PALE SAINTS

Rip It Up, Issue 178, 1 May 1992, Page 8

PALE SAINTS

The Pale Saints are latest in the line of dreamy English "indie" guitar bands, following in the ,

vapour trail of Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine with a New Age blurriness around the edges, a

hint of Enya-like ethereality in the vocals of Meriel Barham. The Pale Saints music is as spectral as their cover art and as pale as 7 7 guitarist Meriel's personality when RIU phoned her one autumn evening.

In Ribbons is their second 4AD album after 1990's The Comforts of Madness and earned them nine out of 10 in a typically overblown piece of NME fulsomeness. But trying to get words out of Meriel was like

coaxing a timid deer to the fence at the zoo. She recoiled at the slightest hint of hack questioning. Sensitive indeed.

She obviously did not feel comfortable discussing the Pale Saints work. Attempts to supplicate her with definitions like "pure",

"disembodied" and "peaceful" met with wan affirmation. All she would say was "that's just the way it comes out". She has been playing guitar off and on since she was 12, but doesn't think the fact that she is a female guitarist is worthy of comment, although concedes it's a pity there aren't more. She did perk up when asked if the Pale Saints' subdued, slow, serious singe was a reaction.. against rock's raunchier tradition. ; "It's weird, because quite often people ask us about the feminine side of the music, which is quite an obvious thing since there's a woman in the band. But in a way, whether I was in the band or not I quite like the fact that lan's got an ambiguous voice. Some people aren't sure

whether it's a male or a female at first. I think there are quite a lot of

songs on the new album which you can't call macho rock and I like that because there's too much of that rubbish around, there's too much of that cock thrusting, dreadful macho rubbish in the charts as it is." Vocals alternate between Meriel and bassist lan Masters on songs with such titles as 'Shell', Thread of Light', 'Hair Shoes' or 'A Thousand Stars Burst Open'. The Pale Saints are anti-macho and pro-mystery, to the extent that Meriel declines to discuss the meaning of her lyrics. The vocals aren't that prominent in the mix. I have never been one to obsessively find out what the lyrics are and then try and describe what it could mean. I like leaving it vague even for myself sometimes."

Such is the Pale Saints love of mystery that they won't even tell

Meriel, who joined the band a year and a half ago, the meaning of their name.

"Itwas chosen before I joined, it's a band secret, it's in some vault.

Once I've done 150 gigs with them the secret's revealed. They give me a key and I can go and find out what it is." Meriel and the band will be docking up those gigs in a forthcoming tour to America, Japan, Australia and possibly New Zealand. They're releasing an EP this month called Throwing Back The Apple (with a version of 'Blue Flowed which appeared on Mazzy Star's album a few years ago). Looks like Meriel won't have to worry about going back to dreaded office work after all.

DONNA YUZWALK