A WORD in the DREAMHOUSE

Rip It Up, Issue 67, 1 February 1983, Page 12

A WORD in the DREAMHOUSE

by Russell Brown

FUCK was the word that gave Siouxsie her first push towards fame. It was December 1976, she was lounging in the background of a television interview with the Sex Pistols. Interviewer Bill Grundy made a crude pass at her it was sex right from the start, wasn't it? prompting the band to unleash the string of obscenities that launched a thousand letters to the local daily. The original Banshees had formed barely three months earlier and had included Sid Vicious on drums and Marco Pirroni on guitar. Both left to pursue their separate (but ironically similar) versions of the rock'n'roll dream and Siouxsie developed her own, unique, dream. The Banshees toured and toured and did not release a record until late 1978. That record was 'Hong Kong Garden', a stunning debut that reached the British top ten. Soon after followed The Scream, an album that, for all its flaws, was one of the first to do credit to the term post punk'. There have been some fine singles since then, but for me no subsequent album has transcended that first work.

Waiting for a chance at the Banshees is frustrating: It's almost as if we're stalking them, darting around the trees and bushes of their hotel courtyard while television (who always get first turn) ask their questions. Break cover, only to be asked to move by the cameraman were in shot. The news is that Robert Smith is with the band "indefinitely". Interesting, but will they want to talk about it? Severin. Sever in Steve Severin, bassist, is dressed in black, with bleached hair and I can't help but think of early pictures of the loathsome Gary Numan. Pale, polite and articulate, Severin is the least masculine of the three males, without being camp. A Kiss in the Dreamhouse seems more varied than previous Banshees albums, witness the jazz feel of 'Cocoon'. Was it something the band was conscious of? "Well, we think all of them are varied, but it was probably because the way we approached the album was different from the way we did the other ones. We tried to mix up the two approaches of Kaleidoscope and ]u]u. ]u]u was like solely live material, played live and then recorded and a lot of Kaleidoscope was written in the studio as we were going along. So with Dreamhouse half of it is songs that are actually structured and worked out so we can play them live and the others were just made up in the studio. " 'Cocoon' was a complete accident. Hedges (Mike, the album’s engineer) said something like why don't you do something really sleazy. It was done, at four in the morning.'' Has the combination of approaches produced something better than either of the two previous albums? "Yeah, I think it's the best album so far. It was very enjoyable making it, the most enjoyable album we've done. "We'll probably approach the next one quite differently as well. We'll do it somewhere strange. Hire a house somewhere and just go in and record something." The album's lyrics seem to indicate a healthy interest in sex, especially on his own part. "I think both Siouxsie and I are very conscious of what's said in lyrics. Sex is ... just what happened last year." What happened last year? "One of the strongest influences during the

year was going to Japan, which is a very sensual country. Not overtly, but virtually everything you see is beautiful to look at." The name Severin was taken from Venus in Furs, the classic novel of masochism. An unusual choice? "Before I'd read the book I got it from the Velvet Underground song. I thought it was a nice name. I'm not particularly masochist or anything." No parallels working with a dominant woman and so on? "Ummm ... no." Another image to be associated with, the Banshees, particularly in the early days was the fascist chic thing. It was pretty controversial ... "It was basically a piece of black humour that people didn't appreciate. We've all been on stage wearing Star of David T-shirts when 'lsrael' was around that was kind of our little pun on the whole incident. "Symbolism shocks, it always has done. That's why the Rolling Stones have a big tongue as their logo. Because people identify with symbols as summing up the essence of something. JTaybe it was dangerous, maybe it wasn't, but the swastika conjures up more things to me than just plain' fascism." That black humour was linked with the Banshees' early sophistication compared with their contemporaries. Was the band a step up from what was going on at the time? "We just did it very differently right from the beginning, that's why we always disliked being lumped along with the other bands at that time. It's especially annoying when we go to other countries and they ask 'What's punk? You're a punk band?'. "The Buzzcocks were very sophisticated in those days. It was only people like the Vibrators and the Damned who weren't. What punks call 'punk' now is deliberately unsophisticated. And I can't identify with that." Did he ever identify with punk? "Not as a band. I identified with some of the other people around at that time. Pete Shelley and Johnny Rotten were doing exciting things." . Severin and Siouxsie are the only original band members. Has a special bond been established between the two? "Yes. It's probably best described as a very aggressive brother-sister relationship. We fight physically." Physically? Has that helped the band? "Yeah. Feelings about what we do run that ' high. It's like two antelopes meeting horn to horn." On each of the nights they play at Mainstreet, the Banshees will probably face more . people than have bought any one of their albums about 1600 people. "That's quite representative of anywhere we go in the world. It's probably a slur on our record company and radio stations everywhere. We're one of the biggest live bands in

the world, not like stadiums and that sort of thing, but more people will come and see us, because of the buzz of the band playing live, than buy the records. "I've been told they don't bother promoting the records because the Banshees sell the same anyway. That's what we've got to try and shake off. It's hard enough in England where people know us and don't think of us as a punk band. But I still find it incredibly hard to market us in any way we would like." The Banshees seem to have reacted to the move back to the dancefloor. 'Slowdive' for example. , "That was another studio accident. Mind you we've always been ... it's not a very common thing to think of the Banshees as a dance band, but we've always been one, except that it's not quite the same as, er, Grandmaster Flash. People don't stand around being gloomy at our concerts they go crazy." What's the state - of the Severin-Smith recording project? "It's halfway completed. We’d actually started on it when John McGeoch was still with us and then that stuff happened and Robert did the tours of England and Europe. Robert and I worked on it in January, while Siouxsie and Budgie were in Hawaii doing a Creatures album. "We've written all the songs and recorded them. There's no vocals yet we don't know if there will be. It's very different. People won't know it's us. "With Robert the story is that if he hadn't done the tour with us, he wouldn't be doing anything. He flew back from Europe about three or four times during the (Cure) tour in May. He couldn't stand it any more. As far as he was concerned it was going to be a complete break until he'd worked out what he wanted to do. So for the time being he's working with us. This doesn't mean the Cure's finished, because he can always go back and do a Cure thing. I mean, he won't want to give up singing anyway. As far as touring with the Cure I don't think he'll do that for at least a couple of years." Since Kaleidoscope there's been a lot of talk in the music press about the Banshees' new era of creativity ... "In a way when reviews of Join Hands came out I could see what they were talking about. I could see it was inevitable that when you get four people they get stuck every now and then. But we had to re-think a bit with Kaleidoscope when two people left the band. (Drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist John McKay scarpered during the Join Hands album tour.) So it was basically forced upon us to think in other terms." How much of a difference has playing with Smith made? "At the moment nothing's changed very much as far as live work goes. We're still doing the same songs we did with John. The real

change will happen when he starts writing songs with us. At the moment the main change is offstage. It's more fun. John was trying to make it into more of a business enterprise. Very basic things were clashing." Smith is on his third visit to this country! Did he tell the other band members anything about New Zealand? ’ "Well, I know his record company person Chris Parry quite well, so I knew what a New Zealander was like. But I was amazed to find it so different from Australia, that's the thing that struck me. People are much, much more friendly." Mr. Smith Robert Smith is a little shaky today. He fields the first few questions as if they're in another language. Has he appreciated the chance to take a back seat this stint with the Banshees has offered? "Yeah." . He was a little unhappy with the way things were going with the Cure? "A little, yeah." He laughs. And he's not doing any singing on stage. "Sometimes ... a sort of moaning." At this point Severin, passing, interjects: "But you're singing to yourself anyway Robert." With this he seems to have hit some kind of talk button on Smith's person. Smith comes alive. "Yeah, Ido actually sing on stage it's just that I haven't got a mike. I'd rather be doing this than fronting a band anyway, because I'd decided I was due to have a year away from the whole routine of being a front person, I wanted to do something different. This way it's great. There's still the travelling, which I hate, but I don't have to go through the whole machine like Siouxsie and Steve do. I can go shopping and go to the beach, it's really good." He grimaces at the mention of the most recent Cure single, 'Let's Go To Bed'. It was never a Cure single, but his own solo project, he says. His record company released it as a Cure record - without his permission. That aside, it's being played at the local hipsters' disco was it deliberately dance orientated? "Yeah, I thought I'd try and write a song and get it played on the radio, just to see if I could. It almost worked against that, it being a Cure record. People thought ... He too has enjoyed the project with Severin. "It's a very strange .way of working, just going into the studio and waiting until something happens and then just running in and starting recording." Was anyone else brought in for the recording? "On a couple we've brought in two girls to play violin, but that's all." : Smith is pleasant but not forthcoming. Being just a guitarist means not having to be any kind of spokesman and he obviously likes it that way for the moment. Talking Budgie Drummer Budgie joined the Banshees in 1979, replacing runaway Kenny Morris. He came into the band on the recommendation of Sex Pistol Paul Cook, via Big In Japan and a fill-in stint with the Slits. He looks like a drummer, lean, the tallest in the band. He is dressed in black with stupendous pink woollen gloves. He and Siouxsie spent last month in Hawaii recording an album as the Creatures. He's enthusiastic about it. "We'll be releasing a single when we get back to Britain at the end of April, then release the album in May. "It's like a continuation of the first Creatures EP. It's much more melodic than the first one I think. We allocated ourselves January free from Banshee activity and we left for Hawaii with very little idea of what was going to happen, jsut a few titles. "We wrote, recorded and produced 10 songs there. We used Hawaiian singers and any instruments I could lay my hands on, like marimbas. I play the conch shell. "I've always wanted to do that sort of thing. I mean, I hate drum solos, like Cozy Powell's 'Dance of the Devil' or whatever it was. "This thing's , just quirks in my own.way of playing. More undercurrent things. When you get a lot of cross rhythms going on underneath it sort of creates a mesh for everything to sit on. It's very busy, yet very simple." Miss February Up close, Siouxsie's far from the macabre goddess who projects from the music and pictures. A pleasant, soft-spoken Cockney girl, she is small and slight, balancing on towering heels. She is perfectly made up. She is quite graceful. The talk turns to the part visual appeal has played in the Banshees' success. "But it's never been a manufactured image or a sex appeal like Natasha for example. Siouxsie and her are miles apart." Perhaps it's a kind of alternative sex appeal? "Yeah, maybe for weirdos! (laughs) No ... it's just, I hate Penthouse, I hate that kind of image of sex. I much prefer a man-made picture as a sexual image than that sort of thing."

The fact remains that Siouxsie has at times been promoted as a pinup ... "Not promoted. But you can't stop people having a picture of you and ... thinking what they want to think. I'm not disgusted by that. But we don't promote that ourselves." You've also been a fashion leader. "That's because I hate fashion. Fashion's always behind something, or making a uniform out of something. I'd rather people just wear what they want to wear and risk getting laughed at." It's quite a paradox, fashion following someone who's anti-fashion. "It is very weird. I don't really notice it but the band tell me. I just hate all that, going to trendy clubs and so on. It's weird walking down Oxford St, shops have dummies that look like me and secretaries are gettin' into it (laughs). "It's strange walking into somewhere and thinking you're looking into a mirror when you see someone who looks just like you. It's great to think you're inspiring people but when you actually see people who watch every detail of you, it's very weird." Is it scary being watched? "I don't mind them watching but I just don't like the dissection of something. I don't like doing interviews saying 'What is your music? Why are you doing it?' All I can say is I like doing it, I don't analyse it. If I like something I don't analyse why I like it." The swastika thing was a part of the early image that caught on. Does she regret it in hindsight? "No, only in the sense that people thought it was a political statement, which it wasn't. I still think something like Cabaret is very attractive looking. It was more sexual than political, just something that was attractive. "I mean, I'm not into Maoris, but this is a Maori skirt. I got it in Hawaii." She fingers a plastic 'bone' tunic hung around her neck that is not in the least Maori, but nonetheless looks quite attractive. Another part of the visual appeal is the band's videos. How much input is there from band members? "We like making them, it's frustrating knowing that we can't be in more than one place at a time. All the places, like here, we haven't been able to get to until now. We'd like people in those places to at least see something of us. Because the records aren't always released on time, or released at all. TV will pick up on video, where the radio won't play the records." Early on,- the Banshees seemed a lot more literate than most of their counterparts.. Was Siouxsie writing before she was Siouxsie? "No. I only really started when I was able to hear music, hear words, rather than write them down. It meant more of an incentive to write." Those lyrics have always been quite abstract. "Yeah. We've never actually been a sloganeering band, the music's never been like that. The songs are more visual than telling people things." So is there any kind of message with the Banshees? "As I-said, there's no slogan, it's just ... be yourself. Do what pleases you. We're fortunate in that we're not dictated to by the record companies." We heard a lot about your voice trouble last year. It seemed you wouldn't be singing again for some time, but you're back on the road again. "It was a big scare when we were in Scandanavia, but then I got back to London and saw a specialist there and there was a lot less of a drama about it. I rested a bit and then got involved in doing the album. "All it's meant now is that I've said we re not doing more than so many dates in a week. It's more enjoyable, I mean we never did want to slog away. Like 10 dates in a row or something ridiculous like that." \ Is something of the softer singing on Dream-

house the result of your voice troubles? 'Cocoon' for instance? "A lot of things happened on this album simply because of the situation. I mean, 'Cocoon' was just bass and drums and I sang along with it. It wasn't really a thought-out way of singing, just a natural way." ■ ' It's obviously enjoyable having Robert in the band? "Yeah, he's playing with us because we get on with him. Because we're the same kind of thinkers we've kept in touch since the last time he played with us. (Smith filled in on the Join .Hands tour, prior to McGeoch joining.) "The relationship with John just went sour. He got very ill, very embarrassing. He got, without saying anything, into the trappings of the rock star. We don't all want to go to these places or take these things that are offered us. He was a great guitarist, but he got very poisoned. "I hate that cliche. That's why Robert's playing with us, because he's not a cliched rock guitarist. That's the. way we all feel." Even down to his contribution to the Creatures projects, Budgie seems to have established more of a public profile for himself than most drummers ever do. "Yeah, I think it's the nature of the group, that. That's another reason John's not with us any more, he wasn't contributing much. It's definitely not the front female singer with the session musicians." Siouxsie is still doing all the stage vocals. Would she like Smith to share some in the future? "No!" (laughs). Why not? "Umm ..: because I think he can still do stuff on his own." ' How long is he likely to stay with the band? "I don't know. How long am I likely to stay on this planet?" Some would say you're out of this world already, Siouxsie. Unhappy Endings Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Not in the sense of anyone's deceit, but when natural order falls away to unmask a cynic's world. That kind of world belongs nowhere. The cynic's spirit stalks the universe like an undead, unhappy soul. ■ It fell on Mainstreet tonight. Because it should have been so good the concert was that much more of a disappointment when it failed to work. Time and time again it seemed that this is where it would fall together with 'Nightshift', 'Christine', 'Happy House' but each time it missed. There seemed to be a wall between the band and the audience, both sides reached but couldn't touch. All of a sudden it was right Siouxsie was prancing, wicked creature, the music swelled. At last! But, abruptly the band, left the stage. They were called back for an encore, a stunning version of 'Spellbound'. But as it finished, Siouxsie mumbled something into the mike, she left, and there was no more. If the entire night had been like those last two songs, it would have been worth many times the ticket price. As it was, the end only served to illustrate how unsatisfactory the rest had been. Much of the blame must lie with the sound. Siouxsie's voice spent half the night buried in the mire and Robert Smith's guitar never surfaced. But the Banshees did not help their own cause. When Siouxsie's mike failed during 'Happy House' they scampered off the stage like frightened rabbits. Surely the band could have jammed while the fault was fixed, Siouxsie could have danced. The perfect opportunity to add the spark of spontenaity and they ran away. And their failure to recognise that things had finally gelled with the encore bordered on the criminal. It was just a bad gig. They happen on world tours. But why did it have to happen here? Maybe tomorrow night. But we've got to go to press before that.