Music > Interviews

Interview with Boy George

by Emma R. Garwood

01/04/14

It's an indulgent time machine, rifling through the old features and interviews of the Rock Back Pages website, of articles from days gone by. As there in today's press, there was then - a plethora of Boy George clippings. Barely a quip has ever gone by without it being stretched into column inches. In the long-standing case of George O'Dowd vs. Fleet Street, who is winning? A snippet from George's 1987 interview in Q Magazine has him quoted as saying, "People say, 'Oh, they crucified you but so what? They're going to do it again." It's that resilience, that British hard shell that has pulled George through his ecstatic, appalling and indifferent years and sees him here now: clean in full, rich, soulful-voice, looking arguably better than ever, and with a genuinely accomplished new album under his arm. Right now, I'd say he's winning.

George, we’re so excited to have you coming to Norwich this month, it’s phenomenal. Good, well hopefully we’ll put on a good show. You know, it’s not like we choose where to go, I mean, we’ll go anywhere –

[Laughs] Even Norwich! Yeah, even Norwich if they want us to, ‘cause you never really know where you’re gonna do gigs. It’s all about how comes in first; who makes the offer and who wants you there, so yeah, we’re really excited about coming to Norwich.

We’re not at all like you might think we are. Well neither are we, so there you go! I haven’t really got any pre-ordained view of Norwich though, I mean, I’m sure I’ve DJed there.

I should have kept my mouth shut then! No, no. Look – I’m not your typical Londoner; my grandmother came from the Midlands, so I spent all my childhood in the Midlands and when I started DJing, I was basically a northern DJ. I only ever played outside of London for years, so I still have a really good relationship with the rest of the country, d’you know what I mean? I don’t think of myself being a typical southerner, in that respect.

In a strange twist of fate, we’re actually interviewing a young band called Blitz Kids this month. There’s two though – are they the rock one?

They are, yeah. It seems like quite a neat little circle we’re making in this issue. It is, but I don’t know why they call themselves Blitz Kids because they don’t sound it at all. There’s two bands – one that sounds exactly like the Blitz Kids and then there’s this rock band… who don’t! I don’t know if they’ve taken the name because of the war, or… you’ll have to ask them!

I will, I’ll make it the first point on my agenda. Yeah, Boy George wants to know why you’re called the Blitz Kids? What makes you want to do drag?!

Going back to your Blitz Kids era, what would you have thought of a fairly pedestrian rock band wanting to call themselves the same name, 30 years on? Well I don’t know, really. Usually when a band takes on a name like that, it’s because they want to associate themselves with that era, or that sound. And the other Blitz Kids – they’re German, I think – they really sound like an 80s band, so you should check them out. But no, it doesn’t bother me what people want to call themselves. As long as they’re happy, doesn’t bother me [laughs]!

I’m excited to hear you’ve rewritten part of Taboo. Is it just part of it? No, we’ve rewritten all of it. I mean it’s still essentially the same story, because it’s the story of me growing up, and all of that, but I think this version is the best one we’ve done. I think it’s darker and it’s more truthful; you know, when we first did Taboo – obviously when you work with a producer, they have such an influence over what you do, and everyone that we’ve worked with since the beginning put their stamp on it, but not necessarily in a way that we were happy with it, d’you know what I mean? I always had a problem with the storyline; I always thought it should be much more about what actually happened, and I think we’re closer to that now. We’re looking at hopefully doing some kind of workshop this year, and there’s always interest in Taboo – it’s this weird little show that’s kinda got a life of its own. I always felt that it was important for us to nail the narrative and we have now. I worked with Mark Davies Markham, who wrote the original book and we forged a really good partnership. We’re actually going to write something for TV as well. When we were sort of hit with it last year in Brixton – was it last year, or the year before? Well we had a little run of it in London and it was really successful, but it still highlighted, for me, the things I didn’t like about it.

Do you think Taboo is going to be a little bit more taboo this time? Yeah, well it’s called Taboo, so it has to kind of touch on those things! But yeah, there’s a bit more of a moral tale to it now. You’ll have to see though, ‘cause you might disagree [laughs]!

Yeah, I’ll be the judge of that, thanks [laughs]! Exactly!

You have given British culture so much. You may have had all these characters feeding you, like Leigh Bowery and David Bowie, but you were like a mama bird, regurgitating all these influences for a mainstream market. Well you’re right about David Bowie, but Leigh came after me. Leigh came much later, but a lot of people get that confused. Leigh was living in Australia when the whole New Romantic thing was happening and he arrived here in the early 80s, so we’d already kinda done quite a lot. But the reason I always really championed Leigh was because he did something quite extraordinary, ‘cause when he came to London, there was so much that’d already been done that it was almost like, ‘ooh, don’t bovver’, you know?! And actually, he really, really took it somewhere different. We were using clothes and make-up to kind of hide what we didn’t like about ourselves, but Leigh took it in a completely different direction, and used what was different about him, as his art. So being big suddenly became the focal point of his costumes, and having his bum out – it was so physical, what he did. I always used to be like, ‘wow, he’s so brave.’ I would NEVER have done that! I remember once being at this club in Brixton and Leigh was literally naked, apart from a merkin, which I actually have – I have that very merkin in a frame – lick-me boots, a bra and a sort of bobble on his head. This was in a sea of muscle Marys, you know, really gym fit blokes – hundreds of them, and there was Leigh.

At that point, did you feel intrinsically British? Too British for a merkin? Oh yeah, I always felt incredibly British.

I’m very much enjoying you on Twitter, George. I was thinking about the difference between ‘followers’ 30 years ago, who actually put a fair bit of effort into following you, with clothes and make-up, and then those of today, who just press a button. It’s a very different notion now, fan following, isn’t it? Yeah, and I don’t know if you can even call them fans, really because they don’t actually buy your records [laughs]. If all the people on Twitter and on my Facebook bought my records, I’d be very happy! It’s a good record – I don’t know why they don’t! But it’s a weird one; you do often think, ‘who are you, and what do you want?’ Why are you following me? In a way, I think the celebrity side of life has become so much bigger with all these reality shows like Made in Chelsea, and …Essex, and all of that. People are famous for so many different reasons now that it’s almost like being a musician just isn’t enough. I know there are people who love what you do, of course I do, and I know who those people are – people who love music – but generally, I think more people are interested in having a photograph with someone famous. They don’t even have to like them! “You’re famous, you’ve been on the telly, can I get a photo?” It’s odd. It’s really odd. The difference is that I can really tell now if someone’s a genuine fan, because they behave in a different way.

George, I saw on Twitter you were talking about asparagus, you run now, in ‘King of Everything’, you sing about having “dropped your gloves to the ground.” Is this a new, mature, passive George?[Laughs] You know what, I’ve always eaten asparagus! [Laughs] Over the years, I’ve done every kind of fad there is, in terms of exercise – aerobics classes in clubs, I’ve done everything! But as I’ve got older and a bit smarter, I’ve worked out what I was doing wrong, basically. It’s taken me a while to click. I saw this incredible woman a year ago called Amelia Freer, who does this thing called the Metabolic Balance, and actually I eat more than I’ve ever eaten in my life. I eat a lot! I love food, and I live between meals but this Metabolic Balance actually works out your hormonal reaction to food, so basically you get a list of foods you should eat, then you just avoid everything else. I’ve also just given up caffeine though, and I’ve been off it three days. Yesterday though I was like, “oh my God! If this is what it does to your body, I’m never drinking it again!” I head the headache from hell yesterday. I thought I had carbon monoxide poisoning, or something! But I feel better today, and I think I’m gonna knock it on the head permanently.

I like to imagine you like one of those paper cut out dolls that you fold the different clothes over – you have so many different parts of your musical persona. Take your Mixcloud monthly DJ podcasts and then a track like ‘It’s Easy’ from your latest album – the difference is phenomenal. What, for you, really ties it all together? For me, I’m a Gemini, so there’s always two people. I’ve always had really conflicting tastes and ideas about things and I just feel kinda lucky to do all the different things that I do. I don’t feel like I have to kind of nail my flag to any particular kind of mast. I feel like what I do as a DJ is almost like a parallel universe to what I do as a musician, or pop artist. I don’t even know if I’d call what I do, ‘pop’. Going back to the 70s though, you had punk and disco going at the same time, so you could go to a punk gig, then a gay club and hear Donna Summer. That makes perfect sense. We live in an age now where people are so much more rigid about what they can like, and ‘ooh, you’re not part of my era.’ You actually hear people saying that, like, there were these kids on TV who’d invented this gadget to go on Mars, and they called it Ziggy. The presenter said, “oh, it’s named after David Bowie – are you fans?” And they were like, “Noooo!” I was like, ‘you’ve probably never heard one of his fucking records!’ But when I was a kid, I was listening to jazz music from the ‘30s and ‘40s. I wasn’t going around going, ‘ooh, but it’s not my era.’ I think if you’re into music, then you’re into everything. I know what I like, and what I don’t like and what I do as a DJ is connected to what you hear on the radio or dance music that’s popular – it’s a whole different scene that I’m into, and have always been into. I just like the difference, you know. I did a gig in Australia last week, in Brisbane, and the best compliment I got was from someone on Twitter who said, “thanks for taking a tired old format and turning it on its head.” I think that’s what I do as a DJ; I’m very random, I don’t plan what I’m gonna play, I very much think on my feet, which is kind of what’s exciting about it and why I started doing it in the first place. I got into acid house in the UK when it was so much more exciting than what was happening in pop music, which was the beginning of all the boy bands – the Take Thats, and all of that. Things changed so dramatically, then acid house happened and I spent four or five years going up and down the motorway, going to clubs all over the country. There was one point where there wasn’t anywhere in the country you couldn’t go dancing. There were clubs everywhere. You could do four gigs a night. It was an exciting time, but the other thing about dance music is that it’s given me an out from nostalgia, because I’ve never had to wallow in who I used to be. I’ve never had to think about it, and in return it’s given me a much healthier relationship with my past, because I haven’t had to be stuck in it! I will never let go of my dancing because I feel like it keeps me in the money, keeps me focused on what’s hip, and I love that.

That kind of ad-hoc approach to DJing seems to contrast to the work putting together ‘This Is What I Do’, because you assembled a really great team to work on it. I’m sure it’s really important to have those people around you who can help you realise a vision. Yeah, well all the people involved in the record are mates of mine, people I’ve worked with since leaving Culture Club; some of them have worked with me for twenty years.

How about [producer] Youth? I’ve known Youth since punk days and we’ve been mates for years. It’s funny ‘cause he’s made some of my favourite records and it’s odd that we’ve never worked together. When I changed management a couple of years ago, we ended up being managed by the same manager and it was suggested that we work together. I thought it made sense, and I didn’t know why we hadn’t done it before. I kinda feel like it was the right time to work with him, like it was really perfect timing, because when I started to work on this record, initially I was like, “what am I gonna write about? I’m really happy!”

Yeah, it doesn’t always breed creativity, does it? Yeah, so working with Youth really helped me get my mojo back. He’s like this rock ‘n’ roll sage with this great house, where there’s always people writing and recording. Every room’s got something going on in it, and when you leave, there’ll be Pete Murphy walking in, or Ian McKulloch coming up… he’s always got something going on! He’s great at pushing you and as I’ve got older, I’ve learnt to be a bit more patient with writing, like in the early days, if it didn’t work straight away, I’d give up on it, whereas now I will spend time on things and go back to them, and be willing to give them another chance. I think all of that did pay off, with this record. We did write it in a really different way; we created grooves and moods and then I wrote over them, rather than me coming with a really strong idea like, ‘someone’s broken my heart. I’m gonna write a song about it.’ It was a different way of working and that’s really influenced everything I’m doing at the moment.

You’ve been really clever in the collaborations you’ve done. One of my favourite ever is your guest vocal on Mark Ronson’s ‘Somebody to Love Me’ – Well Mark, I remember hearing that he was a hip young DJ, and I DJed a few parties with him years ago. Then he produced Amy Winehouse, which was amazing, and then he interviewed me for a magazine in New York and I was really blown away by how much he knew about me. He knew every detail about my career, like everything, but then Mark is like me; he’s a cultural sponge, he’s really into style and substance and knows an artist isn’t just about the music, although the music is hugely important. Having a character essence, and style essence is really important to Mark. When he rang me, I was like ‘yeah, I’ll give it a go’. I was very happy with what we did and the timing of it was great.

I think that track, and your guest vocal on Antony and the Johnson’s ‘You Are My Sister’ are where I really started to appreciate your vocal for what it is. You have one of the most remarkable singing voices this country has produced, and it’s only got better with age. Well I can’t say that, but I hope so. The best version of that song though is of me and Antony in Australia. Because you know, we’d done a few performances where I was a bit of a mess, so I wasn’t very happy about that, then I was in Australia last year and I saw that he was there. I rang him, and I’m not someone who’s usually pushy like that, but I was like, “can I do a show with you?!” It was this really set piece and he was wearing these particular costumes that he’d thought out, so at first he was like, “Hmm, I’m not sure. Will you wear white?” And I said, “Noooo, I won’t.” [Laughs] Absolutely not, no way! Then he rang me back and said, “You know what, let’s do it.” It was so great; we did it with the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra and it was just beautiful. Antony was crying at the end of it. For me, it was one of the highlights of my career. I was just so happy.

Emma R. Garwood

Boy George plays a rare intimate date at The Waterfront on 4th April. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk. Read the uncut version of this interview on Outlineonline.co.uk

We’re not at all like you might think we are. Well neither are we, so there you go! I haven’t really got any pre-ordained view of Norwich though, I mean, I’m sure I’ve DJed there.

In a strange twist of fate, we’re actually interviewing a young band called Blitz Kids this month. There’s two though – are they the rock one?

I will, I’ll make it the first point on my agenda. Yeah, Boy George wants to know why you’re called the Blitz Kids? What makes you want to do drag?!

Yeah, I’ll be the judge of that, thanks [laughs]! Exactly!

At that point, did you feel intrinsically British? Too British for a merkin? Oh yeah, I always felt incredibly British.

George, I saw on Twitter you were talking about asparagus, you run now, in ‘King of Everything’, you sing about having “dropped your gloves to the ground.” Is this a new, mature, passive George? [Laughs] You know what, I’ve always eaten asparagus! [Laughs] Over the years, I’ve done every kind of fad there is, in terms of exercise – aerobics classes in clubs, I’ve done everything! But as I’ve got older and a bit smarter, I’ve worked out what I was doing wrong, basically. It’s taken me a while to click. I saw this incredible woman a year ago called Amelia Freer, who does this thing called the Metabolic Balance, and actually I eat more than I’ve ever eaten in my life. I eat a lot! I love food, and I live between meals but this Metabolic Balance actually works out your hormonal reaction to food, so basically you get a list of foods you should eat, then you just avoid everything else. I’ve also just given up caffeine though, and I’ve been off it three days. Yesterday though I was like, “oh my God! If this is what it does to your body, I’m never drinking it again!” I head the headache from hell yesterday. I thought I had carbon monoxide poisoning, or something! But I feel better today, and I think I’m gonna knock it on the head permanently.

George, you’ve done so fantastically, and we can’t wait to see you at your best in Norwich. Alright love, bye.

Emma R. Garwood

Boy George plays a rare intimate date at The Waterfront on 4th April. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk. Read the uncut version of this interview on Outlineonline.co.uk