An American PSYCHO in London

Rip It Up, Issue 226, 1 June 1996, Page 12

An American PSYCHO in London

Delicatessen, the movie, was great: otherworldly, atmospheric, dark, twisted, horrific, manipulative, funny. Delicatessen, the London four-piece, are all those things minus the humour.

I’m talking to lead singer/songwriter Neil Carlill, who the record company publicists inform me is a spunk. Appearances are deceptive. On record Neil screams like a white noise banshee and seduces like a serial killer. On the phone he talks a million miles a minute and reminds me of a line from the Homerpalooza, Simpsons episode where James ‘Smazza Pazz’ lha goes: ‘The home town gigs are the most important ones. You get to show all the kids who thought you were weird at school what a successful freak you are.” Neil's personality drives Delicatessen’s modus operandi. The songs off their brilliant debut, Skin Touching Water sound frustrated, powerless, hurt and vindictive; Tindersticks on death row, Tom Waits torturing the Velvet Underground with hot pokers. His answers reflect a troubled soul, and songs like ‘You Cut My Throat, I’ll Cut Yours’

will have you reaching for those amateur psychologist hats. “Well that’s about, er, there was someone in my life I found particularly annoying, and instead of trying to challenge him or causing a big row, I put a few words down to express what I felt and get a few things off my chest.” They live their violent revenge vicariously, bottling up the bile and the pain, waiting to take advantage of a downfall. Well, at least, that’s my Fitz-esque evaluation. Needless to say, they’re not part of the sex, drugs and 60s obsessed pop

brigade that’s pouring out of England at the moment. They make short films, they write songs referring to Orson Welles (‘CF Kane’), and media critic Noam Chomsky (entitled ‘Chomsky’, funnily enough). They love Nick Cave. They’re well read, blah, blah, blah. “I’m quite fascinated with a lot of things. I tend to pick out bits and then throw loads of ideas into different songs. Like ‘CF Kane’, there’s the film reference, then there’s lots of talk about dismembered limbs and lips and you get the verses, and the whole feel is graphically violent. One song can have four or five ideas about subjects I’m interested in. Film’s definitely an influence, and literature and things that are going on around me. The subjects range for me from ironic, funny, bizarre subjects and things that are more sinister and nasty.” If Delicatessen were a book, they’d be American Psycho — all ravenous rats and flick knives in eyeballs — whether they like it or not. “I’m not a huge fan of it. I think it’s designed to shock and cause outrage in people and that sort

of.intention is there to help sell itself.” But you’re doing the same thing! “We 11... Surely your daily routine doesn’t involve cutting people’s lips off and slicing kids up either. “No, but I think if you look at the things I said and American Psycho, the violence in American Psycho is taken to a very heavy descriptive level where you’re taken into every part of the dismemberment. When I mention things like that it’s used very fleetingly, quick snapshots. I don’t think you can be too outraged when something is there one minute and gone the next.” Hit and run is very much their style, but that doesn’t make them any less intriguing or effective. They’re not venting their spleen with chugging bass and rawk guitar. A power track like the sparse Tm Just Alive’ wields its menace with a distorted organ. “We’re writing music which is aggressive but not by using the traditional things you’d associate with aggressive music. Like, rock music has a lot of guitar or whatever, I like the idea of making aggressive music, and keeping those instruments really minimal and still getting power out of the songs.” People are strange when you’re a stranger. “The whole point of what we’re doing is to try and exist outside of any particular trend of fashion or anything. And it may ensure that we don’t become huge and sell millions of records — but that will be better in the long run, because we’ll have our own niche and the people that buy our records will stay with us for a long period of

time.”

JOHN TAITE