Claire Richards is best-known as one fifth of Steps, the pop superstars who are still topping the charts after more than 25 years together.
During a band hiatus in 2019, Richards released her debut solo album ‘My Wildest Dreams’, which reached the Top 10 and proved that she could more than hold her own as an artist in her own right. Four years on from that album and Richards is ready to unleash her new album ‘Euphoria’, coming 25th August 2023, and today debuts the lead single ‘I Surrender’, a dance version of the classic Celine Dion ballad.
I spoke to Claire last week to find out more about her new covers album, discuss the album’s stellar collaborations, and to talk about what it’s like to cover Celine Dion…
How are you Claire? It’s been a while since we last spoke and I understand you have a new solo album on the way?
I’m doing very well, thank you. It’s all very exciting and it’s all coming together nicely, which is good. The album’s all finished and we’re ready to launch it and unleash it to everybody, which is terrifying and exciting at the same time (laughs).
I can’t believe it’s been four years since your debut solo album ‘My Wildest Dreams’. Where did that time go?
It went to Steps, the day job! Time has flown and we’ve done so much in that time as well. Steps were ready for a break. I’m glad that I’ve been able to do this now. It came at the right time to have a break from Steps and then just be able to continue on and still do more music.
It feels like the five of you have that balance now to be able to spend a year or so pursuing Steps projects then take time away to do your own solo projects. You weren’t able to do that the first time around so it must be a nice feeling now?
We weren’t and a lot of that was because we were just so busy all the time. It was full on. Because of the time we had away from each other, those 10 years that we did nothing, we did create other careers for ourselves and other things to do. I think it’s really healthy for us to have that time and then be able to come back to Steps and be excited and fresh and ready for whatever the next chapter is going to be. It feels like we need that time to be able to put new life into it every time we do it.
The new solo album is called ‘Euphoria’ and it’s a collection of covers celebrating artists that have all had an impact on you. Why did you decide to make this record?
I wanted to make it different to ‘My Wildest Dreams’ for a start. ‘My Wildest Dreams’ was the album that I really wanted to make at that moment in time. It was all original material and songs that I felt reflected me. I’d done Claireoke in lockdown and I was enjoying listening to all those old songs that inspired me, and all those old artists that I wanted to emulate and be like when I was a kid. When we were talking about the album, we thought why don’t we explore that and why don’t we see where we can take that? How do we look at those artists and the people that inspired me? I don’t think we’ve chosen all the completely obvious songs from a lot of those people. I’ve put my stamp on it and they’re all bangers, which I hope that the fans are going to love. That makes it different to ‘My Wildest Dreams’ instantly and (I’m) exploring where this voice came from. When I was a kid, I didn’t sing the way I sing now at all. I sounded like Julie Andrews (laughs) and it was all very proper, and words were pronounced very properly. I’ve learned how to become a pop singer, through my love of all of these artists or the song that I’ve I’ve chosen to go on (this record). It was a great process and it was very interesting. There were some songs that we chose that just didn’t work with me singing. I feel like we’ve got an amazing collection of songs now that I’m really happy with.
You’ve picked some really big songs to cover on this record, starting with the lead single ‘I Surrender’, which was originally recorded by Celine Dion. Your version has had a dance makeover so that makes it different from the original, but few artists would choose to cover Celine or put their version out as a lead single. Tell me about that decision…
I know it’s a bit daft really, isn’t it? (laughs) I knew straight away as soon as we said this is what we were going to do, that would be the song that I would choose from Celine. There had to be a Celine song on there just as there had to be a Whitney and just as there had to be a Karen Carpenter. They’re my ultimate three voices that I would say I tried to be like when I was younger. I knew straight away that ‘I Surrender’ had to be the one and then someone said, ‘can we make it into a dance banger?’ As much as it is a ballad, I think it works really well and it’s one of my favourite Celine songs. It made sense because I’ve done it in the past. But yes, it is very big. I shall be on a lot of vocal rest I reckon for the next few months (laughs).
The dance take on the track works and you really have made it your own. One of the hardest things with covers is to put your own spin on it because no one wants a covers album where someone is singing familiar songs the way we all know them…
It’s just karaoke then isn’t it really?
Was it challenging for you to find your own interpretation and angle for these songs?
Yeah. It is quite difficult with covers. With (‘I Surrender’) it made it a bit easier because it is sped up so it that instantly makes it different. When you know a song so well, it’s really hard to sometimes come out of that and imagine how you could sing it. I find that quite difficult. I’m very stuck to the way certain people sing songs. On ‘So Emotional’ for example, we got to the end and we had to do some ad libs but my mind went completely blank. I don’t know how to sing it other than how Whitney does. There’s a lot of things that she can do that I just can’t do. All those really clean runs, I’m not very good at that. That’s not my thing. It was really interesting to find where my voice does sit in a lot of these songs and how I could change it to make it a little bit different.
On the album you’ve collaborated with Delta Goodrem and Andy Bell from Erasure, too huge popstars. What was that experience like?
It was amazing. You know when things happen and at first you just think, ‘that’s amazing, but it’s never actually going to happen’? It’s like you have your dream list and then out of the blue, the person at the top of that list actually says yes. It was a bit of a shock. I just kept thinking, ‘I’m just waiting for the moment that I’m going to wake up or someone’s gonna say actually, it’s not happening’. Delta had to go on vocal rest for a month (after saying yes) and she hadn’t recorded it. It was a bit hit and miss but bless her, she pulled out all the stops. It was one of the first things she did once she came out of that vocal rest month. Andy, he’s a legend and he’s an absolute icon. He’s someone I grew up with. I think we had a similar journey. Erasure recorded a lot of ABBA stuff and they had that association with ABBA as well. it just made complete sense to me to do an ABBA song with him and put our own stamp on it as well, which I think we have. I think it sounds great. I’m so happy with how both duets turned out and I’m really happy that I’ve managed to get them on the album. (On the last album) there were no duets. It’s really exciting for me to sing with other singers.
You’ve been testing some of these songs live recently and you played ‘Euphoria’, the title track and Loreen cover, during your set at the Eurovision Village set. What’s the reaction been like?
It’s been really good actually. Obviously it helps when they’re familiar songs but it just makes everybody smile and have a good old dance and jump around. That’s really what I wanted. We’ve all been through such a crap old time the last few years that and we got such a great reaction from Steps putting out that joy and that kind of music that makes people have that bit of escapism, that I feel like this is an extension of that. That’s what I wanted to happen with this album. I wanted it to be unapologetically pop music that people can just go crazy to. In my set, I do a few Steps songs and if it’s a longer set I do ‘On My Own’ and some songs from the album, but ‘Euphoria’, especially at the Eurovision show, it was an absolute dream. It was amazing. It was the first time I’d sung it as well so I was a bit nervous as to how it was gonna go but the the crowd went absolutely mental. It was great.
And then Loreen went on to win Eurovision again and ‘Euphoria’ is having a moment all these years on. That’s perfect timing isn’t it?
It’s amazing. I met Loreen yesterday as well, which was quite a moment. I said to her, ‘thank you so much. You inspired the name of my album!’, like a nutcase (laughs).
I’ve heard that Loreen is very shy and reserved when she’s not performing, which is hard to imagine given her stage presence…
She’s very artistic and very creative. I think you’ll find that with a lot of creative people, they are quite shy but then they become something else on stage. She’s almost like this ethereal being that becomes something else when she gets on stage and starts singing, which is incredible. You can feel it. You can feel that energy when you’re near her. It’s something different. It’s amazing.
Has she heard your version of the song yet?
She’s not heard it… unless she’s been on Instagram and seen all the videos (laughs) with someone singing it in the background? She’s seen the album cover though so that was quite exciting.
You performed at Cardiff Pride recently and you treated fans to a surprise H & Claire reunion. I feel like you’ve never really visited that part of your career before so how did it come about?
It was incredible. We had such fun. It was just one of those moments where I was headlining Cardiff Pride and H was going to be there because he was hosting that slot so he introduced me onto the stage anyway. A couple of weeks before I texted him and I was like, ‘do you want to come on and do ‘DJ’ with me?’ He said, ‘I was gonna ask you exactly the same but I didn’t think that you would want to’. I thought, ‘you know what? When are we ever going to be in this position again where we’re in Wales, we’re in Cardiff, it’s (H’s) home crowd and I’m doing solo stuff? Let’s just do it’. It’s been 20 years. We haven’t performed any of that stuff for 20 years. It was actually really nice to sing it. I was surprised! We even remembered some of the dance routine (laughs).
The crowd certainly remembered it as they were singing as loud as you were…
Yeah, they were and I was surprised at that. Looking back at the videos (from Cardiff Pride) everybody was singing it loud and proud, which I was really happy about. There’s a bit of a weird energy around the H & Claire stuff but I am really proud of everything we did in that period of time. I think it was a good album and I think the people that loved it did love it. It’s part of our history and ‘DJ’ is a brilliant song.
I remember buying that single and the album. I loved them. It was great to see you performing ‘DJ’ together again…
It was good fun. I think everyone’s expecting a big old announcement of something more but it literally was just that (laughs).
H & Claire the second album. That’s what the fans want!
Can you imagine? (laughs) Oh my gosh!
You’ve got some shows coming up over the summer and you’re got a show with Steps but are you making plans to head out on a solo tour in support of ‘Euphoria’?
I’d love to. I’ve got quite a lot of Prides booked in and a couple of other shows between now and September. I think we’re just gonna see how it goes. If the album does well, and people like it and there’s a demand for it, I would love to tour it absolutely. These festival shows are really good to get me into that over the summer and lead up to the record. We’ll see. I’d love to but there’s no actual plans at the moment.
It’s the 25th anniversary of ‘Step One’ in September. Are we going to get anything to mark that?
I don’t know. I don’t think so. Last year was our big 25th and we had ‘The Platinum Collection’.
We need that album on vinyl. Well, we need all the back catalogue on vinyl really…
I know. I would love to do that and I have asked about that before. You forget in that period of time, vinyl was not cool. It had disappeared and been replaced by CDs. None of that stuff is on vinyl, which is amazing because all our new albums are on vinyl, but none of the old ones are. We’ll see. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make that happen at some point. That would be great.
Claire Richards will release new album ‘Euphoria’ on 25th August 2023. The album is available for pre-order now at https://clairerichards.lnk.to/Euphoria.
