Steps are back with the fourth single from their latest album ‘What The Future Holds’, Heartbreak in this City.
The reworked track features guest vocals from former Seduction star and ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ legend Michelle Visage, marking the group’s first collaboration (aside from Thank ABBA for the Music) in their 25-year career.
Speaking exclusively to Retro Pop ahead of the release, Claire Richards and Lee Latchford-Evans open up on the track, explaining why Michelle is the perfect match for Steps, how they built the song around her newly-recorded vocal and the possibility of them teaming up for a performance on their forthcoming tour.
The new single, Heartbreak in this City, featuring Michelle Visage, is very exciting, because it’s your first collaboration in 25 years of Steps. Why was now the right time to bring in a sixth member?
Claire: Why not?! It’s just one of those things that happened pretty naturally. It wasn’t something we were actually looking for.
We get asked all the time, ‘Who would you love to collaborate with?’ And it’s always a bit of a hard question to answer, because there are five of us already and it’s kind of hard to think of someone that fits in that group.
We did an Insta Live with Michelle in November as part of our promotion and when we put the phone down, our manager came up with the idea and asked her.
To me, it couldn’t be more perfect. I think if we’re going to do it with anybody, then she is actually the perfect choice. She’s even more camp than we are – which is a feat in itself!
Heartbreak in this City features on ‘What The Future Holds’ without Michelle. What made you choose the track for the collaboration?
Lee: I think it lends itself. It’s a perfect track to do. Out of all the songs on the album, I think that’s the one to do this type of collaboration. I don’t think any other song is more suited, to be honest.
Claire: I’m not sure if it was planned to be the next single anyway, but when Adam [manager] had the idea, he literally said, ‘We should get Michelle to do Heartbreak in this City with us.’ That was it. And she said ‘Yes’ straightaway, she didn’t even think about…
You’re all in a good place now, but Steps’ battles for lines on songs has been well documented in the past. How did you decide which parts to cut to make way for Michelle?
Claire: We just left it to producers. I think she recorded her vocal in America with a vocal producer. I think she must have recorded the whole song and then they obviously worked out how best to fit her into the song.
On this occasion, as long as we’ve all got a little bit to sing, then I think everybody was quite willing to just see what happened and let it be, because we were so excited about the fact that she said ‘Yes’.
In terms of re-working songs, Steps remixes are always popular and there was huge interest in your album, ‘The Last Dance’, (featuring remixes and B-sides) when it was finally made available on streaming a while back.
Following on from the new mix of Heartbreak in this City, have you considered doing a new remix album? Perhaps with other guest vocalists?
Claire: It’s something we could think about. We always concentrate on getting the remixes for each single – and even some of the album tracks we’ve done remixes on. Towards the end of last year, we had the ‘Night In’ and ‘Night Out’ digital versions of the album. So hey, you know what, who knows? Who knows what the future holds?
Finally, Michelle is a huge fan of the UK and she’s often over here doing ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’. Are there any plans for live performances together? Perhaps a surprise appearance on the tour?
Claire: Well, you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you…
Lee: It’s a big ask to ask somebody to come on tour just to do one song.
Claire: There’s ideas floating around and it would be great to be able to do something. So, you’ll have to just watch this space…
Heartbreak in this City featuring Michelle Visage is released February 25. ‘What The Future Holds’ is available now.
