Jason Donovan talks recording, Strictly and more

Jason Donovan has made a welcome return to the music scene with his sixth-studio album, Sign Of Your Love, which showcases a passionate and re-energised Jason on a selection of classic covers and new recordings.

finds out more.

Sign Of Your Love is an album that Jason is incredibly proud of which has been influenced by great singing legends such as Frank Sinatra, Steve Lawrence and Ella Fitzgerald.

The album includes the big-band, swinging covers of: 'I Won't Dance', 'Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart' and 'I Only Have Eyes for You' to the timeless beauties that are 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' and 'They Can't Take That Away from Me'.

There's also a cover of 'Bewitched', which was one of the songs Jason danced to on the ninth series of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, where he came third with his partner Kristina Rihanoff. (The two are currently wowing audiences across the UK on the Strictly Tour).

The album also features new recordings including the title track, 'Sign Of Your Love',' Creative' and 'Make Love' amongst others.

Jason Donovan first shot to fame as an actor in 1986 when he took on the role of Scott Robinson in the Australian TV soap Neighbours at the very height of its popularity. As a music artist Jason is responsible for a catalogue of hit singles, including 10 UK Top 10 hits, four of them No. 1's ('Especially For You' with Kylie Minogue, 'Too Many Broken Hearts', 'Sealed With A Kiss' and 'Any Dream Will Do'), and he has sold millions of albums worldwide.

As a musical theatre actor he has starred in many legendary West End productions, including the leads in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, War of The Worlds and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert.

Sign of your love is your sixth studio album, but it feels like there should be more with the time you have been in the public eye - was it nice to get back into recording after everything you have been doing recently?

Yeah, I have to say I love the recording process - it is something I enjoy a lot. What I would say is that having had the experience that I have had with the music industry, particularly post-Joseph and then a record called 'All Around the World', which ironically enough was on Polydor, I realised that as much as I wanted to keep recording that was not going to sustain my creativity.

I probably wasn't willing to take the risk on being a recording artist writing material, on the basis that it mightn't work after that. What I'm saying is, that there is a natural expiry date for a pop star and unless you are particularly clever with re-invention, unless you have that Madonna following and you have really dug deep into writing the songs, it's a pretty difficult time to work your way through, so what I did was go into theatre.

I always felt that song writing and recording became almost like a hobby to me, I felt there was an expiry date on my sort of pop star years. It wasn't really until the early part of 2000 that I actually decided, well the record company, done some more writing and had new management that I thought we could have another little pop at this. That's why I think we have done three albums, having said that, 3 albums that are basically cover records.

The first one, 'Let It be Me', had a song called 'Dreamboats and Petticoats' that I co-wrote that was turned into a musical. My pop music career has never been probably proactive enough for it to warrant, you know, 12 studio albums. I probably am guilty of going… that is a reinvention process and risk process that I didn't take, and I think I'm probably right as it would have been quite difficult during the 90's.

I always try to do different things, I try and be creative in whatever aspect of entertainment I'm in, you seen that with Strictly, I'm not a dancer, but I dug deep and went out my comfort zone and the result was sort of… as it is.

Being on Strictly, with Dave Arch & his wonderful orchestra, was dancing with a big band and being around that on a very regular basis, did that have influence on you with wanting to do this album with a big band style?

Absolutely, and I would argue that you know, just form the fact there is a song called 'Bewitched' on the record, that was a track I danced to last year on Strictly, and also record companies become extremely interested in you when you're on television! I think had it been any other company other than Polydor I mightn't have gone the road that I choose.

Is that because of the past relationship with Polydor?

That's very good point, Polydor is a different company than it was 25 years ago, but I have a relationship and I know the work that they do, they do quality work, they are not a cheap brand, so I knew that if I was (to use a business term) jump into bed with them, they were going to deliver a product that was classy, and it is a classy product and a good product.

When did you find the time to record this?

It was extremely quick birth, I literally signed up before Christmas as I was heading out of Strictly, and we began shifting through songs in December and whilst on holiday in December/January, then late January/February we started recording.

That was quick!

The record really writes itself, you don't have to disappear for six months into a bedroom and pick out melodies, chord structures and lyrics and stuff, its an A&R process and you get songs that you think will work with the personality and singer that you are.

I tried to be as realistic as I possibly could, I'm not going to sing 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra, it's too iconic, or 'New York New York'… you get songs like 'I Only Have Eyes For You', 'Every time We Say Goodbye', 'Bewitched' - certain songs, original songs that Polydor sent to me, one of which was 'Make Love', you know songs that would work with the theme.

I'm not a vocal gymnast so we had to be careful that it was sort of simple, warm and effective and smooth and that's what the record became.

Do you think you will tour this album around the UK?

That purely depends on the success you know, I'm not going to go out and tour a record that isn't working! Only on the basis that once again I think you have got to be . . . an artist like myself needs the leverage of a well-received record to go out and sell tickets.

I'm not trying to break in new songs here, I'm not trying to sell a new story – I gotta be careful what I say here but you know what I mean? It's a bunch of songs from an era that represents my personality – you know I could go out there and sing 'Too Many Broken Hearts' and some songs from ' Sign Of Your Love', but I would rather the public take to it, get the theme of a tour, and go out and do it that way, than sort of just another greatest hits.

Traditionally an artist would make a record and get on the road and the record would have a duration and sell over a long period of time, do you know what I mean? You're breaking the songs, seeing what works and what doesn't work - I don't think that's the sort of artist I am at this particular point in life.

When you said that record labels are very interested when you have appeared on television, now over the past few years you have done two massive TV programmes with I'm A Celebrity and Strictly. Did you notice much change in the publics perception and reaction to you when you did those?

Yeah I did actually; I think it's a matter of . . . I'm slightly reinventing myself in a different way. Its not like changing your character per se, it's throwing your emotional spirit in front of the camera in order to be edited in such a way so people like you or they don't. I would be lying to suggest there is a means to an end for doing something like that, it's a way of keeping the currency up, and it's a way of creating other opportunities. Particularly with Strictly this was an opportunity to do a skill of mine, another skill, in the future.

With Strictly being about the dancing and your album about the singing and you have done acting, do you see yourself more as an all round entertainer rather than one or the other?

I do see myself as an all-round entertainer, I don't think there is a problem with that. I enjoy all aspects of entertainment, and I can now put dancing as part of that journey. I'm a bit of jack of all and a master of none! But that's held me in good stead for many many years. Its very difficult just to be a straight actor or successful singer those days, you really have to multi-task, you've got Jamie Cullen on Radio 2, Sting trying to be an actor…

You have had a fantastic career on the stage with some classic roles, Joseph, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Rocky Horror – what exactly are you doing on (Andrew Lloyd Webber's new ITV show) 'Superstar', as you can bring a lot to this show with your experience?

My role is a mentor-type, I'm part of the process that brings everyone to boot camp. I'm not a judge, I want to be clear about that - the judging panel is yet to be decided I believe, it will include obviously Lloyd Webber but I'm not on the judging panel as such.

Will you still be there each week on the shows?

I think I will be there on the live shows, and I will be there as a major part of steering these kids to getting onto the live shows.

Have auditions started at the moment; is this something you're working on or waiting to start?

The actual elimination process we did the other day, we took 104 kids and whittled them down to 40 and I was involved in that process along with Melanie C. Both she and I have been on the panel along with a guy called David Grinrod, who is a casting director. In a funny way you are a bit of a judge but it's not on the front line of the live show.

Is there anyone that has particularly stood out for you?

A number of people have stood out, yes, but I wouldn't be able to just say their names! I would say to you, unlike X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, what you tend to find with a show like 'Jesus' is yes, there a number of people form ordinary jobs, but there's a lot of people who come in from musical theatre, courses and stuff like that who see this as an opportunity.

So the standard was incredibly high, I don't think we saw one car crash! We are not trying to exploit people; this is not a show where you have a sort of pantomime contestant. Its good, as that can be pretty . . . not embarrassing . . . but the wrong way of using TV.

Any plans to return to the West End stage yourself?

I would love to; it's just a matter of time. The West End calls you, you don't call it!

Jason's new album, Sign Of Your Love, is out now on Polydor Records.