Rachel Love Talks About Her Upcoming Reissues, New Band, and Learning from Grief and Loss

You can’t leave the house these days without hearing some sloppy “A I” “music,” so having authentic music-makers like Rachel Love (solo, Railcard, Telecom, Dolly Mixture) has never been more urgently important. Her gentle touch when creating gorgeous pop music feels like an antidote to all the ugliness going on in the world.

She released two solo albums in the post-pandemic era that were woefully underheard and underappreciated, so it’s wonderful news that our old pals at Slumberland Records are reissuing both of them: Picture in Mind (2021) was co-produced with Rachel’s late husband, Steve Lovell (Blur, Julian Cope), who passed away the same year, and Lyra (2024), which is a tribute to Steve and was co-produced with their son David Lovell. Both are intimate, quiet and full of the sort of chemistry typically only witnessed among families.

Steve may be gone, but his spirit lives on in her music. “Losing Steve was a huge part of my need to be creative,” says Rachel, who was raised by classical violinist parents, and learned piano and cello growing up. “We were partners in every way.”

Rachel is definitely in a prolific era: In addition to these two albums, she is now in a band with Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge, The Penrose Web), Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly, The Would-Be-Goods) and Allison Thomson called Railcard, whose first three EPs are collected and out now on Slumberland as well (a new album is coming later in 2026).

Gaylord Fields and I interviewed Rachel for chickfactor 19 (2022, on paper) but when Mike at Slumberland asked me to write a bio for the upcoming reissues, I interviewed her again and here is that interview. Interview by Gail O’Hara / photos courtesy of Rachel

US ORDERS
Monorail orders

Rachel at the Strong Rooms in Shoreditch November ’25. Photo: Chris Fassoms

Where all have you lived? How long have you lived in Brighton?
I was born in Wales, my dad taught at Aberystwyth University music department. When I was 5 we relocated to Cambridge as he got a new job there. I lived in London on and off from the age of 17 until I had my first baby at 22 with Captain Sensible. We lived in Croydon with his parents until the summer of 1985 when we moved to Brighton. After 8 years we moved to the countryside just outside, Captain moved back to Brighton in 1998 but I stayed in the same area and have been here ever since.

What is the local music scene like in Brighton? Where do you go to see music or play gigs?
There’s a thriving music scene in Brighton, all kinds of music. Two of my sons are in bands that play a lot. My youngest son David’s band ‘Telecom’ are very much part of the Brighton scene, they also are my band when I play live. There’s some great venues, the Prince Albert, the Hope and Ruin, the green door store, Alphabet, the folklore rooms to name a few.

Dolly Mixture (from left: Hester, Debsey, Rachel), 1981

Can you please name all the bands you’ve been in?
Dolly Mixture 1978–84
Sex Love Buster Baby 1994–96
Fruit Machine 1996–1999
The purple pudding clause (Spelt) with Steve (recording only) 2013–2021
The light music company (recording only) With Martin Newell 2022–2023
Rachel Love (with my boys and their friends) 2022–the present
Railcard with Ian Button and Pete Momtchiloff – 2025–the present

Have you continuously played music or taken breaks through the years?
I have taken breaks from playing and recording when my children were small, but I’ve always loved going back to it and now that they can play with me it’s fantastic! I joined a couple if Brighton-based bands in the ’90s and that’s when I met my husband, Steve, who signed Fruit Machine to his production company. We got married and had a baby (David) so I had another break from music. Steve and I played a lot of acoustic music together over the years, we wrote for guitar and cello, then as home recording got easier we started making albums. We made 3 before Steve encouraged me to write songs again, giving me an iPad and showing me how to use GarageBand.

I see you as a bit of a Prince type, someone who plays everything and does it all. How much of Picture in Mind was you and how much input was from the family? How many years of work went into that album?
Haha! Not exactly Prince! I can play a few instruments well enough to record. I learned the Piano and Cello as a child, guitar was self taught. The boys are very good guitarists and bass players so they played a bit on Picture in Mind. My husband Steve was a great guitarist too so he played on the record and did all the drum programming. I added loads of cellos and played keyboards. After loosing my parents and my brother I needed to write on my own again, I think I started Picture in Mind in 2019 and we recorded most of it in Lockdown, so it probably took around about a year altogether.

When we interviewed you for CF19 in 2022, you had already written all the songs for Lyra. Again, tell us about the songwriting and the process for each album and what went into it.
Lyra took a lot longer, I had to learn how to use logic and record myself. My eldest son Fred set me up with a laptop and the other boys helped me learn the programme. David was very much involved with the production side of it and Syd and David played guitar and bass. David’s bandmate Chris also added a bass line on Alone. It was a real journey reflecting all the changes in my life and the amazing support from my family. A lot of the songs formed or grew while I was out walking my dog. I certainly wrote most of the lyrics whilst out on country walks.

My friend Heather came round one day while I was recording ‘Alone.’ She was very close to Steve so it felt right that she should sing some backing vocals which really adds to the emotion.

It was a very strange feeling when it was finished, it was so personal. The healing process of creating it seemed to be as important as sharing it.

Grief has obviously been a big part of your story in recent years. How did losing Steve change your relationship to making music?
Losing Steve was a huge part of my need to be creative. We were partners in every way, parents, musical partners and we worked in different jobs together as well. The hole he left was immense, of course for the whole family but for me it was my everyday life that had gone. I had to create a whole new one which I was also resistant to because it meant moving on without him.

David was also going through the stages of grief so it was probably hard for him to hear my songs but I think it inspired his song writing as well.

It seemed a really natural thing to play music with the boys, something they had grown up with and also a connection we share.

I recorded myself mostly, David would get home from work (tired) and I’d ask for help with something, sometimes just to to listen to what I’d be doing. He was a great support even when I’d done 20 more tracks of cellos and 100 more backing vocals for him to sort out! I’ve learnt so much by doing the album that I don’t have to rely on him now.

Your top records list for CF22 included Air, Stereolab, VU, Sufjan—would you add anything else to the list? Were you a Broadcast fan? These artists seem to inform the music you make and the feelings you create for your own solo albums.
There’s so much music I could add to the list. I didn’t really know much about Broadcast until recently. David played me some and I absolutely love it, particularly ‘Come on let’s go’ and ‘Before we begin’

How did making music factor into your family, especially with your own kids? Was it just something you always did as a family?
We share a lot of music with each other and love similar band, we were listening a lot to bands while making the album like Metronomy, Gwenno, El Perro del Mar and the Left Banke to name a few. We both love the Would-be-goods and Lightheaded, who we went to see together. We’re both going to see Stereolab next month too. I listen to music from all sorts of different genres, I just love a good tune.

How has it been working with Slumberland? Have you known Mike for a long time?
I met Mike at the CF30 gig in London 2022. He’s been so great to work with, nothing’s ever a problem and he just knows the right thing to do.

What tools and tricks do you use in the studio or wherever you make music?
I’ve learnt to keep things a bit more simple and use real instruments and analog sounds a lot more. We made the whole album with a laptop and a mic, the only bit of fancy equipment being a Joe Meek vocal D I box that was my husbands. A lot of studio trickery was used in the recording, we had no way to record drums so we used beats from a farfisa drum machine and sampled snippets of David’s previous recordings to make the beats.

We went through a process of stripping back the layers of tracks and then re-recording or rewriting parts. When we were finished they sounded completely different to how they started. We even made dance versions at one point! It’s hard to remember how we achieved some sounds as we went through so many versions.

Railcard: Ian, Rachel, Allison and Peter

Where do you write? Do you begin with lyrics or the other way round?
I’ve always written the music first, but since meeting Ian Button and forming Railcard, he mostly sends me lyrics and l’ve really enjoyed writing music to them, it’s a very different way of thinking but I love it. We’ve written together in other ways too, just going for walks and something will trigger an idea and maybe a couple of lyrics, then go home and the song will start to form music and lyrics together.

What has a life of music making taught you? There is a warmth and chemistry on these records that is really special and intimate. I’m so happy they’re getting reissued.
I’m quite an introvert so a life of music has taught me that I’m very privileged to be able to write music that people will listen to. It’s the way I connect with people best, it’s my way of expressing myself.

What kind of package will there be for the reissues? Formats? etc.
The albums will both be released on Vinyl and be available on CD as well.

Are there other albums coming together in the future? Tour plans?
Railcard will be releasing more music, we’ve written a lot of songs, Pete too, we record when we can and do a lot at home too. We’ve got a few gigs lined up so hopefully we’ll play lots more. I’m still playing as Rachel Love with David’s band Telecom. Gigs aren’t that regular as the boys have a lot of other commitments but they want to go on playing with me as well. We are doing some gigs with them supporting too.

Feb 21 Railcard at the Water Rats, London supporting Would-Be-Goods and Helen McCookerybook

March 5 Rachel Love at Dublin Castle, Camden With the Groovy Arts club band and Telecom

April 5 Rachel Love at Wales Goes Pop

May 16 Rachel Love at Betsey Trotwood with Keiron Phelon and the peace and Telecom

August 7 Rachel Love at The Albert, Brighton With Exploding Flowers

August 8 Rachel Love at The Waiting room, Stoke Newington With Exploding Flowers

August 9 Railcard at The Betsey Trotwood With the Corner Laughers

Interview with Debsey Wykes from Dolly Mixture (2025)
Interview with Debsey Wykes from Dolly Mixture (2006)

Interview with Peter Momtchiloff from Tufthunter (2015)

Heavenly in the USA (2022) & West Coast Faves (2024)

Lyra
originally released April 26, 2024
David Lovell – drums, bass and guitar
Syd Bor- bass and guitar
Chris Gibbons- bass on Alone
Heather McClelland – additional backing vocals on Alone
Co produced by Rachel and David Lovell
Mixed and Mastered by David Lovell
All songs by Rachel Love
Artwork & Design by Jodie Lowther
For Steve

Picture in Mind
originally released October 29, 2021
All songs: Rachel Love except
‘Down The Line’ Bor/Smith/Wykes (Copyright Control/Copyright Control/Wardlaw Music)
All instruments Rachel Love (nee Bor)
Except: Syd Bor Bass ‘Down The Line’ & ‘Far Away’
David Lovell: Backing Vocals & Guitar ‘Primrose Hill’
Steve Lovell: Various Guitars, Instruments and Programming
Produced by: Rachel Love & Steve Lovell for Lovell The Dog Productions Mixed: Steve Lovell
Mastered: Steve Power
all rights reserved

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026

New interview with Would-Be-Goods plus tips for songwriters from Jessica

Would-Be-Goods in Paris, Sept. 2025. Photo: Ian Greensmith

Happy release day to WOULD-BE-GOODS!
When Peter Momtchiloff interviewed Jessica Griffin for chickfactor 13 in Y2K, we wonder if he knew he would become partners with Jessica in music and life? Either way, we are happy the Would-Be-Goods restarted as a live and recording pop group in the early 2000s and have played at many of our events, releasing a number of fantastic (albeit) underheard albums on the Santa Barbara label Matinee Recordings. During the pandemic, Jessica wrote a song a day clocking in at 173 songs in total, and just today the wonderful Tears Before Bedtime has been released on vinyl and CD via Skep Wax Records. The current lineup of Would-Be-Goods is Jessica Griffin, Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly, Railcard), Debbie Greensmith (the Headcoatees), and Andy Warren (Monochrome Set, Adam and the Ants).

Out today! On Skep Wax Records – available via Jigsaw in the US

chickfactor: Is it just me or did the entire UK media just discover the Would-Be-Goods? BBC radio! How does it feel to finally get some press in your home country? It’s about time!!
Jessica Griffin: It’s exciting but also a bit strange. It takes me back to the él Records days, when the Would-be-goods got quite a lot of media attention in the UK (although I think we sold more records in other parts of the world).

The upcoming tour dates seem like the biggest tour you’ve done in ages or ever. Are you excited to hit the road?
Very. I’m a travelling player at heart, and I love being on the road with the band. We’ll be doing shows in parts of the country we’ve never played in before, as well as going back to some of our favourite places. (I’m thinking of Glasgow…)

You became incredibly prolific during the pandemic, writing 170 songs or something. Did that carry on? How regularly do you sit down to write? Do you have a schedule or ritual? Where does it happen?
I’d have carried on happily but after 173 songs I thought it was time to take a break and release some of them as EPs on Bandcamp. That meant doing quite a bit of work on the original demos to turn them into something I felt happy about sharing. It’s hard to keep switching between editing mode and writing mode—one requires tight focus, the other needs the opposite.

I haven’t done much songwriting since then as we wanted to finish the studio album. Then I had to sort out the artwork, make videos, do interviews and so on. But I’m sure I’ll start writing songs again soon—the melodies that come into my mind (especially when I’ve just woken up) are becoming rather insistent! I’ll probably use the same strategy as I used for my song-a-day project, i.e. sleeping on a title and giving myself a tight deadline to finish the song. I usually write them in my head as I’m pottering round the house or walking around the neighbourhood, stopping to record my ideas as voice memos. I get quite a lot of the lyrics this way but at some point I have to write them out so I can look at them and see what needs changing. Then I make a rough demo on Garageband with a programmed drum track and a guitar track.

How was recording this album different from previous ones?
It took much longer, not only because of the pandemic but also because other members of the band were busy and Debbie now lives some distance away. It wasn’t easy to find times when we could all get together to practise and record the songs.

We approached recording in a different way this time. Usually we’d put down guide guitar (to a click track) and guide vocals, then we’d record the instruments and vocals in layers, starting with bass guitar and drums, but for this album the whole band went into the live room and Jon recorded us playing the song together. We’d do a couple of takes to make sure we had good bass guitar and drum tracks. Other guitars, vocals and overdubs would usually have to be redone or added afterwards. This way of recording captures more of the energy of the band, I think.

Another difference is that I recorded most of my vocals at home, something I learned to do during my lockdown project. I’m more relaxed when I’m singing on my own and the result is more intimate, which people seem to like.

How has band activity changed since Mr. Momtchiloff retired?
Peter’s new-found freedom meant we could finish the album more quickly, as he was now free to go into the studio with me on weekdays. He’s been very busy with his other bands too, recording albums with Heavenly and Railcard.

What kind of potions or elixirs do you use to soothe your singing voice?
I don’t have any secret formulas! Hoarseness hasn’t been a problem for me since I took some classical singing lessons and learned how to support my voice properly, using my abdominal muscles. (I was surprised to learn that I’m actually a soprano, although I don’t tend to use the upper part of my range for the Would-be-goods.) The only potion I drink is tea, which isn’t the best thing for the voice as it’s quite acidic. I make sure I drink plenty of water the day before I have to sing, I never drink alcohol before a show and I’ve never smoked.

Let’s talk ageism. You are at the top of your game like many women of a certain age so why does society treat us all as if we are invisible?
I don’t know. The older women musicians I know are far from invisible—they get plenty of appreciation and respect. I’ve always had good examples of strong older women in my life and make a point of seeking out good role models now.

What’s on your reading table? What art shows have topped your list lately?
I’m reading ‘The Art Cure’ by a London-based academic who has spent her life studying the effects of making and experiencing art (including music, dance, all forms of visual art, and more) on our minds and bodies. It makes you realise how short-sighted it is of governments to make cuts in the arts as if they’re a luxury, when they really are fundamental to our happiness and wellbeing.

Our last art show was ‘Radical Harmony’, an exhibition of neo-impressionist paintings at the National Gallery). What really stood out for me were Seurat’s drawings and the luminous portraits of Dutch-Indonesian artist Jan Toorop (who later went full Symbolist and became a massive influence on Gustav Klimt).

Jessica in London, Brief Lives shoot, 2001. Photo: Gail O’Hara

Can you cook? What’s your specialty? Peter’s?
I’ve cooked since I was a small child – I think it’s an essential life skill. In those days it was mainly baking (bread, scones, cakes, etc) but now I make pretty much everything. Peter is a very good, instinctive cook but his New Year resolution was to cook from recipes. I gave him Fuchsia Dunlop’s book on Sichuanese cooking for Christmas and he is working his way through that (to my great delight).

Any new cats on the horizon?
Jessica: I’m very tempted but my last cat had health problems which stopped me from travelling for years. I want to enjoy a bit of freedom before succumbing again.
Peter: I’ve told her she can get another cat when she’s 70.

If we came to your neighborhood for one day, what should we do?
I’d recommend a stroll along Golborne Road and the north end of Portobello Road. There are still some interesting independent shops, cafés and restaurants. Further north, next to Regent’s Canal, there’s a lovely little place called Meanwhile Gardens, created many years ago on waste land by volunteers. A walk eastwards along the canal towpath up to Little Venice is a nice thing to do on a sunny day. Portobello Road on a Saturday is much too crowded for me but if you go during the week, I’d recommend popping into Books for Cooks on Blenheim Crescent, a specialist cookery book shop which has a test kitchen at the back, serving very good-value lunches from Tuesday to Friday. (Get there well before 12 and be prepared to queue outside!) There’s a lovely little Swedish bakery, Fabrique, on Portobello Road, and a good Malaysian restaurant called Makan under the Westway flyover.

Who is the comedian in the Would-Be-Goods?
Peter, Debbie and Andy are all very funny. Andy loves word play (especially puns and anagrams) and all three are good at witty ripostes. I don’t have that quick wit in conversation – I can only think of the perfect come-back long after the moment has passed.

Talk us through your stagewear protocols.
It’s usually a last-minute decision: ‘stripy or black?’ We branched out at last year’s Paris Popfest and wore black trousers with white shirts. I thought we looked rather chic but one French reviewer said Debbie and I (who both wear glasses these days) looked like kindly librarians from a fictional English country village. Actually, that’s not a bad look.

What’s it like being on Skep Wax?
It’s great. I don’t think there can be a label that is more enthusiastic about its artists and bands and which works harder to get their music out there. I think being veteran indie musicians themselves gives them a huge advantage.

What is your favorite London pub and why?
Jessica: It would have to be the Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell, epicentre of the London indie scene. The owner and staff create a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, the beer is good (I’m told), and the ground-floor bar is the perfect setting for informal afternoon gigs as well as the occasional party.

Peter: I also like the Lexington of course, the musical hub of London. A fine old-fashioned pub for social drinking, if there are not too many of you, is the King Charles I in King’s Cross. And in young people’s London, I think of two pubs which are great music venues but also great for a social: the Cav in Stockwell and the Victoria in Dalston.

Do you pay attention to popular music? If so, any songs you enjoy? Or other bands/albums by anyone currently?
Jessica: These days I don’t get to hear much new music unless it’s by bands and artists we know in real life. It’s not that I’m not interested – I keep meaning to listen to the radio more but I go to bed very early these days.

Peter: Strangely, my two favourite albums of last year were by men from Kent: the High Span and the Penrose Web. I also liked Baxter Dury’s record and, getting a bit closer to Chickfactor territory, Former Champ from Glasgow, whose melodic punch and conciseness reminded me of a less lairy Guided by Voices.

Would-Be-Goods tour dates:
Feb. 21: The Water Rats, London
Feb. 25: The Just Dropped In, Coventry
March 5: Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
April 3: The Gate Arts & Community Centre, Cardiff
May 29: The Central Bar, Gateshead
May 30: Glad Café, Glasgow

10 tips for budding songwriters by Jessica

1. Feed your mind. Read – not just contemporary fiction. Listen to music from different times and places. Watch old films. Go to art galleries. Everything you experience will combine and ferment and something strange and new will come of it.

2. Keep a notebook of words and phrases that appeal to you – the title of an old film, a chapter heading in a book, a fragment of a poem, a scrap of conversation you’ve overheard. Take the notebook to bed, pick something out before you turn off the light, and sleep on it. Your brain will get to work on it overnight.

3. Try different ways of sparking musical ideas. Strumming chords on a guitar or piano doesn’t work for everyone. Try taking an intro from an old song and imagining a different course it could have taken, or borrow a bar of a melody and see what you can make from it.

4. Make yourself write a song every day for a month. It can be a very simple song, even a silly song – it doesn’t matter. The important thing is just to produce something. It’s the best antidote to perfectionism, which leads to writer’s block.

5. Don’t have rigid ideas about the sort of songs you should (or shouldn’t) be writing. Accept whatever comes up and work with it.

6. When you’re in songwriting mode, go for long walks by yourself. A large park is ideal but city streets are just as good. (Take care when crossing, though!) I find the rhythm of walking helps my thoughts flow.

7. Record all your ideas, no matter how small: snippets of melody on a voice memo, a line or two of lyrics in a notebook. You think you’ll remember them later but you won’t. This applies especially to ideas that come to you first thing in the morning when you’re half asleep, which are sometimes the best.

8. Sing your lyrics aloud from time to time as you write them – what sounds good to your inner ear might sound clumsy when you’re actually singing it.

9. Be careful about who you play your songs to, especially when you’re just starting to write. It can be discouraging if the response is lukewarm, or if they love what you’ve written, you may find yourself writing to please them rather than yourself.

10. Never compare your songs to other people’s. It can discourage you, or lead you astray. Just keep doing what you do and feeding your mind, and your songwriting will get better.

Would-Be-Goods circa 2004 (Peter, Jessica, Debbie and Lupe Núñez-Fernández) in London, Brief Lives shoot, 2001. Photo: Gail O’Hara

Tears Before Bedtime – out today!

01 The Gallopers
02 Dr Love
03 Tears For Leda
04 The Back Of Your Bike
05 The Tears Of Cora Pearl
06 The Rose Tattoo
07 Don’t Come Crying To Me
08 Witch Hazel
09 Old Flame
10 Carmilla
11 The Bride Wore Black
12 Madame X
13 Away With The Fairies
14 The Moon Doesn’t Mind

December 29, 2024January 2, 2025

chickfactor lists 2024: round two

The Umbrellas on CF19, 2022. Photo: Gail O’Hara

The Umbrellas: here is our end of the year list, we decided to rank gas stations!

The Umbrellas were on the road ALOT (possibly far too much) this past year. Given this, what better way to wrap up 2024 than a retrospect of where we spent a majority of our time, gas stations…?

One9 – This fueling station we believe is a newish franchise. The whole sign and exterior looks like it was designed by a silicon valley software developer. They have hot food items, a lot of car accessories you wouldn’t normally find (like hub caps), and the latest trending food items. Nick tried an Oreos Coca-cola and commented that it tasted like cleaning supplies.

Kum & Go – Ha ha ha … get your mind out of the gutter! This midwest franchise only has a few locations, but each one is more charming than the last. Generally friendly staff who don’t mind you giggling when you bring one of to their “Kum & Go” t-shirts up to the counter to purchase.

Sinclair- That dinosaur logo is cool! Maybe it has to do with the fact that these are not terribly common in the bay area, but whenever we stop into one there’s an indescribable sense of nostalgia and whimsy. It feels like an old-timey gas pump attendant dressed in all white with a newscap is going to pop out from behind the big fiberglass Dinosaur they have on display. While other chains have rebranded or updated their logo … that dino has always remained, plastered on their fueling pumps.

Buc-ees – An allegory for what America is: Large, overwhelming, and hundreds of bathroom stalls. A must-stop for anyone driving through the south or mid-west. What more is there to say that hasn’t been said by bands and short-form video influencers alike? Matt says to make sure to try the Brisket sandwich. Pro-tip: skip the prepackaged bagged jerky and go straight to the counter for the fresh stuff.

Love’s – Love’s is like a reliable old friend that will always be there for you. Love’s doesn’t judge you when you’ve had one too many hard seltzers and you stumble around looking for their mini-tacos. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to catch the Love’s x Del Taco combo. Love’s would never dream of thinking illy of you! Hot showers, hot food, and hot deals (each location has a discount food rack of unsold seasonal items). Through and through The Umbrellas are a Love’s band. So spread the love and stop into your local Love’s the next time you need to top off your tank.

Kid slang! 2024 – Claudia Gonson (from the Magnetic Fields)

Huzz- attractive…non derogatory

Fine Shyt- sexy person, non derogatory

Link- hooking up

Bop- ho, derogatory

Buss – really great

Eats (“that eats”), ate up- really great

Cooked -done for

Cooking -doing well

Gyat- ass

Rizz -charisma, your ability to pull

Pull- your game, your ability to attract people

Game- your ability to get people to have a crush on you “she’s got game”

Low key – verbal tic, like “like”

Chalant – extrovert, over sharing, not mysterious

Non chalant – mysterious

Dip- leave

Crash out or tweak – I’m gonna lose it

Glazing- over praising

Tuff- good

Peter Momtchiloff with Jen Sbragia, Portland OR (Photo: Gail O’Hara)

Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly, Would-Be-Goods, Tufthunter):
Best trailside vittles of 2024

Ox and Finch, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (with the Would-be-goods)
Taberna La Concha, Calle Cava Baja, Madrid (with Jessica and Heavenly)
Donde Augusto, Mercado Central, Santiago de Chile (with Heavenly and Anto)
Kouraku, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles (with robot)
Souvla, Hayes Valley, SF (with the Umbrellas)
Old School Pizzeria, Franklin St, Olympia (with Heather and Pat)

Daniel Handler / Lemony Snicket: For whatever reason, my attention span seemed to increase this year. For example:

Best long poems I read or reread this year:
Liu Shang, “Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute”
Matthew Rohrer, “The Others”
John Ashbery, “The Wave”
Annelyse Gelman, “Vexations”
Alice Notley, “In The Pines”
Laura Henrikesen, “Laura’s Desires”

Best long songs I liked this year:
Gerard Cleaver, “The Process”
Destroyer, “Bay of Pigs”
Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, “Mutron/Arabian Nightmare”
Nichuminu, “Aberraciones y Milagros”
Matmos, “Ultimate Care II”
Yukihiro Fukutomi, “5 Blind Boys”
Prince, “Automatic”

Julie Underwood: Your Girlfriend Made You A Mixtape
My favorite books I read in 2024:

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley
Long Island by Colm Tóbín
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand*
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters*
The Rachel Incident: A Novel by Caroline O’Donoghue*
*originally released in 2023

+ My favorite albums of 2024

Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter (tie)
Charli xcx – Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (tie)
Waxahatchee –Tigers Blood
The Hard Quartet – self-titled
Cassandra Jenkins – My Light, My Destroyer
Fontaines D.C. – Romance
Rosali – Bite Down
The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friends
Jessica Pratt –Here in the Pitch
Kate Bollinger – Songs From A Thousand Frames of Mind

Ed Mazzucco / Shelflife Records, Tears Run Rings:
10 songs I listened to a lot in 2024

Colle – Green Edge
Crimson Whisper – Joshua’s Gaze
Dummy – Soonish…
Mo Dotti – Really Wish
Memory Drawers – Hart
Mahogany – A Scaffold
The Horrors – Lotus Eater
Seefeel – Sky Hooks
Caribou – Come Find Me
Chris Cohen – Wishing Well

Read round one
Read round three
Read round four

May 7, 2024June 20, 2024

Heavenly + Swansea Sound Share Their Best Coast Faves, Add West Coast Dates

We are here to inform you that—OH HELL YEAH!—legendary UK indiepop band Heavenly and indie supergroup Swansea Sound are coming to play shows in the USA! So we asked the band members to come up with lists of their favorite West Coast things and memories. (Photos courtesy of the bands)

Heavenly + Swansea Sound in NYC:
May 31-June 1 in Brooklyn: shows are sold out
June 1: Heavenly daytime event

Swansea Sound East Coast:
June 2: Queens, NYC, TransPecos
June 5: Washington DC, Quarry House Tavern
June 6: Providence, RI, Alchemy
June 7: Boston, MA, O’Brien’s
June 8: New York, NY, Knitting Factory
June 9: Philadelphia, PA, Johnny Brenda’s

Heavenly + Swansea Sound West Coast:
Oct. 15: Seattle, Tractor Tavern (with Tullycraft)
Oct. 16: Portland, Mississippi Studios (with All Girl Summer Fun Band)
Oct. 18: San Francisco, Rickshaw Stop
Oct. 22-23: Los Angeles, Zebulon.

What Heavenly and Swansea Sound Love About the West Coast

Cathy Rogers (Heavenly, Marine Research, Gilroy)
1. Driving through trees for hours and hours between Portland and SF or is it Oly and Portland? America does everything on a scale so big for us Brits
2. The Original Pantry in LA, my first experience of a cafe open 365 and 24/7, the door constantly swinging
3. The unbelievable smell of Gilroy. Everyone says oh you’ll smell it miles before you get there and you think they’re exaggerating then you smell that they’re not
4. Monterey aquarium and the whole feeling of Monterey and canning and those pummelling words
5. Swap meets in San Luis Obispo, getting up in the middle of the night to rummage around in other people’s drawers of kitchen utensils to find just the right shaped thing you don’t know what to do with
6. Lovely Olympia people. The indie punk memories of the US all centre around or connect in some way with Olympia
7. Snorkelling in kelp off Catalina island. A 90degree change in the angle of your head is all it takes to enter a parallel universe
8. Staying in an airstream by the river in Kernville. I co-owned an airstream when I lived in LA and went up to stay in it at weekends and float in giant tractor tyres down the river
9. Jumping kangaroo rats and cactuses in Joshua Tree National Park. Shame U2 appropriated its name.
10. Pie. The whole west coast. And east coast, and middle. Whole shops, whole restaurants, whole lives committed to pie.

Amelia and Hue, image courtesy of the artists

Hue Williams (Swansea Sound, the Pooh Sticks)
1. City Lights bookstore
2. Meeting Johnny Guitar Watson the first time I visited LA who invited me to swim in his guitar shaped pool
3. Sky Saxon and the Seeds
4. The Griffith Observatory
5. Meeting Brian May at Universal Studios
6. San Francisco 49ers
7. Arthur Lee and Love
8. Linda Perhacs
9. Attending the world premiere of the Beavis and Butthead movie at the Chinese theatre and the aftershow party with Tarantino where Issac Hayes was the star guest
10. The Six Million Dollar Man

Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly, Swansea Sound, the Catenary Wires, Marine Research, Tender Trap, Talulah Gosh, Skep Wax Records)
1. Olympia: Our US home from home.
2. Riot grrrl: A global phenomenon but Olympia was where it started and also where we first discovered it. Heavenly weren’t exactly a riot grrrl band, but it had a big influence on us.
3. Heavenly’s show with Tiger Trap in Sacramento: One of my all time favourite shows. I seem to remember it was in someone’s basement without their parents’ knowing. Tiger Trap were on roller skates. It was everything a show should be.
4. The competition between K Records and Kill Rock Stars to be the best label in Olympia/the world at that time. They both won.
5. Slumberland Records: So good for such a prolonged period. Current faves include The Umbrellas and Lightheaded.
6. Gidget: Both the book and the film. I have no idea why I love this, as I have zero interest in surfing; it just got to me.
7. The long-time liberal attitudes to sexuality and gender on the West Coast. Yep, had to say it. Important.
8. Silicon Valley: For giving Swansea Sound so much lyrical source material.
9. The Aislers Set: Such an amazing way with a tune. Linton = ❤️.
10. Beat Happening: The music I want played at my funeral. The music we did play at my brother’s.

Ian recording with Thrashing Doves at Rumbo Recorders in LA ‘86

Ian Button (Heavenly, Swansea Sound, Death In Vegas)
1. Little Richard winding down his limo window to say hello in the car park of the Hyatt.
2. Anthony Perkins stepping out of the lift at The Hollywood Roosevelt.
3. Seeing The Replacements at Santa Barbara ’87.
4. Waking up from an earth tremor.
5. A strawberry next to your eggs and bacon.
6. “What are grits, please?” “You English? You won’t like ’em!”
7. Death In Vegas @ Bimbos 365 SF ’97.
8. Surplus store near Ripley’s Odditorium – proper raw denim Levi’s
9. Hearing Todd R. ‘Hello It’s Me’ for the first time, on the radio, driving along Sunset Blvd., top down.
10. Hot apple cider in Seattle in November.

Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly, the Would-Be-Goods, Tufthunter, Marine Research, Talulah Gosh, many more)
North to South:
1. Sylvia Hotel, Stanley Park, Vancouver
2. Bellingham summer philosophy conference
3. Anacortes IPA
4. Roasted Olympia oysters
5. All Freakin’ Night at Olympia film fest
6. Olympia pet parade
7. The decor at the Brotherhood Lounge, Oly
8. Dumpster Values, Oly
9. Sprung dance floor at the Crystal Ballroom, Portland
10. Chez Panisse
11. Hummingbirds in Golden Gate Park
12. Midnight tour of historic downtown LA

Rob and Calvin (“P.U.N.K. Girl” video shoot)

Rob Pursey (Heavenly, Swansea Sound, The Catenary Wires, Skep Wax Records, Talulah Gosh, Marine Research)
1. Filming a video for “P.U.N.K. Girl” in the Capitol Theatre, Olympia
2. ‘Would you like that covered and smothered?’
3. Cinnamon-scented garbage
4. ‘That sounded totally SWEDISH’ (San Diego promoter, of our soundcheck, approvingly)
5. Vaginal Davis hosting the Marine Research show in LA
6. Tiger Trap
7. Hanging with Candice and Calvin at K Records HQ
8. Visiting Kill Rock Stars HQ, just down the street from K. (I just realised that this list is very Olympia-centric)
9. The Microphones
10. Driving for 8 hours and nothing happening

Bob Collins (Swansea Sound, the Treasures of Mexico, the Dentists)
1. Monterey Pop
2. Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass
3. Laurel and Hardy driving in LA with a record player under the hood
4. Ray Manzarek’s almost certainly made-up story about meeting Jim Morrison on Venice Beach and forming the Doors
5. The geographical absurdity of Point Roberts
6. The fact that the members of Love all lived in a house called The Castle.
7. The day that Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark went to the movies in LA to see A Hard Day’s Night
8. Mulholland Drive

READ: Hue and Amelia Interview Each Other (Swansea Sound)
READ: Heavenly in the USA
READ: The Catenary Wires Interview
READ: Our All Girl Summer Fun Band Interview

Eddie Vedder and Cathy Heavenly (she didn’t know who he was!)

October 13, 2022October 13, 2022

Heavenly in the U.S.A.

In honor of the forthcoming Heavenly reissues (Skep Wax will rerelease all the Heavenly LPs on vinyl soon: Heavenly vs Satan is available on pre-order now; Le Jardin de Heavenly will follow next April and the other two will come along at six month intervals)—in addition to the John Peel Sessions on Precious Recordings and the announcement of the band’s forthcoming gigs at Bush Hall in London in May 2023—we asked the band to think back to 30 years ago and tell us about their impressions of the U.S. in the olden days! The very first issue of chickfactor was handed out at a Heavenly / Lois gig in Sept. 1992; I reviewed their second album in SPIN around the same time, and we interviewed them in chickfactor zine (Amelia is on the cover of issue 2).

Heavenly: Peter, Amelia, Rob, Mathew, and Cathy. Photo by Alison Wonderland

ROB PURSEY
Going to America was overwhelming, partly because we were going to meet loads of people for the first time—people whose records we’d heard, but from a distance of 3500 miles. Two of the encounters I remember most vividly from that first Heavenly trip are Phoebe Summersquash (Small Factory) and Jeffrey Underhill (Honeybunch). Phoebe is one of the select band of people known as ‘girl drummers’. She was the most diminutive person in the band, she wore glasses and she smiled all the time, even while she beating the hell out of a drumkit. I loved that combination of effortless glee and thunderous noise. She was the living antidote to those theatrical drummers (and guitarists) who pretend to be working out in the gym, or summoning Satan, as if that was crucial to making a great sound.

Jeffrey Underhill, we met, I think, in Rhode Island. I don’t really remember the gig very well, but I was a big fan of Honeybunch. Their song ‘Mine Your Own Business’ was in my head all the time, and it still provides the soundtrack for my memories of our first trip to the US. Anyway, what I remember about Jeffrey was the fact that he showed up in a back alley in a really great old blue/green semi-beater of a car. I am a bit of a nut about old cars, and liked this one a lot. Me and Jeffrey didn’t talk much, I imagine we were both somewhat shy, but I do remember sitting on the bonnet thinking ‘this is the best car, and it belongs to the person who played the best song’.

The encounters with all these new people came to a head at the Chickfactor Party, where there was a whole community was assembling. I didn’t really know anyone there, of course, but I somehow felt like I could get to know and like all of them. We were a long way from the UK, but we felt at home. Part of the reason for this was that women were running the Chickfactor show, and these were wry, witty women. There was a lot of intellect behind Chickfactor, and a definite attitude, but there was a lot of humour too. The humour was a sign of confidence—there was nothing apologetic about it. That’s what being in Heavenly felt like. The women in our band were obviously in charge, but they wore it lightly. So New York, or at least this little indie corner of New York, felt more amenable to our band than a lot of places back in the UK. It was a good feeling.

CATHY ROGERS
I’m not sure any of my memories are really separable. The synapses which connect Heavenly to America all sit in a viscous bath of coffee and the new kind of cool of the straight edge punks and the smell of wet trees driving through Oregon and Massachusetts and the swooning delight of being in the same venn diagram overlap as the really rioting riot grrrls and gigs not being gigs any more but shows and the sheer heat of new experiences and new loves. America just felt so great. It was like finding a version of us that was just so sure of itself. So certain. Walk around the town like you own it…everyone, all the time.

Compared with that overpowering sense of it all, specific memories feel a bit humble. The drive down from Olympia to play a show with a band who turned out to be Tiger Trap, Calvin saying, classic understatement, ‘I guess you might kinda like this band.’ Meeting them to play a show together in this kind of basement garage, them all wearing roller skates, us being powerless to resist charms on that level. For some reason, having a conversation with a bunch of people about our favourite foods and everyone out-doing each other for eccentricity, then Molly from Bratmobile saying ‘I just want to eat rice’ and that becoming one of those weird things that I think of literally every time I cook rice. The novelty, playing at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, of being fed really well before a show. Laughing over-hearing an old guy in the audience, saying – after a whole raft of indie bands – about Lois, ‘Finally someone who can actually sing’. Meeting Ted and Jodi for the first time and being so jealous that Pete was somehow already friends with them, then seeing Jodi’s band (with another girl with a rad American name like Brooklyn or Maddison, I’m pretty sure the band was called The Runways) and thinking these were the most sensational people I’d ever met. Being interviewed for this magazine called Chickfactor and hearing of another wait what cool girls are somehow allowed to be mainstream now magazine called Sassy and realising that culture was an actual thing and the world changes and feeling that we lived in some small backwater but we were so lucky because we were here, for now.

AMELIA FLETCHER
– On our first US tour, Pete and I being dropped off by Small Factory in Hartford, Connecticut, in the middle of the night. We were near the place we were all staying with my parents, and figured we’d call a taxi to get us home. But it turned out that the place we stopped at had been robbed the week before, and we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by police cars. We were freaked out. It felt like an episode of Starsky and Hutch. Then, when asked where we were heading, we realised we couldn’t remember the address. Not at all suspicious! In the end, though, the police believed the daft English people and gave us a lift home in the police car.

– Meeting Claudia Gonson from Magnetic Fields at Chet’s Last Call in Boston. She asked if I had time to come and record a song for her and Stephin Merritt’s side project, the 6ths, the next day. I said why not. I had heard ‘100,000 Fireflies’ on the ‘One Last Kiss’ compilation and liked it a lot. I remember I sang ‘Hall of Mirrors’ in an especially breathy way, and Stephin commented that I came complete with my own reverb!

– Playing at the Fantagraphics Comics Warehouse in Seattle with Beat Happening and another band who I just remember as being very smelly! It was a great space, and I was excited because I was a big fan of ‘Love and Rockets’. Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl both came, which seemed pretty thrilling too. We were easily thrilled!

The Heavenly option. Photo by Alison Wonderland

– Arriving in Olympia at the start of a West Coast tour, meeting Bratmobile and Bikini Kill and discovering Riot Grrrl. There was a visceral buzz around the whole place, and we quickly got very excited about it too. We had always been a feminist band, but in a quiet sort of way. We didn’t really feel part of the UK feminist movement at the time. It was fighting for stuff that was no doubt important but didn’t seem relevant to our concerns. So it was thrilling and empowering to find people discussing the issues that really had affected us. And to discover a whole set of new bands who had found a way of being outspoken and angry but also huge fun. It had a big impact on us, musically and personally.

PETER MOMTCHILOFF
I have opened the drawer in which I left my old memories of Heavenly in the USA. There is a lot there, but I can’t fit it together into any kind of story. My colleagues’ reminiscences do what I seem not to be able to. As a kind of coda, I do remember that we were brought down to earth by our first gig back in England after a West Coast tour, feeling rather pleased with ourselves. It was in a pub in Gillingham, to about five men and a dog. I don’t think they even turned the pub TV off while we played.

The late Mathew Fletcher. Image courtesy of Heavenly

March 8, 2021March 8, 2021

catching up with daily song generator jessica griffin from the would-be-goods

Jessica Griffin from the Would-Be-Goods in London, 2001. Taken by Gail O’Hara

chickfactor 13 (2000) published an interview with Jessica Griffin from the Would-Be-Goods 21 years ago conducted by Peter Momtchiloff, who ended up joining her band, which also features Deborah Greensmith and Andy Warren. I took a lot of photographs of them while I lived in London (2001 and 2004) that have ended up on their album covers, and the WBGs have played at many chickfactor parties. While some of us haven’t been able to focus or achieve our creative potential during COVIDtime, Jessica has become rather prolific. We checked in with her about how it’s going. Interview by Gail O’Hara

chickfactor: how are you holding up?
jessica griffin: Fairly well, although my dreams are much more vivid than usual which must mean I’m more stressed out than I think.

How different is your life under lockdown than it was before?
In some ways, very different. Peter (my partner and fellow Would-be-good) has been staying with me since it all began, and I’ve got into a different routine, cooking twice a day (except at weekends) and writing and recording songs daily.

What has been getting you through this time? Books, food, etc.
Peter’s company, Zoom chats with friends and songwriting. I’m too restless to read much these days, although when I’m feeling anxious I devour 20th-century detective fiction. We’ve been watching the short Cocktails with a Curator talks from the Frick Collection and old black-and-white British films, e.g. Spring In Park Lane, Cast A Dark Shadow. I’ve always cooked regularly but food seems much more important now. We have a proper lunch every day which is quite old-fashioned (and French!) and I’ve expanded my repertoire quite a bit.
I find cooking very calming.

Jessica performing at the Luminaire; photo courtesy of Jessica

What do you miss most about beforetimes?
Friends and family. I haven’t seen my (grown-up) daughter for over a year as she lives in another city. She’s very Victorian and doesn’t do FaceTime/Zoom. And I really miss my almost-daily lunches at a wonderful local cookery bookshop/café run by an eccentric Frenchman.

How has London changed since this happened? For better or worse.
I haven’t been further than a mile from home since March 2020 so I can only talk about my own part of west London. In the first lockdown, with almost no traffic and very few people around, you could smell the grass and flowers in the gardens and parks.

Seeing so many local shops, restaurants and cafés go out of business is heartbreaking, though.

Can Brexit be reversed?
Probably not in our generation. I think it’s a huge mistake.

Let’s talk about your new songs! When did you start writing one song per day? And how many are you up to now?
2 October 2020. I thought it would be good to have a creative project as I was slowly turning into my grandmother. I’ve written 157 songs so far.

How has Peter been involved in the process if at all?
My idea was to treat songwriting like a game or challenge, so I asked Peter to give me a title every evening. I would write and record the song the following day and play him the result. It’s worked for me in the way nothing else has. Sitting around waiting for the muse never got me anywhere. I should say that Peter doesn’t have any preconception of what the song should be about, or how it should sound. He just gives me a title and that’s it. Sometimes I will change the title retrospectively if I think it suits the song better.

Otherwise it’s a solo project — I do all the singing, play all the instruments (apart from bass on a few songs) and recording.

What have you learned about yourself as a songwriter, a musician and a home-recorder since you started doing this?
I’ve learned not to be so precious about songwriting and to treat it like a job that I have to get on with every day, whether I feel like it or not. It’s helped me to override my perfectionist tendencies as I have to finish the song by the end of the day and play it to Peter even if I’m not happy with it. And I’ve learned that I can’t trust my own judgement, at least my first impressions. Sometimes I’ll think a song I’ve just written is rubbish but when I listen to it again a few days later I like it. And vice versa. My singing, guitar and keyboard playing were quite rusty at the beginning but they’re improving. And being in charge of the recording process means I can do as many retakes as I want, which has helped me to sort out some things I didn’t like about my singing.

Jessica and Peter in London, 2001. Photo by Gail O’Hara

Can you give us some details about some of the songs? Titles/subject/etc.
“Ouija Board Romance” is set in a provincial English town in the 1920s and is about a housemaid being invited to join a séance hosted by her employer, and the unexpected result. “The Magic Hour” is about a suicide pact between a spoiled young man and an older courtesan in a hotel in Khartoum in the siege of 1884. “The Wind Will Change” is about a drifter in 1940s America, written from the perspective of a woman or girl who loves him but knows he’s not going to be around for very long. “Demon Lover” is the story of the ‘damsel with the dulcimer’ in Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan,” who is outraged that she’s been spirited away from her loom in rural Devon and abandoned in the dark cavern of the poet’s imagination. And finally, “Cavanagh, Cody and Byrne” is about a mysterious vaudeville act that might actually be something much bigger.

I don’t know where these ideas and characters come from. I always wanted to be a writer or film director so maybe these are the novels I would have written or the films I’d have made, compressed into song form. I can picture the characters and their settings in detail and I know who would play the couple in “The Magic Hour” – Omar Sharif and Jeanne Moreau. I’ve also written some songs about universal experiences and situations with quite simple lyrics which aren’t like anything I’ve written before.

And some songs in recognisable styles but from a female perspective, like “In The Mirror” which sounds like an angsty early Who song but is about being a young woman, having to be what other people want you to be and being able to be yourself only when you’re alone.

Do you have any rituals or unusual holidays that you celebrate?
My daughter said at age six that she thought it was unfair that we had Mother’s Day and Father’s Day but no Daughter’s Day so we instituted it and I send her a hand-made card and a little present every year.

What are you reading?
I started reading Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and Rachel Cusk’s Transit but am finding I can’t concentrate for long.

What is in your fridge? What is your specialty to make?
The usual stuff, plus Thai green curry paste, tahini, fresh ginger, kefir. We’re eating very healthily—everything cooked from scratch, lots of vegetables, etc., but possibly a little too much of everything. Irish soda bread (Darina Allen’s recipe) is my lockdown speciality. I make it with spelt flour which gives it a kind of soft sweetness like English scones.

If you were running the country (or the world), what would you do first?
I would absolutely hate to be in a position of power and can’t even imagine it. Being the mother of a small child was challenging enough.

What is your sign?
Cancer.

What is your spirit animal?
A rather small and motheaten bear.

When we’re allowed total freedom, what will you do first?
Meet up with my sister and take her for the birthday lunch we had to cancel last year because of lockdown.

Any other future plans? Where and when will you release some tunes?
I’ve just set up a page on Bandcamp where I’ll release some of my new songs very soon. Beyond that, I hope to finish the Would-be-goods album we were working on before lockdown and to start doing live shows again (if there are any venues left).

Thank you, Jessica!

April 19, 2015September 27, 2016

chatting with tufthunter leader peter momtchiloff

you guys know guitar player and indie legend peter momtchiloff (we call him “momtch”) from his former bands talulah gosh, heavenly, marine research (and many others) and his current bands the would-be-goods, les clochards, etc. for his new project, deep hits by tufthunter, he has assembled a cast of musicians and assigned songs to a bunch of singers. the album is available for free (there are a handful of CDs out there he’s made for friends) and, despite demand for vinyl, he has no interest in capitalizing on it. the record is a true gem that features some of our favorite singers ever: (chickfactor co-founder) pam berry (black tambourine, withered hand, the pines, etc.); lupe núñez-fernández, (pipas, amor de días); claudia gonson (the magnetic fields, future bible heroes); jessica griffin (would-be-goods); amelia fletcher (talulah gosh, heavenly, tender trap, the catenary wires, etc.); lois, bid and loads of others. we asked momtch a few questions but be sure to read ben’s interview with him also. interview by gail

chickfactor: what made you want to do this record?
peter: I have always written a lot of songs, and a few of them have been played and recorded by bands I’ve been in (talulah gosh and the would-be-goods in particular). but I think there is something a bit uncomfortable about a singer being fed songs by another member of the band: fine now and then, but not as the basis for a band. ¶ with my midlife manpunk band hot hooves, I decided to try something I hadn’t done before: singing (some of the) songs myself. I enjoyed this, but was not surprised to discover that I don’t really have the voice to be a good lead vocalist. ¶ so what to do with my songs? asking a different person to sing each one seemed a good way to try to make the most of them. I’m surprised that more people haven’t done this.

cf: how did you go about selecting the people involved?
for most of the bass and drums, I turned to my clochards colleagues ian and gary—I knew they would do a great job. the singers are all friends, so that made it hard for them to say no (no one did). I know plenty of other singers, but these are the people I felt most comfortable asking. ¶ I regret that the music industry seems increasingly to favour the working model of a controlling auteur (artist, producer, or artist/producer combo). I knew I didn’t want to go down that path. for me, personal interaction is the essence of pop music. so I used a collaborative model, starting by working out the basic tracks with my crack oxford rhythm section. and I didn’t try to tell anyone what to play or how to sing their parts.

cf: how long have you been working on / writing the songs?
one is from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, and most of the rest from the last few years. In late 2013 I went through all the songs I could remember and picked the best ones.

cf: do you want me to ask debsey if she’ll sing on the next one?
sure! though I’d have to work hard to try to come up with something good enough. I’ve been a fan since I heard “been teen” on the radio in 1981.

cf: what guitarists inspired you growing up?
in the order in which I came to them: rock’n’rollers like scotty moore; then george harrison; steve cropper; wilko johnson; dave edmunds; tom verlaine and richard lloyd of television; leo nocentelli of the meters; and various people who played with howlin’ wolf and james brown. I apologize for failing to live up to this list. my favourite guitar players to listen to are steve cropper and django reinhardt.

cf: who are some of the best bands in oxford right now?
apart from my own, I like a couple of punk/metal bands called agness pike and girl power, and a lady/gentleman duo called the other dramas. my clochards colleague karen cleave is developing a very interesting act which I think she is calling mermaid noises. I imagine all these acts will remain local attractions, and I think that’s just fine.

cf: if you had to put tufthunter in a record store “genre” what would you choose?
it was nice when we could all think of ourselves as “alternative”—is that still legitimate, or would we be deceiving ourselves? I am certainly “independent,” given I don’t even have a record label.

cf: why did you not want to charge anyone for this record/package it and sell as vinyl or CD?
it was partly pragmatic: what I would like is for people to hear the music, and I don’t need a financial return. for a little-known band, putting a record on sale can be self-defeating in terms of dissemination, especially if you don’t work hard on selling it at live shows. many people who like music are now fairly unused to mechanisms for buying records, so those mechanisms tend to represent a barrier to dissemination. ¶ in addition, observing the rituals of the record industry and its media, I confess to a certain distaste, and an unwillingness to join in that game. it would be undignified for a gentleman of my years. ¶ so I decided that I would make CDs to give out freely to friends and acquaintances; and that I would make the record free to download, to enable it to reach a wider audience if there is one.

cf: do you have any memorable stories about talulah gosh, heavenly, would-be-goods or your time spent in chickfactor-land?
I’ve generally been content to let my past life slip into oblivion. I remember facts and scenes, but not experiences, on the whole. ¶ looking back I recall what a pleasure it has been to hang around with other bands. I must have met hundreds over the years and with very few exceptions they have been friendly and comradely. ¶ in place of forgotten stories, let me mention some of the most unusual shows I’ve played. ¶ talulah gosh supporting the blow monkeys at the new theatre in oxford—marooned with our tiny amps in the middle of an enormous stage more accustomed to the tread of quo and cliff. ¶ heavenly doing a tour of japan not only as ourselves but also as bogus BMX, stand-ins for the BMX bandits, backing their singer duglas, who ate only chips for the entire trip, out of fear of surreptitious seafood contamination. ¶ marine research playing with shellac and fugazi in east london—both bands were completely without pretensions and treated us as equals. ¶ would-be-goods on the same bill as an indie fashion show in greenwich village, thanks to chickfactor. ¶ scarlet’s well playing at an art squat commune in berlin, complete with a huge vat of vegan chili, authentically 1980s, but 25 years on. also ostpol, a bar in dresden offering a meticulous exercise in ddr retro chic/naff. ¶ les clochards playing as the only support to tom jones [sic] in the middle of a wood in suffolk.

cf: will there be another tufthunter LP?
the first time someone asked me this I found myself saying that maybe I had drained this particular wound. I report that metaphor in case it seems revealing. ¶ I am going to do a couple more tunes, because there are specific singers I still want to involve. I would certainly enjoy doing another album, but I have used most of my best songs and it might take a very long time to come up with enough again.

cf: thanks!
thank you! I suspect it was you who put pitchfork onto the record—most grateful.