Interview: Chicks on Speed.

Greetings from Mid-Wilshire. Not sure why I decided to post this, but here's a (previously unpublished) interview I did about a year and a half ago with all three members of Chicks on Speed. It was intended for a female-oriented music Web site, but I didn't go back and make the edits they wanted and the whole thing fell through the cracks. God damn, I'm lazy. It has been sitting on my computer unread. So here it is for all the world to enjoy. If you don't know who/what COS is, visit chicksonspeed-records.com or myspace.com/chicksonspeed.


Words & Interview: Mitchell Peters

Chicks on Speed have this little joke. Before the Euro-based trio -- Melissa Logan, Alex Murray-Leslie and Kiki Morse -- step on stage, their sound technician, Joe, asks, "Should I press the space bar?" Their reply: "Yes." (The space bar is what triggers the playback on the laptop that contains the threesome's trashy pre-recorded electroclash tunes and kicks off the live show.) COS fancied the ongoing joke so much, they named their fourth album "Press the Space Bar." And when COS isn't in the studio recording, they're either signing electro acts to Chicks on Speed Records, designing trendy clothes, erecting obscure gallery exhibitions, producing short films or promoting their book "Chicks on Speed: It's a Project!" The trio's philosophy is to exploit all facets of music and art.

COS chatted with [enter online music publication here] about the group's new album, what their parents think about their chosen lifestyle, and what it means to be a "fashion victim."


Chicks on Speed originated in Munich, where the three of you met at an art school in 1997. You've since moved to Berlin and started your label, Chicks on Speed Records. Why did you choose to settle in Berlin? (Alex has recently moved to Barcelona).
Melissa: When we lived in Munich we realized we had more friends in Berlin. We had also done everything in Munich that there was to do. It was just a move to a bigger town. It's more exciting [in Berlin] with the whole East opening up and these strange things going on. There's all this space.


What's the music scene like in Berlin?
Melissa: There's funny trash-rock -- a lot of weird stuff. Many people here do experimental things. It's OK to do really weird stuff, people don't get mad at you. They'll have a good laugh and be like, "That was pretty crappy, but the direction you took was really interesting." They're really lenient here, instead of these cities where you can't take any risks or do any weird stuff and people won't look at you anymore. That's why there's a lot of really strange experimentation going on here. Sometimes too much.


Alex, has your move to Barcelona made it difficult to communicate with the other girls?
Alex: No, we do a lot of our artwork over the Internet -- uploading things on the FTP site. It just changes the way in which we work. A lot of the projects we do are done in a gallery. It's like going into the studio. We work for months in the gallery space and that's where we make our new work. We don't have a studio in Berlin, we prefer to move around and be quite nomadic and creative. We meet up once a week anyway, it's only an hour away (by plane).


Your record label is home to artists like Kevin Blechdom, DAT Politics, Angie Reed and most recently ex-Raincoats member Ana da Silva. Why did you choose to start your own label?
Melissa: Because we didn't know where we wanted to release. We wanted to go to Mute Records in the beginning, but that didn't work out so we started our own record company.


Is there a particular reason the label's roster is fairly small?
Alex: We don't like to have one-hit-wonders. We're after nurturing a whole career. You can't have too many artists where you end up neglecting a few and they get annoyed, so it's not worth it.
Melissa: We're building it. Our company is not big but we want to keep our artists happy and satisfied.


Let's talk about your new album, "Press the Space Bar." How do you think it differs from COS' previous work?
Kiki: For the first time, we worked with an actual band. All of the songs were developed out of jam sessions. The whole approach was very different. First of all, this was only meant to be an EP, it was actually meant to be a side project. But after working with (musician/producer) Cristian Vogel we decided, "OK, we're going to make this an album."

Melissa: Of course it's very different. "99 Cents" (2004) was a really slick record and the production was a lot slicker. But we've also done rough things like "Re-Releases of the Un-Releases" (2000), but that was more of a collage. ["Re-Releases"] also had a lot of experimental stuff on it.

Alex: We took influence from the Shags, or the Violent Femmes or the Go-Go's. We wanted to just do jam sessions and get away from all that sort of Logic-based music and go back to the natural way of producing a record and creating a record that's influenced by the moment and not from loops and samples. There are loops and samples in there, but we try not to repeat things into loops. It was a lot freer.


How did you met the No Heads (Panoxa, Eric and Tony), the Spanish band that provided the backing music for "Press the Space Bar."
Melissa: They're not really a band. They are, but they're friends of Cristian Vogel, and studio musicians that were put together in Barcelona.

Kiki: I think he looked for a guitarist and then the guitarist happened to know another guy who played drums, and then so on. But [Vogel] didn't know them very well; they were just acquaintances.


Is there a running theme to "Press the Space Bar"?
Melissa: It became more political with what was, or is, happening in the world -- like with "Class War" or some of the political songs on the record. One can't hide from these things that are going on. But they definitely became a theme on the record. We let them happen consciously saying, "Let's make a more political record." If one is a person that things and looks around to see what's happening, one can't help doing that.


I hear the song "Wax My Anus" (from "Press the Space Bar") is about Courtney Love. Can I get an interpretation of the song from each of you?
Alex: I researched a lot on the Internet about Courtney Love and I've always been quite intrigued by all the gossip and stories. All the lyrics are things Courtney Love has said before -- they're quotes. It's not supposed to be against her, it's more of an intriguing analysis.

Kiki: It's about the media it's about the portrayals of rock singers in the media. But it's also got a lot of concrete things about Courtney Love. Alex collected a lot of material from the Internet and it's all quotes. Quotes of stuff she actually said. We didn't invent any of this stuff.

Melissa: It's a song about media trash. All the lyrics were found in the Internet and in bad music magazines. It was really collected gossip junk that was strewn together. That's how it was put together. But it's something about taking media trash and recycling.


If you were to describe COS' music to someone who's never heard, what would say?
Melissa: If a taxi driver asked me what kind of music we make, I'd just say electro-pop. For ["Press the Space Bar"] it's noisy-wave but it's also very song-oriented and not so much track-oriented like what we used to do.


How do you think your music has evolved the group first formed?
Kiki: I think we definitely have become more professional about making music. We've become more of musicians now. But we still don't lose our amateur edge. From doing so many live shows we've become a bit more professional and bit less nervous about being on stage.

We still don't take music that serious, it's still just one aspect of what we do. But of course, we have to promote our albums. And let's be honest, it's how we earn our living: through music. So it takes up a big part of our lives.


What does your family think about what you're doing? Is that where your artistic side come from?
Alex: My dad was a pilot and my mom was a housewife. I think it just came from somewhere else. My grandfather made films. My dad is pretty proud. He saw us in New Zealand the first time we played there. My mom likes it but I don't really think she understands it, which is OK. There's always some frustration with parents. They're on another wavelength. It's not often that you really meet parents that understand what their kids are doing.


Do any of you have past experience with playing music?
Melissa: Kiki and I both went to a kind of weird school where you do a lot of the arts. So when we were children we always had to play a lot of instruments. I learned violin and saxophone. I just recently started playing saxophone again on stage from some of the songs. And basically from going out and dancing, one really knows what one likes and one really develops an ear for what one loves. We used those hours we spent clubbing as a reference.

Kiki: I have a tiny flute, and for the last album I played keyboard and a lot of different stuff. We all play keyboard and we composed different melody lines and bass lines.


Is there anything that inspires the music you write?
Alex: I think it's just general society around us and the newspapers you read -- and just everyday occurrences. It's really just the three of us observing society and the world we live in and putting those feeling together and pushing them out in a song.


Is it true that COS doesn't want to limit itself to just one style?
Kiki: Yes that's true. We were categorized into the "electroclash" genre for a while but this is actually not true. Our music has had elements or rock and pop, and it's not only this one thing of being '80s retro-sounding. We are influenced from all different kinds of genres.


Do you talk to many fans that have been inspired by your music?
Melissa: A lot of times at shows, one can see it. You get some people in the front row with big eyes. People have come up to us and said, "Oh, wow, that was really inspiring. I'm going home now and starting a band." People even say, "Oh, we just started a band right now." Things like that.


Who have you enjoyed touring with the most in your career?
Melissa: It was really fun touring with Le Tigre. We also toured with Peaches but it was a completely different audience, which was really interesting to see. All three of our audiences are very different and it's silly that we're compared to each other because the scenes that we have are different crowds.


How would you describe your fanbase?
Alex: You could call them arty, fashion victims and freaks. A lot of gays as well.

Melissa: I guess you'd call them arty. They're really individualistic. You know, fashionable, but not just fashion victim. It's also mixed. We have more dorky people, just more thinkers. You can tell they're not brainwashed people.


And what is a "fashion victim" exactly?
Alex: It's a really specific breed of person. It's a person who changes their clothes maybe two or three times a day. It doesn't necessarily mean you spend a lot of money on clothes, but it means you spend a lot of time looking for clothes and a lot of time getting ready. And you're very up-to-date with the latest trends or a trendsetter yourself.


What role does music play within all the facets of art (fashion, films, multimedia, etc.) you're involved with?
Kiki: For me personally, music has been really important. I listen to a lot of music at home and my family was very musical. The others swing around because they were trained in fine arts. I think they can imagine -- maybe more than me -- of stopping music. I couldn't imagine stopping because it's so much fun to do a live show. It's very rewarding.


Where do you see the future of COS heading?
Melissa: We'll see with the next record what happens. We come from techno-electro so that will always be part of it.

Alex: Maybe we won't make music anymore. Maybe we'll just makes clothes and shoes, [music] is just one element of the project. I can imagine that we end up just making short films. We want to make a feature film. So maybe we'll just end up making music for that film. I could see that happening. But in the near future, I don't think we'll go back into the studio.


What is your favorite aspect about making music?
Alex: All the facets that belong to it. Like the live show. When we do a live show, we have choreography and films and costumes. It's like a whole piece of art, which means all elements rely on another. This is interesting, because music isolated on its own is completely boring in my eyes and there's no way I'd want to do that. I can't relate to music alone.

It's about challenge and moving on to new ground. [We like to] forge new ways in which to perform and challenge our audience. That's where the new creativity lies.