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|
| Date |
April 9 2004 |
| Type |
Interview |
| Source |
The Scotsman |
| Title |
All about Alison? |
| Country |
Scotland, UK |
| Journalist/Photographer |
Fiona Shepherd |
| Text |
Twenty years ago, while practically every other girl her age was learning the lyrics to Hungry Like The Wolf, planning their fantasy wedding to John Taylor, trying to keep up with Nick Rhodes?s ever-changing hair colour and transacting other crucial Duran Duran-related business, Alison Goldfrapp was obsessing over Prince, Kate Bush and Grace Jones. And yet she?s the one who gets to support the recently reformed original line-up on their first UK tour in 19 years. She?s the one who gets to flirt backstage with Simon Le Bon in her sexy boogie woogie bugle boy outfit and vertiginous ruby slippers.
"I wasn?t a fan, actually," she drawls from behind amber-tinted shades, when the subject comes up. "But I did really like some of their songs." Turns out Simon Le Bon really likes Goldfrapp?s songs, though, so Alison, her musical partner Will Gregory and their group are capping a year of intense touring with the biggest gigs of their career. "We couldn?t really turn it down," she reasons.
It is quite conceivable, however, that if such an offer had been made two years ago it would have sent her scurrying for sanctuary. Despite a degree in performance art, Alison Goldfrapp was not always the perv-disco PJ Harvey that she is today, vamping around the stage in her trademark, custom-made sparkly stilettos. Early Goldfrapp shows were characterised by her convincing impersonation of a deer caught in headlights, but something happened after the release of their second album, the heady, seductive synthfest Black Cherry. These teasing, throbbing songs were fun to play live, and Goldfrapp responded by having fun with her stage persona.
"I love wearing heels on stage because it gives me some attitude, as heels do," she says. "I love dressing up but it?s not about wearing the latest frock, it?s part of the narrative of the songs. It?s all about creating a drama out of everyday life."
It is also about protecting the offstage Alison Goldfrapp, who remains one of our more inscrutable pop stars. She regards interviews as a chore, but one which must be tackled.
"Me and Will used to do a lot of interviews together and they?d talk to Will more than me and I?d get paranoid about that," she says. "And I?d never really had to talk about my work in that way. They?d ask ?Why did you do that?? I don?t know, cos I liked it. At first I thought I had to give myself away, but I?ve learned that you don?t have to be completely honest if you don?t like it. I still feel petrified, but I am more comfortable with myself I think, generally more relaxed. My personal life changed and that made it easier."
Goldfrapp appears so comfortable, in fact, that she has practically become one with the armchair she is sitting in. But it?s true that she will only give up so much. How her personal life changed is not divulged. Biographical excerpts are fine, though.
Alison Goldfrapp grew up in Alton in Hampshire, attending first convent school, then a state comprehensive, which she hated. "It was quite violent and hicksy," she says. "Then adolescence hits you so it seems even more grim."
At home, as the youngest of six, she was exposed to a cacophony of different musical tastes. "That?s why I?ve never had a problem listening to all kinds of music," she says. "I don?t care what genre it is, as long as it rocks my boat." Hearing her dad?s favourite, Carmina Burana, was a watershed: "It was the first time I associated humans with making these sounds."
Her interest kindled, the first music she discovered for herself was later to influence the escapist fantasy soundtrack of Goldfrapp?s debut album Felt Mountain.
"When I was growing up there were a lot of European films on TV, which you don?t really get now, fairytale stuff with snowy landscapes, and I always loved the music, quite ethereal and psychedelic. European films just seem much more glamorous and decadent, this other life. And I was probably very influenced by ads. I always wanted to be in a Flake ad. That?s how I wanted to live my life, in the back of caravans."
Her fantasy itinerant lifestyle began as a resolutely unglamorous waster existence in London. She joined a band and fended off offers "to sing really awful dance music". Eventually, she was to sing with Orbital and on Tricky?s Maxinquaye album, but her first professional engagement was singing with a French dance company based in Antwerp, where she began experimenting with her voice, and enjoying that decadent European lifestyle.
"Belgium is a hidden gem," says Goldfrapp. "There?s a lot of things going on culturally and they have big cups of coffee in the morning and little posh cakes, so what more do you want?"
From there, she visited Switzerland, Germany and Holland, before returning to Britain to study fine art at Middlesex University, where she specialised in creating experimental sound pieces. These days she takes responsibility for creating the band?s distinctive collage sleeve art and their stage set design.
"I wish we had more money to play with because I?d like things to be much more extreme, but it?s so expensive," she says. "It?s a bit like being back at art school: how much of a set can I make of this bit of cardboard and glitter?"
Sickeningly, Goldfrapp has no particular voice regime; she treats her voice how she likes and it remains this magnificent, elastic, emotive tool to be manipulated as much as the band?s music and imagery. Work has tentatively begun on the follow-up to Black Cherry. Goldfrapp doesn?t reckon there will be as much of a sonic leap as there was between the first two albums. But she does harbour one unfulfilled ambition, which is as close to a revelation as can be gleaned from Alison Goldfrapp: "I secretly want to sound like Robert Plant. I just like the way he screams." |
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