Intervista a Twee As Fuck

Quando le Frigo Girls partirono per Londra, rimasero fulminate da uno dei djset più belli delle loro ventenni vite, quello dei ragazzi di Twee As Fuck.
Ci venne voglia di andare lì e limonarli tutti, ma alla fine decidemmo di intervistarli.

Così ecco che Pavla ha risposto alle nostre domande...(tutti voi djs-wannabe, prendete appunti!)

Enjoy!


First of all: tell us something about the whole project. How did you start? How did you guys meet?

Twee as Fuck started in the summer of 2007. Rory, Elaine and I (Pavla) hung out at another club and we thought it'd be fun to start our own and we were all increasingly obsessed with various aspects of tweepop. What started off as a little hobby took on a life of its own and and we've been having lots of fun running Twee as Fuck and taking it all sorts of new places ever since. There are three of us: Pavla (26), Elaine (26) and Rory (33). Elaine and Pavla met at university, then Rory and Pavla met at a pub in London one day, and he was instrumental in telling her lots of interesting facts about indiepop she had no idea about. Rory and Elaine met through Pavla..

Was it easy to set up an indiepop night in London?

It was surprisingly easy, but mainly it was loads of fun and quite an adventure. We just looked at lots of venues and begged our favourite one (Buffalo Bar) to give us a chance. They gave us a trial Friday night and we took it from there.

Is there a big "indiepop audience" coming to your nights?

There seems to be a lot more now and a lot more than you might realise. Thanks to the internet indiepop fans become friends even if they live on different continents and it's great to meet new people and bond over mutual love of early Pastels 7"s and grandad cardigans.

Your fanzine is so nice! Why did you decide to start writing it? Do you guys make it all by yourself?

I have always wanted to make a fanzine, so as soon as it seemed feasible to have a Twee as Fuck one I jumped at the chance! It was a natural progression really, because all the bands we were putting on and all the other indiepop legends we loved were so interesting to us that it was the most natural thing in the world to interview them and put that together in a little DIY fanzine.
I edit it, with Rory and Elaine contributing. All of us write for it - Rory always does the indiepop crossword and I take most of the photos and we also have guest contributors from all over the world. Currently, the fanzine is distributed in London at Rough Trade and Tatty Devine, and in music shops in Tokyo and Melbourne too! We are hoping to distribute elsewhere, and the zine is always available for free online, and we also give away 50 copies at Twee as Fuck.

What's your favourite song to play during your dj-sets at the moment?

At the moment I am obsessed with playing Belle & Sebastian's Lazy Line Painter Jane a little pitched up with everyone dancing. Also, Candyskin by Fire Engines, and Crystal Stilts and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. I have also really fallen in love with Northern Soul records and 60s girl group tracks. Some of my favourite ones are Shing-A-Ling by The Cooperettes and Right Now Not Later by The Shangri-Las. Rory loves to play Meat Whiplash, Bubblegum Splash and Black Tambourine. Elaine loves her post-punk and riot grrrl as well as early Scottish indiepop.

Which song makes people instantly wanna dance?

It depends at what point in the night it is, but Deceptacon by Le Tigre is always a hit, and everyone always dances to Northern Soul. Rory loves to play Sparky's Dream by Teenage Fanclub, Bringing Up Baby by Talulah Gosh and The Shirelles and Ike & Tina.

What's the funniest or weirdest thing happened during a Twee as Fuck night?

On the very first Twee as Fuck night, we were completely clueless and didn't know we couldn't play CD-Rs and neither did our guest DJs, so we really struggled for records to play! Also, we once did a one-off night at The Old Blue Last which we were very excited about, because some of our very favourite bands were playing - Comet Gain, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Liechtenstein. The venue even went into trouble to get us a later licence (until 3am), so we were up for having a lot of fun. However, due to some miscommunication between the venue booker and the venue manager on the night, they switched off the sound and lights at midinight and we had to stop the night! Luckily we decided to make it a free night, otherwise we imagine some people could have been very angry!

Which band you dream to see on the twee as fuck stage?

Oh lots! Our ultimate dream would be any of the following: Camera Obscura, The Vaselines, Stereolab, The Raincoats, The Pastels and Young Marble Giants. We've also had our dreams come true when Comet Gain played for us and when Stephen Pastel Djed.

How come you also released a Comet Gain record?

We heard the song on the What's Your Rupture myspace and fell in love with it instantly. We met Kevin who runs What's Your Rupture when we did Twee as Fuck in New York and found out it wasn't slated for a UK release so asked if we could put it out! Thanks to Kevin's generosity and support we managed to put it out at as a debut Twee as Fuck just three months later.

Are you planning to bring Twee as Fuck outside U.K., somehow?

Yes, definitely. We already did a night in New York, which was the most fun thing ever, and we're doing it again this June. We also put on a night in Glasgow which was really lovely and plan to repeat that and we would love to do something in Sweden too!

Favourite bands at the moment!

We're going through a real love affair with American tweepop bands at the moment: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Cause Co-Motion, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and Cuddles Kavinsky and also Je Suis Animal, Love Is All, Liechtenstein, Bonne Idee, Betty & The Werewolves.

What's the best concert you've attended lately?

We were really amazed at the Je Suis Animal performance at Bardens Boudoir in London recently - they really blew us away. It was almost Electrelane-level epic! And we also loved The Liechtenstein at the London Popfest and Peter Parker up in Glasgow.

> Twee as Fuck - myspace
> Twee as Fuck - scarica la fanzine
> Tullycraft -Twee live @ NYC Popfest