Remember the mid-’90s heyday of Brit rock? Most of those bands are all but forgotten in the rush to crown the latest thing out of Sweden, but alt-pop fans and music scribes alike still mourn the late, great Lush. One of the forerunners of the “shoegazer” scene, their sound was marked by the swirling, hypnotic guitar of Emma Anderson. So those without a taste for the Hives might be happy to know that Anderson is back. Looking for a new musical partner after Lush broke up in 1996, Anderson met singer Lisa O’Neill at their former boyfriends’ London flat, and the two formed electro-pop band Sing-Sing.
“First and foremost, she has a great voice, and she’s very musical,” Anderson says of O’Neill. “She couldn’t play an instrument, but she’s just got a brilliant ear for harmonies and melody and stuff. We got on very well. She’s not been in the music industry before, and even now, she looks at things from a slightly different perspective, which is quite refreshing.”
Sing-Sing’s debut album, The Joy of Sing-Sing, has just been released on these shores, and it’s been a long, strange trip for it to get here. The duo’s first single, “Feels Like Summer,” came out in the UK in 1998 on the Cocteau Twins’ label, Bella Union. That hit was followed by another single in 1999 on another label. As they slowly worked on the full-length with producer Mark van Hoen (Locust), the duo began playing key gigs and were embraced by radio. The album finally came out last year in the UK, and is now on record shelves across North America. So are the gals just slow workers, or was this some sort of deliberate plan to carefully conquer the world market by market?
“No master plan—it’s just the way it happened,” laughs Anderson. “It would have been better not to have everything stretched out over such a long time. You release singles and get a bit of press, and everyone thinks that the album’s going to come out. It’s not a great way of doing it, but we couldn’t help it—it was just circumstance that dictated what happened.”
The Joy of Sing-Sing is a frothy concoction of melody and harmony—O’Neill’s sweetness-and-light vocals are contrasted with Anderson’s trademark spy guitar lines. Well-placed synth and clever beats tilt the project towards the realm of electro, but the album’s eclecticism means the duo haven’t been lumped in with the rest of the so-called “electro” crowd.
“I think most journalists are actually very lazy, and what we’ve found is that we’ve come over here and people are like, ‘Oh, it’s shoegazing,’” Anderson says. “Well, it’s not. It’s only because I’m in the band that they say that. Well, I don’t think it’s shoegazing at all—it’s sort of electronic, alternative pop, I dunno. I suppose with this electroclash thing going on at the moment, it might be a good thing not to be part of, because these things tend to die off and leave destruction in their wake.”
Sing-Sing are currently on their first major North American tour, which stops at Lee’s Palace this Saturday. Anderson says she’s looking forward to returning to Toronto for the first time in six years, and is hoping some of Lush’s old fans will be there to greet her. Partner O’Neill says the audience can look forward to a full-band show complete with samples, keyboards, even trumpet.
“The sound is a lot rawer, a lot more in-your-face,” O’Neill explains. “We just turn the volume up on all the songs when we play live.”
