An interview with Blood Red Shoes

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I met up with Blood Red Shoes duo Laura-Mary and Steven before their recent Green Mind gig at Cambridge’s Junction 2. Despite the fact that things were running behind schedule (they’d not yet had time to soundcheck) they were friendly, chatty and approachable, answering my questions enthusiastically and – cutely – occasionally finishing each other’s sentences. Here’s what they have to say about the pros and cons of being in a band, their favourite festivals, and why it’s healthy to occasionally fall out with each other…

Hello. How’s the tour going so far?
L-M: It started off kind of a bit ropey, some of the venues weren’t great, a bit cold and the kids were really freezing. It was kind of a weird start to the tour. We started in Birmingham and Stoke. We’ve never played in Stoke before. People enjoyed it but, I dunno, it started off quite strange.
S: Kind of uneventful.

Does it take a while to play yourself in to it?
L-M: I think so. We were like “oh no!” It was a bit different to a lot of the other tours. And the fact that we’d just come back from Japan, but after that everything started going really well.
S: Awesome. Hull was great.
L-M: And Norwich.

You’ve been around quite a few years, and originally toured small venues, like the Portland Arms in Cambridge, for example. Do the venues on this tour feel like “a step up”?
Both: Yeah
S: Except for the one in Hull! That’s probably going to turn out to be one of my favourite shows.
L-M: That was a really good show. We’d never played in Hull before, and it was a very nice little venue, actually.
S: A bit like The Portland Arms.
L-M: But yeah, it’s been going well and it is nice to see that the crowds are growing because, obviously, when you keep touring a lot, if nothing changes then sometimes you’re, like, “hang on, shouldn’t it be growing a bit?”, so it’s nice to see the audiences growing – a very encouraging thing.

Your debut album is out round about now. Was it frustrating that you’re only just now releasing and album, despite having been playing together quite a few years?
L-M: Well, we only recorded it in August.
S: We finished it in September.
L-M: So it’s been delayed from then, yeah. But, we didn’t really ever think about making an album until about a year ago, when we did loads of singles on different labels: just because they said “we want to put out a 7 inch”, and we didn’t really think about it. Then we thought that actually, you know, we could make an album and find a label that we could put the album out on. Then there was loads of interest, and we went with V2 who were quite a big independent label. We stuck with them, and then three months later they got bought out by Universal so there was this whole thing where we didn’t know what was going to happen to us. Everything changed and it was quite scary, cos we were gearing up for the album. So then we got picked up by Mercury from Universal, and then they’ve just been catching up with us and what we’re doing. That took a lot of time.
S: They had to start from scratch. For them, it was like they had just taken on a new band. They had to kind of rewind, as if they had just signed us.
L-M: Yeah it was frustrating, cos I think we’d got mentally release the first single off the album and then everything happened, and we thought “uh, okay – what do we do now?” So it was pretty frustrating, but all we did, really, was keep playing. Not just the UK – all over the world. While all that was going on, mostly in Europe and just basically hanging around.
S: Keeping things going, live.
L-M: I think in the UK people just thought we’d kind of disappeared, but we were actually just playing, elsewhere.

What do you hate, and what do you love about being in a band? Are interviews a drag?
L-M: Sometimes, if you’ve got a whole day.
S: It’s weird if it’s like in Japan: where you have a promo day and there’ll be back to back interviews. You start of about 10 in the morning and go through until 8 o’clock with an hour for lunch. You’re not even playing a gig or anything. You never think, when you start a band, that you’re going to have a day where all you do is interviews.
L-M: I don’t mind doing interviews if it’s before a show. Although not if it’s a London show when there are managers there, and our family. Then, I don’t want to do an interview because it feels a bit stressed. But that’s not really what’s bad about being in a band. Maybe when you have to read things about yourself, like on the internet.

Do you read all your reviews and interviews?
L-M: Yes, I do. Not always. Last night I looked up our new single. You kind of need to gauge what people are talking about. It’s hard not to. It definitely does make you think about it. I don’t think we’ve ever had one where it’s all the same criticism, so you kind of brush it off. You’ve got to try and remember all those people who come up and say how much they love that song, when you play live. Those people who don’t like it, it’s fair enough, they just don’t have the same taste in music. I mean – we definitely don’t like a lot of stuff.
S: Yeah, we slag off quite a lot of stuff.

Who are your musical heroes, influences and peers?
S: Iggy Pop. I think that, from what I can make out, up until The Velvet Underground and The Stooges it seemed like music was really happy. Then they turned up and were really destructive and kind of trashy. Iggy Pop brought this kind of evil, psychotic thing into what – especially in the 60s – was all “flower power”. The legacy of that influenced everything – from punk, through everything ever since that I’ve been particularly into, it’s always had a darker, crazy edge to it.
L-M: I think PJ Harvey. She isn’t my main musical hero, but I’ll say her because she’s consistently cool in her music.

Was she someone you looked up to when you were younger?
L-M: When I was younger I was really into (and I’m still really into) Babes In Toyland . With PJ Harvey it was more when I got a bit older. I think I saw her once at Reading Festival – I was just out of school, I think. I listen to her a lot – I’ve discovered some of her earlier albums that I didn’t have before. “Rid of Me” was the first album that I ever bought, and I’ve just recently bought some of the other ones that I didn’t have before. I think she’s a real musical genius. On the new album as well – she re-creates herself quite a lot.

Have you ever met her?

L-M: I did ask for her autograph once.

What about current people / bands that you like?
L-M: We really like Biffy Clyro, although we’re not at the same level, musically. We supported them. We get on with them really well, and there are definitely similarities in the way that they’ve gone about their music, and how they’ve got to where they are. They tour a lot, they’ve released a lot of albums. They’ve built it up slowly.

Are you ever tempted to bring any more members into the band, or are you always going to stick with just being the two of you?
S: Well, we had someone play the violin on the album, so we have actually done one song with another musician, although we still wrote the part ourselves, on a little crappy keyboard. That’s on “Hope You Are Holding Up” – the last track on the album.
L-M: Yeah, I think definitely, if we’re recording, and there’s an instrument that we can’t play. I don’t think we’d ever say “never”, but I don’t think we’ll ever get anyone else actually in the band. Maybe just like a session person.
S: It wouldn’t be someone who would be “in” Blood Red Shoes, controlling the music – that’s us two together, forever.

You must get on very well – do you fall out?

S: We fall out about the most stupid-arsed things. The other day we screamed at each other till we were blue in the face about whether we were playing the upstairs room or the downstairs room at a particular venue.
L-M: I was right, and then because Steve didn’t acknowledge that I was right I got really annoyed.
S: Then ten minutes later we looked at each other and said “what the hell is wrong with us?”. We got really angry, calling each other every name under the sun.

L-M: We turned up at the venue and it was, like, “what just happened?”. I think it’s just due to the fact that we spend so much time together.
S: Yeah, sometimes you’ve just got to go through 10 minutes of hating each other to keep you sane. Some other bands that we see seem to really stifle communication . If there’s five of you, and you have to have a group meeting to air things…
L-M: … and one of you talking about one of the other members…
S: … that can break things up.

How do you write?
S: We improvise.
L-M: We just sort of start playing, and then think “that sounds good”. We always know if it sounds right.
S: We start with nothing, then we just start playing, whatever happens. Then at some point, something comes, and we both get really excited, and then that’ll be the song.

Do the lyrics come in the same way?
L-M: Sometimes, yeah. Usually the melody will just work out, and sometimes a few words will come out in the chorus or something like that. Or sometimes we’ve written them together. We usually have done it together.
S: The melody pretty much always comes with the improvising, but sometimes it’s not what happens with the words.
L-M: There are some songs where Steve’s written all the lyrics, and some where I’ve written them all, well – I think about one, each. The others we sat down and wrote together.

Are you doing any festivals this year?
S: Hell yeah!
L-M: Yeah!

Which ones do you enjoy most playing, and which have you enjoyed most as a ‘punter’?
S: Probably the same as you.
L-M: For me Reading and Reading.
Are you playing reading this year?
L-M: Yes. I don’t think it’s confirmed…
S: They’ve told us that we are going to get asked to play.
L-M: Last year was so amazing. It’s the place that I always went to, so it’s definitely my favourite.
S: I used to go to Glastonbury, when I was young, with my sisters. We’ve never played it. I used to love going, until they got really arsey and I went back one year and it was all just really posh. Everybody was really clean and all the shops were really proper and it was really empty looking. Before, everyone could get in really easily and there was a real spirit to it; but then it felt really sanitised and tame. But I still want to play it!
L-M: We’re also definitely doing T in the Park.
S: We’re doing Pukkelpop in Holland
L-M: Summer Sonic in Japan.
S: We’re doing the Melt! festival in Germany, with Queens of the Stone Age and Rage Against The Machine.
L-M: We’re doing, like, nearly every single weekend.
S: A lot of festivals.

So presumably you just turn up and play – you don’t have time to stay for the weekend?
S: Yes, although there’s one festival – because we really like QOTSA and Rage Against the Machine where we’re playing there, then going back. We’re actually going to have to pay people who work for us, not to work, just so that we can spend the whole weekend at the festival and watch QOTSA.
So that’s another benefit of being in a band?
L-M: Yeah, definitely. And you get to play and travel the world. I would never be able to go to places like Japan.
S: Until being in a touring band I’d only been to France and Germany with school.

Do you get to actually see much of the countries you visit?
Both: Yeah
L-M: We’ve been to Japan twice now, and the last time we did get to see some bits of the country – we went on a bullet train, and you get the chance to walk around – it’s great! We also definitely have had a few days off around Europe, we get quite a lot of time off in France. Even if you don’t, it’s still an experience, meeting the people that work, and the kids there. You get to experience it in a different way than if you’re just going there on holiday. You meet people doing the same things as you on the other side of the world, and it’s interesting to see what is the same and what’s different.
S: Yes, it’s pretty different in terms of the experience.

Okay, thank you very much for the interview. Good luck with the show tonight.