Singer / songwriter brandished Carlile and Elton John
Peggy Sirota / Universal Music Group
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tilting legend
Peggy Sirota / Universal Music Group
Almost as soon as John started to record his latest album, he started to explode everything.
In 2023, he and his long -standing lyricist Bernie Taupin contacted the singer / composer Brandi Carlile and proposed to make an album together – in just 20 days.
“We entered with Andrew Watt (the producer), Brandi, Bernie Taupin and myself,” said Elton John Morning edition Host a Martínez. “We had nothing. But that’s what excited me. I didn’t want to know what was going to happen. I wanted to be unprepared and live a great adventure.”
This “great adventure” has become the new album Who believes in angels?
The project was unusual in more ways than one. This is the first time that Erton John has left a camera team to document his writing and recording process. And what viewers see is: the first sessions were disastrous.
The video also reveals something surprising. Even after all its success, Elton John is still becoming nervous.
“Fear led me to have a doubt of my writing, to what the album should be,” he said. “I was in a low mood, a little Ornery during the first 5 or 6 days, to say it slightly. And sometimes I said to myself:” I don’t know if we have to continue with it. “But once he set up, he just continued like a rocket.”
In the end, Elton John called him “one of the greatest experiences I have had in recent years in the studio”.
This interview has been modified for duration and clarity.
Transcription of the interview
In Martínez: It seems that there was a tense moment in the studio.
Brandi Carlile: There have been tense moments. But, you know, he carries his heart on his sleeve, let’s say it this way. We are kidding on this subject because it was very intense – and he looked touched and Go for a while. But I can only think of anything more musical than simply acting what you feel when you create music. And it’s a complicated thing. But you hear it. You can hear it in recording, and you no longer hear this kind of thing because things can become really synthetic in the studios, but not with Elton John there.
Elton John: And the frustrations I had were mainly frustrations as to my own ability to obtain the rights of words or to melody or good harmony. Doubt is something you always have when you make an album.
A Martínez: But wait a second: you are Elton John! How do you have a doubt about making music?
Elton John: You must have a doubt. I think that each artist – whether it is a painter or a composer or a dancer or a photographer – is part of the process. Do I do the right thing? Is this the best I can do at this special moment?
When we started, I was frustrated on this subject. But then everything was set up when Bernie gave me the words of “The Rose of Laura Nyro” and “Little Richard’s Bible”. And then she wrote “Swing for the Fenges”. Once we had made these tracks, it was an easy navigation.
If you have no doubt, you shouldn’t be there because you are on the way. You should never ride. I never have on the point and I never want to ride.
A Martínez: Branded, did you have any doubts?
Brandi Carlile: Oh yeah, about me. Just as Elton had doubts about himself. But the album was an act of faith – of our friendship and the musicality of the other and whether these things would mix or not. You cannot have faith without any doubt.
A Martínez: There was a moment in this video, brandished, where you said: “I find it difficult to connect with Elton.” What was going on there?
Brandi Carlile: Well, I had trouble connecting with Elton!
I was a little scared at the beginning. It took me a second to become strong. But one of the main things that was going on was: he wanted to call him one day. He didn’t want to go make the album. There were really sad things in the world, and he thought it was not the right time. And everyone, including Bernie, was like: “It’s good. Elton has only a moment of doubt and insecurity.” But I respect Elton so much that I said to myself: “I want to honor this.” If he doesn’t want to do this now, I want to be careful because there may be a certain wisdom.
And I’m going to tell you a story: the first song we wrote and recorded did not make the album, and it was actually not a great song. When we arrived on the second day and the producer took it back for us, I watched Elton do something that I was never courageous enough to do. The song ended, and Elton looks at me and Bernie and Andrew and he said: “I hate it, hate that.” And then he says: “I will not continue.”
I died at that time. But then I said to myself in the following days: in fact, that not GOOD. Why was no one courageous enough to say that they hate him except him? There is something really pure in this reaction.
Elton John: Yeah, it was an Elton John-Do-it-By Numbers typical song type. And I was so upset by my boring and boring things that I did for this song. So I was very critical of myself and I hated him. It was not the record I wanted to make. It seemed to have been a song on an album of 10, 20 years ago. I know it was not for me.
Brandi Carlile: And if you didn’t say that – and we continued to move forward like that – we may have made an entire album like that. But you are the one who prevented this from happening.
A Martínez: Brandi, the song “Swing for the Fells” – I read that you have the impression that it was your jewel that you were going to bring to all of this.
Brandi Carlile: It is a love letter to LGBTQ youth. It is also a thank you letter to Elton in some respects.
He really wanted me to write a rock and roll song. He really wanted it to be positive and edifying and exciting. It was the only song that looked like a mission, you know? And I just wanted him to love her so much.
This is the first song I brought to him in the studio. And he loved it.
Elton John: I went, “Hallelujah! She finally understood it! Hallelujah! That’s what I want her for a long time.” It was like the manne of heaven. I really loved every second.
A Martínez: Elton, it seems that mortality returns to this album a little, accepting the end of things or perhaps fighting to take advantage of the days that owed us. Was it a theme that you consciously try to include here?
Elton John: No, not really. The song Bernie gave me, which is the last song I recorded (“When this old world is finished with me”), I was halfway from the lyrics of the bus, then I arrived at the choir and I discovered what it was. And then I broke down.
When this old world is over to me /
Just know that I arrived so far /
Be broken in pieces /
Disperse among the stars /
When this old world is over to me /
When I close my eyes /
Free me like an ocean wave /
Send me back to the tide.
I think when you arrive at a certain age, you think of mortality. And if you have children and a family, you think about it. But I am not a dark and breathtaking person. I think I have so much more time on this planet. I am in good shape. I am in good health. But this is a time when we think of what will happen, how are they going to be if I am not here? It’s just a human thought.
It is an optimistic song in a way. If you can sing about it, you agree with that. This is part of life. And it is important to sing about this. But I have never sang on this subject as significant as this song. The lyrics touched me so much.
Brandi Carlile: It’s really interesting how Elton and Bernie are connected. When he entered the printer and he held him in my hands for the first time, I looked at him and I said to myself: “I wonder how Bernie feels right now,” you know? Elton and Bernie were so connected over the years – Elton’s story has sang Bernie so many times that I think that this word is a link between the two. And it was really beautiful to watch who come out and see the link between these two men playing in real time.
Elton John: Yeah, it is about as much about Bernie as of me. And this is what made me even more upset, because we had the closest relationship than we could have, as partners and authors-composers and friends and allies. It is so special that when you see him written like that in black and white, you think: “I wonder which one he means? Do he hear me? Does he mean him?”
A Martínez: Was this song difficult to sing?
Elton John: I broke down. Then I made up. But Andrew said, “No, it’s not good. You are not in the right mindfulness singing today. You come tomorrow when you are fresh and you do the piano and the vocal live at the same time.”
And that’s what you hear. I entered, I did it first – piano and vocal live – and that’s what you hear.
A Martínez: Branded, is there something that has come out of this process that may make you a better songwriter?
Brandi Carlile: Oh, my God, doesn’t even throw me.
I wrote recently for a new album – an album by Brandi Carlile – and miss so Elton … but remembering that the Elton music of which I witnessed in the live studio is a well to whom I will always be able to draw.
I have rigidity about me. This is not my favorite thing in my house. I have few rules, shades and limits. And Elton – as a writer, musician, and also as a friend – he explodes these separate borders. It is lacking through them. And I will always do it because of it. These rigidities, they left.
I have them around other things now!
The audio version of this story was produced by Adam Bearne. The digital version was published by Majd al-Waheidi.
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