In
Conversation with
“Women and
Children”
A little background:
May
2005
Salutations to the blogspot
“Large Hearted Boy” for this interview.
For those not aware
of “Large Hearted Boy”, they should find this truly
Remarkable blogspot
/ website on google or something as “Large Hearted
Boy” is a website /
blogspot that truly shows a huge amount of research
On it and does
feature links to all sorts of brilliant bands.
I discovered the
excellent Paris (France) based band “Women and Children”
Simply through
following through a link here and was absolutely bowled
Over by the dream
like quality of their music in particular one of their songs
“By Zeus” which
literally sounded like it was recorded out of this world.
Clearly a excellent
choice for a interview for “Setting Sun”, so I e-mailed
The band and this
interview followed pretty quickly after that.
As can be shown on
their website, the band have a number of releases
Forthcoming and from
the mp3’s on-line for downloading – all of which
Are well worth
checking out for yourself.
Check out their
website at for more information:
Or email the band
directly on:
Cheers to the band
for this interview…
Regards
Andrew N xxx
Setting Sun:
Hi there! How are things and
what's happening at the moment?
Women and Children:
UM, NOT ALOT, JUST TRYING TO
FIGURE OUT HOW TO SURVIVE, AND MAKE MORE MUSIC
Setting Sun:
Now can you tell us all a little
bit about you, what started you off in as a band etc, etc?
Women and Children:
JUNE AND KEVIN USED TO LIVE
TOGETHER FOR A NUMBER OR YEARS, THEN IN AN EFFORT TO GET SOME RELIEF FROM NEW
YORK THEY CAME TO PARIS WITH THE IDEA TO WORK ON MUSIC. THERE THEY MET JAMIE
AND OLIVIER WHO WERE ALREADY VERY GOOD MUSICIANS AND THEY BEGAN EXPERIMENTING
WITH VARIOUS AUDIO FORMULA'S IN THEIR APPARTMENT. AT A CERTAIN POINT THEY BEGAN
WORKING OUT MORE TRADITIONAL BASED SONGS, I THINK THIS WAS WHEN THEY REALIZED
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL VOICE JUNE HAS.
Setting Sun:
What music are you listening to
at the moment and what are your influences?
Women and Children:
THAT REALLY VARIES BETWEEN ALL OF
US. THERE'S A PRETTY WIDE SPECTRUM. I COULD MAKE A GIANT LIST, IT WOULD START
WITH; BOB DYLAN, SYD BARRETT, LEE HAZELWOOD, COMETS ON FIRE, BRIGHTBLACK,
JOHNNY CASH, HANK WILLIAMS, JIMMY ROGERS, BLIND WILLIE MCTELL, TIM HARDIN,
SIMPLY SAUCER, BLUE CHEER, SOFT MACHINE, THE ROLLING STONES, BEATLES, WHITE
MAGIC, BEACH BOYS, INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, MARK HOLLIS, THE SMITHS, DEAD MOON,
THE CAVALARY MEN, LOU REED, NEIL YOUNG, SPACEMEN 3, GRAM PARSONS, LEONARD
COHEN, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, MATINÉ ORCHESTRA, THE HOUSEMARTINS, BLUE DOLL,
NIRVANA, AMM,OVAL, MELVINS, OM, BEYONCÉ, ODB, DEAD BOYS, STOOGES, DONOVAN, LED
ZEPPLIN, LEFTY FRIZZEL ETC... ETC... ETC...
Setting Sun:
Again for those who don't know
you, can you tell us what stuff you have released so far and where people can
get them?
Women and Children:
SO FAR, THERE IS A FULL LENGTH
SELF TITLED ALBUM OUT ON ATTACKNINE RECORDS OUT OF LOS ANGELES. YOU CAN GET IT
THROUGH THEM, THROUGH DARLA RECORDS, OR AMAZON.COM OR HAVE YOUR LOCAL STORE
ORDER IT. SHAME ON THEM FOR NOT HAVING IT ALREADY. NEXT WE HAVE A BOX SET
COMING OUT WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS ON AN ENGLISH LABEL CALLED HALLSO. THIS IS
A VERY BEAUTIFUL BOX WITH TWO TEN-INCH VINYL RECORDS AND A DVD INSIDE. VARIOUS
MOVIES, CLIPS, LIVE FOOTAGE, ETC; YOU HAVE TO ORDER THIS DIRECTLY FROM HALLSO
AS ITS A VERY LIMITED EDITION OF 500 COPIES. WE MAY ALSO BE PUTTING OUT A SEVEN-INCH
IN THE NEAR FUTURE WITH STATIC CARAVAN RECORDS...
Setting Sun:
It is also good to see from
recent conversations that you play concerts... How does your concerts compare /
differ from your studio recordings? Is their one you prefer over the other?
Women and Children:
THEY ARE PRETTY DIFFERENT FOR US.
WE ARE STILL GETTING OVER THE SHOCK OF PLAYING WITH MONITORS AND HOW MUCH THE
SOUND CAN VARY FROM ONE VENUE TO ANOTHER. WE ARE UNFORTUNATLEY PLAYING A BIT
RESTRICTED AT THE MOMENT BECAUSE WE NEED A PIANO AND WE ALL SWITCH AROUND ON
INSTRUMENTS FROM ONE SONG TO ANOTHER, SO SOUND CHECK 'S CAN BE KIND OF
NIGHTMARISH. I THINK WE ARE STILL TRYING TO GET THERE LIVE, WITH RECORDING WE
DO IT ALL AT HOME, SO WE CAN TAKE OUR TIME AND TRY VARIOUS THINGS OUT OVER
TIME.
Setting Sun:
Where does the origin for your name "Women and Children" origin from?
Women and Children:
ITS OPEN TO ANY INTERPRETATION. IT
CAME IN A DREAM, AND WON OUT OVER A LIST OF HUNDERDS OF OTHER NAMES. AT VARIOUS
TIMES WE HAVE LOVED AND HATED THE NAME. NOW IT JUST SOUNDS LIKE ANYTHING TO US.
WE DO NEED TO BE SAVED THOUGH...AND UNFORTUNATELY EVERTHING SEEMS TO BE NAMED
Setting Sun:
I think my favourite song of
yours I have (so far anyhow) is Holy Zeus, possibly because of the unusual feel
that comes through on the vocals (which I love)... Can you tell us a little bit
about this song?
Women and Children:
HEY ZEUS. KEVIN MADE THAT SONG A
LITTLE WHILE AGO BACK IN THE OLD APPARTMENT. IT JUST KIND OF FELL TOGETHER. HE
DOESNT REALLY LIKE HIS VOICE SO MUCH SO IN AN EFFORT TO DISGUISE IT, HE BEGAN
WORKING WITH VARIOUS VOCAL EFFECTS, ALSO OUT OF HOMAGE TO THE SONG CARAVAN BY
BLACK SABBATH.
Setting Sun:
What's next for you all? Do you
have any more gigs / recordings lined up etc, etc?
Women and Children:
WE PLAY LES VOUTES, IN PARIS ON
THE 16 TH OF JUNE. IT IS THREE LARGE UNDERGROUND ARCADE TUNNELS SOMEWHERE NEAR
THE RIVER. WE ARE TRYING TO GET A GOOD TOUR TOGETHER AND ARE NOW WORKING ON NEW
SONGS...
Setting Sun:
Where are you all from? What's the music scene like where you live? Have you seen any good gigs recently?
Women and Children:
WE ARE FROM CALIFORNIA, MANITOBA
AND FRANCE. WE ALL LIVE IN PARIS, WHERE THE MUSIC SCENE IS PRETTY MISERABLE. WE
DID JUST SEE GANG GANG DANCE PLAY HERE THE OTHER NIGHT, WHICH WAS VERY GOOD.
THERE ARE OCCASIONALLY GOOD PEOPLE THAT COME THROUGH...
Setting Sun:
Anyway, a few more slightly light
hearted questions to start winding down with… Firstly, what would you like to
be doing when you are 60?
Women and Children:
BECOMING SOMEONE A LITTLE LIKE
ROBERT WYATT BUT WITHOUT THE WHEELCHAIR IF POSSIBLE.
Setting Sun:
Lastly, something light to finish
off with (borrowed from a pal’s Zine almost) Imagine you were ship wrecked On a
desert Island and could have (Clearly have second sight here - lol) The choice
of having 5 records or Cds with you with a stereo of course - what would be
your desert Island Discs?
Women and Children:
LOU REED "BERLIN"
ROBERT WYATT "ROCK
BOTTOM"
ERIK SATIE "3
GYMNOPEDIES"
LED ZEPPELIN III
JIMMY RODGERS "MY OLD PAL"
