As Dexys return with their much-anticipated sixth studio album, mainstay Kevin Rowland tells Traditional Pop why he felt the time was proper to undergo The Female Divine… By Dan Biggane

Eleven years since their final album of authentic music, the celebrated One Day I’m Going To Soar, Dexys are again with The Female Divine, a artistic celebration of womanhood and a posh exploration of masculinity.

A deeply private, virtually autobiographical, portrayal of a person whose views have matured over time, the 9 new songs will depart the listener each spellbound and stunned in equal measure.

“The report tells a narrative,” band chief Kevin Rowland tells Traditional Pop. “It’s a journey which begins with The One That Loves You, a tune the place the narrator pretends to be macho as a result of that’s what he’s been introduced as much as imagine.

“He’s a man that will threaten to beat you up for those who touched his girlfriend. Jim Paterson [trombone] and I first wrote that observe round 1991.

“I at all times thought it was actually good, however we’d by no means used it, so it’s serendipitous that it’s discovered a spot in these environment as a result of it helps open the narrative of the report completely.

“The character’s perspective was very a lot my stance at that time in my life, however that bravado was all faux. The next tune, It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023), was written round a yr in the past and represents the reflective realisation that his machoism was all an act. It’s an admission of how I truly really feel.

“I’m not saying that the album is totally autobiographical, however there’s positively various me in there. On the lead single, I’m Going To Get Free, the character is acknowledging his internalised issues and optimistically opening up and seeking to transfer ahead. Equally, on Coming House, the man appears like he’s truly returning to his true self.

“It wasn’t my intention that these first few songs can be extra conventional sounding Dexys numbers, it simply labored out that means. Nonetheless, sooner or later throughout the writing of the album, I seen if we organized them in a sure order it might work as a story.

“The title observe is him analyzing his relationship with ladies and recognising that he’s been severely wanting. The phrases for The Female Divine simply got here pouring out in a single hit and I wasn’t even accountable for it.

“I needed to chop round just a few traces to make them work higher, however the entire sentiment was there. My Goddess Is sees the character settle into a brand new relationship and the remainder of the album follows that plot and the way it develops.

“It’s right here that the report adopts a extra digital sound. Because the narrative shifts, the music follows swimsuit. I believe it really works rather well.

“Michael Timothy [keyboards and programming] and our producer Toby Chapman got here up with loads of the digital concepts. Toby did various work on the album, taking part in guitar and bass, in addition to programming. I’d been desirous to discover that sort of music for some time and, prior to creating One Day I’m Going To Soar, I used to be considering we’d’ve headed in that course.

“Nonetheless, whereas recording the drums on a hand-held Dictaphone, I realised how a lot I actually preferred the reside sound on these tracks. So, now simply looks as if the correct time to mess around with digital music.

“As we had been ending work on this album, I’d already began writing extra songs. Once I thought of simply how a lot work I’ve received to do on promotion, I made a decision to shelve any additional new concepts till subsequent yr.

“However I’d actually wish to make one other album, that’s how I really feel for the time being. I’ve nice co-writers in Jim, Mike and Sean Learn [saxophone, organ, and vocals]. I believe the lyrics are actually good and I discovered the artistic course of very cathartic.”

Whereas this celebration of womanhood and its problem to preconceptions of masculinity proved a releasing expertise for Rowland, making this album additionally helped the vocalist overcome a darkness which had developed following the discharge of 2016’s Let The Document Present: Dexys Do Irish And Nation Soul, an album of Irish people requirements and canopy variations of songs from his youth.

“After we completed selling the Dexys Do Irish And Nation Soul, I simply wished to get away from the entire music enterprise,” Rowland reveals. “I’d simply had sufficient and wanted a break. I had no want to do something.

“I used to be approached to work on a vogue collaboration based mostly on the garments I put on, however that fell via, so I’d determined to work on myself for a bit as a substitute.

“I travelled to Thailand and did some Tao programs. While there they began speaking about ladies as goddesses and my first response was ‘she’s not a goddess’… however then it dawned on me that truly they’re.

“Ladies are extremely highly effective. That’s once I began to judge my relationships with ladies and my attitudes in direction of them. I began to have a look at them in another way.”

The depiction of the female divine as a goddess not solely options within the title of two tracks, the decadent My Goddess Is and saucy Goddess Guidelines, it is usually represented within the putting portray chosen for the duvet sleeve.

Rowland says: “I knew that we wished a goddess on the entrance, and we commissioned an artist good friend to provide you with one thing. She created a bit and, whereas it was good, I didn’t really feel that it actually nailed what we had been after. All of us agreed that we would have liked to get one thing extra goddessy and highly effective.

“Mike despatched me an image he had discovered of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fireplace and volcanoes, and I instantly knew that was the picture we would have liked.

“The label was nervous it’d show too pricey to safe however I used to be insistent and prepared to pay for it myself. Some folks steered that we had an image of the band on the duvet, and I used to be like ‘No thanks!’

“I strive to not learn too many feedback on-line, however when the album image was revealed, I noticed anyone say, ‘That’s not a Dexys cowl’… I don’t know what a Dexys cowl truly is or needs to be! I don’t need to be identifiable by a canopy and suppose they’ve all been moderately completely different from one another. We’ve at all times tried to make them completely different.”

The Female Divine’s first half is stuffed with brassy music-hall vigour, whereas the second is a daring departure from something that Dexys have completed earlier than. A luxurious, synth-driven, stripped-back delight, the album might come as a shock for a lot of lifelong followers.

“Once more, I attempt to ignore stuff on-line,” admits Rowland when requested what he hopes followers will take away from the album. “When you begin eager about different folks’s reactions, you’re in bother. I respect the people who find themselves into Dexys and that purchase the data and go to our reveals.

“Nonetheless, a few of them are solely thinking about Dexys from 1981 or 1982. Possibly that was a golden interval for them of their lives, and I perceive that, however that’s not one thing I will be too nervous about. That’s not my job.

“My job is to maintain shifting ahead and when you begin taking part in the sport of making an attempt to be who, or how, you had been within the 80s, I believe you’re at risk. I don’t need to try this.

“On The Female Divine I simply tried to serve the artwork. I do know that may sound a bit pretentious, and maybe ‘serve the inspiration’ is a greater phrase, however I simply tried to make the report pretty much as good as I presumably might. I believe it’s received one thing occurring and that’s essential… as for fan response? I can’t predict that.”

So, whereas Dexys’ frontman is hopeful followers will embrace The Female Divine and sustain with the band as they transfer ahead, Traditional Pop wonders what he thinks the youthful Kevin Rowland of Looking For The Younger Soul Rebels and Too-Rye-Ay would make of all of it.

“Oh, he can be utterly baffled by it,” laughs Kevin. “He’d be completely flummoxed and suppose, ‘What the fuck?’ I don’t suppose he’d prefer it… however I don’t suppose that man actually knew who he was anyway.”

This September, the revived Dexys started a 26-date tour of the UK, Eire and mainland Europe to advertise The Female Divine.

“I’ve blended emotions about touring,” the singer advised us forward of the tour. “I’m trying ahead to it as a result of, for the primary half of the present, we can be performing the brand new album in its entirety. We can be appearing the songs out with a feminine character who’s going to be performed by Claudia Chopek.

“The second half goes to be outdated songs and we’ll be taking part in loads of stuff from Too-Rye-Ay to compensate for these cancelled reside dates. I believe it’s a very robust thought for a live performance and I’m enthusiastic about that.

“Concurrently, I’m additionally very nervous as a result of I’ve received loads of work to do between every now and then to make it occur. I’ve received to get my voice in form and construct up my stamina.”

“I’m getting there,” Kevin continues, “I’ll simply be effectively sufficient to do the reveals and my leg can be OK, nevertheless it’s simply gonna take time. It’s a lot higher than it was.”

With Rowland having turned 70, it’s heartening to listen to simply how a lot he’s having fun with making music once more, particularly when the fabric brims with such verve and vitality.

The Female Divine is a euphoric return which highlights simply how hungry Dexys are to mature and transfer ahead – to encourage and be impressed.

Pictures by Sandra Vijandi and Bruno Murari