I’m here with Emma Anderson, of Sing-Sing and formerly of 4ad band,
Lush. hi Emma, welcome to AV Deck.
Hello!
What’s the latest with Sing-Sing? I hear you’ve signed to a new
label
Yes! we’re putting our album out on Poptones now, Alan McGee’s new
label, this was all finalised in the last couple of weeks
So how did it come about?
we actually made the album on another label, Sanctuary, but things didn’t
work out with them so we parted company, so I went to Alan (McGee, Poptones
owner) and said “would you like to put my album out?” and he said
“yeah! yeah!”
Is that the album that was originally going to be called Siamese?
Yeah, its the same album
Has anything changed apart from the title?
no... well if anyone has a promo copy, the version of ‘Feels Like Summer’
is different on it, that’s all, but no, everything else is exactly the
same
Being in Sing-Sing, is it difficult, you were known in the papers as “Emma
from Lush” - have you found it hard to be noticed in your own right? NME
would have their reports “Emma from Lush was at this gig and that gig”
and you were never out of the papers
mm, yeah, it was quite hard actually, yeah, in a number of ways i wont go into
now as they’re a bit boring.... there were advantages and disadvantages
of being in Lush. obviously you form a new band and you take... some people
might not have liked Lush, so they think.... whereas others have been really
surprised by it and vice versa, so you take your history with you which is not
always great, and obviously when we were looking for labels, everyone was saying
“ooh she was in Lush blah blah” and I think they liked new fresh faces,
but its worked both ways, definitely, yeah
and I guess you couldn’t get rid of the 4ad connection, as you had Poppy
who was also in Mojave 3
ahh, she’s not playing with us any more, she’s in America now.. but
nah, I don’t wanna shake off the 4ad thing anyhow.. it was nice while it
lasted - its good to keep the ties I suppose
okay, so the first single, it was on Bella Union - another 4ad connection -
was that always meant to be a one-off?
yeah it was actually, the idea behind that we’d find another label.. they
sort of wanted to keep us, but we were offered a better deal by Sanctuary and
we weighed it all up and went with Sanctuary in the end.. we would have loved
to have stayed with them but it was the money was a lot to do with it
I guess, its been difficult for you, when you had what you had with Lush and
having to start again
yeah, it was always meant to be a one-off - it wasn’t like we fell out
or anything while we were making the album! nah, still friends with them, its
good!
So how did you meet Lisa? (O’Neill, singer in Sing-Sing)
well it was a double connection actually, she went out with this guy, who shared
a flat with Pete, this bloke | was going out with - they lived in this awful
flea ridden flat in Camden, beer cans everywhere, bleurgh - typical blokes flat,
and I sort of met her there and didn’t think much of it, it was just Fraser’s
girlfriend and then my friend Bunny who I’ve known since I was 14 phoned
me up and she worked with Lisa and they’re both animators and she said
“oh there’s this girl, Lisa, she’s a singer, I think you’ve
met her, she’s looking to work with somebody and she sang on this album
by someone called Locust” so I was like, “ooh I’ve got that”
and put on the track and it was really really good and i thought that was quite
a coincidence, so I called Lisa up and that was it really. We clicked and we
took it from there
Talking Locust, that was when you played your first ever gig, wasn’t it?
I was there then!
Yeah! And Mojave 3 as well!
It was a cool gig! I think a lot of people weren’t sure what to expect,
they’d not heard ‘Feels Like Summer’ by then, so didn’t
know what to expect? Was it weird playing alongside someone whose audience would
be more dancey, after Lush and all the indie gigs that were played?
locust I think are very electronic.. I don’t know if dancey is...
yeah, that probably was the wrong word!
I always get muddled up, well not muddled but when someone says something is
a bit dancey, it involves some synths and a lot of beats.. but then I don’t
know if you could dance to Locust...
I remember there being the gig and sounds based around tv screens
Yeah it was very experimental, but then of course Mojave 3 were on the bill,
so I didn’t feel too out of place as we’d done six weeks with them
in America a few years before. I guess we’d already worked with Mark (van
Hoen, Locust) by then, as he’s produced everything we’ve done, so
it felt quite natural really
so going back to Lush, how did you end up getting signed to 4ad?
funnily enough, everything comes full circle! I was working for Creation at
that time
really!
well it wasn’t for Alan, it was Jeff Barrett, who you know, (Heavenly)
and Lush had done some demos and Jeff, and Alan in fact, they both said to send
it to Ivo, as its the sort of thing he’d like, also Jeff knew Robin Guthrie,
so I sent a demo to him and I didn’t think I’d hear anything and then
Ivo called, I nearly wet myself! I couldn’t believe it!! And he said “yes
I really like it, I really like it” and at the time, this is quite a funny
story, we had this guy called Howard Gough, who was the 4ad plugger, who had
seen us live and thought we were the worst band he’d ever seen! And he
was really trying to persuade Ivo not to sign us, he was going “they really
are dreadful, please do not sign this band!” so Ivo was “ yes well
everyone in the company has to be behind someone if we sign them its not really
like that at the moment with Howard” so he put us in the studio and we
did some demos that ended up being ‘Scar’ our first record, and Ivo
again really liked that, and put it out as a record and then we did ‘Mad
Love’ and Howard warmed to us and sort of against his will he had to admit
we weren’t as bad as he thought we were and then he ended up being our
manager which was quite a funny time and a twist of fate I suppose and he left
4ad.
he actually left 4ad to be your manager?
yeah! howard did, after trying to persuade Ivo not to sign us! cause we were
awful, so....
In the sleeve notes of the Best of, it says about you and Miki and the pressures
you were under writing songs, having to write things, writers block.. now there’s
not as much pressure, how are the songs coming along?
I never find it very easy to write a song.. its even harder now as I have a
day job so in that respect its quite hard but it is always quite hard to just
sit and say “I’m gonna write a song today”.. whenever I’ve
written a song its come when I’ve been walking down the street or just
strumming the guitar watching Newsnight or something... something really weird!
The pressure comes from yourself really so even if there’s a record company
or a manager behind you saying you have to write or there’s nothing, its
still quite hard I think.... so.. I need to write some more songs actually...
So have you ever thought about doing lead vocals?
No I haven;t.. a couple of people mentioned it to me, when Lush finished, said
“why don’t you sing?” but I haven’t got a brilliant voice
and I actually sing less in Sing-Sing than I did in Lush and I feel much more
comfortable like that.. i’m really not a singer.. I enjoy singing sometimes
live, but I don’t think I’m very good at it
aww you never seemed to be that bad!
aww I’m not appalling, but other people can do it better, so I think they
should!
So, Lush wise, what are Miki, Phil and Steve all doing now?
well Miki has had a baby,
so we can finally put those rumours to rest!
yes! she has had a baby, it is her first baby, there were some rumours about
three years ago, so she’s had a little baby girl and she’s at home
looking after her at the moment, Phil is working for NME still and some other
magazines off and on, I’m not sure if he’s doing anything musically
at the moment - he has done bits and pieces over the last few years, but nothing
that’s really... well he was in the Mary Chain for a while after we split
up but I don’t think he’s made any records and Steve lives in Ireland
with his wife and he works at a computer company and he writes sometimes for
Mojo and Q, mainly reviewing reissues and stuff, back catalogue type things
and what about you? are you gonna tell us where you’re working now!
yes, as I said earlier, I have a day job, and I work for another band... who
were big in the 80’s....
which is.....! and they were fantastic...
their initials are DD and they’ve just got back together in the original
line up
do you find that being in Lush has helped with your job, that you have the
experience and it helps with the job?
yeah, on one level it definitely helps!
ooh and can you get me John Taylor’s autograph!
I could try, but he’s in LA.. the thing is I never see them.. i don’t
actually technically work for John either, so I can definitely try.... but yeah,
of course it helps and I think they quite appreciate the fact I was in a band..
i don't actually talk much about Sing-Sing to them but they’d never really
heard of Lush so they get quite surprised when I say “yeah I went to Japan
four times” and they’re like “oh!?” I think they think I
just played in some pub band in backrooms in Camden, maybe, third on the bill
you should give them a copy of the Best of, then see what they know!
Someone gave Nick Rhodes a copy of Gala because its the guy who designs their
sleeves, I think he was a bit of a Lush fan, so he asked him for cd’s,
but I don’t think he’s said anything!!!! So nevermind!
So like you were saying, you work with Duran Duran, and before you worked
with Jeff Barrett, can you imagine yourself not being involved with music?
Yeah, i can actually, very much so.. being on the other side.. as in the actual
industry.. I much prefer to be a musician and do that full time but that’s
not really happening right now.. especially as I’m older, I can imagine
a complete change but I probably always will do music even if its just strumming
guitar and putting a cd out myself on the internet.. I just can’t imagine
not playing a guitar ever again and not writing songs.. I can imagine career
wise doing something completely different, but I have no idea what
you said about putting things out on the internet, so many things have changed
from when Lush were first out and you’ve got your own website now with
the proper website due to be launched in the next couple of days, how important
is all that to you and how involved are you?
me and Lisa are VERY involved in the website as Lisa is actually a web designer
now so she’s designed it and I think a lot of websites are done by the
record companies whereas this is just completely ours which is nice
that is so important, the best sites are the ones that the bands do themselves
so it should be up this week, as she’s going on holiday on Saturday so
its got to be up before she goes! yeah, that's quite exciting,.... its just
the way you can communicate with so many people instantly around the world..
its just... it makes life so much easier .. having a mailing list that people
can write and we can send out news and... its just brilliant, you know.
And I’m guessing you’ll have MP3’s on there, so people all
over can get to hear you, as when are you next planning on getting back to America?
exactly! well we don’t have a North American deal at the moment - the Poptones
thing is for the world apart from North America.. although people can buy cd’s
from their website, even in the States, so again, that’s great.. so yeah,
we are gonna have MP3’s
its got to be as important as doing gigs in the UK
I know..
its quite incredible how its moved along so fast... so what are the future
plans?
future plans for Sing-Sing, September 17th there’s a single called ‘Tegan’
and there’s the album due on October 1st called ‘the Joy of Sing-Sing’
but we haven’t got any gigs lined up just yet, we’re just working
on it
and if people go to the site they can join up on the mailing list...
they can! all the news updates and everything
any festivals planned?
no, we’ve only just got an agent, actually, so its all been a bit....
next year maybe?
yeah, and also we’ve been getting a new keyboard player and possibly a
new drummer as well, so its all a bit of a panic at the moment! so festivals
aren’t gonna happen...
so when you look back at your achievements so far, which are you the most
proud of?
I’m probably proud of nearly everything actually.. I mean I still listen
to Lush records and think they sound good and we wrote good songs and
its definitely not dated at all
you think?
I think a lot of it still sounds like it could have been recorded this year,
maybe lesser so the early stuff but Single Girl or Ladykilllers, it still sounds
very now!
I mean, there’s obviously things I would have changed if I’d had the
chance if I could.. if I could go back in time but then everyone says that ..
I’m very fine about all of it really... I loved being on 4ad, it was great!
it was quite funny being on 4ad, as I was quite cosseted in a lot of ways...
after I left 4ad I got quite a shock actually, to see what the rest of the music
industry was like! and how awful it was really.. how there’s disloyalties
to bands and the weird a&r policies that people had or have, which of course
Ivo was out there on his own in his tastes and his tactics or whatever.. none
of this “oh does the lead singer look like a star” and stuff... and
things like that.. it was a bit of a slap in the face actually, I have to say,
so its funny I’ve ended up back on quite a cool label really
well I guess its like McGee and Ivo are from the same breed really, they’re
the indies that stood the test
exactly! they do things the way they do them, and they don’t care what
the rest of the industry is up to, so I was never destined to be on a major
label,
which is probably a good thing!
I think is a good thing in the long run, yeah!
cool! well thanks for coming in, good luck with the single, album and everything!