Interview Breakfast at Bowie
from Radio Clyde 1 - 19 August 2003 / Transcribed by Rute

Bowie – Right this is Bowie at breakfast on Clyde one, its 22 minutes to 8, now we gonna play the new Texas song shortly. And, we have Sharleen here, morning you!
Sharleen – Good morning.
Bowie – How do you get up at this time of the day?
Sharleen – ooo its easy peasy.
Bowie – Well I do everyday cos I have to but I tell you if I was you I wouldn't bother.
Sharleen – Well I heard you just been on a nice holiday. My mother’s told me, she says “oh he’s back from his holidays”. So I hear you been taking it easy, you’ve not been up this early.
Bowie – Not for a couple of weeks, but for the like, last 7 years.
Sharleen – Couple of weeks.... let´s now... I wish I had a couple of weeks to go on holiday!
Bowie – See i´m like you, I´ve got kids as well, so I know what is like to be woken up at all hours of the night. How’s the whole motherhood thing going?
Sharleen – It’s realy good, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. And you know what I gotta be really honest, she sleeps like a dream, I’ll probably go home today and she’ll go like that wide awake for the rest of her lifetime, no she’s sleeping really well, so I been pretty lucky.
Bowie – Well, I’ll go for a daughter that sleeps like a dream you know what I mean, cos mine’s a nightmare.
Sharleen – Oh God!
Bowie – So anyway, new sound?
Sharleen – You like it?
Bowie – I really do I mean, I haven’t heard the album I’ve only heard the single.
Sharleen – Yeah
Bowie – I just... I found myself like in the past 6 months or so getting like into that R’n´B kind of urban thing I know you´ve been into it for years, and I never really liked it but I just so got into it now and I think this is the time for that isn´t it?
Sharleen – Yeah well I mean the things is the album with the R´n´B thing we wanted to take it on to the next stage and the dance-hall sound, and Kardinal Offishall, you know, is someone who, who´s you know we really like what he’s doing and his whole approach and new sound to music. You know, it was good to link up and do this record. Erm, and yeah, I mean hopefully we pushed the border a bit and we given people something to think about, you know rather than just doing the same old same old. So yeah I gotta say we´re very very happy with the way things have gone with this album.
Bowie – It´s not gonna be what people expect, is it?
Sharleen – Erm, we, I don't know if we´ve really ever done anything people would expect.
Bowie – Yeah now that you come to mention it, I go down with all the odd experimental thing you done over the years and working with the Wu tang Klan and all that.
Sharleen – Yeah, that's, I mean, I mean we´ve tried to mix, I mean. as I said, you know, we not gonna make a whole dance-hall record but at the end of the day is music that we beenlisteningg to and we been influenced by and you know you gonna get lots of different stuff on this album, you know theres acoustic stuff, theres ballads, theres you know, you know, really in-your-face more rocky songs, there´s everything. Its very very mixed and its a very exciting album to make.
Bowie – Yeah and you working with a lot of people that, we know. Cos we don´t know the industry people, you know, we just go *mumbles mumbles*, they working with this bloke, who the heck´s he? But I see you were working with Trevor Horn.
Sharleen – Yep, we did some stuff with Trevor, and ...
Bowie – He´s a legend man, he´s like.. wow.
Sharleen – (laughs) a lot of people that do go like but the thing is they will go (sings) “Video killed the radio star”.
Bowie – Is he still wearing those big glasses? The boat selector glasses?
Sharleen – He wears glasses but he doesn't wear them anymore. But he’s quite good, he was telling us lots of stories from when he was doing MTV back then, and yeah it´s interesting, it was good.
Bowie – yeah and Guy Chámbers as well.
Sharleen – Guy Chambers yeah we did a couple songs.
Bowie – Is it Chambers or Chámbers? I can never remember the guy´s name, see I didn't know it was not Chámbers.
Sharleen – We did a couple songs with Guy, which was really fast and good fun we got that done, and it´s something that, you know, that we been talking about doing for a while and eventually got around to it, and I think the whole coming of it is... you know when you put me, Johnny and Guy in a room together and write songs erm, I would HOPE to go with something good was gonna come off of it unless we´re all get the sack. But no, it turned out real good so we did that and we worked with Ian Brody as well, which was... you know, Ian drove up to Liverpool and, erm well I should say we've been to Liverpool, and had, you know that was really good being in the studio where all those choral records had been made and everything, and working in that vybe, that was good as well.
Bowie – So you got that kinda sound going down as well?
Sharleen – We´ve got lots, honestly you gonna be, I think people are gonna be, if you think you´re surprised with the single, just wait till you hear the album.
Bowie – Really? I remember last time you were in town you played in the NCC with the Greatest Hits tour and we came on stage we we gave you that award.
Sharleen – Yeah
Bowie – Are you gonna come back? Are you gonna do the live thing or did motherhood finished that?
Sharleen – OF COURSE oh shut up
Bowie – See well I don't know ...
Sharleen – That’s because you´re not a mother!
Bowie – Well exactly you know? I don't know if that affects when you´re out doing gigs or not.
Sharleen – I, honestly, you know what? You know a lot of people say that it changes you and everything and I´ve got to say it´s actually been really good and really easy, and it´s been, you know I don't do a 9 to 5 job so.
Bowie – No, it´s true
Sharleen – You know we make our own hours, its how we do it as a band and what we wanna do and its been real easy and I can just stuck her to a chair and she sits there listen to the record and she’ll beg for that noise cos she knows we´ll be running around in absolute chaos. But erm, no it´s been, it´s been really easy to do.
Bowie - You sold 20 million albums, you can call the shots, you can tell them where you gonna play and when you gonna play.
Sharleen - We've sold a couple of records.
Bowie - I just saw this here because it kinda flashed on my screen. You sold 20 million records worldwide, is that true?
Sharleen - yep
Bowie - Jesus Christ, so it looks like it's gonna be another few million on this one.
Sharleen - You know what? I'd hope, I'd love it to do that. At the end of the day it's been a great record to make and I'm still really excited listening to it. You know, even do we've been through all this time making it, I still really enjoy listening to it myself all day. And you know for people it's just the beginning but we've been listening to it now for over a year.
It's just like working on the songs and getting all together and I'm really excited about people hearing it. I think we've gone somewhere else, I think Texas is going somewhere else. And you know Johnny and I our songwriting is really went up a gear. And don't be expecting a nice soft record because ....
Bowie - We never did
Sharleen - People are gonna , we're gonna be ready for a new face record.
Bowie - Fantastic, listen Sharleen I can't wait to hear the album and we'll talk to you when that comes out alright?
Sharleen - Alright, don't take too many holidays in between.
Bowie - No, I used up my five weeks so I'm stuck here till the end of the year.
Bowie - It's been nice speaking to you, say hello to all the guys for us and we're gonna play the new single Carnival Girl. All the best Sharleen.
Sharleen - Thanks a lot.


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