wears the trousers magazine

words in edgeways with amelia fletcher

Brilliantly named music journalist Kitty Empire once wrote of Amelia Fletcher, “In a nicer parallel universe, [she] is the most influential artist of her day,” and anyone who knows of Amelia’s chameleonic career in indie music would have no inclination to disagree with such a flattering statement. From her very early days as a member of Talulah Gosh, Oxford’s finest exponent of the legendary Sarah Records-era twee pop, to her most recent incarnation in Tender Trap with partner Rob Pursey, the original bassist for Talulah Gosh and mainstay through her intervening bands Heavenly and Marine Research, Amelia remains a poignant lyrical observer of the world we live in and the relationships we prosper in or endure. As songs like ‘Applecore’ and ‘Ampersand’ from the most recent Tender Trap album 6 Billion People prove, she also remains a fantastic songwriter if, to use her own words, “spectacularly unfamous”.

We first interviewed Amelia back in 2006, when 6 Billion People was fresh out of the factory, and found her completely charming in every way. A hard working mum of two, she’s since been appointed Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading – a lofty post by anyone’s reckoning – but still finds time to spend with her first love, music. When Wears The Trousers found out that she was putting in an appearance at Ladyfest Manchester as a commentator on feminism and counterculture (read her speech here), we had to seize the opportunity to find out whether she was making a new album. She is! Great! Read on.

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So, you briefly touched on your visit to the first ever Ladyfest back in 2000 during the debate earlier. I was wondering if you could tell us some more about your experiences there. What was the atmosphere like? What kind of people did you meet? That sort of thing.

It was really great. It was in Olympia, Washington, and actually they had a history of having festivals in this place, that was not unlike this, called the Capitol Theater and other venues around the town because they used to have this thing called Yo-Yo A Go-Go quite regularly, and in fact my band had played Yo-Yo a couple of times before. So in a funny sort of way it didn’t seem that different because Olympia always had so many females involved in everything so it was just sort of a little bit along the spectrum. Nevertheless, because it was so linked with riot grrl, and I was so excited generally about riot grrl, it felt like a very exciting occasion. There were women-only gigs and there were just lots and lots of things going on that weren’t music, like workshops and things where they were teaching people how to play songs and play guitar and things like that. I think that was unique to Ladyfest – I think! – and that was really really good although I did walk into one of them…I probably shouldn’t really say this…but I walked into one which was in an arts space that my friend of mine had art showing at. So I walked upstairs into this arts space to see the art and there were all these women sitting around in a circle and when I got there they said, “Come, come on over, don’t be shy,” so I thought, okay, and I went and sat in this circle and they said, “Okay, we’ll carry on,” and they were going around the circle talking about their experiences of being abused as a child.

Oh no…

Yeah! And I thought, I don’t have anything to say but if I leave now it’ll look like I do have something to say and am just too embarrassed to say it. What do I do? So that was really a kind of excruciating moment [laughs], but apart from that it was really great. There were great bands, really nice bands, and I knew a lot of people in Olympia so I felt really at home. We weren’t actually playing, I just went over as a holiday because I was just so excited about it and wanted to see it. I remember one of the performers saying, “We’ve got to forget all this stuff about women and men, we’ve got to talk about all of the genders” – someone asked a similar question today – and I remember thinking, being really British, there are only two! Obviously since then I’ve understood a bit more what they were talking about [laughs].

That must have been a bit of an eye opener.

It was. But there were some great things…I’m pretty sure it was at Ladyfest that Rose Melberg from Tiger Trap actually decided to perform with her mum and they did these fantastic country songs, her and her mum singing together. It was the kind of event where people just tried new things that they’d never done before, and that was really lovely and amazing. I think it was at Ladyfest rather than Yo-Yo where Miranda July…do you know her?

Oh yes, I love her stuff.

Before she did films and wrote books she was a performance artist, through film, and at the Capitol Theater they had this amazing screen and she did a performance of her stuff. And at that point she was so young! Oh wait, the first Ladyfest was only 8 years ago, so maybe I’m telling you complete rubbish and it was at Yo-Yo, but she seemed really young. She must have been 19 or something and she’d done all these films and they were amazing. She just seemed amazing. At that point she was going out with Calvin Johnson [founder of K Records] but that didn’t last that long. So yeah, I think that’s about all I can remember. Actually, Har Mar Superstar was there. It was the first time I’d ever come across him, and he was playing in the car park because he wasn’t allowed to play in any of the venues because he was a man. He had quite a lot of people with him.

Did he get down to his underpants back then?

Hmm. Clothes did come off, but I can’t remember where it went from and to [laughs].

And have you been involved with any other Ladyfests since?

As an act? Yeah. We played in the London one, I think as Marine Research actually, and we played another one.

Was that the London Ladyfest in 2002?

Oh wait, I’m really confused. What I don’t understand is how I managed to play at Ladyfest as Marine Research in 2002 when we split up in 2000, so maybe I didn’t! [laughs] Maybe I’m lying! It must have been as Tender Trap then. Anyway, someone played. I played. If I’ve remembered it rightly, it was great! [laughs] It’s amazing how successful Ladyfest has been. I’m incredibly pleased about it. I mean these two big, obviously linked, things that came out of Olympia, riot grrl and Ladyfest, but actually riot grrl…people know what it means and it was really brilliant but it kind of had its sell-by date and people these days don’t say, hey, I’m riot grrl, but Ladyfest is just going from strength to strength. I should have said this earlier. I just had this vague thought emerging that institutional structures are more long living than any individual. If you kind of create a structure – well, it’s not exactly an institutional structure – a cultural structure, that can actually last.

I think of it a bit like a cultural franchise, that’s what I love about it.

It is a kind of franchise, a completely free franchise that no one’s controlling at all! Anyone can do a Ladyfest. They can make it about whatever they want. Maybe a Ladyfest at London Zoo, and they can make it all about female animals [laughs]. Not sure if that’s a good idea.

I like it. I’d go.

[laughs] I’m sure there are feminist issues in other animals.

So, I got this retrospective of Fortuna POP! in the mail in honour of their 15th anniversary and I wondered if you were doing anything to celebrate?

Ah, well. That’s interesting because I didn’t know that was why the retrospective came out. I know I too got a copy in the mail and thought, ooh, what’s this about? [laughs] But yeah, I think that Fortuna POP! are going to do something next Spring, like a big Fortuna POP! event. We were basically asked very early on, with not much hope, whether we would play, because we haven’t played for a few years, and we basically said yes. So we’ve now got to find a band again because we’ve decided not to use drum machines anymore. We’ve actually just found a drummer. We’ve never seen her drum and she hasn’t actually drummed for about 10 years [laughs], but we’ve told her we need a stand-up drummer because we’ve decided that stand-up drummers are it. She’s been in other bands and played other instruments. Her name’s Katrina Dixon, she was in Police Cat years and years ago when I first met her and she’s recently been in a band called Garden City Project who are a slightly indie folk band in London. In fact, when I emailed her I wrote “I know you’re a bit more into indie folk these days…” and she replied and said, “Actually, I’m still into female bands.” Our first quiet listen through to the songs, drink wine and play Scrabble type of thing is on Tuesday so we’ll see how it goes.

But you’re definitely working on a new Tender Trap album?

We’re not even sure if it’s going to be called Tender Trap. It might not be, but it probably should be because we keep changing our name and people get lost. But what we’ve said is going to be our inspiration this time, and so far it seems to be broadly in the right place, is…did you ever hear a song by The Shop Assistants called ‘Train From Kansas City’? It’s a cover of the [Jeffy Barry/Ellie Greenwich] pop song and it’s all fuzzy guitars.

I haven’t heard that version, no.

It’s just a great pop song and with a stand-up drummer. So that’s what we’ve taken our inspiration from this time. It’s been a big enough distance since the last album. I think the last album was [pauses briefly] not one of the best things we’ve ever done. I think there are some nice songs on there but I want to get back to the music we love. And actually what’s quite nice is that I think that because for a long time we thought we might get success – since Talulah Gosh we’ve kind of had an eye on it – and then the last album was actually a bit mainstream sounding, and okay, but I’ve been kind of thinking well, actually, we’re never going to get famous at this point [laughs]. So why don’t we just do exactly the music we like, exactly, to the letter. Then we can do whatever we want and we don’t actually care if the audience doesn’t come, so hopefully we’ll like it at least! [laughs]

Wouldn’t it be funny if it was your most successful album?

Yeah, probably! [laughs] It would be pretty absurd.

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Alan Pedder and Chris Catchpole

Heavenly, ‘Trophy Girlfriend’