Richard Bedford Exclusive Interview...
Richard Bedford is a Grammy Award-Nominated British singer and songwriter. Best known for his work with the trance group Above & Beyond. He also combined his experience with such artists of the trance scene as Aly & Fila, Matt Fax, Judge Jules, Roman Messer and others. Rich shared interesting thoughts about his work. I invite you to an interview conducted only for Visions Of Trance.
1. Your voice features on many styles of music and your tracks have been remixed by various artists in various genres but Trance music is at the core of your most popular tracks. What is trance music to you?
For me personally it is a space where the emotive tracks I love live within the Dance music world. I grew up listening to the darker end of electronic music, lots of the Mute Records back catalogue plus artists like Radiohead of course, Bark Psychosis, Talk Talk, anything that pulled on the heart strings and touched a nerve really. One of the first things that pulled me towards Trance was that same sentiment, those melodies and that emotion I was already drawn to in a more club friendly wrapper.
2. When did you realise that lending your voice to Trance and Progressive music was for you and how did you end up singing with Above & Beyond?
I'd been singing for a while when I met the A&B boys but not in the Trance world. I started life as a keyboard player who wrote songs and then over time that kind of got flipped on its head. I'd been around the music scene in the North of England for a while, the band I was in got signed to a little independent which fell through halfway through recording our debut album and so I had stopped singing for a year or so when a friend of mine Dan Myles contacted me and said he was working at Anjunabeats and said I should send a demo. I was kind of doing other things at the time but I picked up a copy of Anjunabeats Vol 2 when I was visiting some friends in Jersey and instantly connected. As soon as I got home I recorded a track and sent it down, a few weeks later I was in the studio recording Alone Tonight.
3. What is your inspiration for songwriting, creating new lyrics and melodies?
I guess you are always influenced by the tracks you connect with, as I said, I tend to connect with songs that are both cerebral and emotive. Inspiration can come from anywhere, a film, a book you are reading or just a spark, I jumped out of bed at 5am the other morning as I had an idea while half asleep and wanted to get it down and not lose the idea, whisper singing into the mic so as to not wake my son Jerry!
4. Which of your songs do you feel is your best work and what sets it apart for you?
Honestly I think it is impossible to say, in my head there is no "best" each represents a moment. As to which is my favorite, it changes constantly, I was listening to the clubmix of Black Room Boy the other day and had forgotten how great it was so right now that is in my head but next week it will likely be something else.
5. What would you consider to be your career highlight so far?
It is hard to say... on the surface I guess it is the "Big" moments, performing at MSG, playing live on Radio One, the first playlist on R1, Grammy Nomination etc and of course they are other worldly madness in terms of life experience. I am not sure they mean as much to me personally as the intimate personal moments, random connections and when people tell you how your music has been a part of their lifes journey, helped them through tough times, puncuated moments in their life, there is something human and connected about that that I honestly find difficult to put into words.
6. You have collaborated with many recognized artists of the trance scene. Is there anyone else you would like to work with?
It kind of feels as though I have dipped my toe into a few other waters but never been fully commited to bouncing from one producer to the next, tho there is nothing wrong with that I found personally that it can become creatively quite exhausting and confuse your indentity I guess too. Working with artists I believe in and making music that I love is my key for me and I think it shows in the quality of your performance too. I guess if I had to choose an artist to work with I would probably choose someone like Royksopp.
7. Do you have anything in the pipeline and what can we expect from Richard Bedford in the future?
ATM I am working on a few different projects without a definite deadline, the Humaniq Project has seen a few bumps in the road, Covid of course and my creative partner Jase moving across the water to mainland Europe complicated things for a while but we seem to have got a bit of a flow going and are currently carving away at the stone of 20 or so songs with a view to sharing later in the year and there are a few other things in the pipeline too that will come to light as the year progresses some may have heard the odd ID so the year feels like its moving along nicely.
