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8 Jan 2012
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6 Feb 2012 |
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|
| Date |
August 8 2005 |
| Type |
Interview |
| Source |
Top of the pops |
| Title |
Glam, bam, thankyou Ma'am |
| Country |
UK |
| Journalist/Photographer |
Rob F/ |
| Text |
The Frapp are back for another round of Glam electro disco stomping. Singer Alison gave us the lowdown on high heels, twiddling knobs and feeding her slack-jawed drummer.
TOTP: How high would you dare to go with platform shoes?
Alison: I'm not sure, really (flashes fab pink four-inch platforms). It's more about how steady they are. You can sometimes wear low heels and they sometimes don't feel right on stage.
TOTP: Ever had a wardrobe malfunction?
Alison: I got my horse's tail caught in my stilettos once and went absolutely flying! I had to walk off stage with, literally, my tail between my legs, which was quite funny.
TOTP: Will the tail be back for future gigs?
Alison: I dunno. It might do it at some point, but I feel I've kinda done that already.
TOTP: Why did you decide to go down the Glam route with your look and sound?
Alison: I've always been interested in the visual side of things, and I think music is visual. I think all music has a narrative, image and colour. When you're writing, you're creating a place and an atmosphere... images come into your mind as you're writing. And images inform the music as well, so they very much work together. To me they're not separable really, so it's then only natural to take that into the album sleeves, the videos and the live performance.
TOTP: You seem to be very hands-on with all of that too.
Alison: The ideas all come from us and I'm very hands-on in thinking about what costumes the dancers wear, the stage show, the lighting. Of course we have people to help us out as it's physically and mentally impossible to do it all yourself as things get busier as time fills up.
TOTP: Who would be your '70's Glam icon?
Alison: Oh God, loads of people. Marc Bolan, Joan Jett, Brain Ferry, Eno...
TOTP: How did you get those authentic old Glam and Electro sounds?
Alison: Old synthesizers. There's just something really nice about old synths. They have particular sounds and a lot of character. Quite often they don't always do what you want them to do. You play them and the sound moves and slips and changes as you play. The're organic instruments. Quite a lot of them [try to] imitate more acoustic sounds and human sounds - and they're always a little bit wrong. That's what gives them their charm and character. I think they're just a lot more fun really. That's why we like using them. Will [Gregory] is an absolute wizard with them as well. I tend to hit them and turn knobs!
TOTP: Are you always running around with screwdrivers, trying to keep them working?
Alison: Yeah, there is a bit of that - things wedged into keys!
TOTP: Why did you start using a Theremin (sci-fi style noisemaking gadget that sounds like a cat being tortured).
Alison: I don't know really. I think that they're more in use than people think. Will and I have been inspired by a lot of '60's film soundtracks. It's quite interesting that when people think of synthesizers and electronica they think of the '80s, but it's been a lot longer than that. I think the '60s has been more the kind of era that's inspired us, and that's where the Theremin comes in. It's been around for a long, long time. The little one I use live is really good because it's really small. They bigger ones you can get are much more exact - you can really play with them but they're not much fun on stage.
TOTP: Moving on to the video, how did the computer wizards get you on a mirrorball horse?
Alison: It was all blue screen.
TOTP: Very Star Wars...
Alison: I was on an animatronic horse which was apparently used in the film Troy. It was a kinda really strange thing to sit on. It moved really jerkily and horribly. So yeah, blue screen and then some quite hefty animation in the studio afterwards.
TOTP: The rest of the video looks like a poshed up version of '70s Top Of The Pops. Did you dig out loads of old tapes to get the look right?
Alison: Oh yeah! We watched a lot of Glitter Band and all sorts of old '70s TV stuff. Even down to getting the colour scheme right. It was really fun doing it.
TOTP: Did the rest of the band like dressing up for it?
Alison: Yeah, they're really getting into it now. The violin player had to be persuaded a bit, but it was good fun.
TOTP: Is the drummer chewing gum a mickey take of the Slade drummer, who always used to chew gum?
Alison: (chuckles very knowingly) Nooo, that was completely natural! (starts giggling). He was chewing a bit of gum and we went, "Oh my God, that's it he's got to chew more gum!". So we just kept feeding him more gum throughout the whole video shoot. Slack jaw and slack drumming!
TOTP: Back in the days of Glam, the height of hi-fi technology was quadraphonic sound. But you're going one better with the new album, aren't you?
Alison: Yeah, it's gonna be in 5.1 [surround sound]. Apparently it's becoming very popular, but I'm not convinced yet. It's for those people with big sound systems at home but I can't imagine that many people have them yet. It's very odd mixing them because you have to remix the tracks - it's a bit of a pain in the arse quite frankly!
It has quite an odd effect on some sounds. Perhaps it's something that will get better as time goes on, but it's something you have to really think through. Obviously you have to record it to hear it through just two speakers, not in that environment.
TOTP: How are plans for the tour coming on? Is it still at the "aaaarrrghh! We don't know what we're going to be doing!" stage?
Alison: It's definitely still at the "Aaaarrrghh" stage! It's funny, it's one of those things you rehearse and you have visions of it, but it's not really till you get out there... You can rehearse until Kingdom come really, but... it's only when you've done a few gigs and start feeling what it is you want and what feels natural [that you know]. It's quite nice to start fairly basic and then add to it really, rather than start with this big sheboodle (wow! shebang meets caboodle!) which can feel really odd and contrived.
The other thing is that we haven't got that much money to play with. So having extra things on stage; dancers, lights etc. actually costs a lot of money! All those kinds of boring things to consider. Budgets!
TOTP: Would you encourage the audience to glam up when they go to your gigs?
Alison: Oh no, just come as you are.
TOTP: I won't hire an outfit then.
Alison: (laughs) If you want to hire an outfit...
TOTP: I don't want to be the only one!
Alison: Yeah, exactly. It's a bit like going to a fancy dress party, isn't it? |
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