Theoretical Girl played an special acoustic set at Borderline earlier in the week, to celebrate her label Memphis Industries .  SoulSide Funk caught up with her after the show for a quick chat

Soulside Funk: Tell me a bit about the forthcoming album?

Theoretical Girl: I made it so long ago that it seems like another time. I made it six of seven months ago.  It took about two weeks to do the main things then I had to go back to work and do my day job in the daytime and go to the studio every night [and on] weekends.  It took about three months in total so it was a big chunk of my life but it was amazing.  My lifetime ambition fulfilled.  So even if no one likes it, no one buys it I have made my album…

SSF: You’ll have at least one sale

TG: Thank you

SSF: What kind of sound have you gone for; more acoustic or more indie/pop?

TG: Well I’m not very good at making up my mind.  I’m not a very good decision maker, so I’ve tried to incorporate all the different sounds that I like.  There are some acoustic tracks, there are some punky tracks, some electro tracks.  There are some really gentle 60s pop songs.  There are some tracks that are really sparse, just vocals and strings.  And some that have got every single instrument you could possibly think of.

SSF: So you’re appealing to a mass audience

TG: Well I’m the kind of person that likes so many things that I wanted to try and bring it all together in one album.

SSF: So how did you find recording the album and mixing it with the day job as well?

TG: It’s hard but I kind of liked having secret double life; like Peter Parker or Clark Kent.  I’m not saying that my music makes me a superhero in any way.  Just having the two separate lives is quite good.

SSF: I was actually going to ask is your music going to save the world…

TG: It’s not gonna save the world unfortunately.  I love music but I don’t think it’s powerful enough to change many things. It can change people’s attitudes, but I don’t write that kind of song.  I write songs about things that everybody feels… unrequited love, conflict and sadness, melancholy.  It’s not really gonna change the world because it doesn’t try to.  It tries to relate to the world.

SSF:  When I saw you playing with Lucky Soul you introduced all your songs as being dark and evil…

TG: *starts laughing*

SSF: …depressing songs, however we did not get that feeling from the music.  Is that a place you go to when you write music?

TG: Exactly. I think as a person I am very upbeat, silly and I mess about; I don’t really take life very seriously.  [Therefore] if you push all the rest aside then you need an outlet for it and that’s what happens with my songs.  They’re all about melancholy things because I’m not the kind of person that  likes to talk about that kind of thing because I don’t want to bring people down or be a moaner.  So I get it out in my music instead of talking about it.

SSF: This really comes across in the hypocrite single… wow

TG: Man, she’s angry! (*laughing*)

SSF: Yeah, I agree. You were a bit angry (*also laughing*)… You’re latest single rivals, where did the idea come from?  When I first saw it I nearly fell of my chair laughing…

TG: One of my pet hates is bands that take themselves too seriously.  And I hate bands that make videos where they are just standing there playing their instruments, pouting and trying to look cool.  Being in a band doesn’t make you any cooler or any better than anybody else it just means you have different job.  I wanted to do something silly, so I went to the video director and said “I want to do something silly.  I don’t care what it is I want to do something that is stupid, that’s geeky and that’s fun.”  He’d got this friend who had the Sinclair C5 cars.  The whole idea was his but I went to him and said I wanted to do something silly.

SSF:  Well we like it.

TG: Thanks

SSF: Finally, if tomorrow a big record label, be it Sony or Universal came knocking at your door what do think you’d do?

TG: I would say “Thank you very much, but no thank you.”  I’m on an indie label and they let me do whatever I want to do… within reason, and nothing beats that.  You’re in music because you want to express a part of yourself and if you’re singed to a major label more often than not you have the pressure of trying to sell a certain amount of records so you have to conform to a certain sound or sound that gonna be more mainstream and I do not want to do that. 

SSF: So what’s next for you?

TG: Glastonbury next weekend, we have two shows on the Saturday (2pm and 8pm) and then we are going to be touring the album in August