RENAISSANCE MAN WI L L YOUNG TOUCHES DOWN ONCE AGAIN ON

PLANET POP WITH A BRAND NEW STUDIO ALBUM HELMED BY RICHARD X AND A FRESH ANXIETY- FREE APPROACH

DUNCAN SEAMAN

Turning 40 this year has given Will Young a renewed determination and impetus to create great pop

© Steve Schofield

Two years ago Will Young thought he’d turned his back for good on pop. His 2015 album, 85% Proof, had topped the UK charts and he’d followed it with an extensive British tour. But after a decadeand- a-half on the music biz treadmill, he felt industry pressures were taking their toll.

“I needed to stop but couldn’t think of a way I’d do it that was going to be safe for me and for my well-being, because I have an anxiety disorder,” he says. “I just thought, ‘This isn’t working for me, the people I’m working with are not working. I’m just going to stop, take stock and see what I want to do.’”

An appearance in the 2016 series of Strictly Come Dancing might have only lasted three weeks, as he grappled with post-traumatic stress disorder, but he found his métier instead in acting.

Acclaimed roles in West End productions of Cabaret and Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom delivered on the promise he’d shown in 2005 film Mrs Henderson Presents and Noel Coward stage play The Vortex.

Gradually, too, Will found his way back into music in a way, he says, “that made sure that I enjoyed it and that my well-being was at the forefront”. Now comes his seventh album, Lexicon, an elegant dose of sophisti-pop.

PRESSURE DROP

Will puts his more relaxed approach to music-making down to several contributory factors. “I only work a four-day week. I’m not with a management company so I don’t feel pressured, I’m with an independent label, and I’m not anti-record company. I decided that I didn’t want to write loads of songs because I find that very pressured and then, of course, because I didn’t want to write songs, I ended up writing the two singles. That’s interesting – take the pressure off and the writing was better.