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1.I first had the pleasure of interviewing you in 2007, and to begin
with, I just wondered what some of your favourite memories have been
since that time, and if you may have learnt anything about yourself?
Steve: “Oh My God (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “Oh God (laughing)! Since then, a favourite time –
2007 (thinking)?”
Steve: “OK, since we’ve done a lot of gigs, the first time
we played Reading sticks in my mind…”
Laura-Mary: “Reading Festival (excitedly), yeah!”
Steve: “That was really cool! Playing with Rage Against The Machine
in Paris…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, that was definitely a big deal (smiling)! Actually,
one of my other highlights, even though I thought it was a bad show
for us – but it turned out that it was good – was when we
played in Portugal with Nine Inch Nails and we were on like one band
before them.”
Steve: “It was the biggest Festival that we’d ever played
at and we were really high up on the bill!”
Laura-Mary: “It was a major Festival in Portugal, yeah, it was
really good! We’ve learnt a lot since then – A LOT (laughing)!”
Steve: “Like how to play (laughing), how to write songs properly…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (laughing), how to write songs properly! How
to say no actually, to lots of things, because we didn’t really
realise that you could (pausing), I don’t know, we used to say
yes to a lot of things, like people telling us what to wear…”
Steve: “I think we’ve got more fussy.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah. Now we realise that…”
Steve: “We’ve learnt that you should just basically say no
to anything that anyone else suggests!”
Laura-Mary & Steve: (both laugh heartily)
Steve: “Just do what you think, or what you would naturally do
anyway, because it always turns out better (laughing)!”
2.As you’ve now established yourselves as a formidable two-piece,
who do you consider to be among some of the great duos of all-time?
Laura-Mary: “Ooh, great duos of all-time? God (thinking)…”
Steve: “Neu!”
Laura-Mary: “Oh yeah, Neu!”
Steve: “Neu! were a two-piece, they’re definitely a great
band!”
Laura-Mary: “Lightning Bolt (laughing)!”
Steve: “Lightning Bolt for sure – it’s pretty insane!”
Laura-Mary: “They’re a ‘change your life’ type of
band, but they're not a band that you can sit down to and listen to
their songs…”
Steve: “It’s noise!”
Laura-Mary: “It’s really intense. It’s kind of like dance
music, but they’re SO LOUD! They don’t mic anything up!”
Steve: “They play the biggest bass amp you’ve ever seen!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, they’re amazing – like really amazing!
They’re one of those bands where you just let go and it takes you
to another place. Look them up on YouTube…”
Steve: “Yeah, then you’ll understand it better.”
Laura-Mary: “You’ll know what we mean then. I think they’re
amazing, but I wouldn’t say that I listen to them all of the time
– I do sometimes, when I’m in that kind of mood.”
Steve: “They are one of the great two-piece’s though.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, they are…”
Steve: “For sure!”
Laura-Mary: “God, I’m sure there’s loads more, I’m
just trying to think…”
Steve: “I don’t know, there aren’t a lot. The Carpenters
were a duo (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, but I’m not sure I know that much about
them though (laughing).”
Steve: “We once went to see Justice at a Festival…”
Laura-Mary: “Oh yeah, they’re cool! Let’s stay with those.”
3.Can you tell us about writing and recording your new songs –
did you know in your minds what you wanted to achieve, and was this
process different to the way you approached the making of your debut
record?
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, it was definitely different compared to the
first one.”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “We had a really good idea of how we kind of wanted
it to be – it never comes out how you imagine, but…”
Steve: “Yeah, we had a real set (pausing), we didn’t have
everything planned out for the songs, like we’d experiment a bit
and try a few things out, but we had a definite idea of how the overall
record should feel, that it should be more atmospheric and heavier.
We had an idea of how we wanted to record it much more, like less pop
than the first record and to mix the vocals quieter and to mix the guitars
louder, things like that.”
Laura-Mary: “Make it a bit more stripped back…”
Steve: “Yeah, just make it more…”
Laura-Mary: “Live-sounding really.”
Steve: “Yeah, exactly!”
Laura-Mary: “But with atmosphere, which I think comes across.”
4.What’s the ratio between older / newer songs which made the
final cut, and are there any songs in particular, that have surpassed
the band’s expectations?
Laura-Mary: “Well, as you know, we road-tested some songs, but
we changed a few of those afterwards because of doing that, so that
was really helpful. Like Follow The Lines, we completely changed parts
of it didn’t we (looking at Steve), that we did live.”
Steve: “It’s about half and half basically.”
Laura-Mary: “What old and new?”
Steve: “Yeah. It’s like half that we’d road-tested and
half that we hadn’t. Is that about right (looking at Laura-Mary)?”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “I think 5 or 6 of them we played live, but some of them
we’d never played live, including one that I think is sort of becoming
my favourite song (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “We’ve only played it twice so far – we played
it last night.”
Steve: “Yeah, One More Empty Chair, we like – it’s really
new. I think that was also the surprise one that surpassed my expectations,
because I didn’t realise how good it was until recently (laughing).
Like, I thought it was cool, but now, I realise that I really love that
song! But, I didn’t realise that until months after we’d finished
the record. Now I’m like, ‘Shit, this track’s amazing!’”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, I feel like that with it as well. I thought
it was an alright song (pausing), I think it was because it was the
last one that we sort of finished.”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “I didn’t have a real set idea on it, because
it just sort of came out.”
Steve: “Yeah, so we’re still getting to know it really.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
5.Of Blood Red Shoes’ musical output to date, in terms of studio
embellishments, what’s the simplest recording and the most complex
multi-tracked recording you’ve ever committed to tape?
Steve: “The simplest, is definitely It’s Getting Boring By
The Sea.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, definitely! I don’t know if you’ve
heard any of our b-sides, but we’ve been doing a new b-side, that’s
kind of an instrumental, with more layers on it and things…”
Steve: “It’s got loads of guitar parts (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “We recorded it ourselves, so I wouldn’t say it’s
the most complex, but we took a long time on it. I think maybe Colours
Fade is the most complex recording we’ve done (looking at Steve)?”
Steve: “No, I think the song that is the densest, is probably When
We Wake, because that’s got loads of stuff on it. We spent ages
just getting the weird sounds in the background.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, that’s true.”
Steve: “There’s like three guitar parts on that (laughing),
and then there’s the normal guitars and then we played the Yuri
guitar. And then we put in some bow guitar, do you remember (looking
at Laura-Mary)?”
Laura-Mary: “Oh yeah.”
Steve: “We were playing a guitar with a cello bow – we put
in this really distorted (pausing), we got like one string and played
it with this bow.”
Laura-Mary: “I forgot about that.”
Steve: “I did the bowing and we recorded that, so that’s got
loads of red-hot shit in. It’s all quite subtle, so obviously you
can’t hear it all, but there’s actually loads of layers to
that song.”
*I mention the ‘Classic Albums’ TV Series, whereby musicians,
producers, engineers etc. dissect records track-by-track and talk in
detail about the making of an LP now considered to be a masterpiece,
saying that you never fully-realise how much detail there is in some
songs*
Laura-Mary & Steve: “Yeah.”
Steve: “There’s loads of little things, but if you took them
out, you’d be like, ‘Oh, something’s changed.’ So
on the surface, that song is actually quite simple, but there’s
actually loads of layers to it."
6.Second albums are renowned for being ‘difficult’ –
but do you have any favourite follow-up LPs?
Steve: “The Stooges second album is my favourite Stooges record
(without any hesitation), Fun House, that’s an amazing album!”
Laura-Mary: “I really like loads of second albums, even ones that
other people don’t seem to like. I’m not really into The Futureheads,
but I thought their follow-up album was really good, but people didn’t
like it. I think Q And Not U’s second album is great…”
Steve: “Yeah, Q And Not U’s second album is amazing!”
Laura-Mary: “Hole – Live Through This, that’s an amazing
album!”
Steve: “Nirvana – Nevermind.”
Laura-Mary: “Nevermind (excitedly).”
Steve: “That was a pretty good follow-up wasn’t it?”
*I joke, “Just a bit!”*
Laura-Mary & Steve: (both laugh heartily)
Steve: “Yeah, they only went and made one of the most important
records of The ‘90s!”
*I ask Laura-Mary and Steve, if with strong second albums being released
by the likes of Blood Red Shoes, The Horrors and The Maccabees in recent
times, if they think the days of ‘difficult’ second albums
may be over?*
Laura-Mary: “Well, unless you’re the Klaxons, because they
still haven’t got theirs out yet!”
Laura-Mary & Steve: (both laugh)
7.In the group’s early days, you used to sing the lyrics that you
individually wrote, but how do you now decide between yourselves who
sings lead vocals on a particular track?
Steve: “It’s just the same sort of principle really.”
Laura-Mary: “Well, sort of, there are bits where we sort of swap
around.”
Steve: “We do join in on each other’s lyrics and stuff…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “When we sing together. But, we tend to just sing naturally
as part of the writing process – whoever starts to sing, ends up
singing that section of that song, and that tends to be the person who
writes the words as well. There aren’t any set rules.”
Laura-Mary: “Sometimes, there’s bits where whoever sings the
verses, would have written the words, but then maybe the other person
has written the chorus.”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “It does vary, but I suppose it is still kind of like
that and there are songs that we wrote together, so it’s the same
as the first album really. But, we don’t really decide that much,
it happens naturally.”
Steve: “You just kind of go with it I suppose.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, you just feel what’s right.”
8.Of all your lyrics to date, which line or song are you most proud
of writing?
Steve: “I think my favourite lyrics that I’ve ever written
are in Colours Fade – I think they’re the best lyrics that
I’ve written!”
Laura-Mary: “I don’t know what my best lyrics are (thinking),
I don’t know?”
Steve: “Do you have like little lines of one or anything (looking
at Laura-Mary)? Because my favourite bits of lyrics are in Colours Fade,
that I’m proud of, like personally speaking. Where I think, ‘For
me, that’s pretty good’ sort of thing (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “No. I never like anything that I do though (laughing),
so… Maybe When We Wake, but it’s not exactly interesting.”
Steve: “But I think as well, it’s like the way you sing it.
Like the lyrics on their own, don’t mean as much as when you sing
them. I think if I just read the lyrics separately from how it’s
sung, it would be different, but I think it’s a part of the whole
as well, where I think that they fit right, do you know what I mean?
That’s how I always think of the songwriting.”
9.If you could re-record or remove any song in your back catalogue,
which one would it be?
Steve: “I wouldn’t remove any songs, but I would definitely
remove a lot of photos (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, remove a lot of photos and videos from the first
album! I think if there was one song I’d remove from the first
album, it would be the last song, Hope You’re Holding Up.”
*I say that I really like that song*
Laura-Mary: “Oh, do you.”
Steve: “Someone came up to me yesterday and said that their favourite
Blood Red Shoes song, is that!”
Laura-Mary: “I thought no-one really liked it, because no-one ever
really mentioned it…”
Steve: “This guy was like, ‘That’s my favourite song
that you’ve ever written – I really love it!’”
Laura-Mary: “I haven’t actually listened to it for a long
time though, to be fair. I think also, maybe I’d remove Follow
The Lines from our new album, maybe.”
Steve: “That’s criminal!”
Laura-Mary: “Huh (looking at Steve)?”
Steve: “That’s criminal!”
10.Prior to the release of your new album, fans were able to pre-order
a number of different limited edition versions through recordstore.co.uk.
But are you yourselves avid record collectors and do you have any favourite
collectibles?
Laura-Mary: “Oh cool (excitedly), that’s a good question (big
smile)!”
Steve: “Well, we’re definitely like music geeks!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, I’ve got A LOT of vinyl records. I’ve
got a few limited edition Sonic Youth 10”s, like Youth Against
Fascism.”
Steve: “That’s pretty cool and that’s funny, because
one of the things that I’ve got is a Lee Ranaldo record, which
is all just locked grooves, like it’s a series of infinite looped
noises that he came up with. It’s a clear vinyl and on one side
it’s etched, and then on the other side it’s just got like
10 different infinite looped weird noises. So, you listen to it for
as long as you feel like and then move it to the next one. It’s
obviously a Sonic Youth kind of thing.”
Laura-Mary: “I’ve got loads of really good singles, like 7”s,
which make people go, ‘Where did you get that?’ (laughing)…”
Steve: “She’s got Mr. Soft (singing the opening line of the
song).”
Laura-Mary: (giggling) “I’ve got a lot of weird stuff (laughing)!”
Steve: “That’s a great song!”
11.Is there a particular record label that you admire?
Steve: “Touch And Go, Dischord…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah. Out of the bigger indie labels, I like Domino.”
Steve: “Domino puts out a pretty healthy selection of good music.”
Laura-Mary: “Kill Rock Stars.”
Steve: “KRS, yeah! They all do put out some crap as well (laughing)…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (laughing)!”
Steve: “But they do tend to have more stuff that we like than other
labels don’t they (looking at Laura-Mary)?”
12.If you were the CEO of a successful record label, which artists
/ bands would you most like to have signed to your roster?
Steve: “I’d definitely sign the Foo Fighters (without any
hesitation)!”
Laura-Mary: (laughing)
Steve: “Because then I could tell Dave Grohl what to do, because
I’d be the label boss (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “I would definitely sign Queens Of The Stone Age –
definitely! With smaller bands…”
Steve: “I would sign Ghost Of A Thousand.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “I would sign 1984, who are a cool French band that we’re
touring with as well.”
Laura-Mary: “They’re unsigned. I would sign Sonic Youth, because
they’ve made so many records, that you just know that they will
keep making them. Peggy Sue And The Pirates… I can’t think
of anyone else.”
Steve: “I would say Kings Of Leon, because their record sales would
pay the bills!”
Laura-Mary & Steve: (both laugh heartily)
Steve: “Then you could do whatever you want with any of your other
bands, because you’d have the money to do it!”
*I say that that’s how most labels usually work*
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “Yeah, they have one really successful band that pays all
the debts for all the others (laughing).”
13.What do you most dislike about The Music Industry?
Steve: “All of it (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “There’s lots.”
Steve: “The whole thing! It’s an Industry and the idea of
Industry & Commerce, is completely the opposite of what it is to
try and create art. So, the whole thing by definition, is a really uncomfortable
place to do anything creative in. But, you have to play along with it,
in order to get what you want from it, because you can’t be in
a band and not be part of it. So, it’s just tough shit isn’t
it (laughing)? In an ideal universe, they’d be like no money and
everything would be great – you could just be in a band and nobody
would need to pay anything. That would be beautiful…”
Laura-Mary: “That’s never going to happen (laughing).”
Steve: “That’s never going to happen, no (laughing).”
14.Some people feel that when times are hard in society, it can result
in some of the best music being made. Would you agree with this?
Steve: “Yeah, totally!”
Laura-Mary: “Definitely! This is what we were talking about recently
actually, because we realise that there’s a recession and loads
of things have been happening in the last few years, but I don’t
feel like there’s any music that’s come out that really represents
that. Everything sounds too happy.”
Steve: “Yeah, it’s so weird isn’t it? Like the music
that has been coming out is really pop, really upbeat and really happy,
kind of synth / dance music stuff. But there’s no angry music –
there’s no protest music. There’s no music going, ‘Fuck
You’, or people expressing the things that have gone wrong. Nobody
wants to admit that the world is falling apart. Everyone just wants
to go and dance to some bad electric shit and pretend that it’s
not really there.”
Laura-Mary: “I was hoping that some sort of music would come out
of it…”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “You know, punk came out, grunge came out…”
Steve: “And made a big noise about it!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah! But I’m not sure if anything is going to
come out now.”
Steve: “It’s just us (laughing), we’re the only pissed-off
band left! Everyone else is happy.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, but everyone else hates us for that.”
Steve: “It’s like we’re trying to piss on everyone’s
bonfire or something (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “I read a review that said, ‘Why can’t Blood
Red Shoes sing about happy things? They’re still singing about
things they sung about on their first album.’ I was like, ‘Well,
yeah, because we mean it!’”
Steve: “Yeah, because we mean it (laughing)!”
15.In February 2010, Courtney Love spoke to students at Oxford Union
– but is there a musician who you think would be an ideal candidate
for this?
Steve: “Steve Albini, he’d be an interesting one I think.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, he would! PJ Harvey, although I don’t think
she’d ever do it.”
Steve: “She would be a really interesting one though.”
Laura-Mary: “She’s SO interesting! I think she’s brilliant
(big smile)!”
*I say that I’ll keep an eye out for PJ Harvey as a guest speaker
at Oxford Union*
Laura-Mary & Steve: “Yeah (both laughing)!”
16.You recently did a Photo Shoot with the legendary rock photographer,
Steve Gullick. Was this an enjoyable experience, and did you ask him
about any of the other artists / bands that he’s shot over the
years?
Steve: “He’s BRILLIANT! We were just asking him about who
he’s worked with the whole time (laughing)…”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, we were (laughing)!”
Steve: “We were like, ‘Dude, what was it like when you shot
so and so?’”
Laura-Mary: “I asked him about Courtney Love actually (big smile)!”
Steve: “He was more than happy to tell us about it – he was
a really, really good guy!”
Laura-Mary: “He’s really nice! He actually has a band as well
and they’re playing with us in London, they’re supporting
us.”
Steve: “Yeah, he gave us his band’s record and we were like,
‘Shit, this is really good!’”
Laura-Mary: “They sound a bit like Queens Of The Stone Age type
thing.”
Steve: “It’s like Queens Of The Stone Age, a bit Jesus Lizard
– it’s quite downbeat and moody sounding. They’re called
Bender. He was a really cool guy, I was like, ‘What about Mark
Lanegan? What about Courtney?’ (laughing), but he’s done loads
of cool stuff!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah!”
Steve: “Some of the best things that he told us, was that he gets
offered like crazy money to do really bad bands. He turned down doing
Kasabian for like £10,000 or something stupid, because he was
like, ‘I can’t bring myself to photograph a band that shit!’
(laughing) and he’s got a family to support and all the rest of
it. He could have taken the money, but he said, ‘I’m not photographing
Kasabian!’”
Laura-Mary: “I’ll tell you what else he did – I just
remembered – I looked up his photographs obviously, before he photographed
us, and I really like the one of Beck where he’s sat on a red velvet
couch – I think it’s really good! I just said to him, ‘I
really like your photo of Beck on the chair’, and he was like,
‘Oh, do you really like that’, and I was like, ‘Yeah,
I love it!’ Then he said, ‘I’ve got one in the car if
you want it?’ He got this print…”
Steve: “It was massive!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, it was massive and he just gave it to me! It’s
worth a lot of money, because he was selling them in an exhibition.”
Steve: “It had to be worth £250 I reckon, at least!”
Laura-Mary: “He just gave it to me and said, ‘Here you go.’”
Steve: “He develops it all himself – he has his own darkroom
and he doesn’t touch digital. That’s why we liked his work,
they’re proper photographs with grain.”
17.I read that you still tend to argue occasionally, but looking
back on some of the arguments that you’ve had in the past, is there
one in particular that now seems really trivial?
Steve: “Every time (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (laughing)!”
Steve: “Almost all of them are always something really trivial,
it’s just a spark.”
Laura-Mary: “I think every argument we have is about something
trivial. I think there was once something about eating an orange…”
Steve: (laughs heartily) “Did we manage to have a fight about eating
an orange (looking at Laura-Mary)?”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, like I wanted the orange and you ate it!”
Steve: (laughs heartily again)
Laura-Mary: “It was something silly like that.”
Steve: “Oh, that’s brilliant (chuckling)!”
*I mention that that reminds of a story about Peter Hook, where everytime
he finished eating a bag of crisps, he would suck his thumb and fingers
one-by-one really loudly, which eventually ended up driving the rest
of New Order mad*
Laura-Mary: “Urgh…”
Steve: “That’s such a funny thing to get really angry about
(laughing), but that’s what happens, you go a bit psychotic.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, I get really freaked out when Steve starts…”
Steve: “Like if I bite my nails or I start fidgeting.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, I’m like (shivering), ‘God, stop.’”
18.At a guess, how many gigs do you think you’ve played since you
started as a band and what has been the most memorable crowd / incident
that has happened at a show?
Steve: “We have done somewhere between 450 – 500 shows!”
Laura-Mary: “But it’s been that amount for ages (looking at
Steve).”
Steve: “That’s because I counted it at the end of last year
and we’ve only done about 10 shows since then.”
Laura-Mary: “Oh, OK.”
Steve: “We didn’t play much in 2009, but by the end of this
tour, we’re going to be nearer to 500.”
Laura-Mary: “It feels like we’ve done more than that.”
Steve: “I’ve got it on my computer, I’ve actually got
a spreadsheet…”
Laura-Mary: (laughing)
Steve: “I’ve put them all in there and I count how many there
are now and again.”
Laura-Mary: “Because I forget where we’ve been (laughing).
Memorable crowds (thinking), God, there’s been loads…”
Steve: “The first time we played Bordeaux…”
Laura-Mary: “I was about to say that!”
Steve: “That will always stick in my brain. It was this little
basement show that we did, there were about 50 people tops. It was a
rotting basement, but it was so good! But because there was no PA –
there was just 2 microphones – some of the songs people were singing
so loud, that we could hear the crowd more than we could hear ourselves.
It was really cool – really cool!”
Laura-Mary: “And our LA2 gig, before it got knocked down. Everytime
I say that it’s been knocked down, I cannot believe it.”
Steve: “No.”
Laura-Mary: “That was one of our best gigs ever (big smile)!”
Steve: “Yeah, the Astoria 2, that was brilliant!”
19.Do you see many familiar faces in the audience when touring around
the world?
Steve: “We definitely see familiar faces.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah and we get to know quite a lot of people as well.”
Steve: “Yeah, but it’s funny, because we know different people
too. Do you remember that girl in Birmingham (looking at Laura-Mary),
I was like, ‘Hey!’ And you were like, ‘Who’s she?’
And I was like, ‘She’s been in the front-row at 17 of our
shows.’ But you know that Steve guy, who I don’t really speak
to.”
Laura-Mary: “Steve Hughes, yeah. There are certain people that
know Steve and certain people who know me…”
Steve: “Who we recognise at the front.”
Laura-Mary: “Or who stand on our side.”
Steve: “It tends to be men standing on your side and girls standing
on my side.”
Laura-Mary: (laughs heartily)
Steve: “I really can’t figure out why?”
Laura-Mary: (laughs heartily again) “At least yours are like the
normal age, all of mine are mostly really old men (laughing)!”
Steve: “Annie’s always on my side.”
Laura-Mary: “She was on your side? She loves you!”
Steve: “She loooooves me (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, she’s never on my side, that’s right!”
Steve: (laughs heartily)
Laura-Mary: “I’m actually kind of offended now (laughing).
But yeah, basically, there are lots of familiar faces and we get to
know a lot of people (smiling).”
20.Do you have any prized-possessions or favourite gifts from fans?
Laura-Mary: “Steve got given a digital camera…”
Steve: “Yeah, when we played in Tokyo, a girl bought me a camera.
I haven’t seen how the pictures have come out, because it’s
quite a weird one, where all of the pictures come out a bit fucked-up,
but in a cool way.”
Laura-Mary: “I get given really nice gifts by people in Japan,
but my favourite things are when I get letters and e-mails from people
being really nice…”
Steve: “And drawings.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, and drawings. They’re my favourite gifts,
because people have put a lot of time and effort in to them, which I
think is really sweet (big smile)!”
21.What are your thoughts on encores at gigs?
Laura-Mary: “We don’t mind doing them, although I find it
funny and I always get really embarrassed when we have to go back on.”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “But we do this thing, where we tend not to plan really
what we’re going to do. Because you know how you see on some bands’
set lists how they have a line for the encore…”
Steve: “They always keep back ‘The Big Hit’, so it’s
obvious they’re going to do an encore. Like they leave out their
massive # 1 single or whatever. So they’ll finish their set, but
everyone knows they haven’t played that song and they’re going
to come back and do it. So the whole thing is just kind of an act.”
Laura-Mary: “We don’t do that.”
Steve: “We never plan an encore – we never have and we never
will!”
Laura-Mary: “If no-one’s clapping and people don’t really
want it, we won’t go back on.”
Steve: “No.”
Laura-Mary: “It’s only if people really, really want it. Like
last night, we weren’t sure whether people wanted us to come back
on, because nobody was clapping. But then, everybody started stamping.”
Steve: “Yeah, we were just about to tell the venue to put a CD
on and then we were going to leave. There was a really long gap and
then everyone actually started to make some noise, shouting ‘More!’
So we were like, ‘Oh, they do want us to come back on and play
some more.’”
Laura-Mary: “But if no-one’s really that bothered, we’re
not going to go back on and be like, ‘Hi’ (laughing).”
Steve: “I find the whole encore thing kind of silly, but it just
ends up happening. When you’re on a headline tour, it always ends
up happening at most shows – it just becomes standard. So you’ve
just got to try and not plan it too much and try to keep it fresh, so
it’s genuine.”
Laura-Mary: “It’s really weird actually, thinking about it…”
Steve: “It’s like a formality or something.”
*I remark that the Manic Street Preachers will never play encores, apart
from one time when they played a special show in Cuba*
Laura-Mary: “Really (surprised)!?!”
Steve: “Well, encores are kind of stupid. The funny thing is, you
can play in some countries and if you don’t do an encore, they’ll
be really upset. Like you can play for an hour and not do an encore
and they’ll be like, ‘You didn’t play an encore.’
Or you can go and play for half-an-hour and do an encore – you’ve
played less songs – but they’ll be happier, because they got
their encore.”
Laura-Mary: “It’s really weird.”
Steve: “It’s stupid (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “You get some places where you have to do them…”
Steve: “They get funny about it.”
Laura-Mary: “You know you’re a really big Manics fan (looking
at me)? Do you know that they like our band?”
Steve: “They asked us to support them on their Journal For Plague
Lovers Tour, but we couldn’t do it because we were recording at
the time. Nicky Wire wrote about you didn’t he (looking at Laura-Mary)?”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (smiling), in the Reading Festival programme
– I’ve got it at home. They asked musicians what their Top
5 favourite songs of the summer were, or of the year, something like
that, and he put Say Something, Say Anything by Blood Red Shoes. He
also said that we’re ‘a really good live band and I’m
like the new Courtney Love,’ even though I’m not (laughing)!”
Steve: “She’s a bit less fucked-up (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “He just said ‘really good drumming and really
good guitar playing.’”
*I say that I hope Blood Red Shoes are able to play some shows with
MSP in the future*
Steve: “Maybe Nicky will come and play bass for us (laughs heartily)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (laughing). When they asked us, they were doing
their record with Steve Albini weren’t they? So it kind of makes
sense in a way, that they like us.”
Steve: “Yeah, that they’re into that sort of vibe.”
22.If you could choose a fantasy set list for a favourite
artist / group, who would it be and what would you select as their opening
and closing songs?
Steve: “I would like to see a set list where Q Are Not U, play
their whole first album in order (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “That would be amazing!”
Steve: “Because I don’t think I ever saw them play any of
the songs off that album.”
Laura-Mary: “We played with them, but they played their new songs
from their third album.”
Steve: “From their third album, yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “I would like to see Babes In Toyland again, like a
mixture between (pausing), well, actually, most of the first album –
not really the later ones (pausing), actually, I don’t know. I
just want them to play anything, I wouldn’t mind what they started
and ended with (laughing)!”
23.On a similar note, if you were asked to look after ‘Never
Mind the Buzzcocks’ for 1 week, which musicians / celebrities would
you book to appear on the programme alongside the Team Captains, Phill
Jupitus and Noel Fielding?
Steve: “Who would host it (looking at Laura-Mary)?”
Laura-Mary: “I was going to say you (laughing), but I’ll choose
someone else. Who would be good (thinking)?”
Steve: “I’m trying to think of somebody who’s funny…”
Laura-Mary: “As a musician, Dave Grohl is quite funny.”
Steve: “Dave Grohl would be a great host – he would!”
Laura-Mary: “No, I’d tell you who would be good, Jack Black.”
Steve: “Yeah, Jack Black, he should be the host and then we can
have Dave Grohl on one of the teams.”
*I ask Laura-Mary and Steve who wants to pick for Phill’s team
and who wants to pick for Noel’s team*
Laura-Mary: “I want to take Noel’s team!”
Steve: “All the girls take Noel’s team. Anyway, for Phill’s
team, I would have Dave Grohl and I’d have one of the guys from
We Are Scientists, not because I particularly like the band, I just
think they’re fucking hilarious!”
Laura-Mary: “Actually, my boyfriend (Felix from The Maccabees)
got interviewed by them at the NME Awards, and he said it was really
weird, because they were just being totally normal and then as soon
as they started doing the interview, they just turned into these characters.
He said they are just like TV presenters now.”
Steve: “Although one of the guys was a TV presenter before he was
in the band, the singer I think?”
Laura-Mary: “Oh right, I didn’t know that.”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “That makes so much sense.”
Steve: “He got fired (laughing)! I read it really early on, he
said he was a TV presenter and lasted like 3 days and then got fired.”
Laura-Mary: “I’d get Axl Rose as one of mine.”
Steve: “Whoa!”
Laura-Mary: “See what he has to say.”
Steve: “That would be interesting, but he wouldn’t speak to
anyone, he’d sit in his sunglasses wouldn’t he and not say
anything.”
Laura-Mary: “And I’d also have (long pause + thinking), Missy
Elliott. I don’t know why…”
Steve: “That would be interesting.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary & Steve’s ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’
line-up in full…
Show Host – Jack Black
Phill’s Guest #1 – Dave Grohl
Phill’s Guest #2 – Keith Murray or Chris Cain
Noel’s Guest #1 – Axl Rose
Noels’ Guest #2 – Missy Elliott
24.If you were asked to edit a music / culture webzine, what features
would you commission?
Laura-Mary: “I would commission a feature on ‘Sexism In The
Music Industry’. I know that’s been done…”
Steve: “I don’t see people talking about it that much at the
moment though.”
Laura-Mary: “But I would like people to go and interview quite
famous female musicians and get their experiences and see if they still
feel like that now.”
Steve: “Yeah, that would be interesting.”
Laura-Mary: “To see whether they still feel like that, even though
they’re really respected and big artists. Someone like PJ Harvey
or Madonna…”
Steve: “Yeah, even Missy Elliott, I’d be interested to see
what she thinks, or fucking Lady Gaga even. It would be interesting
to see how their experiences compare to what you go through.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “What articles would I like that would be interesting (thinking)?
I’ll tell you what I would commission, an article on ‘How
Radiohead Recorded OK Computer’. I was looking it up the other
day, because I really wanted to know about what it was like in the studio
and how they did certain things, but you can’t find anything about
it. You can’t find any interviews with them, or any features, even
like in the recording press. It’s such an interesting record that
I want to know how they did things. You can read so much about how so
many other albums were recorded, but you can’t find out how that
one was made in the studio.”
Laura-Mary: “Actually, I would really like to see Radiohead play
OK Computer in its entirety for that fantasy set list thing that you
asked about.”
Steve: “Yeah, that would be awesome!”
Laura-Mary: “I’ve never seen them – I went to Reading
Festival, but I missed them in the evening because I had to get the
train back home.”
25.To date, what has been the biggest surprise in your career?
Steve: “The biggest surprise? God (thinking)…”
Laura-Mary: “That people come to watch you (laughing)! No, I think
my biggest surprise was getting on daytime radio recently.”
Steve: “Yeah, when Fearne Cotton plays your single, that’s
quite a shock (laughing)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, I mean I never thought that would happen. I
mean even if it never happened again, I’ll still be shocked by
that.”
Steve: “I’ll tell you what the biggest surprise was, when
The Breeders asked us to play ATP (2009).”
Laura-Mary: “Oh, that was it – that was the biggest one!”
Steve: “We just went mental. We were like, ‘Fucking hell,
Kim Deal has asked to play ATP!’ The fact that she even fucking
knows our band…”
Laura-Mary: “That’s the biggest one, definitely! That’s
been one of the massive highlights as well, because I never, ever dreamed
that our band would get to play ATP, I was like, ‘Who will ever
ask us to play?’”
Steve: “Yeah.”
Laura-Mary: “And it actually happened…”
Steve: “The answer is The Breeders.”
Laura-Mary: “It was just an amazing fluke that she saw us playing
one time in Manchester.”
Steve: “That is so cool – I’m so proud that we got to
do that (smiling)!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “It makes me very happy.”
Laura-Mary: “It’s so nice to know that I’ve got the poster
at home and the programme (giggling).”
26.Would the Blood Red Shoes from the band’s early days, be pleased
with where Blood Red Shoes are at in 2010?
Steve: “I think we’d be really happy, but probably think that
we should be bigger!”
Laura-Mary: (laughs heartily)
Steve: “I would (laughing). I’d be like, ‘Oh, you’ve
done good, but you should be playing bigger places!’”
Laura-Mary: “You can always do better!”
Steve: “Yeah, that’s what I would’ve thought (laughing).”
Laura-Mary: “We’re like that as people though.”
Steve: “We’d be looking at ourselves and thinking, ‘You
are such sell-outs!’”
Laura-Mary: (laughs heartily)
Steve: “That’s a joke by the way (smiling).”
27.Is it important to you, to keep challenging both yourselves and your
audience?
Steve: “You can’t really say no to that question can you (laughing)?”
Laura-Mary: “No, but I really think it is! Personally, I have a
real thing about always wanting to improve as a guitar player…”
Steve: “Yeah, you have a real personal thing about challenging
yourself with playing the guitar don’t you?”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah.”
Steve: “By making yourself do more complicated stuff, definitely.”
Laura-Mary: “Like now, if I play new songs, I think, ‘Oh right,
these are not that difficult.’ But when I was writing it and trying
to work out how to play it, I thought to myself, ‘I’m never
going to be able to sing and play this at the same time.’ But now,
it’s easy to play them.”
Steve: “It’s good to stretch yourself.”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, you’ve got to keep pushing yourself!”
Steve: “If for nothing else, if you didn’t force yourself
to fuck a few things up and change things around a bit, you’d get
bored – you would just get bored. I don’t know how Oasis carried
on as long as they did, because they wrote the same song so many times.”
Laura-Mary: “The thing is, you always want to improve and there’s
always room for improvement, in whoever you are. The day that you think
you can’t improve, is the day you…”
Steve: “Noel Gallagher hit that day the minute he wrote one song
on the first Oasis album. He was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just keep
doing that for a while – make a few million!’”
Laura-Mary & Steve: (both laugh heartily)
28.Lastly, what do you think has been the ultimate rock ‘n’
roll statement?
Laura-Mary: “I don’t even know if it’s a statement, but
it’s kind of one that’s stuck in my mind, when Donita Sparks
from L7, pulled out her tampon and threw it into the audience at Reading
Festival in 1992 (laughing).”
Steve: “That’s a pretty ultimate rock ‘n’ roll statement!”
Laura-Mary: “Yeah, that was quite a statement I reckon!”
Steve: “Nice, we’ll end on that – let’s go have
dinner…”
A very special thanks to Laura-Mary + Steve, to Blood
Red Shoes’ Tour Manager Edgy, and to Mark @ Prolifica, for all
of their time and help.
www.bloodredshoes.co.uk
www.myspace.com/bloodredshoes
“Light It Up”
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usicm
the 3rd album?