Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker were catapulted to fame in the mid-nineties, arguably at the height of Brit-pop culture, when musical acts such as Oasis and Fatboy Slim ruled the airwaves.
The Newcastle-based duo produced hit-after-hit with songs such as Lifted and High all being instant successes, while debut album Ocean Drive sold a whopping 2.75m copies.
And 18 years after releasing their last album, the Lighthouse Family are back.
Tunde spoke exclusively to Daily Star Online about the group’s eagerly-anticipated return and their music providing escape from the “political noise”.
He astonishingly revealed the band’s comeback had come to him in a dream.
Tunde explained: “I hadn’t spoken to our current manager (Keith Armstrong) for 15 years. And I remember what happened was I had this vivid dream. It was odd. It was just a very vivid dream and we were in this office – Keith Armstrong’s Office – and the furniture was white, the walls were white and I remember waking up from the dream and thinking that was a bit strange.
“And lo and behold about three months later, I was out in San Diego and I see a missed call on my phone and I looked at the name and lo and behold it was Keith Armstrong, and I just knew then and there what it was about.”
He then explained Keith divulged Polydor Records were keen to do another Lighthouse Family record, and the pieces just fell into place, like “little, magnetic blocks”.
COMEBACK: Lighthouse Family are releasing their first album in 18 years (Pic: LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY)
RETURN: Lighthouse Family hit the spotlight in the nineties (Pic: LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY)
The band’s new album, Blue Sky in Your Head, certainly hasn’t betrayed the Lighthouse Family’s original sound, but tracks like Street Lights and the Rain, which see Tunde’s soulful voice blended with euphoric backing vocals, give the record a thoroughly modern twist.
Speaking about the compilation of the tracks, Tunde said: “I suppose the thing is when we were writing a record, we were just writing songs for ourselves, which does feel good and then it’s out of your hands and it becomes a part of other people’s lives and it’s after that when people start asking you questions and you have to define what you do.
“The definition comes after you’ve done it. It’s not like we set out to make that particular sound, we were just writing songs for ourselves, so it’s now a part of the magic I suppose – everyone recognises what Lighthouse Family is and we know what it is, especially in the type of themes we talk about.”
He continued: “I mean the message is really about songs of hope and love and all these big things in life and so when we were making this record it’s like, ‘What is the Lighthouse Family? We know what it is. So we knew what our DNA was. We knew we wanted to make another Lighthouse Family record, so we had to kind of stay true to that.
“But at the same time, we still wanted it be a record that was modern and fit into 2019 if you like, so included songs like Street Lights and the Rain. So, it was a combination of those things. Like, you want to stay true to who we are as a band but at the same time, there’s always room for stretching to the current climate of music.
“The sounds change, how you make a record changes. I remember when we first started you couldn’t make a record with a laptop.”
POP ICONS: Tunde and Paul made hit after hit record (Pic: GETTY)
REVEALING ALL: Tunde opened up to Daily Star Online (Pic: GETTY)
As well as their songs being about love and hope, Tunde also explained that they can provide an esacape from the modern-day doom and gloom, with tracks such as My Salvation.
He explained: “There’s so much noise going on right now, I mean to me, like everywhere in the world. When I’m talking about noise, I’m talking about it metaphorically – but I mean noise could be political noise, or it could be economic noise it could be natural disaster noise or it could be climate chang noise.
“And when a lot of that stuff is happening, it has a tendency to kind of filter into our individual lives as well. You know, I mean, I know we all live behind our own four walls and we shut the door and we have a night in with our own family and stuff like that., but a lot of that craziness that is going on out there kind of weaves its way into our own homes.
“I think like when a lot of that stuff is going on, everybody just needs something that can just take the edge off all of that and sometimes that thing, it could be a person, it could be a place – I mean sometimes it could just be you sitting alone in the backseat of a car or in a taxi, just by yourself listening to tunes or reading a book. So, yeah that is what it is.
“So everybody kind of has their own salvation. It might be different to what my salvation is but it’s just to take the edge off all this craziness that is going on out there, it just seems to be doom and gloom all the time, so it’s important to find your salvation.”
Blue Sky in Your Head will be avaiable on May 3 via Polydor Records
