Premonition (October '03)

By Christophe Lorentz

The ephemeral reformation of Siouxsie and The Banshees last year didn't divert Siouxsie and Budgie from what is now their main project: The Creatures. The couple recorded "Hai!" a new tribal and demanding opus in Japan during the "Seven Year Itch Tour". This record shows a surprising come-back to their origins for this unpredictable duo while the DVD and CD of "The Seven Year Itch Live" are still in our CD readers... This call for some explanations.

Your new album is quite different from "Boomerang" and "Anima Animus": it sounds much more like your first albums.

Siouxsie: It comes from our collaboration with Leonard Eto, former member of Kodo, a Japanese percussionists' band that we've been admiring for a long time. This album is the result of a combination between the fact we wanted to come back to what we did on "Wild Things" and "Feast", and the fact we wanted to have another percussionist with us, we wanted him to play other instruments like the huge daiko (a big Japanese drum used by Kodo).

Budgie: Nothing was planned. It's only when we found out what had come out of these sessions in Japan that we started to build the album, leaving it all the while, as open as possible, with enough room for percussions and a vocal to express itself.

How did you start working with Leonard Eto?

Budgie: We wanted to work with Kodo for ages. It happened during the "Seven Year Itch Tour" of The Banshees, because our producer knew Leonard Eto and we met him in Japan. Leonard was the main composer and the musical director of Kodo, and he collaborated with different musicians since he left the band in 1994. That was interesting because he never really worked with a drummer who had my kind of background, and we had little time because it was our last concert in Tokyo. We were both in a studio with two sets of drums and it was more a musical meeting than anything else because he hardly speaks any English...

Why are The Creatures coming back to the sound of their first albums? Siouxsie: When an artist has been working for a long time, there's always a moment when he goes very far from where he started, simply because he can and that it's very exciting to explore new things... But all the artists also feel the need to come back to where they started, to find again the limitations they had then. It makes you focus on what's important, to clear out the excess, because to come back on the fundamentals is what is most important. This time we left a lot of silence in the music, I know it bothers musicians, but I don't hear the silences: I hear the sonority of instruments that can breathe.

What are the themes developped in "Hai!"?

Siouxsie: I approached this album like a LP with an A-side and a B-side. So we could have an extraverted side and an introverted and calmer one. Tourniquet represents this difference between an extraverted and very physical side and something at the opposite. On the other hand, Godzilla is rather funny. It's a bit about the way people see me: "Who are you? Are you glamour, scary, vicious or tender?" Well, I'm a bit of everything! Godzilla also reflects the innocence, the optimism and the modernism of Japan. And a track like Further Nearer shows the reserved, philosophic, poetic and almost religious aspects of the Japanese traditions. "Imagoro" means "About this Time" and that was a way to use Japanese language. There's some anger in this song, but there's also a kind of resignation...

Is there a difference between the lyrics you wrote for the Banshees and those of the Creatures?

Siouxsie: No, there isn't. They're written by the same person, and even if there are different ambiences, there never been any differences. Maybe Godzilla could never have been a Banshees' song while Peek-a-Boo is a typical Creatures' track...

Budgie: Godzilla could have been a Banshees' track but I'm not sure everyone in the band would have liked it...

Siouxsie: Oh, I wonder who you're talking about (laughs)!

Budgie: I always felt there were songs Steven Severin was happy about and others he considered like nonsense. For instance, he didn't like some B-sides like El Dia de Los Muertos, Conga Conga or Supernatural ThingŠ That may sounds very selfish but, we got rid of him and now we're free to do what we like and it's not checked by someone who doesn't feel good about himself. We certainly happier than Steven...

You never really approached social or political issues in your lyrics...

Siouxsie: No, because I don't really like lyrics that talk of politics. I find it very outdated, besides the point. Politics is only one mean among many others to talk of a subject, it's a very Manichean thing through which nothing much is told. I prefer to talk about emotions, people's psychology and the way we communicate. If we could understand the human psychology, I think the world would be a better place. This world is a terrifying place and people are barbarians and beasts. The physical, mental or sexual violence and cruelty of Men are subjects that are never openly talked about, and I'm very much interested in treating them. But I don't say what's good or what's bad with a "noble" or "deep" attitude. Nothing is all black or all white, there are a lot of things underneath. Some people think we talk about some themes when it's not the case, and they don't want to see some visceral reactions in it, because it's not "politically correct"... In the same time, the fact of being a woman and doing what I did twenty years ago was a kind of political commitment. To be on stage with the look I had and the songs I sang was political then... I didn't need to talk about feminism, I was feminism!

Last year you made Siouxsie and The Banshees live again... Was it a way to come back on your musical roots?

Siouxsie: Yes, and it was also a way to say goodbye, because the way it ended was rather sad, a bit like a firework that doesn't work. We really enjoyed giving these concerts. It was like if somebody told us: "You're going to die in six months"! We had to come back to The Banshees one last time before it ended, and then we felt much better...

What do you think now of this tour?

Siouxsie: It was pleasant, but towards the end I realised that it couldn't last anymore. Indeed, before the tour, I considered re-forming The Banshees for good if everything went well and if we felt good together again. We were open and honest, but some people weren't as open and as honest as we were, so I knew it was useless.

So there won't be any new concerts or albums of The Banshees soon?

Siouxsie: No, not for the moment... but we always played some of The Banshees' song with The Creatures, and there are no reasons why that should stop as long as I feel like it. There are some songs that The Banshees never performed live that we did with The Creatures. If one day, we start playing strings, we could play a track like Obsession.

Budgie: For the next concerts, we would like Siouxsie to be free to sing the songs she wants to... We don't want to make the difference between The Banshees and The Creatures. Even if we explore very different things on the albums, concerts are something else...

Siouxsie: From now on, we'll constantly think about the way the concerts will take place and in the kind of venues we're going to play in. We would like Leonard to come with us on stage with his daiko. And as he agreed, it'll happen in our next shows...

Have you ever think about puting some of the musical experimentations of The Creatures in The Banshees?

Siouxsie: No. The Creatures was born by accident, and we quickly realised there was a difference with The Banshees. The Creatures' music was simpler and more instinctive.

Budgie: The first album of The Creatures was made because we wanted a break. The second album was done because The Banshees was on the verge of splitting. "Boomerang" was released because the "Peep Show" tour almost kill the band. That's what Severin says in the book ("Siouxsie And The Banshees ­ The Authorized Biography" -): he was surprised the tour wasn't an endless one. It could have, because the concerts were great. But Steven forget to mention that it's his refusal to change which prevented the tour to go on. The reason why we did "Boomerang" was that Siouxsie and Steven couldn't be together in a studio.

Siouxsie: I could have killed him! I wanted to beat him when I saw him...

How did you manage then during the reformation tour of The Banshees?

Siouxsie: At the begining, the ambience was quite optimist, everything went well, we talked and said that we've been stupid... It could have worked. By the time we were on tour, halfway during seven shows, he's back to his old tricks! And I say: "OK. Enough! No change...".

Budgie: What was different this time, was that we didn't need to talk to know how we were going to work: all we had to do was some concerts. If there were to be a new album, another tour and a following, then we would have had to do something we never done before: talk about what was wrong before he tries to go.

Siouxsie: We thought we talked about it before. Anyway I thought so. But obviously, I was wrong...

Budgie: I think that the more you talk about it, the worse it gets...

Siouxsie: We realised it while we all thought it was going to be great. And musically, it was! But we also realised we couldn't go back in the past and work again in a way I didn't like...

You've had your own independent label, Sioux Records, for a few years now. Have you ever been contacted by a major who wanted to sign you up?

Siouxsie: No, and we're happy not to be part of the mainstream. If we still were with a major, we would have disappeared, we would be lost in the production line, slaves of their plannings... Like all these late planes which try to take off at the same time: they always try to catch up on their plannings: "Ok, there's an opening here, release a record now! Come on!".

Budgie: Record companies think that the best time to release an album isn't at Christmas, nor at such date, but at some other date... So everybody releases an album at that time! And the magazines published at that time are overwhelmed. Everything seems to happen at the same time, nobody has the choice anymore. The public's choice is the one imposed to them.

Siouxsie: There are more channels, but less and less different programs...

Besides The Creatures, have you ever think to invest yourselves in another project, or to collaborate with other musicians?

Siouxsie: Actually, another album was already underway when we accepted to do the "Seven Year Itch Tour". It proves how spontaneous The Banshees' reformation was: in January, we were doing The Creatures' new album, and in February, we were with The Banshees! So we seized the opportunity of being in Japan with Leonard to do "Hai!". But the other record is almost done now. Maybe it'll be The Creatures' new album, or maybe we'll call that otherwise. We'll see.

Contributed by Bonnie Bryant.