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Delia Dansette: A-Lines, Schla La Las
Article written by
Ged M - Aug 17, 2004
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Indie girl-around-town Delia has long been a feature of the independent scene in London, including working at the Rough Trade Shop and being a member of the Action Time, Baby Birkin and Phantom Pregnancies among others, and dancing with the 60s troupe of Actionettes. Currently, you may see her playing bass with the garage-punk A-Lines or drumming with the shimmypop–exotica Schla La Las or working the door at the Artrocker Club. We interviewed her late on the second day of TruckFest in Oxfordshire on 25 July.
SXP: How many bands are you in?
Delia: Four, five…three definitely.
SXP: Do all of these exist?
Delia: The A-Lines definitely. The Schla La Las definitely. I’ve just joined Manic Cough so I haven’t played with them yet but I’m definitely going to, I reckon. Buckingham Palace, also known as Bunny and Hare, have a track on a compilation. Grayfriars Bobby have got songs in progress. Of course they exist!
SXP: Why so many bands?
Delia: Why not? If someone says “be in my band” I say “that’s really good of you to ask me – alright!” Quantity not quality, that’s what I say.
SXP: Is it important to leave a recording of each band?
Delia: It’s good to have records because when you’re broke you can take them down the Record and Tape Exchange and swap them for something good!
SXP: You’re in three all girl bands (A-Lines, Schla La Las, Manic Cough). Do you prefer that?
Delia: I’ve been in bands with boys before and they’re always the bitchiest bands. I don’t mind being in bands with boys. This question seems to come up a lot; most boys are in all-boy bands and they don’t get asked about that. It seems to be more noticeable if you’re a girl band.
SXP: Do people make assumptions about girl bands?
Delia: Yes and no. People seem to think of gender as a genre – if you’re in a girl band it’s going to sound a particular way. Of course it isn’t true because you’ve got girl bands that are punk, that are rock, that are everything that any boy band is. I was in a girl band and used to phone up to try to get gigs and they’d say “we’ve got a girl band playing this month, we don’t want another one.” A girl band ain't a type of band. It’s the sex of the people playing, not fucking what we sound like, you know?
SXP: Any ambitions for the A-Lines and Schla La Las?
Delia: I find it best not to [have ambitions] because you get frustrated. It’s better to enjoy what we’re got while we’ve got it and appreciate what’s there rather than hankering after the future.
SXP: Do you like the whole performance/dressing up side of things?
Delia: I love dressing up. It’s the best bit. I don’t see the point of being in a band, being on stage with people watching you, and not making the effort to look good. It’s not going to detract from the sound if you look good visually, is it? So you might as well take advantage of that.
SXP: Do you like being an Actionette?
Delia: I do like being an Actionette but I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t been able to be one very much. I keep meaning to do it and then get distracted by being in bands. I do miss dancing around in matching dresses. And they’re going to the Wild Weekend soon, which will be really cool. They’re dressing as nuns, a hockey team and mermaids so I’m a bit gutted that I’m too busy to do that. But I’m in another dance troupe as well that I’ve just joined. They’re doing Victorian music hall dance troupe stuff. I don’t even know if we’ve got a name actually. But we got outfits!
SXP: You curated a gig at the Tate Modern on art in the 60s. Did you enjoy that?
Delia: Yeah, that was brilliant. I was curating and organising stuff and timing things and DJing it and being in the band so I was like a spy in a bad 1960s spy movie, running up and down corridors half-dressed. I was really chuffed that so many people turned up to it, they all seemed to really like it.
SXP: Does this suggest that you were born in the wrong decade?
Delia: No, this one’s fine actually because I like computers, so it suits me. I think all decades have got their own thing, you just have to find what you want in each decade.
SXP: You said last week in your Artrocker column that there was little music made in the last 30-40 years that wasn’t done before. Do you believe that?
Delia: Well, tell me a band that’s doing something innovative and new. Because I can’t think of one offhand.
SXP: The Fiery Furnaces’ new album.
Delia: *affronted* That’s not new. It’s perfectly nice but there’s nothing fucking innovative. They’re not playing any instruments that have never been played before, not playing notes or tunes that you couldn’t find on a million other albums. It’s perfectly listenable, perfectly nice.
SXP: So does that mean you don’t listen to modern music?
Delia: Nor really. I do listen to some modern singles but the albums I listen to are generally 30, 40, 50 years old. They haven’t had to try and hide the tune by pretending they’ve written it themselves and burying it in some other product.
SXP: In your column, you always seem to be buying MOR stuff.
Delia: What’s MOR? The classics? Do you mean Driver 67?
SXP: Is Driver 67 a classic record?
Delia: Fuck, yeah!
SXP: So does that leave the music industry with a future if they’re cannibalising old songs?
Delia: Not really - it’s all regurgitating. It’s the same with films: they’re remaking classic films with actresses who just look like classic retro actresses. And they’re remaking TV shows. They’re fucking on Star Trek whatever series. Just remaking everything! I can’t think of many things that I could say: well, that’s a new idea.
Friend of Delia: Eastenders?
Delia: No! That’s just fucking Peyton Place which was around in the 60s.
Friend of Delia: No one else has made music like Radiohead, whether you like them or not.
Delia: I don’t. They’re shit. No one else has made music like them? They fucking have. I wish they hadn’t! *cackles*
SXP: What modern things do you recommend?
Delia: Well, with modern bands, it’s all about performance now. Older bands from the 60s made excellent, amazing albums. I’ll tell you who I just saw: Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies. I’ve seen them before, didn’t enjoy them that much. I’ve just seen them just now and it was really good – it was like watching a whole movie, it was like being told a story in song. It was really good.
SXP: What gives you the greatest pleasure: making records, performing live, writing your weekly column for Artrocker?
Delia: Being on stage, being live with bright lights shining down, being warm, people paying attention and having a microphone I can talk into cos I’m a big showoff! I like attention, that’s all.
SXP: Thanks, Delia.
Delia: Sorry, do say I was drunk.
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