Interview with KINDLE

I discovered Kindle whilst browsing through Myspace a few months ago. I was getting into the electro vibe big time so I decided to delve into a few of my favourite artists friend lists. I don't quite remember but I think I found Kindle on IAMX's myspace page which isn't surprising really considering they both share the same record label. It was either that or Team Awesome's page, a cool all girl DJ duo with heaps of attitude and great taste in music.

I immediately fell in love with Kindle's electronic soundscapes, pounding rhythms and raw, hypnotic guitar and synth.

Before I had a chance to message Kindle requesting an interview he beat us to the post and left a comment asking to be featured. I was going to say '..left a comment offering himself to us' but I thought people might get the wrong idea.

We caught up with the London based musician via e mail:


Cat On The Wall: Who is Kindle? What was the inspiration behind the name?

Kindle: Kindle is my alias. I was inspired by the idea of fire igniting and making it the basis of my sound and persona.

COTW: Has music always been a part of your life? What are your earliest musical memories?

K: Music has pretty much been my obsession, since I was very young. I grew up listening to records so it is hard to pinpoint a specific time when I discovered it. Music is really a part of me and I can’t imagine my life without it.

COTW: When did you first pick up an instrument and what was it?

K: My first weapon of choice was the Electric guitar. I was 12. When I was 16, I got my hands on my first synth and it all started to come together!

COTW: Does technology play a big part in your music? What’s you’re current set-up? Do you use different instruments and equipment live?

K: While technology plays a major part in all music and it’s progression, I am a firm believer in the creative use of instruments rather than the instrument itself. My studio set-up and my live set-up are very simple. I like to keep the live performance very honest, in the way the music was originally made. I arm myself with my laptop, keyboard and electric guitar.

COTW: Do you enjoy playing live? Any memorable experiences?

K: Playing live is the most liberating thing to do. I feel like I’m being set free, inspiring a unique energy for each live experience. Every performance has a different flow and is memorable in its own way.

COTW: You have several musical projects on the go (CC/K, Hotel Motel). Creatively speaking how does that work for you? Do you find that one project inspires another? Is it hard to switch between them?

K: Switching between them can sometimes be difficult if they fall on top of one another. I need to get into a different creative headspace for each project, as they are all very different. However, when I’m creating sounds and working out an arrangement, I often develop new techniques that can be applied to both projects despite their diversity.

COTW: Are there any more projects in the pipeline?

K: I have many projects on the go; at the moment I’m producing tracks for 2 bands, ‘Client’ and ‘Modele’, among other tasks.

COTW: Tell us about your debut album. How did it come about?

K: Music’s so intuitive. It just… ‘came about’. I tend to run on instinct.

COTW: You’re signed to Loser Friendly records too? Tell us more!

K: I was discovered by ‘Client A’ Kate Holmes at Client’s monthly nightclub ‘Being Boiled’ at The Notting Hill Arts Club. Kate signed me to her new indie record label Loser Friendly.

COTW: What are you listening to right now?

K: A lot of French Electro, Orchestral music and Soundtracks.

COTW: Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have released albums for free. Would you ever consider doing this? What’s your view on that?

K: I respect their decision. The music industry is heading in an unusual place. It is uncharted territory and it’s interesting to see how artists and labels are adapting. ‘Radiohead’, ‘Nine Inch Nails’ and ‘The Charlatans’ are at the forefront of this. I’ll consider it when I get to their position.

COTW: Finally, what are your plans for the near future?

K: ‘Radio Wolf’ will be released as the first single from my album. It will be coupled with a music video directed by Luke Blair. We will premier the music video at a launch party in London. I also have plans to play in Paris and Berlin before I retreat back into the studio to produce album 2!

Cat On The Wall would like to thank Kindle for his patience and kindness! For more information and to hear Kindle's music please visit his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/k4kindle

Kindle was interviewed by Jo Whitby on behalf of Cat On The Wall.

A Life-changing experience

What follows is a real story, with real people. Everything has been lived, it really happened.
This is one of my stories, for I have plenty to tell. This one is very special for it changed the course of my live.
Forever.
I want to share this with you.

Céline


It's mid-October 1994. I turned 20 just two months ago and started university, studying English at the prestigious La Sorbonne, well, not so prestigious as my course is in the crummy building that is located at the very North of Paris, in the dodgy area that is Clignancourt. Ah, Clignancourt: its cobbled streets filled with fast-food wrappers, its smells of West and North African spices, its flea market, its wannabe gangsters and its drug dealers. The perfect place to study! It is my first year in Higher Education and I have the delight of working part-time in a greasy cafeteria to finance my studies despite receiving a grant.

The French Grant system is a beautiful thing, very helpful for people, who like me, come from a working-class background. What isn't so helpful is that the first instalment of said-grant is deposited on one's account halfway through the year: February! So in the meantime I have to work for a fat, arrogant, sexually harassing manager who thinks he owns the chain of cafeteria (he doesn't). I buy music magazines regularly: Les Inrockuptibles every Wednesday, a bit intellectually poncey but informative on what's going on in the "Capitale", and Rock&Folk, rougher in content and a bit M.O.R. but a good counterbalance to the previous publication. I get the best of both worlds and I'm quite content that way. That month U2 is gracing the cover of R&F and, being a keen listener, I, as usual, pick up a copy from my local newsagent. As a habit I read the article I bought the magazine for first and then flick through it to see if there is anything of interest. Luckily there is: a review of an artist I'd never before heard and who's being tipped as the next best thing since sliced bread!

The photo isn't very flattering: the guy is slouching in a huge armchair, sweaty from the gig he's just played and making a face! He's into stuff I had never listened to: The Stooges, Alex Chilton, Led Zep, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, Charlie Mingus… What? There's actually some kind of heartfelt music other than the crap we get on the radio? Wait, he knows of Edith Piaf! Interesting… I make a mental note to check his music out. A few days later I'm on my way to my "money-bringer" when I decide to stop at the supermarket for a snack… and a quick browse in the music section. My supermarket is great, it spreads on two floors (three nowadays) and holds everything and anything anyone could ever wish to buy from food to hygiene essentials to electrical goods to tapes and CDs! All of this for a very reasonable price! That guy's album is in stock and the CD is only a mere 70 francs (about £7) and although I have a CD player at home for some reason I buy the tape.

That reason is my precious-personal-tape-player-that-never-leaves-my-side-not-even-when-I-go-to-bed is, surprise surprise, in my bag! Unfortunately I don't have any time to listen to any song as I'm about to start my shift, doesn't matter, I've got something to listen to on my walk home. The evening drags on. How is it that people enjoy spending their Thursday evening stuffing their faces with third-rate cheap leftovers in this place rather than go home with their weekly shopping they just bought and cook themselves a lovely dinner with fresh food? Or go to a nice restaurant (notice the keyword here: RESTAURANT, not cafeteria)? Well, as I said: cheap! It's half past eleven, the place is finally empty and clean, all the "food" back in the fridge, ready for another serving tomorrow (and the day after tomorrow, and the day after…), the crockery is neatly tucked on the shelves (minus the full tray I broke in the middle of the fully-packed "serving room" earlier, that'll be deducted from my meagre wages, great!), my smelly uniform is back in the locker. I'm ready to go home, headphones on my ears.

I open the back door, start walking, press the play button, and check my watch: it's exactly midnight. The first track starts: a slow, quiet at first, sound resonates in my ears. I have no idea what I got myself into yet. Then as the music gets louder a wonderfully strong storm breaks into the autumn sky. Ah, brilliant, I'll get soaked by the time I reach home, the perfect ending to a perfectly dull day! But then the voice soars and I am taken somewhere I've never seen before… It usually takes me a little under 15 minutes to get home, that's when I powerwalk, and I powerwalk everywhere, I'm from the rough suburbs, on the East Side of Paris, where a girl has to check her back every 10 seconds if she wants to stay alive! If you've seen La Haine you'll know what I mean!

That night I reach home about an hour after leaving work and completely soaked and to this day I still wonder how I made it back as I have no recollection of walking! I return to the supermarket the next day and purchase the album again, this time on CD so I can have the pleasure of listening to the whole thing without any interruption! I also check when the artist is next playing Paris: I've just missed him by a month, when he played a tiny venue I don't even know about but he will be coming back in February. Right then, one ticket please. I ask friends at uni if they've heard about him and the answer is the same every time: nope… I'll go by myself then.

11th February 1995: I am bored to death with my life, I quit my cafeteria job within a month of working there, university isn’t getting me anywhere, I love the English language but keep thinking I'd get so much more by living abroad then "training" to be a language teacher in France (that seems the only option for everyone on my course). I have been dreaming about England since my first trip there, I was 4 years old and that was my last holiday with my both parents (they divorced the next year, whether or not that's related, I have no idea, your guess is as good as mine). I'm meeting a uni friend at noon but am running late and by the time I get there she's gone. My fault! Oh well, I'll hang around, I'm not far from the venue where that guy with the big voice is playing tonight. I've got six hours to kill and a good book (so good I can't even remember which one it is now!). I walk around the area, not far from Bastille, come back on my steps and settle on the step outside the venue entrance. I'm cold, I have no money for a cup of coffee (my grant still hasn't materialised) and I wish I had found a friend to come with me so that at least the hours waiting for the gig could be spent chatting.

A tall blonde woman comes out of the venue and throws me a look, just a glance, smirking. She probably thinks I'm a groupie! Make it an intellectual one then as I'm plunged in my reading! Or maybe she is one and she's been up to something? Wait, she goes back in… second serving? No, she works there, she tells me as she's coming back out. We start a conversation, I suspect she's trying to check me out, just in case I'm some psycho! Within 20 minutes she asks if I want to go in as it's rather cold outside and meet the band. Come again? That's not what I'm here for, I don't want to disturb. That's no bother, she guarantees me, the soundcheck hasn't started yet. So I grab my book and my bag and accept her invitation, I can do with warming up. I enter the hall, walk through the double doors and then… I can't see where I'm stepping as the room is plunged in black compared to the daylight I just left. As I stop to let my eyes get used to the darkness the woman turns around to me and, whilst pointing at the stage, says “The band's over there, go talk to them then.” I freeze, I believe my level of English is fairly good but my confidence isn't and I can't bring myself to walk across the empty room to casually chat with strangers like we've know each other for years. I do not have that sort of boldness! The blonde then announces: "I'll go and get the singer for you!" and before I have time to protest and walk back outside she's gone! What the hell did I get myself into? I don't know this bloke, I like his music and all, but I have no idea what to say to him…

As my stomach is increasingly forming into a ball of nerves a man approaches me, hands in his pockets, greasy hair, smile on his face. "Bonjour, ca va?"
My eyes almost pop out of their sockets: "Vous parlez francais?"
"No I don't""Oh, well, I can speak English"
"Hello, I'm Jeff" "My name's Celine"
"Nice to meet you Celine"


I don't yet know it but I'm on first name term with someone who will become a cult legend. I don't know quite why but I have brought with me a picture of Jeff standing underneath a billboard with Angelyne on it, looking like he's praying to the iconic big-breasted Californian blonde. I thought it was a funny shot and produce said picture from my bag. Jeff is also very amused and we start chatting until the soundcheck starts, three hours later! Although the first article I read about him mentioned his famous father I have no clue who Tim is or Jeff's relationship, or lack thereof, is (or as I found out was). Still we talk about him, and his father, his family, me, my father, my family, anything and everything. The venue is playing Henri Salvador, a singer my own grandfather enjoys listening to and who has hilarious lyrics if you understand French but Jeff suddenly rises from his seat, intent on changing it to something he wants me to hear.
And THIS is my being introduced to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I'm blown away! A lot of Jeff's fans got turned to NFAK from reading here or there of Jeff's liking the now late Pakistani singer but how many of them actually discovered him through Jeff himself? I'm not bragging here, it's just that twelve years on from this meeting and ten years after his passing, I'm still wondering how it happened that I, a common girl from the Parisian suburbs, got to encounter such a character…

We laughed a lot on that day: we went outside for a bit as the roadies were being quite raucous at some point and we couldn't hear each other talk. A man was standing by the entrance with a camera and took a picture of Jeff and me in the street. I made a joke that the picture would be in the tabloids the next day: Jeff Buckley and his French girlfriend! Thankfully that didn't happen!
But we had a good laugh about that! Then a group of fans attending the gig arrived and literally jumped on Jeff. Some could not speak very good English and Jeff turned to me for translation.
The French looked at me like I was some sort of alien and started questioning who I was in relation to their idol! NO, I AM NOT HIS GIRLFRIEND! I translate to Jeff and again we fall about laughing! Jeff went to the tourbus to pick up some photos taken in New Orleans, where he is sitting on the floor with a glass of wine, and proceeded to sign them for the fans.

I stood back, fairly amused, as I am thinking I don't need an autograph, I've just spent a few hours with someone really charming and that's all I needed on that day.

A roadie then steps outside and calls for Jeff: the soundcheck is about to commence. Jeff turns to me and excuses himself: work calls! I stay outside, hoping the fans are not going to grill me. Luckily they don't, their eyes are sending green messages to me and we keep our distance. Half an hour later though, Jeff pops back out and calls my name. He wants to give me something: his autographed photo. I protest, saying that's not what I came here for but get the picture shoved into my hands. I thank him nevertheless and he runs back in. What possessed him to take time to do that, I'll never know. I look at the picture and it reads:

The fans gather round me to have a look and are horrified to see that they only got a signature,
not a "full" novel! I'm floating on air, I have been given wings, I AM an angel!

I come back home that night and cannot stop my flow as I tell my mother about my eventful day. We're sharing a room at that point (don't ask, small flat!) and as it is Saturday there is no worry about going to bed early because of work the next day.
I cannot believe what just happened and that night it takes me ages to fall asleep.

The next time I see Jeff is five months later. The venue has changed, he is now playing the world-famous Olympia, which he's well excited about as one of his idols, Edith Piaf, frequently performed here. He liked her so much he covered one of her songs "Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin" (I Don't Know The End Of It).
The pressure runs high as Jeff has by now become a hot thing, the "must-see" artist of the year. Still he takes some time to take me backstage before the gig for another chat. He also makes sure that I'm coming back the next evening, I only bought a ticket for one night, limited student funds remember?!
That's no problem, he assures me, you'll have a free ticket waiting for you at the ticket office (and a VIP pass as I found out the next day).

The gigs were outstanding, the venue scorching and my fellow French people on fire! It is such a difficult thing to try and describe the feeling and atmosphere of a live experience to anyone who hasn't witnessed Jeff playing, especially those two performances.
They were the talk of the town around Paris for a long time.

I was given a white rose on that second night.
I still have it, dried and preciously kept in a wooden heart-shaped box.

29th May 1997: it's four in the afternoon, I'm about to start my shift (I am now a part-time
playworker) and I have 20 minutes to spare. I call one of my friends, she's got MTV at home, for a chat. As soon as she hears my voice she asks if I've heard the news. "What news?" I ask. I don't know why but I suddenly have a very strange and unpleasant feeling. "Jeff's missing" she says.

I've been given a huge punch in the stomach. My head has been crushed under a meteorite. I know I will not see Jeff again. I can't explain it but I know. I stumble onto a chair just before I pass out (I suffer from syncope and faint when stressed and/or emotional). My friend is obviously very scared and when I come back to my senses she's screaming down the phone. I reassure her and promise to call her back when I've finished my shift. I'm in a daze and need to pull myself together in order to function around the children I'm employed to look after.

I listen to the radio, like I usually do every evening. It's a music program, showcasing new and classic music, presented by a much-revered DJ called Bernard Lenoir. His Black sessions are renowned and he confirms that Buckley has disappeared after a swim in the Mississippi River, in Memphis. His body will be discovered several days later. It's over. The world has lost a brilliant musician and a sparkling soul.
And like so many others, who witnessed the intensity of the live shows, the beauty of the recording that is "Grace", those who are still discovering Jeff's talent on a daily basis, I'm still grieving.

©Celine Lux

Not a Mighty Boosh fan? Well there’s always REDFEST!

I know where I’ll be on the 5th July. Not at Redfest sadly. I’m torn I tell ya, TORN!

So, if a comedy headline act isn’t your thing then you’ve got to go to Redfest because, well, quite frankly the line-up is fantastic.

Take a look at this:



Line up confirmed so far:

Friday 4th July 08

The Maccabees
Crystal Castles
Does It Offend You, Yeah? | Elliot Minor | Pete and The Pirates
Operator Please | I Haunt Wizards | Fear Of Music | WinterKids

Saturday 5th July 08

Patrick Wolf
(only scheduled UK festival appearance)
Lightspeed Champion
Los Campesinos! | Late Of The Pier | Johnny Foreigner |
Robots In Disguise | This City | Ebony Bones | SixNationState|

Doesn’t that make your heart skip a beat? Crystal Castles, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Patrick Wolf and Robots In Disguise are a must see!

£64 is a bargain. Make that trip to Surrey. It’ll be worth it.

Dates: Friday 4th & Saturday 5th July 2008
Gates Open: 9am Friday 4th July (campers allowed to stay on site until Sunday 6th July)
Price: £64.00 (+ bf)
Camping & parking are included in the price
Address: Robin Cook Farm, Redhill Surrey RH1 5JX
Information: www.redfest.co.uk
Tickets: www.gtickets.co.uk
Under 14’s free if accompanied with an adult

Jo xx

Gary Numan, he walkin’ on me stage.

First acts confirmed for the first ever Mighty Boosh Festival!

All hail the Mighty Boosh! Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt certainly know what they’re doing, that’s for sure. I admire them. Having the nerve to put on your own themed festival could be seen as an egotistical power trip but with the Boosh boys it’s definitely not a PR stunt -it’s because they are passionate about music and there’s nothing wrong about that!

The line-up so far is already quite diverse in musical styles. You’ve got The Charlatans with their classic indie britpop. A Mighty Boosh festival would not be complete without the electric legend that is Gary Numan. Then there’s Texan dirt-rockers White Denim and finally Polar Bear – the most fantastic Jazz band in the world, seriously, watch the drummer, he’s amazing.

The headline act is none other than the Boosh themselves. This has got to be seen. Not just for the laughs mind you, Mr Barratt is a fantastic musician in his own right. It will be great to see the man in action!

This is what Noel had to say: “We’ve never played a music festival before and a comic has never headlined at a festival before so we are seizing the opportunity and doing both!”

Of course, there’s more acts to follow but I’m excited already by the first confirmed acts.

I’ll be there at the front, with all the sexy bitches, singing along and havin’ it LARGE.

See you there.

Tickets on sale now at See Tickets – 0871 220 0260 http://www.seetickets.com/?c=310082

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Official-Mighty-Boosh-Festival-Page/36282555547

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mightybooshfestival

Jo xx

INTERVIEW: RUTH of BIMBO SPAM

I first met Ruth back in the 90s, I was about 12 years old and my Mum had dragged me along to an art project at the YMCA in Kingswood, Bristol. Ruth was the ‘artist in charge’ and I seem to recall that I thought she was very cool.

Jump forward to 2006. I’m sat in Patrick Duff’s living room attending his songwriting group for the first time. Opposite me is a woman whose face is strikingly familiar. The morning session (by morning I really mean lunchtime by the time everyone had settled down) turns out to be more of a group therapy where each person talks about their past week which normally included a good moan or a cry about something or other. As soon as I heard Ruth’s name everything clicked into place.

During a break I mentioned my Mum and the art project we did many moons ago. Her face lit up and we’ve been friends ever since. You’ll find me performing with Ruth in the coming months as part of her band Bimbo Spam.

I asked Ruth a few questions about her life, her music and art. Here’s what she said…



Cat On The Wall: Please tell us a little about yourself...

Ruth: I grew up in the Midlands in a town called Tamworth at a time when there was very high unemployment. The one thing that had a bit of spirit was the local music scene so I grew up watching bands, falling in love with my fair share of bass players & spending all my pocket money on records. I left home at 19 and went to study fine art up in Newcastle upon Tyne, I got very disillusioned. I thought it should be about creativity and magic and it turned out to be all about marketing and strategy. I was too much of a dreamer at that point to be cynical enough to embrace the wonders of the postmodern capitalist extravaganza.
I worked for a touring theatre company based in London, carved marionettes in Cornwall and became a drug addict in Bristol which did wonders for my cynicism. These days I grow vegetables and make up songs with my friends.

COTW: You were quite a late starter on the guitar. What made you decide to pick it up and start writing your own music?

R: I was living in a hostel in Bristol and trying to find a way to get off drugs. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do instead so I bought a bass guitar from my friends brother & started to teach myself to play it. The bass resonated inside me and filled the hollow aching space left by the drugs and the rhythms hypnotised and soothed me. I got a job as a barmaid doing the graveyard shift and Saturday nights and there was all this out of date booze left behind by the previous landlord, my boss said I could have it so I used it to pay an alcoholic friend of mine to give me bass lessons, which seems a bit wrong now but it was so right at the time. The first song I wrote was with the bass, it was a song called ‘Liar’ about the end of a relationship. Its difficult writing songs with the bass as the melodies are different so I had been doing a’capella or working with other guitarists. My friend Dan gave me his old electric guitar & I started messing about with it through my bass amp and then wrote a bunch of songs as I learned a few chords. I think having strengthened up my little finger playing bass really helped me coz I was able to squeeze a lot of variation from one chord.

COTW: Lyrics play a big part in your songs. What is the writing process? What inspires you?

R: I had always written poems, stories & bits of lyric since I was a kid. I had written stuff on scraps of paper, backs of envelopes and receipts and would leave them lying on the floor. Every now & then when I tidied up I would find these words and didn’t want to throw them away so I poked them through a gap into the drawer of this little filing cabinet I have. I never opened the drawer, just poked things in. I started going to a songwriting group in Bristol and when I mentioned about the filing cabinet they persuaded me to open it & I bought a book and copied all the words into it. There were bits of songs there & I still find inspiration in some of the things I wrote then. Sometimes a song comes out all in one go when I hear a melody. I write mostly from personal experience, I am inspired by the places I have been and the people I have known. I often get a couple of lines in my head repeating like a mantra and then it takes a while for the rest of the song to turn up.

COTW: First and foremost you are an artist. Are you working on any projects at the moment?

R: I suppose Bimbo Spam is a project but if you mean painting and sculpture, yes I have a studio and I am working on a sculpture installation involving plaster models of human foetus’s and salvaged televisions. I showed a piece in a café a couple of years ago and it got taken down because someone complained that it put them off their dinner. I am also painting battle scarred butterflies and human hearts on rusty metal panels.

COTW: Do you have a preferred format?

RP: No, whatever is to hand

COTW: Bimbo Spam is a very original name for a band. What inspired this name?

R: Its actually a song lyric from a Captain Beefheart song called ‘the dust blows forward and the dust blows back’, he says, ‘me and my girlfriend, Bimbo Limbo Spam’.

COTW: Do you enjoy performing live? Any memorable experiences?

R: Yeah I do quite like it. The worst was playing to a bunch of people who were there for the DJ’s who were on after me, there was no monitor an stage and all I could hear was people talking, I couldn’t hear myself at all and they all had their backs to me, it was awful. The best is when people come up to me afterwards and remember my lyrics after they hear the songs for the first time, that’s an amazing compliment.

COTW: Is there anyone you'd like to work with musically? Any artists you'd like to collaborate with?

R: I dunno, Amy Winehouse to sing ‘Monkey’ or ‘Tick Tock’ maybe. . . that would be funny, I like working with friends because its fun, I would hate to lose the fun from what I do. There are bands or individuals or producers that I really admire, or whose sound I love and I am always open to collaboration and to hear my songs evolve in different ways. I have worked with people who have put a spin on a song that I didn’t like & I felt that they didn’t get where I was coming from. I want to be true to my songs and honour their spirit. I have a friend who was in a couple of pretty good bands in the eighties and nineties and I would have loved him to produce my album. I used to think he was a shaman and I went out to visit him in Colombia when he moved there from Cornwall, Christmas and New Year 1999-2000, I was there for a month, he’s been out there ever since, I don’t think he’s coming back !! Open to offers.

COTW: Do you remember the last dream you had?

R: No. I’m pretty sure I dream every night though and do remember them occasionally. I went to see a psychotherapist once and he asked me to write down my dreams so I kept a notebook by my bed and for a week I wrote them down the second I woke up before they faded. He asked me to choose one and interpret it. I stopped writing them down after that. I like to leave them where they are, I think they are doing fine without me poking about in them.

COTW: What are your plans for the near future?

R: going to bed x

Jo Whitby

http://www.myspace.com/bimbospam

Press Play. Repeat.

Currently getting serious rotation on the COTW stereo…

TEPR: Coke & Cream

French keyboard genius making synth sexy and Yelle bearable.


LA Priest: Engine

Light but still of substance - Erol Alkan and LA Priest… sweet!



Does It Offend You, Yeah?: Let’s Make Out

Glorious electro noise.


David E. Sugar: To Yourself

Catchy song from Mr Sugar. A far cry from the mashed up gameboy music he used to make – not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.


dEUS: The Architect

Proving that they’ve still got it… dEUS are true music masters.


Autokratz: Pardon Garçon

Big fish, little fish, cardboard box.. well, you get the idea. Made for the dance floor.


Jo xx

Review: Art: Rich Simmons

Art in all shapes and forms has been a part of my life for as far back as I can remember. My Mother is a ‘free-form’ artist as I like to call her, putting on paper and canvas whatever she feels, not conforming to the limiting ‘structures’ that traditional art force feeds you. I am also an artist. I remember getting told off at college for not sketching out a position guide when I was drawing a face. If I can draw a face already why do I need a guide?

I now find myself in the position of art critic. It was only recently that I declared all art critics and art critique in general absolutely preposterous! A friend of mine was commenting on a piece of my Mother's artwork that I have on my wall, they were trying to impress me with long words and random jargon “it’s seems to represent living in the box whilst living outside the box at the same time”. It turned out that my friend thought that he was supposed to say things like that because “that’s what you say when you look at art”. So how do I approach an art review..?

I can’t remember exactly how I discovered Rich Simmons work, most likely through a friend of a friend on MySpace. Initially I was attracted to his designs for Deadscene clothing – I hadn’t seen anything like it before. There was a fresh and unique quality to the images, which other T-shirt design companies seemed to lack or just weren’t doing it quite right. I loved the boldness and randomness of the designs.

It didn’t come as a surprise when I found out Rich was also a fantastic artist.
His work on canvas is both shocking and beautiful. It dares you to look closer. Each piece of artwork has a different story to tell, all of them with dark overtones. Abstract visions of seemingly endless nightmares.
Strangely I find Simmons artwork incredibly uplifting. Perhaps it is the use of colours or the superb quality of the imagery.

Art has always been a fantastic form of expression and Rich is doing just that – expressing himself. His work deserves to been seen on a wider scale, not just on a T-shirt and I can’t wait to see his art to be exhibited in galleries across the country and, why not, the world!

Jo Whitby

LINKS:

Visit Rich Simmon's website

Rich Simmons on myspace

Review: Joanaspolicewoman: Real Life

‘Real Life’ is revealing a Joan Wasser, aka joanaspolicewoman, blooming into her art. If the 5-track ep released in 2005 was charged with promises, ‘Real Life’ is packed-full with melodic lines and seemingly effortless vocals designed to make your heart melt with simple but real feelings, like on ‘The Ride’, an easy yet powerful ballad or ‘We Don’t Own It’. Wasser is joined on several tracks by the crème de la crème: Antony Hegarty (of Antony and The Johnsons) on ‘I Defy’ and Joseph Arthur on ‘Eternal Flame’, ‘Feed The Light’ and ‘Christobel’ (also playing moog, piano and drums), adding a deeper dimension to an already near-perfect album. Wasser’s writing ability shines brighter than ever on ‘Real Life’, either the track or the full album:

“i've never included a name in a song
but i'm changing my ways for you,
jonathan
i need you to know,
i need you to know
that i'm real life”

It’s quite simply the album of the year 2007 for me.

Céline Lecompte

LINKS:

www.joanaspolicewoman.com

joanaspolicewoman on myspace

ROB BISHOP INTERVIEW

Rob Bishop was discovered by chance on an art website, namely the infamous deviantART, where we stumbled on his animation: 'The Adventures of Ravenspawn and The Willow Man', a strange fairytale featuring animated versions of Noel Fielding, of the Mighty Boosh, and Russell Brand (Big Brother’s Big Mouth, St Trinian’s). Jo Whitby had the pleasure and privilege to interview the "Ominous Voice and creator of Goth Superheroes" as he sometimes calls himself.

Cat On The Wall: Who is Rob Bishop? Please tell us about yourself.

Rob Bishop: I am an Illustration student at the University of Gloucestershire. I have been alive on this planet for 25 years. I was dead on Saturn for 3 months previously. The rings were pretty, but it's no place for a corpse.
I'm what some might call a geek. I like all the usual nerdy stuff, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, a bit of Star Trek. I have, as of late, experienced a resurgence of interest in all the old cartoons I used to watch as a kid back in the 80's. Transformers, ThunderCats and Masters of the Universe have all become just as awesome to me now as they were back in the days before mobile phones, except He-Man's haircut. That was, and shall forever be the worst haircut in the seen and unseen universe. So, right now, I'm a bit of an 80's cartoon bitch.

COTW: What made you decide to create an animation about the 'Goth Detectives' aka Noel Fielding and Russell Brand?

RB: Oooh the meat and spuds of the matter. I like you. You're right in there, like Miss Marple on crack.
I was forced at knifepoint... nah, I jest. The idea sprang to me while watching the Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006. I, like so many others, witnessed the birth of the Goth Detectives. As Jonathan Ross uttered those immortal words I knew there was something in there. In fact the name 'Ravenspawn' originated on the same show when Russell contemplated the name of the team, on account of Noel being likened to the offspring of Rod Stewart and a raven.
However, rather than do a straight take on the Goth Detectives, I took it a step further and made them superheroes. Ravenspawn materialised pretty much instantaneously, whereas Russell needed some extra thought. I saw that his backcombed hair looked a bit like a tree and expanded on that theme by giving him morphogenic tree branches for limbs. Thus was born the Willow Man.

COTW: 'The Adventures of Ravenspawn and The Willow Man' is a pretty spectacular animation! How long did it take you and what was the design process behind it?

RB: As a flash animation I don't think it's particularly good. I've seen far better in terms of quality. 'The Brackenwood' series by Australian flash animator Adam Phillips is by far and away the finest flash animation I have ever seen and really demonstrates the potential of Flash as an animating tool.
My humble creation on the other hand took me about 6 months to make, on and off. It was very much a 'when-I've-got-the-time' project. I started the project in March and finished it in September. I could well have done it sooner but I took a bit of time off in May-June as my grandfather had passed away.
The design aspect was pretty much off the cuff. If I needed a background or a prop, I'd draw it there and then in Flash. The characters are like puppets. Each body part is drawn separately, placed on different layers and animated independently. All that is quite easy once you know what you're doing and getting into the swing of things. Lip-synching is a bastard though. It takes aaaages.

COTW: You could be fooled in thinking Russell and Noel wrote the dialogue! When you were writing the script was there much preparation involved? What did you use as inspiration?

RB: This took a lot of watching Noel and Russell's stand up. I had to pick out their idiosyncrasies and use of language. Russell is very flowery with his language, and uses more syllables than an episode of Countdown. His vocabulary and flourish rival that of Stephen Fry. Behind that dandy facade lies a devastating intelligence. Noel on the other hand is like an over eager child in his delivery. He also comes up with some fantastic metaphors, such as "Look at you, the shrew, with your long body, like a sock with a tennis ball in it." He also likes the word 'genius' a lot.
Most of the dialogue in the cartoon was improvised on the spot during late night recording sessions. I think it gives the characters that degree of spontaneity and helps the dialogue flow better.
I recorded the dialogue at night because I live in a pokey little flat in the centre of Cheltenham with walls made of rice paper, and it's the only time it's quiet enough to record without intrusive noise. There is the howling of the wolves, but that's a different story for a different time.

COTW: I was particularly impressed with the characterisation of Russell, the voice and the way he speaks is very convincing. How did you perfect the voices?

RB: I've always had a knack for vocal impressions. I wouldn't say I was as good as Jon Culshaw or Rory Bremner (although my George W. Bush is spot on) but they're recognisable. I tend to do this by watching by subjects carefully and listening to their voices.I noted the tone at which they speak, the speed and their inflection. Then I just started imitating them like a stalker.Ominous Voice, being my own creation, was an amalgamation of Darth Vader and Tom Baker, with lots of reverb.
I'll be honest, I don't think I've perfected the Noel and Russell impressions, but I'll get better with practice. I can, however do all of Noel's various character voices like The Hitcher, Old Gregg, Tony Harrison and of course the Silver Grey Monkey.



Then of course there's the David Walliams’ Demon of Sexual Confusion. I was a little worried that the caricature didn't look much like him, but I still went with the voice I'd planned. That was a slightly deeper version of Sebastian from Little Britain. Oddly enough, I got an email from someone who said if she hadn't seen my name in the credits for the voices she'd've sworn it was Walliams himself, which was nice.

COTW: You also wrote the music for the adventure. Did you create it specifically for the animation?

RB: The theme tune was written a long time before 'Ravenspawn and the Willow Man' was even a cheeky little twinkle in my peeper. Thing is, I don't really consider myself a musician. I can't read or write sheet music, I know next to nothing of music theory and I can't play a single instrument. I usually just do remixes and rearrangements of various TV, movie and game themes. 'Where Snow Never Falls' was the first original track I'd done in a while. I used it in the cartoon primarily as filler, but it fit the tone so well, I just left it in. With the exception of the transformation sequence, which was my recreation of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers movie theme, the various incidental music was just some loops taken from Flashkit.com.

COTW: Have you created any other animation, if so, please tell us about them?

RB: The only other animation I have that's available for viewing is 'Tales of the Forest That Looks Enchanted But Is Actually Rather Mundane: Scrabble'. Or 'Scrabble' for short. A 1-minute short about Dave the Wise Wolf and Gavin the Owl playing scrabble. The characters are based on my short stories found on my MySpace page. Dave is a scrabble master. He can make words out of bits of string and melons, while Gavin... er, can't.
'Ravenspawn and the Willow Man' and 'Tales of the Forest...' are all part of the same universe and Ominous Voice features in both.

COTW: Can we expect another amazing adventure with 'Ravenspawn and The Willow Man'?

RB: Yes you can. The next episode will feature Julian Barratt in a prominent role. There will be an icy new villain and the Silver Grey Monkey will return. I'm refining the character designs as well as improving the animation. The characters will be more dynamic in their movement. It'll be slicker and more stylish, like a Michael Bay movie in animated form but with an actual plot.

COTW: What are your plans for the near future?

RB: Aside from finish Uni with a juicy degree, I want to churn out as many cartoons as I can really. I'd like to see both 'Ravenspawn and The Willow Man' and 'Tales of the Forest...' continue as series. Oh, and set up a proper website.

Jo Whitby

DEADSCENE INTERVIEW

Cat On The Wall: I understand you are a 20-year-old artist based in Peterborough and run Deadscene Clothing. How long has this business been active? How did the idea of creating and printing t-shirts designs come about?

Rich Simmons: Deadscene’s been going properly for just under a year and a half now; and the idea came from a lack of a creative outlet and a desire to test myself in a self employed role. My dad runs his own company so I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of running a business and I combined that with my creative side and concluded that the easiest way to promote and sell my art was on t-shirts.

COTW: DS is supported by the Prince’s Trust. Is there a reason why you turned to the Trust for support? How would you rate your experience with the Prince’s Trust?

RS: The Prince’s Trust has been a huge help for me, not only in a financial way but also the support, guidance and courses I’ve received have significantly helped develop my confidence and knowledge for business. I turned to the Trust when I had the idea for Deadscene because I needed the capital to launch my idea, and the expertise they provide to help make the idea a reality.

COTW: You also paint. Can you tell us about your art? What fuels it/you?

RS: Art has been my escape from reality for as long as I can remember. It's my way of expressing how I feel, what I dream and how I see the world. I’ve never been good at talking about my feelings so instead I paint them on canvas and put them out there for people to see. I think a painting can express things that you can’t find the words for, it’s almost a reflection of my thoughts and people can read it however they want. Whether it offers a sense of hope, fear, confusion, I just want to make people stop and think for a minute and go away with a changed perspective on something.

COTW: Have you sold any piece of artwork yet? If so, is it something you would like to develop into a business like DS?

RS: I’ve sold a few paintings to friends and given a few out as presents but its definitely something I want to become more involved in. Art is my passion in life and my aspirations are definitely to get noticed for my paintings. Gallery space is the ultimate dream I have, putting my paintings up in a proper gallery is a dream I’ve had for as long as I can remember. Being recognized as an artist and having people come and see my work would be the biggest compliment I could get and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to display in galleries in the future.

COTW: Deadscene is promoting local artists like Luke Pickett. You’re a bass player yourself. What place does music have in your life? Why did you decide to promote musicians/music nights?

RS: Music is a huge part of my life; it’s just as much of an outlet to me as art is. I’ve made some of my best friends through playing music, promoting music and watching bands live. I started promoting gigs in school when I was 16 and that is when my love for the behind the scenes side of music began. Promoting gigs gives me a chance to put on the bands I enjoy listening to and gives me a buzz knowing I’m running the show. Playing music was hugely rewarding and most importantly fun, its like an audible art form and instead of getting emotion out with a paintbrush, I can do it with a guitar.

COTW: What are your plans for the near future?

RS: The future is looking very exciting for me at the moment. There’s a lot of interest in the clothing and in the coming months I will have catalogues ready and be wholesaling to shops. I have plans to step up the music side of the business and become more involved in management with the band Between Broken Ashes and there are plans in the pipeline for a record label and tours. I’m also working on a lot of new paintings at the moment in the attempt to get gallery space this year. 2007 should be a very exciting year for Deadscene and myself.

Céline Lux

PATRICK WOLF INTERVIEW

PATRICK WOLF INTERVIEW (FROM THE FUNKY MOFO ARCHIVES)

Patrick Wolf is truly in a league of his own in the music world. We caught up with the musical wizard still in his night attire one December morning via telephone…

Céline: I visited your website last night and found out that someone has released ‘Wind in the Wires’ before the actual release date in February. That’s not nice!

Patrick: I know! For me I can understand why people would want to do it. They want to hear all the music now and if you have access to Broadband it’s a really easy thing to do. They need to be a bit clever, you know, have more control over yourself! I put a lot of passion into the artwork as well. There’s really little things like on the CD body itself, on the finished copy, there’s two birds so when you put it on the CD player the birds start flying. Things like that, for me, makes the whole album really back to front, cover to back, really special things for people.

Céline: You mention the artwork there. You’ve been working with Ingrid Z…

Patrick: We did the video for ‘The Lighthouse’ together. We met through the Hidden Cameras, she’s from Canada. She’s the only one left in London that’s a really close friend of mine right now. We live in a house together in Hackney! It was a friendship that turned into collaboration. She’s like another extension of my visual brain, I suppose I’m kind of hers now! When I first started out I was working by myself with mixing the album and mastering the album and it was a real solitary experience. I never really wanted it to be like that but then I’ve been really careful as to people I work with rather than just work with people for the sake of it. They’ve got to be the right people, we have to share the same universe.

Céline: Your influences include Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey, Meredith Monk and Angela Carter…

Patrick: With all these people like PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell and Meredith Monk… Meredith Monk is the one who has influenced me the most musically. She’s somebody that when I heard her record I actually wanted to call her up wherever she was in the world and say “please teach me something! I have something to learn from you!” I’d listen to her records obsessively and realise there was something from her music that a lot of the world couldn’t understand. Maybe, with a bit of translation, other people might be able to understand and really feel something from the way she sings, the way she puts her music together.

Joni and PJ have also been great inspirations musically. "Is This Desire" really gave me confidence to use my passion for the dark English winters and Thomas Hardy wild West country storylines and communicate that in song. “…Desire” is a real masterpiece, a very rare British one too. Joni was a realisation that a musical communication could be just as strong with one instrument and a vocal… there didn’t have to be a symphony orchestra in order for the song and recording to be powerful and her lyrical magic is nothing but totally inspiring… "Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter" comes highly recommended to those that see her as the hippy blonde girl with an acoustic guitar, that lady has balls.

Céline: I read somewhere that you lived in Paris for sometime. How long did you stay?

Patrick: It was in my 18th year. It felt like I visited Paris about 12 times that year... How many times I can't remember exactly. Kind of going backwards and forwards the whole time, sometimes maybe a long weekend and then sometimes a week… it felt like a long time but maybe it wasn’t!

Céline: Why Paris?

Patrick: It was a really natural thing. I was asked to play a show over there with this band ‘Maison Crimineaux’. We just turned up with a CD player and a suitcase full of bad outfits and rolled about on the floor and made a couple of friends there! Had a really beautiful experience. I think I had this idea that I wanted to move there but things started happening in London. I spent a lot of time just walking around, more of a solitary experience rather than getting involved with any culture. All cities are a complicated beast, street to street it’s very different.

The most magic time was turning 18, two weeks alone in a friend’s empty apartment in Place de Clichy with a bedroom view to the Eiffel tower. I put on my best home-made clothes and gate-crashed a load of high society parties… taking a white horse driven carriage from outside the Tuilleries to an out of town polo field sipping free champagne and slipping fancy chocolates into my pockets. Special times.

Céline: You met a spirit medium in Paris who told you to change your name to Wolf. Is that true?

Patrick: Yeah! It is true! [Laughs] It was at the ‘Montmartre’ cemetery. I was just walking around, it was the first time I’d visited with the band and it was raining… this person just appeared. There was no one else in the cemetery! I’d been to look for the grave of Hector Berlioz. The story is all in the song ‘Paris’ from the first album.

Céline: I’m going to stay on a French theme… ‘The Libertine’, which is the first single and the first song of the new album, does it refer to the Marquis De Sade? What is it about? Is it about the Libertines??

Patrick: It kind of does. There’s a reference point there but it’s not really about them. The reason why I called it ‘The Libertine’… some people call it “The Hitchhiker”… there’s a different character in each line of that song. I was reading the newspaper, I don’t know [The Libertines’] music that much really at all, there was something about someone from the group who was in jail. I thought this was a real contradiction and that really summed up a lot of what’s wrong with the people right now. A Libertine in jail, it’s the ultimate contradiction! These are really weird times for me. It’s a stagnant age, I don’t really see any multiple progressions artistically or creatively right now.

Céline: It seems the media are trying to make a newcoming of the Britpop like we had 10 years ago…

Patrick: I think with the English press what I’ve always had this idea since Britpop is that England is obsessed with the fact that it had punk or it had the 60’s. Ever since then they’re obsessed with trying to do something else, like the other great British thing will happen. It’s some bizarre English mentality and I think what happens is - they will find a band or two bands that will both have saxophone in it and they will be like “Whoa! There’s a saxophone movement!”. Then they’ll write 10 pieces about great British saxophone movements, then everyone will call these bands saxophone movement, then they’ll hate it and the bands will break up! They just keep on killing things! Won’t let anything develop and grow into what it could be because they sensationalise everything so quickly. Then again there’s not actually anything great to sensationalise right now anyway. [Laughs] I sound like I really hate everything!

Céline: You’re a multi-instrumentalist aren’t you?

Patrick: I’ve never been somebody who’s been attracted to groups. I work as a single entity, I’ve always been attracted to and inspired by single entities that’s why I can’t imagine ever being part of a band. The sort of artists I like are the solitary mad geniuses sitting in a log cabin communicating to the world.

Céline: You’ve managed to get your father and your sister on your album!

Patrick: Yes I did! That was a really special thing for me because ‘Lycanthropy’ lyrically was dealing with… I left home when I was 16 and I didn’t speak to my parents for about a year, my sister I didn’t speak for a year as well. I’ve always had a really loving family it was quite a traumatic thing back then. In the last couple of years getting back to a family unit again, it’s a really important thing for me. ‘Lycanthropy’ was really like leaving home, being this care free, quite dangerous liberty. ‘Wind In The Wires’ is more like appreciating family again, what it feels like to belong somewhere, this desire to drop the anchor somehow. To get my father and my sister on the record was really… it wasn’t just superfluous, it was definitely for a reason.

Céline: ‘Tristan’, I’m very intrigued by that song… what does it refer to?

Patrick: A complicated one! ‘Tristan’ in a way relates to ‘Teignmouth’. When I first wrote that song [Teignmouth] I was 17 and it was a train journey down to Devon. I’d just been to see Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde’, it was in German so I didn’t really understand what was going on in the opera but then I found it in a book, the actual story line. It was about Tristan who was from Cornwall, those myths are always so complicated. The name Tristan means ‘born of sorrow’. When I did this journey down to Devon I had Tristan on the brain then I wrote the song. It came about last October 2003 in Cornwall, I went down to write songs, to concrete ‘Wind In The Wires’ and open my lyric book, really go through everything with a fine tooth comb. I went on this really amazing walk along, there’s a 10 mile beach, it was out of season, no one around out there, just storms. There were very offensive and dark sand dunes. This character just popped up and the song was written in 5 minutes! It was almost like I had a visitation or something!

Céline: Your music is very well produced. Jo, my partner in crime, actually blew the dust off her violin and started playing again because of you!

Patrick: That’s really good! [Laughs] I think more people should pick up… I always meet people who go “Aww, I used to play violin!” Yea! More violins! I always think it’s weird when these high budget bands come in with these horrible fake strings. I once made this rule to myself, if you can have the real instrument, have the real instrument! Synthesisers are there for synthesising totally new sounds, not for synthesising real instruments.

Céline: I know we were talking about recent bands and the lack of talent, is there anyone that you like or anyone contemporary that you like?

Patrick: I’m not really an active record shopper, I’m normally somebody that the music kind of finds me somehow. Then I go out searching for it. I like the recent PJ Harvey album. I think I may appreciate it in two years!

Patrick asks us if we have any favourite bands or artists from 2004. Jo mentions The Futureheads, Patrick dislikes the ‘Hounds of Love’ cover version, the discussion quickly moves onto Kate Bush…

Patrick: When I was growing up my Mum really played Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. I totally forgot about Kate Bush until I was about 20 so it was only in the last year after Lycanthropy came out. People started saying Kate Bush this, Kate Bush that so I bought ‘Hounds of Love’. Then a lot of people were saying about how she was the same age as me when she released her first album. She’s somebody in the last year that’s really given me confidence that there are ears out there for my work.

We end the interview with talk of kittens, hand-eating terrapins and a homesick pigeon (“which I had for about 2 hours on my 21st birthday”). Patrick will certainly be in great demand throughout 2005, catch him while you can.

Céline Lux & Jo Whitby

SOULWAX INTERVIEW

SOULWAX INTERVIEW (FROM THE FUNKY MOFO ARCHIVES)

The year 1999 saw the arrival of Soulwax’s first UK release ‘Much Against Everyone’s Advice’. The album received critical approval across Europe but only a handful of music lovers fell for the admirably constructed beats, the intricate guitar chord sequences and Belgian-English crossover lyrics penned by the Dewaele brothers. They have built a solid fanbase thanks to extensive touring and many festival appearances but it was with 2Many DJs that the broader audience really started noticing the Dewaele brothers and their Soulwax combo. With remixes of Playgroup and DJ Shadow they also gained credibility in their musical abilities that not many other artists have achieved despite them trying! One needs to stress that these remixes were produced under the Soulwax name rather than 2Many DJs.

Soulwax has been on Funky Mofo’s Must Interview list for a long time. The band is one of the reasons why both FM creators befriended each other and went on to put their ideas into practice, much against everyone’s advice! Jo had fallen in love with Soulwax thanks to a magazine compilation and was so mesmerised by the drumming on ‘Funny’, she took the album to her drum teacher! Céline, coming from the continent, always had a keen ear for Belgian music (dEUS, Venus) and was very quick in succumbing to Soulwax’s charm. They had at last found someone in the UK who knew who Soulwax were! You can then imagine the state they both were in when it was confirmed that an interview would take place in Bristol, before Soulwax’s gig at the Fleece & Firkin.

Now was our chance to talk to Soulwax about their latest release ‘Any Minute Now’, a heavy mother of a record that sees the band returning to good form despite some rearrangements in the line up. We set up in the back room of the venue with the guitar player, Dave, comfortably installed in an armchair and reading his favourite gossip magazine! The full band will gradually fill the room throughout the meeting and quietly take seat around us.

Funky Mofo: My first question is about your original keyboard player, she went onto maternity leave, right?

Stephen Dewaele: I think Inge had a baby a couple of months ago. So it was kind of hard for her to go on tour with us. Since then we took another guitar player because we thought it was kind of stupid to replace her by another keyboard player. We wanted to do something else so we added a second guitar player. Keyboard player leaves, guitar player comes!

FM: How did it affect Soulwax’s dynamics?

SD: It’s just more guys so it means like… when Inge was in the band we would try to be polite. We at least had to give people the idea that we weren’t stupid guys. Now nobody holds back, it’s all guys!

FM: Gosh, I wouldn’t wish to be on your bus!

SD: No you don’t! [laughs] That was the good thing with Inge on the bus, we all had to behave! Everybody had to make sure she had her privacy and everyone was taking care of her but it also meant that we were also being.. I don’t know… there’s something about being on the road with a bunch of guys, it’s like being on a ship or something. It’s weird! The only thing I miss about Inge is that not having her means that we, after a couple of days, started being really like guys.

FM: Do you miss that female touch to the band?

SD: Yeah, there was a certain something about having her in the band!

FM: What’s Soulwax’s work method, how do you work as a band?

SD: I don’t know, we just make music. Me and my brother write, Stephaan was in the original line-up. Steve was our second drummer, then he went to New York and came back. Dave has his own band but is now playing second guitar. All the rest is fairly boring!

FM: How did you manage to make an album in those conditions?

SD: Phew, yeah. You just try and focus on it. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it goes really fast. Depends on how creative you are. I don’t know, it’s a hard question. Everybody asks how you work as a band or how you write songs and how you do things. There’s something about it that you can’t explain which is probably also the reason why you’re doing it. You get sucked into it!

FM: Whilst you were recording Any Minute Now you were also performing as 2 Many DJ’s and Soulwax also does a lot of remixes. Does one experience feed the other and vice versa?

SD: Yeah. I know people want me to say no, but yeah! It’s all intertwined for me. The hardest one is playing live with a band because that’s a lot of effort and it takes a lot of time. You need to go on tour with a lot of people while playing as DJ’s you just need to take two bags of records and you play other peoples music and people pay you lots of money! It’s not right! [laughs] But I mean it’s okay, I can’t complain, best of both worlds but I mean sometimes it’s kinda hard.

Stephen’s honesty is a rare occurrence in this “Music Business world” and although I was a bit apprehensive in mentioning 2ManyDJs in a Soulwax context, I must admit Stephen’s answer both delighted and comforted me that As Heard On Radio Soulwax had stemmed from a real passion for music and musical artists and is, in my eyes, the ultimate tribute to all musical genres. The copyright issue that dogged AHORS, forcing the album to be taken off the shops’ shelves for a lengthy period of time, was a pointless and money-driven farce. We, at Funky Mofo, believe there is no need for politics and greed in Art and it is unfortunate that talented artists still cannot express themselves more freely and in good faith because some fat cat wants his share of the success without lifting a finger.

FM: Any Minute Now sounds a lot heavier than Much Against Everyone’s Advice. Was that intentional or is that how it just happened in the studio?

SD: I don’t think it was intentional, it was just a phase we were in. Coming out of the Much Against album and then doing 2 Many DJ’s I think that was the mood we were in. I don’t think we would make the same album now, probably if we went into the studio now it would be more towards Much Against again. It’s just something we had to go through to make and actually spend a very interesting ride with it. It’s seems like now after a year people are really getting into it. Everywhere I go I have people saying “Wait, I was listening to that album, now I really understand”. It’s kinda weird!

At this moment, David tiptoes into the dressing room, wondering what is going on…

SD: Ah, now all the other questions you can do with Dave! He is the master. We don’t do anything, he’s the boss. (David then wears a satisfied grin on his face and takes Stephen’s place to carry on with the interview.)

At this point we’re informed by Soulwax’s tour manager that the band has to get changed for the show but we manage to slip one last question to David.

FM: Do you still do the TV and Radio shows?

David Dewaele: No, not anymore. We did a 2-hour thing for Radio One, the Essential Mix. We wanted to do some more but we would need more time.

Much to our despair, and excitement to see the band live at last, we parted with Soulwax. Half an hour later the band invested the stage for what has to be, in our eyes, the best gig of 2005 so far. Soulwax played a seamless set that mixed compositions from ‘Much Against Anyone’s Advice’ and ‘Any Minute Now’ and got the crowd going wilder with each song. No doubt many of the spectators that night had already witnessed Soulwax and 2Many DJs live in a festival or other and I bet you it won’t take long for Soulwax’s popularity to grow into a beautiful monster!

Céline Lux

SONIC STATE RELAY INTERVIEW

Cat On The Wall: What is the Sonic State Relay effect? Please tell us a bit about yourselves and your music.

Sonic State Relay: Sonic State Relay is the bringing together of 3 different musical minds and a strobe light.

We're Pete Clarke (vocals), Spencer Ball (guitar) and Rory Farrelly (bass). We originally met at high school - we went to the same school but were in 3 different years and we’ve spent the last 10 years evolving our sound into something we consider to be our own, while inevitably taking a lead from some of our favourite bands of the past. The sonic state relay effect is hypnotic, driven, and has substance and depth. It appeals to people who used to listen to bands like My Bloody Valentine and who are looking for something that taps a similar sonic vein.

COTW: You have been labelled as 'psych-noir', 'loud turbulence' and 'white trainer goth'! What does that mean and do you agree? Is that close to the truth?

SSR: White trainer goth makes us laugh. And we like loud turbulence. To be honest, those descriptions came from listings put out by gig venues and the local press, and they probably took the writers about 2 seconds to think of. But in a way they fit and they give us something to put on our website. Bands typically don’t like to be pigeonholed, but luckily we haven’t heard of other bands in the “white trainer goth” or “loud turbulence” movements, so we like to think we're pretty unique.

The Stool Pigeon described us as being "unlike anything else", and Sarah Darling on XFM said we were "shoegazing back with a vengeance". So we’re simultaneously unique and retro. Maybe Cat on the Wall can come up with that 8-word piece of literary alchemy that defines us perfectly if so, we’ll quote it on our website for ever, we promise.

COTW: How do you feel about downloading music? In what ways has the Internet been a venue for musicians like yourselves?

SSR: Well, in the past we only ever got feedback from our audience at gigs. The whole situation has changed now, and we’re hearing from people all over the world who came across us while browsing MySpace. So in that sense it expands massively the potential audience of bands like us, and that can only be a good thing. We’re not only meeting fans online, but also promoters, writers and broadcasters, and fellow musicians.

The downside of the internet boom is that only one of us is computer literate and is thus the band's online bitch.

COTW: If you could work with any artist/s (past or present) who would they be and why?

SSR: Ok, ask us the same question in a week’s time and you’ll probably get a different set of answers, but for now:

Rory: Trent Reznor, Tim Commerford (RATM), Nick McCabe (The Verve), Chris Cunningham

Pete: Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), Martin Gore, Kevin Shields

Spencer: Jon Theodore (ex-Mars Volta), Sonic Boom, and for our album artwork either Peter Saville or a great French artistic duo called M/M (Paris), who I think did the cover of Bjork’s Vespertine. (ndr.: yes, they did. I should know, I named my cat after that album!)

COTW: When can we expect a full album to be released?

SSR: That’s a good question. We’ve got the material ready to be developed, and we reckon a couple of months in the studio would produce the kind of work we’ve been dying to make for the last 10 years. In contrast to the DIY ethic of the moment, we’re a band that’s serious about our sound and needs to work with a talented producer who understands that 'sonic' is the key element of sonic state relay.

COTW: What are your plans for the near future?

SSR: Well we had a great end to 2006, in November we got to the last 3 in XFM’s FREEDM competition to send an unsigned band to New York, and we also self-released our first mini album, Bring Your Sword Down, so we're really looking to build on that in the first part of this year.

Hopefully the next few months will see us developing our live sound, getting played on XFM and Radio 1’s unsigned slots, and release an EP or album through a label.

Getting heard is what it’s all about for us in the near future.

Céline Lux

THE PIPETTES INTERVIEW

THE PIPETTES INTERVIEW (FROM THE FUNKY MOFO ARCHIVES)

The Pipettes are the real surprise of 2005. We've witnessed them "shaking the house" whilst sharing the stage with the Go! Team earlier in the year, and were well impressed by their freshness, so much so that we too love uniforms, especially boys wearing them! We decided to get in touch with the out-of-this-world band to find out more about uniforms, dysfunctional families and polka dot!

Funky Mofo: First I'd like to ask you (and you've probably been asked this zillions of times) what's in the name of the band? Anything to do with Gladys Knight?

Rose: Kind of, obviously the 'ettes' is in reference to bands like to Ronnettes, Velvetettes etc, but also our guitarist who came up with the idea and the name, wanted the band to be a sort of science experiment in some ways, to see what could be achieved with that pop format today, amongst other things...

Riot Becky: Yeah I think it was important that the name signify girlyness etc and also 'pip' is close to 'pop'!

FM: Who's who in the band? When and how did you start The Pipettes?

R: Well, we have three singers: me, Gwenno and Riot Becki, and then our backing band The Cassette: Seb 'Beppe' Falcone (keyboards), Robin Loxley (drums), Jon ‘MC Coleslaw’ Falcone (bass) and our guitarist monster Bobby. He was the one who came up with the 'concept' and recruited us all about a year and a half ago. We were all friends of friends or new one or two members indepen