Scottish band Texas are back with a new album, Jump on Board, to be released later this month and I caught up with lead singer Sharleen Spiteri to talk about the new record and upcoming tour.
“After Texas 25 which was the album that came out two years ago (to mark the band’s 25th anniversary), we did an extensive tour which was a sold-out tour,” she explains. “Previously there had been an album called Conversation which had been successful for us. We pretty much toured those back to back and we still felt that we’d had quite a big gap beforehand and we felt it had come time to do a new record again. There’s obviously a desire for it on the public’s part. There’s a desire to do it on our part and I guess we felt very inspired by the enthusiasm and the success that we’d had with the previous two records so we started writing. ‘Let’s Work It Out’ is the single that’s out in Europe at the moment. It’s doing really well. It’s gone to radio and it’s doing great and then we’ve got the album coming out in Europe on 21st April.”
“We put our first record out in 1989,” she tells me, “It was very successful and suddenly it was a very different ball game for us. We had hit after hit after hit and it gets to the point where you’re writing set lists and you do new songs as well and you’re able to put hit songs that are well known in amongst new songs; it gives you that realisation that you’ve had that long career. It’s a great feeling.” She recalls doing some test gigs recently, playing in pubs with around two hundred and fifty people in the audience. “It was really good. You look out at the audience and see their faces and they’re all young people and you think ‘How the hell do you know Texas!’ And then you realise that their mums were also young when Texas were all over the radio and it’s that kind of thing that makes you realise that it has really been a long time and we’re very proud that we’ve all worked hard and we have the career that we have.”
“We do still do a lot of touring but we don’t tour like we did in the early days. Back then, it was like ‘I’m going for two years; I’ll see you later.’ Obviously now we’ve all become parents and different things like that and we make it work for our families as well as for us. It’s not just the fact that your priorities change but your freedom changes as well because you’ve had a lot of success and it allows you that freedom to say we’ll tour in these places. You can make it work for you in a way that makes it work for everyone.”
Sharleen says that the band will be doing some dates in the U.K. and Europe around the release of the album. “We’re doing some European festivals, a British Festival; we’re doing the Isle of Wight Festival and then a tour will be announced soon and that will be a British and European tour.” At this stage, there is nothing scheduled for Australia but the singer is hopeful there will be. “I think it’s absolutely about time we had a trip to Australia because every time we’ve been there, we’ve always had such a great time. I really don’t think we’ve toured there enough.”
Jump on Board is out 21st April 2017 through Liberator Music/BMG. The first single from the album, ‘Let’s Work It Out’ is out now.
For more information on Texas, the album and international tour dates, go to texas.uk.com/
by Sharyn Hamey
Copyright © Sharyn Hamey 2017. All rights reserved
