Between Trapezes >> London Times Interview
In interview with Nick Kelly (no relation!), London Times, May 1997
"You can really feel insecure when you're with a record company and
trying to get your music on the radio", he says. "You worry about
things like whether you're fitting in with the zeitgeist and whether you're
attractive or interesting enough. If you're on a major label, they have
expectations of you and then it becomes quite hard to say I don't want to
do this or I don't want to do that. Making videos was the part of the job
that I had no interest in. If I was a cook, it would be like cleaning the
giblets out of the chicken". The Fat Lady Sings' record company, EastWest,
was as shocked as Kelly's band mates when he decided that the show must
not go on. Drunkard Logic, grazing the Top 50 of the UK singles chart, had
just registered as the band's biggest success. But the London-based label
must have been frustrated that the plaudits heaped on The Fat Lady Sings'
two albums Twist and Johnson, had not translated into cash sales. Nevertheless,
the band had built up a sizeable fan base in the UK and Ireland by the time
they split up, boasting a mailing list with an estimated 7000 addresses.
"To receive unsolicited letters from people who don't have to like
you but do is very touching, because artists in general are just as insecure
as they are arrogant", Kelly says. "Creativity is not born out
of confidence but insecurity; it's a question, not an answer. There's always
a part of you that's saying: Please like me, please justify my existence".
It was the loyalty of these admirers upon which Kelly drew when it came
to financing his first solo album Between Trapezes, which was released this
month. Loath as he was to cede artistic control of the project, Kelly by-passed
the usual route of record company funding and raised the necessary money
by writing to his fans and getting them to invest in its recording. In return
for sending the retail price of the album to Kelly by post, each was guaranteed
not just a copy of the CD on its completion but a mention on the sleeve
notes as well. In securing independent distribution for the album in the
UK, the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place. Appropriately Kelly named
his label, on which he is the sole artist, Self Possessed Records. Indeed,
an apposite title would be Do It Yourself - but the Seahorses have already
got that base covered. As it is, Between Trapezes is just as apt a name
for an album that deals with the emotional gymnastics of relationships.
From the bare-knuckled defiance of Crawl to the bare-hearted lament of Tiburon
Prayer, it is at its most poignant when documenting the bruises sustained
after the fall. "Everybody is waiting to fall in love", Kelly
declares. "We're all waiting to be bereaved or waiting to be saved
or to have some truth told to us. And so much of our life is just trudging
through anaesthetic. But every so often you have an aesthetic - a moment
of actual feeling. Even if I don't sell another record, it is worth it if
I can truly represent these moments in my music". An acoustically-driven
collection of mature, carefully crafted songs (including collaborations
with Boo Hewerdine), Between Trapezes features musicians hand-picked by
Kelly, including a string section, but it is unlikely that a steady group
will be formed. "I enjoy the freedom of not being in a band any more",
he explains, "because I've never been a very good politician. We all
tailor how we express ourselves to accommodate other people. Typically,
women are much better than men at saying 'This is what I want, and this
is why I want it, so therefore you must do it'. I find that harder to say"...”