Bertie’s Britney Moment

On her newly-released third album Secrets and Lies, former guitar-wielding pop rocker Bertie Blackman delves into electronica for the first time.

It’s fortuitous timing, with female singer-songwriters from Ladyhawke to Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan adding electro touches to their music with great success. However, Blackman says her change of direction wasn’t influenced by the sounds of her contemporaries.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was little and hadn’t really explored another instrument before, so I decided to explore synthesisers, she told the Star.

When I wrote the record, I was actually listening to a lot of vinyl. It definitely wasn’t a concious decision, like -˜I’m going to do electro now’.

In truth, Secrets and Lies is a musically diverse album, with glam-rock stompers like Thump sitting alongside tracks like the ethereal, dreamlike opener Sky Is Falling. Blackman wrote or co-wrote every song, and let her creative instincts guide the process.

I don’t really decide to write about something -” I don’t sit there and think -˜I’m gonna write a song about this today’.

Stuff just tends to pour out. I’m more of an emotional writer, but I don’t really write songs for therapy. But it is an emotional process, pouring your heart out into the world.

For Blackman, crafting her songs from scratch is one of her greatest joys.

I get this crazy surge of adrenaline when I’m writing -” I get shaky hands, and it can take me all day to get my nerves down when I’m writing a lot. It’s the best feeling in the world -” it makes you a bit nuts though. I spent seven months devoting myself to this record and I’m only just surfacing now. It was an interesting time, especially for the people I live with, she laughed.

While Secrets and Lies represents something of a shift from Blackman’s earlier albums, there was an indication of her new direction in the form of her 2008 single with dance producer Paul Mac, The Only One.

Paul’s just got a way with artists, she said of the collaboration.

He’s got a way of pushing you, pushing you and pushing you. It’s hard going into a studio with a complete stranger and singing another person’s song, but he was such a lovely guy and so easy to work with. Because we worked so well together, we finished the track in two hours. It was good for me to do something out of my sphere, a real pop song.
And with the song featured on the soundtrack to high school flick Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger, the accompanying video saw Blackman decked out in full uniform and channelling her own school days.

I never, ever in my whole life thought I’d end up in a school uniform again. And there I was, just like Britney!

info: Secrets and Lies out now. Bertie Blackman plays Oxford Arts Factory on May 29.

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Bertie Blackman … -˜I get this crazy surge of adrenaline when I’m writing.’