John Taylor: There is a wide range of influences on the album, Little Feat, Jeff Buckley, even Coldplay. I would love for my children to actually listen to this record and to understand the lyrics if only to reassure them of my love for them. This album is definitely a positive and hopefully uplifting album overall. I’ve been through some quite challenging life situations over the last few years but have come through the other side all the stronger for it. There are some lyrics where I’m kind of offering my help and advice and experience and hoping that my children and friends and family know that I’m there for them whenever they need a shoulder and support. Did you find yourself speaking to them as you were singing?ĭom Brown: Yes, definitely in places. John Taylor: There are many messages in the music, particularly of hope and self-belief in overcoming life’s obstacles. You have two young children. Read our Duran Duran Pop Art feature Read our feature on Duran Duran’s album Liberty Often I’ll write and record a lead vocal and all the backing vocals on a song only to go off them and totally rewrite from scratch. I’ll say though that it’s very rare that I get a lyric finished that quickly. I was really inspired and literally wrote the lyrics and recorded the final version of the vocal for it in one afternoon. I was editing some backing tracks, that the executive of a production music company wanted to license, and just fell back in love with one of the tracks. I began singing again by accident… it was actually right around the time of the first lockdown in early 2020. Writing this album has been very cathartic for me. Hopefully listeners will find it uplifting and optimistic. Finding one’s feet, living in the here and now and believing in oneself. The journey is one of self-discovery, of new beginnings, not having regrets and moving on with life in a positive way. I must say Jennifer had a huge input on that lyric. Trump-mania was getting out of control and the situation in the UK was, and still is, so divided and unstable. This is the only song that has a political angle on the album and refers to the political climate in both the US and the UK at the time we wrote that lyric. When you say, “you start out angry” I guess you’re referring to Ripples in The Water. I just needed to flesh out the production and enhance the build of the song. It was sitting on the shelf but I knew it would be perfect, with its positive lyric and cinematic mood, as this album’s closer.
In fact the final song, Let It Wash Away, was a song that I’d previously written the lyric for with my father and a singer called Jennifer Ann Keller. At that point I did start to think about this as a journey and continued writing and adapting with that in mind.Īs I was getting closer to completion I definitely factored in the journey concept and carefully chose the song order. Initially I hadn’t set out with that deliberately in mind but as I was developing the songs it became apparent to me that there was a theme running through most of them. I’m glad you’re feeling that I’ve achieved that with this album. Did you conceive of the album as a journey, or did the songs fall into place once they were finished?ĭom Brown: I’m with you on that, John – I love an album that takes the listener on a journey, too. You end the album a wiser and happier man than you started it.
It’s as though you had a spiritual epiphany while writing the songs. You start out angry but end with belief and absolute faith.
Listening to your new album it seems I am taking a journey with you, Dom. I’d like to ask you a few questions about the process of how it all came together. I’ve always been a fan of albums that take the listener on a journey. I feel it’s on an entirely new level to any of your previous solo work. Duran Duran’s John Taylor interviews the band’s guitarist Dom Brown about his latest solo album In My Bonesĭuran Duran’s John Taylor: I just love this new album.