MARTI PELLOW
SPACE IS THE PLACE
MARTI PELLOW IS A MAN ON A MISSION – AND EVEN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC WASN’T ENOUGH TO STOP HIM RECORDING AN AMBITIOUS NEW DOUBLE ALBUM INSPIRED BY A DIVERSE CAST OF MUSICAL HEROES. HERE THE FORMER WET WET WET FRONTMAN TELLS CLASSIC POP ABOUT LOOKING TO THE FUTURE –AND LETTING GO OF THE PAST.
PAUL KIRKLEY
“Freaks are born to rule the world,” isn’t the sort of line you’d normally expect to hear being sung by Marti Pellow, whose trademark grin and unpretentious brand of blue-eyed soul-pop have always marked him out as a relatably ordinary kind of superstar. But the former Wet Wet Wet frontman’s new album, Stargazer, finds him channelling everything from David Bowie’s alien freakoid DNA to Ray Davies’ vaudeville pop – via Curtis Mayfield, Marc Bolan and Harry Nilsson – in a persuasive homage to his lifelong musical heroes.
“I’m wearing my influences on my sleeve, unapologetically so,” says Marti, who’s on typically Tiggerish form as he Zoom calls Classic Pop from his impressively well-appointed man cave (complete with actual four-poster bed) in Windsor. “The day you first realise you’re going to be a musician, it invades you, it discombobulates you, it rattles you up internally,” he adds of the sounds and visions that fired his youthful imagination. “I can remember watching Ziggy Stardust on TV, or watching The Old Grey Whistle Test, and thinking, ‘This is incredible. This is what I want to do.’”
Nearly half a century after Ziggy played guitar, the instrument proved to have a decisive impact on Marti’s 12th solo record – his first since signing a new deal with BMG. “I usually write on the piano, so picking up the guitar was a real revelation,” he says.
“Because I’m not exactly one of the best guitarists in the world, it makes me explore things differently. I was also listening to a lot of Bowie and The Kinks, and that all changed the soundscape of the record. In a way, it was about me connecting with the songs as a dreamer.” Hence the stargazing.
Clocking in at over an hour, the double album was recorded over two socially distanced four-day sessions in Monnow Valley in south Wales. With producer Andrew Scheps – whose engineering credits include U2, Metallica, Beyoncé, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Adele – at the helm, every track was captured in two or three mostly live ‘stream-of-consciousness’ takes.
New York Angel – the song in which he sings of freaks being born to greatness – is one of several cuts on the album to tip its hat to the Thin White Duke, and is performed with an appropriately Bowie-ish drawl.