Interview > Al Start

Al Start is a chatterbox. She is an interviewer’s dream: you put a question to her and she’s off – like a greyhound out of the traps – answering not only the original question but skimming the rest of your list before you can even put them to her. When you ask why, if someone has never seen her live before, they should go to see her you absolutely believe that when she tells you they’ll find out the story (and the gossip!) behind every song she’s written, that is exactly what they’ll get. “I like to really involve the audience,” she says, “so I like to set the scene for every song. I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Throughout our conversation she is always mindful of her audience. Does she get bored of playing the same songs I ask her, “Sometimes,” she says, “but first and foremost I’m an entertainer, so I can’t be too self-indulgent. I try to bring new songs into the act but I really want to please the audience and if they’ve spent money to come see me, chances are they’re expecting to hear at least something they recognise.” The ‘something’ they recognise though may only be the bare bones of her recorded music, since her performances are generally acoustic sets – just Al and her trusty guitar – although she did enlist the help of multi-talented Kellie Santin on her recent acclaimed Go tour. “It would have been over an hour’s worth of material - just me and my guitar – but Kellie is so versatile, it brought a whole new element to the set.”

The Go album is the thing that she is most proud of to this point of her life. I was trying to pin her down to naming a single track or performance but she just couldn’t do it. “It’s got to be the whole album – as a whole piece of work – I don’t think I can pinpoint a particular song. But everything about Go – I mean right down to the cover, I tried to make every single bit of detail as good as I could.” And with the album being produced by Lone Coyote Records – which Al has a personal stake in – she managed to maintain the control of the whole production, something that is important to her.

Now that she has finished touring for a while and is writing new material she is also taking stock of where she wants to go next, and one of the options she is considering is working with another independent label – one with a bit more ‘clout’. But wouldn’t that entail losing some of the control that is so important to her? I ask. “I would need to maintain the control, definitely,” she says, “the production of a song can make it or break it. As a songwriter I write songs on a guitar but I imagine how I would want to produce it. It’s a dilemma for artists, do you produce an album that you can reproduce exactly in a live performance, or do you make every song just how you want it to be production-wise – with extra instruments, vocals, etc – but then perform it acoustically? I decided on Go that I would opt for how I wanted it to be production wise. You just hope that when an audience hears the acoustic version of it they still buy into it – it’s obviously the same, but different.”

Does she get nervous before she walks out on stage? I ask. “I used to get really nervous but it all seems to have clicked now,” she says, “I have Horse to thank for that.” Al supported Horse on her UK tour in 2004. “It was a great experience, it was just amazing for me to tag along really, it was big venues, big stages, a massive crew – I really had to get through the fear. But being on tour really helps because it’s every night. It’s not as if you do a gig and then don’t do another for months so your nerves build up again, it’s just constant and it works really well. The more I gig the more I love it. I’m really excited about the L of a Night gig. It’ll be really fun.”

Al met Horse at Brighton Pride years ago. “We both played on the main stage,” she explains, “and I gave her a copy of my album and asked her for some feedback. She sent me a massive long email with suggestions and thoughts and ideas which I thought was fantastic – that she had actually taken the time to really listen to it and give honest feedback. And we just kept in touch. I kept offering my services every time I knew she was touring, and then about 3 years later I was in the co-op buying cat food (Hmmm, cats rather than dogs then, I thought), and she calls me and asks if I’d like to support her on her tour! It was a brilliant experience and a real opportunity for me.”

And remembering the opportunity she was given she tries to offer other artists similar breaks. She did ‘loads of research’ tracking down her contemporaries in places she was due to perform in on the Go tour, inviting them to support her when she was in their area. “It’s good Karma,” she says simply. “I think it’s a bit of a myth that you have to be hard to be successful,” she continues, “I think people who are successful at what they do are often willing to share and learn from others. It took me a while to learn that,” she admits, “but I think if you take time with your audience they remember it and respect it.”

But what would she really like to be remembered for? “Definitely for my music – as a good songwriter and a good live performer … oh, and a massive number one hit!” As a gay performer? “I’m Al Start – singer/songwriter. I’m very happy to be gay, very proud of it. My music isn’t aimed solely at a gay audience, but I’m gay, my music is me, so its gay by default – it’s a view of life through gay glasses but it’s not just for gay audiences.”

She relaxes through escapism – watching films – favourite: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café; reading – recent favourite: The Time Traveller’s Wife (although she does like a good Sarah Waters’ novel) and playing with her friends’ children. “I used to work with children a lot when I had the workshop,” she says (she used to have a metal workshop before she decided to concentrate solely on her music.) “I might do something again with kids in the future – I like working with them.” But for now while she makes the decision about where to go next, she is working on her next album, probably due out some time in 2008. In the meantime, keep an eye out for her live performances and if you can get to see her, take some advice, see her.


For more information about Al, her music, her live performances and, of course, the place to buy her albums visit her website and her space at myspace.