SONGWRITING
The world’s greatest songs. By the people who made them. THIS WEEK:
In 1983, UK electronic music group Freeez scored an international hit
– not to mention a UK No.2 – with their infectious single IOU. Here, the group’s founder John Rocca recalls how a spot of luck in New York turned into a global dance smash...
INTERVIEW: GEORGE GARNER
started, I was just jamming with a bunch of guys in a basement in Dalston. We made a record, I pressed it myself and put it out on my own label and that song – Keep In Touch – went to No.49 in the UK charts, which was a bit unreal. We eventually did an album called Southern Freeez which I released on my own label again, and which was sold to Beggars Banquet. [The title track] got to No.8 in the charts for two weeks and a couple of the other tracks were Top 40 hits. So, we did a tour... And then we broke up, because me and some of the guys kept on having a bit of a fight. We had done Top Of The Pops, got a bit rich and then spent it all on this, that and the other and had no money again. After we cooled off, we came back together again out of desperation [laughs].
W
We wrote down a list of people who might produce our new album and Beggars spotted us the money to fly to New York and knock on the doors of names on our list. It was really a shoestring trip: we stayed in a very, very dodgy hotel. The first name on the list was Arthur Baker, just because the list was alphabetical! Beggars got his office address, we went there and, lo and behold, he was in. We marched in and said, “We’ve come from England, we’re wondering if you’d produce our record?” Everyone’s jaw dropped open, thinking, “Who the hell are these people!?” but it turned out he’d bought the Southern Freeez album. He said, “Why don’t you write the album here and we’ll inject a bit of New York into it!”
We would do our writing and then turn up for a few hours in the studio and Arthur would be there and shape things. But he also had an idea
22 | Music Week 04.05.20
e finished IOU in early 1983, so that’s three or four years into my musical life. I was a complete amateur when I
that he wanted to do one of the songs himself, as it were. So, he told Andy [Stennett, keyboards], “I want the chords they play in those English songs” – which at the time were those big piano chords like on [Human League’s] Don’t You Want Me. Andy gave him a few options and some synth lines. That synth still works today, it’s been sampled by a billion people, including Brandy [on the remix of her 2002 single Full Moon]. Soon we had bass, piano, synth and an 808 drum machine and that was it: IOU went straight onto two-inch tape. And sat like that for ages...
Everyone else had gone home and I kept saying to Arthur, “I need to finish!” – I was doing the singing because we couldn’t get anyone else! He eventually agreed to dooby-doo some ideas and lyrics onto a cassette for me, including the A E A E I O U U chorus. The song was about someone who is alright when you’re alone but feels a bit embarrassed of you when you’re out. So, I glued it together and took it back to him and he liked it. I had my flight booked back to the UK on the day I did the vocals, I ran out of the studio as soon as I’d done it!
The video captured a number of things at the time, like body-popping and breakdancing. It was right in that era – IOU fits perfectly into the genres of hip-hop and electro. I went to New York with my own view of what was cool, and had it turned on its head by breakdancers, rappers and DJs. So, it was a very specific moment that the track ended up capturing. I never predicted it, but IOU became a global dance hit. In the UK, we got stuck behind Paul Young – he was No.1 for three weeks, we were No.2 for three weeks. Eventually we sold as many or more records than him, but never got that No.1 slot! But, as a song, it used state of the art synths, drums and samplers, and that’s what I’m most pleased about. It was very groundbreaking.
“I had my flight booked back to the UK on the day I did the vocals, I ran out of the studio as soon as I’d done it!”
JOHN ROCCA ON FREEEZ’S IOU
Mr Freeez: John Rocca and (inset) the IOU video. Freeez will release a 40th anniversary edition of their debut, Southern Freeez, later this year via Beggars Arkive
musicweek.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
