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
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.
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.
I found with this record I had to really be strong-willed, because in the past I've tended to tinker and add a thing or take a thing away, and nearly always been wrong.
I followed The Byrds a lot, and then when they did a country styled record it made me curious to know who these people were that they liked.
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.
I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.
You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.
It would be a surprise if people thought I would be playing a lot of rock 'n' roll.
The words that are being spoken are serious, whether you take them at face value or listen to them at all, ... I'm not a preacher, I'm a singer. I can sing about serious things, but I don't think I have to put on a pious face to do it.
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.
I've been asked to sing and that's what I do. People come (to this event) for all the right reasons.
I've always thought of myself as a ballad singer who could sing rock 'n' roll, not the other way around,
Seems to me, that the worlds are moving closer together rather than one invading the other. I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.
I didn't want it to sound like a pastiche of Andersen,