Elastica
ELASTICA BOUNCE BACK
After a Five-Year Stretch of Lawsuits and Breakups, Justine Frischmann's Elastica Return with Snap and Zing
Finally, Elastica are back. After the unexpected success of their punky, spiky debut album and its hits "Connection" and "Stutter," five tumultuous years passed until The Menace emerged. The quartet lost and gained band members, and leader Justine Frischmann had a highly publicized breakup with Blur's Damon Albarn and a rumored drug problem. "I felt that more had happened in the last five years of my life than had happened in all of my life before that point, and I think you can hear that," Frischmann, 30, says of The Menace's mood swings. She's excited about the album. From her home in London on the eve of the album's U.S. release, Frischmann spoke with Barnes & Noble.com's Steve Klinge about the new Elastica, her punk rock allegiances, and what it means to be "spiky."
Barnes & Noble.com: What caused Elastica to fall apart after the first album?
Justine Frischmann: We spent two years touring for that first album, and I don't think success in conventional terms is for everybody. It occurred to me towards the end of it that I wasn't dealing with it very well and neither was the rest of the band. We hadn't grown up together, and I don't think our ties together were strong enough to be able to help each other to deal with what was going on. And also we were pretty young when it happened. I just felt like the success and being abroad had diluted my view of what I was doing, and I kind of lost my way. It took me quite awhile to get that back and actually feel like I wanted to do it again.
B&N.com: Does that mean your approach is different now?
JF: Well, I think Elastica exist in a more underground way at the moment, and I'm really happy about that. But I also think that getting older makes it easier. I feel a bit clearer about where I'm coming from. Even though I think I did go into it with very good intentions and quite a strong head on my shoulders, I do think that everything that happened to me personally and professionally diluted the whole vision.
B&N.com: Has your vision of Elastica changed?
JF: Yeah, I think it has changed a little bit. Elastica has always been inspired by the punk bands. But I think my vision has opened up musically. I feel more inclined to explore different kinds of music and make different kinds of music. But I still feel like what we're doing is very visceral and as truthful as I can make it, and that's very important to me.
B&N.com: What are some of the new things that you're exploring?
JF: Over the last couple of years I've discovered black music, actually, and groovier music. I've been getting into Lil' Kim in a big way. She's someone I wasn't really aware of from the beginning. ESG [the early '80s minimalist funk band], that's been really great to hear; it's amazing, so inspiring. I think that may influence what we're doing next a little bit.
B&N.com: I don't hear much of that direction on The Menace, though.
JF: Well, for The Menace, if anything I kind of got into Brian Eno's stuff, dark music, more keyboards-driven music like New Order. But really, in a funny way The Menace went full circle. It was written over a very long period of time even though we recorded it very quickly. [Initially,] we were trying to do something quite different from what we had just done. Then there was an 18-month period when I stepped back, and it didn't seem like Elastica was going to continue. But I carried on writing, and during that time the Eno stuff came out, like "My Sex" and "Miami Nice." I don't think I could have written those songs if I thought I was writing for an Elastica album. But when the new band got together, it went full circle because I started feeling more optimistic again, and the whole punk rock sound started coming out again. "Mad Dog" and "Generator" were both written with the new band. When I got the new band together, it occurred to me that the more visceral sound is what I do most naturally, and I felt like I hadn't done everything I could yet.
B&N.com: How would you describe your allegiances to art punks like the Fall and Wire?
JF: I'm a music-lover first and a music-maker second, and I've always talked about bands that I loved. And that was the period of music that really inspired me to pick up a guitar and try to do it myself. I think there's a real energy and intelligence about that kind of music. You know, I've always worn our influences on my sleeve. I've always felt like if I'm inspired by a band like the Fall or Wire, I want kids who are into our music to know about that and to go out and buy their records, too. I think that's something that a lot of people in music don't do; they're much more careful about revealing their sources. No one writes in a vacuum, and I've never understood why people aren't completely up front and honest about what they're ripping off and why. I think we're quite rigorous about the way we use our influences.
B&N.com: This time you sample Wire's "Lowdown" in "Human."
JF: Yeah, that's a sample. We got in so much trouble by playing things ourselves that I just decided to sample it. I just thought, well, if we were going to use or recycle anything, then we should just sample it because that seems to be a more acceptable thing for people to deal with for some reason.
B&N.com: How does the cover of Trio's "Da Da Da" fit in?
JF: Quite obliquely, really. [laughs] That was quite a random thing. I'd found a little Casio at the Portobello Market, and I'd taken it to rehearsal. I found the original drumbeat, and Paul [Jones, guitarist] started playing this wild guitar over it, and I started reciting those lyrics. And it seemed to me that the lyrics were quite applicable at that point ["I don't love you, you don't love me"]. It's a cool song because it's almost like a blueprint for a song; there's a lot of room to do your own thing on it. I think it's the only bit of Krautrock music that actually crossed over. It was one of my favorite pop songs growing up. I had no idea about the Volkswagen ad at that point. I justified it to myself by thinking, Well, the Fall always have one or two covers on their albums; it was dumb, it was easy, and we enjoyed playing it, so we did.
B&N.com: The adjective "spiky" always comes up in descriptions of Elastica. What's your definition of "spiky"?
JF: To me, spiky means angular and a bit difficult, a bit menacing, and a bit awkward, whether or not you intend to be awkward. Just awkward, not quite being able to settle down and fit in.
August 25, 2000
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