SSG Interviews… The Pipettes

While other girlbands stagnate & wither, The Pipettes are back to show them how it’s done.

It’s frankly a fairly shit time to be in a girlband. The Sugababes have sold out whatever remaining credibility they had left, Girls Aloud have gone into hibernation so that Our Cheryl can catch malaria and sell a few records on her own, and The S(h)aturdays are about as exciting as a condom with a hole in it.

Fortunately help is at hand from The Pipettes. I’d vaguely been a fan of the original Motown-inspired lineup, but it’s this latest incarnation with sisters Gwenno and Ani Saunders that’s saved the day. Back with funky tunes that sound like “Studio 54 on a giant space station orbiting Saturn” and eccentric choreography, here’s hoping that it’s only a matter of time before their upcoming album Earth vs The Pipettes becomes a must-have in every hip homo’s record collection. SSG decided to find out for ourselves why being in a band with your sister might lead to better things than just fights over men:

SSG: So, new sound, new look, new members. Why still call yourselves The Pipettes?

Pipettes: Why not The Serviettes? Why not The Antoinettes, The Cigarettes or The Suffragettes? (This is quite a fun game!) We’re The Pipettes because that’s the band we are and want to be in and that’s the band the songs were written for. Perhaps not the easiest route to go down but the right one for us, it’ll all become clearer by the third album. You’ve got to turn where the road bends and our road has been pretty winding but there’s no use turning back ey? Onwards! … maybe we should’ve been The Suffragettes after all!

SSG: Do you like people saying that your new sound reminds them a bit of early Bananarama?

Pipettes: Love it! We’ve always championed Stock Aitken and Waterman and Bananarama were great. Bingo!

SSG: As a sisterly duo, does one of you get their way more than the other, or is it all diplomatic? What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever argued about?

Pipettes: We’re equally good at being ridiculous. We don’t really argue, more bickering really and that just depends on who’s had the least amount of sleep.

SSG: The video for Stop the Music is beautiful, just like the song. Who made the decision to include dance choreography involving TEACUPS?!

Pipettes: Why Thank you Sir! Our Director for the video, Ben Whitehouse, thought of bringing in a choreographer and when we met Drew Mcoine we were so impressed! He’s such a dreamboat and he’s so talented and enthusiastic and he came up with these routines in no time and the dancers picked them up like cake. Brilliant! It was a very fun day.

SSG: Are you on good terms and contact with all of the ex-members? What do you think about Rose’s involvement with Mark Ronson?

Pipettes: Yeah, we’re all on pretty good terms. I mean Becki lives up in Manchester and Julia lives in Sussex somewhere so we don’t see so much of them, but we’re friends on Facebook and that, and we’ll always give Becki a call if we’re up in manchester doing a gig or whatnot. We see Joe and Rose a fair bit around london. They’ve both been to a few gigs since they left and we’ve all been to see their respective bands a bunch of times. What Rose is doing right now with her band is just fantastic – and, of course, doing this stuff with Ronson can only be good for that. Joe’s not playing live so much at the moment, but he’s always got lots of ideas and lots of plans. I’m sure the world hasn’t heard the last of Joe Lean. Then there’s Marc, of course, Marc Beatty who used to play keyboards with us before he got too busy with Brakes and stuff. Oh, I think Marc’s coming to my party next week. That’ll be nice. Haven’t seen him since we were last in Brighton and I don’t go down to Brighton so much these days. Marc’s a legend.

SSG: Is it true that back in the day when you were all polka-dotty and Phil Spector influenced you turned down an offer from Ronson himself to produce an album for you in the States?

Pipettes: I don’t personally recall ever having such an offer presented to me. It may have been discussed at some point but I can’t remember actually saying no to it, or even being presented with the opportunity to do so. The only thing I remember distinctly expressing an opposition to was any notion that we might record in Los Angeles. Brian Eno apparently has it in his contract, whenever he does film soundtracks, “Mr Eno will not be required to visit Los Angeles”

SSG: How did you go about working with (Producer of The Human League and Shirley Bassey) Martin Rushent? What did he bring to your vision of the band?

Pipettes: How did we go about it? Oh, I don’t know. We got in touch with him some how. Rang him up I guess and he came along to our rehearsal and we had a bit of a chat and he liked the songs and he seemed like a pretty funny guy. Martin’s a genius, obviously. That’s basically the three criteria we have for working with someone. They have to like the songs, they have to be funny and they have to be a genius. The second one is probably the most important. But anyway, yeah, we recorded the whole thing up at Martin’s house and stayed in his spare room and ate dinner with his family and it was all rather lovely.

SSG: What’s next after the album’s released? Is the continuation of the band dependent on big album sales?

Pipettes: We’re looking to do another single and some touring, roll with it. After a little regroup and rest we’re gonna start putting our third album concepts in to practice. Who doesn’t want big album sales? But now you can’t go chasing it, it either comes to you or it doesn’t. We’re happy doing our own thing and hitting the road.

SSG: If you could be any type of cake, what would you be?

Gwenno: Mud Cake

SSG: Star Wars or Star Trek?

Ani: Star Trek

SSG: Do you think that Girls Can’t Catch’s lack of success as a girlband was down to them being Called Girls Can’t Catch?

Both: Well it’s a pretty daft name isn’t it! Maybe you should ask them what they think…

The singles “Stop the Music” and “Call Me” are out now. The album “Earth vs The Pipettes” is released on 13th September and is available to pre-order.