 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
Chin Up: I'm coming... and I'm Bringing My Muffins
(An Interview with
Death By Chocolate's
Angela Faye Tillett)
by Brenda Kahn |
 |
|
|
| |
|
A few weeks ago, an unidentified package arrived on my doorstep.
Most submissions to WOMANROCK come through the PO Box, but this
one showed up at my house. Curious, I ripped open the brown paper
packaging and out fell a CD featuring a pretty young girl on the
cover reading To England With Love against a backdrop of
psychedelic swirls of color. Intrigued, I put the bright pink CD
into the player. Track one: an ad for the VOX Wah Wah Pedal complete
with background effects. Track two: a groovy sixties happy love-loving
song called Day Out. If you never got a chance to learn first
hand about the sixties, bands like Love, Jefferson Airplane, Syd
Barrett [Pink Floyd], and Strawberry Alarm Clock then Death By
Chocolate just might be your ticket in.
I caught up with Angela [Angela Faye Tillett] by phone just
after she returned from her job at an insurance company in London...
WOMANROCK:
How did Death By Chocolate come about? You were brought into the
group, is that right?
Angela:
That's right, Mike Alway, who owns the label, he put me and
these other two guys together, because we kind of liked the same
things that he did, so that's where it came from really.
WOMANROCK:
Did Mike decide to create a sixties throw-back band or did he meet
you and decide to start one?
Angela:
|
"Favorite Cereal: The cereal of all cereals for me has to
be cinnamon grahams, they're tiny squares of sugary biscuits
with brown cinnamon on them. They can also be eaten by on
their own or with a cup of coffee." - Death By Chocolate |
Well,
it was more that he knew I'd been into things that were around that
time. Not like we went out of our way to sound particularly sixties
it was just that we did things that we liked. People sometimes think,
especially in America, that [Death By Chocolate] kind of jumps onto
this kind of sixties Brit bandwagon, but it's been going on a lot
longer than that. People have been passionate about it for a lot
longer than it seems.
WOMANROCK:
Who are the other band members?
Angela:
One's this little short guy with glasses called Jeremy Butler.
And he tinkles around with keyboards and things. And the other guy
is called John Austin. John plays guitar and things.
WOMANROCK:
Do you write any of the songs?
Angela:
I write some of the pathetic lyrics.
WOMANROCK:
Who wrote piece about the VOX Wah Wah pedal?
Angela:
It's from an actual advert [ad/advertisement] for a Wah Wah pedal.
Yeah, from the radio. Mike Alway got hold of it somewhere and just
wanted to import it. But yeah, that was a genuine advert that we
copied.
WOMANROCK:
I really love it.
Angela:
Yeah, they made it different, I mean on the original advert it was
just a guy saying, "Hey, you gotta buy your VOX Wah Wah pedal."
But on the bit we did we added in the effects and everything.
WOMANROCK:
Do you play other instruments on the CD or just play the percussion
a little bit?
Angela:
Yeah, a little bit, I can't do anything in particular. A little
bit of all sorts, tapping away at things. Nothing that involves
any skill because I'm too lazy.
WOMANROCK:
You are huh?
Angela:
Yeah, very lazy. I can't do it.
WOMANROCK:
So you're not going to learn to play guitar, or anything crazy like
that?
Angela:
Well, actually my boyfriend tried to teach me a few chords to play.
WOMANROCK:
It's very empowering.
Angela:
Yeah, I bet. I mean I really would like to. It's not that I'm lazy,
I'm just impatient. If I can't learn something straight away then
I lose interest. I think it's something that might have to do with
age.
WOMANROCK:
Your label in England is El Records. Do they release other
bands that are similar, or is the label more eclectic?
Angela:
There are different things, the other sort of road [Mike Alway]
goes down are punky things and at the moment he's working with Malcolm
McLaren. He's very twenty years too late really.
WOMANROCK:
Jet Set has released the CD here in America. How did the
deal with Jet Set come about?
Angela:
Um, I don't know, they must have had a moment of madness I guess.
Well, I think it just got played for them a bit and someone had
a contact somewhere along the line and they listened to it and went,
"Oh that's neat." And it sort of went along from there.
WOMANROCK:
Have you come to play in America?
Angela:
No, the label won't pay for it. If you speak to Jet Set tell them
that we should. Tell them that I said I want to come to America
soon.
WOMANROCK:
Have you ever been here?
Angela:
No, I want to, I was talking about it this afternoon actually.
WOMANROCK:
Where do you want to go?
Angela:
I want to go to Las Vegas. And I just want to go to a diner. That's
what I want to do. And then I'd want to get an old car and drive
it about out in California somewhere. A convertible car.
WOMANROCK:
Yeah, I want one too.
Angela:
Yeah I suppose everyone does really.
WOMANROCK:
What about New York?
Angela:
I was supposed to go with friends last year, but then it didn't
happen because of the terrorist thing. So it's kind of been on the
back burner. But yeah, I will one day. I sort of want to go over
the Manhattan Bridge in a taxi.
WOMANROCK:
Have you done touring in the UK?
Angela:
Nope, no one's ever seen us. We've just been hidden in the studio,
that's all.
WOMANROCK:
Really? Have you done any live shows?
Angela:
No, I have with other things, but not with Death By Chocolate, no.
Unfortunately. We definitely want to. There's enough interest really.
WOMANROCK:
Is music your career? Do you want to be a singer?
Angela:
Well I think I might be pushed to get a career in it. But I don't
know, I see it as a hobby really. You know I have to do insurance
and such to get by, and then anything else is a bonus. If it wasn't
fun I wouldn't bother.
WOMANROCK:
You have such a specific vocal style and it's very hip right now
to have an English accent. Have you ever thought about doing voiceovers
or film?
Angela:
Well, I would if I could, but the problem is there are millions
of people that have English accents obviously. If someone in America
heard it and wanted me to do something, I'd sort of jump at it.
WOMANROCK:
Is there a video for Death By Chocolate?
Angela:
No, there isn't, but we are planning to make one fairly soon.
WOMANROCK:
Do you know what it's going to be about? Or how it will look?
Angela:
All I know I can say is that it involves a megaphone and a typewriter.
WOMANROCK:
I'm sure there will be a lot of colors and umbrellas and things.
Angela:
I'd expect that much.
WOMANROCK:
 I
really love all the press shots, where in each one you're holding
a different book from the sixties. Are those your books?
Angela:
No, they were Mike Always' books. He was very specific about which
ones we should have. I did volunteer to bring my own, but the ones
that he brought were the ones that he wanted to be there.
WOMANROCK:
What books would you have put in the pictures?
Angela:
I don't know, something perhaps a bit more provocative.
WOMANROCK:
We're doing a story for the same issue on some of the female musicians
of the sixties, like Grace Slick, Joni Mitchell, Dusty Springfield
and Janis Joplin. Are you interested in any of their music?
Angela:
Not so much the hippie kind of stuff. I hate hippies.
WOMANROCK:
You hate hippies?
Angela:
Yeah. No I don't, but I don't like that kind of sound so much. I've
made myself sound horrible now. I'd rather listen to the more jolly
stuff than, "Let's not wear any shoes and be really melancholy."
I don't really like that. It's nice to think that people sort of
carry on that style, but you know the thing about [the sixties]
that I liked, the people that like it now, they all have new things
that are a bit similar.
WOMANROCK:
I love that kind of music too so it was really fun to get the album.
It's kind of ironic because it's so derivative that's it's really
new and innovative, which is just the decade that we're in I guess,
everything is about taking the past and making it new.
Angela:
Like regurgitated. But there's other ways that it's been done that
I think are really crude. Like Austin Powers or something
like that. It makes people forget what it was really like and really
about. Now all of a sudden there's young people thinking that kind
of sixties thing in London was about walking around Barnaby Street
looking like a twat.
WOMANROCK:
People don't have any other sense of that time and they're not really
going to get it from that film.
Angela:
And Mike Myers, I think he did well to kind of put what he
knew out to everyone, because obviously it's what he was into as
well, because his parents are British or something, aren't they?
That's where he got it from, watching old British shows and stuff
like that. But in a way you think, "Oh, you've ruined it now." And
thoughts like that. And you overdo it, and therefore no one really
takes an interest in it.
WOMANROCK:
It would be great to have an actual return to the energy and music
of that time.
Angela:
Yeah that's right, exactly.
WOMANROCK:
What are some of the other things you would let people know about
who might be interested in getting involved in British culture of
the sixties? Films, products, ideas…
Angela:
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, definitely. Pete was
his partner in the sixties. And they did a brilliant film called
Bedazzled. That was the one that they remade with
Brendan Frasier. The original and the soundtrack is a must.
When you go into today's shops, they've re-released them, the soundtrack
to Bedazzled. You'll love it.
WOMANROCK:
I'll check it out.
Angela:
Yeah, you must buy it. It's well worth it. And then you can say,
"Oh, she told me to get it and she was right!"
WOMANROCK:
Who were some of your favorite bands from the sixties?
Angela:
Mine? The Monkees.
WOMANROCK:
What was your favorite Monkees song?
Angela:
Ooh, it would have to be "A Little Bit Me, A little Bit You."
WOMANROCK:
Did you watch all the TV shows?
Angela:
Yeah, I've got them on video. I used to watch them with my brothers
and that, and I never really liked sort of the eighties, so it had
to be the Monkees. When I was little I liked Davy, but now I'm older,
I like Peter.
WOMANROCK:
Is there anything else you'd like to say to America?
Angela:
(pause) Maybe just: Chin-up. I'm coming. And I'm bringing my muffins. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
_________________________________
For more information on Death By Chocolate, check out:
http://www.jetsetrecords.com
http://www.epitonic.com/artists/deathbychocolate.html
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
_________________________________
Brenda Kahn
is a New York recording artist and the editor of WOMANROCK.com.
Past notes from the Editor.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
