GIVING IN TO TEMPTATION
Welcome to the wonderful (and frequently bizarre, going by the stories told by guitarist and VPT DJ Magenta) world of Tempting Lilu. Led by vocalist Kristine, who happens to be blessed with a powerful pair of lungs, they also include bassist Kyle in their ranks, along with the aforementioned axe-slinger. Boasting a sound that this writer believes sits somewhere between the ethereal shoegaziness of Curve and the crunching dance-rock of Pop Will Eat Itself (although sounding like a much more modern and contemporary hybrid, partly due to the swirling and bubbling electronics that back the three piece), they have already released an EP and are evidently quite keen to produce another one.
But first, let Magenta take up the story on how this unruly crew came to be…‘Kyle and I were whaling in the Pacific. We had been pursuing a monstrous beast for over two years. Many of our crew had lost their lives in our previous encounter but we were determined not to let it get the better of us. One day we finally caught up with the giant beast just off the coast of Peru. A great battle ensued but our ship was torn asunder! Kyle and I were the sole survivors! We managed to create makeshift reins and saddles out of the remains of the ship and we rode the great mammal to safety. Inside it we found Kristine who had been swallowed by the whale while mountain climbing in Tibet. The people of Lima made a giant candle out of the great beast and we danced around it singing Christmas carols. Ok, so it didn’t happen quite like that. I met Kristine in the Electric ballroom in Camden. When she moved here from Detroit, at the time I was in a band called The Vincent Fiasco with David from Doe Face Lillian and my crazy junky ex-girlfriend, which was a horrifying experience! I told my friend Andy who was trying to pseudo-manage The Vincent Fiasco at the time (which mostly involved him drawing cartoons of himself smoking cigars in a suit whilst muttering “Shazam!” and Bad-ass!”) that I was looking for a singer for another project so I could escape the horrors of The Vincent Fiasco and he suggested Kristine. I later met Kyle while working in Cyberdog in Camden…The whale story was better.’
I mention the musical reference points that I tend to associate with them and Magenta, although in some agreement, paints a broader picture of the groups and sounds that inspire them….‘Yeah I think we have a lot of influences from the early 90’s stuff like Curve, PWEI, Carter USM, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Transvision Vamp, Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush and I just recently rediscovered The Darling Buds! I think people only seem to remember Technotronic and MC Hammer from that period of music (ok so I had their albums too.) There is a lot of eighties stuff too. All my happy childhood memories are of watching bands on TOTP like Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Soft Cell, Dead or Alive and The Cure. Outside of that, life seemed grey and miserable. I have photos of me from 1984 dressed up in full New Romantic gear. Nothing much has changed really.I guess more recent bands we all like would be Ladytron, Goldfrapp and IAmX. But influent wise, it could be anything from Serge Gainsbourg to Run DMC.’Bearing in mind that part of the group’s sound is shaped by the use of electronics, I enquire about whether or not their decision to use a drum machine was by design or not, and ultimately why they decided to go for electronic beats, however there is more to the truth than the addition of a ‘Doktor Avalanche’-type figure….‘Because we like the way it sounds, but we don’t actually use a drum machine - it’s all samples and loops mixed on the computer so we can use any sound we like, whether it’s a drum or banging household objects together. We are actually looking for a drummer right now, but we want to have both electronic drums and real drums, because we are greedy like that!’One thing that grabs you about Tempting Lilu when witnessing them in the flesh is the striking visual effect the three of them have. I ask about image, and whether or not they deem it important…
‘That is just how we look as people. We actually dress down for the band as apposed to how we would dress to go to a club. We spend a lot more time before gigs working on the music and we usually say just before the gig “what should we wear? Let’s just wear black again so it looks like we match.” But if you go to see a band and you have to look at them for 30 minutes or so, it’s nice if they’ve made a bit of an effort. The first gig we did was on Halloween and we were covered from head-to-toe in cobwebs. The second gig was at a military themed party. Kirstine and Kyle wore military stuff but I thought ‘fuck it’ and wore a corset and big boots, which I discovered is not good for stomping on guitar FX, or moving around the stage in general. Stefan, our keyboardist at the time, wore a head-dress that would put Carman Miranda to shame and painted his forehead blue. We looked like we belonged to two different bands! So now we just try to match a bit.’Clearly, with so many ideas crammed into their music, it begs the question of where they would like to take their sound next….‘Bigger! More epic! More dynamic! But more to the point.And maybe something a bit 60’s and French? We want to do another EP. We have lots of songs, about 20 or so, that we are finishing off that we can choose from for it. And then we can start moving on to writing new ones!’So, finally, where do we go from here?‘Some gigs outside London for a change! TJ’s in Newport, one in Amsterdam, and maybe Paris? And hopefully we can find a new drummer and keyboardist?’
Welcome to the wonderful (and frequently bizarre, going by the stories told by guitarist and VPT DJ Magenta) world of Tempting Lilu. Led by vocalist Kristine, who happens to be blessed with a powerful pair of lungs, they also include bassist Kyle in their ranks, along with the aforementioned axe-slinger. Boasting a sound that this writer believes sits somewhere between the ethereal shoegaziness of Curve and the crunching dance-rock of Pop Will Eat Itself (although sounding like a much more modern and contemporary hybrid, partly due to the swirling and bubbling electronics that back the three piece), they have already released an EP and are evidently quite keen to produce another one.
But first, let Magenta take up the story on how this unruly crew came to be…‘Kyle and I were whaling in the Pacific. We had been pursuing a monstrous beast for over two years. Many of our crew had lost their lives in our previous encounter but we were determined not to let it get the better of us. One day we finally caught up with the giant beast just off the coast of Peru. A great battle ensued but our ship was torn asunder! Kyle and I were the sole survivors! We managed to create makeshift reins and saddles out of the remains of the ship and we rode the great mammal to safety. Inside it we found Kristine who had been swallowed by the whale while mountain climbing in Tibet. The people of Lima made a giant candle out of the great beast and we danced around it singing Christmas carols. Ok, so it didn’t happen quite like that. I met Kristine in the Electric ballroom in Camden. When she moved here from Detroit, at the time I was in a band called The Vincent Fiasco with David from Doe Face Lillian and my crazy junky ex-girlfriend, which was a horrifying experience! I told my friend Andy who was trying to pseudo-manage The Vincent Fiasco at the time (which mostly involved him drawing cartoons of himself smoking cigars in a suit whilst muttering “Shazam!” and Bad-ass!”) that I was looking for a singer for another project so I could escape the horrors of The Vincent Fiasco and he suggested Kristine. I later met Kyle while working in Cyberdog in Camden…The whale story was better.’
I mention the musical reference points that I tend to associate with them and Magenta, although in some agreement, paints a broader picture of the groups and sounds that inspire them….‘Yeah I think we have a lot of influences from the early 90’s stuff like Curve, PWEI, Carter USM, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Transvision Vamp, Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush and I just recently rediscovered The Darling Buds! I think people only seem to remember Technotronic and MC Hammer from that period of music (ok so I had their albums too.) There is a lot of eighties stuff too. All my happy childhood memories are of watching bands on TOTP like Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Soft Cell, Dead or Alive and The Cure. Outside of that, life seemed grey and miserable. I have photos of me from 1984 dressed up in full New Romantic gear. Nothing much has changed really.I guess more recent bands we all like would be Ladytron, Goldfrapp and IAmX. But influent wise, it could be anything from Serge Gainsbourg to Run DMC.’Bearing in mind that part of the group’s sound is shaped by the use of electronics, I enquire about whether or not their decision to use a drum machine was by design or not, and ultimately why they decided to go for electronic beats, however there is more to the truth than the addition of a ‘Doktor Avalanche’-type figure….‘Because we like the way it sounds, but we don’t actually use a drum machine - it’s all samples and loops mixed on the computer so we can use any sound we like, whether it’s a drum or banging household objects together. We are actually looking for a drummer right now, but we want to have both electronic drums and real drums, because we are greedy like that!’One thing that grabs you about Tempting Lilu when witnessing them in the flesh is the striking visual effect the three of them have. I ask about image, and whether or not they deem it important…
‘That is just how we look as people. We actually dress down for the band as apposed to how we would dress to go to a club. We spend a lot more time before gigs working on the music and we usually say just before the gig “what should we wear? Let’s just wear black again so it looks like we match.” But if you go to see a band and you have to look at them for 30 minutes or so, it’s nice if they’ve made a bit of an effort. The first gig we did was on Halloween and we were covered from head-to-toe in cobwebs. The second gig was at a military themed party. Kirstine and Kyle wore military stuff but I thought ‘fuck it’ and wore a corset and big boots, which I discovered is not good for stomping on guitar FX, or moving around the stage in general. Stefan, our keyboardist at the time, wore a head-dress that would put Carman Miranda to shame and painted his forehead blue. We looked like we belonged to two different bands! So now we just try to match a bit.’Clearly, with so many ideas crammed into their music, it begs the question of where they would like to take their sound next….‘Bigger! More epic! More dynamic! But more to the point.And maybe something a bit 60’s and French? We want to do another EP. We have lots of songs, about 20 or so, that we are finishing off that we can choose from for it. And then we can start moving on to writing new ones!’So, finally, where do we go from here?‘Some gigs outside London for a change! TJ’s in Newport, one in Amsterdam, and maybe Paris? And hopefully we can find a new drummer and keyboardist?’
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