"Who the hell are Lush, anyway?" asked Lisa O'Neill on her first brief encounter with Emma Anderson. She had just met the former Lush guitarist in her then boyfriend's living room, with whose flatmate Emma was then also going out.
But fate works in mysterious ways, as six months later Emma was inquiring about this singer she'd heard and it turned out to be Lisa. They formed Sing-Sing, and set about recording their debut single, 'Feels Like Summer', appropriately enough about the joy of finishing a relationship and looking forward to new horizons. This was obviously meant to happen...
"Lush pretty much split up when Chris (Acland, drummer) died, unofficially, at any rate," admits Emma, "and all I could do was write songs, not knowing where they would end up, or what they would sound like. I knew I didn't want to form another four-piece indie band to tour the toilets again, but I didn't want to go through the freak show of auditioning people. It was really lucky I had Lisa and we had a lot in common. Not least crap relationships..."
Lisa's background in the dance scene might seem to lend itself less obviously to Emma's oeuvre, but listening to 'Feels Like Summer' and the B-sides 'Hit And Run' and 'Command', the combination of a songwriter's instinct for a classic tune and a classy dance pop sensibility works sublimely. The lead track echoes Saint Etienne in its use of Motown drum loops and creamy girl-group melodies, while the latter two are nearer to trip-hop territory, with echoing dub textures, ethereal aesthetics and torch-song fragility.
All of which leaves you eagerly anticipating a debut album. Except, er, they can't afford to make one...
"I asked to be released from 4AD (Lush's label) because I wanted a totally fresh start, but then none of the bigger labels wanted to know. We only managed to make this record because Robin and Simon (from the Cocteau Twins) liked it and put it out. We've funded a lot of this ourselves, so it's only a one-off for now. We're too poor to make a proper record!"
"We've got about ten albums written already, though," points out Lisa. "It's just frustrating to have to wait to find a label to put them out."
A strange situation for Emma, after ten years in Lush, with a band to fall back on.
"Lush had quite a cult following, which was nice because you knew that whatever you did there was an audience for it. It's been hard staring again from scratch, especially as people tended to see Miki as the star in Lush and seemed to assume I didn't have a lot to offer outside that band. But we've made a record we're really proud of, which is quite different from anyhting I've done before. Just the fact that it's a new sound, it's a new goup and it's a new challenge is inspiring enough to drive you on to make it succeed."
And when they finally make their millions, let's just hope those ex-boyfriends don't sue for their introduction fees...
Johnny Cigarettes.
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