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Watch videoof Carr at:

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NEWMUSICBy Jim Gellatly

JONATHAN CARRWHERE: London/LanarkshireFOR FANS OF: Tom Odell,James Bay, Bruno MarsJIM SAYS: Originally from New-arthill near Motherwell, 27-year-old Jonathan’s musical journeyhas taken him all over the world.

At 17 he won a scholarship tothe renowned Berklee Collegeof Music in Boston. He learntfrom some of the greats while atcollege, with the likes of JamesTaylor popping in to talk to thestudents.

He also got the opportunity towork with John Mayer. Jonathansaid: “The college chose somesongwriters to play for him. Hetook a few of us into the studioand worked on our songs.

“I was lucky enough to havehim produce my song TheJoke’s On Me and play guitar.”

More recently Jonathan col-laborated on an anthem forGlasgow 2014. He explained: “Iwas asked by Glasgow CityCouncil and UNCIEF to write asong for the CommonwealthGames to be sung by a choirfrom different local schools whocollectively were called East 40.

“I wrote it with ScottHutchison, from FrightenedRabbit, and he brought in Fred-die Cowan from The Vaccinesand Paul Thomson from FranzFerdinand and we laid down thetrack together. It was a greatexperience.

“We played it at GlasgowGreen in front of tens of thou-sands of people the night of theopening ceremony.”

Though based in London

now, Jonathan’s teamed up witha Swedish label for the releaseof his debut album PorcelainSky.

Rocred Records came acrosshim when he was playing inGothenburg. They invited himback to play more gigs and thenoffered him a record deal.

The album’s pretty much atrans-Atlantic affair.

He said: “Brent Hebert fromNew York produced the albumwith Pedro Ferreira who hasworked with Stereophonics,David Gray, and won Brit Awardsfor his work with The Darkness.

“I used some amazing Lon-don session musicians for therhythm section and guitar.

“We had horns recorded inNew York and Hammond Organin Texas. The strings werearranged by Imagine Dragons’keys player and were recordedby the Glasgow PhilharmoniaOrchestra.”

The results are stunning.Highlights include the jazz-tinged The Joke’s On Me andthe epic gospel-inspired Grace.

Other standouts include Can’tStop, while the first single LostIn The View is a perfect introduc-tion to Jonathan’s talent.

He added: “There’s every-thing from soul to funk, pop androck on the album.”

Porcelain Sky is out now. Heplays Òran Mór in Glasgow onApril 30.MORE: jonathancarrmusic.comlJim presents a weekly show-case of New Music on AmazingRadio Sundays 2-4pm. amazin-gradio.com jimgellatly.com

MUSIC MEETSPETSHOPBOYSss f t wBy JACQUI SWIFT

“IT’S wrong to say thePet Shop Boys havehad a renaissance,”says Neil Tennant.

He’s talking about the revivalsparked by last album Electric,continuing with new album Super.

“It’s not a comeback either. Or areturn to form. Or anything like that.

“If it is then we are always havingrenaissances as we’ve never beenaway,” he adds proudly referring tothe duo’s fruitful 35-year career.

“It’s been one long renaissance,”laughs Chris Lowe. “It’s one renais-sance after another, after another.”

We’re sat in the boardroom of theirrecord label in South London and theatmosphere is one of excitement asthe pair have just been handed vinylcopies of forthcoming album Super.

“Whoooo this is amazing,” coosTennant. “I’m so pleased with it. Canwe keep this?” he asks while Lowehappily tells some more news.

“We have a pop-up shop. A POPUP SHOP! Can you believe it?” hedeclares in his northern drawl.

“It’s going to be set up here inLondon and sell signed CDs andT-shirts and lots of things. It’s goingto be Super,” he laughs.

But then everything is super at themoment for the pair who have soldmore than 50million records world-wide since meeting in an electronicsshop on the King’s Road in 1981.

They are even listed as the mostsuccessful duo in UK music history byThe Guinness Book of Records and,unlike other bands started in theEighties, the three-time Brit Awardwinners have gone the distance with-out any splits or huge fall-outs.

The release of Electric in 2013 sawthe Pet Shop Boys return to theirdance roots and Super does the same.

And whether it’s a renaissance or arevival, Electric gave Tennant, 61, andLowe, 56, their highest chart positionin a long time. It was No3 in the UK— their best since 1993’s Very.

‘We have becomeelectronic purists’

“I’m afraid I said in an interviewthat we are making a trilogy with(producer) Stuart Price. So here weare at number two,” says Tennant.

“With Electric we turned intoelectronic purists, as on all of ourother albums we’ve had guitars,strings and backing vocals. And sowith Electric and now Super, we’vereturned to what we thought we weregoing to be at the beginning, althoughwe’ve never totally been that band.”

Super was made over the course ofa year in London, LA and Berlin.

Tennant explains: “We only dideight gigs last year and concentratedon this album. We had 25 songs butall in different styles so we sat downwith Stuart and went through themdeciding which would work.

“We had some harder and darkerelectronic ones we thought were toomuch and then some poppier oneswhich we thought were too poppy.”

Super starts with Happiness, whichTennant describes as “An unusualtrack with a strong Seventies chorus.Although someone said it soundedcountry and western, but I can’t imag-ine Dolly Parton singing it, can you?”

“We’ve always wanted to do a line-dancing video though”, adds Lowe.

“We went to a line-dancing bar inAustin, Texas, on the last tour. Ithought ‘This is really easy and I’llpick this up in no time.’ Well, itwasn’t. It was really difficult. And toofast. There was no way I could followit. I was turning and kicking thewrong way and at the wrong time.”

Any writer who has interviewed thePet Shop Boys will know the fun ofwatching Tennant and Lowe interact.While serious performing their music,when they chat, it’s like a double act.

Tennant is the main talker, veryserious with his long and drawn-out,slight Geordie accent whereas Lowetalks less but jumps in with a wryremark or a shriek.

The Pop Kids is a nostalgic story oftwo university friends in London andtheir love of clubbing. “Telling every-one we knew that rock was overrated.We stayed out ’til late five nights aweek and felt so chic.”

I say it’s almost autobiographical.

“But a decade out,” smiles Tennant.“It’s the early Nineties and based onthe story of my friend who came touniversity in London, met this girland went clubbing.

“All of his fellow students calledthem The Pop Kids and I made allthe rest up. We were going to call itThe Club Kids and we have a longerversion of it too called The Full Story,which has a Nineties break in themiddle and a verse that brings theirstory up to date.

“The girl is living in California andthe guy who narrates it is now ajournalist. I guess it is quite filmic.”

“It’s like a film about London club-bing,” remarks Lowe. “A hit film.”

“You could narrate it in youraccent,” laughs Tennant.

Lowe replies: “No we need AlanBennett to do that. Or Peter Kay.”

Super is a dance record but bothTennant and Lowe say that, despitethe euphoria, there’s darkness tomany of the songs.

“There is darkness and light in thesongs but it gets darker as it goes

on.” One song, The Dictator Decides,started off as a satirical poem byTennant about a leader who wants topack it all in.

“It was a whimsical idea of a dicta-tor like Kim Jong-un of North Koreaor Assad in Syria and he’s inheritedthis job and thinks it’s rubbishbecause he would really like to go offin his private jet. He’d give it all upand there’d be democracy and every-one would be happier.

“It was called The Sad Dictator andthe words fitted perfectly over themusic we were writing. Then Stuartput the North Korean army sampleon it and it’s dramatic and powerful.It’s electronic and very beautiful.”

Both agree it was a lot of funmaking Super and working with

Stuart Price. “He takes the music bythe scruff of the neck,” says Tennant.“He has very good instincts for us.He knows our music like a fan. It’svery rare to meet someone whoknows every song we’ve ever done.”

“He’s fun to be around,” adds Lowe“It’s a joy to go into the studio withhim. There’s lots of chatting andlooking at YouTube.”

Twenty-something is a song aboutbeing young in London today andcomparing it to when Tennant andLowe moved down from the north.

“It is still a very exciting city butit’s very different to when I firstmoved here,” says Tennant. “Now it’sall about business and money.”

Lowe adds: “I can get quitedepressed around London, seeing allthe places I used to go that have nowgone. I was distraught when (musicvenue) the Astoria was pulled down.It’s like part of you is being pulleddown as well.”

Another song, Inner Sanctum, wasinspired after Tennant and Lowe dida show in Las Vegas. Tennant says:

We’vealwayswantedtodoalinedancingvideo...

EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEW

SaysCHRISLOWE

‘I cangetquitedepressedaroundLondon...all theoldplacesnowgone’