Interview 2 Michael and Susanna : Sky T.V 1987. The Bangles : Amsterdam 1989. The Bangles - Sounds newspaper 1984/85. RM - 1986. Interviewer:Did you set out with the package in mind, to be an all female band? Susanna:No, not really. We just set out to find people who liked the same music we did, and the same basic - well I don't want to say songs - just guitar orientated, harmony orientated music. Michael:Yeah, it wasn't like a showbiz scam or anything. It's kinda hard, even in a big city like Los Angeles, to find people who can relate to you musically. Susanna:We met through an ad in the paper - well I didn't meet Michael that way, but I met Vicki and Debbi, who are sisters, that way.It's amazing , how many people you meet who want to do completely different things.I mean, the fact that we would sit for hours saying ' Do you like this song' - that's how we figured it out. Interviewer:Michael, you replaced a female bassist, was that a conscious decision, do have another female bassist? Michael:I think what it is about us, is not so much that we had a gimmick in mind, as far as - all girls, yeah that's an original concept - It's been done so many times before . I think the other girls felt more comfortable working with another woman. I think at one point they were actually thinking of of auditioning a guy wer'nt you? Susanna:Yeah. It just didn't feel right. There's a certain chemistry,it's undeniable. We were used to playing with four girls , and it was fun. People were always suprised because we seemed like a regular band. We didn't seem like some guy at a record company had dressed us up in the latest, baby doll pajamas or something, and stuck us out there and gave us five lessons on how to play. We were a real band, and we felt comfortable being four girls. Interviewer:What makes you different from women who just listen to music? Susanna:Well, we're music lovers like anyone else. We just have, at spoint early on - I started playing the guitar when I was something like seven or eight . I loved singing and playing and dancing and performing. Michael:There's just something that drives you to want to do it. Susanna:When I was growing up all my friends played guitar and sang, it was like, what we had in common, and we've all grown up to be different things , but we all used to sit around, to entertain ourselves and sing. Michael:I think alot of women are really musically talented, it's just if you wanna take it that step farther and do it for a living. Interviewer:That whole, 'women in rock' syndrome , was it a bit easier to get noticed because of that novelty aspect? Susanna: Well , as far as the Bangles go,I remember when we started out ,it really was the music. I gave a single that we produced - we started our own record label - Vicki and I , and Debbi did , and we gave it to a local radio DJ and he played it - up till then we would play in clubs , five people would show up , we were buying people beers so they'd dance , it was embarrasing. Nobody knew who we were until that record got played on the radio, and then they didn't know if it was one girl, or three girls, or four girls , they didn't know. Local LA people told us, they stopped in the cars and just listened, because it sounded like the Mamas and Papas. Michael:I'ts the music for us , you know. For some of our audience it might be important that we are women , you know. Whatever. Interviewer:How has your music changed? Michael: Well that's an interesting question, because the EP and the first album, sound more like how we think we sound live, more guitars, more of a natural feel. Then with Different Light, we got into some pretty heavy production values, and we got away from, the way we think we are in real life, you know. We are basically a guitar band, a garage band, and that's what we're shooting for with this next record. The electric guitar is going to make abig comeback on this next record. Interviewer:Hazy Shade of Winter is for a sountrack album - how did this come about? Susanna:A friend of mine, was doing this song for the movie, and he told me, the same people who did Risky Buisness were doing a movie, and they wanted the Bangles involved. So we were interested. We were beteween records, and we'd done it when we played clubs and we were paying people to dance, you know, way back when. Michael:We just went in and had fun. Susanna:Yeah, and we never knew it would do this well , we were shocked! We didn't think anyone else was going to hear it , we thought it was going to be lost on a soundtrack album. Interviewer:Is there alot of competition between the band? Michael:Definite healthy competition. Susanna:It's human nature. When one personcomes in with a great song you think to yourself - God I better go home and start writing , something's happenned to me , I'm losing it! It happens to everybody. Michael :But it's all the best for the album, 'cause now we have more than enough really good songs for the next record. Susanna:There's no dead weight in the band, the competition inspires us to do better - to outdo the other person - no i'm just kidding. But it's there , it's always gonna be there. It's all the better for the album. INTERVIEW: THE BANGLES , Amsterdam 1989. Susanna: .....then , of course, we went to a live sex show. Vicki:You've gotta live! Susanna:You've gotta do that once in your ife, you know! We left before the end of the show though. The woman with the candle was gonna come out , we didn't want to stick around and see that. The cigar woman was bad enough... Vicki: ...but she couldn't do smoke rings! Susanna:She did her routine to 'smoke gets in your eyes'! Susanna: Eternal Flame was written with some friends. I wrote it with Billy Steinberg and Kelly. I was over at Billy's house and we were working on some songs, and I told him about The Bangles going to Graceland, Elvis' house on a tour.It was raining, and we went to the back yard were everybody's buried, and Michael noticed , at the head of Elvis grave , this plexi glass box that was filled with rain water, and she asked the tour guide - what is that ?... Michael:And he said - Well thats the eternal flame. Michael:I think just about all the songs on the record are biographical - I don't know - we write about our own personal stuff. Vicki:I like writing about people. I like writing about relationships, and that's important to me. The way we treat each other, even on a one on one basis is just as important as, you know the hunger, starving in Africa. Susanna;We used to be called the Supersonic Bangs, because I had an issue of Esquire magazine with Ed Sullivan on the cover wearing a Beatle wig, and it was a whole thing on hair dos , and hairstyles, but then there was another group called The Bangs , so we became The Bangles. Vicki:In Austria it means 'wild boys' which we like alot! Susanna:We like to hang loose with..... Vicki + Susanna:Wild boys! BANGLEMANIA - Yesterday and today with THE BANGLES Edwin Pouncey works it out The 'House full' sign was proudly on display outside Boston's Paradise Theatre, a local haunt that had, so I was informed, fallen from favour by the followers of the city's music scene as a place to congregate. Tonight, however, The Paradise had been granted a reprieve as it played host to The Bangles from LA, an all-girl group comprising Susanna Hoffs vox/rhythm guitar, Vikki [sic] Peterson vox/lead guitar, sister Debbi Peterson drummer/vox and former Runaway Michael Steele bass guitar/vox. Together they have crafted 'All Over The Place', a first album full of unashamed, pure potent pop style that's just aching to be let free on the airwaves where it belongs. So far the music on 'All Over The Place' has been allowed to lie dormant (on this side of the Atlantic anyway) but now the full muscle of their record company CBS is about to be flexed and The Bangles are hopefully going to be made a household name. They coast our shores from the 10th to the 22nd of February with a remix of the first single from the album 'Hero Takes A Fall' poised for imminent release to promote this flying visit. During my flying visit to Boston what I caught of The Bangles' set was but a promise of even greater things to come. The set built from folky Beatlesque shake-alongs to psycho-pop implosions which are then punched into a full force acid attack with renditions of Love's 'Seven And Seven Is' and The Seeds' 'Pushin' Too Hard' as encores. The Bangles certainly know their roots from which they have grown. The Bangles' own musical history began in 1981 where they were known as The Bangs. Vicki and Debbi Peterson had been involved with groups such as The Muse, The Fans and Those Girls. Nothing came from these groups, so out of desperation an ad was placed and Susanna Hoffs responded. She was later joined by bassist Annette Zilinskas [sic], who has since left to join the excellent Blood On The Saddle. Together as The Bangs they practised their harmonies and played joints before moving onto hipper Hollywood locales, who were eager to embrace the so-called 'Paisley Underground'. During this period of their career they were given the thumbs-up sign of approval from Miles Copeland, who is now their manager. He released the follow-up to their first single, which they put out on their own Downkiddie Records, in the shape of a five song 12" titled simply 'Bangles' which appeared on the Faulty label. With the name change went Annette Zilinskas [sic] and the search was on for a replacement bass guitarist. Enter Michael Steele, whose chief qualification was playing bass with the first version of Kim Fowley's notorious Runaways concoction. With the line up again intact the moment had come to approach the big time. CBS decided to sign them in August of 1983 and with producer David Kahne they went into the studio to record 'All Over The Place'. To date two singles with accompanying views have come from that album, the aforementioned 'Here [sic] Takes A Fall' and a cover of Soft Boy Kimberley Rew's 'Going Down To Liverpool', the video for the latter featuring no less a Bostonian boy than Leonard 'Mr Spock' Nimoy as a sinister driver. Inside the plush interior of the tour bus, which is parked right outside the Paradise, I ask Sussana Hoffs if she plans to go sightseeing when she hits England. [Susanna:] "I don't think I feel compelled to go to Liverpool. It doesn't mean I love The Beatles any less, it's just the way I look at it. I can't feel that I have to go there." If The Bangles ever did set up their equipment in Liverpool, the residents could be excused if they thought they were in a time lock, that the Fab Four had risen from the ashes and taken on female form. It's not imitation that The Bangles crave, it's an understanding of the magic that at the height of their powers The Bangles draw inspiration from. Uncannily, they have tapped the secret, as you can hear for yourselves on their records and at their concerts. When the questions were over I wandered back to The Paradise and caught sight of a painting of John Lennon emblazoned on the back of the rented tour bus, his face wreathed in a smile of knowing appreciation. Surely this was a conincidence...wasn't it? [Pouncey:] "As a primal part of the whole LA '60's flashback scene which blossomed into life a few years ago, do you feel that energy has bloomed or withered? How do you rate bands like Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate and The Three O'Clock today?" Vickie [sic]: "It's kinda hard to say because, out of all those bands that you just mentioned, if you were to ask any of them that question they would all say that they weren't 60's bands. Although we all derive certain influences from the 60's we're not trying to create a sound now that is 60's-ish." "I don't think it's a case of being a 60's copyist band, I see it more as taking and building on the rock 'n' roll spirit that comes from that period." [Pouncey:] "Have you used that 60's energy stream up to the point where you feel you don't need it anymore?" Susanna: "No, I don't think so." Debbi: "It continues to be our inspiration for what we do. The same kind of energy was happening in that early 70's thing. The 70's punk thing definitely had that, the LA scene." Susanna: "But it's the spirit of just being happy to have electric guitars and drums and a good beat with some good harmonies and all that stuff which is what got us into doing this in the beginning. It's still here, it's still what makes every show fun, it's a groove, it's a gas" (groans from the rest of the band). "In LA it really is though." [Pouncey:] "Do you feel that what came out of that '80's LA scene altered anything within the music business? Apart from those who knew what was going on, do you think that anybody was listening?" Vicki: "We'd like to think so, we have to hope that at least we're helping to open up the radio a little bit. That's the one thing that this band really wants, to get on the radio. Not just college radio, which we've done very well on, but also AM radio. When you're riding around in your car, to hear that. "I think the more bands that come out sounding different from what's being played now, the more opportunities are created for other bands to go ahead and experiment. I mean, that was the thing about the 60's, that people were always trying to do something different and there as a lot of one-upmanship. If The Beatles put out a record that sounded really psychadelic The Stones would go 'Oh my God, we gotta do something even more wild than that,' and there was a lot of experimentation." Susanna: "I think that kind of spirit happened between all the new LA bands. LA was basically rockabilly and hardcore punk and then all of a sudden bands like us, The Dream Syndicate and The Rain Parade started putting out these little independent records which get airplay from people like Rodney Bingenheimer. It was real different, it was more song orientated, each band had a certain sound that wasn't The Stray Cats or hardcore. Bands like The Three O'Clock, The Bangles, The Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate are all very different sounding but I think we inspired each other and it was really fun doing shows together." [Pouncey:] "How do you think The Bangles have developed musically since those days?" Susanna: "I think we've streamlined ourselves, we're learning to find what the basic groove is in a song and concentrate on that more." Michael: "We're selling out, it took a long time and we've been waiting for it a long time." Vicki: "We're not a garage band anymore, we're a living room band now, we've moved from the garage." Debbi: "Nothing is forever, you know." Susanna: "Forever changes, as Arthur Lee of Love so brilliantly pointed out." [Pouncey:] "Was it the original intention to be an all-girl group?" Susanna: "Well I used to be in a band with David Roback and Vicki and Debbi had bands with boys in them." Vicki: "I think once we got to the point where we had played in both formations, all female or mixed, it was difficult to play all male for us" (laughter) "but anyway, We [sic] tried it both ways and it was a lot better for us this way." Debbi: "More natural. Vicki: "Debbi and I were looking for another guitarist and Susanna was looking for another band. When we all got together it just all worked out chemically this way." Susanna: "Then the whole Mamas And The Mamas thing started happening and we'd harmonise a certain way. I don't know what it was but there was something that we liked, that we recognised in the way that all these female voices sounded together." [Pouncey:] "Are there any other benefits in being an all-girl group?" Susanna: "Well it helps in song writing in a way because I think we have a certain kind of point of view on things." Debbi: "Yeah, we're all coming from the same side of things in a way so when we're sittin around and talking about a situation it's easier to relate to what the other is trying to say." Susanna: "Because biology does affect psychology. I mean the fact that we're all biologically the same affects our brains." [Pouncey:] "When you started your own Downkiddie Records label with the release of your first single "Getting Out Of Hand" did you have any ideas for expanding it?" Susanna: "We wanted to put out some unreleased Salvation Army (now The Three O'Clock) stuff on Downkiddie." Vicki: "And kind of obscure local bands that didn't have a label or couldn't put stuff on the label that they happened to be on at the time. It's still a project that we're keeping open when we can get a little money to pour into it. There's been a couple of projects that people say 'Well we can't put this out, we've go no place to put it.' and we'll say well, we'll put it out on Downkiddie." [Pouncey:] "Has anybody sprung to mind recently who you'd like to do a record with?" Susanna: "We're all going to get The Honey Bees and The Mosquitos back together, they were on Gilligan's Island!" Vicki: "We're trying to bring Hayley Mills out of retirement." Michael: "And perhaps Rock Roll from The Flintstones, remember Rock Roll?" Susanna: "Or Pebbles and Bamm Bamm singing 'Let The Sun Shine In' but it's all about LSD!" [Pouncey:] "Why, and how did, The Bangs become The Bangles?" Vicki: "It was the Spinal Tap syndrome, somebody else had the name." Debbi: "And they had a lawyer and they threatened us with nasty legal action." Susanna: "And we wouldn't pay $20,000 for the name, that's what they wanted. We said it's not worth $20,000 and so we had to change it." Debbie [sic]: "I think what they did was think 'Hmm...Miles Copeland.. Bands..CHING CHING!' I think that's what happened." Vicki: "We wanted to keep the root word and it was better than anything else we came up with, adding on any prefixes made it sound silly but adding on LES made it mean something else. It means to hang loose." Susanna: "And of course there was an Electric Prunes song called 'Bangles' which was very influential in making that decision." [Pouncey:] "Just how important is the strong Beatles influence on The Bangles?" Debbi: "It's important that it's there. It's in our bloodstream." Susanna: "It was important in our youth and growing up." Vicki: "If you'd asked The Beatles they would have said Elvis, and any of the bands from their generation would have said the same." [Pouncey:] "What particular period of The Beatles' career intrigues the most?" Susanna: "Well, I really love the early Beatles personally..." [Pouncey:] "I see you wavering around the 'Revolver' period. [Susanna] "'Revolver' was the pivotal point but when it came time for my brothers and I to split up our Beatles collection I said "You guys take everything, just leave me 'Rubber Soul' and 'Yesterday...And Today'." [Pouncey:] "Did your copy of 'Yesterday...And Today" have the banned 'butcher cover'? [Susanna] "I might have that because I have all the original Capitol Records, my mum used to get them, and I haven't steamed it off yet. One time I was on a ski trip and there was a 'butcher cover' there. I contemplated stealing it but I didn't and now I am really bummed out about it." [Pouncey:] "How about other musical styles?" Vicki: "We like a lot of musical styles. We like country, there's funk in this band, there's classical, there's a definite folk thing." Susanna: "But all those influences, they all flow together, it's like rivers that all meet at the same source." [Pouncey:] "Do you think any of today's pop will be remembered in the future?" Susanna: "I think some of the stuff you hear on the radio will be. I think some of the stuff Prince is doing will be remembered, I think Cyndi Lauper has some really good songs. I think there is some stuff going on now that is really great." [Pouncey:] "Is there anything coming out that you'd term as 'classic' though?" Michael: "Some things aren't classic until an artist dies." Vicki: "That's when you sometimes appreciate it, when an artist dies." Susanna: "Look what happened to Van Gogh." [Pouncey:] "Why did you decide to remix and re-release 'Hero Takes A Fall' as as single from the album? Susanna: "CBS wanted to re-release it so we though [sic] 'Well let's give it a try remixing it, just to see what happens'. We re-mixed it with this guy called David Leonard who engineered the 'Purple Rain' album and in a matter of five hours it sounded like a different performance." Michael: "It was a strange experience somehow, you started wondering what the other songs could sound like." Susanna: "What's lurking in those tapes, y'know? It's like how you mix something makes such a difference." [Pouncey:] "Will a new video accompany the remixed single?" Michael: "No, we'll just play the old one backwards." [Pouncey:] What are your opinions about the video medium?" Susanna: 'They're fun but they don't show the band enough somehow. With a band nowadays you get three different ways to view them, live, video, on record or on the radio. It would be great if somehow a video could capture the real essence of a band but it's hard for that to happen." [Pouncey:] "Video is expected to be part of a new group's identity today, though." Vicki: "It's expected but it can be viewed as a good opportunity to show the personality of the band or something about the band that you wouldn't get by just listening to the record." Sussana: "It's a difficult medium because it's very passive in a way, you just sit and watch it and it's just this repeating of images and you watch again once you've seen it once. If you hear a song you could be washing the dishes daydreaming, and every time you hear the song something else is going on in your life." Debbi: "What's weird about videos is like, when you listen to a record you can imagine what they look like and what they were doing when they recorded, but when you see the video it ruins it for you." Susanna: "I wish they could be more like movies, I wish they could somehow fulfil you, bring you through an experience, fill you up and empty you out as Hitchcock used to say." Vicki: "That's what a concert should do, you should walk out of a concert after spending an hour and a half with the group and feel like you've been moved, you've been touched. It was loud, people were all around you, you were dancing, you were sweating, you came out of there feeling different. You've had that experience with bands, I have. You go to a concert and think about it for three days." Susanna Hoffs suddenly hits on the solution... [Susanna:] "We should do one video just like a commercial, just like play it up, I mean REALLY. Thing Go Better With Bangles!" The Bangles. They're the real thing. (from "Sounds", February 2, 1985 - includes two B&W photos - one of Susanna jumping on a hotel bed in pyjamas with a guitar and one of Vicki in a nightie jumping on the same bed with a guitar, both taken by Laura Levine) In Defense Of LA and Cover Versions note - I'm not sure of the exact date of this article , but it must be around 1986. Also - the interview refers to Michael as 'Michelle'! - Touring, recording,rehearsingand then even more touring have become a matter of course for the Bangles these days. On a brief stopover in the UK,prior toa 'Top Of The Pops'appearance, I get the opportunity for a few words with two of the ladies, Debbi, and Vicki. They're just a little bleary-eyed and the worse for wear and tear; as Debbi forlonly puts it, "We've been through so many character building experiences over the last year that we must have huge characters by now." Yet when showtime arrives,the girls invariably pull out all the stops. With their harmonies, the tambourines and goofy sense of fun when cameras are around,the Bangles evoke that particular Sixties vision of a carefree, sunkissed existance. The video for the new single 'Walk Like An Egyptian' catches them at their most entertaining yet, romping it up in a style reminisent of those other summer funsters, the Monkees. Speaking of which, weren't the girls going to write a song for the Monkees comeback? Vicki: "They actually ended up going into the studio before we had a chance to get together with them. We did have a song for them, but we might do it ourselves now. "We met them at an awards ceremony recently, and that was a thrill.I was sitting in a room putting on some lipstick or something,and I looked over and there was Davy Jones drying his hair with a towel! I heard his voice and I thought, 'oh my God!', I had a crush on this guy when I was six years old!" And, like the Monkees,the Bangles have so far managed to straddle the groung between throwaway pop and something more substantial. They're competent musicians, they're intelligent and articulate, and their musical background seems solid. So why then do many people look upon the Bangles as some knid of commercial outfit? One reason is that the band was first pushed our way as belonging in Los Angeles, along with extremely mediocre acts like the Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade.The fact that Miles Copeland,the Police's hard nosed manager,had a vested interest in the scene put alot of people off from the start, and had some sreaming 'hype' at the very mention of the word Paisley. Vicki admits that the girls did confront some problems when they got to crossing the Atlantic. "That naturally makes people suspicious. The thing that's unfortunate about all that is that the band has absolutely nothing to do with all the hype thing, and they're automatically put at a disadvantage. Because people do react that way, they say, 'oh, so you're so great are you ? Well prove it'. Sometimes you feel it from an audience that they're going", (nonplussed, arms folded routine)"Yeah, show me". "We just feel that we're doing what we do, and if people don't like it, that's all right. If they're not enjoying it, then they can split. I think if people come to us with an open mind, they're gonna like us. Not everyone of course; we don't want to everyone to like us, 'cause then you're obviously not saying anything at all. I think if people give us a chance , they'll find they enjoy themselves. 'Cause we do." Vicki also feels that there has been some great misconceptions about her home-town of Los Angeles. the trendy book to read this summer was Bret Easton Ellis' 'Less Than Zero', which portrayed LA as a playground for the wealthy to overindulge in drugs, sex and all things decadent. Apparently, it isn't quite as sinful as that. "If you wanna look for that kind of thing you can definitely find it, but it's not like you walk into LA International airport and get accosted by coke freaks, 'cause it isn't like that. I disagree with the bad name that LA gets, I think it's a wonderful place. If you wanna find the vices, the drugs and the sex, it's there like in any urban centre, but there's also culture; plays, art, music, they're all there. Los Angeles has hundreds of theatres." 'Walk Like An Egyptian' was written by a character called Liam Sternberg, who bass player Michelle had known in "one of the millions of bands she'd been in". When the girls heard a demo of the song, they declared it was irresistable; "so wacky and zany," Debbi enthuses, "totally psychedelic," is Vicki's verdict. After playing around with it in the studio they settled into sharing the vocals between Susannah, Michelle and Vicki, while Debbi gets the credits for the whistling solo. And thus the Bangles set themselves up with another hit record. Getting down to the nitty gritty though, the band's three most successful singles; 'Egyptian', 'Manic Monday', and 'Goin' Down To Liverpool' have all been written by other people. It isn't exactly the most credible state of affairs, and it might suggest that someone doesn't hold out too much confidence in the girls' own compositions. Just what is the Bangles' line in doing cover versions, Vicki ? "It's usually more original material than covers. On the last LP ('Different Light'), we did four covers , and that was the most we'd ever recorded. It's too early to say yet, what's gonna happen on the next one, but our basic policy is that we're open to material. If it's good, we'll listen to it; we're not gonna close ourselves off from outside stuff because we didn't write it, or 'cause we're not gonna make any money from it. Or 'cause it's not cool. "On the other hand, i'm very enthusiastic about our own songs, and hopefully the next few singles will be originals." The Bangles: bubblegum popsters or rockin' girls ? I think you should decide.