| Home | Band | News | Reviews | Interviews | Photos | Contact | |
Last update: November 2005 |
| | Home | Band | News | Reviews | Interviews | Photos | Contact | |
|
|
|
More Than A Postcard: A Fanzine Interview With HeleneWhy are you releasing a solo album?It's not a solo album, as such. It's a band album. However, by hanging the music on my name, we are creating a new identity for the music, which I feel has gone in quite a different direction with this album. Also, it's probably as well to acknowledge how much of the music and the vision of the band hangs on my input, and my life experiences, for better or worse. Are you still working with Graham Gargiulo at all? Yeah, Graham remains my co-conspirator. Regardless of whatever goes on in our personal lives, I don't think either of us could write as well with anybody else. Lord knows we've tried. Is it true you guys broke-up? When I first read this I thought you meant the band, but then I realised what you meant, and I think that's quite a cheeky question! For what it's worth, during our whole musical partnership, we've been apart more than we've been together, so I don't think that that whole angle's as intriguing as it's been made out to be. When did you record the album? We recorded the album in the hazy late summer of 2001. It's only because it is a hell of a lot more ambitious and complex, musically, than anything we'd done before, that it took a lot of time and love in the mixing stages to get it sounding exactly how we wanted it. So that's why it's taken a while between recording and release. I don't think that matters; it's a timeless album, and it wouldn't matter if it came out in 1970 or 2070! Are you happy with it? More than happy. Is it true that Magoo are involved in some capacity? Owen from Magoo was recommended by our record company as a producer for the album, so we met him and we like him and his ideas, and we liked his studio, which was basically this big rickety old barn in Norfolk with a porch and a stream, and geese and everything. We could swim and ramble and enjoy the sunshine in the countryside... People don't realise how important environment can be for making music: if you're locked up in a windowless fourth floor boxroom in London for hours on end and the only way you can get a bit of air and a bit of a break is to trudge downstairs and grab a fag with the traffic on the Wandsworth Road or wherever screaming past you...that's not such a great feeling, so this was ideal. And we had a great time. Owen did a great job, he played on some of the songs, and the rest of Magoo even did some singing on it too. You've been called one of the best singers in Britain - how does that make you feel? Do you feel you should be more successful than you are? It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel justified in doing what I do. As for the second part of that question...well, yeah, OF COURSE! But you know, apart from questions of talent in all this, there are certain things that it seems you must do in order to achieve the kind of "success" I think you mean. I've always known that I had some of the key ingredients, and I've always known that I lacked others. I'm not ambitious in the modern sense of the word, that post-Madonna syndrome. And you'd be surprised how many of the indiest-seeming bands are absolutely crazed with that kind of ambition. It's interesting to watch. What other female singers do you rate at the moment? Oh, that's such a loaded question I don't even want to answer it, though I know why it gets asked again and again. There are many singers I like, although quite often that's filtered through what I make of them as songwriters. There are so few pure singers around: many interesting singers write their own songs and many uninteresting singers have their songs written for them. So that's a hard question. Gillian Welch, I really, really admire. Purely from the voice perspective, singers I've liked would be Linda Lewis, Smokie Robinson, George Jones, Stevie Wonder, Melanie, and I'm insane for Doris Day! I think a lot of the time I like people who don't have a spectacular technical range, but who have a really interesting and idiosyncratic emotional range, and something a bit askew in their voices. I never listen to singers to emulate them, although, weirdly, I did have George Jones in the back of my head all through the last Barefoot Contessa album, "Oh The Sweet Power". I don't think it necessarily comes across though. Lou Reed's in my head a lot too, but then he's in lots of people's. I don't think the fact that these men are influences is a treacherous thing regarding women or female artists, though. I just think it's a good thing to avoid being influenced by the people you're more likely to be compared to. I've gotten Patti Smith and P J Harvey a lot and I truly never listen to them. I'm not remotely influenced by them. The one woman I probably listen to more than anyone is Laura Nyro. Is it harder being a female singer in a male-dominated industry? Without a doubt. How would you describe your new album to someone (me) who hasn't heard it? I'd describe it as a labour of love, not easy listening but rewards repeated listening, deep and dark and pretty and ugly, sad and happy, fucked-up but looking towards the light. It's easier to describe in emotional rather than musical phrases cos musically it's so dense and varied. We put everything into this record. My heart, my soul, my very capillaries are in there! Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? I don't. I have a small hole in the part of my brain that governs forward planning. Look to the present and the future will take care of itself. Postcard is available from Amazon, Tower and all good record stores. Essex Chronicle interview 2005. Logo interview 2004. |
|
 |
top |
built by moustique design |
||