Belinda Carlisle on her new album of cover songs, radio escapism and touring next year

Singer Belinda Carlisle had always wanted to do an album of covers, but she waited, she says, until she found the right angle to pull the songs together. A few years ago, she found it. “I thought maybe to focus on songs that really inspired me as a young girl to be a singer,” says Carlisle, who has long jumped back and forth between her career as the singer with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band the Go-Go’s and her own solo music. “I remember being born and raised in California when music was a big part of the culture, and radio was a big part of the culture. For me, that radio was a source of escape,” she says. “Every summer, I’d go to my friend’s house and we’d lay in front of the speaker and listen to all the radio stations … all these songs, most of which are on the album. So I just focused on that.” The 10 tracks on Once Upon a Time in California include songs such as Dionne Warwick’s hit “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, Harry Nilsson’s “One” and “Everybody’s Talkin’”, and The Association’s “Never My Love”. The project started just before the pandemic hit, Carlisle says. “I really didn’t think I would be finishing my album or even doing any live performances anywhere,” she says. “So I thought maybe I’ll find great karaoke tracks to sing along to. So that’s what I did.” “Saturday Serenade”, her weekly karaoke performances on Instagram during lockdown, also helped point her towards some tracks that eventually landed on the record. “It was a lot of work finding good karaoke tracks,” Carlisle says. “But for instance, ‘The Air That I Breathe’ [by The Hollies], when I did that for ‘Saturday Serenade’, I thought, ‘Oh, this is a perfect song to put on the list for the album.’” She says it was a lot of work making the record once the lockdown eased. “We had like 100 songs that we had to go through. Some of the songs we thought would work, we had to demo and found out they didn’t work. So it was a lot of work, but it was fun.” The 67-year-old singer adds that the project’s “California concept” had helped whittle down the final selection down to around 30 songs. From there, she explains that the team then had to find an arrangement that kept the integrity of each song but, at the same time, made it her own. “And it was just you knew whether it was going to work or not. Like I really wanted to do ‘Holiday’ by the Bee Gees, and it sounded horrible,” Carlisle says, laughing. “There were a few other songs like that, but it was instinctual.” Most of the original songs on the new album were released between 1965 and 1975, which the singer says reflects her taste in music. That, in turn, was influenced by what she heard on the radio at the time, the Beach Boys, growing up with the Teenage Fair – an annual celebration of teen pop music and culture – and the whole surf sound. “So the melody was one of the threads. Whether I liked it is one of the threads. But I think the big connection for me was personal, connecting memories and moments of this childhood that I had. “This dream of California, this idea of California, I was thinking, well, did that really ever exist? Is it just a fantasy? But yeah, I think for me, the common thread was the memories and melody.” Being the oldest of seven kids in her family, listening to the radio – and singing along to songs – was almost like a form of escapism for the singer. “It’s hard to put into words because it’s more of a feeling and energy, but for me, it was everything … “My parents, they couldn’t really afford to buy me singles and stuff, so I would use my babysitting money to buy the singles I would hear on the radio. I had a stack of 45s, and it was just, I mean, it took up such a big portion of my everyday existence as a kid. It was everything for me.” Among the tunes that really grabbed Carlisle the first time she heard them on the radio was Marmalade’s “Reflections of My Life”. “We were living in Burbank, and the garage was not attached to the house. And I’d be in the garage, and it would come on the radio. I didn’t understand the lyrics, but I thought it was a really unusual song compared to the other songs on the radio. It was a really weird little song,” Carlisle recalls. “I paid more attention to the melody than the lyrics back then. But then, when I thought about that, I thought it would be a perfect way to end the album, you know, singing it as an older woman. It was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t realise how heavy these lyrics are about life and love and loss.’ I thought it was a perfect way to end the album.” These songs also influenced the music she later made with the Go-Go’s – even though the band was part of the punk movement. “People would say, ‘How can you do punk, and then just do this [more pure pop]? I’d say that this was reminiscent of the songs that I loved on the radio, like the big choruses and lots of melody and romantic. “I mean, even though I was part of the punk movement, it didn’t mean that I didn’t love this other genre.” She adds that fellow band members Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin both grew up in California. “So I think that growing up there, when we did, really informed our taste.” Looking ahead, Carlisle says she has shows coming up in the UK and Europe before returning to the East Coast for more tour dates. Next year, the touring will continue. And new music? Any plans? “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll do something again, or maybe I won’t. I’ve always, the past 20 years, just kind of winged it. Maybe an album of Spanish songs [Carlisle currently lives in Mexico City] or who knows,” she says. “Something will come to me, I’m sure, at some point.”

Belinda Carlisle on her new album of cover songs, radio escapism and touring next year

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Belinda Carlisle reveals how Once Upon a Time in California features covers of songs that shaped her musical journey

Belinda Carlisle reveals how Once Upon a Time in California features covers of songs that shaped her musical journey