Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Melua a Womble no longer

In a cautious step, Katie Melua is about to abandon Mike Batt, the man who - effectively - created her:

"Me and Mike have decided this is the last album we are going to make as a creative team. It feels like the end of a chapter, our final little blast." Always careful in her choice of words, Melua insists no criticism of her mentor is intended.

"I wouldn't say I was getting restless but three was enough. I am becoming my own person and there isn't space any more for two creative people to go on an album."

Being as how Batt wrote most of the stuff that got her noticed, created a label for her, and steered her surprisingly successfully, this seems a bit of a slap in the face.

Let's hope she remembers what happened to Orinocho when he went solo.


3 comments:

eyetie said...

Sounds like Mike Batt's experience with Bond. Why oh why oh why oh why will he never learn? Also: when will he bring back The Planets? Hi Jonathon ;)

Nick Coquet said...

Katie Melua talks about the “split” with Mike Batt

“Mike and I are not “splitting” up - this story has been blown out of all proportion!! When Mike and I started working together I was fresh out of school and he had been songwriting for 40 years. We always had a plan that as time went on, and I learnt more and more, Mike would take more of a back seat with regards to the writing and producing and I would be writing more on my own, or with other songwriters. I wrote with two other writers on the new album, Pictures, which was a new experience for me but one which was enjoyable and successful I believe. Both Mike and I feel that as and when I start work on the next album Mike’s involvement will be as my manager and the executive producer, rather than hands on in the studio and writing the songs. Mike has dedicated the last 4 years to my career and I’m sure he has other stuff that he wants to do that is nothing to do with me!

Mike is my manager and chairman of Dramatico, the record company that I am signed to. We have a very strong working relationship, one that I am proud of and one that allows me to develop as an artist in my own time and in my own way.

Reacting to claims that Katie said that collaborations with Mike on her first album “were crap” Katie says:

“What I actually said was that I have been learning all the time, that when I first started writing I would think a song I’d written was great and I’d hope that it would be on the album, but that in hindsight it was crap and I am glad that I listened to people around me. Those “crap” songs never saw the light of day, thank God!”

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

So, Mike's told Katie she's going nowhere, then, huh?

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