Spiteri Spitfire
Interview by Alison Powell / May 1997

Eight years after its initial flash of success, Scottish band Texas is fighting and winning a musicla alamo with it's new album Whit On Blonde (Mercury). Lead singer Sharleen Spiteri talks to us from her native Glasgow about the new state of Texas.

ALISON POWELL: It's been quite a long road since you first came to America.
SHARLEEN SPITERI: It does seem like a long time ago now, but I still feel like I'm learning something new every day and I'm still excited.

AP: You Initially called yourself Texas out of an adoration for -
SS: A Wim Wenders movie [Paris, Texas, 1984]. Then when we became successful everyone associated us with the state of Texas. But now it's just a name.

AP: But it does seem that in Scotland - and specifically in Glasgow - there is an affinity for American country and soul music, so I always just assumed that the band's name came out of that.
SS: Country is very big here, probably because Scotland has a folk music tradition, but I really don't know why soul is so huge here. Maybe it's the weather. The music is nothing like where we are, but it's a very natural rhythm for Scottish people to clock onto.

AP: Given that the band has gone through a lot of stylistic changes since you began with a very American sound, do you think the name Texas still fits?
SS: I don't think it does fit, but that's why I'm in a band, because I never fit. As a band, Texas never fit from the beginning. We were from Scotland and we played the slide guitar, but we were using it to make real pop music. There were a million contradictions.

AP: And you've never been part of a scene.
SS: We've always kind of been loners. Everybody talks about this whole Britpop thing and to me, Britpop never even existed. It's just a really stupid name. I think if you live by it, you also die by it.

AP: But of course your influences are not so wildly different than those of the other groups who are now getting so much attention as part of the English scene. For instance, you, like Oasis, seem to really like the Beatles.
SS: Oh, God, yeah. But I listened to a lot of other stuff too: a lot of soul music and blues, and gospel. I was exposed to a good cross section of music. My mom comes from a very musical family, everybody plays. So when people say to me, "What is it like to just go out there and sing?" I say, "I hope you don't think I'm bullshitting you, but that is the way I grew up. I can't remember not singing."

AP: Your voice has always been central to Texas's sound. In doing this new record, have you found any new territory for it?
SS: Well, we did a cover version of the Al Green song "Tired Of Being Alone" maybe six years ago as part of an acoustic set at Ronnie Scott's in London, and that was kind of a turning point. On this record, there is a lot of hip-hop and dance music mixing with the soul. We've also been listening to a lot of Wu-Tang Clan, and that kind of production was a very big influence.

AP: Did that give you a new vocabulary?
SS: The vocabulary came through the technology. We bought a computer, a sampler, a couple of DAT machines, and off we went. Using the guitar in the studio was always very simple and suddenly there's this computer in front of us. There we were, sitting with the manual in one hand and the guitar in the other. But we were running it, it wasn't running us, so we found it very freeing.

AP: Were you nervous too?
SS: Sometimes you've got to make it hard for yourself. It was like that part in Reservoir Dogs where they were having the discussion about "Like a Virgin." It's not like she was a virgin. It's that it was so good, it was like the first time again.

AP: Now that you've got a hit record in Europe, how do you feel?
SS: Relieved. We had just wanted to move on, reinvent the band, and make it exciting for us, and we did feel that when we made White on Blonde.

AP: And has your role changed?
SS: I'd never even been photographed without the band before, but we felt it was time for us to be seen in a different way. We had a bit of a reputation for being hard to deal with because I wouldn't be photographed alone and I wouldn't talk to anyone. I was very hardball. Now I feel very sure of doing things on my own.

AP: Do you think that Texas is benefitting from all the cultural cross-pollination going on in Britain right now?
SS: I think the snobbishness has really dropped away. Two or three years ago you wouldn't have had Texas and [a group like] Grand Central together. I think a lot of bands just started getting out and meeting people. Dance music has changed attitudes too, because at the end of the day, people still want songs. To me, it's a really healthy time for music. There's a massive mixing pot of a lot of great things together. And there's an excitement in the air. I think something really big is going to happen. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it building.

AP: Do you mean politically or culturally?
SS: I'd probably say more in a cultural sense. Everything is of this moment. I think I come from a generation that can just go out there and laugh at things.

AP: Do you feel less affected by the Thatcher era than others who are younger or older than you?
SS: There's no kind of anger. Jesus, Thatcher killed the country, but it's like, let's move on, let's get somewhere else. When people say Scotland should be independent I think, It's 1997. We should be coming together, not splitting apart.

AP: You moved to Paris for a while. Why?
SS: When we finished the last tour in France I thought, I'm not just going to do the usual thing: make the album, go on tour, go back to Glasgow, tell the tour stories, da-da-da-da-da. The routine had to change. For my own sanity it had to change. For Johnny's [McElhone, Texas's bassist and co-writer] and my writing ability it had to change. So basically I just never went home. It was good to be in a different country. When you wake up in the morning there are different sounds and smells. Just getting from A to B in a city you don't know is bloody good for you.

AP: Was this the beginning of making things harder for yourself?
SS: I did an interview for i-D magazine, and in it I said, "To be honest, I don't give a fuck." And the writer made the comment that maybe it's because I don't that things have worked. I read that and I thought, Maybe it was. I just do what feels right.


COPYRIGHT 1997 Brant Publications, Inc.


back to the articles page

If you dont see a toolbar on the left then please click here