Will Young

“I Not shit music think there is a little bit of a sea change,” Will Young says in a soft but direct tone. “I don’t think you just have to be young now to be a popstar. This is what it is to be a popstar at 40, and it’s fucking amazing. This album was about making really good pop music. that is chasing chart positions, because I can’t bear that.”

If you had found yourself in conversation with Will just 12 months earlier, the very idea of recording and releasing a new album wasn’t something he was interested in doing–possibly ever again. But then he got obsessed with an idea, one that he’s still fixated on. “I constantly have this thing in my head about being 40 and making a pop record. I don’t know why I was obsessed with it. I’m still slightly obsessed with it,” he says, perched forward on a leather sofa, picking away at his chicken salad. Why does he think that is, I ask? “I think it’s a bit of, ‘This is how it’s done, actually’. I don’t think it’s arrogance, but I feel like the industry can be ageist–more towards women–and I feel like, ‘Well, flip the table on it.’”

Those who have followed Will’s career since his 2015 album 85% Proof will know that he has kept himself busy with the success of his very good