Texas On Never Stopping With The Music And Being ‘In Demand’ With Audiences Ahead Of Sold-Out Aus Tour

“I am sitting in my living room in London with the dog. It is so bloody cold here. Trust me. I'm ready. I'm very excited.”

That’s how Sharleen Spiteri, frontwoman of Scottish group Texas, summed up the upcoming Australia shows, their first time back since their sold-out 2017 tour. The six-piece will play two exclusive gigs in Sydney and Melbourne this summer and their first-ever shows in New Zealand alongside fellow Scottish rockers Simple Minds.

It comes off the back of quite a year for the multi-award-winning act. In 2023, they released The Very Best Of Texas, 1989 – 2023, a compilation album celebrating over three decades of their hits. They played a ‘killer show’, as Spiteri describes it, at Glastonbury Festival alongside Foo Fighters, Royal Blood and Arctic Monkeys. 

“Playing Glastonbury once is one thing, but getting the opportunity to play a couple of times is pretty damn special,” she says. “The amount of love that came off the audience for our band and just seeing those young people jumping up and down, singing along was pretty breathtaking.” 

“There were moments where I really had to give it a minute and just be like, hold your shit together, stop being like some, over HRT-ed women - literally emotions of a certain age, rattling through my body.”

There aren’t many successful bands around as long as Texas, particularly female-fronted ones, that have pretty much continuously been making records the whole time.

“Oh my God, these motherfuckers are still around,” she quips.

“I feel really lucky that I'm still allowed to do it and that people are still interested in our music. It’s funny; I literally had a conversation with Victoria Beckham about it the other night. I've just always played music; there's never been a point where I've stopped. I feel very privileged to still be doing something that I absolutely love. There’s not a lot of women that have had that.”

It’s easy to take for granted what they’ve achieved. 40 million sales across ten records, with one album alone producing five top 10 singles for the band (Say What You Want, Halo, Black Eyed Boy, Put Your Arms Around Me and Insane). 

Not forgetting, either, the memorable music video for In Demand, featuring Spiteri tango dancing in a gas station with late actor Alan Rickman or the unexpected collaboration with Wu-Tang Clan on Say What You Want (All Day Every Day), with whom they later reunited with, for 2021 release, Hi. It was considered a ‘risky choice’ at the time, but the band persevered in making it happen, i.e. making the kind of record they wanted to create.

It’s something they’ve continued on their latest single, Keep On Talking, a cover of a Northern Soul classic by American songwriters Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, who were behind some of the big 1960s hits by artists like Aretha Franklin. The band got introduced to Oldham when they worked with him in Alabama on a piano recording project set to be released later this year.

Spiteri also refers to a genre of music she isn’t yet familiar with but is keen to explore.

“My interpretation of hearing that phrase, Indigenous music, and what it gives to me, and the landscape and background that I'm not from but what I hear from it, like, what it does to the rhythms of my body, and how I feel, is always really interesting.

“The crossovers and the collaborations. We need to really protect that within the arts, but also there's the recognition of where the music comes from.”

While she hasn’t gotten familiar with the Blak music scene just yet, her current playlist at the moment is a mix of new and older classics, from Doja Cat and First Aid Kit to Kim Deal and the Pixies.

“My daughter and niece are turning me on to new stuff, and I'm turning them on to old stuff. When you're young, you don't even realize that's happening, but that’s actually what happened to my mom and dad and the music they exchanged with me. That's what continually makes music keep evolving and moving.”

She’s also pretty firm on how much things have progressed since she first started out.

“Everybody's like, ‘Things have changed so much.’ Bullshit. Nothing's changed. The only thing is that it's cheaper to make records, but it's never been harder to break one. As far as opportunities and all the shit that women have - we still need to work ten times harder, shout ten times louder and be ten times better than anybody. 

“The amazing thing is the Taylor Swifts, your Beyonce’s of the world, the Adeles and all these amazing women selling millions of records are literally showing that we are the leaders, but still there’s not that equality within the realms of music as far as with the media and certainly not within the record companies.”

Spiteri also has some specific advice for any women starting in music today.

“Do what it's in your heart. Sometimes you might need a little bit of humble pie but still always just have that little bit of ‘tongue in cheek’ in you. Just hold on to you,” she says. “Sometimes, you don't need to be abrupt, but say it nicely. But then, there are times where you will need to be very, very abrupt and say exactly what you want and how you want it to happen.”

Spiteri learned to play the drums for the video for another recent single, After All, which forms another piece of advice to help women today get through the bullshit.

“All I can say to any woman is, learn to drum. It will do you the world of good. Number one, it’s unbelievably good exercise. But for any frustrations or anything like that, learn to drum because it's literally like the best therapy you'll ever do.”

Texas has been over 35 years in the making, and with an arena tour kicking off in the UK, which starts in September, and work already begun on a completely new record, it doesn’t look like they are slowing down anytime soon. Apart from the drumming, what’s next? 

“Who knows what we're going to be doing? Probably giving people a little bit of a rest, maybe they’re a bit Texas-ed out. That’s why we’re going to Australia and New Zealand, to come and bug you lot.”

Texas are celebrating their 35th anniversary with two very special Australian shows. You can find more information on the MJR Presents website.

TEXAS

Australian Tour 2024

Wednesday 31 January - Forum - Melbourne - SOLD OUT

Thursday 1 February - Enmore - Sydney - SOLD OUT