The strange way Elvis Costello protects his voice
In terms of British songwriters, it doesn’t get much more quintessential than Elvis Costello. The ‘Oliver’s Army’ and ‘Alison’ singer set a precedent for the likes of The Smiths, Blur, and even Badly Drawn Boy in the sense that he largely writes songs about the idiosyncracies of life in Britain, supported by a sharp perception and a sardonic wit that only people from this tiny island possess.
After all, Costello is the man who conceived this stunning line in ‘New Lace Sleeves’: “Good manners and bad breath will get you nowhere” – a short reflection of the kind of intellect that he imbues all of his songs with. Costello and his skill has opened so many doors over his long and celebrated career, even collaborating with the likes of Paul McCartney, T Bone Burnett, Brian Eno, and even Johnny Cash.
Speaking to The Talks about his songwriting, Costello explained what force drives his work: “I never think of that ever! I never think of like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I’m just doing it. That’s what I do. I write and I try to respond to the impulse to write and try to make some coherence of that. I simply like to think about what the implication of events are, and if possible, if they give me a reason to write or sing, then that is great.”
He continued: “I think sometimes songs just develop out of a little imagining! You have to follow and find the logic, and then find the musical carriage for it. Sometimes the imaginative aspects of songwriting just accumulate in a coherent way, or you recognize little patterns or threads in the themes…”
“For example with the song ‘Mr, Crescent’ from my new album The Boy Named If, it’s about a man looking back on his sins. I don’t know where this idea came from! Really, honestly, I don’t. But there’s lots of very romantic images in that song, even though it’s about a person who’s not really admirable. In the end, the tune is a quite beautiful performance by the band and everybody just playing very simply. I didn’t have some big blueprint for all of these songs written down where it must start here and end here.”
A real iconoclast, since he broke onto the scene, Costello has been one of the most captivating figures in music, as, unsurprisingly, his take on the world is as scintillating as his songs. A complex character with many layers, you never quite know what he’s going to say, as singer Jessie Ware found out in a March 2022 episode of her podcast Table Manners. Costello revealed the strange way he protects his voice, explaining that it’s a technique he learned from a vocal expert. “One drop of dish soap, diluted of course, and he said that stops the cords from sticking,” Costello said. “You spray it into your mouth but you can’t taste it because it’s so diluted.”
