Pixie Geldof has said that Twin Thing, her heartbreaking and haunting song about her late sister Peaches was “precious” to her and that she was anxious to honour her memory when she was writing her debut solo album, I’m Yours.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, the youngest child of Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates, said: “I haven’t performed that song yet. I’ve practised it and it was OK. The writing of it happened quicker than I thought it would and I didn’t actually realised what the song was about until I reached the chorus and I thought, `OK, here we are . . . ‘”
Pixie Geldof has just released her new album, I'm Yours
“The recording of the song was a very different experience. It was precious and you want to do honour to the song and do it exactly how it should be. It was the most meticulous thing I’ve ever done in my life because I think it was important and I think it turned out exactly as it should. That song . . . gets ya.”
26-year-old Pixie was born within 18 months of Peaches (making them near "Irish twins") and her death in April 2014 was another tragedy for Pixie in a life already rocked by the death of her mother, aged 41, on Pixies’ tenth birthday in 2000.
Pixie was often cast as a socialite and more likely to be seen as a fixture in a patronising Daily Mail sidebar captions dwelling on the tragic events of her childhood and her more recent past. However, I'm Yours proves she is so much more than that.
However, while her new songs masy be fringed with melancholia, they also boast sumptuous torch songs and lush orchestral pop that recalls Lana Del Ray and echoes of her main musical influences - Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt.
The model-turned-singer - who previously fronted shoegaze group Violet in 2012 - says country music was always what got to “the core of me.”
“I listen mostly to country music,” she says. “I like the stories and the tales and the subtleties of them but as a kid, as we all do, I went through a lot of bizarre stages of music, some of them have continued into adulthood. Of course, the Britney Spears phase happened and it did not die quickly. Then I got really into punk as a teenage and then country happened.”
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Pixie talks to Alan Corr about Twin Thing, her song about her late sister, Peaches
“Country expresses itself very straight forwardly. I’m not going lie, I always buy the live albums because I love the little stories they tell - `one night, I was a-walking down the street . . . ‘ They kinda explain the whole story before the songs and then you get to hear the story again. I like that!”
Recently, Pixie had played a low-key gig at the Ruby Sessions, the Dublin singer songwriters’ night that has been a spawning ground for the likes of Hozier, Paulo Nutini, Mumford & Sons and Ed Sheeran. She clearly wants to build this up from the grassroots as a new artist.
"I’m not trying to shed preconceptions. I just hope my music gets out there.”
“Yeah, I do. I am! I am very much a new artist - this is a debut album and this is the first time people are hearing it," she says. "This is not about shedding preconceptions. I think it must be for other people but for me, it’s not like that.
“I never see myself in any other way other than singing and writing songs and that’s never been a public thing but it’s what I’ve done every day since I left school. For me, it’s literally about finding a stage to stand on and someone to record songs with . . . so no, I’m not trying to shed anything. I just hope my music gets out there.”
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Pixie discusses dad Bob's rock `n' roll influence on her
Asked about how much her dad Bob has influenced her music, she told RTÉ Entertainment: “He’s my dad. The first music you hear is because your parents play it to you so in terms of being my dad, he’s influenced me vastly.
"We share very much the same taste in music in terms of the country thing and he worships lyrics in the way that I do, he’s very much a lyric man. I’m assuming that comes from him - the fascination with words.”
“Yes, I do see him when he plays with the Rats. I saw him in the Roundhouse in London. The last time I saw him was at the Isle of Wight festival. He still kicks off, doesn’t he? Good on him!
Pixie: "Country music has always gotten to the core of me."
"He’s very proud of his snakeskin suit. He doesn’t wear it around the house but when he did get it, he was very pleased about it. I don’t know where he got it but it’s great.”
How much has being Irish or half-Irish influenced Pixie as a person? “It’s definitely in me . . . the family that I have, my parents and siblings live in London but my family is here in Ireland. I grew up coming here and I have awesome cousins and an amazing aunt and it’s in me. I don’t know if it’s an influence but they’re ever-present.”
I’m Yours is out now Stranger Records.
Alan Corr @corralan
