From the fanzine Hero Worship, Issue No. 3
by Gillian Hardy
As regular readers may know, I first became infatuated with Magnapop when I heard 'Merry' on the radio way back in July '92. Since then I've never looked back. Their abrasive live shows have graced our shores now a number of times and with every visit they seduce more and more people with their energetic, lively brand of pop.
I bumped into Linda and Ruthie after their storming set at Reading last year and they actually asked if it would be OK if we could do another interview in the future. I kinda played it pretty cool and said yeah, sure, but I was secretly thrilled that my favourite band would actually *ask me* for another interview. We eventually got around to talking in Newcastle where, perhaps not too surprisingly, Linda and Ruthie both order bottles of Newcastle Brown (urgh) as we sit in the Melbourne Bar just above the Riverside. I open by asking about what Bob Mould, the producer of their new 'Hot Boxing' album (buy buy buy!), is like. He always seems intensely serious but I figure there's probably humour lurking beneath the exterior.
"Yeah, I can understand why you say that about him because he does seem that way, but working with him was really nice" smiles Linda. "It was a lot of hard work but he made it fun, so if he is intense then it's a real positive intensity. It really keeps you going. He's a wonderful person to work with" she gushes.
"It sounds more live I think" comments Ruthie on 'Hot Boxing'. "Like what we do live, I hope so anyway."
I beg to differ. 'Hot Boxing' is a solid album - big, loud, full, like it should sound, a perfect document. Magnapop live are all these things too but they have a certain frission about them too, a kind of messy spring which makes them so great. For that reason, I happen to think last year's 'Kiss My Mouth' perhaps captures the essence more.
"Well, you know, there's two schools of thought like that between this record and 'Kiss My Mouth'" says Linda. "I like it. I think we got it close and I'm looking forward to getting it even closer to what we want it to sound like. I think Bob really took us there though and really satisfied us. He captured the time and place."
A lot of songs on 'Hot Boxing' are pretty old and a number of them have been re-recorded. Why was that?
"Because it's our first album proper" explains Ruthie. "We put out the demos with the really old songs on so...We re-recorded some of the songs because we didn't make them sound the best way they could, they were just demos as well. We're lucky people liked our demos but when you work with somebody who knows what they're doing they can bring more to the project than we could ourselves. We gave them more of a life with Bob producing them."
I ask them about the third and superior version of 'Texas' which appears on the album. First there was a ye olde Michael Stipe demo, then the 'Kiss My Mouth' version, and now this. For my money, the 'Hot Boxing' version has a softer quality to it, something that it needed.
"No one's heard the Michael Stipe demo though!" laughs Ruthie. "I like the 'Hot Boxing' version best as well. I like the acoustic guitar. I didn't like the Ted Nicely version, it didn't have the bottom to it."
"We brought that up to Bob as well but he said it was obvious to him that they were really good songs that weren't given the greatest treatment in the world" Linda says. "But, yeah, the songs are old for people like you who've seen us probably 10 times (14 and counting), but to most people they're new because they've never heard them before. The next record hopefully isn't going to take as long, and there'll probably be a lot more surprise."
In what way?
"A little moodier than these ones, in a darker way" says Linda. "I kinda think the ones on 'Hot Boxing' are pretty moody but they just seem to be really energetic. I can't predict what the next record will sound like but I know it's going to be the next step away from this record."
One of Magnapop's new songs could perhaps be entitled 'Oh Juliana', a reply to Juliana Hatfield's rightfully gushing eulogy to Ruthie Morris, 'Ruthless', which sneaked onto the b-side of her fabulous 'My Sister' single. Indeed, Juliana seems to have the 'Hero Worship' syndrome of mentioning Magnapop at every given opportunity. (Linda: "Yeah she does, which is really nice because people listen to her and she knows that"). Both Linda and Ruthie laugh at this suggestion but, umm, maybe not....
Ruthie says, "it was really nice. I wasn't expecting anything ever like that and Juliana did it so it was a double shock that someone wrote a song about me and she would be the one. It's incredibly flattering though, really sweet."
"...and it's a really good song too" says Linda, "it's better than just a b-side!"
At their very first UK gig at the beginning of September 1992, they said they'd always wanted to play over here. Are the band secret Anglophiles?
"It's just that so much good music has come out of England" says Ruthie enthusiastically. "You just want to make sure you play here. I'm sure English bands want to play America, so I guess it's the same thing."
After playing over here a couple of times, have your opinions changed at all?
"Oh yes" says Linda, "but it's the same with everything. When you first start, that first rush of excitement, it's really fun but it's also a lot of hard work. Working here in this country is a lot more work than it is in other countries because we don't get paid as much, and that goes all the way down the chain. It's not all about money though at all. I complain about being in a band a lot because you don't have a life but I wouldn't trade it for the world."
Bearing that in mind, is it hard for Linda to look really happy and enthusiastic and constantly beaming all of the time on stage? That's something which is forever picked up on in reviews but has never been properly answered as such. In my opinion, happiness breeds happiness. If a band look like they are enjoying themselves then it rubs off onto the audience. But how much of it is real and how much is an act?
"It's real because it comes from the inside" Linda explains. "It's sometimes a hard trick for me to pull off but if I do feel like I can't, I have to put everything aside for the next 45/60 minutes or so - I'm doing something else and it's nice. I had a strange thing happen to me in the hotel actually. We've got some friends in Atlanta who've died recently and that's been really sad and I've been worrying about a lot of stuff, but today for some reason I kinda left, time stood still for 10 minutes and I was sort of happy with nothing going on in my mind and I felt 'wow, it's such a great place and state to be at.' Maybe that's what I have to do when I go on stage. I have to forget about business problems and my day to day problems."
And mentioning live shows and touring, at long last Magnapop played Reading last year, after the year before when they were supposed to go (as visitors, not playing) they got held up at customs (Linda: "It was really pathetic....") Was it as good as they expected?
"Oh it was better than we expected" gushes Linda. "The playing part was exciting because the tent was full and everything. It felt really laid back to me, like everyone was just there hanging out."
And, hey!, speaking of hanging out, just who did Linda and Ruthie hang out with this year (apart from me of course, ha ha, sorry, I know, pathetic...)
"I think I hung around with Ruthie most of the time" says Linda, "but there was the Juliana Hatfield Three, and I met all the Breeders."
"Kat and Lori from Babes in Toyland too. It was fun, a really good day" remember Ruthie.
Of course, apart from the multitude of bands at Reading, there was also the bungee jumping. Unfortunately it was a bit too expensive for me and the sight of someone being sick in mid flight was a tad off-putting too, but would Ruthie and Linda ever consider doing such a thing?
"No" says Ruthie firmly.
"Ha ha. You know, there's the tiniest part of me that would do it but there's a huger part that wouldn't" laughs Linda.
What about dangerous sports in general?
"Riding a car..." muses Ruthie.
"I'm not a thrill seeker" says Linda. "Ruthie can skateboard and do stuff like that, which to me is thrill seeking!"
I profess amazement that someone can actually get on a skateboard and not have it stop on them. However, luckily I presume she doesn't skate on tour seeing as there's been no broken bones, unlike, say, Anthrax or Metallica. But never mind, enough of this rambling and onto the question of touring. Magnapop have been over here 6 times and so they must have a couple of on the road horror stories to tell (this was before poor Shannon got electrocuted in Leeds, "He was pretty shocked" said Linda later, laughing at her own pun). Linda recalls.....
"The B and B we've stayed in a couple of times in Manchester. It's not in a very nice side of town and the owner and his wife are very weird. They're probably very nice people but...don't go there, in fact, don't even go near the place, it's horrific!"
Keeping with the subject of touring, I ask Linda (Ruthie has now been whisked away for a soundcheck) who are the coolest people they've toured with.
"Red Kross" she says immediately. "The Juliana Hatfield Three too, we all enjoy each other's company a lot and it's very relaxed and I appreciate that. Juliana's been nothing but supportive of us. She wrote that song about Ruthie because she was so blown away by Ruthie...."
After asking about cool people, I ask the inevitable who's the worst band they've toured with, hoping for a bit of band slagging....
"You know what, I can't slag off bands" Linda says disappointingly. "But the worst thing we ever did was we played Enschede (a small town in Holland which, according to my sister who saw Magnapop there recently, is very pretty but very boring. Makes Heckmondwike look like Las Vegas apparently) with a local band called the Bastards of the Universe and they were just horrible. Full of their own egos, on a fucking star trip and they were nobodies, they were horrible and they were disgusting."
For someone who has just said they can't slag off bands, she's done a pretty good job. Luckily she's not found too many other bands that repulsed her so.
"The Lemonheads were incredible, and Mudhoney were really generous to us. I love them. Usually the people who ask us to tour are really nice but sometimes you'll get a band who are legends in their own minds and are really distant. I do feel that if you're on a bill with other bands you should be able to talk to them and say hi and stuff like that."
So you wouldn't like to support someone really big who never has any contact with their supports? For example, when Kim Wilde toured Europe with Michael Jackson, she only saw him once and they never met.
"No. But you know I'm friends with the people in REM (oh really - Ms Sarcasm) and when they toured with the Police in America they never met the Police once and they did tons of dates with them. I heard about that in 83/84 and so I knew early on that sometimes it happens. But I do like music because I love writing songs and performing and the second best part is meeting other people in the business that you have something in common with. It's just good."