“What’s the reference to this question?”
This isn’t the most auspicious answer one might expect, but Alison Goldfrapp isn’t taking any chances. In a recent interview with the Guardian, the acclaimed singer and songwriter (and recent co-recipient of an Ivor Novello Inspiration Award) twice left the interviewer twiddling their thumbs while she walked into another room to ask her manager for guidance on the best way to answer a question. Her manager is also on this Zoom call to a London-based office, and at one point Goldfrapp looks off-camera as if to either query or clarify something. There are no other interruptions, other than a series of pauses and a plethora of ‘ums’, ‘aawws’ and ‘hhmmms’. I say the question (in which I wondered, given she was aged 10 in 1976, if she was too young for punk, did it hit her at just the right time, or did it hit her at all?) is asked merely to get a handle on her formative music tastes. This seems to satisfy her. “There was a lot of different music going on around that time, a lot of disco, all sorts that I heard in my house and when I was out and about. There wasn’t one style of music in particular that I latched on to.”
As a teenager, she says, she was drawn to music that had very strong melodies. “Even in dance and disco music I heard as a kid, the songs I liked the most had very identifiable melodies. Also, I remember loving a lot of ‘60s music that had elaborate string arrangements, and I still listen to those. I specifically loved reggae and ska when I was a teenager in London, so they were also filtering through.” In her late teens, she performed throughout Europe as part of Dance Company Catherine Massin, and in her early 20s she studied fine art at Middlesex University. Live performance pieces soon morphed into appearing as guest vocalist for electronic music unit The Orb, and trip-hop pioneer Tricky. By the late 1990s, she had met composer/producer/musician Will Gregory, formed the duo Goldfrapp and signed to Mute Records. From their 2000 debut Felt Mountain to 2017′s Silver Eye, the duo achieved considerable success – much more than niche but less than full-on mainstream.
Now on what could be a permanent holiday, Goldfrapp (the duo) look set to be superseded by Goldfrapp (the solo artist). The idea for a solo album had long been in the back of her mind, she says, but collaborative work (“all-consuming”) with Gregory always took precedence. That and life in general, she implies, just got in the way. “Will is often doing other projects aside from Goldfrapp, but with me it was all Goldfrapp-related touring and writing. That said, it got to a point where I needed to step back and take a look at what I was doing, to try to do some other things and look at different ways of working. I had wanted to make a solo album for quite some time, to make something that was more focused on rhythm and dance.” Such opportunities arrived during the pandemic lockdowns, which afforded time to make a home studio and to work with different people.
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What ideas did she want to express, and that identified her as the primary creative person behind the music? “In terms of themes, I guess a lot of those would be what I’ve always been interested in, which are nature, love, desire, being human, and what that means. I’ve always played with those ideas, and I saw no reason why I should change that. In terms of production, I wanted to delve deeper into certain elements of how the vocals and the music would sound. Writing this album was an opportunity for me to do that.”
The Love Invention, says Goldfrapp, is a step up from previous work because of its intentional emphasis on “rhythms and obvious dance genres”. It is, I suggest, much more fun than her work with Gregory. I’m expecting a walkout and a word with her manager, but instead, she says, “I’m glad you said that – that’s great, because it’s meant to be fun.”
The album shows quite a different side to her, I suggest – a bit more risk-taking, a bit more experimenting. She says nothing, just nods. It ties in with her maturity as an artist, I continue, in a similar way that recent and new work by women in their 50s and 60s also does. She still says nothing, and nods even slower, as if waiting for a question that will either make her carry on talking or click ‘Leave Meeting’. I mention superb new and invigorating music by the likes of Gina Birch (ex-The Raincoats) and Tracey Thorn (solo and with the newly reinstated Everything But the Girl), the ongoing, virtually radical presence of Madonna, and ask her for her thoughts on this topic. Goldfrapp, who is 57 next week (May 13th), stays put.
“It’s odd how we think of age sometimes,” she says. “I have a lot of admiration for Madonna in what she does, and I really like that she’s very particular about the kind of things she pursues. It’s controversial, but then she has always been, hasn’t she? Artists can’t help what they do, can they?” I take a leaf out of Goldfrapp’s book by saying nothing and just nodding. “Maybe there are times when we like to think we have to complete things by a certain age, but I don’t think life works like that. You have to keep doing what you love doing, what comes naturally, and what makes you excited about life, irrespective of your age or whatever life throws at you. And that’s irrespective of what gender you are.”
Historically, she says, society has “never really questioned men in their 50s or 60s or 70s who are making music, but we do when women are doing it. That is a subject I feel that I’d like to think about more so that I could answer it.” Taking her own advice, Goldfrapp pauses to gather her thoughts. “That said, it’s a fascinating topic; I saw Madonna standing up at an event where she talked about how she pissed people off just by being there and continuing what she was doing. I thought that was brave of her to say and also quite true.
[ Madonna: ‘Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny’Opens in new window ]
“Whether or not you do music, or whatever you pursue, there is this thing that happens – and I’ve done this myself – that when you’re younger you look at someone decades older than you, and you think, what the f**k are they doing, why are they doing that, and how come they’re still doing that? But then, of course, you get older, don’t you, and you realise that creating, living, doesn’t stop, that you keep doing what you love. And that isn’t forgetting about the knowledge, experience, and zest for life you accrue as the years pass. They don’t stop. In fact, personally, I’d say I’ve gained much more.”
For the final few minutes, we circle back to Goldfrapp’s years as an art student. Is it true that her graduation piece was a performance art set-up of milking a cow as she yodelled? A nod confirms it.
“It goes back to a theme that connects everything I’ve created,” she explains, “which is this idea about nature, how we exist in nature and our relationship with it. The piece was inspired by the idyllic narratives we have about the countryside, so it came from romantic television programmes that I watched as a kid and children’s stories that I read. The beautiful cow was presented on green pastureland in a Swiss landscape, but also with this Dystopian idea of science and technology, which was represented by attaching microphones to it. It was a slightly surreal, sci-fi-ish piece in which I milked the cow as I yodelled through all the technology.”
Are there any connecting threads from then to now? “Yeah – utopia, supernature, all the themes I have played with throughout my life, and that I’m still working with. The Love Invention continues that, and it is not, by the way, the only solo album from me. The idea is to do more, for sure.”
Alison Goldfrapp’s debut solo album, The Love Invention, is released on Friday, May 12th. She performs at Body & Soul festival, Ballinlough Castle Estate, Co Westmeath, June 16th-18th.
