Mango Groove’s Claire Johnston spoke to Adam Haupt about her debut solo album, Fearless
W hen I heard that Claire Johnston had released a solo album, Fearless, my response was, “What happened to Mango Groove?” Who could forget their celebration of Sophiatown’s finest hour? Their retro-blend was typically 1980s and early 1990s pop and back then it was rare to see black and white artists making it big together.
“Mango’s still going,” says Johnston. “Obviously, we’ve been fixating on this solo venture. Mango’s been on the backburner to a certain extent. We still do shows last year we went to Germany. We’ve also never been a band to flog around unless we’ve got something new going on.”
We’ll be hearing from the band once they get a new album together, although Johnston’s not sure when that will be.
Johnston’s solo career took shape two years ago when she signed with Sting Music. She held out until she found a good deal, particularly because production budgets are still limited for South African musicians.
Her approach seems to have paid off. She landed an international budget and worked with an impressive array of professionals. There’s executive producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, who has produced and engineered for names such as Elton John, Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker, The Clash and the Rolling Stones.
Producer Marius de Vries has worked with David Bowie, Mel C, Annie Lennox, Madonna and Bjork. He also co-composed and produced the soundtracks for the movies Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge.
Add a few top-class songwriters to the mix and you’re destined to strike the right chord. They include Maire-Claire D’Ubaldo, who wrote Falling Into You for Celine Dion, k.d. lang, Enrique Iglesias and Pam Sheyne, who wrote Christina Aguilera’s Genie in a Bottle. Let’s not forget Billy Steinberg, who wrote Madonna’s Like a Virgin, and Rick Astley.
Naturally, I’m amazed at the plethora of talent and Johnston adds that it’s difficult to get songs of such quality.
“Those songs are kept quite fiercely in the fists of the publishers, who represent the writers,” she explains. “And they’re holding out to give the songs to Whitney Houston, to Madonna.
“And what happened is my husband John and I had done some demos suggesting a direction for me. Having had a very strong identity with Mango Groove, a very strong sound, it was a question of, ‘What am I going to be on my own? What’s my sound going to be?’ We didn’t just want a collection of songs. We wanted something special that had a real sound to it,” she recalls.
Sting Music passed these demos on to Coppersmith-Heaven. Before long they spoke to him by telephone and he visited South Africa “literally with a suitcase full of songs”. They spent three days listening to tracks.
“Having Vic on board,” says Johnston, “is what enabled me to get hold of these songs because Vic is very connected.”
Johnston reflects that the past year was an incredible experience: “It’s been a whole learning thing for me. I’ve been travelling back and forwards to England on my own without the security of the band. And that was strange.”
You might say that she was destined to be a musician. She dreamt of this as a child and joined Mango Groove at the tender age of 17. Despite the band’s success, it was almost inevitable that she would go solo some time.
“I love what Mango is about. I love the fun of it, the fact that it was a non-racial thing,” she says. “It was about people getting on with it and enjoying themselves in a time when South Africa was so segmented. And Mango’s one side of me I wanted to do something completely different.”
So if you’re expecting to hear something that even mildly resembles Mango Groove, you’re in for a big surprise. This album falls very much in the ambit of mainstream pop.
“It’s a very layered album, a very textured album. It’s a very lovely combination of programming and loops with some amazing musicians,” Johnston enthuses.
She worked with Peter Gabriel’s guitarist, David Rhodes, and they used interesting instruments such as the zither and djembes. The album has an international feel, while also being quite contemporary.
Inside my Universe is mooted to be the first single and combines an Eastern percussive element with evocative Spanish guitar by Esteban Antonio. The title track, Fearless, presents another fine example of trendy programming and there are very nice touches from the zither and cello. My favourite track is 0 to 60 because the programming is varied and exciting. I can hear great potential for drum and bass remixes of this gem.