The easiest thing to do in rock journalism is to mock a band, particularly a new one. Indeed, a penchant for lazy critical dendition is the clearest indicator of immaturity among rock critics, a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that it is much harder to pinpoint faults and suggest where an act can, for example, improve. Karen Poole is quite aware of this fact. But then, she would be, wouldn t she, given that her daddy is 60s singer Brian Poole, original leader of The Tremeloes. So she s well able to deal with some of the knee-jerk responses Alisha s Attic s debut album Alisha Rules the World has received in the rock press.
But first let s talk of her daddy, a subject she rarely, if ever, discusses. Why not?
We had a choice to either make an angle out of it, or not and we thought it was naff, she says. And you ve got to remember that when I was born my dad had left music and become a butcher. Even so, way back we went through the whole pub thing of being Brian Poole s daughters but that was when we were living with mom and dad in Milton Keynes. But within three months of turning 16 I realised I couldn t deal with living at home anymore, we both wanted to be individuals, not just our parents kids, so we left. That was nearly ten years ago, and the music we do now really has more to do with that ten years, us scuffling as singers, playing the part of sexy babes, singing other peoples songs, trying country-rock because some record company said that was in, working with the wrong producers, all that shit.
In fact, we made so many fucking mistakes along the way. And, at times, we did begin to believe that maybe people were right, back on the industrial estate we grew up on, when they said we d never make a living out of music. And 90% of people like us, don t. But then, finally, we got signed by this record company, basically because they admired the attitude we had. In terms of having decided ourselves how, in the end, we want to look, be photographed, present our music. But it s taken us ten years to get to where we are now.
This, says Karen, is why she really gets pissed off at that knee-jerk manufactured band tag particularly the pseudo-Alanis Morissette label though she admits their are similarities between Morissette s work and a single like I Am, I Feel .
But I ve been writing stuff like that since I was 16, when me and Shellie, started writing songs and poems, in school, she insists. And I could play you a recording we did of songs like that in the attic that gave us our name and you d see we sounded that way long before anyone ever heard of Alanis Morissette. In fact, there s very little on this album that sounds that different from the way we originally recorded it.
When I say that, I don t mean we had anything fancy to record with. In fact, we started out with a little mixing desk I bought for #10 from a boot sale and an little SM 58, and it d be so cold in the attic that we d be wearing ten jumpers while writing and recording! And then we d send things out and get rejections till they were coming out of our arse! That was from, like 16 onwards, and I d work in a toy shop and Shellie d work three days, just to stay alive.
That s why we call the band Alisha s Attic, with Alisha being a little bit of me and a bit of Shellie. And this is why I get so pissed off when people say we re manufactured as if we just sprung out of nowhere last year and never had to pay the kind of dues most bands pay. That s a load of bollocks. And, though Shell thinks different to this than me, and is comfortable with the idea of being famous , I really only wanted that from about the age of 14 to 17. Now, what matters is making music. The rest is bullshit.
Shuddering, as she speaks, Karen claims that if this had all happened to us, when I was seventeen, I would have killed myself, crumbled under the pressure. She is neither joking nor being needlessly melodramatic.
The hardest part is realising that what you do, on a personal level, belongs to the public, she elaborates. And, in my case, I have to deal with my psyche all the time, work out what s part of Karen s life, what s part of Alisha s Attic. And I do divide myself up that way. But it really is a pressure. You go home and there s like 18 messages on your answer machine from people you ve met maybe twice in your lifetime. Maybe from guys, which is a problem, because I m absolutely loyal to my boyfriend. So, even at that personal level, it s worse than I imagined it would be. And all of this comes out in the songs on the first album. Some relate to my boyfriend. So, none of this is manufactured. Even the artwork on the album is my idea. Everything on the album is fucking true to our vision, believe me.
The decidedly poppy mood of Alisha Rules the World probably leads some critics to miss the shadows underneath, Karen suggests.
We create commercial music, I ve no problem with that, she suggests. Lots of positive melodies, lush harmonies, major chords, but there is other stuff going on underneath. And to anyone who says this is all manufactured shite, that none of it is sincere, I d say really listen to the album, not just a single. Or give us a chance to prove ourselves with the next album. Though, there s no doubt that papers like the Guardian really are supportive. But if, say, the NME has a hate campaign against Alisha s Attic and other rock critics take their lead from that, there s nothing we can do about it. Maybe they hate us just because we re selling records! The NME prefers people who sell 12 records and who haven t got a deal yet.
Apart from Spice Girls, who have dominated the music scene over the past six months, of course.
Yeah, but Spice Girls are right down their alley, like, tits out, girl power, straight-ahead pop, Karen concludes, laughing. Whereas we re out there playing live gigs, working at that level, trying to challenge people, get an edge to our work, not be part of the tits out brigade even though I love Spice Girls, who are, in real life, like they are on stage. They also write great songs and are number one all over the place.
So let s give credit where credit is due. But if that applies to Spice Girls, surely it also should apply to Alisha s Attic. n