Ladytron | Interview with Lyndsey Parker (LPTV)

Hi, this is Lindsey at Liquor Pizza Records for LPTV. I'm here with Ladytron. They were just here signing for the fans Paradises, your new record. First of all, thank you for coming to Liquor Pizza.

Thanks for having us.

And congratulations on the record. I wrote some stats on it. Okay, so this is your eighth album. It's your second as a trio. It's a landmark record for you cuz I believe it's your longest record, 16 songs, 73 minutes, and a lot of people are saying it's a kind of a full soak record for you cuz some of it was recorded in Liverpool. It's like your dances record in a long time. And actually I believe you have said it is the result of like your most productive, inspired, creative phase in a in a really long time. Maybe since those early days. So I guess I'll first of all, I love the record, congrats, but I want to know this burst of creativity or productivity or renewed lease on whatever, where did that spring from?

I think from uh personally because the last record was like made in such difficult circumstances previous record.

I'm unaware of the difficult circumstances.

started it just the one week before lockdown in in in 2020, which you know did complicate things.

I imagine so.

Slightly. And so we went through all that and we still we still made a good record, but it was just I always like we've got to want to have fun mainly and that was a a catalyst. Um and we were still on tour actually. We hadn't finished touring yet cuz normally it's like demarcated. You finish touring and then go we have to make a record now. But we were still on tour between between stints and um started working and we had like a new record what felt like a new record very very quickly. Um uh about it was it was basically written demoed about two years ago.

So um you know, obviously you know, we carried on working on it, mixed it and everything else, but it was just this it was this really intense period where every time you know, we went in the studio after an hour there was a new tune or a new song. And um there was various reasons for that, but fun principally.

What kind of fun were you guys having?

None.

None?

You see, it was all

not hear that. That's not true. Um yeah, I think like as Danny said, there was maybe like a lot of pressure on us before like like 2020 like on those kind of years. And so

this time around it it was just like freer and like no stress and so I think that probably the best comes out of you at those periods. So um yeah, quite productive really.

Yeah.

Your producer Jim said it was uh it's this is in the press release, so it's out there. He said that it's your he thinks it's your best album since Witch Na Hour, which is one of your classic records that you were also selling your vinyl of here today. Um I guess I'll ask you if you agree with that.

I mean, I think he would say that because he worked on it.

[laughter]

And and he produced Witch Na Hour. But he's worked with us since. He's worked with us since as well. So um

I think he's right. I mean, what the best thing you you you've done is you would hope the last thing that you've done. So we always feel that way like positivity and um you know, that we've we've put out the best thing that we possibly could. So

But also the objective of making a new record, you you should be aiming to make your best record or it's pointless. So we did feel like that and double down on that as I say because we we felt freer um and we you know, we didn't have these external circumstances like uh obstacles.

Um but Jim, I think I think he he might be right in some ways. Um it it's it feels like if not the best, one of the best ones to me.

I don't know if you

It's the longest record.

Longest [laughter] I like a long record if it's a good record, it's if it's it's not over it doesn't feel I was listening to it today on the car the the LA traffic ride over here. It was for the whole drive and it didn't feel long. The drive felt long cuz I was stuck in traffic. But you know I mean it didn't feel like a long record like come on like it it goes by quite fast.

it's really like coherent like it all makes sense as one or sometimes with I mean not our albums obviously but some people's albums.

Who shall remain nameless.

You know you're like where where where did that track come from or that doesn't really fit or it's not in the sphere or the world that you were previously in and so um which you know can be a good thing but I think as a whole it just all seems to work so maybe that's why it doesn't feel as long as it maybe is.

I mean it is a double album

Basically.

Yeah but we just didn't call it that but it is.

Is it on two vinyl?

What's Yeah it's on two vinyls and yeah in the old days it's a double album so even to even today records are coming out that are under 30 minutes so.

That's true.

Um yeah some people interpret it as a double some people just think it's a long record.

But long in a good way I'm just making making a point of that. Do you consider given what Jim said and also the fact that when you offered two different things that people could sign here today two different records and one of them was Witching Hour do you consider them companion pieces in any way or a sequel to that is there any through line between the two?

I don't think they're companions. I mean there's such a huge gap between them. We're different people we're making different music.

If anything that it kind of reminds me actually of the earlier two records sort of in a state of mind. Um I don't know why but it just kind of takes me back to that era of writing or working uh 604 and lighten magic. There's an innocence to it somehow.

I think it's connection to which now for me would be that it feels like a jump. It's a jump in in terms of ambition.

Mhm.

And um I think it has that in common rather than aesthetic.

So I mentioned that some of the record not all of it but some of it was recorded in Liverpool which is where you're from and um some of the things I've read about this record say it hearkens back to this kind of 90s era of what was going on in the clubs in Liverpool. A lot of people think Liverpool and they they think Beatles. I guess it's obvious one but like there's a really rich electronic history from there like OMD and even Dead or Alive and and the Teardrop Explodes and there's just like a cool art scene. It's not all Beatles stuff.

Beatles are great of course but um so I'm curious about if those days like um I sadly never got to go to these clubs but like Cream and Voodoo are famous ones. If any of that was informing the record. I know you're not like especially nostalgic people and we can get more into that but there is some nostalgia to this record.

Yeah, it's kind of it's subconscious. It's something basically forcing its way out and um and I think that in Liverpool that time, I mean you know, it was probably before we we really knew each other but the the scenes we were involved in was more underground um but those huge dance clubs were going on and it was it made Liverpool cuz it's not a big it's not a big city. It's a world city but it's not it's not very big. There's under a million people there.

Under a million?

Yeah, and the entire metropolitan area.

Wow.

So with Cream every Saturday, so many people came in from outside and and me and my friends had this little party on like a like a like a parallel street like one block over and if Cream sold out, those people who were going over house music would end up coming in our party and and dancing to uh Northern Soul and um you know, weird underground records or whatever but they would be reacting to them as if they were house music.

Is it Scouse house? I've heard that term. Is that really a thing? Scouse house?

It's really a thing. It's really a thing. And it's so it wasn't our our scene. I think Voodoo was probably closer to to to us, but wasn't our scene, but um I had like a like a studio, and um well, it became a studio because the guy next door uh to our office, he was a Scouse house producer. And I got talking to him one day, and this was like just two different worlds of music. When I felt like we had nothing in common at all. But, I saw how easy it was basically when in the studio, I was like, "Wait, you just make records here, and just release them, and you don't start sitting in a rehearsal room with a band four nights a week, and doing all these things that really take a lot of time and effort, and uh you just release records." And that was like an epiphany.

And he basically taught me how to sequence and program. So, I think that that point it Scouse house is actually responsible for Ladytron in some way. So, maybe we are Scouse house, actually. That's what we are.

I mean, Scouse house is a decent Scouse house is I like I like just saying Scouse house. It's just like fun to say.

My friend had a band uh he had a song called Scouse house spouse.

[laughter]

I did look up I mean, I I mean, I knew some of this, but some of the kind of more artier or dancey artists that came from Liverpool besides the ones I mentioned, like The KLF are from The Farm. Great like kind of I guess I always thought them as a Manchester band, but they weren't.

They were Yeah, they were going on what was going on at the same time as that, but just down the motorway.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Yeah, Holly Holly Johnson's a mate of ours. Big fan, yeah.

There's a documentary coming out on them that I cannot wait to see. I love them. And uh actually, A Flock of Seagulls are from there.

Mhm.

Which I did not know. We had Peter help me out on that, but I'd love to since I said a lot of people think of like Merseybeat, the Beatles, and other bands of that era when they think of Liverpool. And I I've been to Liverpool, and there's like a lot of Beatles tourism there, at least in the city city.

Um I'd love to hear more about like that scene that maybe The Wombats I think are from there as well.

Yeah, they they went to LIPA like Paul McCartney's kind of

[clears throat]

school of performing arts there. Um, I guess that scene that kind of the post-punk thing um you know, a lot of our friends were part of that like Jayne Casey from Pink Industry and Big in Japan, people like this.

Big in Japan is kind of crazy who was in that band.

Oh, yeah, they they were in the

Budgie's book?

Yeah, so you've seen the family rock family tree about it?

No, but I imagine it's like

Yeah, that's the top of the family tree. You've got Damon and Geoff school and then and then just every single person in a band in the '80s had had been in one of these bands.

Um

And I did not know that until I read actually Budgie's really good autobiography and it was like, yeah, Holly Johnson was in it, he was in it, one of the KLF guys was in it.

Bill Drummond, yeah. And Ian Broudie

from The Lightning Seeds. And I was just like, holy cow, how do I not know about this band? It's crazy.

Yeah, the repercussions of that were going on. They were going on for decades. I mean, Lightning Seeds was still, you know, well into the late '90s, 2000s. Um, so but that to be honest, that scene is all um was dovetailed with the dance thing as well. Like like Jayne Casey ended up working for Cream. She was like the strategist. She's kind of who turned it into, you know, this global superclub brand. Um, so it's all really the same people. I didn't realize at the same at the time when I was when I was a teenager that these were the same people that these were all the punks, all the house people were.

Um, had all been on the same scene.

It's club driven, isn't it? It was sort of, you know, the Cavern, then it was Eric's, then it was, you know,

Cream, yeah.

Spikes. Is Eric's the Yazzoo upstairs at Eric's?

That's it's named after it, yeah.

Are they from

No, but I think that they played there, I think, yeah, so

The Eric's.

Yeah, Eric's was was kind of I mean, Eric's is actually are the original site of the Cavern. It was the Cavern was actually I maybe shouldn't tell anyone this because the tourists flying up there it's not real.

No, I know I knew that the Cavern that exists now isn't the Cavern but I did not know about the whole Eric thing.

Yeah, you should like do like cool like Liverpool tours. [laughter]

Yellow Submarine tours.

Pizza Hut from the farm Pizza Hut from farm already does it. He's one step ahead of you.

I will I will book that. But yeah, I'm it's very interesting to see how when I did not realize that Liverpool was as small as it was how many amazing artists have come from relatively I guess Man- Manchester's not [clears throat] that big either and it's in deal.

the size cuz you think about it Liverpool so half of our catchment area is in the Irish Sea. So there's not a lot comes from there.

Okay. Well, you also recorded this album Paradise is in London and at the studio where my favorite David Bowie album Sca- yes, Scary Monsters is my favorite David Bowie album and I'd love to hear about that experience.

I mean that's like hallowed ground Dean Dean Street Studios. Um it was nice to record in in Soho in Central London and just be within that I mean Soho it's like a you know, it's changed obviously like anywhere in the world um but it still has that it still has that vibe it had when we started in the '90s. Um it's obviously it was Visconti's old studio.

Oh, okay.

Um and it was Jim Abbiss's idea to do a week in there with basically just chaos taking a more or less a finished record and just doing this chaos phase where we just experimented and turned things upside down and added textural stuff and it was really worthwhile. It felt like we'd um you know, it felt like we needed that that phase to just you know, before we mix just let's see how far we can push it.

Is that typical or atypical of how you guys record to have something and then add some chaos to it?

It it was Jim basically Jim said to mix he was going to mix the album. He offered to mix the album and then he said, "I don't want to just mix it. I want to be hanging around in the studio with you and be mates with you and do all this fun stuff." He didn't want to just be an abstract on the mixing board.

He wanted to be involved. So, that's why it went to mix and additional production. So, it was I wouldn't say it was typical, but it was just a lot more efficient. It was like, "We'll do all that stuff in that week, you know?" And

But we do always basically, sort of, you know, we all produce stuff at home to a certain level and then, you know, in various studios and then we do sort of gather around and then throw the unknown elements and kind of make it, I guess, more cohesive at the same time as well.

It's like lightning magic. Like we did basically that here. Like we came out here for 2 weeks in 2002, so around this time of year, and we had something that sounded like a record already, but we went in we did 2 weeks with Mickey Buttsalie and in in Los in the studio in Los Feliz.

So, I don't think it's surprisingly few people know that record was recorded here.

It's Los Feliz because we say it wrong.

All right.

You said it like proper, like how Spanish is, but

Oh, did I say it okay?

You said it right, but you know, we we say Los Feliz. I don't know why.

Okay.

That's why. That's my tour guide.

[laughter]

Um but anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you.

No, so I I I just I I think it's surprising. I feel like a lot of people here, you know, like the band don't know that we recorded that record here. I'm not sure how well known it is, though.

Yeah, so

So, obviously I mentioned Bowie and then that takes me to Brian Eno. Obviously, I assume the band is named after the Roxy Music song, "Lady

Yeah, it would have been weird if we weren't.

Yeah, I guess I never thought of that, but I mean, I just wanted to make sure. I was fact checking that, but obviously you're named after a Roxy Music song and Brian Eno obviously associated with Bowie and I know that he said something around the time when you guys were blowing up that you were like the best of English pop music and I also know you played with him a couple times at Sydney Opera House and I just want to know I mean to have obviously I presumably someone who's a huge icon and influence for you to say such wonderful things about you. I mean what did that mean to you guys?

You're speechless.

I think the first time it was his daughter actually who said these things to us.

us. Introduced him to us. His daughter played us to him.

But I also remember meeting her in Oxford.

Yeah, you met her first. Yeah.

And that was like, "Oh my god, her dad's heard of us."

[laughter]

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean but then he he didn't just hear about you. He thought you know he's I you know he said pretty high praise for you guys and had him you guys play with him. Like did he um ever give you any advice or anything?

He did actually. So he put us on at this festival at Sydney Opera House he curated. And he had his artwork and stuff projected on the on the on the walls of it. Um I remember he did he did give me some advice personally. He said after the gig he said "You should sing more."

[laughter]

And I said, "What do you mean? Like I don't know like Ringo Starr or something? One song per album?" And he said, "No, no, you should use your your voice as a kind of layer underneath Helen Marnie's voice." And I did actually start doing that. So that's really been the way we do things since he suggested So he's basically executive producer on our last four albums.

Yeah, fair enough.

Arguably.

Fair enough.

Now he's going to want a credit.

I know. I've I've really opened a kind of worms here, haven't I? Yeah, shouldn't have said that.

Do you guys have any other memories of working with Brian or meeting him or playing with him?

No, cuz we didn't It was just the festival really and there was one time when he invited [snorts] us to the the House of Commons for a Lib Dem conference. Like a political thing.

That was pretty weird.

Which was odd. It was kind of funny, but um

What what did that entail?

Um it was Oh, well, who who was there?

Going to a room full of like

men.

Men. Yeah, like Brian May. Brian May next to Chris Martin next to

[laughter]

And listening to who who's the leader of the

Nick Clegg. Nick Clegg

giving out the power of creativity.

Yes, it was about creativity. So, it was all good intentions, but it was very strange that we were there.

Did you speak or did were you just there as attendees?

And and you know, I don't think any of us were Lib Dem supporters, so

Okay.

But, you know, it was fine.

It was more like a tourist trip. Like let's go inside the House of Commons.

We're all about tourism here today, obviously.

[laughter]

So, it's interesting that you brought up the singing thing because and speaking of the of London, there's a song on this album for the life of London, which is that the title or for a life for a life in London, sorry. That I believe is the first time all three of you have had singing on a and this is eight albums and 25-ish years into your career. So, I'm just wondering why at this point in your career did this finally happen?

I I I I'm pretty sure it is the only one with all three of us on.

I'm not so sure about that.

It can't be.

Your press release says it is.

Yeah, I think I [laughter] think at least at the time of writing it was considered to be I don't know. I think it probably is or it's maybe the only one that we're all audible. Like maybe that we're writing something else where I was just a BV or something.

I mean like background On that track though, I mean only my part's basically a BV. I wouldn't really say

No, you're in the outro.

But let's not argue with the press release.

[laughter]

I mean, if we need to have it amended we can.

Never explain.

Or I did I definitely read that somewhere cuz that fact jumped out at me because I thought that was that was strange that that wouldn't have happened sooner, so so it just we'll just say it happened.

Yeah, let's just say it happened. But actually when we I guess when we know when we play live now, there's three of us singing on quite a few "Death in London" and stuff like that. So I guess that's where the confusion is. We do do it. Um

Well, let's clear up some confusion about uh "Death in London" is were you just joking when you said it was played on um Leonard Cohen's keyboard? Is that a fact?

no, it was true. It was Yeah, his Casio uh there's a very famous photo of Leonard Cohen smoking a cigarette and playing this little white Casio keyboard. And it was this keyboard, a PT-30, and it was where you had like this kind of auto chord. Um you could actually play a melody on it and it would it would work out what chord should be there. Um loads of good

songs have been recorded have been written on that actually. Um not just Leonard Cohen. "Manchild" by Neneh Cherry was written on on that. Um So yeah, it was. It's

like some Casio lying around that you can like Like like how do you have access to Leonard Cohen's Casio?

not his. It's just the same model.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, that's that's probably misleading.

it was actually like physically his.

Just Yeah, I stole it.

Yeah, passed on from Neneh Cherry to Leonard Cohen.

Yeah, there's only one of them actually. It's like the same

You just keep that like myth running.

Let's do it.

I'm here to debunk some myths.

the bubbles. Yeah, we're being audited now.

It's all good. It's all I I mean I I read that.

That's being audited.

not in the press release. That was in one of your interviews, but

because it was a text interview, I was like are they saying this snarkily or is this actually like literally so

I'd love it to be true. I'd love it to be true. And that's the important thing.

Let's just say it's true.

think he used to believe cigarette ash still sort of

I don't need I don't recall. I have to look at that picture. I don't I don't I don't think of Casio and Leonard Cohen.

Oh, yeah. Once you see it, you'll have a poster of it on your wall.

I absolutely will. So obviously though you've had a lot of supporters. I've mentioned Brian Eno. I know that like the Pet Shop Boys have talked like lots of people have sung your praises. I have a a full list. Trent Reznor obviously is a big fan took you on tour. Um so but I do want to talk about I'm sure you've talked about it a lot but I want to talk about your contributions to Bionic the

very misunderstood record by Christina Aguilera. No one kind of got it at the time. There was actually kind of a really bad backlash to it. You're making a face not not cuz of you guys.

No no there was I think there was a backlash followed by a full lash I think.

Yeah. It's kind of like art pop with by Lady Gaga or you know there's some other albums that kind of like don't really get understood at the time especially in the pop space especially if it's a female pop star that you kind of expect is one thing when they kind of veer. And I a lot of people like that and I actually have I don't know if you know this but I wrote this down Birds of Prey. You did two songs from the album Birds of Prey and Little Dreamer but Birds of Prey I don't know if you know was named by Billboard as let me one of

the best deep cuts by 21st century pop stars.

Really? When did they say that?

I don't know.

Nobody nobody told us.

Literally it was an article best deep cuts by 21st century pop star and Birds of Prey was on there.

Okay good good.

you go.

I think I think that record though we always say that that the vision Christina had for it at the beginning when we started working with her was quite different to how it ended up. A lot of what she planned was ended up being like disc two of this deluxe. So that was kind of what she had in mind and I think it was too weird for her audience and that the label were a bit freaked out and

Oh so it was going to be weirder than what we got cuz people already thought it was too weird.

It was way weirder. The sing- the singles I think were added um

to be more kind of more familiar to her audience. Uh it was way weirder. Um Birds of Prey was going to be track one on it. She was talking about starting her live sets with it and everything.

And it only ended up being a bonus track for you.

Basically

If you look at the comments on YouTube for both of your songs, the Birds of Prey one, there's a lot of people saying this should have been the single, history would have been different. A lot of people, I guess, agreeing with that Billboard thing. The Little Dreamer one, people go this is how the album should have sounded. But she reached out to you, right? It wasn't like some weird label person saying, oh, let's try to make her sound indie or whatever. That was all her.

All from the

How did that happen?

If you think about it, it's such a shame that an artist of that size and like uh talent, like can't do what she wants. I mean

Especially by then, she was several albums in.

Yeah, it's it's it's pretty shitty, really.

Just the yeah, that that kind of pressure. I mean, we don't really know what was going on behind the scenes, but it was it was it was there was definite a definite shift as we're going to have to appease um people.

nowadays, would that happen now? I mean

Much more so, I think.

Gaga [clears throat] can do a jazz album or like an operatic album and that's cool, but

Yeah, cuz she got away with it. Yeah, she got away with it now.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Maybe maybe it would be okay now, but

But it just struck me as very genuine cuz it was just she she contacted us through her management and it was and it you assume that this is something set up, like you say. But it wasn't. It was from her. She basically got a list of artists that she listened to that she liked and said, I want to work with them rather than asking the producer, can you approximate this, make something that sounds like this, which is how most people work, if we're honest.

know who else was on her wish list?

Uh well, she worked with

Peaches.

The Alison Goldfrapp, um Santigold.

Wow.

Um M.I.A. Not M.I.A.

No, Peaches she worked with.

Someone else.

Um sis

Uh

That's pretty impressive, though. That's a good roster right there.

Yeah, so I I think it I think what you can hear on disc two, you can hear what the record was intended to be.

Disc two didn't come out until quite some time later, though, right?

No, it didn't come out at the time of Bionic's initial

It I think it came out at the time but it was like a deluxe edition or something. So, it was all a bit confused at the time.

Cuz I feel like the comments I went I got deep in the rabbit hole on YouTube. The comments on Little Dreamer were like finally, finally this is out.

Oh, it got it it got re-released. It got released on streaming for the first time like like a like about six or seven years ago.

That's crazy it took that long.

Yeah.

Well, let me ask let's debunk a couple other myths here.

I have read

Is it true that you actually either considered giving her or gave her destroy everything you touched?

No, that's not true.

Okay.

No, she

Glad we cleared that up.

did have she was

you kept it for yourself regardless.

She was given an instrumental of Ace of Hearts. Nobody knows that. But it didn't get used.

Okay. So, cleared that one up. I've also obviously I've mentioned how there are a lot of pop stars and rock stars who love what you do. Is it true that Addison Rae has worked I mean I know she's a fan but is it true she's asked to work with

Yeah, she approached us but not in nothing happened.

Will anything ever happen?

I don't know.

But she did approach you.

Yeah.

Were you surprised that someone of you know kind of a a Gen Z pop star like her mainstream pop star was wanting you to work with you though?

I don't know.

Not really.

No, I mean it it I guess we

I mean of course.

A lot of

[laughter]

a lot of younger people got into us cuz like 17 and 2021 17 viralized on TikTok

which was basically we didn't lift a finger. It just happened. It was completely organic. We just observed it from afar. And I think that's how she discovered us.

And I I'd love I was going to ask you about that because it was an interesting trend where it seemed like a lot of young women who are you know young people on TikTok mostly women girls they were really interpreting the lyrics to 17 in a pretty profound way pretty interesting way. Could you talk about that and how you felt about that?

I mean we didn't know what Tik Tok

I'm not on Tik Tok.

We didn't know what Tik Tok was when it happened. So, we didn't really see a lot of this, but people it was relayed to us and it we didn't really none of us used it and

like nieces and nephews and like friends nieces or daughters and they would get in touch and say, "Oh my god, like have you seen this?" And and we were like, "I don't know what Tik Tok is." Yeah, I don't

[laughter]

And and then and then Steve Steve, our manager, sends us an email going, um "Have you any idea what this is about?" And it was just a screen grab of like the spins of 17 on Spotify streams and it was just like tootling along at the bottom and then it was just this vertical line off the graph. Do you have you got any idea what this is about? And I said, "I think it might be the internet."

[laughter]

Well, weren't like young women I mean, obviously like I I have not gone down I don't know on Tik Tok that much anyway and these are Tik Toks from a few years ago, but I've read that there were some pretty the way they were taking these lyrics to apply to their lives

Yeah, a lot of interpretations like that. Yeah, a lot of interpretations like personal interpretations. It was there like a kind of medium for the them to talk about their own lives. It was really quite serious like quite harrowing some of it to be honest. Um but, you know, we didn't get much involved with it cuz we're not on Tik Tok anyway, but people

Are you now?

Well, with the band is, but we're not.

[laughter]

Yeah, there's some kind of Mary Celeste style Tik Tok can't there.

Are there any since I was talking about collaborations you have done or maybe would do or been approached to do? Are there any dream collaborations you have that you'd like to work with or people you'd like to write for?

I feel like if we say it, it will not happen.

like if you say it and put it into the universe,

Do you think it might? Okay. All right.

I don't know because like we've had things that were going to happen and I have told one person and it's always fallen through.

It's enough.

I'm not saying confirm things that are happening just like if I could work with anyone. Blank, share.

Who's it Let's Let's name someone impossible.

[laughter]

Like share. Let's just go with share.

I mean I could see that happening. Barbra Streisand.

Okay.

[laughter]

Lady Gaga.

No, I don't want Barbra Streisand because I don't think her voice is any good anymore.

Actually, I'm Andy Bell from Erasure said he wanted to work with us.

Oh, that could totally see that happening.

Pet Shop Boys would be cool.

Yeah. Yeah. And people like that, you know, it's it's completely

Chapel Roan.

Okay.

Yeah.

I feel like all of those could happen. Maybe not the Barbra Streisand one, although that would be pretty

Why not?

What's wrong with Barbra Streisand?

I don't have her too. Okay.

Let's do it.

Let's get a kind of like We Are the World situation. [laughter] We'll just have everyone. Get Springsteen in there, Bob Dylan.

Lady Tron aid.

[laughter]

You have your own concert.

It's a charity. It just goes to us.

Let's make that happen. Let's make that happen. I'm actually a fan of you know, it wasn't really a collab collab, but like Kylie Tron.

Mhm.

Mashup that was on John Peel show that was It was Playgirl with Can't Get You Out of My Head.

I forgot all about that until recently. It came up in a in a in another interview actually and

The Kylie documentary just came out. I mean I'm always thinking about Kylie, but people More people are probably thinking about Kylie.

Yeah, I can

That was a classic mashup at an era of classic mashups.

I forgot all about it because it got a little bit overshadowed by Soulwax's remix of 17, which they did a remix of Can't Get You Out of My Head, like a rock version of that. And when we were in the studio in Los Feliz recording and I sent the demo rough mix of 17 to

to David from from Soulwax, 2 Many DJs. And and he was like, "Oh, this is an instant classic." And I was like, "Could you Do you think you could do a remix like a kind of rock version like he did with Kylie and about 24 hours later he sent it back. He'd just recorded it all, recorded the drums, everything and had this version that basically sounded like Sonic Youth or something. So I think all of that kind of erased the Kylie Tron thing from my memory I think in the confusion.

Not from mine, putting it back out there. I mean but I was talking about how that was a classic era of mashups too too many DJs are crazy. There's also um Z-Trip out here but there's another one whose name I'm forgetting.

Richie that

Yes.

on top.

Cuz that started, yeah.

Girl talk, girl talk. So I don't know how you feel about this term. You've talked in the past about your um feelings about the term electro clash. But how do you feel about the term indie sleaze? Cuz now people are calling everything from that era indie sleaze. And that term was not a term that existed in the odds but I'm I'm here for it.

that's the key thing. I think it's good because it's it's made that um time it's reappraised. Um that time but there's a lot of things that are lot of incongruity that things that were not really related to each other that have actually put have been put into that. Um but I think it it's I mean electro clash at the time we just hated being told we were something after we'd been independent and doing things ourselves.

There was a very loose scene going on pre pre it being called electro clash that we were involved in we were hanging around in Berlin with Peaches in like 2000 and stuff like that.

out with Princess Superstar. We spent a lot of time in Berlin and

Yeah. But but when as soon as they said it was electro clash we go hold on we didn't agree to this and it felt like we were being press-ganged onto a kind of sinking ship cuz it was bound to

But at the same time Ruben and I went and DJ'd at that

At the festival.

Yeah. So it started out as a festival basically and it was like right after 9/11 and it was this kind of crazy hedonistic atmosphere and it was it was quite special actually but for us it just very much felt like we were observers and we were letting on someone else's party.

And that's why I think part of the like surprise and sort of like we're not part of that because we didn't feel like it was our scene. We were allowed in but it wasn't our thing.

But it we didn't want to be something someone else's thing as well because we were pushed to the front of it was like oh we are like the definitive electroclash thing it's like and we we kept we did like what I think it was down to one press trip and like just after we recorded Light and Magic and we were in the US and every interview we did we were asked about this and we would deny that we were part of it. So it became like our catchphrase and then I remember someone saying to me it's like oh god the way that you're constantly denying your electroclash is just so electroclash.

And then we couldn't escape it. It was like Streisand

I'm sorry to bring it up.

something changed but personally when we were on tour like our first US tour in 2003 going into places that like smaller cities like in the Midwest and stuff like that and what electroclash represented to to kids we met there was like this portal to this imagined New York this magical Berlin magical Paris magical London that they they didn't have access to and might never have and once [snorts] we started seeing it like this it was actually a really cool for positive moment. So yeah our opinion of it changed. We never hated it we just didn't want to be called it that was the problem.

It was almost like you look at it now and I feel like it really did influence a lot of pop culture. It was probably like 10 15 years ahead of its time. Um but um so now it kind of feels like oh it's nice to be associated with it.

Yeah yeah we accept it now.

I've done a free set but very much it was basically it was started sort of it was launched by this guy Larry Tee who was a producer but he was a club kid and it was his birthday. That's what it was he threw a party for his birthday.

was called the electroclash

electroclash party and he kind of

Oh my god.

released like a mix compilation

Like an octave bassline.

Sort of like new rave, I guess, when

I kind of kind of segued from there. When we were like when when we put the like the Klaxons on in our club in Liverpool, that the first show outside London, and they were big fans of ours, and it felt like it was kind of continuation of that scene that they were just younger and they they had a little bit more of a punk sensibility to them.

I mean, I guess maybe at the time it was good that you weren't that you resisted that labeling cuz I actually, like you were saying, like you all were saying, I think, and I've talked about this when Princess Superstar was here, I think it was a really important scene. It was very queer positive, sex positive, a lot of women, you know,

Yeah.

It was just a cool scene, but that from what I recall, at least in the UK press, it never really got big enough here to have a backlash here, but in the UK press, the backlash was like 2 months later everyone said it sucked.

Oh, it was brutal.

Yeah.

And we And to be honest, we launched our album released like Magic just timed perfectly for the backlash

[laughter]

after just denying that we were anything to do with it. We bore the brunt of all that, especially in the UK, cuz we were like the UK's representative in this, but ultimately it didn't it didn't affect us.

I mean,

Um

I mean, I thought of you as being, I guess, adjacent to it or certainly like a part of a larger, but like you guys didn't wear a bunch of neon clothes and American Apparel spandex. Like you didn't have to look

Aesthetically it was totally different, yeah. Yeah.

But why do you think there was such a Is that just typical of the UK press? Or I've often won Sometimes I've likened the electroclash backlash almost to like what happened here in 1979 with disco, that there was a There was a malice to it.

there is a little bit of that. I mean, the British press does have kind of a uh, quite a sharp edge as well.

Um there was a malice to it. I think that the queer sort of thing was kind of when you look back on it, that that was definitely an element. But, there are the cultural things that that you don't really see as part of it, but there were comedy shows like Nathan Barley at the time that kind of satirized There were that Mighty Boosh that kind of satirized kind of bits of culture.

Is there a Mighty Boosh thing

There's Mighty Boosh ladies There's Mighty Boosh ladies trying satire a direct one.

It was quite fun. When I saw it, I was laughing my head off.

I don't mean to interrupt you. Please finish your thought, but I want to hear about that.

like these other bits that it was an easy thing to satirize. So, and it got satirized and sort of, you know, it got satirized because of other things around it as well. So, I think that's why the backlash as well. It was we were perceived to be kind of, you know, I don't know. It's kind of, you know, flash in the pan kind of thing.

Well, obviously you're not. We're here 25 years later, but um, I kind of feel like you've made it if the Mighty Boosh satirized you. Is that on YouTube? I do not know about this.

the episode is called Jazz, I think.

I know the Jazz episode.

So, it's it's it Yeah.

sketch where like

a they form an electro band. They form an electro band and their song is I'm electro boy, you're electro girl. And and the guy and and uh, Vince has an an asymmetric mustache, which I thought is I'd only just grown a mustache at that point and I said this is a direct attack on me.

The band How did you like Were you stoked about that? Like, "Oh my god, we've made it. We're like on that." Or were you insulted?

I was worried that no one would know it was

[laughter]

No, no it was about us. We were It was a kind of milieu of stuff. It wasn't just us.

I have to watch that right now.

that was in that? Was it Robots in Disguise?

Yeah, they they were going Yeah, one of them was going out with them.

Yeah, I [clears throat] actually remember. My friend managed them.

Yeah, they're in the episode. They played the two band

Wow. That's great. I have to I Have you ever met them and talked about them?

I met I met I DJ'd like some some places where they played.

Yeah.

Well, obviously whatever backlash was happening with electroclash or anyone thinking you were flash in pan, that didn't happen. What do you attribute your longevity to because maybe there was some time at the maybe there was a point at that time where people did not expect that you would have this lasting career and all this influence and have all these people from Addison Rae to Christina Aguilera to Brian Eno to whoever, you know, being fans. Um, yeah, what do you attribute to the fact that you're still going and still making music that while nostalgic doesn't totally sound like retreads of everything you've done.

I think songwriting.

Persistence.

Yeah.

So,

kind of involuntary creativity. Not really being able to What else are you supposed to do? Making albums that are designed to be listened to because a lot of records are not designed to be listened to anymore.

Huh? What are you supposed to do with them?

Well, I just there's there's there's records made to monetize social media presence. There's a lot of that. And we don't really do any of that. So, the records are made to be listened to and I think that that counts for something people appreciated or do want to listen to them.

Um, yeah, we've stayed consistent We've never followed any particular trend or we've probably done the opposite of what people expected a few times like at the witching hour especially. Um, and yeah, we survived. Um, we've survived labels going bankrupt, um, being shut down, all of this other stuff and and here we are. So,

I think it's persistence and songs. Yeah.

But also it was interesting to like today so quite a few people who came here for the signing were here because they listen their parents listen to us. Um and it's a sound that's maybe come back around in the ether as well. Um it's kind of a sound that was alien maybe 20 years ago and was just us and now it's kind of almost everywhere in some shape or form.

It's funny when you describe the sound like in just in its its raw components and kind of like a kind of unscientific way. I was at the I was at this bar in in South Apollo where where I live and um the waiters was asking me what what my my band sounded like and I started to explain it's like, well, it's kind of like electronic female vocals, you know, drum machine, whatever. So, she's like, like Madonna?

[laughter]

That's where I heard Madonna and

Well, I just kind of went, yeah, actually, that's enough for me. I'm just going to say we sound like Madonna now.

Yes. Why not?

I used to go back to her dance roots.

Taxi drivers in London I used to tell them it's like Depeche Mode.

Also a compliment.

I used to say New Order with female vocals to taxi drivers back in those days.

That's the elevator the elevator pitch. Does it trip you out that you guys have been a band for this long? Um it trips me out. The fact that you have people you have kids who discovered you through their adult age parents. Like um does that trip you out?

Yeah.

Yeah. In a good way I assume.

Yeah. It's just happened

[laughter]

twice today, right? Twice today during the sounding.

That's cool though cuz

It's a good thing. Yeah, cuz obviously that means you've got fresh fresh fresh blood. You've got fresh blood listening to you, but on the other hand, you know, that that's a good side and then on the other hand, it does make you realize how long you've been going and that there's that time. You know, and you're no longer

To me it's nice that that the music is still relevant to a different completely different generation who've grown up in such a different way to the way people were when the songs were written. It's like a Jurassic era. Um

I mentioned the term indie sleaze, which is now this term. I actually follow like some indie sleaze account on

So do we.

Yeah, it's great. They're just always like

Yeah, they DJ'd at our gig in Glasgow last summer, actually.

And again, that's kind of a term that's been coined to sort of talk about this era from like like the Y2K and the aughts, maybe a lot of some of it's indie music, anything from the Strokes, and some of it's dance music, but um I'm curious what you guys think about the fact that there's kind of this revival under that name, um cuz I think it's maybe because like young kids, maybe some of the kids who came here today, like they're like, "Wow, that must have been so fun. The only phones people had were Razors.

People weren't filming everything. Everyone was like going out of the house."

And we looked direct the whole time.

Yeah, [laughter] that nostalgia for this kind of spontaneous um offline existence. Um

Yeah.

All we had was MySpace then, and uh Makeout Club.

Mhm.

You remember Makeout Club?

Yeah, yeah, could be It'd be sight.

Um I think I I don't know. That nostalgia as well. There's definitely nostalgia for the '90s going on for people who don't remember it or weren't born. Um you know, it's in the same way as when we were kids, it was like, "I wish we I wish we grew up in the '60s." Now, there was all that kind of thing going on.

It's I guess it's no different, but it's very generationally difficult to perceive how this looks and feels to a younger person having experienced it. It's like there's a lot of films now and TV set in the early '90s, and they're really quite well um quite well done, quite well articulated, um but they're incredibly eerie to watch for me. Like um for example, there's a new one, Legends, on Netflix, which is kind of set in 1990. There was that Netflix show, One Day, a couple years ago. Uh and

No, the film.

It was It was a series version of it. And those things when it when it you know when it's it's it's an area that you've actually lived as a as a as an adolescent or an adult. And it's depicted on on TV or film I I do find it incredibly eerie.

Do they get the details right? Are you like, "No, that we didn't wear that then."

right. I'm kind of really impressed when they do cuz they can easily get it wrong and there's all this incongruity, but I just find people that it seems to be the better executed now. This kind of thing this kind of the wardrobe and details that and

Better executed than the Mighty Boosh

[laughter]

No, of course not.

That's very That's very indie sleaze aesthetic, yes. [laughter]

So, now that you I don't know if I'd call it a renaissance cuz it's not like you went away or whatever, but now that you're on this creative tear with this record and and all and 17 introduced you to some new people and parents are introducing you to people and Bionic is getting its four lash and everything else. Um what is next for you guys besides the Barbra Streisand duet, of course.

What do you guys want to do next?

Well, this tour is basically that we're at the start of this tour. So, there's a lot of there's a lot of life in this record. Um one of the things we wanted to make sure of is that this record wasn't just released and didn't just evaporate in 72 hours as happens a lot um with with music these days. So, it's been a very long campaign a lot of singles and a lot of space to breathe and for people to actually appreciate the tracks before the album came out.

Mhm.

And we're going to carry on doing this and releasing, you know, singles and videos and really expanding this kind of world cuz it cuz the album this album does feel a bit like a a physical place. Um and I feel like well I feel like I've been living in it personally for about 2 years and I don't really know where to go now and there's loads of other the there. And um so until I can figure out where to go next, I've got no idea. But, we really we're only just starting the tour, so

Yeah. And, we've got a lot of songs on from this album, so you know So

Cuz people are too

a lot of fresh stuff that we can play.

And, as Danny says, we're only just at the start. You know, we haven't LA is really like the first gig.

It's the start of the tour proper, really.

Yeah. So, we should have a a decent cycle for this for this album, really.

Which is kind of, as you said, it's not always how things work anymore. It used to be, yeah, you put out an album. You announce the album two or three months before, and there'd be a few singles, and then there'd be a long tour and other singles. And, that kind of doesn't happen as much anymore.

The way we've done it is in a way kind of old-fashioned. A lot of singles before the album, but it's kind of more extreme than that, cuz I mean there was six singles before the album.

Oh, wow. Okay.

So, I mean it's it's like a really maxed out version of our idea of what how things used to be done, but

And, is there not a single coming out tonight?

There is, actually. It might already be there.

Yeah.

it was by the time the interview runs.

gone out. It's already gone.

It'll be out by then.

Yeah, there's another one dropping tonight, yeah. We don't know what what time, but I guess it doesn't matter, cuz no one's going to see it today.

What is the next single? Seventh single?

Uh Secret Dreams of Thieves.

Oh, very cool. One of my favorites off the record. Are you just going to release them all as singles?

So, it's got a video. I don't know.

I don't know if I'm going to be on set

Nobody really listens to albums anymore, you know? So, might as well just release them as singles.

Well, every time we release one of these like these post-album singles, people go, "Oh, wow." And, they they it's like, "Did you not hear Did you not listen to the album?"

[laughter]

You know, "Hey, big fan. This is great." You know, it's like, "Did you This has been out a month." Anyway, so we're just going to keep doing that.

Just keep doing it, and we'll just keep, you know, rolling out parts of this interview, whatever. New single out today. We'll just [laughter] do it for the next year.

Let's just Yeah, do our dance for each one.

Well, in the meantime though, I'm so glad that you started your tour in LA. I'm honored as an LA native. Um, we're very honored that you came to Liquor Store Pizza and uh so excited that fans of all different eras of life came to celebrate you guys. So, um thank you so much for your time and congratulations on this fabulous record.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Thanks.