Joan Armatrading

The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a 'band', what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela...

- Jo Kendall

Joan Armatrading made waves with her orchestral-backed rock-soul single Love And Affection in October 1976. It catapulted the reserved and enigmatic St Kitts-born, Birmingham-raised singer-songwriter to stardom, where she’s remained for five decades. Being awarded two British honours for her services to music – an MBE in 2001 and a CBE in 2020 – placed her firmly in the songwriting royalty tier, and her honest, observer’s approach to life and love remains on her most recent record album How Did This Happen And What Does This Now Mean, on which she does some sizzling guitar playing.

Tell us about How Did This Happen…. Who’s on it?

Everything you heard is just me. I’ve been doing that for years. I see reviews saying: “The band were great.” Yeah, the ‘band’ is me.

You’re a multi-instrumentalist, and you also do production.

I started writing at age twelve, thirteen, and as soon as any new technology came in I was on it. I went from two-track [recordings] to four, eight, sixteen, twenty-four… and I would engineer myself. Then from 1986 I started self-producing. I’ve never had to play catch-up, I’ve always been there when technology moves.

How did you find themes for your songs?

I write from observation of what’s around me, and that hasn’t changed since day one. I think: “What’s it like to be in that person’s shoes?” Situations that inspire me are things like when I was on the train recently and there was a group of girls aged about fifteen, sixteen, and one of them was super-excited because she’d just discovered olives [laughs].

That’s very wholesome. And unexpected fodder for a rock song.