LORDS OF ACID

Have you spent your whole day doing interviews?

 No, about the past hour and a bit. Tomorrow, I'm going to Belgium and then I'm driving to Paris and I'll do interviews for the next two days, then I'm going back to Belgium. We're doing a video or something, I don't know.

Were you surprised by the underground success of the first album?

 Well, I don't know. It's like any cult thing, you can't predict the cult, now can you? Maybe some people can, but that wasn't what the Lords did, we just did what we like and it was a big success. I'm glad that it happened because it means that the second album is not such a hard push. It seems to be selling quite well and everyone likes the crossover with the guitars. We always want to try and do something new. I like punk music and I wanted to try and incorporate that hard-edge sound in our stuff. They try and characterize us and don't know where to put us.

 Where are you from originally?

 I'm originally from a little place called Chester in England.

 How did you end up hooking up with the band then?

 On one of my holidays I ended up in Belgium. I was going to try and hitchhike my way across Europe, but I ran out of money. I met Natalie in Belgium and she was really nice. She gave me a job tidying her house and looking after the dogs. Because I was quite interested in music, pretty soon I ended up backing singing for Lords of Acid and helping write. It was good and it was obviously meant to happen.

 Are the people who began Lords of Acid the people who started the Antler Subway label?

 Yeah, that's correct. Praga Khan and Jade 4 U, they half own the record company. So when it came time for credits on the album, since they are more involved with the legal side they tried to push the record company and themselves as much as possible as producers and writers and everything. The band feels a bit pissed off about all of that; that they got credited and we didn't. But that's just the way it goes. We just want to make the music. The fact that the music is getting out to people is good enough for us, I suppose.

Is that part of the reason for all the different record labels? You're on both Caroline and American here.

 It's too confusing, you know, all the legal stuff. For me, it's got a bit out of hand. Hopefully everything will get sorted out by the third album. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just happy to be singing and doing music and leave all that legal stuff to somebody else because I am sick to death of it.

 Who came up with the art for the new album?

 The Coop one...that was his impression of what the album meant to him with the devil women. It was censored because obviously some record companies didn't want people walking past it seeing that, if they've got kids with them, which is quite right. It has nothing to do with the band, it's the promotion people. We make the music. If we're making a video, we get a say in that, but when it comes to the artwork, it's pretty much out of our hands.

 What kind of live set-up do you have?

 The only sound that isn't real is an under-loop drumbeat, because otherwise the drummer would have to have 58 million arms. It's got that bass bass bass...that big heavy one. The keyboards are live, bass guitar, lead guitar, drums and live vocals. So mainly what you hear is what is happening on stage, fuck-ups and all, but hopefully not too many.

 Is it stange to go out dancing and hear your own music?

 Yeah, it freaks you out a bit. You wanna tell everyone that it's you and then you think, 'Oh my god, no, it's really stupid!'

 What is your own personal view on drug use?

 You have to be careful when you talk about drug use. My personal opinion on any drug is bad for you. People also take cigarettes and alcohol, which is also bad but it's legal. Society puts a double badness on illegal drugs, not to say that they are any worse. People who are alcoholics have a problem,and people who have an illegal drug problem have also got a problem, but people put the blame on the drug and not on the person. You have to know your own limitations.and if something doesn't agree with you, don't do it. If you have a good time on something, then all is well and groovy, but just remember it can be dangerous.

 I wasn't sure because there seems to be mixed messages on the album...

 Well, no one has ever overdosed on marijuana, really. They've maybe gone to sleep and set fire to the house. But songs are like moods, and your emotions change maybe 500 times in one day and songs can capture a mood at a certain time and it all ends up on one album. It might sound kind of contradictory, but how many times do you contradict yourself in one day?

 How about your views on sex, then?

 Everybody's gotten so serious about everything; it's gone so far in one way that we're going so the other way. We're anarchists. For me, not saying for everybody, part of the great thing about sex is foreplay and teasing and talking and getting dressed up and glorifying sexual energy, and that's what the Lords do. I'm not saying go and shag and catch AIDS or something, because otherwie we would have written song entitled that. Have a good time, life's for living. The song "Crab Louse" is about the danger of catching something. If people were more educated about sex, it wouldn't be such a taboo subject, so really we're cashing in on the fact that people are so stiff.

 Who do you find to be a really sexy band?

 The Chili Peppers, definitley. That sock thing, oh my god! You just wanted to pull those socks off, didn't you? Well I did anyway. Lenny Kravitz is definitely a big, hot sex machine, isn't he? Who else... Nirvana, bless them.

 Do you consider yourself a sexy band?

 Yeah, definitely. We try and harden it up, we're not seductively sexy. We're sort of more blatantly, obviously, racously sexy, maybe abusive as well. Me being a girl and obviously fronting the band, it puts the onus on how can a girl be that outrageous and blatant about sex, oh my god isn't it awful. In a way, it's giving women a voice to say, yeah, women enjoy sex as well.

Is it fun being able to be that blatant?

 Yeah, it's great, I love it. Girls love it as well. A lot of girls come up to me and say, oh it's great seeing a girl on stage jumping around, shouting, being sexy. They still feel repressed, women, so it's great to have a voice.

 How come the lyrics aren't included in the album?

 Well, I don't actually know. When I saw it, I was thinking there really should be like a pamphlet inside it, with all the lyrics and little picures and stuff. I can't answer that one. Anything, pictures and stuff, it's all out of our hands.

 Do you listen to a lot of dance music?

 The more I'm involved in writing music and being in music, the more I tend not to listen to that kind of music. I like quality music that has real instruments. The more boring I'm getting, actually, music-wise. If I want to go out and dance, I'm a night owl, I'll go to a club where there's dance music, definitely. I like The Prodigy.