Amelia’s Magazine | Kate Daisy Grant : An Interview

Victoria Miro presents Phil Collins’ latest work, Soy Mo de Me, a thirty minute telenovela created in response to the glaring differences in lifestyle between two Aspen communities discovered while on an artistic residency. Collins’ interests as an artist appear to lie in the lack of responsibility provided by ‘reality’ based media, specifically in the wake of the Celebrity Big Brother racism row.

For the latest exhibition Collins contemplates the ability of popular culture – specifically melodrama – to deal with racism, modern slavery (embodied by the character of the maid), social segregation and the TV soap’s favourite plot device of tenuous identity due to being given up or swapped at birth.

Emotional problems are bigger and more expansive on the set of a soap. Human emotions and miscarriages of justice become shrieked across the stage. The episode portrays the dramatic condition of humanity through our self-created dramas. Subsequently the theatrical acting borders on the theatre of absurd or the Victorian melodrama beloved by the artist.

Popular culture is all too often disregarded precisely because of its popularity. What is too frequently overlooked is its ability to portray and explore political and social tensions through apparently mindless TV. Soaps can provide a different platform to the news media from which to examine the continuing implication of social issues such as race, poverty and the outcomes of inequality.

As in previous work by Collins, the telenovela explores the relationship of suspended trust between the viewer and the camera. Collins’ work frequently asks the viewer to question what it is that they are watching and what is all too often left out of the edit.

Soy Mo de Me continues to question ideas of the camera as a representation of ‘visual truth’ through revealing the set and the people involved in creating the soap’s ‘reality’. The revelation of artifice within TV programmes can also be read as a comment on the construction equally involved in making a documentary, suggesting they can be as fictional as a television drama.

The level of artifice created by crew members is revealed as the camera pans backwards from a particularly emotive scene (the maids begging their mistress for money to save a husband). The movement of the camera slowly reveals the wooden walls that create the lush parlour, the camera crew and the maid walking off set, shaking off her character as she accepts a drink from an on set runner.

A beautiful film, it retains a humour portrayal of humanity’s continuity amateur dramatics whilst in search for a sense of identity. Soy Mo de Me’s poignancy lies in the level of inequality visualised between maid and mistress (a reference to Genet’s exploration of the violence inherent in the unequal relationship between maid and mistress).

The unsettling technique of changing actresses playing the lead characters also comments upon the use within telenovelas of lighter skinned actresses to play mistresses and those with darker skins to portray maids. Collins’ use of multiple actresses playing the role of maid or mistress disregards skin colour, consequently disregarding another human folly, the separation and value of people through the colour of their skin.

The decision to change the actresses playing the maids highlights the continually changing face of slavery, or to be more specific, the facelessness of those who make the world tick. These actresses become those ever-interchangeable characters history too often forgets.

The telenova’s predictable framework, manipulation of the viewer’s emotions, incredulous narrative, and most importantly the huge part of the culture of the community, are all elements Collins records. Soy Mo de Me is a homage to humanity’s ability for dramatic flourishes and popular culture’s opportunity to question the current status quo through over dramatic situations.

The exhibition finishes this week. It is a must see before Christmas.

I was making my way through my e-mails one morning at Amelia’s HQ and I came across one from a lady called Kate Daisy Grant. This caught my eye as it is the name of my old boss…and her daughter… merged? Confused. I know she is not the most technologically gifted of folk so I was miffed to see an e-mail from her. I had no doubt that it was going to be about how much she missed me and my mocha making skills, discount However it wasn’t her at all. It was another lady, pharm who perhaps is a distant relative (we explored the idea at one point). Anyway, I checked out her myspace and “I liked it” as Louis Walsh would say. So Kate and I arranged to meet in a blind date stylee in Brixton.
“…What do you look like so I know how to spot you?…”
“…Im wearing a tan faux fur jacket, pale blue jeggings…”
I sounded like a compete tit. Fake fur and “JEGGINGS” I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t bother turning up. I sound like I have been rolling around in Coleen Rooneys wardrobe. I didn’t mention my diamond head band, I think if I did it perhaps that would have been too much. The beautiful young thing came bouncing up to me at the station with a pretty pixie crop, I was expecting something like this when she said she had cut her own hair. We bonded over our love of the “luscious motion” of gel pens then Kate began by telling me about her musical upbringing…

Kate: My Granny was a concert pianist, but she gave up due to performance nerves, and she got married instead. It was the 30s or 40s and it’s a shame that in that era the advise was “Your too nervous, You should just give up!” My mum was a ballet dancer and I played the piano before I could even reach it!

School was a musical time?
Yeah, total geek! The only thing I have ever nicked are choir music sheets!

The only thing I really played at school was recorder, Did you go down that route?
Yeah, all routes; cello, piano, singing… Now I have a collection of toy instruments, toy bells, tiny piano, autoharp…

Your home is like a musical museum then?
Yeah, Totally! And puppets as well. I’m making lots of puppets for a video. Usings lots of pompoms and wool! I’m trying to knit a baby at the moment!

I have a big bag of pompoms that my sister used for a project and I wouldn’t let her throw them away, would you like them?
Yes! That would be great! I would actually because I want to make a panda and I could make sheep out of them!

I knew I was keeping them for something!
This is to accompany your music?
Yeah, this is the single I guess from the film so I’m doing a video for it. It’s based on a 50’s film called “Lili” which is about a girl who follows around a travelling circus and she falls in love with a puppeteer who is a bit of a bastard, but he is really nice to her through the puppets, and she becomes part of the act, So it’s a reworking of that.

When shall this be released?
January, then I’m going to do a whole spate of videos in January.

So this first video is for “One Thing You Should Know About Me”? Is this available now?
It’s on the film soundtrack and its available on itunes at the moment. I haven’t done a big push yet because I’m going to wait until I can do it through some kind of label or my own, to properly shunt it out there! I am published by Sony but we record independently so we have more freedom.

It must be nice to have that creative control?
Yeah defiantly, I know people that are singed to the wrong label who aren’t even aloud to gig- they just put you on the shelf so thank god I’m not like that.

So where since school has your musical journey taken you?
I dropped out of theatre at university because I wanted to gig and not be told if I was good enough to write or perform, I just needed to get on with it.

Where did you study?
Bristol, I spent about 5 weeks there! I’m from London, Hammersmith. So since then I have been gigging, I’ve been at The Edinburgh fringe, Written a children’s book which is being turned into a ballet next year!

What’s the kids book about?
It’s called “The Fox and the Pig”, have you read the little prince?

No…

Love it! It’s tiny! It’s a French book…

Yes!! I have! I bought a clock in a charity shop like 2 weeks ago, that is so weird! I have not read the book…
That’s so lucky! What a great thing to have! The book is great! Get it! It’s a fable about a man who comes form another planet and visits all these planets on the way to earth and he tells an airman who is stranded in the desert all about these silly adults he meets…and he dies at the end so he can go back to his own planet. So our book is like that- a tragic love story between a fox and a pig. We did models like Bagpuss style, Victoriana style models, a toy stage from an orange crate, made everything like flowers out of glacier cherries and stuff like that. And so somebody wants to make it into this ballet puppetry!

So, where shall this be?
In London, somewhere we are looking at venues but it might still be a while but we are defiantly going to do it. Hell of a lot to do. We are going to use shadow puppetry, and I have written the soundtrack too….

I understand that you’re a fan of toys, Last time I went to the dentist, I saw these toys in the waiting room, They are straight from my childhood! Do you recognise them at all?
That would be big bird- you wind him up? I defiantly recognise him!

I think the bear could be a great instrument…

You are right, I’m going to go into Argos and charity to see what hey have got. I have a speak and spell! Around the corner they have a Qur’an, You press a button its chants! And I have a robot that plays the double bass. I use instruments in weird ways, like the way I create a tambourine sound is I fill a toy drum with pennies and it makes a nicer sound than an actual tambourine, cheese graters with a loosely held handful of spoons! I’m just desperate for new sounds!

Do they come to you in the middle of the night or is it just from stuff lying around?
When I was doing the sounds for the children’s book, I realised that my budget was totally limited and I went round just knocking chairs and walls and various filled glasses all around my room! Toy wise- I used to have bells- they are really out of tune, but they sound amazing! A toy piano from the 50s that I dismantled, it sounds better now! I just wanted to see inside what goes on!

Where do you find them?
Brixton market! It is so rubbish!
So rubbish its good

There are a lot of kinda leftfield pop strong female songstresses around at the moment, which ones would you call yourself a fan off?
PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Bat for Lashes, Cat Power and Bjork.

Do you go to gigs a lot?
I saw The Yeah Yeah Yeahs not that long ago- so amazing!! I’ve also been to The Correspondents and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis.

So, Instrument and toy wise your Influences are quite, retro lets say? Is this the same with your musical influences?
Yeah, well, Tom Waits, he uses sweet sounds pots and pans dustbin lids, he is an influence. I love how he can have a sweet sad melody with something creeeakin’ in the background like something being wound up and your not quite sure what it is!
I like film soundtracks and French films like Amelie…

Have you seen “Love Me If You Dare”? That’s a French film- best film ever.
Oh god I have seen it! And they marry themselves! It’s got that purity and it’s really clean story telling with a dark ending!

How did your work for the film “Mr Right” come about?
We met through a friend – he kept playing my music in his shop and the director heard it and decided that it was perfect for the end scene in the film. It’s about gay relationships with out having any characters that play to gay stereotypes, it’s really refreshing. I wrote a song as well for the opening scene and more.

Did you get quite a free reign?
It was amazing because she showed me the film and showed me the scene that she wanted the music for, it all came instantly into my head and it wasn’t a struggle at all and I did it all in about 2 days. She didn’t change anything that I had done it was a pretty blessed situation.

You record in London?
For the album- I used a studio in North London with my producer. Sometimes I record straight onto a laptop- not even with a mic! So it has this kinda messy quality!

Tell me about the relationship with your producer?
I have known him bout 2 years now-2 years working together, He is amazing, a total surf dude- in attitude- he doesn’t actually surf at all, he is amazing, drenches stuff out of you! He is like a Jewish Bob Dylan!

Jewish Bob Dylan surfer dude

And so he would play live with you also?
Yeah, his name is Ken Rose and we have an amazing cello player called Hannah and we are there with dustbin lids and bells.

Gigs in the new year?
Yeah there are in the pipeline!

Finally, If you could live any era when would it be…
I am torn between the 20s and Victorian era- or the 40s?! Before climate catastrophe and people were inventing really exciting things. I think they are now- but in a different way. Everything was so fresh and there was a hunger for entertainment!

There are so many different layers to Kate Daisy Grants sound. When you listen to her its like visiting a fairground, like another world! Her truly unique sound is built up with her collection of jingles from toys and clanks of household objects. These arranged with her charming vocals arranged over the top give her music the ability to transport you back in time to a number of dreamy destinations.
Amelia’s will keep you posted with her live dates in the New Year, In the meantime check out her myspace and the film “Mr Right” is out now which you can catch it at The Prince Charles Cinema.
Kates album is available on itunes.

“The Fox and The Pig” photographs are copy write of co-writer of the book, Myles Quin

PS.
This is my clock…

Written by Rebecca Milne on Wednesday December 16th, 2009 5:10 pm

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