Colours

Rip It Up, Issue 137, 1 December 1988, Page 20

Colours

TONI CHILD'S BRILLIANT CAREER SO FAR

Toni Childs’ Union sings about innocence. Does she pursue naievity? “I don’t know if there’s a pursuit of it ... it’s a pursuit of honesty. There are a lot ofchecks and balances to that, being true to yourself.” ,

Checksand Balances: one of those catchphrases on which America was founded, like Mom and Pie. Toni Childs' conversation is peppered with Americanisms, littered with hippie Me generation talk. That, initially, is a disappointment, because Childs' album Union is not a record you want to see tied down to any one place ortime. Like the best of Eno, the best of Harold Budd, Union sings songs of distance and texture, of atmospheres and places far, far away. Fairytales. Whoops, getting a little emotional there... Union is a debut out of the blue. In a year when young musicians are retreating, recycling, reviving, rehashing old soul, old rock, Union takes a deep breath and moves foward. Not without signposts, mind. Peter Gabriel's solo work is often cited as a

comparison (Childs calls him just "Gabriel", like the angel) — Childs tracks along the same pseudo-ethnic grooves, conscientious Third World rhythms, pussyfoots her way through layered production and choral - < harmonies. And there's a swag of' Eno in Union too, he's a hero as well. "Eno is someone who really inspired me, I think you can hearthat on 'Where Is The Ocean.' I want to talk to Eno, hopefully I'll get the chance to meet him. His Apollo ’album. There's one piece of music on that, I would love to— and I would never normally ask thisl would v love to put some words to it. The • 'Ascension' theme. It is so beautiful. It just keeps repeating on the same theme, it is so beautiful. Everytime I hear it, my heart just goes. It's gorgeous." .. ■ Quite what Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno ‘

would make of the enraptured Californian Childs remains to be seen; the W7 analyst meets the earnest belligerent—the perfect checksand balances system. Besides, Childs already has her muse. David Ricketts, of David' David, co-produced and co-wrote Union with Childs. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Ricketts introduced the singerto the studio where she embraced the sophistication of modern recording science with the fearless enthusiasm of a beginner. Do either of them follow Eno's studio technique? "I do, to an extent —if it's taking us out of the norm, rather than to simply keep us ahead on the technical side. I like things that come from unusual placesand sources. In this age the technology is coming on so quickly, so fast with all these keyboards and

There's someone at the door." Sure. I was getting a little emotional there. Childs had worked with Ricketts before, on the soundtrack for Echo Park. The night after she signed her recording contract she went overto visit Ricketts. They were lovers for a year afterwards. Union took two and a half years to write and record, delayed when David' David's; . Boomtown took off in the States. Childs tried working with other people, but couldn't. When Ricketts was free to return to Childs' project, ’ they decided to record in Africa, spurred on by little more than a hunch. That must have pleased an j already impatient record company no end? "It was a miracle that we went at all," Childs remembers. "When I told

“I’ve been around for a long time, writing and playing and really trying to go outside of myself. If I put out stuff earlier, I may never have evolved to this point.”

synthesisers, that we have to go to new places to find new colours, new textures." Union's state of the art craftsmanship is in marked contrast to the Luddite acoustic retreats of ■ •. female artists like Tracy Chapman, ‘ with whom Childs has been hastily bracketed; instead, by using the studio, Childs has ranked herself alongside musicians like The Cocteau Twins. Does she listen to the Cocteaus? ‘ "Naaaaah," she purrs sarcastically. "Of course I do. Her voice, talk about heavenly! There's also this other group out on 4AD, this Bulgarian choir... it's sooo beautiful. It's really special, really minimal. It's folk.. Lovely..." ■ • . Are you proud of working with new musical forms? < "Yeah!". - - Why? What makes them better? "Um... Can you hang on a second?

the president of the company, wow. He asked me how the record was going, how I was enjoying myself, and I said, 'Tm just so happy that I got to go to Africa, it meant so much to me." And he said,'You went where? What?" I guess it's kind of unusual to do that on your first album. "The intention was to go to Africa... so that allowed everything else to happen. I'd lived in England and had a lot of friends who are musicians living there, so when we stopped in London it became possible for them to be on the album. And I needed some more work from [guitarist] David Rhodes, who was touring with Gabriel in Paris. So everything found a place. But it all started with Africa." Childs travelled to Swaziland and Zambia where she found and worked with two choirs, the Sibane Semaswati Singers and the New Generation. With Childsand Ricketts

was David Tickle (Childs calls him >

► "Mister Tickle") and a whole lot of . rough mixes. How much did Africa. - . '. change those rough mixes? ? ' "It changed them dramatically, of • . course, not to mention the spirit of - j things... butthose voices, those tones - and what that actually did to the songs, it really, really... it made it very powerful." • ’ What makes a choir in Zambia or - Swaziland any different? ?t ? "The realness of who they are as : people. Their innocence and their 3 ’ .’ excitement ... and the textures of . their voices." ~ ,7 i. t r . .' X Getting a little emotional there. .

Words, it must be said, do tend to fall short of Union, and the choral work on tracks like 'Let The Rain Come Down' and 'Zimbabwe' becomes a sensual tattoo that fleshes out Childs' vague lyrics. Union works on an instinctive and romantic level; things get very emotional. Where the words fail, the music takes over, and on tracks like 'Zimbabwe', 'Where Is The Ocean'and Walk And Talk Like Angels' the result is an incantatory,

“You realise: these [songs] are all my feelings, this is how I feel, these are all my colours that I like —is anyone going to like it?”

almost religous thrall. Tohi Childs was born into a deeply religious family. Her mother was a member of the Assemblies of God, and her maternal grandparents were missionaries from the same church. As a young girl Childs forbidden to listen to contemporary music or sample much of the pop culture on which nearly all are raised. It was an infringement of liberties but, in retrospect, a sheltering from pulp culture's cacophony that must have contributed to her originality as a musician. When Childs did break away from her parents, however, her wanderingswere a copybook checklist of 70s cred. She lived with California hippies, sang blues in an "artisans community," and dropped acid at Pink Floyd when they played

the Cow Palace in 1972. In 1978 she was busted fordrugs a nd spent three months in jail with (wait for it) "a couple of Manson girls" and Patty ... Hearst. Then came punk, and a whole new set of rules; Childs fronted Berlin fora short stint, then formed Toni & the Movers in 1979 and released a single, 'Bitches and .- / x Bastards.' In the 70s orthe 80s, the song remains the same: garbage in, garbage out. ?■> . "Well," says Childs, "I've been" around fora long time, writing and playing and trying to expand and really go outside of myself. I tried to go very left of centre, and then I was really right for a while, and my attitudes have changed this way and that before I ever got a record deal. But if I put out stuff earlier, I may never have evolved to this point." One of the best tracks on the album is 'Zimbabwe.' It's untainted ■ with the usual media cliches. How come? "The music, the piano which was the basis of that song, it was-pulling out this word "Zimbabwe," this

country. I had to pull it out of my subconscious and ask, what is this, what is going on here? "The song was about peace existing in the world. There's a lot of talk about visualising world peace, about disarming the world and I think, where do I stand in all that? Zimbabwe is a metaphor, a country that in its history has had two factions warring against itself for hundreds of years, two basic tribes, and I seem to have that same kind of thing, that duality, within myself. That's the place that I wrote it from." Above all, Union is a private album, its themes of intimacy and loss drawing from Childs' relationship with Ricketts just as her singing draws from his songwriting and production talents. How did it feel to have that

CHAD TAYLOR

private diary thrust into the ' marketplace? x x x "Scary. It was scarier, though, just; after it was finished and sent to the. ■ record company. You realise: these| are all my feelings, this is how I feel,, these are all my colours that I likeis anyone going to like it? Is anyone 4 going to be able to relate to it? It's 1 going to be judged!. And I was sad about it. You've done the best work - that you've ever done and the ?,.-. j record company has to decide ' ■ whether or not they find it worthy > enough to support ... it's like parent ‘ approval." ; x"x-;x. •'■.■ How hard is it to stay real in Hollywood? "A lot of people here aren't - working on that level. There are writers and musicians here, it's a / j mixture. A lot of people having a lot of different life experiences. There are a lot of people finding what they want in their life is success and . money. People are really going for that fast buck. I don't really live in the city anymore. I don't care forthat side of it. From my house I can see a naked mountain top. I don't have the feeling that I'm really living in the ■ I city." Do the people going forthatfast buck get you down? "If I want to go to those places and get down, I can do that. I can focus in on the negative stuff till the cows ■ x come home, but it's not gonna help me one bit." Childs' attention is waning. She : decides to break off the phone conversation and talk to her cat. I wanted to ask about the sensual arithmetic of Union, the religious thrall, when she will tour, does she ; •: like Peter Gabriel's shirts, but I guess that's all we've got time for. Toni found her cat when she went jogging once. "Hellooooo bayy-beee... He's all sleepy." Why? "He just got back from getting neutered , Toni Childs lives in California. People get a little emotional there.