Judie Tzuke - Press Cuttings.
The following article was in Kerrang! Magazine in 1983 - at the time Ritmo was released.
TZUKE TIME
A YEAR ago Judie Tzuke was featured in these pages for the first time, a surprise to some but nevertheless a logical consequence of the live 'Road Noise' album which made her rock appeal evident to all who heard it. She has a staunch unfaltering core of support but broadening that base has proved a continual problem. She has reached a level where everyone is aware of her and everyone has a conception of what Judie Tzuke is all about - the only problem is that it's a misconception.
Happily, Kerrangers are broadminded enough to show an interest; ironically, it's the rest of the media with it's allegedly broader base that continues to give her the cold shoulder. Her failure to regurgitate endless reruns of 'Stay With ME Till Dawn' must make it one of the most destructive hit singles of all time, with rock media turning off and refusing to listen because of that initial branding, and radio and the pop press refusing to acknowledge her because she hasn't done it again.
But we know better; while she may not have played the Marquee(yet!) you can be sure that you won't be either alone or unwelcome - perish the thought - at a Judie Tzuke show in your denim jacket and Kerrang! T-shirt. Following last years crippling 46-date tour the 1983 itinerary has been a little more reasonable (a more tolerable three week duration), and yours truly tracked Judie down to Nomis Studios for the annual interview scenario as the band prepared for the road. Having failed to follow through the 'Road Noise' album with a tour, the inevitable opener concerned what she has been up to during the many months of silence...
"The album didn't get promoted at all really, it wasn't just a case of not touring; there were no singles taken from it, and I think there could have been but that's all in the past now."
"We've spent the last year writing. We couldn't have toured really because we didn't have the band available; we couldn't afford to keep them on and pay a retainer because I'm not making enough money for that, I can't do it anymore. I think we need some time off anyway, to think about what we were going to do next."
Given the shape of the new album, with it's distinct change of emphasis, the notion arises that maybe that time for thought has resulted in a new Judie Tzuke, rejecting the past and starting again.
"No, not really. What happened was that we wrote the whole album out, and two weeks before we went to record, we played through it all and felt that it didn't sound at all different, and we didn't want to do exactly the same thing yet again. So we sat down and rewrote most of the songs, just to make it a little more exciting to do. Like when you've played 'Stay With Me Till Dawn' a hundred times, if you just change it very slightly it can put all the life back into it."
"Of course we'd like to sell more records, but I don't know how to do that, so this isn't just some cynical exercise. Any musician is taking a chance with whatever they do. I hope this album's going to sell alot of copies, but I have no idea if it will or not."
The period leading up to the release of 'Ritmo', the new album, has seen changes in the Judie Tzuke Band, the first for a long time. A frequent contributor to previous records, Don Snow, has been added to the road-band on keyboards to supplement Bob Noble, a new rhythm section has arrived in the shape of the Twiglets, bassist Gary Twigg and an exciting new drummer named Matthew Letley. Jeff Rich can now be found with the Climax Blues Band, and John Edwards is the man who started the dearly beloved Rhino Edwards.
"John's got his own thing going now as you know. He felt if he was ever going to do it, he should do it now, so that's why he left. I think we need a new drummer after Charlie and Jeff, and I think Matthew is going to work out best for us - I'm not saying that he's the best drummer, or that he's not, but for what we need in the band he's just right."
The new album's undoubtedly Judie's best so far, a strikingly contemporary record following that rethink, but still unmistakably Judie Tzuke. The emphasis on atmospheric, haunting textures harks back to her previous work just as much as it reflects the keyboard predominance in currently successful commercial acts. Cast your minds back to 'Chinatown' and 'City Of Swimming Pools'...
"Oh, that's great! I hadn't thought of that connection but if you can see it I'm very happy. "City Of Swimming Pools" is one of my favourites of all the songs I've done - it's structure, it said what I wanted to say, and it was unusual. And 'Chinatown' I was very fond of too."
Whether such material was going to get wheeled out on the road was a moot point when we spoke. The emphasis was to be firmly on current material - including an unrecorded number to open the set - and, although the new members had knuckled down to learn a total of 26 songs 'just in case', the insistence on looking forward rather than back meant that even the classic 'For You' was no longer on the agenda. If that could be dropped anything could go; what Judie sounds like now is her prime concern, that sound being the distinct change in approach in recording the album."
"What we'd always tried to do before was to get the best, cleanest studio sound that we could, to make all the instruments sound exactly as they should. But on this album we've done what everyone else probably does - make the instruments sound bigger and better than they naturally do. Our albums before have always been very clean and well produced, this time we're trying to make more of things. If we'd done the other albums like this I think they would have sounded a much better."
"Everyone used to tell us that we sounded much better live than on record, and I think that's probably because we were trying to make everything sound too clean and pure, but you can't do that onstage where the ambience, and the natural atmosphere of the gig itself make things sound different. We've tried to add that to the album this time - I think it was necessary."
"I'm excited about 'Ritmo', but I'm worried too. If it gets ignored I don't think I'll know what to do, because I do believe that it's far more compatible with what's being playing played at the moment. I can't see any reason why it should be ignored, I just hope that all the people who liked my old stuff will like this as much. Don't get me wrong - I'm not too worried, more excited than anything else."
"I do have to admit, though, that if it doesn't happen I really don't know what I'll do next, because I've put so much of myself into it this time. I'm one of those people who alwasy thinks everyone else is right and I'm wrong, but it got to a point last year where I thought that I'd been trying everyone else's way for four years and they hadn't worked to the full, so maybe I should try what I thought was right. I've got nothing to lose - if it's wrong, it's wrong, but it's no worse than anything else... and so far it's gone down well."
An obligation to conquer the world is inherent in any recording career. It's a rarely fulfilled obligation, but recording contracts are just like any other form of contract, the investing party expects to reap it's rewards. Judie Tzuke may have achieved artistic success but commercially there's still a long way to go. Effectively, she's probably the biggest cult star on the rock circuit, a solid unwavering base of support meaning that she was able to undertake that 46-date tour last year, one of the biggest ever by a recording act in this country. It's because of that solid fan base that so much is expected of her."
"I think it's wonderful to have such committed support, but that's not enough for record companies. What I want is the resources to allow me to go into the studio and make the music that I want to make, and it's all down to money - I don't like to keep on about money, but that's honestly what it's all about. If I can't show the record comapny enough income then I don't get the money and don't have the freedom to go and make the music that I want to make. I've got to think about being more successful so that I can carry on doing what I want to do."
Her awareness of the commercial side of what's theoretically art reflects the fact that, ever since her first album, Judie effectively managed herself, handling all the business affairs and all the bullshit that goes with it. A recent liaison with ace booker John Giddings has allowed her to relinquish some of the hassles, but once you get to know the business it's a scary prospect to let someone else take the reins of your career.
"I love singing, I'll never give it up, but the business side I hate so much that sometimes it makes me feel like giving up; but then I try and think of something I might do otherwise there's nothing... so..."
54 issues and we still haven't mentioned 'em.
Paul Sutter
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