Both of those songs put love under the microscope and came back with beautiful and sonically different results. “The Things We Do for Love" is more optomistic in both message and sound. The portion of the chorus that echoes in your mind: "Like walking in the rain and the snow/When there's nowhere else to go/When you feel like a party of you is dying/And you're looking for the answers in her eyes/You think you're gonna break up/Then she says she wants to make up" has a hopeful bop to it. Undeniably catchy because of it's bouncy musical landscape as much as its balloon of potentially joyous romantic outcomes.
"I'm Not in Love," however is six minutes of sheer heartbreak. It drives steady and straight going right for the ol' ticker. The music and vocals are equally as desperate and wrenching. It's a divinely beautiful, frank piece of music, exquisite in its starkness.
Graham Gouldman has been the only constant member since day one. The art-pop band originally featured Gouldman (co-lead vocalist and bassist), Eric Stewart (co-lead vocalist and guitarist), Kevin Godley (drummer) and Lol Creme (keyboards and guitar).As a songwriter, he started before the band got together, penning hits for bands like the Yardbirds and the Hollies. I spoke with him before the show, and he said he was pretty young when he realized music was going to be a part of his life.
“I was seven when I became aware of music. I was given my first guitar when I was 11 and fell in love with it. I was born at exactly the right time for great musical influences. I was listening to a lot of American stuff from the late ‘50s into the early ‘60s. And then came skiffle (a genre of folk) — that was an influence. Of course, then, the Beatles, in a nutshell, that really opened it up for me and thousands of other musicians who wanted to be like that,” he said.
Gouldman said that his parents were always extremely encouraging, which helps in taking a love for something and turning it into a career and “something you can make a living out of.”
English singer, songwriter and musician Graham Gouldman, 10th February 1966. He went on to be a member of rock band 10cc.
David Cairns/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
“Yes, it’s lovely,” he said. “Now our audience from back in the day are the more mature audience members at our shows,” acknowledging the loyalty of 10CC show-goers.
I told Gouldman that many 10CC songs have fans well beyond those longtimers. I discuss how they’re often cited as influences and are covered by bands that came along well after their debut. I ask him to talk about what he thinks of the impact “I’m Not in Love” has had on people and continues to have.
“I’ve heard stories of people who have had good and bad things that have happened because of that song. Various songs have various meanings for people, and they’re really strong, as music is very evocative. You know, it takes you back to a time when you’re thinking of certain events and relationships. It’s very gratifying to know that the songs still mean something to people and, most importantly, that they want to hear them. I think they have a kind of longevity, because when we wrote and recorded them, we never followed any sort of fashion. We just wrote and recorded for ourselves, not for anybody else.”
“And it is very gratifying,” he adds, “to hear that younger people are picking up on our music.”
It’s not just about the past for Gouldman. He is writing new things, too. “There’s one new song I include in the set. It’s called “Floating in Heaven,” and I wrote it about the James Webb telescope. It was launched in 2021 and has sort of taken the place of the Hubble Telescope. I was very interested in it and in space exploration. I asked Brian May from Queen, who is an astronomer and astrophysicist, to play on the record and do backing vocals. I thought it was a good one to add to the 10CC set, even though it’s not a 10CC song, and it works really well where I have it in the set. It’s kind of a refreshing thing and also says that I’m active and writing stuff today.”
10CC isn’t the only musical project in Gouldman’s life. He also does a project called Heart Full of Songs, which he gets into during our Zoom call.
“It’s a semi-acoustic show that is comprised of songs from 10CC songs that I wrote or co-wrote, and also songs I wrote in the ‘60s for people, as well as various film music I’ve written. I was in a band in the 1980s with Andrew Gold called Wax, which is included, and music from various solo albums I’ve put out. It’s quite a mixed bag, but I get to talk more about how the songs were created.” He hasn’t yet performed this show in the U.S., but he hopes to make it happen.
On this 10CC tour, Gouldman hopes the band is bringing people “happiness.”
“I hope it is people connecting with something in their life now or reconnecting with something in their past. People identify a song with relationships quite often, which is sometimes good and sometimes not, and “I’m Not in Love” probably does that more than anything else because in the 10CC set, there’s not a lot of real love songs. We sing, you know, “Clockwork Creep,” about a bomb on an airplane, which (he laughs) is definitely not a love song. Or another that’s not is “Wall Street Shuffle.” A lot of the songs are not romantic at all.”
Though Gouldman is the only original 10CC member in the group now, he still does some work with Kevin Godley. “Kevin and I work together quite regularly. He’s given us videos for various tracks. There’s a song called “Somewhere in Hollywood that he sang originally, and we have a video of him singing, and we play that track live. He played the Royal Albert Hall with us two years ago, and we appeared together on a BBC Radio 2 program, The Piano Room, for the 50th anniversary of “I’m Not in Love.” We did that, which was amazing, and a cover of “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” by the Everly Brothers.
Gouldman is excited to visit Phoenix to see family and connect with 10CC fans. These days, he’s in a good spot overall.
“I just feel very fortunate to have my family, my music and my life. And to be this age and have music fill my life, that’s a blessing.”
10CC performs at 7:30 on August 31 at the Celebrity Theatre.
