Singer Rumer has said she had to take a step back from her growing fame when she released her debut album because she feared for her sanity and her health.
The half British/half Pakistani performer, who has just released This Girl’s In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook, says that the immediate success of her debut album, 2010's Seasons of the Soul, forced her to re-evaluate her life.
“I had to because the thing was, I was getting ill,” she told RTÉ Entertainment. ”If you could imagine - I try to use this comparison - imagine if it was your birthday every day, it would do your head in! It’s like, `oh, it’s your birthday! Let’s go to the pub! Here, have a present!!’
“It was every day like that. It was an unsubstantiated amount of attention on you every day on you. It’s not healthy for anyone to have that much attention. It’s just not right, it’s just not human."
37-year-old Rumer is now six months pregnant and lives with her husband of one year, Rob Shirakbari, who is Burt Bacharach's arranger and composer, in Arkansas, LA and London.
When she began her career, the Adele comparisons were obvious and now six years later, Rumer is full of praise for her fellow singer's huge global success. “I think she’s a very strong young lady and I think she has an exceptionally good team," she says.
"She has a really good manager and her agent is a bit of a legend - a guy in a pinstripe suit with jam jar glasses and a cigar who was the agent for Bob Dylan for decades and James Taylor so she kind of has a dynasty of musical history surrounding her, people who are old school and who know how to help in setting people up for success."
“Adele was very fortunate to find herself with those people straight out of school. I feel very much that Adele was destined to be the huge star and she is very fortunate in having a great team around her from the very beginning.”
Rumer, whose real name is Sarah Joyce, first began melting hearts with her timeless, sixties-tinged songs back in 2010 and her caramel voice and sumptuous musical arrangements have seen her invited to the White House to sing for Barack Obama and also receive a personal invitation from king of high cool himself, Burt Bacharach, to sing for him in his home in California.
Now she has gone the whole hog and recorded an album of Bacharach and David classics, which also digs deeper into their back catalogue to uncover some hidden gems. It is a beautiful collection seeped in melancholia and wistfulness. In fact, it may be the pefect way to escape the heightened hyper reality of what has been a pretty horrific year.
Vintage Bacharach
This Girl’s In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook was recorded at the renowned Capitol Studios in LA with Rob Shirakbari, and features an appearance by Bacharach himself on piano.
On the album, Rumer covers classics already made famous by the likes of The Carpenters and Dusty Springfield, such as The Look Of Love and Close To You but she also takes on lesser known songs by the famous songwriting duo, including Balance Of Nature and Land Of Make Believe.
“When you go into a project like this you have to be careful because everybody has got their favourites and you have such a huge back catalogue from several decades and there is so much to choose from." she says.
Rumer’s links to perma-tanned silver fox Bacharach are longstanding. As well as that invite to visit him at his home in 2010, she also released the single Rumer Sings Bacharach at Christmas in the same year and she continues to have a working relationship with him through her husband, Rob.
However, Rumer says that she does not know the great composer that well. “I hardly know him to be honest. It’s more Rob that had the relationship with him," she says. "I met Burt cordially in 2010 and I’ve met him at the White House really just to shake his hand in a polite way.
"We’ve met but I’m nothing more than an acquaintance really, whereas Rob was 18 when he started working with Burt Bacharach. He’s spend 30 years with Burt as a keyboardist and musical director so he’s been trained by Burt since he was young.”
Rumer is much more content now that she has a quietly successful career - away from the glare of fame but at the same time, she says she does feel left behind by the music industry.
“I don’t get invited to things. Sometimes I feel a little bit snubbed by `the gang,’" she sighs. "Whatever is going on, I don’t feel included and not acknowledged. Does it hurt? Emmm, well if I see something going on like an event that means a lot to me or would quite obviously be something I’d be interested in, I don’t get invited to . . . I don’t think it hurts my feelings. I think I’m just used to do.
“I don’t have any pop stars friends, I don‘t have any famous friends, I don’t have any associations with pop culture or music culture. I’m more interested in real people to be honest. I’m more likely to be friends with people who do other jobs. That’s who I relate to more. I don’t feel a connection to pop culture.
“Basically, I’m a gypsy and, interestingly, the name Rumer means gypsy," she adds. "I didn’t know that until after I’d adopted the name. Words have vibrations and I really liked the name Rumer and it actually comes from the word Roma as in Romany and it’s also where the word romantic comes from.
"So that suited the music, I thought. Anyway, I am a gypsy and we live between London, Los Angeles and Arkansas but, to be honest, I’m just happy to roam and make music wherever we can. Pack up and set up. So I’m just a gypsy girl really.”
Alan Corr @corralan
This Girl’s In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook is out now on East West/Warner Music
