Once Dexys, formerly known as Dexys Midnight Runners, released Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul in 2016, singer Kevin Rowland believed he was done with music. “I didn’t want to do music after 2016,” Rowland told American Songwriter. “I was just drained.”
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More than 40 years since the release of Dexys’ 1980 debut, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, and breakthrough, Too-Rye-Ay, in 1982, which featured the band’s No. 1 hit “Come on Eileen,” Rowland took a long hiatus following their third album Don’t Stand Me Down in 1985 before returning nearly three decades later with One Day I’m Going to Soar, followed by their 2016 release.
Finished with music, or so he thought, after some soul-searching, and studies in tao, tantra, and more, Rowland revisited the band’s Too-Rye-Ay for a 40th anniversary reissue. Never pleased with the original production of the band’s hit album, Rowland reworked it and rereleased it as Too-Rye-Ay ‘As It Should Have Sounded in 2022.
[RELATED: Behind the Band Name: Dexys Midnight Runners]
Looking back into songs he had written more than 30 years earlier with songwriting partner Jim Paterson—who also co-wrote “Come On Eileen”—Rowland reworked two older songs before a storyline of other tracks flooded out for the band’s new album, The Feminine Divine.
A near-theatrical collection of songs on the trials of love, The Feminine Divine is centered around one character who discovers a relationship and the power of women.
Rowland recently chatted with American Songwriter about how songwriting has transformed for him over the past four decades, the feminine powers that inspired the new album, and the future of Dexys.
American Songwriter: Take us through the storyline of The Feminine Divine.
Kevin Rowland: The album’s got a narrative to it. In the first track [“The One That Loves You”] the guy is basically saying, “If anybody touches my girlfriend, I’m gonna get beat up.” Then he says, “Well, you know what, that’s not really how I feel,” and he gets honest in the second song [“It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)]. The third song [“It’s Going to Get Free”] is him determined to move forward, and by the fourth song, “Coming Home,” he’s coming out of that slump. By the fifth song, “The Feminine Divine,” he examines his relationships with women, and he sees that he’s been sadly lacking. Then he gets into a relationship in a different way than he would have done before, and that plays out for the rest of the album.
AS: Were you aware of the running story within the songs prior, or was it something that revealed itself when you started writing?
KR: The thing that really revealed itself was that it’s a story because I had no intention of that. I didn’t want to do music after 2016. I was just drained. You know when you got no vitality and no enthusiasm? I started to work on myself a lot. I did some courses. I did some tao. I did a bit of tantra. I learned all this stuff. I’m very much a student, but the more I got into my body and out of my head, I started to look at things differently, and I started to get more vitality around 2021 and thought “Oh man, I would actually quite like to do some music now. I’ve got a feeling I’ve got something to say. I’ve got some vitality and some energy.” I went to Jim [Paterson], my old songwriting partner because I knew we had some songs lying around. I don’t keep anything, but Jim keeps everything, and he sent me “I’m the One That Loves You,” the first track, which we originally wrote in the 1990s. “Coming Home” we also wrote in the ’90s.
On “I’m the One That Loves You,” the one about the tough guy, that was how I felt at the time in the ‘90s when I wrote it. That was my outlook, but times have changed. So I sat down one night, and I wrote “The Feminine Divine,” and it just kept pouring out of me. I didn’t even have to edit it. It just came out. So then I thought “Okay, we got something.” We had all these songs, and I knew what they were all about. I had a list of them and once we joined a couple together, we make the links [between songs].
AS: What is The Feminine Divine?
KR: I had this revelation, really, about just how powerful women are.
AS: Well, that’s a wonderful revelation to have.
KR: Yes, it’s really a big one. It was also how on some unconscious level — and I can’t speak for all men, but I speak for myself — but I think a lot of men have been afraid of them [women]. That’s why we’ve tried to suppress. It’s the same with racism, I believe. It’s all based on fear.
AS: So many things are fear-based. The way we react to things, the way we interact with people, a lot of these things come down to fear.
KR: It’s an evil thread.
AS: Thinking back to Searching for Young Soul Rebels and when you first started writing, how has the process shifted for you?
KR: I think they come to me more now.
AS: Is it a struggle then to flesh them out?
KR: That’s the real tricky bit, once you’ve got the inspiration. Dexys have only done five albums of original material in 43 years. Either I’m really lazy, or … I don’t write, write, write, write. I can’t seem to do it. I only write when I’ve got something I want to say. Otherwise, it’s just impressions or stories. I mostly write about myself, and even when I’m not writing about myself, it kind of is about myself.
I feel like I’ve never mastered the art of it [songwriting]. It’s still a mystery to me. Every time we write one, and it’s finished, especially if it comes out well, I’m just like, “How did that happen?” And I’ve pretty much got no idea where the next one’s coming from — yet. So each one is a bit of a miracle.
I don’t have to keep trying to do it in different ways to keep myself interested, because there’s not enough repetition for me to feel that I need to. Every song is a challenge, and they all come in different ways. They’ve come to me going off to sleep at night. Probably the best song I’ve ever written is called “This is What She’s Like,” (off Don’t Stand Me Down, 1985), and that came to me, the melody and the chorus, just as I was going to sleep. I thought “This doesn’t sound like much but what the hell it’s driving me crazy,” so I taped it. My partner at the time, Helen [O’Hara], picked the chords out in the morning, and it sounded great. So you just can’t tell. You get the inspiration, but then the ideas, and then the real work starts to get some of the other bits.
AS: In 2022, you revisited Too-Rye-Ay for the 40th anniversary reissue (Too-Rye-Ay ‘As It Should Have Sounded). Did that also help get you back into music again?
KR: I think it really did. It got my juice flowing. I was really happy with the mixes. Then all of a sudden, it just dawned on me, “I can do music again.” Just before that, I just had no enthusiasm, and you can’t work when you feel like that. It’s going to be rubbish.
[RELATED: Behind The Song: Dexys Midnight Runners, “Come On Eileen”]
AS: You were never happy with the original mix and production of Too-Rye-Ay, but how do you feel about The Feminine Divine?
KR: I feel really good about the album. I’m proud of it, and I’m really happy with it. And I like when people get it when they’re into it. You believe in it, but you always want to hear what other people think. When we finished recording the album, I was like, to my co-songwriters Sean (Reed) and Mike (Timothy), “This is great. I’m buzzing. Let’s do some more.” We already cut a few more ideas while we were doing the album. I believe in this album, and I want people to hear it.
AS: How will The Feminine Divine translate live?
KR: It’s gonna be quite interesting because we’re going to theatrically perform the songs — act them out. The first part of the show is the entire new album. Then there’s an intermission, and then we do the old stuff.
AS: “Dance with Me” closes the story. Where is our protagonist by the end of the album?
KR: “She’s [his girlfriend] is going out, and he’s asking her to dance with him before she goes off.
Photo: Sandra Vijandi / Tell All Your Friends PR
