‘You’ve got to see this girl!’ Tanita Tikaram on making Twist in My Sobriety

‘People tell me it helped them with their rehab.

I have to explain: Sorry, it’s not about alcohol – I was just a kid singing about injustice’ I wrote the lyrics on the floor of my bedroom in Basingstoke when I was 16 or 17, as a way of decompressing from studying for my A-levels.

I had the idea for “Twist in my …” something, but didn’t know what else to put in there.

I tried “Twist in my gravity” before ending up with “sobriety”, but it’s not a song about alcohol.

It’s about feeling that things aren’t right in the world, and that adults can do terrible or immoral things – but none of it will change you.

Fundamentally, it’s a song by an alienated teenager who feels there’s a lot of injustice.

There’s something lovely about how intensely you feel things as a teenager.

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