Grace Jones set to raise a storm

'Hurricane Grace' is set to sweep across Britain in January, as the one and only Grace Jones kicks off her UK tour at Birmingham, Symphony Hall.

Rave reviews for Hurricane, Jones' first album in nearly 20 years, have included such eye-popping headlines as "Amazing Grace", "Pop icon pulls back up to the bumper, baby" and "Beware, the bitch is back".

Grace and her band call in at the Symphony Hall on Monday January 19 - tickets are £35 plus booking and transaction fees. Click here for more information.

Hurricane, which was co-produced by Jones along with Ivor Guest, has seen the singer collaborate with old friends Sly and Robbie as well as the likes of Brian Eno.

Last year saw the recently crowned Q Awards Idol winner re-enter the public conscious that began with a sensational show at this year's Meltdown Festival that was the live event of the year.

The show will see Jones perform tracks from Hurricane, which has firmly positioned her back on the music-scape. As with everything to do with Grace Jones, faces can expect the unexpected.

So, we wondered, can it really be nearly two decades since the last grace Jones release?

"Yeah, almost, isn't it? I don't count but when you say two decades... mmm... I think it would be more a decade-and-a-half but I don't know since I'm not counting. I don't count but other people do. You might be right. It might make the Guinness book of records for the longest gap between albums."

But there is a timelessness about the fact that even though you haven't made a record for however many years it just sounds like it fits into the modern world - your voice and rhythm hasn't aged at all.

"Well I don't try to keep up. I think that's what it is. If you don't try and keep up you don't sound like you're trying to keep up, which would be wrong You just sound like yourself, which should sound like the moment. And it was important that we didn't work to some industry formula of what the Grace Jones sound is.

"We just found what we were looking for, all the musicians found their way, and, followed where it seemed to be going. Followed where my voice was taking the music and where the music was taking my voice. Followed where everyone was heading. "

One way that people perceive you is that you are your own work of art. That you know when you look at Grace Jones it's almost like you don't have to do anything per se because you are Grace Jones. But eventually perhaps that might thin out. And clearly maybe if you haven't made another record, if you hadn't made another album of songs the idea of your more serious power might have dwindled away. You have to ultimately do another record.

"To some extent. I think you can easily do another record and another record and another record and still be forgotten after each record. And so the fact that - I didn't plan it but the fact that the music that I've done, my catalogue keeps getting bigger and bigger and people are sampling it, or taking tracks from it, it has a bigger and bigger life on the internet.

"So for me once that starts happening there's no way that one dwindles. So I never worry about dwindling or people wondering if I'm actually dead or not because actually I think it makes it actually more intriguing the fact that they eventually find out, oh there's something new. Where's that come from? She's actually popping her head up again.

"And the fact is that it's about the quality of the music. I think quality surpasses quantity at any time. So it's not a matter of the time it's a matter of the quality of what you do. If the new thing you do has quality the time it might have taken is irrelevant."

But that sense when you make a record finally and you've got this stuff behind you, that to an extent you've got to live up to. These classic tracks, your contribution to the glamour of pop music - you've got to follow that up. Is that sometimes an intimidating thing, that you think 'well I don't want to come back as 1981 Grace'?

"Oh that definitely won't happen."

For some people it does?

"No I don't think so. I mean I'll wait until I see those people or hear them say that. But I don't think that could ever happen because I think I've always been very forward, I see very far. So whatever I do I see it very far."

What are you seeing then?

"I see into the future basically. I see myself in the future. It's like I'm throwing myself to grab something that is ahead of me that I can sense is there. I'm not saying I'm a sixth sense person which I sometimes am but I won't get Into that. I've always been out of the loop. So it's impossible to put me in a box when I've always been out of a box. And that also counts for whatever I'm doing is going to be and it's going to be out of the box.

"So that would never happen to me because I'd just say I was not made that way. It's that simple. So it doesn't matter in a way that it's taken 10, 15, 20 years because me and the music is always in the same kind of place. It doesn't sound like the past or the future. It sounds like now, whenever now is. But there was a conscious effort that I took to stop when I did stop..."

To stop making records?

"When I stopped yeah, yeah."

And why was that?

"I guess sometimes things just kind of fall apart. Both Chris Blackwell and I sat down and we actually decided yeah you know we're getting too many hiccups here. Things fell apart. So I don't bang my head, I never bang my head against a wall that is not giving way.

"For me it's just saying, you know this is not the time. This is not the time for this. And it wasn't the time for sometime. When it gets to the point where you're really trying it's not like you're not trying, it's like you're really trying and you've got your heart and your soul into it, and there is nothing more painful than when it gets sabotaged or you get other elements that come in that make you - that stops the artistic process from flowing.

"And when that happens it becomes too much of a struggle to let it just flow, the important spontaneity, the necessary magic - when that stops happening what you're going to get in the end is something that you're not going to like and no one else is going to like it.

"You have to force feed it to people and that's no good for anyone. And musically now it just was the right time to have this and to do this album. And there were some hiccups in there but not too many, because we did it ourselves basically. When I say ourselves, I mean I co-produced it with Ivor. We took our time to do it, we did it the way we wanted to do it and it flowed, it was magic and you don't have to force-feed it to anyone, you know?"

During those periods where you weren't making music, did you miss it?

"No I didn't miss it , because I was doing other things, writing films, directing, you know I did the underground kind of private shows and tours and a bit of music for a couple of films and worked on music in these areas where it was pleasant and not within the corporate world - you know big brother record company watching over your back and maybe changing what it is you want to do.

"And so I actually didn't miss it because I still was dibbling and dabbling in it enough to feed my desire. And I knew that the time if it were to come that the time would come where it would be easier for me and much more fun and much more experimental and much more artistic, because artistically I believe I matured in this period. Matured enough to know what it is that I would like to do musically and can I actually afford and pay for it myself?

"This a lot of times is the big question. It's not so much like oh yeah I want to do this but then you've got to get people in then to fund it and stuff like that."

Even though it seems on the outside to have been a long period of time of inactivity?

You were being a celebrity.

"Yeah I guess you could call it that yeah, you know some people just want to see you; they don't care if you have a record or that kind of thing."

You were being the person who hit the chat show host.

"Yeah, yeah you've got it. But I guess it's kind of like that I do I have an audience that they don't really care if I've done a new record, I still sell out shows. I didn't need to do big ones but I still kept that celebrity status where - you know people are still interested. I'm hard to find but if you want me really you can find me. But I also knew that it was very important that a record is the key to anything else and I know that. That releasing a record is the key for anything else you know to ride on the back of it."

It's autobiographical in a way isn't it, it tells us where you are, and connects all the Graces together?

"Yeah, exactly. And even though I've been busy, I've done cinema, whatever other things that I have done artistically whether it's photography, been a model representing designers or whatever, music needs to be a part of what I am. I could have done a lot more of that but no you know - it's for me going into more of mixing all that I am.

"And that is the visual with the music and I do like being - I like directing, I did dibble in it a little bit. But still the key is in the music. And that's where Wall of Sound came along, we're on the same page and we realised yeah the music is the key.

"Because it's still the one central thing, I can go out and sing without a new record but also with a new record that I love I can go out and actually not be afraid you know to do interviews and become a part of things that are happening, because I know what I have done is strong and powerful .I belong in the way I want to.."

The longer you don't make a kind of record that continues that kind of narrative most people want to fix you as a kind of - not necessarily a figure of fun but like a certain kind of character that they can simplify.

"Yes, like a cartoon, like a caricature of myself? And this I've always known I was always on the edge of not me going there but for everyone else taking me there. And I've always - when I see that happening I just go the other direction. But I know I'm extremely on the edge of a caricature, a cartoon. I wouldn't mind a cartoon of me, actually, that's fine.

"But if I'm not in control of that cartoon then it would annoy me actually, I could see it coming and I'd say, no, no, no that's not what I am. It's not for someone to actually make that out of me. When people think they have me worked out I like to undermine that idea."

And do you think people want to make a cartoon, a caricature out of you because in a way you're so fluid, you're so non-specific, you're so sort of boundary crossing that that's actually quite scary and they need to fix you in a position that's comic?

"Yeah I guess - yeah it makes the scary easier for them actually. It makes them put less value on it. So they can kind of laugh it off and say oh no this isn't serious you know."

What are they laughing off? What is it that's quite threatening?

"Well they're laughing off the scariness. You know sometimes when you are sort of scary to some people it's their concept. Because I'm not scary - the people that really know me know that I'm not scary. I pretend very good scary. I can be very good scary."

Why do you want to do that?

"I think it's probably because of the way I was brought up actually. Because you know I was brought up in a very, very strict way. I was brought up in a scary way. And maybe that's probably why my personality has this scariness. I've finally realised why I am the way I am and that scariness comes from the dark,, edgy part of my childhood.

"But I've embraced it and I understand it, and when I turn it around and I put it out there to the public or on the stage or whatever they're just as scared as I was when I was little."

Okay, so it's kind of therapeutic then?

"It is."

You're saying 'look what happened to me, this is what I thought I was seeing'?

"Thank you yeah; this is how scared I was yeah."

Do you enjoy scaring others?

"Yeah, actually if they get scared - but it's something they shouldn't be scared of actually because I'm a lot milder than the scariness I grew up with. So it's more the fear I think like within yourself that makes me scary to you, you know or to them. They're reacting to their own fear, their own excitement faced with that fear. I think I'm just pretty straightforward and I think a lot of my audiences kind of enjoy being scared.

"You know I watch scary movies, at a certain point I enjoy being scared. I think we all kind of enjoy that - there's a certain masochism - you know with that and - but life is - life is also like that as well you know. And I think one has to kind of - you know I confronted it, like you say in a therapeutic way and it is a part of me, you know? So I do use it theatrically, I use it. I think the fact that I do that makes it more special actually."

It makes what more special?

"Well my stage performance. My performance I know is special because it's coming from a place where only I've been and it's a real place and it's full of this unique, scary energy. And I'm not afraid to bring that out. But it's hard to know where it actually is performance and where it's me. I think a lot of people just really think it's me. But actually a lot of it is performance."

Okay, so what's the difference between off stage and on stage Grace?

"I think when it comes to a point where I start laughing on stage or you can see - whenever you can see that there's a softer side and you know I'm letting that flow a little bit more than I did before in my performance. In my performances I think like at the Royal Festival Hall there was - it was scary in bits but at the same time there are bits where the people can actually relate to me and see a funnier side.

"But I don't know exactly where one begins and another begins, that's up to the audience to kind of decide - to recognise it, because I'm totally spontaneous on stage. I go with the music and I follow that is coming into my soul, in my gut as I'm performing. So I flow, I go with that flow."

Is it sometimes difficult to fix down, to say I'm going to perform now, because in a way you want to be more fluid - hence the fact that you don't perform all the time?

"Well all - when I'm on stage performing that's - then yes that's all I am and it has to be that because that's - the stage is where you know you're performing. But when I'm off the stage now, I'm not performing off the stage actually. But I can on the turn of a dime if you like .I can just flip that and say okay I can perform now ,you know?

"But basically, no, when I'm not on stage I'm not performing. I'm just pretty much just enjoying kind of I guess - what you call the normal things, just being a voyeur."

It's interesting the difference between the emotional writer and musician who presents the confident intimacy and strong opinions on Hurricane and the notorious scoundrel who slapped Russell Harty. There's such a difference between the two characters.

"I know. It must be some kind of schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder. I guess that's what they call it these days. Me I just call it being me. If I was to put it under a microscope I wouldn't even say that it was anything to do with performance. It's just that I'm made up of all these different characters. It's like speaking different languages.

"And the way that I speak with all sorts of different accents. All the travelling I've done means I switch from accent to accent and people cannot work out where I am from. And when they ask I say, I'm from the Universe. And it's possible that we all have some alien blood inside us.

"We've been aliens and we'll become aliens again. With Russell Harty, I was exhausted, and when I'm tired I can be like a baby, and when you are tired, and excited, you act in a certain way. I think those things are in us, and as you grow up you are meant to control those emotions. But sometimes you can end up controlling them to the point where you have no emotions left. I find that very frightening, to lose my emotions."

What is it you think you are good at?

"I'm good at knowing me and developing me. I'm good at feeling and attracting the people that I like to work with. I'm good at following the yellow brick road."

Where is it heading?

"Where it's going to go it's just going to go. It's going to go where it's going."

You once said: 'What I'll be in the future is a story only God can tell. A plane could fall on my head right now. If it does I'm happy that I've done what I've done and that it has a future. I'm content with that.'

"Yeah it eliminates fear actually."

What does?

"Well a lot of people sometimes have too much fear, they don't try anything new, they just say oh you know how can you travel so much and oh I hate flying or I'm afraid of heights or - so I do believe that things can just - a plane can fall on your head. You can be just like lights out boom boom. And if it does you must have no regrets.

"And even the ones that you know you might have you figure out there was a reason for them. You know as long as what you did didn't hurt anyone, because we all probably have some little regrets or some big ones. But I like to say I have had little ones, a couple of little ones.

"They don't matter anymore and what's important I think is to just take off and when it's time - when you die, you can die happy. Yeah. And then you go on living. "