Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon spoke to Quentin Dentin about his debut album…
Thanks so much for talking to me. What can people expect from the album? It’s my pleasure, Love London Love Culture! Or may I call you ‘Love’? But seriously, people can expect to hear all the songs from The Quentin Dentin Show, but as they’ve never heard them before.The cast and the band of the 2017 Off-West End production spent six months in the studio with producer Paul Garred, and my songs have been refined and perfected to a point where, for the first time, they sound better than even I could ever have dreamed. People can expect the best sounding Musical Theatre album of 2018…
How excited are you about this debut album? On a scale on 1 to excited, I am thrilled out of 10.
If this album is a success – would there be potential for another one? If this album is a success, it may lead to a total reimagining of the live production of The Quentin Dentin Show. I won’t say too much now, but my team of writers have been at work all year reinventing and upgrading the show, and we’re currently sitting on a new version that could be THE BIG ONE. This new version would easily double the number of songs, so I’d say yes, in that scenario, there would be another album… but who can say for sure? Only me.
Would you like to bring the Quentin Dentin show itself back to London at some point? My show was first developed in London and has always found friends and fans in the city. I would love to have the show on again in London, ideally in every theatre in the West End, all at the same time.
What would you say the highlights of the album are? For me, Quentin, my favourite track is my anthem ‘The Quentin Dentin Show’, where I welcome listeners to the Show with my powerful yet dextrous tenor voice, amidst a pumping adrenaline ride of synths, guitars and vertiginous stops. Look out for the music video, coming next month! My other highlights would be ‘Life’, ‘Take Your Medicine’ and ‘The Quentin Dentin TV Show’.
How would you describe the music on the album? I think it’s quite unique really. While this is a piece of Musical Theatre, all the writing is very direct and usually uptempo, with a focus on melody, brevity and not wasting the listeners’ time. It’s almost a party album in that respect: short and fast-moving enough that you’ll want to listen again and again.
Meanwhile the production on the album simply has a level of clarity and detail that one doesn’t always hear on new M.T. Cast albums. Rather than just recording what we performed, the music has been transformed and enriched, full of new and highly effective sounds and arrangements. It’s dazzlingly polished, utterly top shelf. Me, myself and I cannot wait for you to hear it!
By Emma Clarendon
The original cast recording of The Quentin Dentin Show is available to pre-order on iTunes now. It will be available to buy from the 14th September.