Biography
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Born
22 November 1966 (age 57)
Ladies and gentlemen, Eg is about to release an album, ‘Adventure Man’. Now, lots of albums come out every year by obscure singer-songwriters you have never heard of, so why should you care about this one?
For one thing, you already know the songs of Eg White. He co-wrote two of last year’s biggest, most soulful and universally loved pop hits, with Britain’s shining new female stars: Duffy’s classic ‘Warwick Avenue’ and Adele’s sensational ‘Chasing Pavements’.
You will find Eg’s name in the credits of songs by such chart staples as Will Young, James Morrison, James Blunt and Take That, along with female pop voices like Joss Stone, Pink, Kylie Minogue, Beverly Knight and Natalie Imbruglia, and emerging stars Sam Sparro and Daniel Merriweather. He won an Ivor Novello award (Best Song 2004) for his inescapable Will Young torch ballad ‘Leave Right Now.’
If you are beginning to detect a pattern, it is one Eg recognises. “There’s a line of songs that I got lucky with over the last five years, in marked contrast to everything that has happened in my past, and I am delighted about it.”
His solo album, ‘Adventure Man’ is something a little bit different. “I don’t write many hits, that’s the truth. There are lots of songs I am proud of, but I know there’s no money in them. Sometimes they are subtle, interesting songs, a little bit more desperate, more ironic, funnier, darker, better observed. This album has a spread of different energies, it’s not stuck in one place. I think if you can let it in quietly, it’s a little bit nourishing.”
At 42, Eg has been around music all his life. Classical music was at the heart of his family life; both his parents were professional players, and his dad makes violins for a hobby. He grew up developing multi-instrumental skills. He was expected to be the family accompanist but, at 14, his next door neighbour Fifi Russell (who he describes as “an ersatz big sister”) dragooned him as bassist for cowpunk popabilly band Yip Yip Coyote. “It was quite fun and quite shit,” recalls Eg. “We knew we weren’t world class.”
In the mid-Eighties, he was a founding member of prototype boyband Brother Beyond, with his older brother David Ben White (now a first class painter). That is when he began writing. “It started thoughtful and measured but it went downhill so quick. To my shame, the more I wrote the worse the band got.” After four failed singles, and horrified with the musical direction, Eg left just as Brother Beyond scored chart success with hit factory Stock Aitken and Waterman in 1988.
Eg had found his own singing voice and had “grander delusions.” He started making music in a home studio, drafting in his friend, London model and BMX champion, Alice Temple. “There was something plain and clear about her voice, she is a no bullshit singer. But Alice had a really uncomfortable arrangement with the music business. She wouldn’t have minded being famous but she had crippling nerves.” In 1991, they released ‘24 Years Of Hunger’ as Eg And Alice, to enormous critical acclaim (the Allmusic guide describes it as “one of the finest, most refined and fully realised recordings of the era”). But the duo did almost no promotion, following a nerve-wracked TV performance that left Alice distraught. “She left saying ‘this music does not reflect me, I want to make a violent record, I don’t want this sensitive shit.’”
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