11 Nov: Sun article - Watch out for more Duffy in Tomorrow's Sun!

I needed a man, some solid arms around me... then I met Mike & knew he was the one

The Sun

By JACQUI SWIFT

Published: Today

DUFFY is ready to face the world again - thanks to her rugby star boyfriend.

The 5ft 2in singer, whose debut album Rockferry made her an overnight sensation in 2008, found her sudden success difficult to deal with.

But falling in love with Ospreys and Wales scrum half Mike Phillips - one of the standout players in last year's Lions tour of South Africa - has turned her life around

Now Duffy, 26, is back with her second album, called Endlessly, and a man to protect her from the pressures of fame.

Duffy says: "Becoming really famous can be intense but Mike is 6ft 3in and over 16 stone - I need some solid arms around me when I feel vulnerable."

We meet at a London hotel and it is clear straight away just how happy Duffy is.

When she speaks about her man - labelled the best-looking scrum half in the game - she colours up a bit.

Lovey Duffy ... singer's boyfriend and Wales ace Mike Phillips

Back Page Images

Duffy confesses: "Mike has had a huge influence on me - look, I'm blushing just at the mention of his name, I will have to fan my face with my hand to calm down.

"Last week I was in America and I was asked out by a radio DJ. It's the first time I've actually admitted that, yes, I am in love.

"The man said to me, 'I am falling for you. Are you available? Are you a single lady?' And for the first time ever I went, 'No, I'm NOT single.'

"It was an out-loud acknowledgement that I am officially off the market."

Duffy started dating 28-year-old Mike in September last year. He asked her out by text after getting her number from his agent.

They were soon compared to two other stars, singer Charlotte Church and rugby ace Gavin Henson - who have since split up - and dubbed "the new Welsh Posh and Becks".

Duffy says: "That name makes us laugh as we just enjoy being with each other and ignore the fame side of it all - we just have lots of fun together."

Rockferry was a top three hit in 19 countries and has so far sold more than 6.5 million copies, making Duffy a multi-millionairess.

In March 2008 she became one of only nine solo female singers in history to hold the No1 spot in the UK singles and album charts simultaneously, with Mercy and Rockferry.

Born Aimee Ann Duffy, the soul singer spent more than a decade trying to make it in music, but she says fame made her miserable and lonely.

"I was living out of a suitcase and always flying here and there," she recalls. "It was everything I'd ever dreamed of but there were times when I found it hard.

"I love my music and performing but some of the other demands terrified me. I am just a normal girl from Wales and always will be."

Back on song ... Duffy on stage

One time in particular, she found herself feeling extremely homesick in America.

She says: "I locked myself in my room and cried and I'm not usually that kind of girl. I am quite tough and can cope with almost anything but that time was horrible. I just wanted my mum with me. I remember feeling as though things were going to fall apart.

"I don't know if it was borderline breakdown - but it was a hard time."

Duffy adds: "I'm never going to complain about what I have achieved and I am eternally grateful for my success but I think the workload at times was too much for one human being.

"But you learn to switch off and the more famous you get, you develop a coping mechanism - your boundaries close in to protect yourself. That's why programmes such as The X Factor are great for singers as long as they have a game plan and know what they're letting themselves in for.

Endlessly in love ... couple at a London film premiere

The Picture Library Ltd

Overnight success might be everything you've dreamed of but there are times when it will hit you hard.

"Anyone on a show like X Factor has to be prepared for what happens next."

It was only when she managed to take a break following a relentless promotional campaign for Rockferry that Duffy began to enjoy life again. She met Mike and now, in the run-up to the release of Endlessly, she has finally learned to relax and take all the pressure in her stride.

And when things do get tough, she has Mike to turn to.

Duffy says she wrote the title track on Endlessly at a time when she longed to have someone of her own. She says: "I have learned a lot about myself through my new songs - they're like therapy and I realise I was lonely because I was needing a man, someone to protect me and call my own.

"I wrote Endlessly when I was dreaming of meeting someone. I genuinely wanted someone to put their arms around me.

"I knew I was missing something in my life - then I met Mike and knew he was the one from our first date."

When it comes to marriage, Duffy takes a traditional approach and will wait to be asked. She says: "I don't like looking too far ahead as I'm a girl who lives for now but I am very old-fashioned and I wouldn't want to presume.

I think the guy has to be the one to ask. I have certain views about those things, and so does Mike, who is also old-fashioned.

"He gets annoyed if anyone hits on me and just wants to protect me."

Duffy recently turned down a role in a major Hollywood movie and instead opted to play a sexy seductress in low-budget Welsh language film Patagonia. She says: "I'm not saying who the director was for the first film but he was a big name.

"Yet I made the right decision - Patagonia was great for me, as was its director Marc Evans.

"I just wanted to have fun and put myself in the arms of someone else and not have to worry.

"It's so different to making music, which gives me sleepless nights. With the film I could let the director worry about everything. I trusted him totally.

"But I'm not sure whether I'll do another role. My mind is just focused on my music. I'm so excited to be back."

See SFTW tomorrow for Duffy on new album Endlessly, out Nov 29.

Vintage Duffy - Stepping Stone live on French TV (2008)

Time for a bit of vintage Duffy...

Duffy Interview (Artist Direct)

Did you have one cohesive vision for Endlessly from the get-go or did it come together piece by piece in the studio?

I think you have a vision when you create music, but it's like looking at a photograph. The closer you get to the photograph, the image changes. You have an intention, of course. I'm not going to say it was potluck. However, you're open to the creative process as well. You have to see how it goes. If I had to be honest with you and tell you what my intentions were, I really wanted something that was obviously me. It doesn't stray too far from what people knew me for—the songs, the voice and the arrangements. I wanted something further than that; I wanted a sonic crispness that allowed people to know we're in 2011.

Do you tend to read or watch movies while you're writing music? Where does your visual sensibility come from?

It's interesting that you pick up on that visual sensibility. I've been called, "Visual." It's quite difficult being a creative person when you're so visual. From the staging to the artwork, everything is visual. I think I work more in that way. I see the songs more than I hear them. It's quite profound. I can't quite understand it myself [Laughs]. I know I definitely enjoy using my imagination.

Do you enjoy delving into other visual art forms?

I do actually! Cinema is something that I'm quite amazed by. I love the thought of a director capturing something through his vision. I love cinematographers who have a nice charm or identity to their work. I don't know too much about it. I'm still very focused on music, but I am catching up on decades and decades that I missed. I go way back to the 1920s, and I've got a lot of work to do! Equally, I like to pick up movies that people suggest along the way. If I had to say what my favorite is, I really love Cinema Paradiso for those qualities—that visual bliss.

What's the story behind "Well, Well, Well?"

Northern Soul was a movement in the North of England that responded to Black American music 30 years ago. They used to dance in the Wigan Casino, and it's quite a profound dance. It looks like they're doing a jelly dance with jazz hands. Their feet are coordinating with their hands, and it's kind of surreal. They don't dance to the music; they dance to the lyrics. I've always been fascinated by that. They actually dance to what Freda Payne is talking about. My sister—who I very rarely play music for—said, "It's amazing with 'Well, Well, Well,' I listen to what you're saying more than I'm aware of anything else that's going on around you." There was a very big emotion that I had to get off my chest.

If you were to compare Endlessly to a movie or a combination of movies, what would you compare it to?

I don't know if I could compare it to a movie. However, if Endlessly could be in any movie of my choice, I would put it inBreakfast at Tiffany's. It's that story about a girl longing for love. There's that sense of being alone in a big world and that vulnerability.

What artists shaped you?

I always keep rediscovering Marvin Gaye. There's never a performance that doesn't intrigue me, even if I've heard it a hundred times. I can listen to "Heard it Through the Grapevine," and I'll hear a crackle in his voice that I never heard before. Or, if I listen to "Give it Up," it reminds me of something different every time. It takes me somewhere. I can't ever get enough of his sensuality and vulnerability.

It's like your imbuing your personality into that classic form with Endlessly.

It's like being a chef raised in Italy and then you end up going to cook in L.A. You always go back to the herbs and spices you could smell when you were young. You'd always go back to the way big Mama made the lasagna and you can't help it because it reminds you of something that feels safe. Music from that era makes me feel safe. I know where I stand with it. It's because that music also stands the test of time. I'm being a little a bit naughty. When I listen to old music, I'm just drinking fine wine constantly [Laughs].

Which other movies do you come back to?

I like Breathless. I like stories about a girl. I find those a bit fascinating. Watching Pretty Woman as a six-year-old reminded me so much of what I wanted to achieve—not that I was a call-girl [Laughs]—but I enjoy those stories about success.

Interview from here.

All Access mini video interview

From here.

The above video cannot be viewed in some countries, so view the same video below:

Official Press Release

Duffy is back. After The Grammys (nominated for three, won for Best Pop Vocal Album), The Brits (nominated for four, won three including Best Album), 6.5 million sales (virtually unheard of these days), not to mention going to Number One all over Europe and properly cracking America, it would have been reasonable to think she might return with ‘Rockferry Part Two’. In fact, she’s done nothing of the sort. Released this November, Duffy’s remarkable second album, ‘Endlessly’, shows several new sides to one of our most successful soul singers. “I’m not the same as I was back then,” she says. “I was just a girl back then.”

‘Endlessly’ simultaneously showcases songs that are more uptempo and dancefloor-friendly than anything the 26-year-old from Wales’ Llyn Peninsula has done before, as well as stripped-back, acoustic-led numbers that feature Duffy at her most philosophical. “At one point I thought ‘is this going to be an indie record?’” she laughs. “That’s what it was beginning to sound like.” Lyrically it’s more empowered, heartfelt and worldly-wise, but also saucier (‘I’m his lover/ Not his mother’ are the first words we hear) and more fun. “I think one can be a little bit afraid of being frivolous with music, of being tongue-in-cheek,” she says. “Sometimes it really is just about having fun.” But she hasn’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater – the sweeping strings and the sassy brass we know from ‘Mercy’ and ‘Warwick Avenue’ are still on there. But this is very much ‘Chapter 2’. Ten songs recorded in three weeks with esteemed songwriter Albert Hammond (famed for such mega-hits as ‘The Air That I Breathe’, ‘When I Need You’, ‘It Never Rains In Southern California’, and others) and performed by The Roots, it’s going to surprise people.

Remarkable, given that Duffy wasn’t even sure she wanted to make a second album. “I thought about walking away, I really did,” she says. “Not because I thought ‘I’d done it’. It’s just that I missed the simple things in life. Life had got so complicated.” By the end of months on the road touring ‘Rockferry’, becoming properly famous in America, doing The Grammys, even having a Welsh daffodil named after her – Duffy was at a crossroads.

“At the end of that whole cycle I need to be reminded of what I was here to do. I forgot for a while what my job was; what my role was. I’m not a model. I’m not a celebrity. So who am I? It all gets so complicated. Holding onto your integrity is really difficult, you know? Having anything you want... It’s really unhealthy.”

Unsure how to progress and what her next movements were to be, fate intervened in the unlikely form of 66-year-old Albert Hammond. Or, to be more precise, Albert Hammond’s wife. “He was in his house in LA one day and his wife went ‘Albert! Albert! Look at this girl on TV. She sounds like a black woman!’ And he looked and went ‘Oh my God’.” Duffy was performing ‘Stepping Stone’ on Saturday Night Live. Hammond hadn’t been involved in music for a decade, he hadn’t wanted to (perhaps he figured he’d leave that to his son, Albert Hammond Jr, of The Strokes) but he was intrigued. “He asked to meet. I had no idea about his background once again (similarly she didn’t know Suede when she met Bernard Butler). And he said I’ve got this song title ‘Don’t Forsake Me’. I said ‘That sounds like the soundtrack of my life’.

“Around that time in LA, there were always massive parties,” continues Duffy. “So I had a choice: I could either go dancing with Hollywood or go and hang with Albert. So I went to Albert’s house, and his wife made me tea.” Hammond had worked up some music to his ‘Don’t Forsake Me’ title, but Duffy wasn’t so sure (here’s one singer who certainly knows her own mind). “He’s 66, he’s the most esteemed songwriter and I had the balls and the audacity to start ripping it apart,” Duffy laughs. “I look back and think ‘How rude!’ But I knew this was a song that reflected some elements of my life. “Albert was, like, ‘Brave, kid. Well done’.”

From then on the songs came quickly – remarkably so, given the four-year gestation period of ‘Rockferry’. “We did a few days in LA, a week in Spain and a week here [London] and it was done swiftly” Duffy says. “We had these songs and in my heart they sounded so charming on acoustic demos. And that is what I needed to hear. No complications. You know, there is such a thing as working too hard. When everyone does too much you can kill something. But it was Albert and me having fun.”

Half the time it seemed that Albert was having more fun than her. “It was four in the morning, I remember looking at him thinking ‘You’re 40 years older than me. I do not know where you get your energy from. He’s dancing around; he’s championing everything. It shouldn’t have been me being the disciplinarian! It should have been the other way round. “I’m, like, okay: focus: ‘Albert, I know you’re dancing, but what we need to do now is record the second verse!’”

The two became firm allies. Albert’s wife even chipping in with fashion advice – approving, as she was, of Duffy’s demure, 1960s-influenced, wardrobe. “She says to me, ‘I like the long skirts’,’” Duffy says. “When they turn on the TV, people of that generation, they’re not used to seeing pop stars with no clothes on. They find it quite offensive!” she laughs.

Along the way Albert had spotted another musical inspiration on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show (“I think he must watch a lot of TV,” giggles Duffy. “It’s where he gets all his ideas from”), a band HE was unfamiliar with. She feared the worst. “I know his son’s in The Strokes, and he’s probably got good taste, but I thought they were going to be some Nashville ‘dang-dang-dang’ band!” In fact, the group on TV were Philadelphia hip-hop legends The Roots – widely regarded as one of the greatest live bands going. Duffy was stunned. Four years ago she’d walked into London’s The Jazz Café with Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis and watched the same band DJ. She’d been blown away. She’d even given Roots founder Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson a CD of ‘Rockferry’. So Duffy (after Albert’s insistent prompt) called up LA Reid – “ 2am, with my hand shaking on the phone!” – the boss of Island Def Jam Music Group, of which her US label Mercury is part, and asked for a favour. Could Reid set-up a meeting with The Roots? Within 48-hours it was arranged. Duffy and the band hit it off immediately. The Roots’ tight live sound, a world away from the machine-driven pop that makes up most of the Top Ten these days, was the final piece of the ‘Endlessly’ puzzle. “I said to Ahmir ‘I gave you a copy ‘Rockferry’ all those years ago – you never called me back!’ He said ‘I’ll dig it out now!’”

You might not have put Duffy together with The Roots but then you might not have put Duffy together with Albert Hammond, either. To be truthful, neither would she. Yet together they’ve come together to make a remarkable record – a more-than worthy successor to ‘Rockferry’. A record that’s not going to alienate any of Duffy’s old fans, but is going to win her plenty of new ones, too.

“It was almost as if it was always going to be done this way,” Duffy says, wide and blue eyed. “All these songs have been welling up inside me, all these years. And we did it. I just stuck with the Godfather of songs, my friend Albert”.

Duffy's producer "like a dad" to her.

This story is all over the net. The source is presumably a forth coming interview in next month's Q Magazine.

Duffy's Producer Bond

Contact Music

Duffy has struck up a close bond with her music producer Albert Hammond and says he feels like a father to her.
Duffy says her current producer has become "like a dad" to her.
The Welsh singer has been working with Albert Hammond - father of The Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. - and said they struck up a real chemistry between them when writing songs for her new album.
Duffy said: "I feel lucky I've found someone I can put pen to paper with. I write songs - melodic poems, really - and I can't do anything with them because I can't play guitar. He can put together this thing that I hear in my head. He's become a bit like my dad, you know."
The 26-year-old star - whose debut LP 'Rockferry' sold 6.5 million copies - was initially contacted by Albert after he had written a song for her and she instantly felt a connection with the lyrical subject matter.
She explained: "He made contact a couple of years ago when he saw me on the TV. I was a bit alone at the time - life was a bit big and scary - and he told me he had a song titled 'Don't Forsake Me', and it felt like he'd come up with a title for my life."
Duffy's second album 'Endlessly' is set for release on November 29.

03 Nov: Duffy Live@NYC - Band of Gold cover&Don't Forsake Me First Listen

Setlist:
Well Well Well
Keeping My Baby
Don't Forsake Me
Endlessly
My Boy
Band of Gold (cover)
Mercy




Don't Forsake Me:


There is a review of the full show and a couple of photos here.

A regular contributor to the shoutbox, Liammom61, kindly provided this review of the gig:

Duffy In Concert
P.C Richards Theater
NYC, 11/3/10

When I won tickets to see Duffy, to say I was excited was an understatement. After finagling a few things like husband, kids, work, and dog, I was set to go. We started out at 9:00 AM on Wednesday from a very nice place in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. We drove 2 ½ hours to get to the train and then spent another 2, hours on the train arriving at 2:30PM. We then walked about 40, blocks to make sure we found the theater, after that we had dinner at a nice Italian place around the corner. After dinner we got in line at the theater, we were 4th and 5th in line. The line filled up fast after that, we were checked in and got wrist bands. Across from us band members were coming and going, coming outside for a smoke, you couldn’t miss the drummer with his hair. We were let in at about 6:40 and we could not believe how small it was, my husband says about the size of our basement, it held about 250 people standing up. We were about 4 feet from the stage and slightly to the left. Duffy started on time and was introduced by a DJ from a local radio station and went right into Well Well Well. Everybody was dancing and enjoying themselves. After that song she talked to the crowd and said that she really liked small intimate venues and was glad that we had all won the tickets. The theme of the show was for her to play new material and re- introduce herself to her fans. Like most New York audiences the crowd interacted with Duffy, she said she liked being in America especially the way we phrase things. She said that the entire band was from the UK but then realized that there was one American, she apologized and then said she was Welsh and then did Keeping My Baby, which I have only heard once or twice before. Everyone in the audience was dancing and having a good time. The next song was Don‘t Forsake Me, she said that this song was very close to her heart and sort of told her story. The song was very well received by the audience, after this she went right into Endlessly which was also very well received, the entire audience was hooting and hollering. Next she played My Boy which as most of you know is my favorite but now I am not so sure, I loved them all. After that song someone yelled out that she should make that her next single, she gave him a big smile so she might be planning to do that. Next she said she was going to do a cover that was suggested by Albert Hammond Sr. who said “kid, you have to cover this song” it was Band of Gold which was a perfect fit, I thought it was the highlight of the evening. The last song of course was Mercy which had the only mishap of the evening when the wire came out of the microphone. The band never missed a beat, they were a tight group of groove cats, those are my husbands words. Everyone wanted more but she said she had to catch a train back to Wales, we also had to catch our train back to upstate New York. We got home at 1:00AM Thursday morning, it was well worth it and we would do it again in a heart beat.

Dawn
AKA Liammom61

This event was filmed for the iheartradio (stripped) sessions. Here it says that the full clips of Mercy and Well, Well, Well (excerpt below) will become available next week! Hopefully some of the other tracks will aswell....

Photos of Duffy during rehearsal (tons more pics here):

04 Nov: Well Well Well Live @ Jimmy Fallon

Billboard article - Vanity Fair and more Tv appearances next month....

Below is an article by Billboard. It mentions that Duffy has done a photoshoot for Vanity Fair (so will likely be appearing in Vanity Fair next month) and also a few TV appearances in the UK:

Duffy will visit BBC 1's "Strictly Come Dancing" on Nov. 21, in addition to release-week slots on ITV1's "This Morning" and BBC 1's "The One Show."including the BBC One Show

Duffy Tries New Dance Sound, New Team for 'Endlessly'

By Billboard

If it ain't broke, most people wouldn't try to fix it. But Aimee Ann Duffy -- more commonly known by just her surname -- has responded to the multimillion-selling success of her debut album by breaking up a winning team for the follow-up.

"Everything in life has a chapter," she says. "You can't always stay the same."

The Welsh singer/songwriter is speaking during a break from her Vanity Fair photo shoot, part of the campaign for her sophomore set, "Endlessly," due Nov. 29 in the United Kingdom on A&M/Polydor and Dec. 7 in North America on Mercury. It's the follow-up to her March 2008 debut, "Rockferry," which has sold 6.5 million copies worldwide, according to Universal, including 874,000 in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and 2.1 million in the United Kingdom, according to the Official Charts Co.

That album was largely co-written and co-produced by Bernard Butler and Steve Booker, neither of whom have returned for "Endlessly." Duffy has also parted company with longtime manager/mentor Jeannette Lee of London-based Rough Trade Management.


Duffy to Return with 'Endlessly' in November

"It just felt as though the relationship [with Lee] had run its course," says Duffy, who's now represented by Angela Becker of London-based Becker Brown Management. "What we had set out to do, we'd done -- I was developed, established, and I had to think: 'OK, so what now?'"

Lee didn't return requests for comment.

Duffy maintains that the split with Butler and Booker was less calculated, almost accidental. They've been replaced by veteran songwriter Albert Hammond, Sr. -- the man behind songs including "The Air That I Breathe" and "It Never Rains in Southern California" -- who produced the record and co-wrote all but one of its 10 tracks.

The collaboration with Hammond came about when he saw Duffy perform on "Saturday Night Live" and contacted her team to arrange a meeting. Productive songwriting sessions followed, with the pair eventually recruiting Philadelphia group the Roots as the backing band to give Duffy the "added danceability I so desperately needed," she says.

But the album largely retains the retro-pop sound of "Rockferry," albeit enhanced with more uptempo, pop radio-friendly anthems this time around. While "Rockferry" spawned four top 30 hits in the United Kingdom, her Billboard Hot 100 peak came when "Mercy" reached No. 27 -- and the song has sold 1.5 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Highlights of the new album include the funk-fueled opener "My Boy," the disco-esque drama of "Lovestruck" and the joyous, string-fueled pop of "Keeping My Baby."

"Her fans will see it as a natural evolution of her last record," says Mercury president David Massey, who's confident of eclipsing its predecessor's U.S. sales, despite the slump in the market since the release of "Rockferry." "The strength of the record, the fan base that she has already adopted and the opportunity to have multiple singles means we can go further with this record than the last."

Lead single "Well, Well, Well" -- the track on the album most reminiscent of "Mercy" -- was serviced to pop, hot AC and triple A formats in mid-October, while Duffy will appear on NBC's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" the first week of November.

Back home, the campaign is focused on what A&M U.K. managing director Orla Lee calls "major TV moments."

"The thing with Duffy is it's about the voice," she adds. "Live, you really see that."

Duffy appeared on BBC 2's "Later... With Jools Holland" on Oct. 19 and will visit BBC 1's "Strictly Come Dancing" on Nov. 21, in addition to release-week slots on ITV1's "This Morning" and BBC 1's "The One Show." She played a showcase at London's Cafe de Paris on Oct. 21, and European and U.S. dates are expected in early 2011.

Meanwhile, the global success of "Rockferry" (the album went top 10 in 20 other markets, as well as the United States and the United Kingdom) means she will also visit Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Spain for promotion before the end of the year. The target, Universal Music U.K. VP of international marketing Hassan Choudhury says, is "multiplatinum sales in every market."

Duffy herself, however, remains relaxed at the prospect of trying to follow up one of the biggest global debuts of recent years.

"I feel like there is a massive amount of warmth and excitement for this new record," she says. "I want to make people get up onto the dancefloor and get their feet tapping."

Duffy performs at iheartradio (Stripped Sessions)

So far there is only snippets of Well Well Well, Mercy and an interview.