Music Interview : Texas
from Eye TV - January 2001

The Glaswegian band Texas have been enjoying such success of late, that it was only fair we had a chat with the lovely Sharleen Spiteri.

She filled us in on the gossip, including her controversial thoughts on the boy bands in the industry today!

EYE: Hi and welcome to the show. Now the new video with Elvis, why did you chose that?

SS: Well I thought I probably looked more like Elvis than Debbie Harry, so I went for Elvis! My video director and I were having a drink after doing the In Demand video and he proclaimed I'd make a very good Elvis and the joke turned into reality.

EYE: Tell us how you became Elvis then.

SS: Six and half-hours in make up! There was a lot of run up to it, having my head cast and going to Shepperton Studios, then they had to test all the prosthetics on me. A lot of bold caps and Vaseline!

EYE: Bigger chin as well?!

SS: Yes! I'm glad you noticed that!

EYE: Are you a fan of Elvis then?

SS: Yeah, I love Elvis. I remember growing up with Elvis, I had really long hair when I was young and in the bath I'd put loads of shampoo in and put my hair in a big quiff.

EYE: So what's the response been like to the single?

SS: Unbelievable, it's doing really well, and the album is so people are really into what we're doing right now.

EYE: Do you think it's a risk releasing a Greatest Hits album when people will already have all your singles?

SS: I really didn't know how it would be received, but people have been coming up to me saying I didn't realise you did that song and that song. There's twelve years of music been released, the band's been together for fifteen years. So there's a lot of stuff that people have forgotten.

EYE: So you're going out on tour, what are the audiences like?

SS: they're really really varied. I can't pin-point what our audience is at all. It has changed throughout the years as we've been around for so long. There are still people there who were there in 1989.

EYE: What do you think about the charts at the moment with the likes of Britany Spears and boy bands?

SS: Everyone's freaking out about it, but at the end of the day those bands have got to be about because they make people like us look very good.

EYE: Controversial! So you don't ever feel you have to change your music to fit in with new trends?

SS: I would say that current music is very influential in what we do. We don't think we're fantastic and don't need to listen to anyone else. But the thing to remember with us is that we're songwriters, which makes us different to a lot of the bands out today. So that's what we first of all do. I could go off and write songs for all of these bands, I'm a musician and a songwriter. And that's what's important to me. The new sound's coming through and the different beats is very important to what I do, I'm very aware of it.

EYE: You've had so many hits over the years, do you get blase about it now?

SS: No, I've got to be honest with you, it gets harder and harder. You don't know if people are going to get bored of you. We've got people around us that are very honest about what we do, so it's good to have our friends and family. But as far as releasing albums goes, I deal with it worse now. I try and have a late night Saturday so I can sleep through Sunday and not have to hear the charts, then hopefully get woken up with a phone call of good news.

EYE: As anyone ever said that you're records have touched them?

SS: Yeah, a lot of people say things like that. It's funny when people say that our songs are like "their" songs when they met their husband or wife. You feel so much part of their lives, it's quite funny.

EYE: What's coming up next for you?

SS: The tour's going to start and I'm looking forward to that, jumping up and down on stage and having a bit of fun.

EYE: Well good luck with the tour and thanks for talking to us today.


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