KTRU (college radio station from Houston/Texas) - program: Rice Radio
-Hi, here is Michael Zakes, and we have Lene Lovich [...?...], and we're going to talk about her and her music. First of all, could you tell us about your new album?
LL: Well, this is our third record now. Well, our third LP. We have had a little short LP out in between times, but basically this is our third major recording adventure, and it's called "No Man's Land". There is no real continuity in any of the songs, in form of a conceptual idea about the album. All of the songs are meant to be individual. And as always, we draw from any source that we like as far as musical influences go.
-On the album, there seems to be a little bit more of a dance feel to it than, say, on the first two albums. It harkens back more to, say, the "New Toy" 12". Could you say where you got [...?...] from?
LL: Well, it's really not surprising that it's in some way connected to the "New Toy" six-track that we did, because it was all more or less recorded at the same time. It's just that the record company took a long time to decide in putting this record out. And I really don't see that it's any more biased towards a dance type of rhythm, because you can take some of the most earliest songs that we did, I suppose "Lucky Number" is one of the most well-known, and I think if you put it side by side with some of the songs here, I don't think you would see a very great diversion as far as rhythmic content goes. And there are also many different types of rhythms on this record. For example, a song called "Walking Low" is not your conventional dance song, I wouldn't have said.
-Where would you say you get most of your ideas for your songs from and can you give one specific instance of when you saw something or did something and said "Hey, I'm gonna write a song about that" ?
LL: I think most of the inspirations are really coming from my songwriting partner, Les Chappell. I mean, obviously things stimulate you from time to time, but very often it's something that he's done or said or played that has started off my brain working into a direction of writing a song.
-Do you say that your new album is just being released at the end what was actually first written and recorded, say, back in 1981, 1980, around there? What have you been doing in the time since then?
LL: Well, with having to wait so long for the record company to get the idea to put the record out, I had to try to find a few alternative directions. One thing I did was to go to France to make a film for TV, which was a great experience for me, and it was really like a holiday. But it was more difficult than I thought it was gonna be, because I don't really speak French that well. Fortunately, I was playing the part of an American singer who spoke French very badly, so it was very convenient for me. But what was interesting was that I was able to play two roles - one the real character, and the other an evil imposter of that character, and I enjoyed very much playing the two personalities. Apart from that, I also was involved in a theatre show in London around the life of a real person called Mata Hari, who was executed during the First World War by the French as being a spy, a so-called spy, for Germany. And I did a lot of research, and co-wrote that with my partner Les Chappell and with another friend of ours, Chris Judge Smith. The three of us did a lot of research. Very, very difficult to find anything like the truth, and I don't think anybody ever will.
-In the time since, say have you been working in any video projects, and do you have a new album in the works?
LL: I have made a few videos. I'm sort of in the process of trying to put one together now for a song called "Blue Hotel", but that's not really finished yet. I have got ideas for songs, but we're in the middle now of a big live performance section of our lives, and I won't really have any time to do anything about these songs until I get back to England, which won't be into the summer.
-How long have you been doing this as far as not so much recording albums? Pretty much everybody knows that you were in the first wave of the Stiff acts back in 1978. What did you do before that?
LL: Well, it took me quite a long time really, before I had any sort of confidence in myself to do anything with music, although I wanted to be involved in it. So before I had the chance really... before Stiff Records gave me the chance to record my own songs, I was learning, and I spent about five years doing this, doing various types of jobs in all aspects of playing music. I played in hotel bands, where we had to play for five hours a night doing all sort of things - tangos and waltzes and rock 'n' roll, and all sorts of things. That was mainly in Europe. I worked as a dancer for awhile when I very first started out. And I worked in cabaret with an all-girl trio, and that was also in Europe. I worked in some theatre projects, but I was never the main feature at all, I was always just learning really. Just in the background really, yes.
-Where do you get the ideas for your clothing styles?
LL: Oh, I... Well, I've always enjoyed wearing things on my head. It used to be very, very practical when I was at art school. I was majoring in sculpture and I used to work a lot in cement plaster, and there it was really essential to wear something on your head, but... and after wearing something on your head every day, you have to sort of think of elaborating it in some way, and I actually enjoyed this and I suppose it became some sort of a habit. But I also like tieing things up, really. I like things that will rearrange themselves during the course of the day, and I suppose I like also wearing a few different layers, because I like to be at the right temperature, if possible. So if you wear a lot of things, you can always take it off. I like really customising clothes rather than, you know, (destroying) something, designing, and then trying to make it up. That's not really my style. I like to see the potential in something. And I also like going to the sales, like on the last day. You know, when those... everything that's there is what nobody else wants, 'cause then you've probably got something fairly unique.
-Ok. I might thank you for talking to us today and hope that the rest of your tour goes well.
LL: Ok.
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