After their subliminal debut, the dark dreamy imagery of 2000’s ‘Felt Mountain’ (which disappointingly didn’t entail a tour to Australia), Goldfrapp spent a long year and a half on the road touring. Finally, they’ve returned with the more up-beat highly acclaimed follow up ‘Black Cherry,’ which will see them hit our shores in July as part of the Splendour In The Grass bill and a handful of other special shows. To let us experience the magic and glitterball glam that is the Goldfrapp live show, Semone Maksimovic caught up with Will Gregory (one half of Goldfrapp) in the lead up to the shows to talk about Black Cherry, touring and what we should expect when we catch them on their first Australian tour.
What inspired you to start Goldfrapp?
Well, it was just Alison and me getting together really, cause we’d been doing music and for one reason or another it wasn’t what we totally wanted to be doing and I think both of us were on the lookout to get something going that was much more our own, so that was it really, we got together and started writing and basically we had some down time, or rather time off from various other things we had to do and it took us a while to get our thing started. By the time we got around to signing to Mute we had probably half an album’s worth of stuff and that was it.
So what usually inspires you to create music?
I think other music does, when you hear something and go ‘yeah yeah yeah, that’s it, that’s what we want to do’ and just jamming, I think that’s the way we get somewhere usually by dreaming off to another place. It’s very hard to sit down and talk about music; I think it’s a lot to do with the fact that wherever music happens in your brain, it’s not where words happen.
Do you have a set way of writing songs normally or do they all just come about differently in more of a natural way?
They do really, I think it’s like anything really, probably the same as journalism, it’s just about getting over that beginning phase, where you can just be walking around and get a certain idea before going home to work on it; over the first few days it’s pouring out, then over the next few days you sit back and think ‘is that actually good?’ and sometimes after you go through that little phase you throw it away and start again. I think if you enjoy living in a world of doubt, then song writing is for you and that pretty much goes for any creative thing. It’s a little like combat actually, where you wrestle this thing and sometimes you trick it out and it comes when you’re not looking, it sort of pops up on you, I don’t know it’s a funny old job! (laughs)
Yeah, a weird one to pick, are your parents proud of it?
(laughs) Ah, no not particularly, but there’s that point where there’s no going back is there really?
Having so many journalists around the globe busily reviewing and describing Goldfrapp’s music, how would you describe your music in your own words?
I think probably a little like, bumbling, dreamlike and made by sex-starved Aliens (laughs) Alison’s just put her head around the door as if to say what are you talking about now?’ (laughs). It’s a sort of disco song format in four/four time usually, I don’t know how to describe it, it is quite hard actually, I’m glad I’m not a journalist!
What kind of a vibe do you like to set for the crowd when you play live?
I think touring Felt Mountain for a year and a half as we did had a bit of an influence on the second album as far as playing very slow quiet almost non-existent music to people live, had a certain kind of tension to it that was quite difficult to maintain, I think we though it would be great to do something a little more up-tempo that we could get down to and enjoy and have a bit more of a raunchy time with on stage. Cause last time, the audiences were great, they kept really hushed and quiet, so that was lovely, but at the same time we would look out and see people’s faces (most of them looking as if they were fast asleep), so this time we want to see people sleeping and jumping around at the same time.
We want the crowd to go home in ecstasy, that would be good and fatigue cause they’ve worn themselves out at the show, we like them to feel fulfilled in as many ways as possible, tinged with a bit of awe as if they’ve been on some very steep mountain.
How long did it take you to write and record Black Cherry?
Probably too long, it took about a year almost to the day where we were sitting n a room going ‘oh god we’ve got to write another album’ between that and getting it to a mixed phase, then we went through the mix thing which took a long time and then finishing it off and worrying about artwork and doing the photo shoot and that probably finished just before Christmas.
You become a bit of a monk during all that, a bit possessed, a bit anal about it all and it’s a lovely feeling when it is all done and you stop and just let go, for us that didn’t really last too long before we went into rehearsal and started it all over again. We’re not really into doing filler tracks on the album, we try and make it all as perfect as we can, you’ve got to remember that you’ve got to go and play it live then and there’s nothing worse than when you have to play your own music and it’s daft.
What do you hope people get out of listening to the record?
I hope it takes them somewhere, a bit of a journey away from where they are, I think that’s what we both like about music, it’s ability to take you out of your head literally and keep you out of there for as long as possible.
What would you say has been the highlight of your career thus far?
The perfect day, you know you have good days where a lot of things happen, you know, like we just popped into the studio and we heard this track being mixed and it sounded great, then we went to a meeting where we met so-and-so because they were talking about using your music on a film and then we went to a meeting with the record company cause they had some ideas for this track, then we had lunch before going to a screening of something in the afternoon because they were interested in using some of our material for that movie also. You know what I mean? It’s sort of like a day when things all seem to fall into place and it seems that everything you’re doing today is exactly what I want to be doing.
You guys looking forward to finally hitting the Australian shores next month?
Definitely, yeah, we felt like we should have come over there last time around, we were really keen and the fact that we didn’t make it makes us super keen this time round.
We’re looking forward to getting in our t-shirts with the beautiful weather over there.
What should first-time Australian audiences expect from a Goldfrapp live experience when you guys come out?
Well I guess this is great, cause no one has seen a show of ours before and has ever seen Alison in action; I think that’s what the live show is really about. She’s just a great performer, don’t think I’ve seen anybody else quite like her, I won’t even talk about it, cause you’ll see for yourself what I mean, but I think that’ll be great for everyone, it adds a new dimension when you see her actually performing the songs, that you definitely don’t get on the record. It’s quite a tour de force actually what she does.
Goldfrapp Australian tour dates:
Sat 19th July, Splendour in the Grass – Byron Bay (Sold Out)
Mon 21st July, The Metro – Sydney
Wed 23rd July, Prince of Wales – Melbourne
Black Cherry is out now on Virgin.
