Daniel Bedingfield: “The whirlwind of attention made me run away and live a life”

“[Laughs] I’m not allowed to Google it?! I have absolutely no idea.”

WRONG. Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas.

“Wow! That’s incredible! I didn’t see that.”

You’re embarking on a series of gigs to celebrate 20 years of the album ‘Gotta Get Thru This’. How do you look back on its success?

“I’m not diagnosed, but I think I’m pretty high on the spectrum and high functioning, so I get overwhelmed easily and it’s an enormous amount of information to handle. I think I handled it OK. I probably came across as an arsehole a few times, but I was trying to mask my fear by being standoffish and 20 years later, I can understand that. The whirlwind of press and attention was a lot to handle for a 21-year-old’s developing psyche, and it made me run away and live a life. So after it, I did farming, dated a lot, and went around the world. I’d move to a country, stay there for six months, learn the language and fall in love a few times.”

What did you make of Fifth Harmony (ft. Ty Dolla $ign)’s 2016 hit ‘Work from Home’ which sampled ‘Gotta Get Thru This’?

“That was great. I was really happy they did that and even happier to have 25 per cent of the song! That’s groceries money, mate!”

“Um…I’m not very good at this, am I? [Laughs] Who was it?”

WRONG. The Streets’ Mike Skinner.

“What?! No, he didn’t! That’s funny. I would have loved to see that. I haven’t met Mike Skinner yet, but I do know he was cool enough for NME and I wasn’t, and I was trying to figure out why at the time!”

Oi! NME rated your debut album ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ 8 out of 10 in 2001…

“That’s true! But I remember not feeling cool enough for NME in general.”

Ever been mistaken for anyone else?

“James Corden looks like my twin. In America, I get mistaken for him, and because the English accent is a novelty, a few girlfriends have compared me to him.”

“The only double-act I can think is Jedward. If threw cheese at them, I’m not ashamed of it. [Laughs]”

WRONG. You hurled cheese at Pop Idol also-rans Sam & Mark. “Haven’t they suffered enough?!” quipped host Simon Amstell. You later appeared playing God in Amstell and co-presenter Miquita Oliver’s 2006 swansong episode.

“Nope, no idea! I guess rock ‘n’ roll must kill brain cells. I didn’t do any drugs throughout that whole period, but I did drink every night after the concerts to get to sleep so that might be part of it!”

Any memories of the BRIT Awards?

“After my near-fatal car-crash in 2004, I was in hospital when I received the Best British Male BRIT award and I was sooo high on morphine when they put a phone in my face and I had to speak to host Cat Deeley and my award-presenter Kerry Katona. I remember trying to make a joke, while crazy, high and dying on morphine, and the feedback was dead-quiet, like ‘You’re not funny mate!’”

Did you think you’d ever perform again after the crash?

“Yes, I said I was going to be Superman and be one of the people that gets out of this situation and walks. My brain switched into hardcore, Spartan mode. I was continually happy for three years and pushed through it. I did intensely painful three-times-a-week rehabilitation. The weird part was I had to learn to be sad again. I completely disappeared the sadness for three years, to the point my auntie was worried that I hadn’t said anything negative during all that time. So I went to PTSD therapy and discovered there was a lot of pain and sadness behind the crash, and it only took five sessions before I could cry again.”

“How have I ever written a song with Natasha?! I’m completely blanking here!”

WRONG. It was a B-side to their 2002 double A-side ‘All Out of Love’/’Beauty and the Beast’.

“Can I play it? [Bedingfield plays it on his phone] I remember writing this with her now! It’s the cheesiest song of all-time! I’d blocked it out from cheese trauma! I’ve thrown cheese at Sam & Mark and now….I’ve given cheese to H & Claire! We wrote this together with our friend Nathan [Winkler] way before anything blew up.”

“I don’t know, but that’s wonderfully the most embarrassing moment of my life!”

WRONG. It’s called The Lyin’, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the plot involves aspiring journalist/titular witch Sabrina Spellman interviewing you.

“I had to wear a feather boa. The cast were nice, but I couldn’t act for shit. [Laughs] After that, I took four years of acting classes, but it’s not like music for me. I can’t take on a character and take it off. I remember doing a scene where the character is angry at his father, and then I was angry at my father, and I realised taking on the reality of other stories could destroy my life. With a song, I can step into the emotion without damaging my own psyche, but with acting, I only know how to do full method.”

“That I would definitely not know! I think I may prefer my chocolate flaccid.”

WRONG. Stormzy.

“Really?! Stormzy’s amazing!”

The early ’00s British garage scene paved the way for grime…

“It did. I was heartbroken when Wiley said all that antisemitic stuff because he’s probably the best British music producer since Adam F, and it upsets me because the person I’d most like to get in the studio with now is him but he’s cancelled – and for good reason. Hate-speech is not acceptable.”

Do any younger artists give you props?

“Connan Mockasin for me is the greatest living guitar player, alongside St Vincent. and I rushed up to him at a festival to shake his hand like a fan boy. He had his arms open saying: ‘Daniel, I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you!’ That meant a lot that he didn’t see my music as too cheesy but enjoyed the melodies within it.”

“Because I saw my music as too cheesy. I produced it myself, and then had to work with people who were available to me on a record company budget. Some got me to a place where I was happy, and then some of it was infinitely more cheesy and made me ashamed to release it. There wasn’t a lot of time and there was an enormous amount of pressure, so I have a weird relationship with cheese where I love it and hate it at the same time.”

“The thing is, falling in love is cheesy. Hugging your dad is cheesy. There’s an element of authentic cheese I appreciate. This is er, a very cheesy interview!”

“That has to be Pino Palladino, the bass player from D’Angelo. [Laughs] No? Rhys Ifans? I’m trying to think of what Welsh people I’ve hung out with. Um – Catherine Zeta-Jones?”

WRONG. It’s Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire.

“What the fuck?! That’s amazing. We probably only got a few conversations in at CD:UK, but his description of me is so true that I appreciate it! [Laughs].”

“I don’t know, but that’s the only time I ever remember being nervous singing on TV and you can hear it in my voice. I choked up and could barely sing anything. People were enjoying it, but I was desperately trying to breathe. I’ll go for Number Three?

WRONG. Your John Barry-style cover of Chaka Khan and Rufus about “how the closeness between two people can unexpectedly lead to an endless night of tender love-making” hit Number One in The Guardian’s ranking. Another coveted chart-topper for the Bedingfield clan! Talking of duets, you’ve sang with both Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey….

“I recorded ‘Do Ya’ with Lionel Richie in five days in my studio in Dulwich, and he’s lovely, an exceptional musician, entertaining, and very real. We still text. I don’t have many celebrity friends – I talk to Elton John and [his husband] David Furnish every few years and the songwriter Diane Warren. But I think I frustrated both Bono and Sting when I met them by talking too much! The Mariah duet was never released, and I didn’t get to meet her. Once I got into Unreality Land, I started pushing away from that to get back to real conversations and eye-contact. There are only a few occasions when fame and money mattered. I asked someone to marry me – she said no, but I took her whole family on a yacht and that was a good moment to have money. Apart from paying medical bills and buying food, there’s not many upsides.”

[Laughs] How do you know this stuff?! These are my favourite interview questions ever!”

WRONG. He won Stars in Their Eyes Kids by mimicking you by singing ‘Gotta Get Thru This’.

“Did they put a goatee on him as well? [Laughs] I love the 13-year-old drummer Nandi Bushell’s version of ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ – it’s frickin’ awesome.”

Why did you decide to come back to tour for the first time since 2005 now? Arguably the charts would seem to be in tune with the early noughties…

“That’s what I’ve been feeling. I now turn on the radio and don’t want to turn it off and the music being made is what I enjoy making and listening to. For me, I enjoy making music that resonates with people. I’ve no interest in releasing music in a vacuum. After ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ blew up, the world changed and became about Coldplay, and then Pop Idol killed off so much good music, but now I’m living in a musical world that’s in sync with me again. It’s a 20 year cycle where the kids who were five or eight are now 25 and 28 and want to go out and enjoy stuff they liked when they were young. I’m working on new music that’s firmly in the reggae/R&B/afrobeats/garage/drum ‘n’ bass/ballads world! I’ve never known how to pick a sound.”

“Well, I would love it to be Cliff Richard. That would make me really happy.”

CORRECT.

“He did?! I love that man. I didn’t hear it, but I’m going to text him to ask about it now!”

The verdict: 1/10

“A miserable failure! [Laughs]”

Your sister Natasha Bedingfield beat you with a 3.5/10 score when she took the test back in 2019…

“Well, she’s always been more rock ‘n’ roll than me!”

Daniel Bedingfield hits the road for a three-date-run of gigs in Manchester, Birmingham and London from April 21