His name is Bedford. Richard Bedford. His speciality is adding the unique vibe to the music with his voice. Known mainly thanks to his timeless cooperations with Above & Beyond, but he also worked with Armin van Buuren and on recent Aly & Fila’s single – “Edge Of Tomorrow”.
Exclusively for us, a British vocalist answered a few questions from our side. Enjoy our conversation!
Richard Bedford – interview
Piotr Dobrowolski (Shining Beats, Z Dobrej Woli): I’m so thankful and glad that I have you there. How does it feel to be a voice of generation? I mean, “Sun & Moon”, “Thing Called Love” or “Northern Soul” are already timeless classics for many Anjunabeats’ fans and I think that my words are not exaggerated.
Richard Bedford: Well, of course, that is so very kind of you to say! Honestly though, I don’t really consider it, or contemplate it too much.
There are so many amazing singers and songwriters in our scene, so many wonderfully touching songs across its history that there can never be a single voice; I am just happy to have been lucky enough to be involved in tracks that people seem to have lived with and connected with.
When my friends from Poland (aboveandbeyond.pl) were talking with you around 5 years ago, your son Jerry was 4. After this time, is he as musical as you; do you see that he would like to be a vocalist in a future, just like you or totally someone else?
Jerry is now a wonderful bouncy 9 year old! I simply cannot imagine life without him, he has changed me in so many positive ways I couldn’t start to list them.
He has an extra special ingredient too, he has Down’s Syndrome, essentially he has a few things in his life that are delayed developmentally but an abundance of energy, empathy, love, affection, sense of humour and fun and of course mischief!
He dances and sings constantly and he goes to a Special School near my home town in Hebden Bridge and they have a wonderful reputation for putting on lavish performances and developing creativity so I am sure he will be wowing us all as he grows.
I would like to ask you – who found your talent? Was it your own discovery or someone from your family, any friend or tutor? When you realized that music is something you would like to be related to in your life?
I think it just developed over time, I started life as a keyboard player before I plucked up the courage to sing.
Of course, there are a few key people.. my family of course have always encouraged me to explore my creativity, my friend David Ogilvie who incidentally played guitar in my first band has almost always been extremely supportive (you will have to check The Resilience Development Podcast to understand the “almost”), Jerry’s Mom Charlotte has always tirelessly given an ear and huge encouragement to what I do.
But I think in terms of discovery, my friend Dan Myles who is a constant source of inspiration and without him I would never have met Above & Beyond and then there is Above & Beyond who essentially gave me an opportunity and we developed a wonderful working relationship that continues to this day.
What do you learn from Above & Beyond crew during all these years?
So so very much, professionalism, musicality, how to develop songs from the initial spark to the “finished” product, so much about the music industry and I guess that dreaming big can work out.
Do you feel satisfied as artist (vocalist, creator of lyrics) or you always feel deficiency which is characteristic for many creators of art?
I think it is hard to feel entirely satisfied, there is always something that you wish you could go back in time and do differently but essentially I think you just have to let it go… I am not sure a track is ever finished but at some point you have to stop and move on to something new.
How will you remember your “Acoustic” sessions and performances? It’s definitely a different form than club/electronic versions of your tracks; something that you should prepare for in another way.
To date I have only performed at the preview to the “Acoustic” shows which was a show with the boys, Zoe and Bid in Beirut in 2009. I loved being a part of that show, brought me lifelong friendships and some wonderful experiences.
I noticed that in recent months/years, you decided to create music with more electronic artists, like Roman Messer, Matt Fax or DJ T.H. & TEKNO. Why you decided to be more opened for this kind of collaborations?
It was something I explored during a little downtime really, working with artists that are slightly different to artists that I have worked with in the past.
I have quite a large collection of songs and it is nice to explore where they could go rather than them sitting on my hard drive, I wrote “Breathe” in 2004 I believe after the passing of my grandmother and I had always wanted to share it, I thought Roman did a great job too.
Three years ago, we were stucked by pandemic. Does it changed you
somehow?
I think it did, like so many of us. I guess I socialise less now, the plus side of that is I spend more time with my family and more time writing, recording and producing music.
Here I would like to ask you how are your work at your solo and Humaniq project’s tracks is going? When we could hear and enjoy some results?
The Humaniq project is still very much ongoing, it got delayed by Covid and the other member of Humaniq Jase moving to Portugal! We are back working on new material now and should have something to show soon.
Similar story with my own works, I had been working with an amazing young producer but due to circumstances beyond our control things became complicated but still ongoing… it’s a little bit of watch this space I guess.
At the end, let’s get back to the mentioned interview, where you said that you’re a fan of Depeche Mode. Do you have your favorite era/album of this group? How did you survive the loss of Andrew Fletcher?
I have been a huge Depeche Mode fan since my early teens, I would regularly be found searching old record stores for those rare vinyls back in the day.
In terms of era or album… I was always torn between “Songs of Faith” and “Devotion” and “Violator”; “Black Celebration” was the first album that I really connected with too but now I enjoy most of them though I don’t listen too much to the early stuff anymore. The new song “Ghosts Again” is great tho, cannot wait for the new album.
Andy’s passing was a huge seismic event personally, a face that had always been there suddenly absent…
We would like to thank Richard for his time and Anjunafamily Poland group for a help in peng this interview.
