Brian May stars with X Factor’s Talia Dean in brand new music video (Image: TALIA DEAN)
Having first met when Talia Dean was a Heathrow airport VIP handler, Sir Brian May was wowed by the singer’s progression through to the 2017 X Factor finals.
Since then, the Queen guitarist has been mentoring her through various collaborations. Their latest, You Made Your Bed, is released today alongside a brand new music video featuring Sir Brian strumming away on his axe.
Express.co.uk caught up with Talia to chat through what she claims is “definitely going to be my last song in the mainstream pop world” before a significant gear shift powered by recent events in her personal life that she goes into.
On how the new single came about, the X Factor star shared: “I make it, I produce it, I end up with what I think is a finished product and then I send to Brian saying, ‘Oh hey, I just made this’ and then it ends up being another year’s work because Brian says, ‘No, what you should do is this’, and all my songs have been like that with him.
“I think they’re finished, I show him and then he takes it to another level. And I’m just so honoured and grateful again that he’s made this absolute masterpiece.”
Read more… Brian May: Talia Dean ‘met star at airport, now he produces her music’ [EXCLUSIVE]
Talia continued: “It started off just me and my producer and then it went to Brian, and he said, ‘Oh, I feel like there should be extra’. We actually had an argument, because I don’t think there should be a guitar solo in it, I just said, ‘People don’t put guitar solos in pop music anymore’. And he said, ‘Oh, well, let me do it anyway and see if you like it.’ And it’s almost quite hilarious that someone would turn around and say, ‘I don’t know whether I want Brian May’s solo and my song or not’, because that’s the kind of relationship that we had! So he stretched it out for 16 bars, and then he put his solo on it, and when I heard it back, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is amazing!’”
On the inspiration for You Made Your Bed’s lyrics, the X Factor finalist said: “It was really important that it wasn’t a song about being bratty and being ‘I’m better than you’ because I didn’t want it to come across negative in any way. I wanted it to be more empowering and more of a new lease of life. I think my main message is don’t stay anywhere that makes you feel low or doesn’t empower you. Sometimes it’s hard even in a domestic way if you’re in a relationship and you can’t get out because you feel like you’ve got nowhere else to go. I hope that this song gives people the strength to think it’s actually okay to go out there and be single, even, you know, at my big age of nearly 40, breakups happen, and I think people are too scared these days to be single. I mean, nobody wants to be single, but people are so scared to remove themselves from a toxic environment because they think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be alone’. But I think it’s actually quite detrimental. So I guess the message, the main message, is, just know your worth, and if somebody’s done you wrong, or they keep bringing you down in any way, or treating you like less of a person, let them sleep in the bed that they’ve lied in, and you have to move on.”
On making the music video with the Queen legend, Talia shared: “I think it was such a blessing growing up in the 90s to have such strong musical influences, like All Saints and the Spice Girls. I really wanted to reflect a bit of that in this music video. I wanted to give a little wink to Wannabe. And what else is really cool about the music video is Brian isn’t playing Brian. Brian’s playing Mr May, who didn’t join a world famous rock band and he’s living in a single bedsit, strumming on his guitar, and the neighours are banging on the wall for him to turn it down. It’s like a parallel universe. So it’s really fun!”
On taking a step away from mainstream pop music, Talia highlighted her rediscovery of her Christian faith, promising that this isn’t the end of her singing career. It will take on a different format in the future, one that might even include a certain rock star along the way.
Talia added: “I guess I wanted to leave more of a heartfelt legacy with You Made Your Bed. My faith carries me in a different direction and I feel like what I’m doing now is more wholesome. It’s given me a lot of reward being in the circles that I’m moving in, the support I’m getting, the new followers that I’m gaining. It’s just such a beautiful world and I really feel like I’m at home here. Sometimes in the mainstream music industry, you have to squeeze yourself into a box, and that’s the only box that they will accept. There’s like a blueprint, and I just didn’t really feel that there was a space for me, when actually the Christian world took me in openly with their loving arms. And I guess it’s something that’s always been deep down inside me that I didn’t know was there. I wanted to write these songs, and I always loved writing about empowerment and love and more wholesome songs, but they just weren’t connecting with the mainstream media at all. And I didn’t know there was a whole other world out there that embraced these songs. There’s actually a huge Christian music world out there, but because it’s not mainstream, nobody talks about it. So I guess it’s more that I just went home. And that’s how I would explain it to everyone. I’ve been the prodigal daughter for a little while!”
Talia Dean’s You Made Your Bed featuring Sir Brian May is out now and can be downloaded here.