Ahead of her Irish shows, Alison Goldfrapp talks about the early days, weird outfits and lesbian fixations with TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Do you smile sage-like at recollections of your early attempts in music?
It was all fun, wasn’t it? Part of a journey. I tend not to think about those early days now, but if I do it’s with amusement. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it’s fun to experiment as I did then – I still do, I reckon – but it’s all part of a course through life.
Did you have clear-cut ambitions, or were your plans quite vague?
I started singing professionally when I was about 20. I sang with a dance company that was funded by the British Council, and I travelled abroad a lot. For someone of my age that was very exciting, as it introduced me to lots of different kinds of music. From that point on I knew music was what I wanted to do, but I wasn’t quite sure how I saw myself in that area. Back then, it was all about constructing sounds with my voice, and I was very interested in that. On occasions I’d get record company people wooing me, but I was never that interested because I didn’t want to do what they thought I should be doing.
You’re an art-school graduate, correct?
Yep. For me art school was what really brought together my ideas about what I wanted to do, and how I saw myself in that. That helped forge a whole way of working for me. I had no expectations of art school. I just went there, had a great time, met many people, a few of whom I’m still very good friends with. It was being in an environment where I had the freedom to express what I wanted, and it taught me a method of working, which I applied to pretty much everything that followed. For me, it was like school – the education I never had.
Art school and all that it encompasses can be viewed as pretentious, but ideas are ideas, no?
What do you mean? I’ve never met anyone who thinks like that. A lot of great musicians, writers, pop stars have been to art school. Is the execution of an idea occasionally pretentious? Maybe, but you could say that about most things. I’m not sure what we’re talking about here.
Well, take Lady Gaga wrapping herself up in fresh meat. She would view it as an art statement, and I would see it as just a little bit silly. What do you think?
I’m going to avoid answering that question.
Your pre-Goldfrapp days – were they free-flowing or structured?
I was earning money and doing what I love doing, which is exactly what I’m doing now.
You see music as a visual experience, by all accounts?
Well, I don’t visualise lyrics before I write them, but I certainly view music that way. When you listen to music – and this is something I haven’t discussed in depth with other musicians – it can take you on a journey, out of yourself and into another world. You can see places, colours, feel things, think about things. And when you’re writing lyrics, you’re thinking of a narrative, which again can be visual.
You say you haven’t discussed the topic of listening to music with other musicians? Why not – don’t you bump into them pretty much every day?
The thing is everybody is so bloody busy. It’s mad! You’re in the studio and then you go on tour, so it’s quite hard to do it. I bump in to people at festivals – they’re quite good for that, because we’re all on some sort of circuit.
Over the past few months, you’ve been in newspapers and glossy magazines regarding your lesbian relationship. Does it surprise you that some people get all in a tizzy when they discover that you’re not heterosexual?
In a tizzy? I’ve not met anyone who has got in a tizzy about it. I don’t know why so many areas of the media are writing about it, to be honest. But you’re right, there are loads of feature articles out there about lesbian couples. Maybe they want to turn everyone into a lesbian.
Outlandish head dresses and other on-stage accoutrements – you really enjoy performing, don’t you?
When I first started I felt quite shy and awkward, but not when I’m on stage. I love it, and sometimes it’s quite hard to describe such a strange thing. I enjoy engaging with the synergy that surrounds you when you’re on stage with musicians. I’m also enjoying it more and more, which is odd, I think.
Goldfrapp perform at TLT, Drogheda, Co Louth, on Thursday (as part of Heineken Green Spheres), and Dublin’s Olympia on Friday 26 (sold out) and Saturday 27
