Going Solo

Ray Davies, former frontman for the Kinks and arguably one of the most influential songwriters of rock 'n' roll, set sail on the seas of solitude earlier this year with the release of his first solo record, “Other People's Lives.”

“My strengths as a songwriter, I think I've got a fairly good fix,” said Davies. “I can hone in on detail with people, all right. I do go for the details. You know, it's like little things people do, habits that people have, the way they walk. I do love that sort of observation with my writing, which leads to be sometimes a bit quirky.”

The work, some songs inspired from his time living in the U.S. - an Englishman in New Orleans - also covers subject matter from good and bad breakups to traveling to the media. V2 Records released the long-awaited album in February, which was written, produced and arranged by Davies and recorded in London.

“The Kinks' work was very diverse. I'm not as visible as my peers. I've stayed away simply because I'm not (evasive) and I don't really do, in comparison to others. I'm talking about Mick Jagger and people like that,” said Davies.

Davies said he returned to New Orleans where he mixed a few of the tracks for the album, but said he hasn't been back since Hurricane Katrina.

“A lot of the people I knew down there are back, but it's going very slowly, and (basically) the musician friends I have there were quite devastated by, you know, some of them were on zero when it happened, and they went back and were quite devastated by what they saw,” added Davies. “I've tried to keep touch there, and I'm trying to get down there at the end of this tour.

“I think it's the lack of musical snobbery down there,” recalled Davies about the historic city. “It's kind of a mounting part for so many different types of music, and I can't - it's something inexplicable. It's everything - I'm not just talking about music.”

Davies is now living in North London, within a mile of where he grew up with his family. The Kinks grew out of the 1960s, but never gained the world recognition of its contemporaries - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who - with its last release occurring in 1993. Davies eventually relocated to the U.S. to finish the album where he was shot in the leg during a street robbery in January 2004 after all the material had already been written.

“His getaway car - it was classic movie material - pulled up about 20 yards away,” said Davies. “ He took a classic shot, two hands on the gun, crouched slightly, got his aim together and shot, and I ducked. I saw the flash come out, and it was just like a movie, but it really did hurt. So I don't remember much after that. Anyone who has been shot will know it's just the absolute coldness that goes through your body.”