DIZZY MISS LIZZY

DIZZY MISS LIZZY

LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX

by

Mark J. Norton

Lizzy Mercier Descloux is from France. She has an album out on ZE Records called Press Color, which contains songs with titles like “Torso Corso,” a song called “Tumour,” sung to the tune of “Fever,” the theme from “Mission Impossible,” the sub-theme “Jim On The Move,” and “Fire.” It’s a strange and wonderful piece of vinyl that you can dance to as well as dream to. Do yourself a favor and pick a copy up at your local record store.

CREEM: How long have you lived in the States?

LIZZY: Around four years. But I’m just living here six months, then I’m going back to Europe.

CREEM: Where do you reside in Europe? LIZZY: Usually in France, the rest of the time in Italy.

CREEM: Do you think your career would be in better shape if you were a man? LIZZY: Ah, I don’t think so.. .1 don’t think so much it is a big issue, you know, being a woman...

CREEM: Do you feel you’ve been exploited?

LIZZY: No, not at all. I mean I write the music that I’m doing and I’m not only performing. I’m going to perform on stage and I’m going to be completely responsible for it like most of the things that are happening in the band, I mean—I’m not just used by some male musician, you know, who’s going to dress me up and have me to dance, you know, just to look sexy on stage and just be a support for some kind of music.

CREEM: What instruments did you play on your album Press Color?

LIZZY: On my album I played mostly guitar and percussion, and I played bass on some songs.

CREEM: What music did you grow up listening to?

LIZZY: Ummm...mostly rhythm & blues... some African music.

CREEM: Any artists in particular?

LIZZY: Like...Otis Redding, people like that. I’m talking about when I was really young, like 10.

CREEM: Did you relate to any 'women in music, specifically?

LIZZY: Ummm...not in rock; I like some singers like, I don’t know if you know this Mexican [Peruvian — although that’s questionable—Ed.] singer called Yma Sumac or.. .1 really like women performing like Billy Holiday or it could be Lotte Lenya, the German singer, but in rock I don’t relate to people like Janis Joplin or Patti Smith, or people like that...there are not that many women anyway.

CREEM: Do you think it’s easier for women to make it in music in the 80’s that it was in the 60’s or 70’s?

LIZZY: I think it is easier for everybody, I mean it’s just not the fact you’re a woman, I think even for most people it’s easier because I think you can be in control of what you are doing. In the 60’s, when a woman was singing she was like.. .she was a singer; they were doing the music, writing the lyrics or both; she was just like this voice, you know, and they were just using her for her beautiful voice or something like this, or just because she has a nice face or something like that.

CREEM: Do you think the current upswing of women in rock reflects a change in women’s roles or a change in public taste? Have women proved themselves?

LIZZY: I think they have, yeah, because I’m sure, probably in the beginning when a woman was picking up a guitar, you know, especially when you play rock, I mean think usually men would play guitar that is kind of ...guitar hero, and they’re really tough on you when you don’t really know how to play the kind of guitar which doesn’t have a clean sound, this kind of professional sound. And this idea of playing lead guitar and playing rhythm guitar, it’s something I don’t want to hear about.

In my band now there is a girl playing guitar and I play guitar and there is never this confrontation of who is going to play lead and who is going to play rhythm. CREEM: It’s just guitar...

LIZZY: It’s just guitar!

CREEM: Keith Richards has been quoted as saying something to the effect that, “You don’t play lead guitar, you don’t play rhythm guitar, you play guitar.”

LIZZY: Yes! Sometime you use your guitar as percussion, sometimes everybody plays lead. Guitar is like a weird instrument. Most guitarists I know are really like;..I mean, guitar is a pretty hard instrument to play now. Very often now a when a woman plays guitar they really try to be equal to men, so they’re just gonna practice and be able to have the same sound like Jimmy Page or people like that...I think women have a certain sensibility that could make them approach guitar in a very very different way, in a beautiful way... CREEM: On your album you are doodling over the top—it’s not really lead or anything, it doesn’t take attention away from the main theme. I really didn’t know you were playing it, but it’s certainly nice to hear.

LIZZY: (laughs).. .Thank you.. .1 think there are women doing this, the Slits are a little bit this attitude in England. And even maybe people like Patti Smith if she was alone she would probably like that. I mean, I saw her playing guitar alone, she could be something different like that to play. But very often you are surrounded by musicians who just can’t stand that kind of... CREEM: They say, “Oh, I can do it better.” LIZZY: Yeah, and they just don’t want to like.. .when they hear a note which doesn’t sound right, it’s just like, there is all this discipline about music—you have to play the right note at the right time and it’s... completely boring...

CREEM: And constrictive. By the way, who is playing in your group now?

LIZZY: There is a guy called Jody Harris who played before with the Contortions, and I have two other people who are pretty much unknown, a drummer and a bass player, and I’m going to have a percussionist, so there will be five in the band. I’m going to play guitar on some songs, and some songs I’m just going to sing because I don’t really want to like., .get into too much music, you know?

CREEM: On stage do you project a sexy image?

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LIZZY: I don’t know, I never really performed enough, I mean, I never performed live in the States. Most of the stuff I did was TV stuff in Europe. I don’t really know what you mean by sexy—I think people in the States consider Blondie or something really sexy.

I think people could be really ambiguous about sex and I think it’s—to show them all the time the same image of the beautiful blonde with blue eyes, I mean—the old Marilyn Monroe stuff, you know... CREEM: Do you think men in the audience project their fantasies upon you, do they think to themselves, “I’d like to have Lizzy in bed”?

JJZZY: Yeah, I hope so! (laughs) I’m sure, sometimes in the audience there are two hundred people like that, sometimes it’s just one person in the corner, you know. It depends. I’m sure if you play in New York it’s probably like you can touch more people.. If you go in a very weird, different place in the middle bf the States, I’m sure they have a pretty straight idea of what a woman means, you know, what a woman should do and what a woman should look like.

CREEM: Does that irritate you? Their preconceptions? *

LIZZYr No, I’m sure I’m going to be that way to them, it doesn’t really hurt me right now.

CREEM: Who would you like to produce your next album? Anyone from let’s say, Moroder to Cede.

LIZZY: You mean John Gale? (laughs) CREEM: Yeah hahahaha.

LIZZY: I really like John Cede, but I don’t think he could produce my record. I know him, and when we see each other we just laugh all the time hahahaha. I don’t think it would be a good way to produce a record. CREEM: Anyone?

LIZZY: I don’t know right now. I’m really more interested in getting a good engineer. But not someone who is just a nice worker...I heardi about this guy who produced a Bob Marley record and Third World and people like that and he’s starting now producing rock bands, you know. And he has a very nice way to like form a song... he has a very old attitude, you know, like when people were recording all live. fj