John Barrowman Talks Music Music Music

17-11-2008 12:46

John Barrowman burst onto our television screens back in 2005 as the charismatic Captain Jack Harkness in the revamped Doctor Who series but before then had enjoyed a very successful theatre career.

Since his Doctor Who role he has seen his television career soar as his character of Captain Jack got his own show Torchwood. But after the success of his first album Another Side last year John is back with another collection of some of his favourite songs Music Music Music.

I caught up with John to talk about his new album, the rise of Captain Jack and the future of Torchwood and what the future holds for the actor himself.

your new album is Music Music Music can you tell me a little bit about it?

Well first of all the title was chosen because I have a habit of saying things in threes on television and we decided to pull in on that phrase and the thing that people recognise about me. But also because there is three styles of music that I cover and am really really passionate about: one I straight pop, the second is country music and the third is musical theatre music, and before everyone goes ewww musical theatre it’s not your Phantom of the Opera or Les Mis it’s songs like Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, which is an Andy Williams pop song but it’s also in the musical Jersey Boys so I have sort of hit two birds with one stone. To me I listened to it again this morning and I loved it I really thing that it is a great balance.

It’s a collection of cover songs how did you decide what makes the record and what is left out?

Well it’s a collection of covers but there are two songs that the British public have never heard before the title track What About Us, which is written by Gary Barlow and Chris Braide, and the second has actually been sung by Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman’s husband and country singer, and I decided to do that one because no one had heard of it over here and it’s called You’ll Think of Me.

But the other tracks I go into the record company with a list of songs and then they give me a list of songs and I put them together, and I end up with about two hundred songs, and I narrow it down to about fifty. And when I’m narrowing it down I always go with what my heart says and what my feelings say than my head because if I had an emotional connection to the song and I can think of that then the song will mean more to me and I think I will sing it slightly better than if it was just a random song that I want to record.

And do you have a personal favourite?

At the moment I’m loving the title track What About Us because it’s original and it’s mine and on of the ones that I love, well I love all of them that’s why it’s so difficult to choose, but From A Distance I adore because it makes me weep because of what is going on in the world and the upset that we have and if we could look at things from a distance it makes it all a little bit better. What else I Am What I Am because it describes me so they are all personal favourites, if you buy this album you are really getting to know me a lot better.