Thirty-three years after The One And Solely, Chesney Hawkes is again with a brand new album, Dwelling Arrows, which he postponed releasing till he moved again to the UK from Los Angeles.
In 1991, there have been few teen stars larger than Chesney Hawkes. However since breaking by way of with the No.1-charting, Nik Kershaw-penned The One And Solely, the singer has launched simply 5 albums, along with his sixth long-player, Dwelling Arrows, about to hit the cabinets. “It’s taken a very long time to really feel assured sufficient to actually throw myself again right into a undertaking,” the one-time pin-up tells us about his long-awaited comeback.
It’s been 12 years since your final studio album, Actual Life Love. Why now?
For these 12 years, I used to be in L.A. and busy citing youngsters. I had this album in my thoughts since earlier than Covid, however I felt prefer it’s such a private report and so English that I didn’t wish to be over there once I put it out. I knew we have been coming again to the UK to reside in some unspecified time in the future, and simply needed to be on dwelling soil, again within the motherland, earlier than releasing something.
Although there are rock flavours on the album, it’s nonetheless very pop. Is that the songwriting custom you come from?
My songwriting background continues to be The Beatles, Stevie Surprise, Elvis Costello and David Bowie, barely old-school. However [on Living Arrows] I collaborated with a man referred to as Jake Gosling, who’s labored with Ed Sheeran and Woman Gaga and One Path, so I really feel like he took my conventional songwriting methods and introduced a recent industrial really feel to it, production-wise.
And also you’re working with Nik Kershaw once more on the brand new album…
On three songs, I feel. I all the time say there are two forms of folks on this world – Nik Kershaw followers and people who must be Nik Kershaw followers. He’s one in every of my besties. We’ve written lots of of songs collectively through the years. There are such a lot of little tips and enjoyable issues that he does naturally that I’ve simply gone, ‘oh, I’m taking that.’ He’s such a mentor to me.
The video for the primary single off the album, Get A Maintain Of Your self, has you dancing bare round a British stately dwelling. That’s a courageous factor to do in your fifties.
The tune could be very a lot about freedom of self-expression, if you get to a sure age and also you’ve overcome adversities in life, and realising you don’t give a shit what anybody else thinks, that it’s okay to be you so long as you’ve obtained your ethical compass in the appropriate place. So I needed to do one thing daring and courageous to mirror that, after which I noticed [the movie] Saltburn. You might have seen it, the lead character prancing round, swinging within the wind, completely bare, free as something, and simply liberated. It clicked one thing in me, and so once we have been seeking to do a video, I stored coming again to it…
I introduced it to the group, they usually have been like, “You’re fucking mad, you realise that you simply’re 52!?” I did ask my supervisor if I’d get the piss ripped out of me, as a result of I do have a barely dad bod.
So did you might have time to hit the fitness center earlier than filming?
We solely had per week to get this collectively so I wasn’t in a position to make myself appear to be Ryan Gosling! My spouse was very supportive, she got here alongside to the video shoot. And my youngsters have been hilarious – they have been like, “Oh, it’s simply dad doing his midlife disaster factor!”
The One And Solely continues to be the tune you’re finest remembered for. It’s an extremely catchy observe – do you ever end up buzzing it round the home or within the bathe?
I’ve obtained a really excessive radar for that tune. Hear, I’m a music client, and I do get stuff caught in my head, so I’m all the time wandering round singing. I typically get up with a tune in my head, and marvel, ‘the place did that come from this morning?’ At this time, I’ve been singing Oliver’s Military all day. But when The One And Solely will get in my head, I’m like, ‘Get away!’ Simply the opposite day I used to be in a resort, strolling down a hall, and The One And Solely began enjoying by way of the audio system, and I assumed, ‘Nice resort, shit alternative in music!’
You’ve had large gaps between albums earlier than. Do you suppose it’ll be one other 12-year wait till LP quantity seven?
I’ve already began occupied with the following album. This explicit hole was just a little bit completely different due to the place I used to be in life with the children and transferring to L.A. and concentrating on writing and producing for different folks, and stuff like that. However now I positively have the bug once more. Listening to the only being performed on Radio 2 was actually emotional for me. I’m ashamed to say I shed a tear. Listening to Scott Mills saying, “New music from Chesney Hawkes!”, it simply took me again to 1991 and listening to The One And Solely on the radio for the primary time.
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Learn Extra: Nik Kershaw interview – The Riddle