Then we take it to the studio and we’ll work on it together. Once I get the backing track, I have to imagine the melody because it’s quite a basic track. I really love writing lyrics, so a lot of the lyrics are mine. I actually really like working on my own on them to just get my ideas and Keren will work on her own as well. Once Ian gets the chords down, we get the most basic tracks. SD: We speak to Ian and discuss maybe a rough idea of which way we want to go.

It worked out well for me.ĪS: What’s the songwriting process with you, Keren and producer Ian Masterson all contributing? But we just kept writing and that’s how it turned into an album. So we wrote a book in the first lockdown in the UK, our autobiography ( Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren – Our Bananarama Story.) And then in the second lockdown, we were going to just do an EP to put out at Christmas. Sara Dallin: We hadn’t had an album for ten years until we did the last one In Stereo (released in 2019.) And then we went into lockdown, so live work was canceled. American Songwriter had the chance to talk to Dallin recently about making the new album, writing for their fans, and holding on to their relevance for four decades.Īmerican Songwriter: From what I understand, you had initially planned for Masquerade to be an EP. Just a few years after writing their autobiography, the new album, which is out now, proves that theirs is an ongoing story.

How then to account for Bananarama? The legendary group keeps rolling with their signature blend of dance-pop on their new album Masquerade, which is filled with songs that sound as vital and enchanting as any of the massive hits they released when they first began.įor the past 30 years or so, Bananarama has consisted of the founding duo of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward. Some groups that have been at it for forty years and sold over 30 million albums might understandably at some point lose the drive and spark that sustained their career.

If you could read my mind chords