DOTMUSIC - Part 2

Dotmusic catches up with Geri Halliwell to talk some more about her debut solo album.

dotmusic: Hello again Geri, when we met you in Milan recently you seemed to be saying that you'd done your best with the new single and album and that now it was up to us to like it. You seemed almost blasé about its success.

Geri: "Oh no, I'm deeply bothered. I'm very split anyway, half of me thinks you've got to let things go and that you can't control everything and the other half thinks I want you to love my album, I care totally. I didn't know whether I was good enough to do it for a start. I've always been very instrumental in the writing in the Spice Girls - I had a very big part in that and the imagination, the creativity and the drive. But the actual singing I hadn't actually sung a whole song before."

dotmusic: Was it a shock when you went into the studio then?

Geri: "A friend of George (Michael)'s said 'have a go at this' and that broke the back of it and that was really good for me because it sounded alright and it wasn't even my song. It's much easier when you write it yourself because you write it around your own vocal range and tone that would you sing. The way I write I just pick up my Dictaphone in the middle of the night. For instance with 'Stop' I woke up and just sang "Stop right now, thank you very much…" or sometimes I might just write subconsciously. I've always done a lot rhyme even as a child sitting outside the outside loo waiting for my turn I'd sit outside and write."

dotmusic: Do you play piano or guitar?

Geri: "I don't play an instrument. I can play two chords, but I know melody and I know I need to move to here from here when I'm writing so I go in there with an idea and I'm great at top line melodies. My way of writing is very unpatronising. I always think you should be able to sing it, everybody should be able to sing it. I hate it as a buyer when I cannot join in. I know I'm not Mariah Carey but I like to talk to people and in music you can talk."

dotmusic: Is the new album targeted at existing fans or new fans?

Geri: "I'm hoping for the best of both worlds. I don't want to alienate my old fans because without them I wouldn't be here and I think it's really foolish to disregard where you've come from. I love pop music, but pop music doesn't have to be crap and you can grow and I think we shouldn't underestimate the hunger and minds of a teenager. They're continually growing and they're going to like it because they're growing too. I think society is blending into one. We're all teenagers still. I really hope you like my album because there's so much more to it than cheesy pop. I haven't cheated. I haven't cut corners, I really haven't."

dotmusic: "We've had a sneak preview of four songs off the new album. It sounds very diverse.

Geri: "It is. As an album buyer myself I'm always really conscious of not being indulgent because I write what I like to hear and I don't think I'm much different from you or anyone else. Compilations do brilliantly now don't they, and I have that eclectic taste and I don't like it when you buy an album and it all sounds the same and there's two songs on there that you want to sing along to and the rest is drivel. I think £16 an album, that's a lot of money and if someone is going to fork that out for my album I'm going to make sure I give as much as I can. I'd rather do ten great tracks that all stand alone than fourteen tracks of drivel. Ten good ones is enough, I'd rather quality not quantity."

source: dotmusic