A PERSPECTIVE ON HER FIRST FIVE INDIPOP SOLO ALBUMS

Steve:

Welcome Sheila! We're here to chat about your 5 Indipop solo albums.

Sheila:

Yes Steve! As my writing partner and record producer for the last 19 years, you're well placed to provoke some interesting responses from me.

Steve:

Well, it'd be good to discuss how these albums : "Out On My Own" "Quiet" "The Struggle" "Nada Brahma" and "Roots and Wings" fit into your career contextually. Maybe we can also encourage you to share anecdotes from that era too?

Sheila:

I'm sure you don't expect me to give away all my secrets! But yes, people tend to know about my Monsoon recordings from 1981 and 1982 and my Real World output during the 1990s, but they often have only a sketchy awareness of my Indipop albums sandwiched between them.

Steve:

Why did you decide to sign to little 'old Indipop exactly - this would be 1983, right?

Sheila:

Indipop were a fiercely independent tiny label and their cottage industry approach inevitably led to fewer sales and minimal media exposure. But this apparent limitation was in many ways the attraction for me to sign to them. There was very little commercial pressure on me and I had virtually all of their attention.

What meant most to me at that time was to have creative and legal control over all aspects of my music - to evolve in a safe environment until I felt ready to re-join major multinational labels - albeit via a so-called 'specialist' label. You were asking for context and perspective. Well, I left Monsoon (after a bitter 'fight' with the record company) at a time when I could easily have signed to another major as a solo artist.

The impact that Monsoon made - their highly developed distinctive sound and pioneering insights into World Music Fusion - was acclaimed worldwide. They were way ahead of the field. I feel very proud about that. To most people I was Monsoon! I'd already achieved my fairytale fantasy dream - an innovative Top 10 hit with my first ever single at the age of 16! With the Monsoon album we'd uncovered a rich musical vein - the drone and raga base that underpins all my recordings. I was looking into a vast cavern of musical possibilities just waiting to be explored.