Welsh singer Aled Jones found fame in the ‘80s as a teenage chorister – he was the golden-haired boy treble who captivated the world with his angelic voice. Seven million albums later, he’s still touring, and he’s bringing the hits from his extraordinary career to The Q next month. CD caught up with Aled for a quick chat.
1. Choirboy to chart-topper, that’s not a career progression you see often. Did you see it coming?
I certainly didn’t see it coming. I was just a kid who sang like everyone does in Wales. I suppose the only difference was that when I sang, people made a bit of a fuss. When I joined the choir, I was just a normal little choir boy who happened to do all the solos. Little did I know that those solos would lead to record deals and singing all over the world. Neither me or my mum and dad really had an idea what we were doing. I was one of the first to make classical music popular in this way, so we all just muddled through having a good time.
2. You became famous at a young age. Did you ever want to step away from the public eye?
The only time I wanted to step away from the limelight a bit was when I reached my 16th birthday. I was making an album with the team who always recorded my voice and people kept asking me when my voice was gonna break and it was beginning to get on my nerves a bit. Luckily, I made the decision to stop all by myself with people who had worked with me all my boyhood career. People I cared for and trusted, and it was the best thing I could’ve done, even though the headline was ‘Aled retires on a high note!’ Up until that point, I didn’t feel any pressure at all. I just loved my singing and who wouldn’t love travelling the world and meeting interesting people. I was really lucky.
3. Do you miss your treble voice?
This is an interesting one because I don’t really feel that my treble voice has gone. My voice is still with me. It just happens to be lower. I’d be the first person to say I haven’t got the best singing voice in the world, but what I had as a boy thankfully, I’ve still got as a man and that’s an instinctive way to sing and perform a song and put my heart and soul into it. One of the biggest compliments I get from people is that they are moved by my singing and my music, and that for me is everything, because I feel moved when I perform. I was very lucky to be able to sing with ‘Little Aled’ as we call him when I released the ‘Onevoice’ albums, no one had ever done that before – the same person with two voices singing in harmony with himself – that was a great way of drawing a line under that part of my career but Aled the treble is still with me.
4. Best advice you ever ignored?
Maybe you should have the operation which means that you can sing voice soprano forever… Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t take that advice!
5. Classical music – flourishing or misunderstood?
Classical music is definitely flourishing. What I love now is that people just listen to all music. When I was a kid, you either loved classical or pop, never both – whereas now kids when they grow up just listen to any music and I think that’s how it should be – as long as something is good, why not be able to listen to it? I also love the fact that classical music sells in the same numbers as pop music these days.
The My Story, My Songs tour is at The Q on Friday 17 April at 7:30pm. Bookings: theq.net.au/whats-on/aled-jones-my-songs-my-story
