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Rockbites: So how old are you really? I’ve read the hype all over the Web that you’re a teenager but that’s hard to swallow.
Angela Tillett: I am in fact 22, born in 1978.
Rockbites: So have you found the media less than faultless in their descriptions of you?
Angela Tillett: Who’s telling the truth? One interview said my parents were middle class, which is so far from the truth it’s ridiculous.
Rockbites: When did you start singing professionally?
Angela Tillett: When I was discovered singing outside a heel bar, by Mike Alway.
Rockbites: A heel bar? I’ve never heard the term.
Angela Tillett: It’s a place where you go to have the heels of your shoes replaced! And you get keys cut while you wait.
Rockbites: Did you know who Mike Alway was when he first introduced himself?
Angela Tillett: Yes, él Records had recently come into my life so it was quite a coincidence.
Rockbites: What did he first say to you?
Angela Tillett: “How much for two replacement back door keys and a Jodphur boot heel for the left foot?”
Rockbites: Besides Death By Chocolate and Lollipop Train, what bands have you worked with?
Angela Tillett: I have not been in any bands other than Death By Chocolate or Lollipop Train, and considering my lack of ability I doubt I ever will be.
Rockbites: You are extraordinarily modest! OK, what would you wish to be doing over the next five years if doors opened for you?
Angela Tillett: I’d like to be able to make enough to live by doing stuff like this instead of having to do dreadful jobs all day.
Rockbites: How did you meet the other folks in your bands, Jeremy Butler and John Austin?
Angela Tillett: I met John and Jez through Mike Alway, who knew Jez from yesteryear. They are very nice boys and when I go to record our albums they always pay for my lunch. Which is usually a prawn roll.
“I have not been in any bands other than Death By Chocolate or Lollipop Train, and considering my lack of ability I doubt I ever will be.”
Rockbites: Considering it reached its peak a decade before you were born, how did you get interested in ’60s psychedelic music?
Angela Tillett: I was given a crash course by Mike when he played me such endless hits as Peter and Dudley’s LS Bumble Bee, The Electric Prunes’ Mass In F Minor, and Lumpy Gravy by The Mothers Of Invention.
Rockbites: Do you remember when that was?
Angela Tillett: Probably around 1996.
Rockbites: So what other music do you like?
Angela Tillett: Towa Tei, Saint Etienne, The Monkees, Corduroy, Scott Walker, Stereolab, David Candy... usual stuff really.
Rockbites: How quickly (or not) did you take to the ’60s songs and styles?
Angela Tillett: I can’t remember never liking stuff from every era. I think I’ve got memories of past lives or something.
Rockbites: Tell me a bit about Jeremy and John, your co-conspirators on the Death By Chocolate album.
Angela Tillett: Jeremy Butler is an absolute doll. He’s very talented and can make beautiful melodies, very modest and everyday. John Austin is a good friend of Jeremy’s who has been working with him for years. They’re a great team.
Rockbites: And the song Land Of Chocolate?
Angela Tillett: Land of Chocolate was an idea which me and the boys worked on together. I like that one actually, it says something to me... about tooth decay.
Rockbites: Before we go... your favorite sort of chocolate?
Angela Tillett: Maltesers!
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Death By Chocolate
