Cynicalista VS. Ladyfuzz ver. 2

I recently met up for a wee natter with the delectable Liz Neumayr of Artsters Ladyfuzz. For ease of reading this interview has been cut into different sections.

Part 1 - singles, touring and new videos

Cynicalista - So, what’s been happening since we last spoke?

Lizz - Well, that was some time ago. We had our first single "Oh Marie" released in January. And the next one is coming out on the 27th June. The release party will be at trash on the 20th June. We’ve been on tour with the Futureheads and the Mystery Jets recently and are currently supporting the Rakes on their UK tour.

C - And the next single is called?

L - ‘Hold Up’


C - How did you get the Futureheads tour?

L - Basically I met Barry backstage at the NME awards last time it happened but we just had a little chat. Then as they planned their tour our managers played them 2 of our songs and they decided to take us along as well.

C - Is there camaraderie between you and the Mystery Jets, both being on Transgressive?

L - Quite funny, we didn’t actually know them very well until we found out we had got a tour together. I mean we’d run into each other and stuff, but we didn’t hang out or anything & what happened is when we were told that it is was going to be the Futureheads, Mystery Jets and us on tour everyone involved got really excited, there was such good feeling. At a gig I ran into all of them (Mystery Jets) and I was speaking to Kai of the band, who is also a filmmaker, about doing a video. I told him about my ideas, we share a lot of the same ideals and so he ended up directing the video. And on tour we had loads of fun together, they are such amazing people.

C - Did you have a lot of input into the storyboard in the first video?

L - Yes, we were totally involved. Although it didn’t come out quite as I wanted it, we were so limited with money and time. Well, it was more time than money you have to blag everything in the first video anyway. We had such a short amount of time to get it done in. It looks really cool, but in my head there was a whole other dimension of it that didn’t really come across.

C - Have you got any teasers for what the new video will include?

L - It has six dancers doing some quality hip-hop, modern, robotic dancing. I am being chased by a chav. Who, of course, can't get me. There s this surreal dancing in a field bit and then the real story bit. It’s very female, opposed to girls shaking their asses in hotpants, beautiful, with strong colours and a funny twist.

C - Is Kai involved in writing it too?

L - Yes, he’s the main man. We worked it out together, but he’s the one to get the whole thing off the ground.

Part 2 - Records Label & Record Industry

C - With the whole Transgressive situation, do you think the smaller label scenario suits Ladyfuzz better? Is there more creative freedom perhaps?

L - I do believe that, but the thing with Transgressive is that we have such a good relationship with them as people and I just think we have something really special. We really love them as friends. Its not just about them as a label, they totally got what we are on about form the very beginning. It seems perfectly right, they understand where we want to go.

C - It’s from the grassroots though isn’t it. You’re involved at every level instead of dealing with a giant faceless corporation.

L - Well, you want a person you can call at any time of the day with ideas or worries? They’ve been so supportive from the beginning, wanting the best we can get for our sake. They’ve always been there to help whenever we needed it, and I don’t know if you could get that from a bigger label. Plus we basically do what we want with the release, there's no intervention from the label if we are sure about an idea.

C - But if you did get the chance do you think you’d go for a 3 album deal with EMI or whoever?

L - I don’t know if I could do that, it’s a loyalty issue you know? Hypothetically, in the long term maybe its better. There is no signed deal with Transgressive yet, but we were talking about a 1album deal, which is an amazing opportunity to be offered. We’re just going to build things up slowly. I’m not saying we won’t look into it, but we’re close to Transgressive, so I don’t see a reason why we should go with anyone else. Transgressive have just sorted themselves out with proper money backing ..so there doesn't seem much point in straying really.

C - On the whole large label issue, I think the music industry at the moment is in such a quagmire with downloading issues and such. I was reading an interview with Dominic Masters of The Others yesterday and he was saying that he has a three album deal or whatever, and the band has to sell at least 40,000 copies of the debut to be able to release the next one on their current label. He’s on Poptones too, Alan McGee’s label, which you would think would be an indie-centric, more grass-roots operation. I guess it just shows that everyone is feeling the pinch.

L - The thing is that that kind of pressure would just screw you up in writing. We’ve never felt that we had to do something just because someone wanted us to. Sometimes when people say ‘everyone loved the first single, we have to make sure everyone likes the next one even better!’ That should always be your drive anyway. Sometimes when we’re rehearsing we’re like ‘oh, perhaps that is too weird, perhaps people won’t get it! just because we play a weird kind of music that’s off the mainstream, quite quirky with little medieval bits in it. We’re like ‘Gee, we could always make it a bit straighter, more understandable,..but then I personally would get the same kick out of it..which is what it is about it I think.

C - Well, if you don’t enjoy it yourself then what’s the point?

L - That as well, but I’m very picky about music. I’m really bad, I have a hard time finding music I like and I go out and buy records in an act of desperation and end up not connecting with any of them. I look for music that touches me in a strange way, not to say that there isn’t a lot of good mainstream music out there but it’s not the type of thing that I usually go for. I want to make sure that when we make an album that I would die to go out and buy it myself and know I got something special, you know, not just another record for the collection? I know that that wouldn’t happen if we tried to go straighter, you just have to go out and make the album you most want to buy. In that way I would never want to be under pressure to have to sell 40,000 records. That’s the thing with Transgressive, we all want to make it work but there are none of those pressure factors involved. I think you can only have substance if you’re 100% true to yourself, which is already really hard if you’re in a band anyway, because we have three different minds and I’m used to doing things on my own, I was writing/producing those songs by myself before the band came along to make it a live experience. It’s a really hard struggle to write, we’ll be in the rehearsal room & me and Ben (drummer) will be like ‘Oh, that’s fucking cool' to something Matt (lead guitarist) plays and he’ll be like ‘You’re weird’. Two of us will like a thing and the other doesnt...then we have to find a way to make it work for all of us. We’ve got loads of tapes of things we’ve done in rehearsal that we’ve never even gone back to. ’m used to working with a computer, with endless crazy possibilities, whereas now that we’re a band with Matt playing all the Guitar, Ben on the Drums we have tom make it work as a 3 people live set up and that restricts us quite a lot. Therefore we are all really looking forward to doing an album and being able to record whatever we want without having to bother about how to translate it into a live set as yet. Recording the last single was an amazing experience.


Part 3 - Playing live

C - Do you prefer being in the studio to playing live?

L - No, no, no playing live is the best thing in the whole wide world. being on stage is the only time I feel you get the chance to see the real me. But for me it’s not just a band going up to play for or at people. We go out and play together. It's a game with audience participation. I’m always a bit irritated when the light stops me seeing peoples faces. The vibe at a gig lives of this performer/audience interaction.it's like sex really..it is sex...really.

C - Now you’re doing headline shows, do you think there is more pressure on you to put on the best show you can? Would you rather sacrifice big stage sets and gimmicks and focus more upon the music?

L - I lke doing small gigs...the best ones have been the ones where things went wrong (like a seperation wall falling on the drummers head & him going on playing, guitar straps breaking or kick pedals..a lot of breakage seems to happen in this band)..in smaller venues..but having just been on the futureheads tour and playing to a sold out astoria I have to say there s a thing or 2 to be said about big stages and a full house. The second night at the astoria was Best!.I think the quality of the music is always THE most important criteria and cant ever be made up for by show or gimmicks.(..but saying all that I do prefer a band that gets the music right and is also entertaining, intellectually and/or visually). Every show you play you try to make it your best one ever regardless of the size of the stage.


C - Has there been a venue you’ve always wanted to play?

L - I think the Brixton Academy would be amazing, but I don’t really think like/about that. I really want to play festivals though it seems like it’s not going to happen this year. We spoke to our management but they want to leave it until next year?!?!

C - perhaps festivals are better because people can just stumble (literally) upon you, punters walking around and happen to hear you.

L - That’s true, it’d be interesting to see how you could grab these people. It’d be great to play a mid-sized festival, with it being really packed and people wanting to come in but not being able to, that’d be really nice.

C - On this tour with the Futureheads, this was first time for a while that you’ll be playing outside of London, right?

L - yes, and it was great..there were all these sell out shows full of people who basically got to see us by accident. And it went really well..we got amazing responses of people whod never heard of us before..and were trully blown away... now "want our babies". It was real special though to get back to London, being "hometown" and all..


Part 4 - The media & future plans

C - Do you think that the media is important to you? That the Internet and MP3’s are a good way of getting your name out there? Or have you relied more upon word of mouth?

L - Since the singles so far have/will only be released on limited edition vinly it is quite hard to get hold of outside london really. therefore the next single "Hold Up!" will also be released as a download on the Transgressive website (www.transgressiverecords.co.uk). I am glad about that because there are a lot of people in Europe who wanted to but couldn't get hold of our last single, since it was played on radio there quite a bit. I do think that the internet and the media are (unfortunately) quite important. because, unless you are a music buff and that s all you do, there needs to be a lot of press for people to find out about you. all that said we have until nowish not put very much interest into that side of things. concentrating on developing as a band musically first. but I guess now it is time to let people know about ourselves and get the music out there.

C - Perhaps this is a little premature, but are there any plans for cracking Europe or America yet?

L - lets crack london first..then the uk ..and then of course we want the whole wide world to sing/whistle their kids to sleep with one of our songs..

C - They still play "oh Marie!" at Trash regularly

L - Actually Erol Alkan has just made a 6 minute remix of it, he called us up and said ‘I don’t want to change anything, I just want more of it!’ So he basically made this extended mix, like they did in the 80’s.

C - Is it strange to hear your song in that type of atmosphere?

L - I keep missing it actually. I was at Trash the other week to see Tom Vek and I went out for a sec and people came running to me saying ‘They played your song!!’

C - I was running around looking for you myself actually. I remember the first time I heard it played there I was with Ben (Ladyfuzz drummer) and he just stood there, all bashful like. I guess he was trying to gauge people’s reaction.

L - It’s freaky, but it’s interesting to look round to see what people think. I think as soon as you’ve recorded it, it’s done for you. By the time the single comes out you’re going to be at a completely different stage of your band with your songwriting.

James Williams

www.ladyfuzz.com