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Gossip: How Things Have Changed

We got Gossip together to talk about how things have changed since their days on Kill Rock Stars.

Posted 21st September 2009, 2:26pm in Interviews, by Siân Rowe
Gossip: How Things Have Changed To celebrate DIY week, This Is Fake DIY got Gossip together to talk about how things have changed since their days on Kill Rock Stars. They have changed, haven't they?

Hannah and Nathan are sitting around a conference table at Sony headquarters. They're sipping on machine bought coffee, lolling about in big executive chairs. "We never really feel quite comfortable with this world" says Hannah. "Y'know? But I think it is part of what we have to do now". It's definitely different from Gossip's rickety beginnings, back when they were Kill Rock Stars' Goxxip. There wasn't even coffee, just booze soaked club shows in Arkansas and their adopted Portland home. "Portland is really cool. It's really cheap to live there so there are always loads of artists, there's always something amazing happening and it always has a great underground community" they say. Despite the Portland love, the band spend a lot of time in the UK. They're here promoting records and playing shows. Beth Ditto is a paparazzi favourite, pictured with Kate Moss and partying at Proud Galleries. "It's just a change and we just have to be nice" laughs Nathan as he screws up his face. Whatever they've been touted as over the year's - Gossip never been considered "nice". "Yeah, SONY has been good to us. They let us do what we want. We've got complete control and we say no to a lot of stuff... like lame cellphone commercials. Things that just don't feel right".

The band signed to the major in 2007. Despite heading up the label's "queercore" division "Music With a Twist" - a poorly marketed subsidiary that only hosts two artists and seems to be in place to satisfy the band's ideologies rather than promote any musical movement - their mainstream success has seen them offered jobs that even puppet popstars find offense at. The band played T4 On The Beach; lining up alongside reality TV kids JLS and Tommy Reilly. "It was hilarious because they asked us to fake play" explains Nathan. "So we twirled our guitars and just tapped on the microphone". They're rocking out in the Sony room, demonstrating the caricature they are now asked to play up to week in week out. Rather than old ideas of "selling out" Gossip have constantly been sold as being outrageous and controversial. They're one of those rock bands right, they're "totally outrageous"? In amongst the giggles Hannah manages to explain the deal. "They do one that is fake play and one that is live I guess. WE WERE THE FIRST ACT ON THE FAKE STAGE! It blew my mind because the people in the front row, the teenagers and stuff, thought you would be playing live. Their faces when we were twirling guitars and mashing the keys... Poor kids". GMTV better watch out. "What is GMTV?" asks Hannah. "Is it like good morning America... Looking forward to that. Yeah." "OH GAWD!" Hannah is shouting again, Nathan is trying to calm her down. "We're doing Jools Holland as well. That'll be good. Who are we playing with? What if is like MORISSEY! OMG! I would be so nervous". Now it's Nathan's time to get loud. He is in LOVE with The Smiths. Hannah continually professes her love for bands like Electrelane and No Bra. It's clear they'd like to be Huggy Bear smashing up The Word, not in the same league as five girls stuffed into matching hooker-shoes. "The Sundays [sic]?" groans Nathan. "Where do you find those girls? Just drag them out of Top Shop? It'd be cool if the XX were on. Anything that is kind of weird and underground with women in it. We're constantly playing with all this blahhh. [Doing a Jools Holland impression] Kasabian, Kings of Leon... Snow Patrol."

It's not all hating. While they've certainly got money behind them, Gossip haven't abandoned the community feel that made Portland so special. The fuss that revolves around a single release reminds them of 7" release parties as mucg as dreaded PR tours. "I love 7". I have 3000 and it's my favourite format" says Nathan. "Every song is a proper single with a beautiful package. It is AMAZING. It's funny because when they say single I think 7". I'm like WOW when is the 7" coming out! Then it is just a CD. I'm going to make them press a 7"..." It's this enthusiasm that makes Gossip exciting, even after years of touring and increasing levels of flashiness. It's encapsulated perfectly in their continued reverence of the 'zine scene - something that Nathan particularly loves. "Oh I'm working on a 'zine all the time really but I've never thought of one for the Gossip" he says "Beth is doing a BOOK now" adds Hannah. In 2003 they were all making magazines, Nathan made 'No New Science Fiction' and 'Fuck Axxxes', Beth made zines about femme politics with Dead Dollar Diane. "Yeah Beth is doing a book about her life now" explains Nathan. "I want to do a book about my life!" he adds.

They've begun to embrace London's underground, making friends in Comanechi and Male Bonding. When they can, they hang out with touring bands like Finally Punk and TITS. "Oh and Micachu and The Shapes. We just played with her, it's amazing stuff. I was talking to her after we played a show with her in Brighton. I said 'you remind me a lot of Erase Errata'. And she said 'what's that'. She had never heard of that. Never heard of Erase Errata! She's classically trained. She is so clasically trained. It really reminded me of that band though and it blew my mind that she hadn't heard them. That's totally cool". Even the band's tour crew feel like a family, showing how creative friendships aren't frozen out when the big guns come knocking. "We have a really amazing crew of people that tour with us. Lyndell and Andrew who do our hair and makeup and we're always just like going crazy and laughing a tonne. and then any photoshoot we're on its like waaaaaaa so it's just fun. We still have this tight knit group of people around us who come from the artistic underground. We have to work with people who you feel a kind of kinship with." No schmoozing for them then? Aren't they getting a little bit comfy in their new seats? "No" they protest, confirming that Gossip really are trying to do things on their own terms. "We're like when Nirvana played on top of the tops. That was amazing."

Gossip's new single 'Love Long Distance', taken from the album 'Music For Men', is out now.

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