Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s. His critically acclaimed debut album, My Aim Is True, was recorded in 1977. Shortly after recording it he formed the Attractions as his backing band. His...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth25 August 1954
CityLondon, England
This record may explain what I've been doing during the last 12 years when I haven't had an electric guitar in my hands.
Very similar experience happened last year when we released this album, North. It was on Deutsche Grammophon, it was very, very honest. It was the most honest record I've ever written.
We were really looking for a fresh sound, and I think you can hear that with the use of electronics on the record, ... It makes it fun to play loud music without it being a retro thing at all.
I didn't want it to sound like a pastiche of Andersen,
My family calls me Declan. But most people call me E.C. I think it comes from my dad. It's an Irish convention. You usually call the first child by the initials.
When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there.
It would be a surprise if people thought I would be playing a lot of rock 'n' roll.
The songs will tell a story that I have imagined existing between the lines of Andersen's biography and some of his most famous tales, ... They speak of a misfit's love for an unattainable woman and a struggle between a huckster and someone who composes music in secret.
There's no such thing as an original sin.
Those days she was just a beautiful girl, now she's framed and hung up.
I woke up and one of us was crying.
Though the passion still flutters and flickers, it never got into our knickers.
It's what's on the record not what labels on it. You know, that's like getting a box of cornflakes and eating the cardboard.
It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for.