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"Revenge", according to the recent remix album, "is the sweetest fruit", and Lesley Rankine is revelling in it. Four years on from the acrimonious disintegration of her last incarnation, the noisy punk band Silverfish, and Lesly is having a Cantona-style kick at everyone in her path - record company employees, journalists, the N.M.E., Melody Maker, Portishead, Blur, Oasis - showing off her brand new blue hair, and a typically engaging and cathartic live performance that does away with all those silly Portishead comparisons.
First of all, Ruby is you and Mark Walk?
Yes! Fuck, every time I meet people they always ask that and it really pisses me off. I don't really mind when I get fans and people like that coming up and asking me, but when I get journalists and record company people ...all I can say is learn your job wanker!
What were the reasons behind you leaving for America?
Well, when Silverfish spilt up I didn't know if I was even going to do music again. I was totally sick of it, the whole business side and everything. And on top of all that I was still contracted to Creation, so I had to absorb all the debts and all the shit that was left from Silverfish. When I left England it was full of bands like (in a disgusted tone) S*M*A*S*H and the New Wave of New Wave, and all that fuckin' shite and I had no interest in all that.
Are you coming back to London?
I lived in London for nine years, and I've got no desire to return there, because its head is up its arse really. Its got really fuckin' incestuous, and everyone pays so much attention to Melody Maker and NME who are in turn only interested in which pubs its cool to be seen in. I was a part of that Camden scene thing, it started to bug me so I just pished off and did my own thing and now they don't like me. In America those papers are seen as a joke - like the Sun or something. So I don't give a shit because the NME and Melody Maker are FUCKIN' SHITE!
Did you have any preconceptions when recording 'Salt Peter'?
No, not at all. We basically just made the record we wanted to make. Myself and Mark just shut ourselves away and concentrated on music we loved. We looked at things we loved over the years and thought about why they were so good and why we liked them so much. We went right back to Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin and though to recent stuff like Nine Inch Nails 'Downward Spiral', Stereolab's 'Mars Audiac Quintet'. SO it sounds how it does because of the summation of influences, not because we're intae a bit of drum and bass! Thats not where Mark and I come from, we come from a indie rock background.
How has your writing changed from your Silverfish days?
I write the same as I did in Silverfish, its just the instrumentation thats changed. In saying that, though, this is the most personal album I've ever done. And a lot of people expressed their surprise that I could actually sing - which is something I never got to do in Silverfish, mainly because on stage I had this ongoing bloody noise to contend with. I mean, I wrote a lot of songs from Salt Peter when I was still in Silverfish, like "Bud", which I wrote in 1993. I never got the chance to diversify or develop, although I was planning to do some solo work anyway. In saying that though, although the music is still much easier to listen to, I'm still fuckin' pished off with everything!
Have you gone out of your way to make the music more sexy?
Well, again, that has a lot to do with the influences. Which is why I mention Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald so much, I'm attracted by the groove in the music just as much as the rhythm.
What about your first band, the Grizeldas?
Oh Christ, that was (in a lowered voice) years ago! I wish more people had heard of the Grizedlas, because maybe then they wouldn't be surprised about how musical Ruby is. The Grizeldas were an all female 60s garagey punk band and we were around well before Silverfish. We were into stuff like 13th Floor Elevators and a lot of our original material was in that vein.
What do you make of the Portishead and Tricky comparisons?
Jesus, that was another thing started by the press. I was in a coffee shop in Belfast this afternoon and that Portishead album was on I started getting intae a bad mood. To me Portishead are a one-trick pony, they were able to formulate one really good song then repeated ten times over an album. And I generally like music with a bit of energy to it. I mean Massive Attack are really brilliant band, and I've liked them for years, but Portishead are just boring. And as for the Tricky comparisons, well, I've got the album and its really new and all that, but I always find myself flicking through and listening to about four songs.
And what about the media images? Was the whole glamour thing a reaction against what went before?
In a way, I suppose it was. But when I got those pictures done I just wanted to see a once picture of myself! In Silverfish I wanted to be androgynous, I had other things I was pissed off about; sure, I was angry about men, but the whole 'Hips Lips Tits Power' thing was a subversion of the feminist thing. I was sick of that whole image of me being really loud and aggressive, all anyone wanted to see was me swearing and drinking beer. No-one ever bothered to notice that I might have something intelligent to say.
What do you think about PJ Harvey's new glam image?
Well, I think she's really funny doing that Drag Queen thing. PJ doesn't really suit looking glamorous, she ends up looking really gaudy and frightening. I mean, she's still a really sexy woman, but she's a blues singer from that line of singers like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, she doesn't need to tart herself up.
What about the remix album? Does it hold any keys to what you'll be doing next?
The reason for the remix album was to see what other people would make of my music. We wanted people to remix it who were going to make a good job of it. Which is why we didn't ask someone like Al Jourgensen, we wanted something you could listen to, so I could go "Listen to this Mum!". Its hard enough to find good people these days, I didn't want somebody trying to make it into a Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Menswear-type thing because I fuckin' hate all that shite! So we got people like Peshay and Red Snapper in and I'm happy with the results. The Red Snapper remix is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard, and my voice is on top of it, which is a thrill!
Have you any future plans?
Well, I'm homeless at the moment because I'm touring, but Mark and I don't have any plans for the next album. He didn't come on tour with me because we'd hate each other by the end of it. I'd like to just get weirder and weirder with each record, in a gradual way and end up like Brian Eno or something. Or we might just pish off somewhere and buy a farm!
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