The ‘Spray Q&A: Aluminum Babe

Aluminum Babe are the Swedish/New York electro-punk discopop outfit responsible for October’s Everything 2 Me single and Vit-ri-fied album - the CD that Huw Stephens from Radio 1 called "The best new record I’ve heard in years."

We caught up with Aluminum Babe for a little chat about Sweden, Sergio Leone and Indian philosophy…

Who are you, and where are you?
I’m George the bass player and
co-writer of Vitrified. Right now its 4:10 am in NYC, I was online
looking at pictures of our last tour Burn Ur Money And Dance with the
welsh band From Mars.

I’m Anna, I sing and play guitar. I’m in Sweden for the moment but
will soon go to NYC to play some shows… rehearse, write and more…

Why should people buy your album?
George - People should buy all
new independent records they like, including ours. The only way
independent bands make any money is when people buy the record. That’s
the only shot we have. Besides, how else are we supposed to pay for the
motorlodge.

Darren (drummer) - Why should people buy your album? There’s no
filler songs - it’s like listening to a Greatest Hits record where you
don’t have to skip any tracks.

Anna - I think it’s a really good album, and that’s why people should buy it.

How did you go down around the UK earlier this month?
G -Burn Ur
Money and Dance was great. We set out to do 18 shows in 18 days - we
ended up doing 16 insane shows - nonstop shenanigans and bagged 2. One
because the promoter at the last minute tried to get the support bands
to pay money to play, that’s where that ended. The other one, well
let’s just say we loaded in setup sound-checked and then packed up and
split. I think the young lady’s name was Sweetheart. I would say that
the rest of the tour was everything 18 days with 9 people in a Ford
Splitter should be.

D - For the most part the shows were really well attended and the
promoters, believe it or not were really cool and looked after us. We
made a lot of friends and we are doing it again in the spring.

A - Everything except the Haggis.

How do we pronounce your name? Aloominum Babe or Alumin-yum Babe?
G - I think without the "I" its aluminum

D - I think we should change our name to Chica Alumino.

A - Alright….It’s Alu-mi-num…..

Alice Cooper?
G - Anna really turned me on to early Alice Cooper,
I always knew his singles but the records and the live show are
incredible. One of the best Garage bands of all time. Schools Out, 18,
c’mon.

D - Once we went to Scarefest @ The Madison Square Garden for
Halloween and Alice was there signing things for the kids. This little
kid kept calling him Alex Cooper.

A - I fell in love with Alice Cooper when I was 11. I love the early
stuff like Killer, Easy Action and Love It To Death. They are really
good albums. You should look ‘em up if you don’t know them. Just
thinking about them makes me want to put ‘em on and crank up the
volume… I like all of the stuff, though… even the ones he made in
the 80’s… they are totally different.

Why did you choose to cover Ca Plane Pour Moi on your album?
G - I love The Damned. Anna loves Plastique Bertrand.

Tell us about Gunnar Lundkvist
A - He’s a Swedish comic artist.
He draws one called Klas Katt. He’s really famous in France too, in the
underground scene. Google for pics of "Klas Katt" and you get to see
what he’s about.

Who played The Ugly in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?
Eli
Wallach; one of the great NYC actors. He carries the whole film if you
ask me. Have you seen Once Upon A Time In The West? That’s Sergio Leone
at his best.

What’s better: Sweden or New York?
G - New York is the best place in the World.

D - If we had the Swedish system of GOVT and Caribbean weather all year round, It might make it better, but who needs it?

A
- That’s a hard one. They’re so different… usually what’s good with
NYC is bad with Stockholm, and the other way around. Like going out to
party you wanna be in NYC. To breath good air you wanna be in
Stockholm. I really love both but I think I might be a little more in
love with NYC

What’s on the Aluminum Babe iPod?
A - I don’t understand this question. Am I slow or is it just the hangover???

Preach about something you love (not related to the band) in 100 words.
A
- To preach I usually have to be drunk so it’s kind of hard. I usually
preach about Alice Cooper or Ayur Veda, which means science of life. It’s
Indian philosophy and medicine. It’s 5000 years old. The purpose of
Ayur Veda is to teach people how they can influence, form and control
their lives to not get affected by disease or ageing. The leading Ayur Vedic principle is that the mind exercises the most influence over
the body, and that freedom from disease depends on our contact with our
consciousness and get it into balance. It’s really interesting and
definitely worth it to check it out. Unfortunately my own mind is a
mess, so I’m pretty far away…

What are you going to do right now?
G - Go buy some water colour paint and then have dinner with a friend.

Favourite movie soundtrack?
A - It’s Lilja 4-Ever, a Swedish film by Lucas Moodysson. Really good movie by the way. It’s about ‘trafficking’ from the Baltic States (don’t know what it’s called in
English… basically young kids that they trick to come to Sweden and
they become sex slaves… terrible stuff…) Darren the drummer really
likes the soundtrack to the remake of Romeo And Juliet. He says all the
songs are good, but we have our suspicions about him.

Motorhead have Cheese And Chive Ruffles on their rider. What’s on yours?
Jameson whiskey, rotisserie chickens, Veggie stuff for Anna.

What are you going to do right now?
Drink some coffee, it’s goddamn early.

Visit the official Aluminum Babe website

Listen to Everything 2 Me on the Aluminum Babe Myspace page

[interview by Stuart Heritage]