The Student Pocket Guide | Duffy Interview
Duffy’s star has been rising at an astonishing rate this year. Debut album ‘Rockferry’ released in March has now reached double platinum status in the UK with sales currently sitting around the 600,000 mark and that number looks set to continue climbing.
Duffy is the first to recognise how fast everything has been happening for her “It’s been quite mind-blowing. Of course I hoped that people would warm to the album because I make music for people, not for me. You hope that a record is going to become something that people want and like and so it’s really surprising how quickly everything has happened”.
With such an immediate turnaround from just another face on the street to household name it’s taken time to adjust, not just for the singer but for her family and friends too. “They’ve been like excited children at Christmas! It’s gone from nobody really caring that I’m a singer to suddenly everyone being super proud. It’s very exciting-it’s like a different world. It’s very mind-blowing how suddenly I’ve become different to other people and changed in their eyes”.
This newfound recognition has made for some strange situations for the singer from Wales, such as being asked out by celebrities, that she’s coy about naming, in the street. “I’m not going to drop any names, but I was walking around Chelsea about two weeks ago, cigarette and coffee in hand and I saw this celebrity guy walking towards me. Usually with my sister I’m like ‘Oh my God I saw so and so today’ and then this guy and his mate stop me, ask for my number and see if I want to go out for a drink with him! At the end of the day I’m still a kid from Wales and I’m being chatted up by a celebrity in the street! Is that supposed to be normal?”
All these celebrity encounters seem to leave Duffy a little bit starstruck as she adjusts to fame, not just in the UK but also in the US where her big soul sound is also causing a stir. “I met Ellen (DeGeneres) and I really liked her, I think she’s really cool. She’s like really iconic you know but she’s so nice and so fun. Justin Timberlake was also on her show and I didn’t know who to be more impressed with”.
Duffy isn’t the only young British female making headway in the often difficult to crack US market. With artists like Estelle and Leona Lewis also over there do they feel any kinship? “You know when you go on holiday and you see a person from your village that you wouldn’t normally speak to, but when you’re abroad you seem to team together and then you go back home and lose touch again? It’s like that. On foreign terms you feel like you should stick together”.
With her British success looking set to repeat itself in the US, Duffy is quick to point out that she isn’t about to turn her back on us. “I’m a British singer and I value that so much and that’s why I’m not in any hurry to leave. The fact that I moved to London from Wales in itself is a really big thing. I came from Wales, I moved to London and I feel British, whatever that is. I’m a Welsh singer and I feel blessed that I have been embraced at home. I feel at home in the UK”.
Duffy’s move from Wales to London provided inspiration for her songwriting on the album. “I called the album Rockferry because that was the first song I wrote and it’s about struggle. Rockferry is like a place in your mind’s eye that you get to when you’ve overcome something. It’s not a song about love, it’s not a song about loss, it’s a song about being strong, you know? It’s not like a mantra because that sounds a bit cheesy and technical, but it was almost like the aim for the record. I was moving from Wales, I’d never made music before and I was really afraid. The whole thing, psychologically, was just like trying to get to Rockferry, wherever that was. I still don’t know if I’ve got there. I still don’t really know what it is! It doesn’t really make sense to me why I spend my whole life, every waking minute, focusing on this. It’s not like I can say I want to be famous or that I want anything from it, it’s just bizarre. It’s something that I have to do and I’m passionate about”.
It’s apparent that the writing and recording process was a pretty intense time for Duffy. “When I’m in the studio I often get this feeling that I’m drowning. You feel like you’re being consumed by the creative process. When I was making Rockferry I could write a song and then go home at night and feel a little bit like my heart was really heavy, even if the song was going really well. It was just a really strange experience”.
Is playing live more enjoyable for her? “Both sides of things have their good points. I’m enjoying playing live more and more but at the beginning I was really afraid. I felt very vulnerable: I was just a girl on stage with a band and a song and nobody really knew the record”.
Now that the album is done and dusted and flying off the shelves, Duffy is able to enjoy performing her songs live. With one UK tour already under her belt, she’s about to head out on the road again followed by a packed summer schedule of festivals. “I can’t really get nervous anymore. There’s an element of vulnerability and I do get scared a little bit, but I just want to let people have a good time. I don’t want to be loved or adored or get off stage feeling good about myself, I want to get off stage feeling that people had a good time. I can’t stand on my head and do magic tricks, you know, I do what I do and I just hope that it goes down OK”.
South By Southwest festival held in Texas in March of this year saw Duffy’s first live performance at a festival. How was it? “It was crazy! The audience was unbelievable. I watched REM on the night I arrived and it was amazing and then the next night I played on the same stage. It was so amazing”.
With lots of appearances at UK festivals coming up are there any Duffy is particularly looking forward to? “All of them! It’s a bit of a whirlwind really. It’s like ‘Hey what am I doing tomorrow? Glastonbury? Brilliant!”.
Glastonbury’s getting it’s fair share of media attention at the moment with the public divided over Jay-Z’s headline slot, so what does Duffy thing about all this? “I don’t really know what everyone’s problem is really. Jay-Z’s absolutely brilliant. He’s made some great records and he’s a very respected artist. I really don’t bother myself with music snobbery. To me there’s only two forms of music: there’s good music and there’s bad music. He makes good music. What’s the problem?”
With ‘Warwick Avenue’, the third single to be released from ‘Rockferry’ coming out on 26th May what comes next for Duffy? “You know I’m just living one day to the next and that’s good for me. I wake up in the morning, I throw my clothes on, I go and do what I need to do and I feel really good about it. I’m not worrying about what lies ahead in the future yet. I just take each day as it comes otherwise I’d lose my mind”.
Interview by Holly Wild
