When the band was starting, they were a two piece. And I guess they found it easy: you could get one hotel room, two flights. A band like that is very cheap to do. But then again, you're doing small stages, and you're having a limited sound. By the third album, the sounds matured, and the stage shows developed, the influences had gotten bigger. Two people can't run it anymore, because there isn't a manger, there isn't anyone telling us what to do. And it was good for me to come in at the time, because I have a similar love for the music and the art and the lifestyle that goes with what the band is about. I guess I just brought in some ideas and helped develop the stage sound with more bass, rhythm section, haircuts, lights. You know, all the things that really matter [laughter]. It's just an added kind of dimension. If I got a new boyfriend, I'd always watch all their films, and listen to their music. It's the same kind of thing. Just bringing in some kind of new thing, it just keeps it fresh.
I completely agree, because from what I saw tonight, your kind of bass playing is not just like a rhythm instrument. You're playing your bass pretty much like one would play guitar.
Yeah, I was a guitar player, but I was really lazy. I didn't like to play lead. I just liked rhythms and stuff, so what I would is do harmonies and rhythm. Because all the bass lines are already there on the keyboard, and you can't really add anything to this, so I'd just pick out bits of the lower bass or add a different dimension. Give it more drive. Just take that song, "Where's the rock and roll gone", there is no bass. It's just the keyboard line, so I would go all out and do metal riffs, which is really fun.But other songs like "Pornography", they've got bass. It's still kind of keyboard riff, but I play it exactly the same, because it works. If you go through all the songs, you can pull out different elements before its being programmed up by Kate. She wrote most of the melodies before I joined. And they had done two albums already. I had to work with what was there. Its kind of like sitting in and then making the live sound.
So you are Client C then?
No, Client C is in Hamburg. Her name is Corinna. She isn't with us today, but she was for a few days. She helps with t-shirt designs, the album artwork, graphics, layouts, web design. Or, if you have an idea and you're sitting let's say somewhere in the middle of the world, and you don't have your computer and no internet access, you'll still just know there is another person who can do it. She is the glue that keeps everything together. She is the backbone. She updates Myspace, I run the Client Club Nights, and do the emailing for that. Kate does all the booking and coordination, and talking to distributors and record people. So during the day, she always gets phone calls Germany, Italy, Greece, Scandinavia. And then when she is in bed, she gets phone calls from people from USA, Mexico, South America, China. So she doesn't sleep. I'm Client E. My name is Emily. It just seemed natural. Client F for Andy Fletcher. Client X for Scott, who was the guitarist before we had Günther. Günther is from Vienna actually.
Really? I didn't know that. How did you hook up with anyway?
We were on Mute, and so were Fad Gadget. They'd got together again to go on tour with Depeche Mode. Not a lot of people know this, but Depeche Mode were actually influenced by Fad Gadget back in the day, but Depeche Mode took the more commercial route, and Frank Tovey kept his avantgardde performace art route and never made it to stadiums - pretty much what happens to people that stick to their independent principles. So when he died, his family got a DVD together with a lot of music videos, interview footage, live sets. Günther was playing guitar with him on the last ever tour that he did, supporting Depeche Mode. We met him at the showing of the film, and we were kinda taken by him, and that he supported and continued the Mute tradition of the experimental electronic dark wave kinda thing. It was good to keep it in the family, and he appreciated the music that we do. We appreciate his style of playing, because he knows what we are about, so it's perfect.
Speaking about record labels, how come you have these t-shirts with "Go DIY, lose EMI"? What happened?
What happened is that the music industry, from what I gather, is in a huge state of...
Being a whore?
Well, no... no one seems to be buying records anymore. The tradition of buying records is endangered, because nobody knows how to sell music anymore. A couple of years ago, when a band had an album out and people liked the band, they would buy it. But with the new media formats of the internet, like filesharing and download platforms, people are not buying hard physical copies, which is a shame I think. The concept would be so simple... people understood going to a record store: CD? Vinyl? Catch! So when things completely change for the consumers, we as artists and producers have to change the way we think about distributing music, even making music. People haven't got a clue anymore what to do, because theyre not in control anymore. Bands can take control by letting people listen to their music, or in some cases download it for free. This is the way to get noticed: let people know what your music sounds like.
It's pretty much the same thing as going to a record store ten or fifteen years ago and listening to a stack of brandnew records.
Yes, only now you don't have to leave the house. But MP3s are so compressed that the quality isn't all that good, compared to say CDs or vinyl. So I guess it's kind of gone backwards in a way. The whole issue of artwork, packaging, the beauty of vinyl, it's being lost. With our "Zerox Machine" fortyfive... it's white vinyl, we made sure that all the packaging had the whole handmade look, we paid special attention to what we did, and kept it really simple. All the record companies are losing their income, because they are not moving with the times. They are marketing everything as something you have to have, so they are losing lots and lots and lots of money on all these different hyped people and bands - but the interest isn't there. People are not buying into their marketing anymore. They are not paying attention to record comapnies that spend millions of pounds on marketing telling people to listen to this, so [the record companies] are not getting it back in the sales, and the artists get completely dropped. Record companies invest too much money in the first album, so artists dont have development time, they can't build a fanbase, and they don't have any longevity. EMI bought Mute, and they kept Depeche Mode because they make them money. Being on Mute means that you are technically on EMI,. and all they are is a major. I have heard "fuck the majors" from so many people, and for good reason actually: because majors are not interested in their artists, they are interested in making money. They are not into music, they just look at figures. And sure, it's the music BUSINESS, but it's also creative enterprise, and you can't just look at the business side in a non creative way. You've got to think of profit to be able to support yourself. No matter how romantic it may sound, a lot people when they are younger are like, "I want to be an artists, I want to be a singer, a musician." You can suffer for your art, or you try to take control yourself. We are just three girls, and they don't get the music. We don't run around in tight short skirts.
But you do.
It's not in a way the majors can understand.
For whatever reason, I have the impression that you try to stay under the public radar.
Well, I would say it's longevity as well. Music comes with a very short shelf life. The turnover is just ridiculous, especially with the British press - it's all fashion to them. Everybody can be the next big. You can blow up, and then next week you wouldn't even be able to get a gig or play shows. People have their opinion on you: "Oh, Client? Aren't they such and such and such?" I think it's more clever to let people find out about you through word of mouth. DIY! We're not, "Like us, we play catchy pop songs and we dress sharp." The music that I was drawn to, it felt like you were part of something, or as you said under the radar. I loved the Manic Street Preachers, I loved Placebo. I think the word now is "emo", but back then it was mod gothic electronic stuff.
Is there any certain band that you can recall that made you pick up an instrument?
Don't laugh, but it might have been Green Day. There are worse artists, though. I loved Pearl Jam, that track "Sometimes" is so beautiful. It makes me cry still. Jeff Buckley... uhm, things escape me. Pink Floyd was a huge influence... I was big hippie, you know. [laughter] I just like really emotional soulful music, but from any genre. You can find it in jazz, you can find it rock'n'roll, blues, soul, even hip hop. I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, but it's playing in the studio I work in. Some of the lyrics are absolutely phenomenally genius, and so is the production! I literally dissect it in the studio, because some of the beats and the rhythms are ridiculously good. Electronic music was born out of r'n'b in way, like the beats and the grooves were taken by Afrika Bambataa who added more beats and grooves. I found electronic music in london to a lot more of a black influence, like M.I.A. or this small local band Shy Child - they have this rhythm and it's really filthy, and can they play an indie club, rock club, r'n'b club. I am always really excited about hearing new things that grow naturally. But electro, you can press a button a synthesizer and you are god.
Speaking of which, Client as a band or collective have evolved from an anonymous unit to like real people...
It started anonymous, so that people would just listen to the music. It was putting the music first; the style of anonymity. You have the style and the substance going hand in hand. Even though you weren't flaunting it, you still had an image.
When you joined Client, did you ever find it hard to live up to image?
Well, we are Client. See, I would like to put it like this: when you are working and when you are behind your computer, you can have all these sexual fantasies, or think of something else, or just think about what you'd rather be doing. So you have all these thoughts in your head, and when you're going home, you change into another outfit, and you become this whole different person. We, as Client, are faceless. We wear uniforms. We could be anyone. We wear office skirts, a shirt, and tie. This is an office outfit, because it's like going to an office, going to work. It's not just us three, anyone that has this kind of feeling or yearning of an unfulfilled life, can be basically be Client. Personally, I never wanted to be just another kid in school. All the other school had certain ideals and their whole lives plotted out in front of them, and I just felt I didn't belong there at all. To me, that's why the album is called Heartland, because it's all about this certain longing to be accepted in life. Everybody has that, whether or not they admit it.
Is that a Sisters of Mercy reference, by the way?
Yes! I think the whole album was very much influenced by the Sisters of Mercy. It's the kind of emotion that I felt myself as a teenage girl sitting in my bedroom. It sounds kind of stupid now, because I have met so many teenage girls who have said the very same thing about Client to me. Especially Sarah has gone through a lot between the second and third album, and she's used to pour out a lot of angst - so to all of us, it's quite a release to go on stage and just yell out, and this is what makes our music so emotional in my eyes.
o, sitting here with you as the "new member" of the band, there is no spokesperson for Client, right?
Sometimes Kate doesn't like talking, because if she talks to much, her throat hurts. After she has been singing, she can't talk anyway. [laughter]
Client still rock my pants wet. They run their own record label, Loser Friendly Records. www.client-online.eu is their internet home.
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