
One of the Portuguese bands you will hear in our hotel – Tings Lisbon – is the super pop act The Gift who just released some of their best music ever.[/caption]
The idea for ‘Love Without Violins’ came out of Sonia’s startling voice. She sings in exactly the same register as me (I think it’s called baritone) but has a couple of extra octaves at the top – so she’s a sort of baritone soprano. How I envy those extra octaves.
Anyway, she was singing this song over this dark, dangerous sonic landscape – it didn’t have many words at first – but I got a picture of a scenario where a different kind of love was being performed. Her voice suggested a woman of supreme, almost scornful confidence, someone who likes to play with people who like to be played with. I wanted this idea of a kind of love that wasn’t pink and fluffy and adolescent, but had undertones – and overtones – of control and surrender, of people prepared to go all the way to the limits of their imaginations.
I think it may be the only time I’ve written the word ‘love’ in any song…but it’s not puppy love I was talking about. It’s tough love. Love without violins.