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Sneaker Pimps get with that complex thing called fun
PREVIEW:
SNEAKER PIMPS
Tuesday, April 29.
The Horseshoe, 370 Queen W. Free.
BY CINDY McGLYNN
Living in an accelerated culture means you can't take anything for granted. Just when you accept the fact that by 28, everyone you meet is world weary and spends his time deconstructing culture and defining post modernism... you meet a world-weary 23-year-old who makes a pastime of deconstructing culture and defining post-modernism.
Not that I'm so surprised. Accelerated culture means adult ennui comes early. The twin phenomenon of lingering adolescence (starting at about 13 and ending... well, I'll let you know) means that we're doomed to be naive, irresponsible and cynical all at the same time. Confusing. It's no wonder we dryly sip martinis and Manhattans like the 40-year-old washed-up swingers of yesteryear. It's not because they're cool, brother. It's because they're strong.
Now, given his job as a pop guitarist and his enthusiastic embrace of potential pop stardom, Sneaker Pimps guitarist Chris Corner should be too "young" to be using words like post-modernism. (Rather, he should be awash in girls, chemicals and bowls of M&Ms with the green ones taken out.) But the 23-year-old is right in there as we chat about his band's "critique of youth culture and things like that."
Luckily, Sneaker Pimps tunes are so steeped in smoky, careless cynicism and, let's see now, what do the kids call them... loping, phat trip-hop beats, you forget it's a bunch of preemies laying a trip on you. The tension added by the sweet-tart voiced Kelli Dayton singing about emptiness, sex and suicide was enough to get "6 Underground" played in full under a sex scene in The Saint.
Guitar player Chris Corner describes that as "extremely creepy" and says he was raised on cynicism. "I grew up with a lot of cynics. Liam [Howe, the keyboardist] was a cynic. We were pretty good friends for a while and he was like three or four years older than me and he's sort of cynical about everything. And I'm a scientist as well. I went to a college and I took physics and things like that. So you sort of get taught to be cynical about everything."
That, of course, is the "old" part of our man-child talking. Young Chris took over when I asked him what happens when old guys start messing with youth culture. "In a way it has to do with naivete, I suppose. Even though we sort of claim that we're very cynical, we are still quite naive and we're just going with the flow and we're trying to develop ourselves and I suppose take in what's going on around us. Someone like U2, they've been around and know what's going on and the music possibly suffers because of that. For being too wise. I think music does need an element of naivete for it to be of any worth."
A rather contradictory couple of statements, but on the evidence of his band's seductive, edgy tunes, I'd say honest ones. Maxing out on the man child tension might be uncomfortable for them (don't worry, you either outgrow it or develop more fully in a nice, safe institution) but a very groovy time for us.
There's also the more psychological argument that these kiddie cynics simply harbor deep insecurities or are hiding some nasty skeletons in their closets. Chris did confess to watching a lot of kung fu and horror movies as a kid, but trading notes on The Evil Dead and It's Alive, I realized I was hardly the one to cast the first stone. Turns out I didn't have to.
"I used to love breakdancing as well," he confesses. "I used to rent all the breakdancing films. I don't know whether I could do it now, but yeah, I did used to do it. Back spins and head spins and all that rubbish. That was good fun."
Luckily, Beck videos and the all-round defence of post-modernism comes to the rescue (punk works well, too), making even something like admitting to breakdancing, if not cool, at least honest and therefore respectable. You were too young to know better. Young is hard to come by these days. And therefore, in the right hands, is very, very cool. "Yeah. That's the whole thing about fashion and culture, is that you're not quite sure what you're doing. That element of thinking, 'God, I'm not quite sure that I might be embarrassed in six years. Maybe it's really bad. (See previous paragraph.) But you know, I'm going to do it now even if it's quite dodgy or I'm not quite sure.' "
Says Chris without a trace of cynicism, "I suppose that's the whole
point of it."
1996 was a good year for
the sneaker pimps. Their debut album, the gold-selling Becoming X sported
the singles Spin Spin Sugar, Post Modern Sleaze and the number nine hit,
6 Underground. But now the Sneaker Pimps are about to unveil a radical
shake-up within the band, namely the departure of their female vocalist,
Kerri Drayton with Chris Corner taking over on vocals - in addition to
a fantastic new single, 'Low Five'. We speak to JOE
WILSON and DAVE
WESTLAKE.
(WORDS BY DAVID WOOD)
It's been a funny couple of years for the band, and an air of change as fed an new uncertainty from within the ranks. But they are quick to point out that this isn't a comeback of sorts. In fact, the current touring stint is about a low-key as you can get - six, unadvertised gigs, non of which in London and no obvious reason to tour other than to test the new line-up. But with the uncertainty is a paradoxical sense of inner confidence as Dave explains. 'We often found ourselves veing a little kind of scratchily close to being really good or getting how we wanted to sound. And I think we all feel as though we're a little closer to that now.'
As well as recording, the band have had a heavy presence in the US. 'We were put into a strange category.' says Joe. 'When we were over there, the four biggest European bands were Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and us. And they reviewed those four bands as if they were from the same genre. And well that made sense!'
The split with Kelli is, inevitably, going to be the feature of the bands interviews in the near future, and this they put down to the old chestnut of musical differences. 'It's a bit difficult to say without sounding childish - it was such a weird time.' explains Dave. Originally, Chris had demoed the tracks for Becoming X and then at the last minute, it was decided that a female singer would be a good decision. 'It hadn't been done by that point' says Joe. 'Nothing had been changed and then we got Kelli to sing, with the feeling that at some point it would go back to being Chris. But we were kind of taken by surprise at how well it all went. All of a sudden we were sitting around with gold discs.'
'We just had this 'Oh lets
get a girl singer' thing' adds Dave. 'And then suddenly and unexpectedly
it became that that's what you were now - that's your career. But all the
while we were just pissing around.'
'But that's always the
wau that when you've done something, you then have to try and replicate
it.' adds Joe.
And again for the second
album, Chris came up with the musical and lyrical backbone. 'And we thought
about various ways of doing it - maybe duetting with Kelli - but in the
end it was just, well, it kinda sounds better with the guy who wrote them
singing them. And in the end it was down to that.'
How did you tell her that her services were now surplus to requirements, she wasn't very happy I take it? 'I've seen happier people' says Dave. 'Well,' explains an evasive Joe, 'we had been making a record actually. Plus we set up our own studio and we went back to being kind of what we were before - kind of a production. The way that dance producers work - notionally - is a lot a closer to how we'd work, even though we weren't producing on the face of it, traditional dance music.... so that's how we told her.' Hmm, methinks.
'It wasn't so much of a fuck off thing.' adds Dave. 'We saw her the other day - but there's not much to talk about anymore. And it wasn't left in the kind of hey, let's go out and be buddies, but we did bump into her in London. And we all laughed hysterically! And then it was like, anyway - see you around. She'll do her thing.'
The band describe the new album as a 'learning curve'. Whereas the first album was very much a studio-produced 'thing', this one deliberately took on a lot more of an organic nature. But it seemed that the primary concern was not to make it sound like Becoming X, pt 2. Joe explains. 'There were some tunes that we did and it sounded a bit like they could be 6 Underground and it was like - we can't go there again. Although people who'd liked would probably want us to.' Record company people?
'The weird thing is that the record company people didn't necessarily like what we did the first time around until people started buying, and then it was like Yeah, we love the Sneaker Pimps. The thing is that the sound was difficult to descibe before anyway. Anything based on sampling sounds like its from everywhere - so there' no kind of specific sound to it.'
The band even considered changing their name. 'We thought about it - and then we thought about whether we actually liked the name Sneaker Pimps in the first place. And then we decided that we did. Everything we do is based on a kind of vagueness. When we changed singers we thought it would maybe we should change the name. But then we also thought that it would kind of imply that Sneaker Pimps was Kelli. And we view the person singing down the front as just another instrument, and that person's changed now. If we changed out guitarist, would we change our name?'
Unsurprisingly the band
are nervous about tonight's Wedgewood Rooms gig - their very first public
showing of the new line up. But the Sneaker Pimps have absolutely nothing
to worry about. The new songs - of which 'Low Five' seeths a familiar essence
of quality - are a perfect platform for Chris' undeniable stage presence
and the inclusion of '6 Underground' and 'Spin Spin Sugar' make you wonder
how this band should ever have been any other way.
-by Phil Marriott
The day I spoke to Chris Corner of the SNEAKER PIMPS, he was suffering from one mother of a headache. This time last year, his band had already scored three Top Twenty hit singles - Six Underground, Spin Spin Sugar, and Post Modern Sleaze - and a half-million-selling debut album called Becoming X.
They had a bewitching lead singer called Kelli Dayton, a TV ad soundtrack to their credit, and mass recognition for introducing (with help from Armand Van Helden) the first Speed Garage anthem ever!
More recently though, Sneaker Pimps are a completely different band, in both sound and vision. Dayton has now left the group due to irreconcilable differences with the other 'Pimps' members, giving Chris the opportunity to take over lead vocal duties.
But his headache has absolutely nothing to do with the problems caused by the new band line-up. He has, quite frankly, never been happier. This throbbing ailment is all to do with his big booze binge with fellow mates, Placebo, the night before the interview - a warm up for the recent test-the-waters tour.
"We are more determined than ever now," says Chris, desperately trying to cure his hangover by tucking into a meal of meat and veg.
"We are a lot happier now, and certainly more confident. Confidence was really flaking in the old line-up.
"The main problem was that
there was a lot of things out of our control. We never really clicked with
Kelli. All the problems started when she wanted to start writing the songs.
We didn't want that because we didn't trust her as a writer. We'd written
these new songs (Low Five and Destroying Angel), and we gave
them to her, but her voice just didn't suit the music. The most natural
thing to do was not to use her. It's a big risk, but something we just
had to do.
"We didn't part on good terms really, which tends to be picked up on by the press who want to get a bit of gossip on it all. We have seen her a couple of times since the split, but it's always really strained. When we first started out, I sung everything on the demos, but I wasn't ready to take on frontman duties, so we didn't go with it. I feel ready for that challenge now."
This month, Sneaker Pimps are gearing up for the release of a forthcoming album, Splinter, and a new single, Low Five, the first material to feature the new line-up. It's quite simply breathtaking. Gone are many of the trip-hop elements, which boosted their eclectic sound of old, though there is still an underlying sense of electronica and robotic charm below the strength of electric guitar. Cynics who may sneer at the band's decision to have a male vocalist should also take solace in the fact that Corner's voice sounds truly amazing - the kind of powerfully androgynous and nasally catcall that made Brain Molko what he is today. It works. Trust me.
"The new sound is less-dancey, but definitely more organic and indulgent. We've still the got the heavy cross-section of styles. We have this new song called Superbug, which is really thrashy; and we've got some really mellow tracks as well. Everything still has a thread of electronic appeal, though. 70% of the new album is us playing live, as opposed to restructuring sounds with samples and cut-ups like in the old days.
"When we got back from touring with the first album, we were completely fu**ed and drained," recalls Chris.
"We wrote these two tunes, decided we couldn't go on with Kelli, and it then took about a year for us to write, produce, record, and convince the record company that it was a good thing. It's been quite a battle with the corporate powers that be. They came round to it eventually. I'm sure if we went out with a different band name, we wouldn't have had those problems.
"In America, we are still having trouble because we did so well there with Becoming X. They can't get their heads round our new line-up and me singing. It's just not consumable for them, really. Apart from them, though, everyone else seems to be lapping it up, and is surprised by the changes.
"My favourite tracks on the new album are the odd, low-key, subtle ones like Empathy, which is based around acoustic guitar and strings, and nothing else. "
It's comforting to know that Sneaker Pimps now have complete job satisfaction, but it makes you wonder what their views are on the older, successful material.
"It's really weird because now that we've found ourselves, I tend to look at the first album as something that's really poppy," says Chris.
"People do tend to see it as a pop album. It's very strange, because we never perceived it as that."
And what about that massive Club tune, Spin Spin Sugar? It certainly made the Pimps' a household name, didn't it?
"To be honest," ponders Chris, "we really went off remixes because it's that whole record company mentality of selling your product. Unfortunately, it's something that you have to swallow. We are precious, but not to the extent of losing our record deal.
"I've grown to actually
like Armand Van Helden's mix. It's done really well for us, so I wouldn't
ever denounce it."
V99 Concert Review-from NME.com
Sneaker Pimps - Stage 2 3.30pm
While the cigar-chomping impressarios of rock have a drooling belief in the power of the girl singer, Sneaker Pimps know the real truth. That a skinny androgynous boy in tight nylon and eyeliner is just as good.
It's very unlikely that they're ever going to regret letting Kelli Dayton go - new singer Chris Corner is going to hit the soft spot of every girl whose ever wished she could remove Brian Molko's make-up for him at night.
The deceptively quiet Chris is more of a drama queen than Kelli ever was - arching his back through the bitter and twisted '6 Underground', waggling his tongue Gene Simmons-style at the ready-to-swoon girls in the front and tapping just as much sexual menace with his swept-off-the-street vowels as the curvy yowl of their former singer ever managed.
If they've become even more feminine without the girl, they've also managed to become even more goth despite the lack of anyone wearing foot-long black eyelashes. 'Flowers In The Silence' was made to drift doomily across a smoke-filled valley, while 'No Place Like Home' is a angry mass of electronic welts and hormonal trauma. A fine display of masculine mystique. For once, the guys have it.