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A great new interview with Bill Rieflin from NPR Music’s ‘The Record’.

Talking Shop With Bill Rieflin, Journeyman Musician

This is a songs-oriented record, but the instrumentation is unusual. Explain why you decided to be a singer and two basses (augmented by other things, including Robert Fripp’s guitar).

The fact is, I didn’t decide anything. It was all Toyah’s doing. For some reason, out of the blue, she asked if I wanted to play bass with a new project. After recovering from the sheer confoundment and confusion, I said, “OK.” I had no idea why she would want a drummer to play bass. The concept of voice and two bassists as the musical core of the group is solely hers. Being that it’s her vision, I can’t exactly tell you the “why” except to say that, as a singer, I’m told, it’s much nicer to sing without having to fight over guitars and drums eating up all the frequencies they eat up. From this basic trio grows further augmentation and adornment. As the producer, I will usually fill in where I see fit, adding musical highlights and emphases. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to show off. Robert joined us on this record as a continuation of touring we did together last year, so this was a natural step.

• Read the full interview with Bill at the ‘NPR Music’ website, here.

The ‘Coventry Telegraph’ also has a new interview with Toyah:

Pop Icon, Toyah Willcox Takes New Band On The Road

The lady in the thigh-high boots and flaming basque-cum-breastplate is unmistakably Toyah Willcox – the stack-heeled wench with her back to camera requires a tad more explanation.

“Ah yes,” says Toyah, “that’s John Wayne! He’s actually a transvestite who owns a nightclub in Stoke-on-Trent – I met him because he’s a Toyah impersonator and now he’s my PA.

“He was there when we were making our video and the director said ‘right John, get your gear on, we’re filming you’.”

Toyah (the surname has been superfluous since It’s A Mystery provided her breakthrough hit in 1981) supplies the information in a matter-of-fact tone which confirms that the bizarre is perfectly normal in her world…

… Artists can sometimes get decidedly sniffy if interviewers attempt to pin down their sound, but Toyah, fortunately, warms to the suggestion that there is a Brechtian feel to The Humans’ music.

“That’s a nice comparison,” she says. “It’s not 100 per cent because there’s a lot of energy and we’ll be playing some new stuff which is very Seattle grunge, but it is a listening experience rather than the ‘come on everybody sing along’ when I’m out there as Toyah. And, yes, it is a bit dark and bleak – the Humans’ world is permanently in winter!”

That being the case, long-term fans expecting a quick chorus of Thunder In The Mountains or Brave New World will be disappointed.

“We will be doing some hits, but they’re not Toyah hits,” she says. “That’s not a possibility because we are so peculiar – it’s not a band set-up – it’s two bass players and a guitar and vocals.”

Read the full interview online at ‘Coventry Telegraph’ here.