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Sing-Sing.
Most people have never heard of Sing-Sing, especially in Australia.
After a lot of trouble during the release of their debut, 'The
Joy Of Sing-Sing', the band is distributing its second album,
'Sing-Sing And I', independently. "We've chosen our own press
people and radio people this time," explains Emma Anderson.
"They've done pretty well so far. It's quite encouraging. So
we'll see what happens once it hits proper distribution around
the world."
Anderson forms half of the British duo along with singer Lisa O'Neill and was also founding co-guitarist/singer of the legendary Lush, one of the shoegazing scene's best and longest running groups. The new album has been well received, but O'Neill has recently become pregnant so any plans to tour outside of the UK have slowed considerably. "So that's kind of out of the question, but we both work full-time so it was always going to be difficult anyway." Anderson explains that O'Neill is a graphic designer, while she works for a PR company. "We're just doing acoustic sets because, with time and money and Lisa being pregnant, it just makes things easier. But it's also working really well. We have a cellist and people are really enjoying it. The songs were written acoustically, so they sound fine stripped back like that."
Although I have Sing-Sing's debut album, having imported it after hearing their music overseas, I wasn't sure if 'The Joy Of Sing Sing' ever came out in Australia. "Oh it did, actually," assures Anderson. "But it didn't have any promotion whatsoever."
So begins Anderson's explanation of their poor experience with the Poptones label, owned by Alan McGee (late of Creation Records). "We signed to Poptones here in the UK, and it was through them that it came out in Australia. I can't even begin to tell you..." she gasps. "Well there was no promotion, because we were never asked to do an interview. It was kind of a mistake that we signed with them, because Alan McGee is a very old friend of mine. We were on another label when we made 'The Joy Of Sing-Sing' and then we were dropped but they gave us the album. So I asked Alan if he could put it out, and he was very enthusiastic, but unfortunately the people that work at the office there hated it, so it just got completely ignored. I didn't think kind of situation could exist, that you could sign to a label, and they would avoid your record on purpose. I thought labels wanted to sell records and make money. But no, it was really bizarre. It was just a real shame, because it was a good record, you know?"
I know: and the new 'Sing-Sing And I' is even better, kicking
off with the poppy Lover, before journeying through atmospheric
songs like Going Out Tonight. A couple of the songs were
mixed by Alan Moulder. "Yeah, I worked with him when I was in
Lush, and he kind of did this as a bit of a favour, which was
nice, since we can't afford his rates!"
Most of the songs on the album are individually credited. "We never write together," says Anderson. "We kind of write songs separately and then bring them to the recording process. We do throw ideas around and write little bits and parts for each other's songs but the main body and melody is written by one or the other. And I'd always written like that, to be honest. In Lush it was a little more rigid, it was all pretty much written before I went into the studio whereas in Sing-Sing, things are a bit looser, which is actually quite nice. I found it hard to do that at first, but it makes it more enjoyable."
Anderson doesn't mind people asking her about her days with Lush. "No I don't get sick of it," she says. "I think its fine. I get sick when people say 'Are Lush going to reform?'" she laughs sardonically. "I haven't had that in an interview, but sometimes you get emails, just asking if we'll reform, and I think 'for God's sake', you know? But I don't think it's bad that people bring up Lush at all, because it was something that I did for such a long time. The thing is that we did split up nine years ago now, so the relevance is slightly less now than when we were first starting Sing-Sing."
Eddie Chan
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'Sing-Sing And I' is out now through Chatterbox.
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