|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 14, 2008 12:14:20 GMT -5
I've been meaning to start this thread for well over a year and I'm only getting around to doing it now. Róisín Murphy is definetly an artist I think a lot of Garbage fans could relate to and I want to introduce her to anyone who may not have discovered music yet. Many of you may remember her from her former band Moloko which broke up a few years back. Since then she has fled to the studio and made two fantastic records 'Ruby Blue' (2005) and 'Overpowered' (2007). Many people compare her to both Kylie and Bjork but I think she is an entity on her own. Anyways, there's no point of me going on describing her. The best way to get to know her is to listen to her. Here are a few songs that I think could wet your apetite... Overpowered www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlFjf1pWk2cPrimitive www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d9nrrQGxzARamalama Bang Bang www.youtube.com/watch?v=OooVFwbCObkYou Know Me Better www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBi_aYXjuETell me what you think! What's your first impressions? Or for those that already know her well, what do you think of her music!
|
|
|
Post by oscillations. on Sept 15, 2008 13:50:24 GMT -5
I think we had a thread for her...
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 15, 2008 14:33:12 GMT -5
Shit! We did...And I started it.
Early sign of Alzheimers?
|
|
|
Post by oscillations. on Sept 15, 2008 14:41:57 GMT -5
Don't worry. I forgot that Richey Edwards wasn't, in fact, the lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers last week. This after listening to them for many years and waxing poetic about his lyrics... argh.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 15, 2008 14:58:15 GMT -5
We're like peas in a pod, then! haha
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 16, 2008 13:16:21 GMT -5
Great interview for those who do not know her. It's from 'Out' the US Gay Magazine.
The story of Róisín Murphy begins in fashion. The springboard for her ascent from small-town, working-class misfit to in-demand style icon and neo-disco queen was a snug, secondhand, torn purple pullover she wore to a bash in a Sheffield, England, basement in the mid-’90s. The U.K.-based Irish-born singer recalls flitting about the party all night, saying to guests in a silly, coquettish American accent, "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my bo-o-ody’.” Enchanted by her flair for drama, writer-producer Mark Brydon took her to the studio hours later and subsequently enlisted her as the lead singer of electro-pop outfit Moloko. Fittingly enough, Do You Like My Tight Sweater? became the title of the group’s 1997 debut.
Fast-forward 11 years and four Moloko records later, and Murphy has gone solo, having confected two of the most polished, sophisticated albums of the decade: the heady, intricate art-jazz project Ruby Blue and Overpowered, a superbly structured, atmosphere-charging dance affair inspired by old ’80s disco mixes passed down to her from her New York City DJ pal Danny Krivit. In the grand tradition of shrewd, convention-shattering, versatile divas (Annie Lennox, Björk, and Murphy’s idol Grace Jones), she has employed her love of drama and flamboyant couture in a recent string of cinematic music videos. She twirls and kicks her way through “Let Me Know” in a greasy spoon transformed into a club, mines photographer Cindy Sherman’s 1981 Centerfolds and Louis Vuitton pastels to take on multiple guises in “You Know Me Better,” and in the biggest shocker of them all, is violated by a giant lobster in the new John Waters–influenced oddball extravaganza “Movie Star.”
Already a hit overseas, Overpowered finally invades the United States early next year. “Movie Star” will soon be released as a single, along with Murphy’s remake of the 1985 Bryan Ferry ballad “Slave to Love,” which will serve as the theme song for the worldwide ad campaign for upcoming men’s fragrance Gucci by Gucci. Out sat down with Murphy -- whose striking aesthetic has helped her forge relationships with Givenchy, Gareth Pugh, and Viktor & Rolf -- to chat about her infatuation with disco, her hatred of red-carpet vultures, and why she's a diva.
Out: 2008 is a big year for you. You're planning the U.S. release of your second solo album, Overpowered, along with your remake of Bryan Ferry’s “Slave to Love." Róisín Murphy: Yes, it’s a dance version of the song. I worked on it with Seiji, who produced “Overpowered,” “Footprints,” and “Dear Miami” [from Overpowered]. The video is slick and beautiful, where the video for “Movie Star” is dirty and cheap.
You were very inspired by John Waters for the “Movie Star” video. Yes, I started re-watching his films to finalize the idea. I love his movies. Cry Baby is a masterpiece -- I even have a song on Overpowered called “Cry Baby.” It’s not meant to be a hugely commercial video; it’s meant to be a cult thing. Actually, going out in London inspired me because the people embracing me reminded me of John Waters characters. It was nice to write a script with real people in mind. All the characters in the video look exactly like that when they go out. The woman who plays my mother, Jodie Harsh, is becoming quite famous. In the video she’s this evil mother figure who ends up laughing after I get raped by the giant lobster. The lobster idea was pulled directly from Waters’s film Multiple Maniacs.
What’s the deal with the zombies at the end? That happens after the rape in Multiple Maniacs as well, where they’re all running down the street infecting each other. It’s very Dawn of the Dead.
The video also seems like a dark, really warped take on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Yes, it’s stuuupid! That’s what it is!
Your songs and videos seem generally well-researched. I like learning things, absorbing things. It doesn’t feel like work. I don’t read shit, watch shit films, listen to shit music.
What are reading now? I just finished [Katherine Dunn’s] Geek Love. It was fantastic!
Do you consider yourself a geek? A freak. No, I don’t think I’d consider myself a freak, but people used to call me a freak in school. I’d turn around, thinking I was so intelligent, and say, “You don’t even know what a freak is!” I was a naughty kid.
How so? I’d talk back to kids. I was wild. All my learning took place outside school. I spent time with people who were interested in art, music, and film. Those are the people I surrounded myself with at an early age -- the freaks and misfits. I thought I’d do an art degree. In fact, I had a place in art college, but then I got a record deal -- which was pure accident. I established a relationship with someone [Mark Brydon of Moloko], and in the same night we were in a studio, and I was saying, “Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my bo-o-ody.” Then he put it on a track, and I became a recording artist.
He just liked your voice? He liked me. I had been saying “Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my bo-o-ody” all night to people in an American accent. Then Mark had me to his studio because no one was there and he liked me. His studio was just an excuse to show me his “big equipment.” We fell in love, then the next week we were at another party, and in the middle of the night we decided to go to the studio to record me saying “Look at all these party weirdoes.” I was pretending to be L.A. and crazed -- you know, a girl disgusted with party weirdoes when she was the biggest party weirdo of them all. Then we got a deal. After four albums, we broke up.
Did you know when you were finishing your last record with Moloko that you would go solo? I knew it was the end of Moloko, but I didn’t know what I was going to do. After I finished the record, I thought, This is the last time I’ll ever do this. I don’t make records, so I’m not gonna tour. I really threw myself into it and started to work outside my relationship with Mark, who was never a showman. Thinking it could all come to an end, I wanted it to be the best possible show it could be. I wanted to change parts of the costumes, elongate arrangements, and make it all professional. It’s not that I wasn’t a bonkers performer before -- for my first shows I’d come out in a dog basket with a bone in my mouth -- but with the Statues tour, I was like, “Let’s make a fucking show.” That was when I really started to feel like this is what I’m meant to do.
Then you collaborated with Matthew Herbert for your first album, Ruby Blue. We’d talked about it before, but literally, the day after we finished the Moloko tour I was in the studio with Matthew -- because I had time. We had such a good rapport that we got halfway through an album, so we just carried on -- and then I guessed I’d gone solo. It was natural and organic.
Ruby Blue is a strange album. You refer to it as “cult.” I think I’m a bit cult, aren’t I? I sang “Ruby Blue” [the title track] the other night and the audience was fucking screaming, and I just thought to myself, Shit, it’s a fucking brilliant record. There are so many great songs on it, and it’s done in such a radical way. It’s a record I’m extremely proud of, and I got glowing reviews when I released it. I got better reviews for Ruby Blue than I did for Moloko’s Statues.
Ruby Blue is not as melodic and easy to navigate through as Overpowered. It’s not a genre record, or a lifestyle record. A lot of avant-garde records fit nicely into the avant-garde lifestyle, and that makes me think it’s not avant-garde at all -- you know, if it fits really neatly into your CD player and you sit back on your bloody Yves Saint Laurent sofa and you listen to it and feel real smug. It’s a challenging record. I don’t ever want to make music you shop to, that makes you feel stupid.
I have friends who love Overpowered, but they can’t wrap their heads around Ruby Blue. I think they might like it in 15 years. And yet So You Think You Can Dance used like three songs off it. “Ramalama (Bang Bang)” -- the weirdest song on that record -- seems so perfect on a massive mainstream U.S. TV show. It worked brilliantly. Ruby Blue is stricken with millions of ironies in that sense. It’s not seen as a dance record, but you type in “Ramalama (Bang Bang)” on YouTube and you get all these little dance troupes from all over America doing routines to it.
Also, your voice sounds more soulful and mature on Ruby Blue, while it’s more “pop” on Overpowered. I tried to channel some kind of naiveté on Overpowered like I’d never done before. I always tried to feel 16 when I was singing [on that album]. In Moloko, I wasn’t doing that. I think my voice was quite annoying sometimes in Moloko because I was trying to become a singer. I was taking on these characters. This time, I wanted to put youth and joy into my voice, brashness, ballsiness, and fearlessness. On Ruby Blue, Matthew’s ear tended toward the jazzier side of my voice.
Did you know you wanted to make a disco record after Ruby Blue? Yes, I actually wanted Ruby Blue to be a disco record. “If We’re In Love” was the first song Matthew and I wrote, and it’s the most disco-y song on the record. But he was bringing in objects from his house to create the record, so it had to be very open and experimental. Overpowered was the first time I’d ever approached a record with a focus before I sang a note. I had like 400 songs in my iTunes, I knew the references -- this was what I’d wanted to do for a very long time.
What were your references? Not things that everybody’s heard of. I was given millions of CDs from [New York City DJ] Danny Krivit when I came over here to sing for him.
Performing at the 718 Sessions party in New York City was when you interacted with Krivit. It seems like a turning point for you. Definitely. I knew I was going to make a disco record then. I was with a friend in New York and she brought me to Body & Soul, then I went every Sunday, even on my own, just to go listen to music and dance, to absorb the atmosphere. I was asked to come back years later, and “Forever More” [the Moloko song she performed at 718 Sessions] became one of those songs that has a life of its own -- I think of Body & Soul and Danny when I hear it now. I remember asking [DJ-producer] Francois-K, [who launched the party] years before, if Moloko could perform, but he said he didn’t invite just anyone. Then I ended up performing “Forever More” there. It was the same crowd at 718 that went to Body & Soul, and they embraced me. These are the people who have created everything good about the scene.
You’ve said that dance music plus emotional complexity equals disco. I like things that are complex, things that shouldn’t go together. You have the functionality in dance music, but you can’t have disco without a layer of emotional complexity. I can’t think of anything more multilayered than disco. I think there is a resurgence of disco on a more mainstream level, if you think of bands like Hercules and Love Affair and Hot Chip. It’s not strictly disco, but it’s certainly not dismissive of disco.
Do you think the scene is still alive? Well, the 718 is like the northern soul scene in the U.K, which is based on old soul records from the ’60s and ’70s. In the ’70s, it was retrospective, about finding rare records. There was something really beautiful about it -- not just nerdy -- like, “Let’s find something that is forgotten and reopen it and make it relevant again." The northern soul scene in the U.K. was the first scene where you had parties all night long. People were on speed, people didn’t dance together anymore -- people were dancing in their own space. It was the prototype nightclub. It still exists today, but it’s very much smaller, just people holding on. You go there and it’s middle-aged people there, ordinary people. You know the guy dancing next to you is a plumber or an electrician. He’s a normal guy singing along to this black woman, and he’s skinny and white, but he has this poise and dignity. Those are the places I wanna be, where you feel like you learn, you talk to nice people, and they don’t spill drinks on the dance floor. I don’t wanna be shoved around. I like nightclub etiquette.
You consider Grace Jones an icon. You’ve met her twice. What happened? After a show, five or six years ago in Florence, these Italian guys were like, “Come back to our hotel.” She was getting out of the cab at the same time, and she was like, “Where are you going?” I told her I was going to the hotel party after the after-party. She was like, “Control! Control! Get these people out of here!” So we went off and serenaded these guys in the square under a full moon in Florence. Then I met her recently. We did a thing for Jarvis Cocker. We were all singing different Disney songs with an orchestra. She complimented me on my hat, I complimented her on her hat, and we were fine. I don’t blame her for throwing people out of a bloody hotel room. She’s had a massive influence on my music.
What hat were you wearing? A Stephen Jones big, black, wide-brimmed hat with horsehair sticking out of it.
Have people compared you to Kylie Minogue? No, but people say, “Have people compared you to Kylie Minogue?” And I go, “No, but people have asked me if I have been.”
And Alison Goldfrapp? Yes, I get that comparison.
I can hear that. “Movie Star” has that Supernature sound. Yes, and Supernature has the feel of “Indigo” [from Moloko’s 2000 album Things to Make and Do, which came out before Supernature.] I ain’t copied anyone ever, maybe to my detriment; things that are copies do very well. A female musician recently said, “Being a woman is not a genre.” It was a great thing to say. It’s so annoying the way we’re compared to each other. It’s bitchy, like we’re schoolgirls. You know, who’s popular and pretty. I’ve always felt confident. I was given bags of compliments from my parents.
Diva. What do you think of the word? It’s powerful, isn’t it?
How would you describe it? It’s when you’re powerful and emotional and confident and sensitive at the same time. Contradictions. I’m very sensitive, but I’m also bold and strong. I don’t care if it’s overused. I am a diva.
You’re becoming a style icon. When it comes to fashion, have you ever gotten it wrong? I always get it wrong. Wrong is OK as long as it’s you. We have these magazines dedicated to scrutinizing and breaking down what celebrities are wearing on the red carpet. It’s like being back in school with perfectly ironed rich girls whom everybody loves, who are really popular and turning to the weird girl and calling her a freak. It happens to me occasionally, like “What is she doing?” I’ll tell you what I’m doing: I’m being myself, my own person. I’m not walking down a red carpet to advertise various costumes you can buy at the department store. I don’t have a stylist. I don’t believe in it.
You’ve established a good rapport with fashionistas. How? The designers love me. They want to meet me. I love fashion, especially the art involved in it. They see me in a video and contact me, asking me if I’m open to [wearing their clothes].
So fashion adds to your story? Yes, it adds to the narrative. If it becomes a mask I will turn away from it -- you know, if it overpowers me. I do embrace wholeheartedly anything that comes along to challenge me creatively, which is why this is the best job in the world for me. But the people who’ve meant the most to me over the years have been the musicians.
You’ve said you’re the link between fashion and music. I think fashion copies music a lot -- mostly it’s fashion that looks to music. I’m music that looks to fashion. I’m not trying to look like a musician, or convey how cool or skinny I am, how many drugs I take. You can’t get all that from looking at me. Fashion is just something I enjoy -- making images. It’s not about a rock-n-roll look for me -- I’d do it anyway. I’m trying to be a work of art. I’m just a little girl in a closet.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 19, 2008 15:50:44 GMT -5
According to Times Online, Roisin is one of the great successes of London Fashion Week:
She came, she wore, she conquered. Roisin Murphy, the singer and former Moloko frontwoman, has spearheaded her very own Fashion Week after working several eye-catching looks on the front rows in New York and London. Music and fashion go hand in hand, and never more so than for the singer who sets her own style agenda.
Among the looks selected by Murphy were furry gorilla coats, leather shoulder-bolsters and pork-pie hats. The last of these may have characterised the grubby demeanour of a certain Mr P. Doherty, but on Murphy they looked fresh and (of course) just a little ironic. She is not to be outdone by a Pixie or a Peaches, and this was a considered, genuine approach from someone who is obsessed with the clothes rather than the limelight. “I find the chaos of London Fashion Week exciting,” she says.
On home turf she opted for monochrome shades and eye-catching accessories, including bags in gold and black-and-white stripes. She was never seen without a boundary-pushing coat - be it a black, cropped puffa jacket or a bright white effort featuring this season's brass buttons. Even singers can do military, you know.
So what exactly was Murphy doing at the shows? Searching for the ultimate performance gear, naturally. No starlet is complete without an adequate stock of look-at-me MTV outfits, especially if you're one of the music world's most fashionable exports.
Which London designers can count themselves lucky enough to make the Murphy grade? “I thought the Luella show was beautiful, but her clothes are too complicated for the stage. Block colours are better,” she explains.
Her favourite collection so far? “The best show of all the ones I've seen - New York included - is J.W. Anderson. I'd wear all the clothes, even if they are made for men.” Murphy Does Masculine: to be seen on a stage near you soon.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 20, 2008 13:58:36 GMT -5
You can now create and record your own remix of Roisin's song Overpowered! Visit www.becks.co.uk/mixer to have a go at being a DJ. When you've created your exclusive Overpowered remix please name it and paste the URL of the mix (that is, just the URL and not the complete embedding code) in a comment to this post. That way other Roisin devotees can check it out!
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 20, 2008 14:00:27 GMT -5
It's finally going to happen: a Roisin Murphy concert in the city of cities! On October 24 she will be performing at Mansion on West 28th Street in New York.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 20, 2008 14:01:39 GMT -5
Mercury Price nominees Portico Quartet may want to work with Roisin Murphy on the follow up of their instrumental debut album.
When thisislondon.co.uk asked them if they would consider a vocalist, double bass player Milo Fitzpatrick answered:
"We've always talked about it. We might aspire to a female vocalist who uses their voice a slightly different way, like Björk, Joanna Newsom or Roisin Murphy."
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Sept 30, 2008 11:15:06 GMT -5
The UK Music Video Awards have revealed the nominations for this year's inaugural awards ceremony and Roisin's video for You Know Me Better is nominated for Best Styling.
The ceremony takes place in London next month.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 9, 2008 3:43:34 GMT -5
The UK release date for the double a-side Movie Star/Slave to Love is not known yet. However, Movie Star will see a US release on iTunes this Monday, October 14, before Roisin's show in New York on the 24th October.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 18, 2008 8:16:35 GMT -5
Róisín Murphy’s whirlwind front-row tour of fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris last month prompted one writer to declare that the pop singer had single-handedly “spearheaded her very own Fashion Week.” No stranger to flamboyance, the former Moloko front woman often appears on her record sleeves dressed in hilariously haute couture creations, and lately it seems there isn't a hat on earth that she cannot work.
A year ago Murphy released her sophomore solo album Overpowered in Europe to much acclaim. Though many of the album’s stand-out tracks were inspired by the heady disco music that emerged from New York in the 1980s, she has yet to crossover in the United States. Next Friday, New Yorkers will finally get to hear those tunes live when she makes her much-anticipated US debut during the CMJ Music Marathon.
Ever the curious bloggers, we fired off a few questions to Ms. Murphy about disco, Lovers Rock, her upcoming tour and the sad state of the economy. “Times are changing fast," she said. "What remains is my desire to make good work and to devote myself to creativity of any kind, whether that be images, performances, videos or music. People like me always find a way.”
What do you have planned for the upcoming shows in New York and Europe? What will you wear on stage? It’s a seven piece band including me and my two beautiful backing singers. In New York the staging needs to be simple, in Europe the full production shows will go far beyond what audiences have seen from us previously. With a totally different set of songs will come a new narrative. I will wear what seems appropriate to me, not sure yet. New things are on the way to me any day soon. I can feel it.
On the night of a show, what do you do to prepare for a performance? On the night I will run through the same boring routine of eating something full of juicy carbs, like pasta, to keep the engine running. But that must be at least three hours before show or I’ll be too full to shake my booty. Then I retreat to my dressing room and do my own hair and make-up – I would rather do that than be chit-chatting to any body. Then I get "The Bitch" out, so named by the drummer. She is a wonderfully loud portable sound system. I get almost dressed and sing and dance a lot. An hour before show I am ready and annoying the band.
Why now have you decided to bring your show to New York? I am coming to New York now because some brilliant people who believed in me have worked hard to get me there. We had to find people outside of the usual system. My record label has been going through some changes. The show is going to be great. It is unfortunate it took so long to get there.
Before you recorded Overpowered, you sang at a party for DJ Danny Krivit in New York and decided to do a disco record. Why was that performance so inspiring? It was a pleasure to be invited to sing at Danny's party. It was the same feeling I had gotten years before in Body and Soul – the same crowd. It was in Body and Soul that I wrote the lyric for “Sing It Back”. The crowd knew every word of these great rare records and when the DJ turned the music right down the crowd would sing it back. I love that rare-record culture, I find it romantic. Love and preservation. How nice that a Moloko record, "Forever More", had to them become one of those treasures. Danny gave me lots of CDs containing lots of great stuff; I loaded it all into the computer and tried to reference it as closely as I could. The tracks “Let Me Know” and “You Know Me Better” perhaps most personify that influence on the record.
"Scarlett Ribbons" is the only slow jam on Overpowered. What's the story behind that song? The original “Scarlet Ribbons” is a song my father used to sing to me, it's about a man who hears his little girl wish for some scarlet ribbons. My song is about the girl all grown up and thanking her father for all he tried to do for her. I recorded it over an electronic groove to begin with but then I felt the fragility of a live recording (with musicians) could work and that Lovers Rock, a style associated youth and innocence, was perfect. I recorded it with the band I tour with. Ideally I would make slow fast music: Music that feels fast but is slow, or feels slow but is incredibly fast.
read on the BBC’s website that you left EMI. Is that correct? What are your plans for releasing music in the future? Well, I don't know anything about that, though part of me hopes it’s true. The company needs to reinvent themselves following its take over and a massive cull of its staff around the world. Virtually all the people who worked on Overpowered are gone. Perhaps it will work itself out but for now, its panic and chaos.
When Morrissey signed his new deal with Polydor the NME asked him about Radiohead's downloadable album and he said: "You can look at record companies and you can easily assess that they've been ripping people off for years and years and years. The whole process is a gigantic rip off. But then there are people like me who need to be institutionalized... and I don't mean in an asylum!" Are you an artist who needs to be "institutionalized"? If by institutionalized Morrissey means protected in someway, then I think it's an illusion. Money is what any self-regarding artist should expect from a major record label. They have to take risk to make decent records and to promote you sufficiently, so that your music can be heard among the cacophony of other voices. They have to take a risk appropriate to future profits, as they take a very large chunk of those I can tell you. I had whatever I wanted in making Overpowered and the record is good; they invested in a good record, but then the company when into free fall. I would like plenty of backing on my next record but I am not sure a big label will be able to provide it in today's climate of vast change. Not only is the music business malfunctioning, the world economy as a whole is morphing. Times are changing fast, what remains is my desire to make good work and to devote myself to creativity of any kind, whether that be images, performances, videos or music. People like me always find a way.
Why did you choose to cover Bryan Ferry’s "Slave to Love" for the Gucci ad? Has Roxy Music had a big influence on you? Like some good things in life, I had no real choice in recording the song for the Gucci advert. Actually, they gave me a choice between “Slave” and a Blondie song, it was the only way to go. Then they gave me a musical reference of the theme tune to American Gigolo, it's by Giorgio Moroder. I got [the producer] Seiji to knock up a backing track in that style. It worked; it was as simple as that. I love singing it because it's somehow pure and dirty at the same time.
For evidence of an affinity with Roxy Music, please see the Moloko video for "Pure Pleasure Seekers".
Do you have plans to release more videos, singles or DVDs in the near future? Well, “Slave To Love” will be in people's living rooms across Europe this winter. I would like to make a video for that. I love the track and I think it could go.
Perhaps not a physical DVD, I would love to do an Internet-based thing, all my younger friends watch all their TV and movies on the net. Ideally it would be interactive and free. I am working on it.
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 27, 2008 13:01:18 GMT -5
On the eve of her first US gig, Time Out NY got to interview Roisin and asked her about her favourites things:
It’s all too easy for pop music to go horribly wrong: One underwhelming chorus and your song turns from killer to filler; one wrong accessory (or lack thereof, if we’re talking underwear), and sassy becomes skanky. For a master class in how to do it right, just look at the fabulously, stylishly sexy disco queen Róisín Murphy, who’s making her long-awaited NYC solo live debut this week.
As half of Moloko, the Irish-born, smoky-voiced vixen scored a pair of classic Eurohits with 1999’s “Sing It Back” and 2001’s “The Time Is Now”; after the group broke up, she recorded 2005’s avant-pop Ruby Blue with electronica savant Matthew Herbert. Last year, Murphy released Overpowered, an intoxicating tour through various dance-music genres, from Moroder-style electroglide to Chic-infused disco. Neither record came out in the U.S., which speaks volumes about this country’s utter inability to take female pop musicians seriously.
It doesn’t help that Murphy, 35, is so hard to peg. She knowingly winks to high art (the video for “You Know Me Better,” for instance, is a tribute to Cindy Sherman) and sneaks in experimental touches in her sleek dance-pop, but she can also be earthily goofy in a manner not usually associated with women orbiting the fashion world (her latest single is a cover of Bryan Ferry’s “Slave to Love,” recorded for a Gucci ad). “Subversion is a fabulous tool in any kind of performance,” Murphy suggests. “To confound is just great. And it’s very easy for a woman in a way: Doing anything outside the box for a woman is kind like, ‘Whaaat?!?’ ”
Asked about her image, the singer is quick to correct the phrasing: “Not my image as such: the image. When I get dressed to go out and I get shot by a paparazzo, I didn’t dress for that photographer,” she continues, laughing, “I was living la vida Fellini. But then you have to put your sensitive little imagination in the brutal glare of reality.”
Performers famous for engaging in this tricky balancing act between the mundane and the outlandish are often tarred with a certain label, used as both praise and a put-down. But Murphy doesn’t care—or rather, she gleefully embraces the term. “People call me a diva, and I’m quite happy to accept that I am one,” she says. “Being a diva means creating complex stories that go beyond what people are expecting. Bring it on!”—EV
A few of Miss Murphy's favourites:
Dance-floor anthem Jackie Moore: “This Time Baby”
Favorite music video Björk: “All Is Full of love” “For me, the pinnacle of the art form; it has been downhill ever since.”
Most underrated style moment Margaret Thatcher’s bouffant
Most underrated music artist “My Uncle Jim, pitch-perfect, band leader, player of every instrument, with a voice like thick, velvety Guinness.”
Most memorable live moment “Seeing Sonic Youth in Manchester when I was 14. I can’t describe the joy of seeing Kim Gordon moshing with the boys and stage-diving.”
Favorite movies The Night of the Hunter The French Connection Chinatown Dead Ringers Some Came Running Underground The Birds Lawrence of Arabia
“Also, I love The Sopranos and The Wire as much as any movie, if not more.”
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 27, 2008 13:02:41 GMT -5
Carola Long from British newspaper The Independent interviewed Roisin during London Fashion week about fashion, calling her 'the poster girl of cutting edge-chic':
When I meet the singer Roisin Murphy at a café after the House of Holland show at London Fashion Week, it's hard not to feel as comparatively uncool and drably dressed as a policeman at the Notting Hill carnival. She is wearing a pink and grey shard-patterned sweatshirt by Vivienne Westwood, and huge vintage Courrèges sunglasses, although this is actually quite a subtle look by her striking standards.
The catwalk shows might be where we get a glimpse of what le beau monde will be wearing next season, but the outfits people create to watch the shows have become as diverting as the collections themselves. This season, in New York, Paris, London and Milan, the former Moloko frontwoman-turned-solo artist was the one capturing style spotters' imaginations with a succession of looks that sealed her reputation as a fashion maverick, or as one impressed fashion blogger put it, "an arch kookster".
As buyers, journalists and celebrities spilled out of the London shows wearing various takes on the season's unofficial uniform of peg trousers, ankle boots and oversized blazers, Murphy always stood out. Her fashion-week ensembles included a cropped leather jacket with exaggerated, shaggy fur shoulders (made by one of Gareth Pugh's assistants, Gemma Slack), a cream draped dress by Topshop Unique and bowler hat by New York milliner Ellen Christine, a Charles Anastase sailor-style coat with Hermès beret and gold YSL postcard-effect bag, and a puffy red satin dress by Lanvin with Tudor shoulders and a feather headdress by Stephen Jones.
Outdone only by her friend Kabir, a stylist who memorably rocked a furry bear headdress at some of the shows, Murphy's approach to fashion is brave and experimental; the opposite of just picking up on the season's trends. Later on in the evening, after we meet, she models in Naomi Campbell's Fashion For Relief charity show, strutting down the catwalk in a Westwood outfit alongside Vivienne and her husband Andreas Kronthaler. The designer rang Murphy after meeting her at a party, to which the 35-year-old singer wore a "fabulous green taffeta Westwood gown, mixed with a Calvin Klein bomber jacket", and asked her to appear. "She has the softest hands I've ever shaken," says Murphy, her Irish accent muffled by very un-fashion week mouthfuls of pasta and tomato sauce.
Murphy's whirlwind, one-woman-fashion-week round of the shows is also "window shopping", for her current tour, which began yesterday and will include the Brixton Academy. She is famed for her adventurous stage and video outfits, and says, "I have the wardrobe on stage with me and I change for almost every song." Inspiration for recent live outfits came from a Martin Margiela ensemble she wore with a Philip Treacy hat in the video for "Let Me Know", from her second album, Overpowered, in which she dances around a diner.
Murphy explains, "It consists of a sheer white body suit and a skirt that becomes a cape at the back. It has big white pointy shoulders," she adds, "and they became a bit of a thing with me. The main element I loved was the body suit, which I wear with a pair of trousers on stage and it creates a kind of modular system which hats, coats, shoulder pieces, gloves etc can be layered on top of. It's a very ingenious idea even if I do say so myself!" Murphy adds that her stage outfits are essential to her performance, "not to hide behind, but to say something about the song, and to express more intensity through the music. There's also a lot of narrative in the songs, sometimes it's literal – in "Checking Up On Me" I look over my glasses and strike a rock and roll pose – and sometimes it's more abstract.
"For me to go on stage just wearing jeans and a T-shirt would be dishonest. It would be like me saying, 'Oh I'm just like everybody else, you don't have to be scared of me.' I think that for everyone who loves what I do there are people who are intimidated by it." Certainly outfits such as the Gareth Pugh ridged white dress (think Stormtrooper meets armadillo) she wore to the shows in Paris, shortly after it had appeared on the catwalk, are exhilaratingly unusual rather than conventionally flattering. Even aged nine she had an exhibitionist streak, as demonstrated by the time she "went up to town and got my long blonde hair shaved into a marine cut". When she came home her dad started crying, but she "loved it – it was liberating".
Murphy attributes her love of clothes to her mum, whom she describes as a natural clothes horse. People in Dublin would approach her mum and ask for her autograph, mistaking her for Faye Dunaway (Murphy also bears a notable resemblance). The pair would go charity shopping together in posh areas of Manchester, where her family moved from Ireland when she was 12, and would snap up vintage Jaeger. She says, "If you can't afford designer labels, go to a charity shop and buy an old T-shirt because they only start to look good after 10 years. The whole thing of going to a high-street chain and buying a T-shirt in every colour just in case you might need it is incredibly wasteful. I think that idea has been forced down our throats a bit."
Away from fashion week and on the tour bus, doesn't Murphy ever feel the urge to sneakily pull on a tracksuit? It seems not. "I have two Margaret Howell plaid shirt dresses, they're my nighties," she says, "and I have Margiela mock cropped boots, they're my slippers. And I put my YSL mac on and that's my dressing gown. And if I'm really feeling rough I put sunglasses on as well. I have to think in terms of there might be fans waiting and I don't want to let them down." The sight of Murphy emerging from the tour bus in such an unremittingly stylish take on leisurewear is unlikely to disappoint.
|
|
|
Post by oscillations. on Oct 28, 2008 2:22:01 GMT -5
Roisin is so chic!
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 28, 2008 15:14:44 GMT -5
So that's a US tour next year. You better be going, Colleen!
|
|
|
Post by oscillations. on Oct 28, 2008 15:54:23 GMT -5
Yes! Especially since I just missed her in NYC
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Oct 28, 2008 16:21:14 GMT -5
I bet she'll have new songs worked into the set by the time you get to see her. Her shows are always an aural and visual feast!
|
|
|
Post by Modern Method. on Nov 1, 2008 4:15:24 GMT -5
Here is her Malaga setlist: Overpowered You Know Me Better Checkin' on Me Through Time The Only Ones I Want You Tell Everybody It's Nothing Movie Star Day For Night Primitive Dear Miami Dr. Zee Pretty Bridges Dumb Inc. Let Me Know Ruby Blue The Id Slave To Love Ramalama As you can see there is a waelth of new songs worked into the set. I can only assume these are possible songs that she has been working on for her next record
|
|