July 2008 - Put one girl oozing theatre in a studio with guitars, heavy fuzzy basses, computers, keyboards effects, a tonne of software, production equipment and a mic or two and what do you get? You get izzie Voodoo. Dark electronica pop is what it's all about, with some industrial stuff thrown in for good measure. Her cd 'The Push' gets released on July 21st. And I was given the opportunity to catch up with Izzy Voodoo to have a brief chat. My first interview on this site too with a British act.
Firstly, the name Izzie Voodoo I just love, any reasons behind the name?
Thanks- iZZiE is real, but the Voodoo bit came from a comment someone made very early on when I ran a song past him and he said he felt like I'd done some kind of voodoo on him, so the name stuck."
I do confess to being a metal head at heart, but I will listen to and I enjoy all types of music. Your cd included.. Can you give me a little history about yourself and the story behind 'The Push'?
'The Push' is kind of like an indirect life story. Indirect in that the actual stories within the lyrics of each song on there aren't necessarily true tales of stuff I've done, but the overall idea and feel of it, and arrangement of the songs within the album are a similar reflection. Most of what I'm attracted to is arty or theatrical or energetic. I grew up in the theatre with a dance school doing dance productions and stage work, learned art and design and then the technicalities of backstage work and props, spent far too much time playing iceball in an icerink and going to gigs when I should have been studying and ran my own design business for a little while when I came back from college before I gave it up to persue music. Now I'm writing and recording cds, hosting my own music promotion podshow, co hosting another similar UK based podshow run by 10 of the best hosts in the UK with another on the horizon, building websites and working at keeping fit and at my black belt in Kickboxing. So it's all pretty hectic, but at least I'm never bored!
I myself quite like the track 'The White Line'. Sounds a good track to hear in a club at 3am. I am curious regards the meaning behind the title of this track too =) However, do you yourself have any preferred tracks on the album, and can you tell me more about the songs on the record?
Oh! - 'The White Line' is always misinterpreted as being a song about cocaine. The White Line is actually the line down the 'middle of the road', or a line that a lot of people are wary about crossing, where there's something else far more exciting on the other side that they know they want very badly, but are too afraid to take the plunge. The song is about encouragement and confidence and it's meant to induce motivation.
Anyway- 'Dry heat' is probably my favourite if I had to choose. It doesn't have any underlying meaning and it's not meant to be thought provoking, it's just eery and the lyrics are visual and I can lose myself in it's bassiness. 'Neat 17' I guess is similar, but it's edgey and the guitar parts set the hairs up on the back of my neck.
'Neat 17', 'Least Resistance' and 'Y'Know Me' all have live drum samples by different drummers and 'Smashing Honey' is a song of two parts- a more indie guitary type part at the beginning (although it occurs to me now that the guitar isn't loud enough) and a dancey half at the end.
'Sound' is the first single released from 'The Push'- it's deliberately over done, full and intended to be a wall of sound. 'Play Bomb' is set to be the next single- it's poppy- silly and very tongue in cheek.
It's an album that was intended to be stright to the point, commercial, different and interesting without getting too bogged down in any musical technicalities.
Although I may be wrong, I believe that your album is virtually just you, which in my eyes makes you an extremely talented lass. Was the recording of your debut album simple or did it give you major headaches?
Once I had conceived the ideas for the songs the recording was relatively simple- although I totally re recorded Y'Know Me from scratch at the last minute. I took my time with it.The mixing took some several takes to get how I wanted it to the point that I was sick of doing it, but it was worth the effort. The end mastering took four of us to agree that it was how it was going to be but we got there in the end I think.
Have you been involved with any other musical projects, band or solo that you would like to let us in on?
I started out as a band called Shiver- a three piece punky, indie thing with a live drummer, me on guitar and vocals and song writing and a bass player. Frankly? it was awful-and out of time but the idea was there. I played bass in another band- and fronted an industrial-techno outfit for a while, and there have been numerous excellent collaborations with trance, hip hop and rock artists.
I understand that you will be appearing at The Pink Festival in Cambridge on August 30th. Is there a tour in the pipeline, or is the Cambridge gig a one off?
Yeah- me and the band are really excited about Pink. There was a possibilty of us playing in Camden the day before but it's fallen through. At the moment we're trying to concentrate on getting gigs to the right crowds in great venues, so they're let's say 'choice' gigs at the minute while we're establishing exactly where we fit in. We think that's dark electronica pop, but we're open to ideas :)
Musically and spiritually who are your inspirations, and what sort of music are you currently listening to?
I think now that my inspiration comes from everything I hear whether that's music , news or people's experiences. It started out actually sounding like I listened to everything going and tried to write each song in a different genre, but finally it's taking shape as something in it's own right and when it's classed as one thing or another I think that's just a matter of how different people are perceiving it because of what they listen to themselves. At the minute I'm listening to things like Muse (still), Klaxons I really love, Hadouken, Bloc Party and tonnes of new music of all kinds of genres but I usually tend to like things with a dancey edge most of all.
What are your future plans, music or otherwise?
I think my plans are basically to go where I'm taken at the minute! I'm really busy trying to promote "The Push" as widely as I can because I want it to be heard and enjoyed by as many people as possible, at the same time I'm writing the next album, 'cos you need to be a step ahead! As well as creating my own music the podcasting is taking of wildly as well so I'm juggling time between those two things that I consider most important- and then there's the martial arts thing. It's a hobby, you know but I'd like to do more with it.
Finally is there anything that you would like to say to anybody anywhere out there?
Well, I'd like to thank my director and producer and...... erm not really, but you should really get yourselves a copy of 'The Push' cos it's wicked. And thank you for the different questions :)
And check out www.myspace.com/izzievoodoo
Dave Smith (Aug 1, 2008)