Sophie Ellis Bextor didn’t want to iron out any "faults" in her voice on her new album.
The 40-year-old singer’s songs have been rearranged with orchestral accompaniment on ‘The Song Diaries’ and the ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ hitmaker was keen to make her part in the recording process as simple as possible, even if that meant there were flaws.
She told You magazine: "I didn’t want to put out a greatest hits album with the same recordings on it – those songs are already out there. So these are new arrangements, and there are no overdubs, no Autotune, I wanted my voice to be recorded in one take.
"Especially with the orchestral stuff, I wanted it to sound as if I’d just walked into the room. I’m not frightened of things that have a bit of fragility, or a fault. I don’t understand why it’s so fashionable to iron all of that out. If there’s something a bit genuine, people respond to it a lot better.
"I think we see that on people’s Instagram accounts too. Generally, it’s accounts where people have something that’s quite authentic about them that people quite like… Of course I say that, but then there are probably some really manicured ones who have got way more followers. But in my head, at least, it’s the authentic ones that work."
Sophie – who has sons Sonny, 15, Kit, 10, Ray, seven, Jesse, three, and Mickey, four months, with husband Richard Jones – is preparing to go on tour in support of the record and admitted the gigs will be "intense", but she’s looking forward to the challenge.
She said: "It’s quite an intense gig for me, this one.
"The first half of the concert is pure orchestra with me alone, and then the band come out to join me and we go full disco – Studio 54, Philadelphia strings, layers and layers – which is really fun because you’ve got 30 musicians playing it live.
"But the first half is so delicate, between me and the orchestra, that I just feel I really need to concentrate."
Sophie Ellis-Bextor not worried about vocal flaws
