Bill Hillier’s latest production work was for relatively unknown UK singer songwriter Nadine Shah.
Hillier’s first work after Depeche Mode’s ‘Delta Machine’ was as producer for Shah’s debut album ‘Love Your Dum and Mad’.
Nadine Shah hails from the small English town of Whitburn, overlooking the North Sea. She is part Norwegian, part Pakistani.
Initial reviews of Shah’s music compared her to P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave but in an interview with John Freeman of theline0fbestfit.com she said, “I don’t think my music is anything like their’s. I’d never listened to Nick Cave or PJ Harvey before I started making the album”.
Regardless, producer Ben Hillier was attracted to the sound. Hillier produced three Depeche Mode album ‘Delta Machine’, ‘Sounds of the universe’ and ‘Playing The Angel’, Blur’s ‘Think Tank’ Elbow’s ‘Cast of Thousands’ as well as albums for Villagers, The Rascals, Doves, The Editors and The Futureheads.
“When he said he would work with me, I was overwhelmed, because he is a producer I have admired for a long time,” she told Freeman. “Blur are one of my favourite bands and he made my favourite Blur album, Think Tank. I wanted to make sure we utilised every ounce of his creativity because he is a genius and I’d have been a fool not to”.
The title ‘Love You Dum and Mad’ was named after a painting by her friend Matthew Stephens-Scott who passed away last year.
The album was released in Australia this week through Xelon Entertainment.
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