We have a feeling that 2006 might just be the year of Ladyfuzz. As far as Austrian female-fronted storming art-rock new-wave music goes, at least, Ladyfuzz is where it’s going to be.
Monday saw the release of kazoo-tastic Monster, the latest single by Ladyfuzz. And if you’ve heard it and it hasn’t made you bewilderingly excited about Kerfuffle, the debut Ladyfuzz album (out in February), then there’s something wrong with your goddamn ears. Because Ladyfuzz – make no mistake – are brilliant.
We caught up with the wondrous Liz from Ladyfuzz for a chat about fruit, Rubik’s cubes and gender divisions in the French justice system…
Who are you, and where are you?
Liz, Ladyfuzz. Sitting in the back of our tour bus, stuck in traffic between Carlisle and Newcastle.
Why should people buy your records?
Because they are special… made with love, passion and attention to detail.
How is recording the album going?
It’s done…yippie!!! We are still double checking the masters, but its basically finished. So we are working on the artwork now.
Oh Marie? Who is Marie? Is she real, and if she is, is she proud of having a song about her that goes "Ah ah ah oh ah ah oh"?
Oh
Marie! is a song about the French actress Marie Trintignant. And
unfortunately she’ll never get to hear the song because she was killed
by her rock star boyfriend Bertrand Cantat (of Noir Desire) a couple of
years ago. (Allow me the rant…)
Her murder sparked a big debate in France and split the nation into
two fractions: one side simply calling it murder and wanting Cantat
imprisoned and the other half claiming it was a ‘Crime of Passion’ and
he should go free. In France ‘Crime of Passion’ is a pretty accepted
way to excuse someone killing their lover in a fit of jealousy and
rage. It makes me sick to the stomach to hear such a stupid phrase. It
is not just a French thing though but pretty much the same all over the
world. When someone kills a person they feel passionate about in an act
of jealous rage the law basically considers him as having acted on
non-human but ‘strong animal’ instincts and he can not be held
responsible because he did not make a conscious human decision?!? How
fucked up is that. So you can just allow your male/animal instincts to
get the better of you and kill your girlfriend/wife?… this is 2005.
The whole idea ties in with the statistic findings that women who
kill their partners go to prison for much, much longer than men who
kill their wives. Which is based again on the rage killings that are
sentenced as manslaughter or crimes of passion. The problem being that
the sheer physical disadvantage of a woman makes it pretty impossible
to kill someone in a fit of rage so she has to plan her way out (mostly
its women trying to escape abusive partners anyway) and either kill her
man in the sleep, with poison or whatever sneaky way she can think of.
And because she made a conscious decision and did not react in affect
she is called a murderer and locked away for life.
The scary thing now is that her circumstances like years of rape and
or abuse are not at all taken into account by the law (though I think
they are currently trying to change that). A man on the other hand who
finds his wife in bed with someone else (or an even less hardcore
situation) can basically just ‘fly into a rage’ and beat his wife to
death and gets away with a couple of years in prison because it was
‘the animal inside him’. But a woman trying to escape constant year
long abuse is called an evil bunny boiler and locked away until the end
of her days. It’s as if there are two different sets of rules for men
and women and I think it’s totally sick that in an "oh soo evolved
century" like ours such medieval laws still exist…’Crime of
Passion’…get a grip!
Your name is Ladyfuzz. Are you championing the cause for there to be
more female police officers in England, or is the name just another way
of saying ‘minge’?
Aahhh… no… it’s neither… I used to be called
Fuzz/y by my flatmate when my hair grew back after a shaved head
experience, so I called myself Lady Fuzz when DJing and recording as a
solo artist. Then when we turned into a band we just pulled the words
together and voila… Ladyfuzz was born. It’s not a bad thing in itself,
but I’d prefer it if people wouldn’t only think of ladies pubes when
hearing our music… unless of course they are so turned on by the sexy
experience that – no matter if they are girls or boys – all they can
think of is getting their hands on some.
We’re impressed by the speed-of-light drum kit trashing/reassembling that you did. Are you also good at Rubik’s cubes?
Nah,
I manage to get 4 sides perfect and always have 2 pieces left over that
are wrong – but then I’ve never actually spent much time bothering. But
since Ben‘s the one doing it… (hang on..let me wake him up): he
shakes his head with eyes closed…
In the movie The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, who played The Good, The Bad And The Ugly?
?!??!?!
What’s all this Bloc Party hoohaa?
The Bloc Party rumour – ok –
the story is this: pretty much anything you ever read about it is
probably wrong and stems from copy and paste wrong information on the
net.
I became friends with Kele at our ex-daytime job a few years back.
We moved in together which was real good fun and ended up with a side
project band called The Answer which after a short while had to give
way to Bloc Party success and Ladyfuzz founding. Kele then helped me
out playing a gig with me in Berlin (as did Tom Vek) and one in London
before I had found the real Ladyfuzz band members, and that’s that.
We’re still really close friends and I’m dead proud of him.
Preach about something you love (not related to the band) in 100 words or less.
I
love colours, totally addicted. Big dresses, if it was for me the whole
world would step out in Haute Couture every day. The best things for
me, though, are the forces of nature. I live high up and every night I
get excited if there’s a great sunset. I spent one hour in the pouring
rain on Brighton beach before our gig on my own staring out at the sea.
Ice, snow and all that – can’t get enough of it. Used to lie in the
snow taking close ups of snowflakes when I was little. I force the boys
in the band to ballroom dance with me to the beats of our hearts. I
used to be a figure skater and still think it’s the best sport in the
whole wide world. It incorporates everything I love; music, dance,
performance, sport and little sparkly dresses… there you go… hopeful
romantic me.
What’s on the Ladyfuzz iPod?
There’s no iPod in Ladyfuzz land,
and I really wouldn’t want one – they are so unsexy, and I think I
would start hating all my music if it was constantly accessible.
Favourite movie soundtrack?
Probably Rosemary’s Baby, although
only last night Ben and me sang ourselves to sleep with updated
versions of our fav The Sound Of Music songs.
Motorhead have Cheese And Chive Ruffles on their rider. What’s on yours?
Fruit
and healthy things… oh and JD and diet coke, and gummy sweets to feed
Matt‘s Haribo addiction which he treats his ADD with.
What can we expect from Ladyfuzz in the future?
Danceable
experimental pop. We figured we just have to give into that after
listening to our record being mastered and realising we’ve made a
‘proper pop record’. That was a scary moment, since that has never been
our intention. I mean there are distorted kazoos, recorders and pots
and pans on it…whatever happened?!?!
Teach us some Austrian please.
Leinwand… speak: liewownd.
Actually means cinema screen or canvas, but it’s a real Austrian way of
saying cool, and you can put an added stress on it by pulling the word
out real long and slow as in coooollll.
What are you going to do right now?
That’s for me to know… and for you not to find out…
Go to the Ladyfuzz Myspace page immediately to hear some Ladyfuzz music
[interview by Stuart Heritage]