Hausfrauen Experiment Interview

Still taken from Russ Meyer's 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’, 1965.

As ‘The End Of The World’ vinyl LP bakes in the oven, so to speak, I had a little chat with

Alan Trench, who is one ingredient in the recipe that is HAUSFRAUEN EXPERIMENT, along

with Lisa, Tracy, Steve and Vyolette. We’ve known one another for a while, so it was more side-by-side on a scatter-cushioned sofa, than a grilling over an expanse of highly polished wood.

This is sort of what was uttered:

How did Hausfrauen Experiment come about, and how did you get involved?

The whole thing started with me and Steve - Mr Muscle & Mr Sheen. Steve had been in The Beloved, and shared a place in the Grove in Camberwell with Terry Bickers & Mixmaster Morris, the latter of whom was from the village in Lincolnshire I lived in.

I had founded a record label while being shop manager for a collector's record and

memorabilia emporium in London's West End, and we later worked out we must have been in the same room hundreds of times before we eventually met in the bowels of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

We started playing music together the same day we met - experimental stuff supporting the

likes of Ozric Tentacles, residencies under the aegis of Richard Coles at St Botolph’s, live

soundtracks to the Swedish classic Haxan; all kinds of fun stuff. This was in the days of MySpace, so we were uploading various things there.

I miss the old MySpace. Nothing has really replaced it. It was great for discovering new music and making contact with musicians.

It was. And through it, we soon hooked up with a lady known only as Lisa. Lisa knew a lot of

the same people as Steve, Tracy and myself. Lisa had been married to Phillip from Oui Three; so historically we all knew pretty much the same people, and had the same interests and tastes. So, Lisa came over to meet with us to do an album based on the poetry of Francis Thompson. Now, Lisa was all over MySpace at that time, so she brought many with her, as it were. One of those was Vyolette, also known as DarkLily (Check out her stuff - Illusia is great!)...

So, there were five likeminded peoples in the same place at the same time, and we were

talking of Ye Olden Dayes Inne Musicke, and how cool it would be if THAT were as NOW.  Lisa genuinely sighed and said that, well, all well and good, but we were all hausfraus now (Lisa is Swiss)... and that just chimed with Steve & I.

How did you go about choosing which songs to cover? And how to go about covering them?

We had a bunch of old analogue kit, so, we decided that not only would it be cool to record a bunch of tunes we thought hausfraus would do hauswerk to, but that we should use only old analogue instruments. It started as only Moog, but that was too limiting. We also agreed that we should only reinterpret cool songs that we all loved.

‘Solid Baby’ (Steve is a huge T Rex fan) was the first one we tried out, and we fucking loved

the result, so onward we went - just for a laugh, really. But also we wanted to do justice to these great songs we'd picked out together... ‘The Chauffeur’ was a Tracy suggestion, as an old Durannie; Silver Apples was me; ‘The Model’ was Lisa (who also gave me the records we

sampled).

We each made a list of possibles, and within each Frau's list there was one which they

absolutely coveted. I had never, f'rinstance, heard 'The Chauffeur', but Tracy was most insistent, and when I DID hear it, I knew it would work.

As soon as we heard a title, we all knew it was right. So, we were now all Hausfraus, and this

was our Experiment!

We never fell out or anything, and have always remained in contact, but the five of us are now very widely scattered across time zones. Plus, we are all incredibly busy with that old life thing as well as our own projects. But all of us are extremely chuffed about this album coming out.

The album doesn’t sound like anything else. Art Of Noise or Flying Lizards is about as close as anyone can get as a reference point. But even that’s not quite right. For something that ought to sound contrived, it doesn’t. Any thoughts as to why?

I guess the Flying Lizards comparisons are down to Lisa's spoken word stuff. If I wanted to be pretentious, which I generally do, I'd call it 'sprechgesang', and she is very distinctive - but she isn't generally the lead vocal. The combination of her with Tracy & Vyolette's harmony vocals, though, I'd say was pretty unique. Certainly I can't think offhand of anyone else who has had that sort of vocal combination!

We did have lots of rules, so there's certainly contrivance there... but they were all about the

cut-off point for songs - no modern rubbish here! - & the instrumentation. Steve and I, being

vintage models ourselves, had some pretty old and distinctive guitars & synths, and we didn't want to use anything else - no live drums or percussion, so everything but the guitars, bass & lead instruments is all old-fashioned sequencing - rigid stuff. We pushed up against and beyond those limits pretty hard with the vocals, which is what gives everything life and bounce. 

Thing is, everyone had their own suggestions for songs to cover... but also every individual suggestion was met with unanimous approval, and we just thoroughly enjoyed everything. I think that joy, and that humour, comes through in every song. But we were also doing it

seriously. I mean, it was fun, but it wasn't a joke.

I absolutely agree on the ‘humour but not a joke’ comment. It does put a smile on the old visage at times. We’ve known one another for many years, and I heard most of this material fifteen years ago. But now feels like the right time for it. It’s almost as if the world caught up. Again, any thoughts on why?

I think that's about right! Over the intervening - crikey, fifteen years! - I've heard various

approaches that are sort of knowingly retro, using old synths and suchlike, that reminded me of Hausfrauen.

And then there are bands that remind me a bit of the vocal approach, like say Wet Leg. So I

think there's quite a lot of current stuff which explores different aspects of the Hausfrauen - not consciously, of course, and it now sounds like we are a synthesis of all these disparate modern elements. Rather than the true originals what we are (koff koff).

There’s a definite sense of the whole here being greater than the sum of its parts. So, you decide as a collective which songs to cover. How were the parts then arranged and mixed?

Ahh, technical stuff!

We didn't initially stray too far from the originals' verse/chorus structure when working the

song up. Then the first vocal we always worked with was Lisa's, and that invariably suggested

some arrangement change.

So, we had a basic structure, and Tracy & Vyolette would then independently come up with

their parts. Once we heard those, everything changed again - not as to the basic arrangement, but as to the focus. Everything apart from the vocals at this point was pretty rigidly sequenced, then Steve and I would add bass & guitar to underline parts. But it all really took shape in the mix; focus changes, parts abandoned, last second overdubs, and finally, everything always turned out to need an edit for length before the final mixdown. I did all this last part quickly but intensively, so the final uniformity of sound is down to old cloth ears here.

The only track which was slightly different was 'Baby's On Fire', as my old chum Greg dropped by the studio, and asked if he could add a synth solo; so that one was extended rather than shortened. And a lot of people seem to really like that one...

We’ve discussed the songs that were lost… What were they? (Grimaces and braces

himself, but then considers it would have to have been a double album!)

There was definitely Roxy's 'Do The Strand', Iggy's 'Night Clubbing', the Everly Brothers' 'Price Of Love', and Japan's 'Quiet Life'. We had planned to do XTC's 'Statue Of Liberty' & 'Life Begins At The Hop', but hadn't started. There was enough of 'Dream Baby Dream' by Suicide, that I was able to partially resurrect it. The others, though, had gone beyond.

Tragic! Could the Hausfrauen ever slip off their aprons and marigolds, un-net their hair, and record again?

We never fell out or anything, and have always remained in contact, but the five of us are now very widely scattered across time zones. Plus, we are all incredibly busy with that old life thing as well as our own projects. But all of us are extremely chuffed about this album coming out.

And despite not being in the same room - there's no real substitute for that - we did all record some stuff for ‘New Age Dream' - so it's a definite 'Who Knows?'

Thank you, Alan. And it’s a pleasure to be finally releasing the album on Bracken

Records. It’s been a long time coming. But, as we discussed - now is the right time.