Clockenflap cheat sheet: Blood Red Shoes
Mark Tjhung bothers Steven Ansell, the drum-pounding, male half of Blood Red Shoes before the pair headline Clockenflap
Where are you?
In my flat, in Brighton. It's pretty sunny -- global warming and that. The seasons have gone ape shit. We've just spent most of the summer in Liverpool making a record.
How did that go?
It's finished. It went really well actually. We got to spend a lot more time on it than we did our first record, and tweak things more, experiment more, and try out more different stuff. I think it's a lot more developed.
What kinds of different sounds are you experimenting with?
It's a bit more spacey. Bits of it strangely sound a bit more psychedelic. It's a bit more 3D -- not everything is right up in your face all the time. It sounds a bit druggy as well. It's darker and a bit more spooky.
Anything in particular take you down that path?
Not really. I think we've always had that side to us. We've touched on it on the [first] album -- and a few B-sides. You know how the Pixies have got those pop songs but have that eerie quality to them. They've got that slightly twisted side -- it's that sort of thing. We're addicted to Twin Peaks and David Lynch stuff that has that unsettling spookiness to it. A lot of those things sit with where we're at at the moment -- that's probably the biggest difference to the first record.
Listening to anything that's pushing you that way?
We're mostly listening to the same sort of stuff. We're just finding ourselves. There's definitely some nods towards Queens of the Stone Age on the record. And maybe that's partly where the psychedelic thing comes from. There's also a band called Hot Snakes, which not many people know but we're huge fans of. It's a west coast American guitar band. And then stuff that we've always listened to, like the Pixies. People compared the first album to the Pixies, but I think they'll probably compare this to the Pixies as well. At the end of the day, we write pop songs, but we try and write mean pop songs. And then there's a boy singer and a girl singer, so you're going to get compared to the Pixies.
It's quite a privilege, right?
It's a very flattering comparison. I think there's also a bit of My Bloody Valentine in there as well. The spaciness, and the wall of guitar thing -- we've been listening to that a lot.
What about thematically? I remember reading a quote from you guys a while back that you loved gore.
We never really write songs about it. But we do have a fascination with the darker side of life -- for horror, even the genres of horror that are almost comedy, [and the] darker aspects of the human psyche. Not specifically a reference to gore, but we are both the kind of people that notice horrific things rather than we notice a nice rainbow. Rainbows are fine, but we're more likely to talk about the latest stabbing that you've heard about.
Which takes us to your Ginger Rogers-inspired name. Was that something that came out of a whim?
That's exactly what it was. The way the band started -- we played in different bands, and just got together to pass the time. Then we started getting a couple of shows, and we thought, 'If we're gonna play, we need a name' to go on the flyer. We'd just heard the story about Ginger Rogers, but we thought it was a short term thing. I don't think either of us thought it would be name that stuck, or a band that lasted.
Ever think you chose the wrong name?
I don't, I really like the name. I wasn't sure at first, but now I'm really happy with the name. It always reminds me of interview with Dave Grohl, where he talks about the Foo Fighters and the name he gave it. He was asked, 'Did you ever see the band lasting this long' and he was like 'No, if I had, I wouldn't have given it such a fucking stupid name'. I really hate bands with 'the' in it. I get bored of those. It's a bit abstract, and the name doesn't tell you immediately doesn't box you in.
It also conjures that gruesome image. Ever have Ginger Rogers-type injuries at gigs or festivals?
I don't think either of us have ever had bleeding feet. Our injuries mostly involved stuff on stage, like hands bleeding, cut from strumming. There have been occasions when we've smashed ourselves up on stage, and Laura's thrown the guitar at me, and it's hit me in the head -- which I'm sure was a mistake.
You going to play the new tracks when you come out?
Yeah -- over the summer, we've been testing the waters to see if we can get away with playing. You don't want to crowd to switch off with too much new shit. We may even go to about half a set of new songs, depending how brave we're feeling and how people are responding. There will definitely be a few new songs.
On your MySpace, you've got Justin Timberlake as one of your influences?
Hell yeah. I have this thing, where any music you listen to and love is going to influence you. I don't like the first record much, but I really like the second record a lot. And we both listen to it. And you don't know how it's influenced you -- maybe how you structure one of our poppier songs or something. It all goes in there. The sound of that second record -- it's an amazing record. We both really like Madonna as well, one of the things that kind of brought us together was -- we're both in the punk scene, listening to punk music, but we both really liked Madonna, or Prince, or Justin Timberlake, which in the punk scene, is a fucking crime. I can listen to Sonic Youth and then Justin Timberlake, and can see no discrepancy between those bands. There's no irony in our band with that sort of stuff.
What's something you've never told any other interviewer?
We've done so many interviews, what could we possibly have held back? We had to evict our neighbour because she was a prostitute. We were living next to a prostitute while we were making our album. A crack dealing prostitute.
You're coming to play Clockenflap. Have you seen the line-up?
Alexis, YACHT, Los Campesinos just confirmed to play, and we've known those guys for a while. There's lots of bands from China that I'm not familiar with.
Excited to come out?
Yeah, really excited. As soon as we got asked, we were like whoa! We've got this list of places we haven't been to, and we're kind of into trying to get to new place, and it's always through the band, because we can't afford or organise a trip. So, we're trying shows in Hong Kong, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, Iceland. We've got this list. We get to cross one off. Young Knives played last year, right? And we heard, we were like, you got to play in Hong Kong? That's really cool. I'd really like to use it as a platform to play in mainland China as well -- that would be so cool.
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CHEAT SHEET
Comprises Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter.
Does Dual-vocal, punk- and Pixies-esque, in-your-face pop, driven by Laura’s gritty, catchy riffs and Steven’s driving tom beats.
From Brighton, England.
You care because they’re one of the most promising indie rock bands coming out of the UK and you want to know what’s coming after their debut, Box of Secrets. They’ve finished recording their new album in the summer, and will definitely play a few tracks from the new album, which Ansell describes as more “psychedelic”, “spacey”, “druggy”, and “spooky” than its predecessor.
Here’s proof Blood Red Shoes TV! www.bloodredshoes.co.uk/brs_tv.php.
Ansell hates “band names with ‘The’ in it.”
Ansell loves “Madonna, or Prince, or Justin Timberlake, which in the punk scene, is a fucking crime.” And David Lynch films.
They’ve never told the media that “We were living next to a prostitute while we were making our album… We had to evict her because she was a prostitute.”
Check out our other Clockenflap cheat sheets:
Web exclusive interview: Los Campesinos!
Web exclusive interview: Blood Red Shoes
Web exclusive interview: Pet Conspiracy
Clockenflap line-up and details
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