Those Neon Lights Still Shine for Olivia
The former Miss Nice gets physical
It's been two years since Olivia Newton-John released a studio album, following the tepid success of Totally Hot. She threw herself into projects like Grease and the enormously successful Xanadu, and concentrated fully on a film career.
The expatriate Australian recently split with longtime manager and boyfriend, Lee Kramer, opted for representation by former Sherbet mentor, Roger Davies, and seriously started thinking about her future.
She went to great lengths to plan her latest album Physical, and believes it's her best effort yet. In the U.S.A., Juke's Ray Telford tracked her down and got her talking.
RT: You seem to me to be a singer who just keeps changing direction, style and audience. Let me recap. You started as a folk singer with "If Not For You", moved to country 'n' westerns with "Banks of the Ohio", then to cabaret and clubs with things like the Cliff Richard TV shows, then to old time rock'n'roll and musicals with Grease and Xanadu. Has all that happened by accident or have you always felt the need to shift and change?
Olivia: I think it's partly accident and partly growth. As every year goes on my tastes in music change and so every time I go to record an album I veer towards a completely different style of music than I would have done a year before. It's really interesting now when I listen to a song. People obviously tend to put you in a category so when they send you songs they're very often a ballad they think that I would typically like. Now a few years ago I would have chosen it but today it doesn't appeal to me. It's very interesting. I think it's just influences on your life and other music you hear.
RT: So how do you view the album Physical? Is that another change in direction?
I think Physical is more adventurous for me in all areas. I don't know why. I haven't recorded an album in two years. In that time, as I haven't been recording, I've just been taking in a lot of different things. I've grown up a little bit and the songs I go for are a little stronger. A bit more rock'n'roll because I like doing that but never really had the bravado to do it, but now I feel much more comfortable. And John Farrar, who's my producer and who writes a lot of my stuff, has also grown more in that direction. Luckily we've gone in the same direction and so he's written songs for me that I really like.
RT: Were you worried about the change?
No. It was really interesting because I feel you need to change. I don't think you can stay the same forever. I think it would be rather boring if you turned out albums year after year that were the same. I mean people have heard it already so you have to do something that's different. It's nice to do something with a little bit of a challenge to it. I think it's fun. I don't know what'll happen but it's fun.
RT: Do you feel that with a new manager, a new approach to music and a new album that we're about to see a new Olivia Newton-John or is this just another twist and turn in the old career?
It's still the same career. I like things now to be a bit of a challenge and I'd like to try something new and a bit adventurous rather than play it safe. Stepping out a little and trying something new. So I think for a lot of people it will be a new thing but also there are kids who are just discovering that I'm around anyway. So I don't really know, I mean a couple of the tracks are in the style that people would expect me to do. I don't think I'm going to an extreme. I'm not doing a Led Zeppelin or anything, but the music's just a little more rocky, I think.
RT: So what have you been doing since Xanadu?
For six months I didn't do very much at all. I stayed at home and rode my horses and baked bread and just lived a normal life because I have't really done that for years. I was always on the road and moving around so it was really wonderful to say to my friends 'I'll see you Saturday night for dinner' and make it. Then I've been looking for other projects to do, and the album started.
RT: Why did you make the decision to move away from the younger audiences that you'd gained with Grease and Xanadu? Did you feel you'd run your course with young kids?
Well no. I hope this will appeal to young kids because I don't think I've gone too raunchy that they're not going to like it. I think that young kids are now a vast majority of the record buying public and I hope any music appeals to everyone or at least one or two tracks will appeal to all different age groups. I really think it's young music.
RT: So the opening track "Landslide" really gives notice that we're in the presence of a new Olivia Newton-John. Who decided that would be the opening track on the album?
We all sat down and talked about it. I think you've hit it on the head. It's a new sound and it's a strong sound. It will be the first single. When you're putting an album together you try and get a balance and we thought that was a strong and unusual song to start the album with.
RT: So writing for you has helped his career as well?
Well, John actually turns back people every day. He is very well respected and liked and people can know his songs. I think a lot of major acts have asked him to produce them but he takes such a long time on my albums that I kind of tie him up and he hasn't got any time left. But he wrote the hit songs for Grease. He wrote "Hopelessly Devoted" and "You're The One That I Want" and he wrote all my songs for Xanadu. He's one of those people who stays in the background a lot but you know he's a great part of the reason for my success.
RT: The track "Recovery" has been written by John Farrar and Tom Snow. John has a lot of different partnerships. He wrote a song called "Cruel" with you. Doesn't he write lyrics?
No, he wrote "Landslide" alone. So he wrote the words and lyrics... melody and lyrics. He writes mostly by himself but there are times when he'll collaborate with people like Tom, who he respects a lot. When they work together I don't really know how it works because I've never been there when they write.
RT: Did you have any active role in this album?
Yes of course I do. I choose the songs. I don't record them if I don't like them and if I don't like something, it'll be changed. I can't explain it. We have a very good chemistry and it works very well.
RT: Who wrote "Silvery Rain" and when did you first hear it?
Hank Marvin wrote that and I rememeber years ago Pat Farrar and myself used to do backups for Cliff and his tours in Japan and "Silvery Rain" was one of the songs we used to do and I've always loved the song. I'm trying to get very active in matters of environment and pollution and I wanted to find a song about pollution that wasn't too hard hitting and "Silvery Rain" seemed to be the obvious choice. John loved the song so he started working on an arrangement to make it different and that's how that even ?started.
RT: You say you're getting involved in issues of environment and pollution, what then is "Silvery Rain" about?
"Silvery Rain" is about inscticides which is very strange because when we started the album the fruit fly business in Los Angeles hadn't started yet and for a moment we thought about putting "Silvery Rain" out as a single and we thought 'Gosh! They're going to think we're cashing in on the Mediterranean Fruit Fly' and it was nothing to do with it. It really is strange. It's almost a song pro the animals because so much wildlife gets killed off and we get killed off eventually because it poisons our food. I don't want to get on a soapbox here, but the song is just about awareness.
RT: "Falling" was written by John Farrar. Do you spend a lot of time discussing and rehearsing a song like that before you go and record it?
Well, I listen to tapes in the car. Most of my time rehearsing is in the car. I just play a song over and over. This song was on John's album that he recorded this year and I'd always loved it. So I asked him to hold on to it and not let anyone else do it. So I knew the song. I was pretty familiar with it.
RT: Do you see yourself primarily as a voice and an image or as an active musician?
That's a very good question. I see myself as a singer. I do a lot of vocal backings. John and I do some together. I do some on my own. But I'm not a musician. I am as far as my ear goes but I don't actually play an instrument, really.
RT: "Carried Away" was written by Barry Gibb. How did you get that song?
I'm a great admirer of Barry's. I think he's a wonderful writer and producer and everything and when I was in New York at the Grammys, Barry was there and I said to him... I passed on a message through people that I was recording and if he had a song I'd love one... but I didn't think he'd ever get the message so I saw him and I said "Barry I'd going an album and do you have a song for me because I'd really like to record something of yours' and he said 'Certainly, I'll do one' and within a week I had a tape.
RT: Was it specially written for you?
I don't know. I'd like to think it was. It's a lovely song.
RT: Do you think the Bee Gees particular style influenced you and John in creating "Carried Away"?
Well, Barry's songs are very distinctive and we didn't want it to sound like a Bee Gees record obviously because they're the Bee Gees and I'm me but the ways his songs are - they're very distinctive. I think you could probably tell pretty early that it's his song and I found from singing it a number of times that one has to phrase pretty much the way he writes, pretty much in metre with the instrument. If you try and sing across it or you try and ad lib, it spoils the song.
RT: Are you planning to go out and tour this album?
At the moment I'm not. We'll see what happens with it. Maybe I'll get the yen to do it if the album does very well but I haven't done any touring in two years. The last live show I did was for the Queen in Australia and the longer you leave it, the harder it is to go back. So I'm starting and doing some TV and we'll see how I feel after that. I hope to do a film either later this year or earlier next year, so I won't have time to tour you see.
RT: Tell me about the film plans?
Well, there's been a few things but nothing I can tell you about. I was supposed to do a film called Kangaroo in Australia but it's been postponed, so I don't know when that will be now, but that is a really wonderful story.
RT: I notice you're now a star on Hollywood Boulevard. How did that come about?
That only happened a couple of weeks ago and it's what I said on the morning and it's true. When I first came to Los Angeles, I think one of my first photo sessions was outside the Chinese Theatre in front of Marilyn Monroes's handprints. I never even thought about being there. I thought that was so far away from me that it would never happen so it didn't even occur to me. Then about six months ago we had a letter from the Chamber of Commerce and they wanted to put my star there and I was kind of flabbergasted. Me!
So it's very hard for me to look at myself as a star on Hollywood boulevarde. But it's rather wonderful to know that I am there forever. Until the next earthquake anyway.
RT: You wrote both the words and the music to "The Promise (Dolphin's Song)" Do you write a lot of songs?
No. I'm not prolific. Well, I have written a lot but not a lot that people'll ever hear. They're in my drawer at home. I've written maybe one song on each album. I've tried to write more but it seems to work out that I only manage to come up with one. I've always had a great love for dophins and any kind of wildlife that is threatened. It concerns me greatly. About four years ago I cancelled a tour to Japan as a protest over the Iki Island massacre that goes on every year. Since then, I was aware of them, but Hele Reddy actually rang me up and said that whe was going to cancel her tour and how would i feel about cancelling mine and I said 'Sure' and we both cancelled our tours and didn't become very popular in Japan of course.
But at least it made an impact and since then I've become very interested in them. Then Lee Kramer actually was getting involved with some people and I met some people who were very interested in dolphins and I was speaking to them when I get inspired to write this song and it just came to me. I don't know. Songs seem to come to me in 15 minutes or I never finish them and that's how it happened.
I wrote all the verses and we decided to do part of the album cover with dolphins so we went to Hawaii because it was the warmest place to be and I spent three days in a tank with them swimming around and they are the most amazing... almost people... creatures... like beings... amazing beings. They have such humour and intelligence. They're fun and they're all loving. There's no really aggressive side to them. It's playful aggression. With each other they're rough but with me they were so tender.
I think the way they lead their lives is inspirational. It's all playing, eating and lovemaking and they all get on with one another. We could learn a lot. We could learn from them about the ociean and what has happened under the ocean. I'm sure they must have history. People tend to think that just because they don't have books and paintings, they can't have any brains. I have my fantasy about how one day they're going to break this language barrier. They're getting close. It'll tell us so much. But it's exciting to me. The memory of swimming with them will always stay with me. It was one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me I think.
RT: So on the opening and ending of that track are they actually the sounds of the dolphin?
That's the dolphins talking to me. They took out my voice but I was talking to them and the amazing thing was... there were times when I'd say things like... I was feeding them fish in the water and I'd say 'Oh you're so cute' and ten seconds later they'd go 'Aaah aaah eeeh aaah'. They'd like, imitate. And when I was there I didn't notice because the frequencies are very high. When you listen to it back on the tape they'd imitate me. The soundman told me this but I didn't really believe it. When you go under the water you can hear them communicating with some other dolphins who were in a sort of caged area at the other end. They don't stop talking all the time.
RT: Are you trying to influence the way people think about dolphins in that song?
Yes. Even if I can create an awareness, especially in young people... sometimes I think that people in my position shouldn't use their position to endorse things or... political things... but this is a universal problem. It's to do with our universe. These creatures deserve the right to life the way anybody else does... I'm not getting into right to life and political stuff but I think man has gt to start looking away from himself and protecting other civilizations and I believe dolphins and whales have their civilizations too.