Interview with Neneh Cherry
Pacha Magazine, July, 2003

Neneh Cherry may be almost 40 and have 3 kids but she certainly knows how to party. The woman who won two Brit Awards in 1989 as a result of her 2 million selling album RAW LIKE SUSHI explains: "Andrea, my best friend since I was 16, celebrated her 40th birthday in Hackney on Sunday. I went to her party with my travel bag knowing I was going to get picked up by my husband and kids to get on the 6 am flight to Ibiza. We were meant to leave at 3 am but it took him half an hour to get me to leave. Another friend came too and we had a couple of Vodkas on the plane, touched down and the next thing I know I'm lying by a pool, basking in the sun. That's the way it's meant to be done. My kids were totally disgusted." Over the last few summers, Neneh, her husband, All Saints producer Cameron McVey and their 3 children Naima (20), Tyson (14) and Mabel (7) have been regular visitors on the island. "It's a home away from home," she admits. "My kids love Ibiza and we feel committed to it because we keep coming back to the same area. People recognise us in shops now and we have a social life here. We cook at home and have friends around." Neneh has a few memories of her first fleeting to the island in 1988 when she was holidaying in Formentera. "The next time I came I was surprised because I'd been corrupted by those dodgy Ibiza Uncovered television programmes. Ibiza is full of secrets. Without sounding too hippy. It's a powerful place where you feel really great and really shit. I tread gently here and it makes me thoughful. It also make me laugh a lot." In fact Neneh is seriously considering moving to Ibiza. It wouldn't be the first time that the family has lived in a Spanish-speaking country - a few years ago they lived in the countryside near Malaga but moved back to London for work and for friends. But she's getting itchy feet. "I'm staring to feel beat by England again and we're doing a bit of 'Could we live here?'."

Neneh is used to moving around. After her Swedish artists mum married Jazz musician Don Cherry (Neneh's real father was West African percussionist Ahmaduu Jah), she was raised in transit between New York and Sweden alongside her brother Eagle-Eye. Of her father she says: "Much to my embarassment, he always played his instruments wherever we went. Sometimes I'd sit at the other end of the train and pretend I didn't know him." It was Don cherry who brought 16 year-old Neneh to London when he was booked to support female punk band The Slits. Neneh ended up joining the band and stying in the city. By the age of 18 she was lead singer with Rip, Rig & Panic and pregnant with Naima by their drummer and her first husband Bruce Smith. They split and she met Cameron 3 years later at Heathrow airport. "We were on a mutual trip to Japan as bizarre fashion models. I thought he looked stuck up but cute. It took him a week to talk to me." Theur relationship is a work-related too. Cameron produced and co-wrote RAW LIKE SUSHI and together they have supported a variety of heavyweight British acts. "I had my Brit award for RAW LIKE SUSHI made into jewellery and I gave Jazzie B a piece because Soul II Soul kicked ass that year. BACK TO LIFE was No. 1 for weeks and they didn't get one." Massive Attack's ebut album BLUE LINES and Portishead's DUMMY were both produced by Cameron McVey. "Massive Attack lived in the bedroom of my west London house doing the preliminary stages of BLUE LINES. I'll never forget when they got Shara Nelson to sing on SAFE FROM HARM and I was lying in bed pregnant. That was a good moment." Neneh's reasoning is that she wanted to put something back after the "crazy whirlwind" which folowed RAW LIKE SUSHI. "You put in what you take out. But I would never take any credit for those records. We felt that what they were doing made sense and provided them with a space." Neneh is similarly encouraging of today's stars. Like Ms Dynamite, Neneh became pregnant when BUFFALO STANCE was climbing the charts. "Today there are many women that make music who've got kids Being a mother turns you into a better woman, a stronger person and maintains your sanity. I think those days are over when it's not cool for a woman to have kids and a career in the music industry."

She believes that ideas about sexuality have changed too. "It's no longer about what you drape around your body. It's what shines through your eyes and comes out of your mouth." She champions Missy Elliott "a godsend" and loves Ms Dynamite. Of the latter Neneh ramarks: "She's obviously got a good head on her shoulders and hit the sceme when there was a lot of regurgitated pop going on. She's brought some edge back into English music." Neneh has an afinity with Dynamite's music too. "She is who she is - hard and soft all at at the same time. There are two ingredients in the music I make - solid good beats and heart rendering sad and dark string - that's a reoccuring blip."

Holiday house hunting isn't the only thing that has brought Neneh back to Ibiza. She's been booked to DJ four times at Pacha, twice in July and twice in September. "In the mid 80s, I used to DJ at the Wag Club and warehouse parties in London with Andrea. It putt 20 pounds in your pocket and we'd get to listen to records we wanted to hear and get other people going." Neneh is the first to admit that her style is about dropping tunes rather than mixing. If the mood takes her, she MCs too. And after a break of 20 years, Neneh has just finished a tour of Po Na Na club in England with her DJ partner Silvio from Virgin souls (Cameron's current project). Silvio is one of Neneh's faourite DJs because "sometimes I need to go to the bathroom but can't leave the dancefloor" and his presence stops her from being nervous. So what will they be spinning? "It's good to have a set worked out but you've got to leave the doors open too. I'm mainly playing hip-hop, ragga, old skool tunes like Soul II Soul, Run DMC, Roxane Shante. Tanya Winley's VICIOUS RAP was one of the main tunes back then and when I put it on it still fits. I think a good tune has longevity. Some new tunes I've been playing like 50 Cent's IN DA CLUB are starting to wear thin." 

Is Neneh looking for beef? No, she's a woman who speaks her mind and after a purposeful absence has decided to make a new album. "Having not recorded anything for a while, DJing was a way to break the ice. I felt like going out and playing records. Making music is a journey for me. The music I make and listen to threads together. Finding new things is what keeps it fresh. Djing has been a real energiser. It's another way of using my wit with sound." She claims that when she goes to the studio after DJing, she's chilled out and inspired. 

"I'm much clearer about what I'm feeling and that's shining through. The music I make now is more confident, tougher beats and a harder vibe. It's rawer because I'm sick of hearing myself sing meaningful, orchestrated tunes. I feel like throwing off my shoes and letting my hair down." As she approaches her fifth decade, Neneh Cherry feels younger than ever and is proud of the fact that she's still writing. "I have so many songs and workds floating around my head. Music had always kept me happy. That's why playing records is so inspirational. It makes me feel free. And it's a laugh." Are her kids laughing at the mum's career move? "Their biggest nightmare is that I'm going to lift the needle off the record I'm playing or cause some other havoc!"

Words: Anna Chapman
Photo: Kate Martin