Ipso Facto
Live @ Oxford Zodiac
March 3, 2009
Interview & Photography: Steve Bateman

A journalist once wrote, “Celebrating the beauty of melancholy, touching the void, finding the rich vein of sadness and exploring humanity’s hidden impulses = Romance & Doom. The Twin Peaks of Goth.” With this in mind, Ipso Facto’s impressive Black & White brew, not only emits each of these overarching themes, but is also entwined with an incantatory force that pulses with captivating self-confidence and style. Something that the girls’ freshly-minted and must have Japanese-only mini-album, IF…(Vinyl Junkie Recordings) certifies, whilst at the same time, hinting at future glories, as it’s a richly rewarding introduction with plenty to uncover! Speaking to The Guardian of the “far-reaching ambitions” they have for their debut album proper though, you’ll learn that the band are keen to shake-off their underground shackles, and for their music to evolve into something that is “epic and quite orchestral, with loads of instruments and a much bigger sound. Still dark, but powerful.”

Since my first Q&A with Rosie, Cherish, Victoria and Samantha – now just shy of a year ago. The group has sure-footedly grown in stature, by honing their songwriting and live craft, recording and releasing a couple more strictly limited edition 7”s, Ears & Eyes (Germs Of Youth) + Six And Three Quarters / Circle Of Fifths (Mute Irregulars). And gracing the pages of numerous respected publications including; Artrocker, Clash, The Independent, Indie Magazine, GQ, Grazia, The Guardian, NME, Nylon, Tank and Vogue, to name but a few. Proof positive, that many influential people share a fixation with Ipso Facto and have succumbed to their charms – singling them out for special attention and agreeing that they are deserving of wider adoration / are most certainly ‘ones to watch’. High praise indeed!

As with their recorded output, tonight’s show in Oxford on a cold rainy night, sees Ipso Facto enveloping hearts and holding the audience in the palm of their hands, by summoning darkness (from the pop firmament) and painting pensive panoramas via spacious and spooky musical soundscapes. A suite of songs that is ensconced in crushed velvet vocals, spidery / tremolo guitar lines, quivering organs and eerie echoes of bass – all etched with deathly drums and smeared with lashings of reverb and countermelodies. A jet-black sonic palette or geyser of sound, which leaves anyone and everyone who comes into contact with it, caught up in the rapture! In their early days, Ipso Facto were even described as sounding like “Siouxsie jamming with Magazine” and as “The missing link between ‘60s psychedelia and post punk.” Perhaps this is because the quartet’s striking musical currency, can be applauded for having both attitude and intelligence in equal measure!

Also taking great pride in their appearance and looking consistently beautiful / immaculate, prompted another writer to declare, “Ipso Facto sound as sharp as they look.” For when it comes to attractiveness, pure pale skin, precision-cut dark hair and statuesque saucer-eyed haute couture glamour in modern music, the girls are certainly the crème de la crème, tattooing their flawless faces, photogenic features and image permanently onto your retinas! "Image is important. A lot of the greatest bands are known for having a strong style, even if it's not their defining factor. You want people to remember who you are!" A belief they all collectively agree on. And as well as being rumoured to have single-handedly inspired Stefano Pilati’s 2008 Autumn / Winter Gothic-themed Fashion Show for Yves Saint Laurent, the girls have just recently collaborated with hot new designer Hannah Marshall at London Fashion Week! They also have a heart-warming sense-of-unity, which often sees them finishing one another’s sentences and lovingly joking around at each other’s expense.

After contacting Rosie, Cherish, Victoria and Samantha about the possibility of requesting an update interview at their Zodiac gig, they generously agreed to answer another helping of my questions – only this time, I had the pleasure of actually meeting the girls in person, all of whom are absolute sweethearts and a lot of fun to be around! : ) And in a world where new artists and groups’ careers are fast-becoming short-lived, Ipso Facto are a rare species, in that this is a band who are for keeps!

And that’s a Facto…


Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans

1.Firstly, thank you so much for agreeing to do an update interview! To begin with, I thought I would ask you if there have been any significant developments for Ipso Facto since my original e-mail Questionnaire – and what some of your favourite memories have been since that time?
Samantha: “Well, we’ve supported every band going…”
Rosie: “Yeah (laughing), we’re like ‘Resident Support Band Of The Year!’”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “As quoted by Rosie herself (smiling)!”
Rosie: (laughing) “Yeah!”
Samantha: “We win that award!”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “We supported The Last Shadow Puppets on their European Tour, and we’ve just finished supporting Magazine…”
Samantha: “We also supported Siouxsie last year as you know, and we did the festival season.”
Rosie: “Yeah, we played lots of festivals – we’ve just done loads of gigging really. We haven’t done as much recording as we would have liked to, but that’s more this year, because we’re going to be recording our album. But yeah, we have loads of memories (smiling). I guess the best thing we did was the European Tour, because we got to play in places like Amsterdam…”
Victoria: “Paris was good too!”
All: “Yeah.”
Samantha: “And we also went to New York for the Ray-Ban Launch.”
Rosie: “Yeah, that as well – that was great!”
Samantha: “They paid us like a ridiculous amount of money and put us up in a ridiculously posh hotel and flew us over business class! And now, ever since we’ve got back to London, we have to get on The Tube and that’s shit!”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “But New York was really, really good (smiling)!”
Cherish: “We actually filmed hours of footage while we were over there, but it’s just mostly of us all messing around in front of the camera!”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “We’re still not signed for an album – that’s a big problem – but I mean something’s come up that’s looking very promising, so… We wanted to get it done last year…”
Victoria: “It’s just choosing the right label.”
Rosie: “Yeah, it’s proving difficult, because we’ve had some problems with labels and stuff. But obviously, our aim is to get the album out this year as soon as possible really.”
All: “Yeah.”
Victoria: “We’re going to record with Mark Ronson for the next single…”
Samantha: “We’ll probably go to New York, but we just need to get the dates arranged.”


2.Johnny Marr recently gave a lecture at The University Of Salford, where he argued that “Outsiders are the lifeblood of The Music Industry, but too often overlooked.” What are your feelings on this?
Victoria: “Well, I think that’s quite relevant at the moment…”
Cherish: “I think every band thinks that though!”
All: “Yeah.”
Cherish: “And I think that’s even a positive thing – especially for people like Siouxsie, because she definitely has a cult following.”
Rosie: “Yeah.”
Cherish: “But she would never be able to cross into the mainstream really. So, having such a huge and devoted fanbase is probably a bonus!”
Victoria: “I think in terms of career progression, being thought of as a cult band could certainly become a hindrance – like say if you want to get to a point where you have lots of power.”
Samantha: “Yeah, but those fans are really loyal though and they’re going to be their fans forever! They’re not people who are going to quickly move onto ‘The Next Big Thing’ and personally, I think that’s more important.”
All: “Yeah.”


3.Many music fans, critics and Internet bloggers are currently debating which artist / band they feel has defined the last Decade. But if the decision was yours, who would you choose?
Rosie: “I’d say the Arctic Monkeys.”
Cherish: “Yeah, because although they are a classic indie band, it’s good music you know? And people who would never like that type of music, like it!”
Victoria: “Yeah.”
Rosie: “Especially when I was at school and they first came out, because everyone who wasn’t into a band, or who wasn’t into guitar music, sort of crossed over. It’s similar to what Oasis did for music in The ‘90s. I guess they sort of appeal to everyone.”
Victoria: “I can’t think of any other British band in recent times, that has represented their generation so well.”
Cherish: “No. But I also think that there are a lot of bands out there at the moment, who are still kind of small, but will probably have a big impact on The Music Industry in years to come…”
Victoria: “But the Arctic Monkeys for this Decade – definitely!”


4.Jack White said that he thinks of his gigs as “The modern day equivalent of a community going to church every week.” Adding, "The thing I love about live performance the most, is that the doors are closed, the lights are turned down and the audience has to be reverential to what's happening onstage. It's not like being at home where you can change channels, fast-forward, turn it off, put the book down, or walk away. It's this phenomenon where we all, as a community, go to church and sit and experience this thing together.” Would you agree with this?
Samantha: “Ahh, I like that (smiling)!”
Cherish: “That’s a nice quote!”
Rosie: “That’s a really good thing to say!”
Victoria: “Yeah, I like it!”
Cherish: “I don’t think Ipso Facto are quite there yet…”
Rosie: (laughing) “People do just get up and walk away!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Samantha: “They do not (mock defensively)!”
All: (laughing)
Cherish: “I think maybe for The White Stripes, that’s how it is…”
Victoria: “I do understand what he’s saying – how an audience has to give something of themselves, they commit to a point of engagement…”
Samantha: “Football’s similar as well, it’s like a new religion. But like Jack White said, the number of people going to church every week is dying out, so a lot of people do now find hope and faith in music (pausing), that’s a really lovely idea actually!”
All: “Yeah.”


5.What’s the best gig line-up that you’ve ever seen, including both the headline act + supports?
Victoria: “Oh man, we could give so many answers!”
Rosie: “Shit…”
Samantha: “Oh God, that’s really difficult.”
Victoria: “I think they’d all be different as well you know?”
Cherish: “I can’t choose – I really can’t choose.”
Rosie: “It would probably have to be a festival or something wouldn’t it (looking at the girls)?”
Cherish: “But then that wouldn’t be a gig as such, because there are so many different bands on at different times. I remember when I was maybe 14, I went to V Festival and it was the first proper show that I’d ever been to and I just remember watching Muse.”
Victoria: “I went to a great N*E*R*D gig once (smiling)!”
Rosie: “What if it includes us (laughing)?”
Cherish: “I can’t think of anything – this is a really hard question – we’ll have to come back to this one later if we have time (laughing).”


6.And who for you, have been / are some of the greatest frontmen and frontwomen in the history of popular music?
Rosie: “Ooh…”
Cherish: “I’ve never really thought about this before (pausing)…”
Victoria: “These are really hard questions (pausing), well, they’re not hard, they’re actually quite easy, but off the top of your head… They’re the best ones though, when you have to actually think you know?”
Samantha: “You’re going to have a lot of long pauses on your Dictaphone throughout this interview.”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Cherish: “Sorry we’re so rubbish!”
Samantha: “You get nervous when you put yourself under pressure to think of good answers…”
Victoria: “Ooh (excitedly), I went to see Grace Jones recently – I think she’s awesome! They don’t like her though (looking at the girls).”
Samantha: “What are you talking about!?!”
Victoria: “Oh, you like her do you (looking at Samantha)?”
Samantha & Cherish: “Yes!”
Victoria: “Oh OK, they like her. I think Patti Smith’s great as well (smiling)!”
Samantha: “Bowie and Jarvis Cocker.”
Cherish: “It depends though, because there are so many different ways of looking at it, like musically or ‘The Wow Factor’ – like Marilyn Manson or somebody who puts on an amazing show.”
Samantha: “Fred…”
Rosie: (laughing)
*I ask Samantha if she means Freddie Mercury*
Samantha: “Yeah, Freddie Mercury (laughing)!”
Rosie: “No, she doesn’t mean him, it’s another Fred we know, but he does actually look a lot like him though (laughing).”
Cherish: “He doesn’t look like Freddie Mercury.”
Rosie: “I’m going to pass on this question…”
Cherish: “Oh come on Rosie, I know that in your head it’s Paul McCartney!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Rosie: “He’s not a very good frontman at all, so no.”


7.Last year, The Clash released a deluxe retrospective book and Mick Jones is now set to display his personal collection of memorabilia at a London exhibition. But is there an artist / band who you’d love to see release a comprehensive book + have an exhibition of memorabilia?

All: “Not The Clash (laughing)!”
Cherish: “Brian Eno.”
Rosie: “Yeah, that would be really cool! It would have to be someone who’s monumentally big that would impress you, who’s completely untouchable…”
Cherish: “We’re really shit at answering these questions.”
Rosie: (laughing) “We’re so not functioning today!”
Cherish: “I think Brian Eno…”
Rosie: “Do you (looking at Cherish)?”
Cherish: “Yeah, because he’s done so much!”
Victoria: “People like Aphex Twin actually, who you never see, who are anonymous.”
Cherish: “But I don’t think there are many musicians who are untouchable these days – if you’re in The Music Industry, you can kind of work your way up to meeting at least some of the people who you admire.”
Samantha: “I’d agree with Brian Eno and I’d also say Bowie again – I’d like to touch all of his clothes…”
Cherish: (doing an uncanny Spinal Tap / Nigel Tufnel impression) “Don’t touch it! Don’t point! You’ve seen enough…”
All: (laughing)
*I ask the girls if they’ve ever had any Spinal Tap moments*
Rosie: “We’ve had some (laughing), like trying to find our way to the stage at certain venues – and we’ve also been given bread that’s smaller than the ham!”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “I liked it when Spinal Tap reunited for Live Earth (laughing).”


8.On a similar note, War Child has just released a new CD called ‘Heroes’ – which has been billed as, “The ultimate covers album recorded by today’s biggest acts, requested by the original legends.” But is there a musical legend who you would like to personally ask Ipso Facto to record / rework one of their classic songs?

Rosie: “Well, I saw that Paul McCartney is on there…”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “I keep mentioning his name in interviews and it’s really not good for my street cred (laughing)!”
Samantha: “That’s true (laughing).”
*I mention that Paul McCartney asked Duffy to cover Live And Let Die for the CD*
Cherish: “Are you kidding (surprised)!?!”
Rosie: “Oh My God, that is like my dream – the bitch (laughing)! Duffy’s going down!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Cherish: “It’s happened a teeny-weeny bit to us though – obviously nowhere near as big – but we did a Lesley Gore cover, You Don’t Own Me. And at our Christmas Party (I’m Dreaming Of A Black & White Christmas), we were talking to Mark Ronson and he was like (adopting a Transatlantic accent), “Oh yeah, I know her…” I was like (gasping), “You know her!?!” She’s a bit of a legend (smiling)!”
Rosie: “With Magazine, we sang backing vocals with them as well, so it was almost like we were collaborating. But, if Paul McCartney asked me to sing Live And Let Die, that would be really good, because I fucking love that song!”
Samantha: “I think it would be good to cover a band that you like, that doesn’t sound like you though, because I don’t think there’s any point in just recreating a song.”
Cherish: “This interview’s going to still be playing on our minds in 5 hours time I think – like, “Why didn’t we say that?”
Rosie: “Yeah, “Idiots!”
All: (laughing)


9.In terms of songwriting, some musicians talk about how although it’s rewarding to finish writing a song, it’s also equally as fulfilling knowing when to take a musical idea / lyric away, that isn’t going to work. Is this the same for you?

Rosie: “I hate doing that (without any hesitation)! I really can’t do that – I hate letting things go, even if I know that a song will sound better without something. It’s hard, because I much prefer having everything rather than taking away.”
Cherish: “Musically, when you think of something, even it’s really shit, you’re like, “Oh, I can make it into something.” And then, you try and try and sometimes, it just doesn’t really work or come to anything. But, you keep working at it (laughing)!”
Samantha: “Yeah (smiling).”
Victoria: “I find it really hard to program-in rhythms, like I have to play them and record them, and that means that I often just lose thoughts that are in my head. It’s really annoying, because I never rehearse – not really, apart from the gigs – so it’s really tricky for me to transfer some of my musical ideas.”


10.Would you agree that behind most great albums, there has always been a great producer?
Samantha: “I think it’s really, really important to have a good producer and someone who understands your vision and the route you want to go down…”
Rosie: “Yeah.”
Samantha: “Because you can have an amazing band with amazing songs and really shit production.”
*I comment that the majority of records which feature in ‘The Top 100 Albums Of All-Time’ lists, more often than not, always seem to have had revered producers behind the control desk*
Rosie: “Oh yeah, if you work with a producer that you really get on with, it is almost like having an extra member in the band.”
Victoria: “Yeah.”
Samantha: “It’s really good to have friendships with people who know more about the technical front – like the mixing and everything – because if they can bring that knowledge to you and make suggestions about your songs, in the long-run, it will make for far better music!”
All: “Yeah.”


11.As a band that also takes great care and pride in your artwork, which artists / groups from the past and present, do you feel have had the best sleeve designs?
Rosie: “A lot of metal bands (laughing)!”
Victoria: “Yeah!”
Cherish: “And prog bands – there’s a band called Yes, and their artwork is fucking incredible! I’m like, “YES!!!!!” (excitedly) everytime I look at it.”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “The Smiths always had really good artwork…”
Rosie: “Yeah.”
Samantha: “Like their T-shirts are amazing, but I just don’t like them as a band.”


12.Rosie, I really loved your duets with The Last Shadow Puppets and Magazine, but if you could sing a duet with anybody else, who would it be and why – and Cherish, Victoria and Samantha, if you could be the backing band for any singer for an evening, who would it be and why?
Samantha & Cherish: “Rosie would pick Paul McCartney (without any hesitation)!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Rosie: “I’m really not that much of a fan, I just fancy him a bit. Oh God (long pause + thinking), I think it would be really fun to sing with someone who’s like a proper crooner, you know like (doing a crooner impression)…”
Samantha: “Like Tom Jones (looking at Rosie)?”
Rosie: “Yeah, but not him specifically, someone like that…”
Samantha: “Maybe Elvis, if he was still alive?”
Rosie: “I don’t know? People just ask me to do them for some reason and I enjoy doing them, but now, I’m like ‘Duet Girl’ (laughing)!”
Samantha: “Stick with Paul McCartney!”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “No, I’m not going to say him again, I’m going to say (long pause + thinking)… John Lennon!”
Cherish: “Any member of The Beatles minus Ringo, because of his nose!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Samantha: “Oh God, now it’s our turn…”
Victoria: “You should ask each of us individually who we’d pick.”
Samantha: “Yeah, but can we pick any time and any era?”
*I say yes*
Victoria: “Mariah Carey – like seriously!”
Rosie: (laughing)
Cherish: “I don’t think I’d want to be in a backing band, but I would like to have a keyboard-off with Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).”
Victoria: “Wait, wait, I thought you meant singing!?!”
Cherish: “No, you’d be in the backing band for them singing (looking at Victoria).”
Victoria: “Oh right, scratch that!”
Samantha: “Did you say that you wanted to be Mariah Carey (surprised + looking at Victoria)?”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Victoria: “I’m sorry, I didn’t listen to the question properly.”
Samantha: “I’d pick The Stranglers during their About Time era, because that’s an amazing record!”
Victoria: “Aphex Twin don’t have a backing band do they?”
Rosie: “I think being the backing band for Bowie would be really cool (looking at the girls).”
All: “Yeah!”
Victoria: “Ooh, I would like to play with Stanton Moore and Buddy Rich (drummers)…”
*At 6.50pm, Ipso Facto’s Sound Engineer / Tour Manger Mark, enters the dressing room and says to the girls to give him a call when our interview has finished, so that they can then go and grab a bite to eat. So, I ask Rosie, Cherish, Victoria and Samantha, if they would like to finish up the interview where we are, but they very kindly agree to answer some more of my questions. With this in mind, I skip through to the final few…*


13.What inspires you outside of music?
Rosie: “David Lynch films.”
All: “Yeah, definitely!”
*I say that Howling Bells love David Lynch’s films*
Samantha: “Their new video (Cities Burning Down) is awesome!”
Rosie: “I’ve never heard any of their music, but we get compared to them a lot.”
*I tell the girls that they’re a really great band and lovely people as well*
Samantha: “Ahh…”
Cherish: “I enjoy reading, but because I don’t write lyrics, my favourite authors are the complete opposite…”
Samantha: “Catherine Cookson (looking at Cherish)?”
All: (laughing)
Cherish: “I do actually have a couple of Danielle Steele books as well (pausing), that’s not my favourite author though (laughing).”
Rosie: “I like Aleister Crowley.”
Samantha: “I think we’re all inspired by lots of different things outside of music really.”
All: “Yeah.”


14.If you could be photographed for any magazine and be on the front cover, which one would it be?

Rosie: “I’d say Vogue (without any hesitation)!”
Cherish: “FHM (jokingly).”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “I’d say Q – I’d like to be on the front of Q, because it’s such a classic music magazine. I’d also like to be on the front cover of the NME.”
Cherish: “GQ would be so great…”
Rosie: “GQ (surprised + looking at Cherish)? How is that relevant to anything?”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “Obviously, I would like to be on the cover of Q or Rolling Stone, but I doubt that’ll ever happen (pausing), I think we should try and get ourselves into the whole Kerrang! thing, I think it would be hilarious if we just had loads of really hardcore rock fans…”
Samantha: “We’d get bottled man!”
Rosie: “No, it would be great – they’re really loyal.”
Victoria: “Mark, our Sound Engineer / Tour Manager, will put in a good word for us!”
All: (laughing)


15.What’s on your Rider today?
Victoria: “Oh God, don’t – we’ve been marking the Riders out of 10.”
Rosie: “We have a points system with Riders, but we’ve actually been treated really well recently. We got an 8 out of 10 Rider the other day (smiling), which was just almost perfect! But today, we got some carrot sticks, celery and dips…”
Samantha: “It was a 2 out of 10 Rider.”
All: (laughing)
Rosie: “I don’t know whether they’re trying to put us on a diet, but that’s all we got. Whereas the other day, we got a big feast (smiling)!”
Samantha: “They gave us £20 and we were like, “We’ll go and get it ourselves!” So we said, “This is the best Rider we’ve ever had (laughing)!”
Cherish: “And we had change leftover!”
Rosie: “We put black tights and ear plugs on the Riders, but we never get them.”
Samantha: “No, we never get them – so we’re going to have ladders in our tights and go deaf.”
All: (laughing)
*I ask the girls if you have to send your Rider request to each venue in advance*
All: “Yeah.”
Samantha: “There’s no point though…”
Rosie: “No, because they don’t listen to a word you say anyway – you turn up and it’s different everytime!”
Samantha: “And Hummus is on every Rider…”
Rosie: “Yeah (laughing), it seems to be a standard.”
Samantha: “It’s horrible!”
Rosie: “Do you know why it’s called a Rider (looking at me)?”
Samantha: “I discovered that the other day actually, I looked it up on the Internet. It means an addition to the band performance contract or something.”
Rosie: “Oh, I’d been wondering for ages and I was asking everyone, but nobody knew, but we’ve looked it up now!”


16.If you were asked to put together a TV show in a similar vein to ‘Storytellers’ – whereby 5 musicians play songs together, talk about their music / respective careers, jam and tell anecdotes etc. Who would you ask to appear?
Rosie: “I’d just completely freak out – I get so star struck if I respect their work, I wouldn’t even be able to get a sentence out…”
*I ask Rosie if she would ask Paul McCartney to appear*
All: (laugh hysterically)
Rosie: “Don’t make out I’m obsessed with Paul McCartney (mock defiantly), it was just a childhood thing that’s stuck with me (laughing)!”
Victoria: “They’d all be different.”
Rosie: “Yeah, they’d all be different.”
Victoria: “Well, let’s have 1 each and then a spare 1 that we all like (looking at the girls)?”
Samantha: “I’m no good at these on-the-spot questions, I’ll have to think about it…”
Rosie: “Do you mean someone that you’d really want to work with?”
Samantha: “Or just someone who you’d like to hear tell stories about their songs and lives?”
*I say that it can be for either reason*
Rosie: “I would say Thom Yorke – I really want to work with him, because I think from the past Decade, he’s just the biggest genius!”
Victoria: “That would be cool! I’d say Patti Smith.”
Cherish: “Um (long pause + thinking).”
Victoria: “Matt Bellamy (looking at Cherish)? Or a member of Take That (jokingly)?”
Cherish: “I’m going to go with Cheryl Cole from Girls Aloud…”
Victoria: “What (surprised)!?!”
Cherish: “I’m joking (mock defensively)!”
All: (laughing)
Victoria: “You could ask, “What happened in the toilet Cheryl?”
Cherish: “I really don’t know, this is such a hard question.”
Samantha: “I’m going to pick Marilyn Manson.”
Cherish: “Please don’t ask me, because it’s just too hard – I really can’t decide.”
Samantha: “Or Bowie I guess?”
Cherish: “Oh right (suddenly), I’ve got 1 – Corey Taylor from Slipknot!”
Victoria: “Oh yes (excitedly)!”
Rosie: (laughing) “Corey!”
Victoria: “That’s a good one Cherish.”
Cherish: “Do you know why? Because he has so many different singing styles, that he’d be able to use a different voice for every song!”
*That Ipso Facto ‘Storytellers’ line-up in full: Thom Yorke, Patti Smith, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie and Corey Taylor from Slipknot*


17.What’s the most memorable MySpace message that Ipso Facto has ever received?

Samantha: “There was one guy who said, “I have a shoe fetish and I was just wondering if you could send me any of your shoes that you’ve worn on stage?”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Samantha: “We’ve got a really sweet fan in Japan as well, who came to London…”
Rosie: “On her own!”
Samantha: “And she’s our first crying Japanese fan! It was amazing!”
Victoria: “What was the reason she came over for (looking at the girls)?”
Rosie: “She came over for our London gigs with Magazine and our own headline show.”
Samantha: “I gave her a T-shirt and she cried!”
Victoria: “Oh God yeah, we were signing her maps and everything (smiling).”
Cherish: “She’s probably older than me – it’s just insane!”
Rosie: “We so want to go to Japan, that’s like our fantasy and I think we’d do really well there as well!”
Samantha: “Our Japanese EP has just come out there as you know, because you’ve got it…”
*I remark that a lot of female Japanese Ipso Facto fans will probably dress like the girls themselves*
Cherish: “Well, I think our hair is more like theirs anyway (smiling).”
Rosie: “Yeah (laughing).”
Cherish: “This particular fan did have a dress which she called Ipso Facto.”
Samantha: “Yeah, it did look very Ipso Facto.”
Victoria: “It looked like that one I wore for the NME shoot – you know the one with the lace in black? It wasn’t mine, but…”


18.Lastly, how does it feel all living in the same house together, and is being in a band / the lifestyle, everything you expected it would be?
Samantha: “We used to live together…”
Rosie: “3 of us used to anyway – Victoria didn’t live in the house, we found her at a bus stop!”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “She did have a room if she ever wanted to stay, there was a spare room and that was Victoria’s room!”
Victoria: “Yeah, they were very sweet (smiling).”
Cherish: “We don’t live together anymore though.”
Samantha: “No, just me and Cherish.”
Cherish: “It’s like Ipso Matchbox (laughing), it has the basics and a couple of rooms – it’s alright…”
Rosie: “I now live with our Manager as well, which is a bit weird.”
Samantha: “But being in a band is everything we expected and more! You want to see how we tour Steve, we’ve got a little tin-can bus and Chris, our Manager, is hell-bent on budget tours! When we played in Berlin, we stayed in an abandoned orphanage!”
All: (laughing)
Samantha: “It’s just horrible, but we’ll appreciate it more when we do have a proper tour bus!”
Victoria: “Definitely!”
Cherish: “We wouldn’t have it any other way though…”
Rosie: “We have so much fun – so much fun (smiling)!”
Victoria: “At the moment, we’re also driving back home to London after every gig.”
Samantha: “Yeah, and we just emptied three bin-liners out of the bus today.”
Rosie: “We were living in a bin basically, there was rubbish everywhere…”
Samantha: “And Chris’ underwear!”
All: (laugh hysterically)
Rosie: “Being in a band is just the easiest life in the world (pausing), well, it’s not really, because it does take a certain type of person to do it you know? But luckily, we all are (smiling)!”

A very special thanks to Rosie, Cherish, Victoria and Samantha, to Ipso Facto’s Management Dave + Chris, and Sound Engineer / Tour Manager Mark, for all of their time and help.


Oxford Set List

Introducing
The Hunt
You Don’t Own Me
Joined By The Swords
Balderdash
Ears & Eyes
New
6 ¾
Queen
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Harmonise


www.myspace.com/ipsofactomyspace


"Can't you hear us laughing at you?
We're laughing at you now
You sold your joke for pennies
Yet you have never been so proud"

wers to questions...It's never about looking forward to it. Actually maybe I should change the
script, maybe we are looeir musicm the 3rd album?