Sing-Singin' the praises oftheir online fans

Mon 19th Jun, 2006 in Features

“I can’t really tell the difference,” confesses Sing-Sing’s Lisa O’Neill on the disparity between the newly released remix of iTunes digital single ‘Come, Sing Me a Song’, and its original. Only media savvy genius could provoke such a self-effacingly droll observation, right at the start of an interview chiefly concerned with the promotion of this single.  It seems Sing-Sing don’t actually need press promotion, a label, or quality remixes to sell records; they are an exponent of the basic indie principle that loyal fans can get you everywhere.

Any band that has fans willing to make donations of up to one hundred pounds to fund a new album must be really bloody good.  Such fans must surely be absurdly wealthy, fanatically committed to the cause, or well…nuts; or has the Aussie dollar improved inordinately without my knowledge? 

Those familiar with London-based indie-pop duo Sing-Sing will be aware that this was in fact the case with their most recent album.  This unorthodox method of financial backing came about after several label deals fell through, prompting Sing-Sing to do away with the industry altogether and become the epitome of indie. And so in 2003, after having toured first album The Joy of Sing-Sing extensively in the States, Emma Anderson and Lisa O’Neill used their personal savings to record the Madame Sing-Sing EP.  This release was sold through their online shop and, coupled with the afore-mentioned donations, was to prove the monetary vehicle for the creation of their second album Sing-Sing and I.

“It’s fantastic,” Lisa responds when asked if she finds such fan base allegiance gratifying and humbling. ”It’s a nice way to make music, being directly funded by fans. We’re shocked by it.”  Lisa adds that she would never think to bequeath such a substantial sum of money to a band, or in this case, indie pop duo, but I suppose when you’re having to pay to record your own EP the last thing on your mind is forking out money for other bands to do the same.

On the topic of other bands, Lisa, when asked to cite a few past and present influences, is stumped. Stumped in the same way that, say, a sandwich connoisseur with an eclectic pallet might be, if asked to specify their favourite sandwich. Ungainly analogies aside, Lisa avows her penchant for music that is “very vocal based. I love singer/songwriters. I listen to anything from Bowie through to Kate Bush through to electronic stuff.  At the moment I’m listening to a French musician who’s been going since the sixties.  He uses amazing melodies using traditional French instruments.” An acquired taste perhaps; if it’s anything like Eurovision I’m not interested. 

One might reasonably assume that Lisa’s four-month-old baby (who was apparently asleep upstairs in Lisa’s London abode at the time) would have left her little time for Sing-Sing; evidently this is not the case. In reference to motherhood, Lisa insists, “It’s good fun, and I’ve probably got more time for the band now to be honest. I used to work nine to five for a design company in London.”  As it turns out, Lisa held this job right throughout the life of Sing-Sing, and thus proves herself motivated to the extent that it’s intimidating and makes everyone else feel lackadaisical and unproductive. 

Any character flaw can be exonerated by good music, so ‘Come, Sing Me A Song’ is a godsend.  The iTunes version is, in spite of being virtually identical to the untrained ear, a remix of the original “to make it sound better sonically – technical things.” Whatever the case the song is, in Lisa’s words, a “sunny, cheerful, optimistic, yellow song – I always think of songs in terms of colours.”  ‘Lover’, the previous single off Sing-Sing and I, is a similarly light-hearted, mainstream friendly, pop-ish affair. Of this album, Lisa contends, “there’s probably less electronics in it than the first album, which was very heavily produced…lots of synth, lots of samples…we wanted [Sing-Sing and I] to be able to be played well live.”  The basic philosophy in producing the album was “if you can’t play it live, don’t put it in,” with producer Mark Van Hoen serving effectively, as Lisa puts it, “the hidden member of the band”.  Lisa and Emma Anderson, the other half of Sing-Sing (and in a former incarnation, the creative force behind celebrated 90s band Lush) are predisposed to entering the studio with the basic melodies and the rudimentary structures for their songs, from which their ostensibly phenomenal producer elaborates and refines the Sing-Sing sound into something, well, “yellow!”  The sound is pure indie-pop really, like Garbage without Shirley Manson verbally assaulting you.

I thought it possible that Sing-Sing may have benefited from the Brits’ recent fixation with all things ‘indie’, but Lisa denies any such increase in mainstream recognition for her band.  “I don’t think it’s helped us, to be honest.  Here they [the mainstream music listening public] like things that are brand new, like the Arctic Monkeys.  Because Emma was in Lush before, we’re not a new band.” 

Nonetheless; one recent development undergone by the music buying public, this time on a world stage, is the proliferation of the iPod and the ability to download individual songs at a price.  With the illegal file sharing sites being progressively shut down, and those who run them being prosecuted, pay-per-song services like iTunes become more viable by the day.  Of Sing-Sing’s decision to release a remix (and incidentally, two previously unavailable tracks) on iTunes, Lisa O’Neill acknowledges, “It matches the way we’ve been marketing ourselves perfectly [to a widespread audience over the internet].  It means you can reach a lot more people.”  Whereas some have hailed the mp3 revolution as the beginning of the end of the conventional album, Lisa envisions a future where the two can work in unison. “People still want to buy a body of work.  It’s gone full circle; in the forties and fifties when pop music started it was all about singles too. You buy the artwork, and a song as a part of a body of work…you don’t get to understand the artist with just one song.” 

Sing-Sing’s future, however, seems to be characterised by the release of another album, which presently resides in the ‘thinking about’ stage; and perhaps a trip to Aus.

Oh yes, and Lisa is amused by, understanding of, but not flattered by the Shirley Manson comparisons (their singing voices can sound incredibly similar at times).  I say the key point of differentiation is Lisa’s deficiency in lyrical hostility.

Sing Sing’s Come Sing me a Song is out now through Chatterbox.