic. I don't know. UM, certainly
Speaker 1: a possibility that are that there are other realms than
Speaker 1: the ones we perceive. Um, you know, we have a
Speaker 1: limited range of perception visually, and perhaps these rooms exist.
Speaker 1: I just don't know, you know, I know one of
Speaker 1: a note vibrates. You know, at a certain frequency, you
Speaker 1: get harmonics. They keep going up and up and up,
Speaker 1: and we can only hear a certain level of them.
Speaker 1: But I'm assuming that they keep going up, so vibration
Speaker 1: keeps getting, you know, higher and higher. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: I really don't. That's a great, very very practical answer.
Speaker 1: I feel. I feel like there's a lot of makes
Speaker 1: a lot of practical sense that their realms that that
Speaker 1: we can't perceive or experience. Yeah, I mean, I'd like
Speaker 1: to believe it. Um. I think it's a it's a
Speaker 1: lovely idea. But again, I'm just curious. I'm thinking in
Speaker 1: the last few years, I guess, prior to the pandemic,
Speaker 1: we revisited your past work on on my songs, the album,
Speaker 1: and the tour and the and the Vegas resident residency
Speaker 1: and your audio only memoir Upon reflection, Did revisiting those
Speaker 1: pieces from your past uh set the stage in any
Speaker 1: way for the bridge? Was there a link between contrasting
Speaker 1: the then and the now? I don't think I do
Speaker 1: it as as obviously as that, but I'm kind of
Speaker 1: intrigued when I when I do hear my music by accident,
Speaker 1: you know, I found in the shop and they're playing
Speaker 1: a song of mine. It'll take me a while before
Speaker 1: I recognize it, and my wife will say, that's that's
Speaker 1: you on the on the sound system, so oh yeah,
Speaker 1: And then I listen and I'm always kind of surprised
Speaker 1: by the decisions I might have made as a younger musician.
Speaker 1: You know, how did I know that? How did I
Speaker 1: know to go to that chord there? That's interesting? So yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't often do it. Um that my song
Speaker 1: has forced me to do that. That that the concept
Speaker 1: of going going back and re recording them with the
Speaker 1: knowledge that we now have, um, musical knowledge, technical knowledge,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, to try and make them not better,
Speaker 1: but just different and reflecting who I am right now?
Speaker 1: When when you do right do you get more inspiration?
Speaker 1: Looking outward or looking inward? I turned to want to
Speaker 1: write about characters other than me at the moment. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, a singer songwriter, I can get very kind
Speaker 1: of naval intensive, you know. Um, so it's more interesting
Speaker 1: to put yourself in someone else's shoot is I think
Speaker 1: songs are great empathy machines. You know, you you look
Speaker 1: at the world through someone else's eyes and and see
Speaker 1: it from that point of view, So in a way
Speaker 1: it's a useful psychological exercise. But of course then you
Speaker 1: also bring your own you know, your own biases in
Speaker 1: your your own subconscious comes into the process. So it
Speaker 1: can never be entirely without without a personal element. But
Speaker 1: that really is what you know. I listened to music
Speaker 1: and I asked the music to tell me a story.
Speaker 1: H it's generally about somebody else, not me. This is
Speaker 1: sort of a corlery to that question, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: betray the fact that I've never been able to successfully
Speaker 1: write a song in my life. What is it that
Speaker 1: compels you to write in the first place? Is it
Speaker 1: a desire to connect with other people or is it
Speaker 1: something a little more introverted, like a desire to excavate
Speaker 1: an expouse or feelings. Well, it is my bridge to
Speaker 1: people in general, music and singing, and I have a
Speaker 1: voice that so I have a vehicle to express it in.
Speaker 1: And then that seems to be a fairly successful mode
Speaker 1: of expression. Um, but I am fairly introverted, even though
Speaker 1: I'm a performer. You know, the act of performance across
Speaker 1: you cross the line and you become the opposite of
Speaker 1: what you are most of the performers I know this
Speaker 1: way too. They're not people who immediately want to be
Speaker 1: the center of attention in a room at all. They
Speaker 1: observe and and I'm one of those people. I'm quite shy.
Speaker 1: Are you superstitious at all when it comes to songwriting?
Speaker 1: Do you have certain rituals or do you feel at
Speaker 1: a certain time of the day he's more inspiring or
Speaker 1: a room or an instrument. Can I kind of avoid it,
Speaker 1: you know, as often as I can. It's it's not
Speaker 1: an easy process. Facing a blank page is terrifying, and
Speaker 1: you know, the whole process is fraught by that acause
Speaker 1: I will I will I be able to write a
Speaker 1: song as good as the one I've just written. You know,
Speaker 1: You're happy for a few minutes, and then you go, now,
Speaker 1: what what what do I have to say? Uh? What?
Speaker 1: What will be useful? I love songs to have a um,
Speaker 1: a utility, you know, beyond just amusing myself. It's a
Speaker 1: nice one. They're used for campaigns, like, you know, even
Speaker 1: as a joke, don't stand so close to me was
Speaker 1: used as the part of the you know, the COVID warning,
Speaker 1: you know, just to keep your distance. You know, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed that. You know, song songs can have a utility.
Speaker 1: Is it a daily practice for you writing? And the
Speaker 1: way that some people jog or swim or do yoga,
Speaker 1: is that's something that you've incorporated into your your daily
Speaker 1: life in one way or another. No, I say, I
Speaker 1: avoid it. It's just a certain point of the year
Speaker 1: and I know I have to knuckle down and actually right,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of open to inspiration. I think
Speaker 1: you have to put yourself in a state of open
Speaker 1: necess state of receptivity. Uh, and ideas come to you.
Speaker 1: A line will come to you, a melody, and then
Speaker 1: you build from that. You know, songs begin in a
Speaker 1: very modest way. It's like one little step on baby
Speaker 1: step and not at least two another, and then you
Speaker 1: end up with something sometimes fairly complex from that process.
Speaker 1: But again, it's a mystery Jordan's It's totally a mystery
Speaker 1: to me as a fan of yours and a passionate
Speaker 1: amateur basis myself. Speaking of superstition, I want to ask
Speaker 1: you about your mainstay, your your workhorse, the your p bass.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most iconic instruments this side of
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney's Hoffner What is it about that instrument that
Speaker 1: that keeps you, you know, married to it. UM's it's
Speaker 1: from so we're kind of almost the same age. It's
Speaker 1: been pretty battered over the years, a bit like me,
Speaker 1: and it's my It's my bruised little brother. You know.
Speaker 1: It has a growl about it has a spirit about it,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm Leo Fender actually must have wound the
Speaker 1: pickup himself and probably put it on a naze and
Speaker 1: made it so it has that sense of history. But
Speaker 1: I think every note that's ever been played on it
Speaker 1: is somehow, you know, embedded in the instrument itself. And
Speaker 1: I love it. Mind you. I did a bass solo
Speaker 1: on this album, but I played it on a Fretless bass,
Speaker 1: not not my normal favorite. I have a Founder Fretless
Speaker 1: that was a copy of Jacko's bass, which I love.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, you you knew him, didn't he? I think
Speaker 1: I read somewhere that you hung out in in Miami
Speaker 1: and we're we're friendly with him. What what was Jaco
Speaker 1: like to to be with one on one? Jacko came
Speaker 1: to see the police a couple of times, and uh,
Speaker 1: we used to exchange from course late at night, you know,
Speaker 1: he'd bring me up like four in the morning. I say,
Speaker 1: Jacko's four in the morning, said no, man, it's not
Speaker 1: it's only turned okay. But he was a lovely man
Speaker 1: and you know, a genius. I mean, he completely recalibrated
Speaker 1: people's ideas of what a base could do, and to
Speaker 1: this day he has yet to be you know, superseded.
Speaker 1: I mean that Charlie Parkers so low as he did
Speaker 1: on the base. Who would have thought of that? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's incredible love the amazing some of your other Base heroes.
Speaker 1: I mean I saw the title for Harmony Road and
Speaker 1: I immediately thought a Harmony Road. Jack Bruce, who were
Speaker 1: some of the other Base people that you looked up
Speaker 1: to that really kind of showed you the way when
Speaker 1: you were first starting out. Well, I think playing the
Speaker 1: bass and singing is it is not the natural thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you're playing contrapuntal to the rhythm of the song.
Speaker 1: It's not the same as strumming a guitar and singing,
Speaker 1: so you have to work it out basically. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like juggling, you know, doing one thing with the
Speaker 1: left hand and one thing both sides of the brain.
Speaker 1: So Jack Bruce obviously was a huge influence on me
Speaker 1: as a singer and a bass player. McCartney very much so.
Speaker 1: And the phil linnet from From Thin Lizzie. I admired
Speaker 1: that those guys who could you know, sing the top
Speaker 1: line and also be in the engine room um, which
Speaker 1: struck me as a very useful place to be the
Speaker 1: band leader for him, because the rest of the band
Speaker 1: is working within your bandwidth. Literally, you know, you sing
Speaker 1: the top line and you're controlling the harmony underneath. UM.
Speaker 1: Without being particularly flashy, You're just that's how you lead
Speaker 1: the band. The heartbeat my my high school jazz band
Speaker 1: directory stole we say the herdbeat. Yeah, we were you
Speaker 1: in the engine room. I love it. I mean speaking
Speaker 1: of leading the band, I mean getting back to the bridge.
Speaker 1: I imagine it was all recorded remotely because of COVID,
Speaker 1: which I believe the technology to record remotely has been
Speaker 1: in place for years, so I assume it wasn't a
Speaker 1: technical problem. But how did you keep it intimate with
Speaker 1: with the musicians when you in some cases worth thousands
Speaker 1: of miles apart. Yeah, that that is the problem. Although
Speaker 1: we've recorded remotely many many times before, it's yeah, giving
Speaker 1: it a warmth and intimacy, which really is about, you know,
Speaker 1: have it. Knowing the musicians already, I would find it
Speaker 1: very difficult to to to work with somebody remotely who
Speaker 1: had never met m But you know, the musicians on
Speaker 1: this record, Dominic Miller, Many cutch A Brampit, Marcellus, I've
Speaker 1: known for decades and they know my work process. They
Speaker 1: know what I want without me having to say very
Speaker 1: much at all. So um, it was kind of easy.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I want to get back into studio with
Speaker 1: musicians in the same room. It's it's much better that way.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Bridge is such an intimate record, not
Speaker 1: strictly dude, just like the lyrics, but just sonically, with
Speaker 1: the interplay between musicians and your voice. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's mixed so front and center. It seems so present
Speaker 1: that it makes it very personal. It feels almost confessional
Speaker 1: to me. That was a very deliberate policy to bring
Speaker 1: the vocals right up so it's right inside your head.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, I've made albums where the vocal
Speaker 1: was laid back and inside the matrix of the band more,
Speaker 1: but this I wanted to be to be up front.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to hear I'm thinking, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that. It's kind of a friend front a
Speaker 1: French way of recording and mixing French. French songs have
Speaker 1: that very upfront vocal, I guess because I'm immediately thinking
Speaker 1: of like Jane Berkin and search Game Burger, something where
Speaker 1: it's right on the mic, when you can hear every
Speaker 1: every breath, every gasp, all the saliva. Yeah, very very visceral.
Speaker 1: I mean you've said that surprise is the essence of
Speaker 1: all art, and I want to ask you about that
Speaker 1: because that's so interesting me. That's something that wouldn't have
Speaker 1: immediately struck me as the obvious definition of the essence
Speaker 1: of our Can you talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1: You know, if if someone sends me a tape of
Speaker 1: their songs, um, I'll give it a certain number of bars,
Speaker 1: and unless I'm surprised within the number of bars, I
Speaker 1: have to say, well, no, I don't have time. You
Speaker 1: have to surprise me within eight bars or sixty in
Speaker 1: bars if you haven't, and then you're just you know,
Speaker 1: turning water here. I want to be surprised. I want
Speaker 1: something I haven't heard before. So when I compose, you know,
Speaker 1: when I put an album, and I want to surprise people.
Speaker 1: You might have preconceptions about what I do, but I
Speaker 1: want to flat those the That's my job, the artist job.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've done that so much of the course
Speaker 1: of your career. It's you've been a bridge for so
Speaker 1: many different kinds of music, from shaggy to Julio Iglesias
Speaker 1: to Algerian folk singers and jazz. I'm hard pressed the
Speaker 1: name of genre that you haven't explored. Is that to
Speaker 1: keep it, keep the element of surprise in music for you?
Speaker 1: Or is that purely just the way you hear it
Speaker 1: in your head when you're when you're first coming up
Speaker 1: with these melodies. No, no, I'm so, I say, I'm
Speaker 1: driven by curiosity, and I don't you know, I live
Speaker 1: in my own ecology, and so I don't have to
Speaker 1: obey any rules. I just have to, you know, follow
Speaker 1: my curiosity. And if I hear something that I can
Speaker 1: incorporate into my world, and then I will, I will.
Speaker 1: I won't have no fear about that. But again, it's
Speaker 1: about creating surprise, the sort of surprises. The expanded version
Speaker 1: of The Bridge features a cover of you Know, one
Speaker 1: of my all time favorite songs. And was writings sitting
Speaker 1: on the dock of the bay. You've had these great
Speaker 1: weekly videos on on social media where you sort of
Speaker 1: been talking about what that song is meant to you. Uh,
Speaker 1: did you learn anything new about that song by by
Speaker 1: sort of getting inside it and singing it? You know,
Speaker 1: I would never have ever considered recording again what I
Speaker 1: considered to be a masterpiece. So this wedding song is
Speaker 1: something that I really it's of a high value to me.
Speaker 1: I bought the record as a kid, as a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old kid when it came out, and something about
Speaker 1: the song spoke to me. You know. I used to
Speaker 1: sit on the ferry landing down by the by the
Speaker 1: river and feel exactly that watching ships roll in and out.
Speaker 1: What's beyond the world and I'm stuck here. So the
Speaker 1: song had a very personal meaning for me, not least
Speaker 1: because I just died a few weeks after that record
Speaker 1: came out. I was recorded in a few weeks before
Speaker 1: he died anyway. Um, And then I was asked to
Speaker 1: do it by the Alzheimer's Association, who had a campaign
Speaker 1: about music being very therapeutic for people suffering from dementia,
Speaker 1: that they remember music more readily than our songs, more
Speaker 1: readily than anything else. And would I record something that
Speaker 1: meant something to me? Uh strongly? So I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. But having done it, and I've never
Speaker 1: actually played the song before, I realized that was just
Speaker 1: playing major chords. There are no minor chords and that
Speaker 1: very very sad, melancholic song. It's all major chords. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, as a stounded Steve Cropper who was the
Speaker 1: writer with with otis, but I tip my hat to them.
Speaker 1: They did something that's really great. There's only there's a
Speaker 1: there's a major seventh chord and in a chorus, but
Speaker 1: apart from that, it's just major chords. It's phenomenal. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's incredible to get something that, as you said, melancholic
Speaker 1: and sad at us out of you know, traditionally those
Speaker 1: you know, the sounds that we associate kind of with
Speaker 1: more with happiness. That's so interesting. I never made that connection. Wow,
Speaker 1: And and it's it's so incredible to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: as you said that for the Alzheimer's association, that music
Speaker 1: sort of makes the longest impact on the brain in
Speaker 1: a sense, and that's so incredible to think. Mean, what
Speaker 1: is it do you think about music that makes it
Speaker 1: such an effective conduit of emotion. Well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's not intellectual at all. It's actually it's it's
Speaker 1: it's vibration and the resonance, and that's that's in the
Speaker 1: cells of our body. So it doesn't surprise me that,
Speaker 1: you know, if even if part of your brain is
Speaker 1: switched off, the cells of your body are responding to
Speaker 1: to music and Brian and melody. And I hope, I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope we keep us in the world a little longer,
Speaker 1: and we're grateful for all the music that that you've
Speaker 1: given to us. I think it's a beautiful note to
Speaker 1: end on my my final question, Uh, we live in
Speaker 1: a divided time. How do you build a bridge between
Speaker 1: people that you may disagree with? I think it's very
Speaker 1: important that we do try and make that bridge. Politicians
Speaker 1: tend to want to make the divide greater so that
Speaker 1: they can occupy that space. It's up to artists and
Speaker 1: musicians to fill that space. Um, So that's I take
Speaker 1: that very responsibly. I don't I don't want to just
Speaker 1: play to a thing, to the choir, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to sing to everybody. UM. I
Speaker 1: think the message in the music is is a is
Speaker 1: a positive, a cohesive one. Society needs to cohere. We
Speaker 1: are one society. Uh, we have facing problems that we
Speaker 1: all have. You can't separate yourself from the problems and
Speaker 1: they have to they have to be tackled by society
Speaker 1: as a whole. So a divided country as a weak country.
Speaker 1: That's a great point and perfect note to end on. Sting.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today and your music.
Speaker 1: It's been such a pleasure. Thank you, Thank you, Jodano
Speaker 1: a pleasure to talk to you too. We hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio
Speaker 1: or other fantastic shows, check out the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.