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Rockbites: So I have your album and I love it. It’s really bizarre.
Nhung Napalm: Bizarre... in what way bizarre?
Rockbites: Well... It was completely unexpected. I know what Alec Empire and Hanin Elias and their band Atari Teenage Riot sound like, and I love them all, and Lolita Storm’s music easily falls into that camp. But I wasn’t expecting the lyrics.
Nhung Napalm: Was it a shock?
Rockbites: Yes. A total shock.
Nhung Napalm: Then that’s good. That’s the whole point.
Rockbites: Who in the band writes the lyrics?
Nhung Napalm: We all do it. We get together, we all form ideas, and then we’ll come up with the final composition. Then we’ll put it together with the music and drums in the practice, and then we’ll come up with the harmonies and then that’s your final piece.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Sometimes one person writes a song and someone else adds to it. Then we get together and sock it into shape. But we keep a fairly specific sound, especially working to be quite succinct. It’s important to not stray too far from the essence of what you’re doing. Otherwise you get all, I don’t know, you just get lost I think. So we’re quite minimalist.
“I don’t think anyone should label themselves with anything, ever. ’Cause you’re more than just one thing, aren’t you? You’re not 'a feminist'—that’s not like your fucking life’s ambition.”
Rockbites: How would you describe the lyrics?
Jimmy-Too Bad: The lyrics? They’re sarcastic, irreverent, sardonic, and we sing about anything and everything. It’s like, through the course of a normal day you have all sorts of contradicting feelings going on in your head, and our songs are about anything like that. So some of our stuff contradicts other stuff but it doesn’t matter, ’cause that’s the way you think. If you were trying to push one particular political dogma, you sort of like paint yourself into a corner. But we can contradict ourselves and we can sing about anything we like.
Rockbites: Digital Hardcore is a highly political label and Fatal is a clearly feminist sub-label. How do you see Lolita Storm fitting in to their sort of philosophy?
Nhung Napalm: Well, I wouldn’t say that we’re political and I wouldn’t say we’re feminist. But we are... What are we guys?
Spex: We’re normal.
Nhung Napalm: (laughs) No, no, we’re not normal!
Romy Medina: We stand for nothing and we hate everyone!
Rockbites: OK. Well, that’s simple. Simple and straightforward.
Nhung Napalm: (laughs)
Rockbites: So would you consider yourselves subversive?
Nhung Napalm: Well... yeah. The whole point of Lolita Storm is that we’re a backlash against everything: you know, style, music. Everything is boring and we decided that it’s about time that someone did something different and encouraged other people to do something different—to do their own thing. The problem is that someone will always do something different but then people will copy it, and then that defeats the whole point, because they’re just copying... I mean I suppose you have pioneers, but I think everybody should be pioneering.
Rockbites: Well, if everybody’s pioneering then there might not be anything to pioneer against or to rebel against.
Nhung Napalm: Well, it doesn’t have to be a rebellion, though. It’s just a case of doing your own thing. I mean what we’re doing was a rebellion, but it is to do whatever we want. There’s no restrictions and no rules that we have to do what everyone else is doing. And we don’t have to look boring. You know, music and style and image doesn’t have to be boring. That’s the main point.
“If someone makes a sexist comment, I go 'fuck off!' and I don’t speak to them.”
Rockbites: Do you see Lolita Storm as empowering to females?
Romy Medina: Um, well, the thing is, what I really fucking hate is the way everyone attaches this feminist tag to us, ’cause it’s not about that. I mean, yeah, it is empowering to females but in the same way it is to young people or to blokes, or to whoever wants it to be.
It’s just there to inspire people. It’s not there to inspire like only women, or only one sector of people. It’s there for whoever’s got the mind to appreciate it.
We’re not feminist. The thing is that people that call themselves feminist really piss me off ’cause if you’re a normal person and you’ve got sensible opinions you don’t need to be extreme about it. And you can believe in women’s rights and not have to say 'Ooh, I’m a feminist!'
Rockbites: Hanin Elias, who signed you to Fatal, writes in strongly feminist terms.
Romy Medina: Yeah, yeah, she does. But I don’t. I don’t think anyone in the band does really, ’cause, well, like I said, you don’t have to label yourself with that tag to believe in women’s rights. I don’t think anyone should label themselves with anything, ever. ’Cause you’re more than just one thing, aren’t you? You’re not 'a feminist'—that’s not like your fucking life’s ambition.
Do you know what I mean? You’re going to be interested in other things as well. It’s stupid to just have one objective.
Spex: We are feminist in the respect that, yeah, we’re empowering and stuff. But the thing is I don’t really think of myself as sort of like militant feminist because I just am feminist. And to be honest I don’t mix with people who aren’t feminist anyway. I wouldn’t give them the time of day. I just am and my friends are. So it’s not like 'I’m a feminist!' and I have to shout it, ’cause I don’t. I just am, and the people I know are. And yeah, if someone made a sexist comment, I’d go, well 'fuck off!' and I don’t speak to them. But it’s like Romy was saying about trying to categorize everyone and pigeonhole everyone, ’cause I wouldn’t say 'I am a feminist,' although I have feminist values. Do you know what I mean?
“Hey, let’s get a band together, and we’ll call ourselves Lolita Storm!”
Rockbites: Yes. I do. It’s like you don’t want to make that the central focus of what you’re doing.
Spex: Yeah. Right. Exactly.
Rockbites: Did you consider other names for the band besides Lolita Storm?
Spex: No, because we actually had the name before we had the band together.
Rockbites: How did that work?
Spex: (laughs) Ahh! We just... because we just sort of put ourselves together ’cause we all looked really cool and stuff. So we said 'Hey, let’s get a band together, and we’ll call ourselves Lolita Storm.' And there was no other option. We worked together and came out with the sound and everything. We wanted to be a band because we all looked cool and stuff.
“You’re gonna have to see it—we eat these prosthetic dicks covered in blood.”
Rockbites: Well, the videos that are on the CD definitely look cool.
Spex: We did a video for a single that’s not out here [in the US]. And it’s like really, really fucking cool. You’re gonna have to see it (laughs). Our friend did it, and it’s really rude, and we eat these prosthetic dicks covered in blood. (laughs)
Rockbites: Damn. Whoa.
Spex: It’s really cool. You have to see it. I think you’ll really like it. You’ll be really shocked. Well, it’s not shocking really. It’s just... fun (laughs).
Rockbites: OK (laughs). I’m sure I’ll be shocked in a fun way, or have fun in a shocking way, or something.
Spex: (laughs)
Rockbites: What kind of reactions do you get when you’re performing?
Nhung Napalm: Normally: What the fuck is that? I mean, we’re never what people expect at all.
Rockbites: Do you have as many female fans as male fans?
Nhung Napalm: Um, I think so. I mean I know there are female fans that appreciate us. We have had a good response, but I couldn’t actually say, to be honest.
“The audience reaction to us? Normally: What the fuck is that?”
Rockbites: How much have you played out?
Romy Medina: Well the thing is we don’t really gig very much ’cause there’s nowhere that we want to play and there’s no one that we want to play with. I mean, nobody will give us a gig in Brighton where we come from ’cause everyone hates us. And I think everyone’s really resentful ’cause everyone’s in a band in Brighton and they’ve all like spent years toiling away learning how to play guitars and stuff, and we don’t play any instruments and they don’t understand the sound of our music and yet we’ve got somewhere with it. And I don’t think they can handle it. I think they’re a bit bitter about it. So nobody will book us. No one will let us play in Brighton. But we’ve got our own club, and we play there.
Rockbites: What’s it called?
Romy Medina: It’s called Les Chiennes De Garde.
Rockbites: OK. Cool. Uh, what does it mean?
Romy Medina: (laughs) Go and look it up! It means Guard Bitches. But you should go and look it up. [Note: see our links below.]
Rockbites: I used to do sound for an American speed metal band called Husker Du, who became very, very popular around the world in the ’80s, but everybody hated them in their home town before they made it. So it sounds like a similar situation.
Romy Medina: Yeah, probably. One thing is if you’re doing something different, people don’t understand it. I think it’s not that they’re unhappy that we’ve done well, it’s just they don’t understand what we’re doing. And so they don’t think it’s 'right'—do you know what I mean?
“I mean, nobody will give us a gig in Brighton where we come from ’cause everyone hates us.”
Rockbites: Yeah, I do. Well I don’t know, maybe I’m strange, but when I don’t understand something musically, that’s a flag, that’s a red flag for me that it’s probably something worth trying to understand.
Romy Medina: Yeah, yeah of course you should. Well that’s a really good attitude. ’Cause like if you don’t understand something you should go and find out about it. You shouldn’t close yourself off to it.
Rockbites: Right. ’Cause that’s... dying.
Romy Medina: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know what? I hate Americans, but you’re talking so much sense. Yeah.
Rockbites: Well, I’m actually Canadian so I don’t count.
Romy Medina: Well, OK.
Rockbites: How did you first get connected with Alec Empire and Hanin Elias?
Spex: It’s really weird, because we started writing stuff, and we started making a demo, and it was really bizarre because me, Jim, and Romy went to see Atari Teenage Riot and it was the only good gig we’d seen in fucking years. It was like 'Oh my God! This thing is fantastic!' It was wonderful. We just couldn’t believe that there was someone like basically doing stuff that we were doing. I mean we knew about them ’cause we’d seen Cobra Killer, but it was so exciting.
It was really inspiring, and it was really good seeing, oh, that we had other people that were doing similar things to us. We could finally find someone that we could relate with now, and that’s why we sent the demo to DHR. I mean, we turned down Virgin and EMI to be on DHR, because we just really liked what they were doing. They [Virgin, EMI] kept phoning us up and we just deleted all their phone numbers before we’d even phone them or anything. We’d say 'Oh fuck it, we don’t want to be on EMI!'
Rockbites: So how does it work that you can’t get anyone to be interested in Brighton but yet EMI, one of the biggest labels...
Spex: Well Brighton, where we live, is, like Romy said, just like full of musicians and indie bands and stuff. Everybody in Brighton is in an indie band. And actually, um, I’ll say but they probably won’t like me saying it, but I used to be in an indie band as well, like, seven years ago, eight years ago?
“we always make our own outfits when we play... [When Iggy Pop saw us] we looked like futuristic prostitutes.”
Rockbites: Can you tell me what it was called?
Spex: No.
Rockbites: OK.
Spex: (laughs) I was in it with Jim, actually. But then we said, 'Ah, this is really, really shit.' You know, 'This is getting really bad.' So we thought, 'Oh, we’re going to do something that is gonna really piss everyone off,' basically. And that’s how we all sort of got together. So yeah, and it did piss everyone off because we were just making an absolute racket and they’re going 'Ooh, how can you make music without guitars, blah blah blah' and 'You don’t play any real instruments!' and stuff, and they’re all laughing at us and saying that we weren’t allowed to do it and things, so it’s just like people being really resentful, really, so...
Rockbites: I see. So in Brighton you’re outcasts.
Spex: Yeah! But it’s like we say, “A prophet is never welcome in their own town.” (laughs) So that’s us.
Rockbites: That’s a great saying. You know, I play your music to people, and they look at me funny, they wince.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Yeah, I know, yeah. Well, no one likes us where we come from.
Rockbites: One thing that your record made me do is laugh alot.
Romy Medina: Good. That’s ’cause we’ve got a sense of humor.
Rockbites: It’s an incredible sense of humor.
Romy Medina: Thank you.
“Some people think that we’re sort of goth-y or something. It’s fucking annoying. It’s nothing to do with that.”
Rockbites: Has anyone in the band ever done stand up?
Romy Medina: No. We’re just clever.
Rockbites: (laughs) You are that. I think one of the best rock and roll lines I’ve ever heard is 'He treats me like a doggy/ And he beats me till I’m groggy.'
Romy Medina: (laughs) Good. I’m glad you like that.
Rockbites: It reminds me of course of the Stooges song I Wanna Be Your Dog.
Romy Medina: Oh, right. Excellent. We like The Stooges. Iggy Pop came to one of our gigs.
Rockbites: Yeah?
Romy Medina: Yeah, we played in London. I don’t think he knew that we were playing—we were supporting someone else, and I don’t even know if he saw us ’cause we only played for ten minutes. But he would have noticed us ’cause everyone was like wearing jeans and t-shirts. It was like this sort of shit indie club and nobody dressed up at all and we’d sort of made up... we always make our own outfits when we play. And we were wearing these sort of like sci-fi outfits. We looked like, like futuristic prostitutes? We looked really good. But um, yeah, basically we would have been the only people that he’d have noticed. Even if he didn’t see us play.
Rockbites: So he didn’t come up to you afterwards?
Romy Medina: No, no. He was probably too scared.
Rockbites: Yeah. I would be too.
Romy Medina: Yeah.
“Guitar music didn’t have anywhere to go after the ’70s. All good music has to be done electronic nowadays.”
Rockbites: So who is gonna be your audience?
Jimmy-Too Bad: We don’t know ’cause we haven’t got it. What we always wanted to do was attract a sort of an audience full of individuals who were actually into sort of dressing up, sort of like Berlin in the ’30s or New York in the ’70s or something where you get like a scene where people actually want to dress up and you actually get people being innovative and adventurous. But the problem at the moment is that a lot of the audience at our local gigs... you get sort of crusties. Do you know crusties?
Rockbites: Yeah. [link, below]
Jimmy-Too Bad: And goths. Big black t-shirts. D’you know what I mean? And we don’t really want them. But what can you do? You can’t send them away. On our club nights we’re trying to establish our respect, so that people will have some sort of understanding of what we’re doing. ’Cause some people think that we’re sort of goth-y or something. It’s fucking annoying. It’s nothing to do with that.
Rockbites: Have you ever played Berlin?
Jimmy-Too Bad: Yeah, we played in Berlin last week. Last Saturday. We opened an art exhibition in the middle of Berlin. Philip Virus, who films DHR, and he’s making a DHR movie, he had an exhibition. He was sort of organizing it and stuff. So we just played at the opening, which was excellent! It was really good, really nice. I’d never been to Berlin before, either. It’s lovely!
Rockbites: You told NME last year that you were going to break up at the end of 2000.
“I always think of rave music as being like people who grew up listening to George Benson and just sort of horrible, horrible stuff.”
Romy Medina: (laughs) All that is about is just that good things don’t really last that long. And that’s what we are.
Rockbites: A good thing?
Romy Medina: Yeah. But anything really good doesn’t last forever, does it? ’Cause then it ceases to be good. Then it just gets boring. So when it gets boring, we’ll change and we’ll do something else.
Rockbites: I wanna read you a quote from John Lydon from 1996 and tell me what you think of it. He says 'I’m a really bad musician, but I know how to make the sounds that I like. The more musicians learn, the less they know, because they lack their sense of freedom—everything becomes a format. I love the idea of formats, because I love fucking with them. Turned upside down, they become incredibly interesting.'
Spex: I think that totally relates to Lolita Storm. We don’t really particularly play any instruments either. So I suppose in the respect that we started out not knowing what we were going to do and then it sort of like went into its own way... If you know what I mean.
Rockbites: So if you don’t play instruments, how do you put your songs together?
Spex: Well, actually Jim plays music, but we all write the songs. It’s like if we have to go write it’s like this, we sing (sings) la, la, la (laughs) and then he plays it. Then that’s what we do. Maybe some of the notes we sing don’t even exist as notes, if you know what I mean. Well, then we just do it. Romy! Have you stolen some ribbons? We didn’t pay for that! Sorry... we just stole something from a shop by accident. (laughs) Nevermind. Sorry.
Rockbites: That’s for your photo shoot?
Spex: Yeah.
Rockbites: I’ve read that you’re fans of Betty Boo, Johnny Thunders, and The Ramones, among other bands. How would you describe Lolita Storm’s musical roots?
Jimmy-Too Bad: Well, it’s kinda like, guitar music didn’t have anywhere to go after the ’70s, so all good music has to be done electronic nowadays. The spirit of what we’re doing is sort of coming from, you know, the original rock and roll boom of the mid ’50s. Do you know what I mean, ’50s and early ’60s, like Elvis and Chuck Berry, with of a bit of New York, Shangi Las, sort of like that. Really simple and minimalistic, but done on a computer. And that’s it really. That’s the spirit of it.
“Each of our songs is really short, like a lot of old rock and roll songs, but it’s kind of like having a panic attack because it’s very brutal and quick.”
Rockbites: It’s very, very high energy, and it’s gripping.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Well, it has to be. Each song’s really short, like a lot of old rock and roll songs, but it’s kind of like having a panic attack because it’s very brutal and quick. That’s the sort of effect it should have. I don’t know if it does, but it should (laughs).
Rockbites: I guess the most interesting thing about it to me, music context wise, is that it’s giving me the same kind of extreme reactions that I had when I was much younger, when I was hearing things that I’d never heard before.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Like what?
Rockbites: Oh, like in 1976 or ’77 when I first heard Television or Talking Heads. I’d never heard anything like that before. Do you know the first Magazine album?
Jimmy-Too Bad: I don’t know. I like Magazine, though. One of our songs rips off Shot By Both Sides.
Rockbites: Which one?
Jimmy-Too Bad: Umm... Feeling Inside.
Rockbites: Shot By Both Sides was one my favorite songs. The Buzzcocks did it too, as Lipstick.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Yeah. We listen to quite a lot of The New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders. That’s another thing. You have the ’50s rock and roll boom, but also the ’70s New York punk scene. That’s another really exciting thing, where you had lots of different people dressing up, and lots of different bands doing something really sort of individualistic. Sort of brutalizing pop music, really. It was just pop music, wasn’t it? Done in a sort of brutal fashion. The sort of things that you’d get in a good movie, I suppose. Do you know what I mean?
Rockbites: Yes I do. If it’s going to be good music, to some extent I think it has to subvert the current trend or the current wave.
Jimmy-Too Bad: Yeah. Well, the really bad thing was that in the ’80s you had, um, I mean, you had this sort of rave scene, techno and house and all that. Which is fine in its way ’cause it was people moving away from using guitars or synths or whatever, and people were actually sitting in their bedrooms using their computers. So it was like a sort of DIY thing.
But the problem was that no one coming from a more left field or rock and roll, whatever, background seemed to be making it. It seemed to be a lot of wankers who grew up listening to Shalomar, things like that. I always think of rave music as being like people who grew up listening to George Benson and just sort of horrible, horrible stuff.
Rockbites: Yeah, that’s always in the back of my mind when I hear it too.
Jimmy-Too Bad: We’re just taking a computer and making exciting music. And that’s it.
Rockbites: Are there any hopes or plans for a US tour?
Jimmy-Too Bad: We don’t know yet. We were asked to do a tour with some band called My Ruin, but I think they’re probably shit. They’re like Marilyn Manson and say 'we’re so shocking'. Yeah right. That’s all wank.
Rockbites: What about England or Europe?
Jimmy-Too Bad: We don’t have any tour dates fixed up. We’re trying to get a tour with Ec8or. We’d like to do that. Apart from that we haven’t got any plans. All we’re doing at the moment is mixing our next EP. We went to Berlin to do it. We went to Alec’s house. But his computer fucked up so we don’t know what’s going on with that. But we’re going to be mixing that soon and that’ll be our next EP, which is called Sick Slits. It’s six songs, each like a snapshot, like a movie, about a girl’s life.
Rockbites: Cool. Can you reveal the names of the songs?
Jimmy-Too Bad: The names of the songs. Yeah, it’s um Annabelle, and Candy, and Rosaline, Omelda, Susie, and Natasha. And Natasha’s about Natalie Wood. It’s just about her drowning and we’re all hovering over her saying 'Swim! Swim!' although we know she’s gonna drown.
Rockbites: Oh no! (laughs)
Jimmy-Too Bad: (laughs) A classic.
Rockbites: That’s great. Well, um, I’m definitely looking forward to that. Any last words for Rockbites’ readers about Lolita Storm?
Romy Medina: Your readers should know for themselves.
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Lolita Storm
