Sometimes the strangest things happen. As most of you who read the books know, DCI Banks loves many different kinds of music, and one of the singer-songwriters he listens to in All the Colours of Darkness is Keren Ann. Late last year I was approached by Keren Ann’s record company, EMI, to write the “bio” for her new album, 101. I had no idea what this meant but soon found out that it’s a sort of description of the songs and music on the album and a little bit of information about how they came into being. Mostly, it goes out with review copies and other publicity-related stuff. Hardly a job for a novelist, I thought.
However, Keren Ann had seen that I had picked one of her songs for a New York Times playlist I was asked to compile a few years ago, and she was curious. As she was looking for something a bit different, more creative, she asked me if i could write a sort of story around the songs, as many of them involve intrigue and even murder. So I gave it a shot. I listened to the music. We emailed back and forth a bit and ended up with something a little personal and a little surreal, but certainly different from the examples of other bios I had seen.
Anyway, 101 is released in the UK on 4th April, and was picked as CD of the Week in the Sunday Times. There’s also a long interview with Keren Ann in the 3rd April’s Observer review section, and a video on the Guardian web site in which she discusses writing the album’s first song, “My Name is Trouble,” and sings a lovely acoustic version.
There are also plenty of Keren Ann videos on You Tube, but for more information check out her web site, www.kerenann.com. You’ll find my bio here.
Peter Robinson 