Brigitte Aphrodite - Interview

Not so long ago we interviewed the wonderful Kate Nash, in which she admitted that she’s pretty awful for “listening to new stuff”, but she did mention Brigitte Aphrodite who she was touring with at the time. When someone of Kate’s calibre name checks a support act, it’s always best to follow up on that because you can find some amazing talent that you were previously unaware of. In fact the Guardian said that Brigitte is “to Kate Nash what Eliza Doolittle is to Lily Allen”. Some have described her music as “comedy pop songs”, but there’s an insightful sharpness picking away at the nuances of real life that’s just incredibly fascinating.

When asked what her own view of her music is she responds with a laugh “I suppose its like poetical ermm really kind of dark but like comic lyrics, quite punk with a bit of a shiny glittery surface”. It’s apparent she’s enjoying what she’s doing, and it’s the playfulness of her music and character that is winning her new fans as she tours. When asked about her fan base, she replies, “I mean, its growing, it is growing all the time, certain people love it up like girls and gays really seem to love it (laughs.) I guess I’m a gay icon (laughs). It’s really exciting we’ve just made a video like really low budget but really high vis video ermm, The way I like to work is like with lots of different artists that I think are truly creative, bit like ‘Gaga’ but without the big record label and without the… Meat dress (laughs). But that’s the thing we’re all poor, skint and struggling artists and they’re sort of like the other extreme”.

And while we’re talking about tours and fans, we wonder how she managed to hook up with Kate Nash, was she really stalking her? “When I started playing music I sort of contacted her, I’d been to see a few gigs in the early stages, I knew her slightly, started playing music and begged her to come and see it, emailing her and stuff then eventually she came and she’s really sort of pioneered the art that I do which is really nice.” Brigitte then puts on a superb American accent and ends the explanation with “And then it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship” and laughs.

And it has to be said, it does appear to be a beautiful relationship, with Kate releasing Brigitte’s first single on her own ‘Have 10p records’. Her “enthusiastic” performances have been well received, and pretty much most of the media coverage has been positive, so what does Brigitte enjoy the most about her performances? “Freedom! Yeahhh freedom like and also doing these tours or even when I was going to venues in London. so I was going to these like big venues and all of them are hardcore Kate fans so you feel people being a bit like ‘oh my god, what the f*** is this?!’ Because it’s really kind of different like what I do, and then working them, and getting them like ‘Yeahhh!’ Like yesterday they were moshing in the middle of the set, so that’s kind of the freedom and the wildness of it. I think it’s really…. It’s the only time I can feel completely free. Yeah I love it, I love it.”

With backing from Kate, a lot of solid hard work put in, and the build up of her fanbase, we wondered if it had been tempting for Brigitte to perhaps opt for the “X-Factor” route, often seen as the short cut to stardom, and when asked, not only are their musical styles similar, but the attitude of hard work is a common theme too, “Ohh ermmm, I think it’s (X-Factor) really boring! (laughs) I mean I can’t blame people that have got alright singing voices. But its just veery boring like. It’s just the opposite of freedom isn’t it? Like what I was saying about the stage and freedom and that, it’s just the total opposite. You’re told exactly what to do! You know, it’s just gross, and boring. No this is like earning your rosettes you know I think its really important to go through this stage, I mean I don’t really care about fame but I do wanna do music and art for the rest my life. I think people don’t talk about this story, this is like a story you have to go through to get there. Like you could be at a gig and someone shouts DROP DEAD! And like you go away crying, that’s the real side of things, or sometimes you’ll play to hardly anything, or other times you get really great opportunities like playing gigs like this, I think it makes it all the more sweeter. Like someone said ‘this music genuinely ate my soul’ the other day, I mean I don’t earn much money from what I do, but that’s bloody worth it! And when it is my main income and I can get to do art all the time I’m not gonna go mental and I’m not gonna go out of control because I’ve had to manage it for so long. So no I wouldn’t want to be on any other path”.

And during our brief chat with Brigitte she opts to do some self promotion in the cheeky way that only she could possibly get away with “I’ve got a single coming out!! And also check out my promo CD”. And we think you should give her a listen too.

You can find out more about Brigitte from: http://brigitteaphrodite.co.uk/