Chick's in horror: Alex Murray-Leslie
A while back Chicks on Speed's Alex Murray-Leslie stopped over in Thailand for a quick DJ gig with Dudesweet, our Thailand's Correspondent Graeme Peel was quick enough to grab her for a chat while freaking out...
SS: What does being in Chicks On Speed involve?
Alex: We sorta got thrown in the deep end, after that it was non-stop for eight years; touring, making records, touring, photoshoots, touring, interviews, touring, exhibitions… When we realised that we’d been neglecting our art, we started to do a lot more in museums, doing installations, doing a lot more with fashion… and we made a book.
Last year, Kiki left the band, and we got another two new members, who’d been working with us for a long time before anyway; Anat Ben David who’s from London and Kathi Glas, who actually made all our outfits from the beginning, and she’s now brought her sewing machine on stage. Now there are four Chicks on Speed.
SS: What are some of the musical influences for yourself and the band?
Alex: Very important for us were the B52’s, Talking Heads, Malaria, Delta Five, The Slits. Yoko Ono is definitely a huge influence on us, and a lot of visual artists as well, plus hundreds of women out there who have influenced us.
SS: What were you like when you were 16? Could you have imagined being here now, doing what you do?
Alex: Oh no! When I was 16 I really studied a lot, I was a bit of a nerd. Always stayed at home reading books and studying; I over studied. I think I was a little frustrated. I lived in the country-side, and wanted to get out and do something.
SS: Really? You strike me as a city girl.
Alex: Oh no. I was born in Barrel, it’s about two hours away from Sydney, and it’s a real country town. And now I live in Barcelona with my boyfriend.
SS: What do you think is the most important element of popular music? You have place a big emphasis on art in your music, but do you find that many people find art inaccessible?
Alex: Well, that’s actually why we went into music in the first place. We studied at art school to become fine artists, and we went away from that because we realised there is such an elitism that’s attached to art, and everything you did you did alone, there was no group dynamic there; you were never taught anything to do with the collective. So we left the art world initially to release 7” singles that we knew if we made 500 records, they’d be distributed all over the world; there’d be 500 people listening to them, whereas if you have an exhibition in a museum, you’re only attracting the people that live in that city.
So we kinda shunned the art world for about 5 years, and now we’ve gone back to it, because we realised that in the music world there are also restrictions. You have to be in a lot of different worlds at the same time if you want to realise your aspirations, because if you leave yourself in the music world, there you’ve got the restrictions of… like ok, you’re doing an hour concert, you’ve got one hour to set up, one hour on stage, and then you’re off. If you’re in a museum you have 10 days to prepare, you can do crazy backdrops and costumes and everything can be realised 'coz you have so much time to work on something and pull it through, and not walk away frustrated thinking about all the things you could have done to make it better.
SS: Are you a music snob?
Alex: Absolutely. I think the longer that you work in the music industry the more of a snob you get. In the beginning you start off really fresh-eared, and you can listen to anything; but now, if I walk in a club and there is this really bad minimal techno playing I have to leave. I can’t stand beat matching, or perfect DJing, it’s just so predictable and boring.
SS: Who are the Chicks On Speed hate club?
Alex: Oh my god! www.ihatechicksonspeed.com yeah? Well, we went on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and James Brown in 2005, and we played in front of 60,000 people, and the first few rows of young lads really couldn’t stand our music and hated the idea of three chicks up on stage singing 'We Don’t Play Guitars'. They started throwing bottles, and things got really out of hand. We didn’t know what to do; whether to shout at them, or throw things back. Anyway, the guys from the Peppers reminded us that we were there to do a job, so no matter how much we wanted to punch them we had to just keep playing. Some of them were actually throwing glass bottles and it was actually a really scary experience. It’s really uneducated and stupid. But yeah, they started the website, but I don’t think it gets much traffic these days.
SS: What do you think the future of music is?
Alex: I’m actually a big fan of this subject. I just read the book “The Future of Music” and I recommend it to everyone. It basically compares music to household utilities, like water or electricity, which you pay for monthly and can consume as little or as much as you like. So I’m a huge fan of downloading and sharing music. I think as long as it’s for private uses, you know, to enjoy on your own or with your friends, then I think it’s totally ok. We as a band completely encourage people to download our stuff and share it with you friends. I mean, these days we don’t make much money from record sales, so I think the best way is to get your music out there and get heard, and then the opportunities to play live will come. Times have changed, and artists have to diversify.
SS: And in terms of live music? How will this change?
Alex: I think that full audio visual experiences are the future. Angie Reed, on our label, does her own animations mixed with video feed of herself on stage, while playing her music and singing; but yeah the whole club scene is moving towards theatre type pieces. It’s a full experience and I love it.
SS: If you weren’t in Chicks On Speed, what would you be doing?
Alex: Well, there’d be two things. One, I’d be a gardener, getting my hands all dirty; or two, some sort of creative direction for catwalk shows, films, parties… I think that would be pretty cool.
Words: Graeme Peel
Photogrpahy: Kachain Wonglaemthong