Interviews - Old Interviews - Pimpin' Ain't Easy

Pimpin' Ain't Easy,
by Simon Rust Lamb, February 1997.

Not everyone recognizes it; most people don't even realize that any possible correlation could exist. Emotion, sex and mass murder intricately blend together in the mind of at least one woman. S&M didn't cut it. Kelli Dayton spent her youth writing songs about the strange ties of mass murder and love. Love and chainsaw massacre sounded right. Now, she's reworking those old massacre ballads into the B-side tracks for her new band, the Sneaker Pimps. Kelli keeps that youthful edge and adds the cynical humor that came with aging. Her voice gets dropped down over the musical concoctions of Liam Howe and Chris Corner. Together as three, these trip-poppers stretch their antics beyond the lyrics on their Virgin debut album, 'Becoming X'. Through their liberal use of trip-hop beats, melodies, drum n' bass snares and synthesizer burbles, the Sneaker Pimps definitely have wandered off down their own path.

Kelli might as well be the little devil sitting on your shoulder - always encouraging the worst (but perhaps the most fun) kinds of behavior. Not one to take a backseat to the slings and arrows of outrageous stardom, Kelli and the band have readily taken to the stuporific craziness. She quickly says how many really, really good times they've had together on the road and then realizes she can't remember most of them. Fortunately, her memory struggled to recall one night's comedy, "Somebody offered cocaine to Liam one night and was going mad about him turning it down. It was just because he couldn't hear what they were saying. That was one jolly old laugh we had. We all found out this morning through actually comparing notes."

During our conversation, their cross-firing wit constantly poked the ribs of everyone. Kelli hadn't received the adorations of the following that has clumped about Shirley Manson from Garbage. Is she feeling left out? "No, I'm happily in love." "With her own image!" quipped Liam. As Liam bounced up and down on the hotel bed, Kelli requested that this article begin with the title, "LIAM IS A SPASTIC", later adding that she likes to get away with everything that she can without getting beaten up afterwards by her bandmates.

Not one to ever doubt herself, Kelli firmly stated, "I've always been a rock star. I've never been an ordinary person." She was destined for the musician's life from birth but has now, at the age of 22, gotten into a position where her lifestyle can catch up with her persona. Without a record, she had to occupy herself as a rock-star-to-be. "There's nothing so bad as somebody who is a rockstar at heart. Nothing. I just wanted to play music."

Liam and Chris, the men behind the beats, had been working on acid jazz and other projects in London, putting out vinyl singles as Line Of Flight and F.R.I.S.K., before settling down to a deal with Clean Up records. After seeing Kelli perform in a pub one night, Chris and Liam approached her about working together. As Kelli said, their juncture occurred through sheer, "Do you want to do something with us? Yeah, I'll come around on the weekend and do something."

The casual beginning took a rocky twist as they discovered Kelli's background as an electro-goth girl didn't make for a quick and easy fit into their musical scheme. Rather than trashing the project, the band decided their creative differences could make for some creative permutations. The result, 'Becoming X', crunches these problems of extremely unrelated styles into the best full-length trip-pop albums yet. Each song has touches of irony, wit and darkness. "Low Place Like Home" easily could get confused for Dorothy's eternal "There's no place like home!". It sounds so familiar but , given the Pimps workout, it comes out as a bit of a piss-take, a little lyrical joke from the dark side. Musically, the match comes together perfectly.

As the Pimps begin their multi-continent conquest, there's still loads of activity coming from within their camp. Liam hasn't given up all of his production skills; he was just in the studio with Neneh Cherry working on her new album. In the past, they've taken '60s and '70s folk songs and turned them into something more pimped-out. Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home", written by '60s teenagers Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, wound up with a drum 'n bass re-working on the "6 Underground" single. On an upcoming single, a folk rendition of the Prodigy's most recent single "Breathe" will be the B-side. Also in the works, potential remixes from one of the Prodigy boys, a Japanese tour and then a full-blown US tour.

In the immediate future, no mass murder plans exist. Subterfuge seems to be the current plan as the singles get played on KCRW, rarely on KROQ and all the time on home stereos. Listen to that little devil on your shoulder - you'll be glad you did.