Gar nicht kalt
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Wer kennt sie nicht, diese wunderbare Girl-Band Go-Go's, die es bereits 1978 gegeben hat, und neben Belinda Carlisle hat auch Gitarristin Jane Wiedlin einige mehr oder wenige erfolgreiche Versuche gestartet, solo weiterzumachen. Ihre derzeitige Band nennt sich Frosted, besteht aus der üblichen Gesang-Gitarre-Bass-Drums-Kombination, und die Songs auf dem gerade erschienenden Debutalbum "Cold" strotzen nur so vor Energie und Spielfreude - rotzige kleine Popsongs, vorgetragen von einer wunderbaren Jane Wiedlin, die ich am 03.07.97 aus den Staaten an der Strippe hatte...
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Your album "Cold" was produced by Marc Waterman (Elastica, Menswear, etc.) - was that choice intentional, were you looking for a certain kind of sound?
Well, it was mostly when I heard the Elastica-album, I thought it was so brilliant, and the feeling that the album had, it was so lively and joyful and noisy, and that was just the kind of record I wanted to make. We had a short list of like five people that we were interested in, and he was right up there at the top with one other guy that did the Breeders' record, and we met with both of them, and everyone in the band was sort of in love with Marc, ‘cause he's sort of like a kid, he's really enthousiastic, he didn't act like a boss. You know, a lot of producers are very controlling, and that it doesn't matter what the bands think, and he was just the opposite of that, he was more like a fifth member of the band. So, he just had the perfect personality for us.
Talking of the other three band-members - where, how and when did you meet them?
Well, let's see, I started the band in the summer of 1995, and I was working with three guys I was friends with, and there was the ex-drummer of Blondie, and he didn't really have a lot time, ‘cause he was in four or five other bands as well, and I wanted to get a record-deal and start recording the songs for an album, so I started to look for another drummer, and that's when I found Lance, and he knew the other two (Brian, Sean). The line-up was changing for about a year and a half until we ended up with line-up that we have now. So, it's kind of like ‘friends-of-friends-of-friends'...
Are you the main songwriter of the band then?
Because of the way the band started, I had a whole bunch of new songs already written, and I didn't know what to do with them, and then my manager - who's brilliant! - said "Hey, why don't we start a band?!?", which had never really occured to me, you know, I just thought "Oh, what can I do with all these songs?". So, I had lots and lots of songs already written, and on this record either I wrote everything alone, or I wrote things with old, old friends of mine, like Charlotte from the Go-Go's, who wrote four of the songs with me, and my friend Kevin Hunter from the band Wire Train, he co-wrote the single "Call Me Crazy" with me, and we've been friends for 20 years, so it was more of getting together with my friends and we'd write these songs, and it was just fun and good and easy-going, and there wasn't anything like "Oh, yeah, let's write a hit-single and make lots of money" - it was more like "Let's have some fun!" and so some good music. Bringing the songs to my band, they all have their own individual styles of playing, and I think the band-sound was really created by the four of us together. I think on our next record the band will probably be more involved with the song-writing.
Your lyrics seem to be like little stories about your friends or people you know. So, what do they say to you when they recognize that the song is about them?
Some people know that the songs are about them, and some of them don't, and you've got to be careful with that, ‘cause in the past I've written songs about people and they've gotten really offended. But mostly, I just like to write about what I know about, I used to write about politics, but then I thought I should just stick with what I know. I figure eventually that everyone will find out which songs are about them, and there's the song "Cold" about murdering someone, and it's about my husband, and he thinks it's so funny, and sometimes when we play live I say: "Oh, I'm gonna dedicate this song to my husband", and people think it's a lovesong, and it's like "I hate you! I wanna murder you!". Like when I'm in love then I'm really in love, and I'm mad then I'm really mad!
What bands do you enjoy listening to then?!?
Well, actually, one band, that's an old band from Memphis, they were called Big Star, I've been listening to them a lot lately, they're from the 70s, and they never really got popular but they're really influentual on a lot of song-writers I know. I always listen to all the female musicians, ‘cause I just relate to other women, I've been listening to Veruca Salt's new album a lot, and I love English bands! I don't know what it is, maybe it's something in their water, I mean there are so many great bands from England, I love Oasis, Pulp, and as I've said earlier I love that Elastica album, and actually most of my influences from my past were probably English, just from being a very little kid hearing the Beatles and then hearing Roxy Music and David Bowie and people like that, and then the early punk days, when the Go-Go's first started, when we were just so in love with the Buzzcocks, The Clash, and all these amazing bands from England. So, yes, the whole English scene has always been really influental. Over here, there are lots and lots of good local bands, and pop music has had huge resurgence here, which hasn't really translated yet to radio or big record sales or anything like that, but it just seems like that the kids that are going to the clubs, are getting into pop, which I think is great, ‘cause there's nothing like a well-written pop-song! Especially when it has some bite to it!
Now, you've been in this whole music industry thing for a long, long time, and is there anything which annoys you most of all?
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Everything! No, the lesson that I have to learn everyday is just to do the best job I can, and stop worrying about other people, because you can't control anybody else, and that's the most frustrating part of being a musician, because I know so many musicians that are just brilliant, and they never get anywhere, and then you see really mediocre bands doing great, and there just doesn't seem to be any logic to it, and in a way there maybe no logic to it, so you just have to relax about that, ‘cause otherwise it would drive you insane!
So, how on earth did you end up on Roadrunner Records, ‘cause they're widely known for their hardcore metal kind of stuff?
Well, over in America, all the Roadrunner bands are like death metal, and at first I thought, god, why does Roadrunner want us, this is so weird. What Stefan at Roadrunner told me, is that they are really interested in branching out into different styles of music, and that they especially interested in pop, and everyone there loved our record. I mean, he'd sent it around to all the different Roadrunner offices, and they all said "Yeah, this is great - let's go for it!", and that's the kind of response we were looking for. I knew I didn't wanna sign with a major label, ‘cause I just feel like the chances of getting lost in the shuffle are too great, and I knew I didn't wanna sign with a really tiny indie label, because they wouldn't even have the money to let us go over and play and do the things you need to do in order for people to hear your record. So, Roadrunner was kind of like this in-between-thing, where's they're small enough to know who we are, but they're big enough to get the job done. That's what they told me!
So, when are you planning to come to Europe?
Well, Brian and I are coming over in August to do some promotion, and then we're hoping to be back in Europe in September to start doing shows, and I just wanna concentrate on Europe, I mean, I'm planning on just going over and staying over there as long as we can, and trying to do as many shows as we can. Right now, it's kind of like waiting and see what happens with the record, but I really, really wanna go over there and play, ‘cause I think one of the best things about Frosted is our live show's really fun.
Tja, und da können wir auch nichts anderes tun als warten - oder einfach mal das Album "Cold" (erschienen auf Roadrunner Records) von Frosted anhören und gutfinden!
[Erstveröffentlichung im Baby Talk-Fanzine #11, August 1997]
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Interview: -David Bluhm- Fotos: -Pressefreigaben-
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