a day late, but with extra love, this week’s new artiste Q+A comes from lonelady, who’ll soon be swelling the ranks of the too pure singles club. enlightenment follows.

Who is lonelady? What are you onstage or instudio that you’re not while off-duty, secret identity, etc?

LoneLady in the first instance was one person recording music with a drum machine, various intruments and a 4-track in a flat. The first single ‘Hi Ho Bastard’ was released by Filthy Home before LoneLady had ever played live. In the next phase I played live for a year or so alone with a drum machine. This included a trip to SXSW, Texas. These gigs were isolating experiences, aurally and visually: was waiting for the right musicians to join. Then the skies delivered Oid: LoneLady morphed from a two to finally a threepiece, and currently features Oid (Ur-drums+energy) and China Tom (atmospherics+ wisdom). Relatively the same off and onstage, we are good/bad.

Where are you from? How did that shape/inspire/injure you? What?s the best thing about there? Where are you aimed next?

Manchester. Manchester’s music legacy we all know about. I’m a fan of Factory, its bands and ‘ideology’, Martin Hannett in particular. These figures provide a great inspiration and focus for me. However, as much a fan as I am, Manchester - and London - needs to focus on music that’s happening in Manchester now, not the past… Visually, the mill-relics from the cotton industry are beautiful; perfect spaces for the creativity that Manchester makes so much claim to. But it seems that the landlord mafia won’t be happy until every last mill is an apartment conversion and bands have absolutely nowhere to practise…. I have no current plans to leave Manchester.

What makes you more special and unique than all the other legions of artistes and outfits queuing to be friendly on MySpace?

Myspace is a great resource for all bands. LoneLady operates and tries to move onwards and improve and develop all the time. I can’t really answer this question beyond that.

Who are yr main ?influences?? (Or, who have you come together to DESTROY?) Which other new bands would you recommend (if any)?

Early R.E.M. PiL, Gang of Four, early Throwing Muses, early New Order,’The Marble Index’ by Nico, Josef K, Tindersticks, Suicide… I love loads of stuff, and am discovering new bands all the time; it’s a never-ending journey. Lately I’ve been listening to/discovered ESG, Young Marble Giants, Steve Reich, Pylon - all amazing. I’ve been lucky enough recently to have played guitar on a string of dates with Stranger Son of WB, also from Manchester - they are great.

What d?you think of the current music scene? How will you fit in
(or not)?

I feel it isn’t necessarily my ‘job’ to keep up with current and new bands. There’s so many of them for a start. I meet bands I play with and via Myspace. I think there’s a lot of people in bands who, in two or three year’s time will be in a job and not even be thinking about music; ie I think there’s a lot of people playing at being in a band. And that’s fine for them, but it makes shit listening for the rest of us. I think it can be good to have bands that implode within a year - if that’s because they’ve been incendiary and intense like The Birthday Party or super fucked-up like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks but…I don’t see those type of people. For me I value substantiality, development, looking at the bigger picture. I have no idea how LoneLady fits in (or otherwise) in Manchester.

What is: a) Yr three-point manifesto, b) Yr immediate plan-of-
action? c) Yr long-term goal?

For LoneLady: a) action+focus, b) work on new songs, always the main thing, c) a sense of creative achievement not necessarily related to sales figures, etc.

What are yr songs mostly, y?know, ?about?? What?s the song (so
far) that says the most about you and why?

Mortality, energy, fear, anger, weirdness. I like lyrics that are oblique and a bit odd. I love the way the recording sounds and the one-word chorous (’Intuition’). Use of own mind vs. impassable terrains.

Posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007by kicking_k