3.11.08 The Other Rooms
Louise Morris & Kate Edwards
L: How do you feel about becoming successful coincidently at the same time as other musicians from your school, Alleyns? (Jack Penate, The Maccabees)
F: Yeah loads of people from Alleyns have gone on to be really successful, I see Jack all the time.
L: They used to put up all the news releases about them on the school notice boards
F: No way, that’s weird
L: Your lyrics are quite dark and interesting and I wondered where you got the inspiration for them from?
F: Like nightmares and fairytales and having a bit of a twisted imagination. Like a lot of the time I can’t sleep and nightmares keep me awake.
L: Did you have an imaginary friend or anything like that?
F: I actually had a seagull
L: What was its’ name?
F: It didn’t really have a name it just attacked people in my class that I didn’t like...but I didn’t have an imaginary friend. I had lots of imaginary games that go on every day like, when you like have all these magical powers and you’d end up laying on a trampoline and one of those powers would be flying, but then you go down again then up again and down again really quickly, so you’d be flying.
L: Your song Donkey has an odd sense of ancient folk tales and morality stories: Do you ever read folkloric tales to inspire you?
F: Grimm’s fairytales always really affected me as a kid um, like fairytales always have really...even The Little Mermaid; the original is really
L: horrible
F: Yeah really horrible she dies and becomes...
L: Sea foam
F: That’s it she’s sea foam! She’s so heartbroken she just...expires and dissolves. I think a lot of fairytales have a much darker reading. I mean think about Bambi, Jesus Christ, [getting more animated] like wasn’t that one of the first Disney films ever made and the mother shot, brutally...
L: quite traumatising
F: And you know the Lion King, Mufassa...I mean I saw that in America when I was quite a bit younger and I remember having to be taken out of the cinema crying. Death and retribution in Disney films
K: Those feelings like that almost make you want to recreate them...
L: Twisted fairytales
F: Yeah, I guess so [more pensively] just I think its a way of explaining what’s going on internally in a visual way, it’s like taking it all and making it into a fantasy world which makes it a bit easier to handle.
L: You did a cover of Cold War Kids and I was wondering what is your favourite cover done by a band?
F: I think... [mutters] what’s my favourite cover?..Oh, I think Fucked Up did a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s Since You’ve Been Gone and [starts death metal-esque screaming] SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GOOONE!
L: If you could have a gig absolutely anywhere, with no limitations, where would you have it?
F: I’d just like to do it in a gigantic cathedral, I think that would be amazing, or in a big cave, one of those huge caves with loads of stalactites and stalagmites, and there’d be loads of candles everywhere and lights and stuff, so it would be like when people have those weird ceremonies in caves, like..Uh in Mexico when they bring all those people into caves and have weird rituals and ceremonies and decorate them and shit...
K: So it’s more like an experience?
F: Yeah, yeah... [drifts off into thought]
L: Like Union chapel in London
F: Yeah, actually I’m doing a gig there soon
L: I went to a gig there recently and they had an interval when you could get cakes
F: Cakes...yeah, we don’t give people food.
L: Would you like to make gigs a little more retro with extras?
F: I don’t want to give people food. I don’t think that’s good, I wanna make people sick.
L: So, living in London do you find that there’s a real community of singer/songwriters around you?
F: Everyone knows each other, it gets confusing..It’s like a bit doo der doo der der, sometimes you have to step out of it, it can get a bit..Like if you’re doing a festival season and you see everyone back stage and you’re all like “Hey, hey” but no one can really remember each others’ names...well me.
L: What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done in that situation?
F: ooh, just really me not remembering people’s names. There was a rumour going round, it was a rumour, that I couldn’t remember one of the girls from Ipso Facto’s names so I cried!
L: Oh!
F: Well it was, I didn’t cry...i think i did get really embarrassed...it’s cos i’ve met her four times [whispers] fucking hell. I felt so bad, but I didn’t cry [laughing]. ..And they all look exactly the same.
L: I’ve noticed you’re a big fan of dressing up and costumes...
F: Yeah I like dressing up
L: What have you dressed up as recently?
F: Oh God I was dressed up as a sort of gypsy sea monster...but I don’t really choose something to dress up as, it just sort of, things come and I wear them and it sort of creates an outfit [now speaking in a deliberately posh accent] of its’ own accord.
L: What did you wear for Hallowe’en?
F: I went in a clown suit, unsurprisingly, yeah. But it was because I’d been wearing it all day and I had to go to a party so just went as I was.
L: Are you nervous at all, as this is your first headline tour?
F: I was really nervous when I came on tour but it’s kind of been getting easier, I think you just learn to become a bit desensitised. Its’ really cool though, I’ve enjoyed it.
L: And you like to provoke a strong reaction from your audience?
F: Yeah, it was really great yesterday.
L: I saw you at the Shoreditch music festival...and I was the girl who passed out in the front row...so you did provoke quite a strong reaction!
F: Oh no, I’m so sorry
L: Don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault, it was just really hot that day and I just conked my chin on the bar and fainted into the crowd
F: That’s proper rock’n’roll. Were you carried out?
L: I was caught luckily! So that kind of winds this up, apart from; what are your influences?
F: Disney films: The death of Simba’s father in The Lion King. It was nice to meet you again.
L: You too, good luck with the gig!
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