Scottish multi-instrumentalist C Duncan is back with his third album, HEALTH, set to release on March 29. The lead single, “Impossible,” blends 70s disco with modern sensibilities to create an upbeat track with plenty of depth. Amy had the opportunity to ask C Duncan a few questions about his upcoming record.
Your third album is coming out very soon, on March 29. What's it been like to record this album? Has it been different from your first two records?
It has been quite a different process for me. My previous 2 albums were recorded and produced by myself at home, but with this record I wanted to go into a studio and change my sound up a bit. I also wanted to get more musicians involved - choir, strings, percussion etc, so working in an actual studio made this possible! I worked alongside Elbow’s producer and keyboardist Craig Potter in his studio next to Manchester, which was really eye-opening for me, as it meant that I had someone there to bounce ideas off of, which in a way was the biggest difference in the recording process for this new album.
Are there any main themes that this album touches on?
There are a lot of themes throughout the record, but the main ones are love, loss of love, anxiety, joy and healing. I wanted to make an album that varied a lot from song to song, which is why I decided to incorporate lots of different themes.
The lead single, "Impossible," has a very interesting mix of vocals that feel very dreamy with this sharper beat in the background. What was the inspiration behind the song?
I have always been a big fan of disco music and I wanted to have a go at making a couple of tracks for the record that were inspired by this, with my own spin on it. I grew up listening to a lot of Abba (yes…Abba…) and this has definitely filtered through into this track - as well as "Talk Talk Talk". I also wanted to write a song that had a catchy melody and words. As I’ve said, I wanted each song to have it’s own identity on this record, and so for “Impossible” I pulled out all the stops and made a good old fashioned pop song!
What's it been like to collaborate more on this record, instead of doing everything alone?
It has been an amazing experience. The record sounds better than I could ever have imagined, and that’s all down to the specific expertise of everyone else who worked on the record. The album is still very much me, but the sound is much bigger and spacious than anything I could have created alone. It was also a nice change from doing everything myself - much less isolating. Sharing and bouncing ideas off of everyone (especially Craig the producer) meant that we could get the sounds we were after, but still had the excitement of things changing last minute if an idea had popped into one of our heads.
How much of the recording was still done individually? Is it still mostly you playing and producing?
I perform everything on the album except strings, drums and some of the backing vocals (choir, female singers and Guy Garvey’s backing vocals in “Health”). A lot of the parts I recorded at home and by the time I arrived at the studio I had already demoed the whole album to quite a high standard. I had an idea of how I wanted each song to sound as I produced the demos, so it gave us a very good starting point when we started to re-record certain parts and add new parts.
Were there any other artists or songs that inspired HEALTH? Any influences outside music?
A lot of different aspects went into making this record with musical inspiration coming from lots of different places - yacht rock, Japanese citypop, choral music, disco, and artists such as John Grant, Tatsuro Yamashita, Dutch Uncles, Bjork and even Abba! Of course the artwork was inspired by artists such as David Hockney and the cover art of 1980s Japanese Citypop records.
What inspired the album's title? How is that reflected in the music?
The album title was very much inspired by all the songs and themes of the record. A lot of the tracks on the album came out of difficult times I was going through, and putting these feelings into the songs was a very cathartic process. It was a form of therapy for me. The title also reflects the often breezy and warm sound of the musical content and cover art. I wanted there to be a real juxtaposition between the bright and airy aesthetic of the record and the more sombre lyrical content.
Will you be taking the new music out on tour at all?
We have a UK tour coming up in April/May. After that hopefully we will head out to Europe and then hopefully to the States again soon!
What track (besides "Impossible," obviously) are you most looking forward to fans hearing?
I’m looking forward to people being able to hear the whole album as each track is very different. A personal favourite of mine though is “He Came from the Sun” so I guess I’m excited for people to hear that.
We have a signature question at Welcome Home Magazine that we ask every artist we interview. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start out in the music industry?
Go for it! There is so much that you can do and make from home that there’s nothing stopping you! I am completely self taught when it comes to recording and producing and I learned all of my skills from just listening to lots of music, watching videos of how to do things on Youtube, and experimenting LOTS AND LOTS. It really is a lot of fun!
C Duncan’s album HEALTH comes out on March 29. In the meantime, listen to “Impossible” here.
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