About International Blue
His career is long and diverse. In 1979, Stephen Emmer was part of Minny Pops, shortly thereafter co-founded the magazine Vinyl, but subsequently earned his living primarily as a composer of applied music for commercials and clients such as the NOS and RTL. International Blue is only his third solo album, following Vogue Estate (1982) and Recitement (2007).
The often literary contributions to it came from writers, actors, and artists such as Lou Reed, Richard Burton, Remco Campert, and Hugo Claus. For International Blue, too, Emmer composed everything himself once again. It is a modern interpretation of, or rather a homage to, the epic pop music of Burt Bacharach and Scott Walker, among others. As crooners, we hear Midge Ure (Ultravox) once, the young unknown Neil Crossley (Furlined) and Liam McKahey (Cousteau) a few times, but Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) four times, who emerges as a cross between Bill Medley (Righteous Brothers) and David Bowie. In Untouchable, Gregory honours the late Billy MacKenzie (The Associates), with whom both he and Emmer worked in the past. The timeless International Blue may not appeal to every modern pop lover, but the craftsmanship with which it was made, coupled with that powerful production by Tony Visconti (the man behind and alongside Bowie since 1969), ensures that this album leans much more towards the capital A of great art than that of kitsch.
Tribute to pop crooners
OOR: International Blue is a tribute to pop crooners. Why?
SE: `If you make a lot of applied music like I do, then you have to do things. Because then there are clients, wishes, deadlines. If you make an album from within yourself, there are absolutely no obligations. It struck me that there used to be singers walking around who could do a lot themselves. In the days before computers and voice modifiers. That sometimes resulted in ugly things, but also beautiful songs like the ones you unfortunately don't hear very often anymore. I recently got to compile a list of favourites for Q magazine. The list contains songs by Scott Walker, David Bowie, Pulp, Billy MacKenzie, The Divine Comedy, and Righteous Brothers. But they still exist today: singers with emotions who do their best, without that vocal acrobatics involving alternating between a natural voice and a falsetto. In mainstream pop, that style of singing seems to have become a format these days. Coldplay started it, and now everyone is imitating it, from Rihanna to Miley Cyrus.
Featured voices
OOR: How did you select the voices featured on International Blue?
SE: ‘It happened very naturally. It started with Liam McKahey from the group Cousteau. About five years ago, I was paying for a record at Concerto and asked what they were playing. It turned out to be that Irish band. I bought that record too, and while making my album, I thought back to his voice. I emailed him, explained what I was planning, and asked if he was interested in joining. The fact that he was living in Australia by then didn't matter. It became a tele-collaboration without us having met. Next came Neil Crossley of the unknown Furlined and Glenn Gregory, an old favorite from Heaven 17, more or less in the same way. They were all happy to participate. Because they liked the music, were allowed to write the lyrics themselves, and I could offer them the best possible production, because Tony Visconti also wanted to collaborate on this project.'
OOR: The sound of International Blue certainly breathes the atmosphere of Burt Bacharach albums, but deviates completely in terms of working method because it was created using modern studio techniques. How do you pull that off?
SE: `I have developed a vision of music, based on my commissioned work. Often a commission reads: make something in the style of... You can't just suffice with copying. But I do try to fathom why something comes across the way it does. I then interpret that in a contemporary way. So my record breathes the sixties, with a touch of the eighties perhaps. I worked on it for a long time; the music is layered. But there is more. Phil Spector's Wall of Sound wasn't just about stacking, it also possessed detail. I love an adventurous color palette. In the sixties they used orchestras; I work with technical tools and do sound design. The beats, for example, are old school, like in the nineties, hip-hop-esqu. Think of Di Shadow's beats, but mixed less forward. My record was created using a hybrid of modern production techniques. But you are, of course, free to find the atmosphere beautifully old-fashioned.
[OOR - Willem Jongeneelen]