interview by Russell Barker | view as PDF  

Love it or hate it, the term ‘twee’ has stuck like pastel-coloured candyfloss to the sweet tooth of a generation, a sugar rush of indiepop served best by the likes of cult record label Sarah Records. Contrary to popular belief and despite the term’s slightly condescending connotations of twirly girls in gossamer dresses, the first wave of twee bands was almost exclusively male, with one notable exception.

Since the tender age of twenty when she formed the band Talulah Gosh, Oxford resident Amelia Fletcher has been at the forefront of twee, metamorphosing through a succession of identities — Talulah Gosh begetting Heavenly begetting Marine Research begetting Tender Trap — depending on which of her accomplices played alongside her. One such accomplice is her partner Rob Pursey, the original bassist for Talulah Gosh who left the fold early on, only to return in 1997 as Amelia shifted into the Marine Research phase of her career following the suicide of her younger brother (and Heavenly drummer) Mathew.

It was at this point that John Stanley also came to Amelia’s side and, following the departure of keyboardist Cathy Rogers and guitarist Peter Momtchiloff, the trio released their first album under the Tender Trap moniker in 2002 through the UK’s Fortuna Pop! label. Though these recordings were miles removed from the notion of twee pop engendered by the NME’s now legendary C-86 compilation, the tag has stuck fast, though the band don’t seem to mind it as much as the genre’s widely hailed figureheads Belle & Sebastian.

Two kids and a demanding job as a high-flying economist may have waylaid Amelia for longer than her fans might have hoped, but following 2005’s Language Lessons EP, Tender Trap returned in June with new album 6 Billion People. Russell Barker caught up with Amelia and Rob to talk primates, meddling kitties and ravenous larvae.

Tender Trap is now five years old. How does it differ from the previous bands you’ve been in, which had fairly similar line-ups?
Amelia: It’s more like a slow loris than a cheeky chimpanzee.
Rob: Yeah, it doesn’t get out much.
A: Apparently, slow lorises are very wise, and better than the average monkey at hanging upside down by their tails! Tender Trap is definitely a more flexible beastie than our previous bands. Oh, and we always play our gigs hanging upside down.

Where did you get the name from?
A: I think it came from half-memories of both the Frank Sinatra song Love Is A Tender Trap and also a song by Even As We Speak, which also refers to a “tender trap”. It was actually a particularly confusing choice of name when we were on K Records, because K also had Tiger Trap and Tender Forever. At one stage, I had a strong impulse to start another band called Tiger Forever, just for the sake of completeness.

Was it a conscious decision to make the new album fuller sounding than before?
R: We wanted live drums again — and we didn’t want to record the album at home. The first album (which was nearly all recorded at home) was the work of three people who had never produced a record before, but thought that if they spent several months in a room with a mixing desk it might turn out brilliant. They were wrong, because actually it sounded a bit thin. It was nice having a producer [Moat Studios’ Toby Hrycek-Robinson] on this new album.
A: The main problem with the first album was that we recorded it in my parents’ basement with the help of their large cat Wokingham [now sadly deceased]. We would get really great mixes up on the board, go for a cup of tea, and when we came back Wokey would have twiddled all the knobs and destroyed everything. This time no cats were involved.

Which songs are you most proud of on the album?
R: I Would Die For You started out as a nice normal romantic song. But then I started to wonder what sort of love song you’d get if the person singing knew or suspected that their partner was a murderer — someone completely heartless and callous. I hoped that the song could send a bit of a shiver up your spine, the way a good horror film does. So that’s the one I’m proudest of.
A: I like Applecore because it is completely daft and makes me laugh. I don’t think anyone else would ever have written that song! The concept of the song is that a boy has to choose between two girls, and the fun is in the way the two girls are represented. It’s up to you to guess which is me out of “Annie Hall or Amélie”, “Coke or Smoothie” and “B or C cup”.
6 Billion People also makes me laugh, because of the conceit of the song — the idea is that there are six billion people out there but I can’t find the right one for me. The suggested tips for finding a perfect partner are quite serious though. Next time I am looking for one, I intend to use them all! In fact, I’ve already used quite a lot of them in the past…
I also like the lyrics in Ampersand, because of the way that each half-verse describes the same argument occurring, but each time in a different place and a different season. I like the pictures that come into my head when I sing the song — chilly winter days in Brixton, spring mornings spent in Snowdonia, those lazy summer afternoons at the beach and bike rides through autumn leaves. And I like the way these bucolic images are set up against a very prosaic argument — viz that marriage is so completely irrelevant and unnecessary for love and commitment.
That’s probably more than you were expecting in answer to this question. I will shut up now!

Nice to see mention of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ in Fahrenheit 451. Who’s the proud owner of that excellent book?
R: Our daughter Dora owns that book. We are reading very widely in the 2–3 age range at the moment. We’ve also made up a lot of silly songs for her and her little sister Ivy. If we do record another album, the chances are it will be full of childish references, silly rhymes and very easy to sing melodies. Pretty much the same as we’ve been doing for the last twenty years, in fact.
A: Slightly embarrassingly though, I wrote that line before buying the book! I remembered the book really clearly from when I was a kid and it just seemed to fit.
I wanted to get even more book references into that song, but somehow I only got in two (the other one being ‘Fahrenheit 451’). Actually that is another song I am proud of. I find the lyrics moving…but that is probably just me! It’s about how it is possible to get so caught up in the bright colours of books that real life seems pale and uninteresting in comparison. And not worth living.

Do you feel any kinship with The Magnetic Fields? I see you’ve played shows with them and their drummer Claudia Gonson plays on the new album.
A: Magnetic Fields rule! When I sang on the first 6ths album [a Magnetic Fields side project], around ten years ago, I only really liked one of their songs, 100,000 Fireflies. But they have just got better and better since then. They’re one of those bands that make me grin from the beginning to the end of their shows. I wish they played more often!
R: They were our favourite band when we were starting to write Tender Trap songs and I think we were very influenced by them. Maybe we were less embarrassed about having long words in our lyrics thanks to them, and we were definitely less inhibited when it came to programmed drums and things. Claudia is a star in her own right and having her play live with us was the highlight of my year.

There’s been a bunch of shows at the Institute of Contemporary Arts mooted to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of C-86. Which of your contemporaries would you like to see there and will you be playing?
R: We might still be too repellent to the music industry to be invited!
A: We are actually still trying to find out about these shows, but I’m beginning to think they might be mythical. What I would like to do is to take Dora to see Talulah Gosh, ‘cos she is a bit of a fan (Bringing Up Baby is her favourite). But that is not really going to be possible. In terms of con-temporaries, I would be keen to see The Shop Assistants, The Vaselines, Beat Happening and The Pastels. It could also be fun to see Primal Scream — but only if forced to abandon their Rolling Stones-alike bollocks and return to being twee. Come on Bobby, you know you want to really!

If you like the sound of Tender Trap, try delving into Amelia’s impressive back catalogue as well. All four Heavenly albums are well worth your time; try their 1992 album Le Jardin De Heavenly for starters (if only to hear So Little Deserve). Tender Trap’s debut album Film Molecules (2002) and the Talulah Gosh retrospective Backwash (1996) are also highly recommended!