Interview taken from HermAphrodite #5

Daron (proudly) - “I just bought a robot.”

He demonstrates. The eyes glow red as it comes menacingly towards you. Becca suggests its usage onstage. Hmm.

me - “Why have you got that?”

Daron - “I like robots.”

Isabel - “I think he’s reliving his childhood.”

me - “Is it an R2 D2 thing?”

Daron - “Oh no, not at all - it’s pre R2 D2. ‘S probably more ‘Lost In Space’.”

The rest of the room is just smiling condescendingly at him in his enthusiasm.

me - “You don’t share this robot thing?”

Ian - “ I prefer people.”

Hee-hee.

Isabel - “I’m not a machine person, but Daron buys anything that flashes.”

me - “Are you one for toys - or just toys with little beepy things on?”

Daron - “I just like space-y things.”

And the robot’s now watching me, silently, from the window ledge.

So is it now their tour mascot?

Daron - “No.”

Isabel - “I know why - because in two days it will be bust.”

Which is decided to be due to the band’s general inability to retain items in one piece, and not simply their destructive tendencies, Though the latter do abound...

Isabel - “I used to destroy my guitar onstage if I wasn’t happy with the sound, but then I realised there were slightly more civilised ways of solving the problem.”

me (to Daron) - “Are you one for smashing things?”

Daron (carefully) - “I’ve been known to.”

Isabel (resentfully) - “He smashes MY guitar. MY guitar!”

me - “As long as you weren’t attached to it at the time...”

Isabel - “He smashes a really good guitar and then he bought a replacement - the cheapest little thing he could find. I couldn’t even sell the thing, it was so bad.”

Daron - “Really?”

me - “She’s been harbouring this for years!”

Isabel - “Oh yes.”

And from this demonstration of a close ( bitter twisted ) relationship, we move onto...

me - “How long have you known each other?”

Daron - “Three and a half years.”

me - “So how did this come about?”

Daron - “The guitar...?”

me - “The band. The guitar smashing we can come to.”

Daron - “Mike and Isabel met each other first, they played in another band together.”

Which he saw, and was taken with enough to offer them his services...

Daron - “I said if they needed a new guitarist give me a ring.”

Isabel - “He says this in front of our guitarist.”

( giggles )

But when he left, Daron filled his place. And never looked back, etc.

me - “The vocals between you two works well onstage, the overlay.”

Daron - “Yeah, I like it, I like singing.”

me - “Well, you had a B-side to yourself.”

And he has a song on the new album. Just one. But that’s one more’n he had on their debut.

Isabel - “One song on this, three on the next...”

But, if all else is taken from her, the sleeve art is still Isabel’s.

Isabel - “The art-work for the album took so long. My idea was to make 20 to 25 voodoo dolls. And they’re really hard to make, if you think about it - tiny little legs and tiny little arms. As the months went by I kept making more so I have about a 100 voodoo dolls... It was quite sad actually, I was watching Sunset Beach making voodoo dolls, thinking of everything I could do in the next month beyond making another 20. But I think it’s sweet as well, such a labour of love.”

me - “Are you keeping them safe now?”

Isabel - “Ah, no, we’re going to be sending them to journalists.”

As gifts / warnings / dangerous toys with their album promos.

me - “So they have the power?”

Isabel (happily) - “Of course... Oh, I don’t know. I don’t believe in anything but I don’t disbelieve either. I think every little bit helps...”

Which then starts her off on her own quiet white magic processes - thinking about (positive) things to try to push them into being. And it can work - sometimes the things happen are so fortuitous that it seems they can’t be mere accident...

Isabel - “Our first single we did instead of making a demo tape, we just saved a little money for a 7 inch and pressed 500 copies. And just sent them out to people, and record shops. I remember with the first record Daron saying ‘gosh, I’ve just checked the Rough Trade record store and they’ve sold three copies’, and then we’d spend hours wondering who were these souls listening to our music as we speak. It was such a fantastic thing, it really was. I don’t think I can ever recapture that naive excitement that I had right in the beginning. It was soon after that we got Single of the Week in Melody Maker. I couldn’t believe it - we could make so many steps without having friends in the business.”

And by now, having toured with so many people, they do know so many more, even if they don’t necessarily like them all. Though they do like Radiohead. Obviously.

(That whole duet with Thom Yorke thing proving it…)

Isabel - “We started doing ‘Black Star’ because we toured with them...”

Daron - “And we like the song.”

Isabel - “They’re a super lot of kids.”

I find this amusing. Isabel defends herself.

Isabel - “No they are, They are kids!”

me - “But you sound like their mum.”

Which is so sweet - though most don’t duet with their sons...

me - “So is there anyone else in the pipeline that you’d want to record with?”

Isabel - “No! I sang with Thom, I’d never sing with anyone else.”

Apart from Daron. Again, obviously.

Though the Radiohead ‘thing’ is a good example of how well Drugstore seem to get along with people.

When I interviewed Nick Strangelove last year, he was all for singing Drugstore’s praises. ( “ They're fantastic. I really like them. And I like their music too." ) The night that I saw them, Drugstore even borrowed Strangelove’s drummer for their set. The band do seem to make more friends than not. S’a good thing, in this wicked world...

Isabel - “We do have the right attitude in that we don’t go around saying ‘aaah, we’re fuckin’ great!’ We supported so many bands with the first album, and it was almost like the more talent they had the less UPTIGHT about themselves they were, you know. Like Radiohead. We turned up for the first gig and immediately they were like, ‘it’s great to have you guys here, is there anything you need’...”

One of them even ended up doing Drugstore’s lights for the tour.

Daron - “It was really nice.”

Isabel - “And then we go and support things like - I’m not going to say Echobelly because I don’t want to be bitchy - but people who have like seven security around them... Who do they think they are? We’re all making the same kind of snack produce with the music...”

Well, maybe so. Some people are less ‘dry health foods’ than others - and ‘snack music’ isn’t Drugstore’s sole wish.

me - “So, why are you doing this? Is it something you always wanted to do?”

Daron - “I like doing it.”

He enthuses about this life and life-style at length, until Isabel accuses him of harbouring desires for solo status. Noooo. This is the job he wants.

me - “Would you want to build something for Robot Wars?”

Daron - “Noooo. I wouldn’t want to make robots.”

Isabel - “He likes playing with them.”

Daron - “I like looking at them, they look great. I don’t play with them. ( turns happily to his new toy ) He DOES look cool.”

So if anyone reading this is obsessive enough over Drugstore to want to buy them presents, Daron likes robots. Though he did suggest people send him ‘cheques’. And didn’t mind Becca’s suggestion of Pin No.s...

Isabel seems to get more presents though.

Isabel - “I get given bottles of wine; nice but boring...”

Becca - “What would you want to get given?”

Isabel - “Expensive things! Jewels...”

Becca - “Have you ever had pants thrown at you?”

Isabel - “Oh yes...”

me - “Girls’ or boys’?”

Isabel - “Girls underwear. I’m not into that kinky stuff!”

me ( to Daron ) - “And what about you?”

Becca - “Is he into kinky stuff?”

Daron - “Do I get pants thrown at me?”

me (grin) - “ Mmm, or are you into kinky stuff?”

Isabel - “Yes he is.”

Daron - “Not particularly...”

Isabel - “I have photos to prove it.”

me - “So THAT’s why you’re still with the band.”

Daron - “I don’t know - there’s always that feeling that if you haven’t tried everything you don’t know if you’re going to like it...”

me - “Are we on the kinky stuff or the underwear hurling?”

He starts desperately fumbling for a way to get out of this hole growing deeper around him - a difficult task to one whose foot is now well within one’s mouth...

Daron - “There are a lot of things I haven’t tried that I might really like but I don’t know because I haven’t tried them...”

Isabel (happily) - “You’re sick.”

Daron - “You can’t rule things out... You might surprise yourself...”

Isabel - “I know. But you don’t want to surprise yourself so much that you find out that you, I don’t know, like shagging sheep...”

Though it would make the good basis for a concept album, that one. Anyhow, it makes a memorable point to leave the interview. And a tidy way of my closing...

Drugstore. If you haven’t already tried them, put them at the head of your list of things to experiment on. ( Ahead of bestiality. ) You really oughtn’t to be disappointed.

P.S. And to the photographer who leafed through HermAphrodite at the Zine Convention and stopped with a start at the Drugstore interview, pointing at the uncredited group shot to exclaim ‘That’s one of mine!’ …I’m sorry, but I can’t remember your name to acknowledge you here either…

Last revised: 26/07/01