THE ROCK-SHOTS INTERVIEW THE BANGLES KNOW WHAT THEY WANT!

THE ROCK-SHOTS INTERVIEW THE BANGLES KNOW WHAT THEY WANT!

Judy Wieder

You just gotta love the Bangles. There’s no way around it. Four bright beauties with precious little room for air in their heads, writing and interpreting those gorgeous songs with harmonies that bring the happiest side of the ’60s all the way home to us. It’s the Fifth Dimension and The Mamas & Papas all mushed together singing, if not “Monday Monday,” then how about “Manic Monday”? Working their way up through L.A.’s “paisley underground” club scene, in five short years the Bangles have gone from San Fernando Valley to national superstardom with their second album, Different Light, turning platinum as we speak. Here, then, are more angles on the Bangles...

Different Light flows so easily, song after song. Was it a dream to make?

Michael Steele (bass guitarist): Oh no, no! God, it was soooooo hard to make. We worked really hard on this record. It almost gave us all nervous breakdowns including (producer) David Kahne. Really? That’s hard to believe when you hear it.

What do you think of people, like me, who compare you to '60s groups like the Seeds or the Mamas & Papas? Does it bother you to be compared to anybody?

Vicki Peterson (lead guitar): We like it! We’re flattered.

Debbie Peterson (drums): Those groups are our basic roots. That’s what we grew up listening to. Groups like the Beatles, too. We always really enjoyed that music so what comes out of us naturally is basically the stuff we grew up on. We can’t help it. We don’t want to help it! We just love that stuff so much.

Vicki: If you can compare one group (us) to the Seeds and the Mamas & Papas, I think that’s pretty interesting in itself. They were so diverse. We have the

vocal orientation of the Mamas & Papas and other singing groups like the Beau Brummels or the Beatles.

Susanna Hoffs (guitar): Not to mention all the soul groups that influenced us.

Vicki: Right! We always got into the Motown sound and groups like the Rolling Stones, too. It’s the spirit of all these bands that really influenced us. If we’re

really combining the spirits of some of those bands, then I think we are being very successful.

Someone told me that Prince did not write the bridge to “Manic Monday,’’ that you did. Is that true?

Michael: No, not really. What happened was that we rearranged it chordwise. We also changed the melody a little bit. Prince had a different thing happening. If you heard his version, you’d hear that it’s quite different. We changed the chords around a bit, but no, it wouldn’t be fair to say we wrote it.

Susanna: Prince even offered us the tracks he cut on “Manic Monday” but that...

Debbi: ...that just wasn’t our style.

Tell me the story of “If She Knew What She Wants.’’

Michael: We love it! That’s a beautiful song.

How did you get the song from Jules Shear? I heard he said Cyndi Lauper would kill him when she heard you guys doing it.

Michael: Well, I’ve known Jules for about six or seven years now. I was in a band called Slow Children, and the lead singer for Slow Children was Jules’s girl friend. He was in a band called Jules & the Polar Bears at the time. Slow Children and Jules & The Polar Bears used to play a lot together locally in Los Angeles... that’s how I came to know Jules. Then I ran into him again when we were in this bowling alley. It was some kind of a benefit called, I swear, “Rock ’n’ Bowl.” It was some worthy cause that escapes me now. So I looked up and saw Jules playing too. I brought Vicki and Susanna over to meet him. They all got along terrifically and decided to write a song together for the movie The Goonies. I do like the song, (“I Don’t Know”), but the movie....!! Well, it’s hard to say how many people will remember us singing it. If you watched the first 10 minutes of the film you saw the scene where some cheerleaders are practicing their routines and one of the girls puts a cassette into a machine and on we come! We’re on for about twelve seconds and the volume is very low, so you can’t hear us anyway. But that was the first musical collaboration between Jules and the Bangles!

Debbi: We appeared with Jules as his backing band on American Bandstand over a year ago when his Eternal Return album was out. “If She Knew What She Wants” was on that album. We just fell in love with it.

Susanna: I interpreted “If She Knew What She Wants" as about a boy I want who is with this girl he’s trying to please. It’s an unrequited love song.

Michael, you have the only solo writing credit on the album, and I must confess that “Following" is one of my favorite cuts.

Michael: I just started writing about a year-and-a-half ago.

I know you weren't writing the last time we talked.

Michael: Yes, that’s true. But there’s something so nurturing about this band—because of the support I got from the other Bangles, I was finally able to see if I could do it.

It's a haunting song. Were you writing it to just one person?

Michael: Yes, a real person.

A man or a woman?

Michael: It was a guy.

I ask because you have the cryptic little bit toward the end that says: “You hold me responsible/yeah, I stand accused/of causing all the troubles after high school/between him and you...

Michael: Yeah, true. The basic sort of situation was the two guys. It was interesting, because the guy that I wrote it about has become my friend again— which is really kinda weird actually.

You mean since the album came out?

Michael: Right. I told him the song was about him and he said: “I never called you ‘a loser’ like you said in the song!”

I just laughed. You know, artistic license and all that. But we have actually become friends again. The song, I must admit, was a real bit of personal depression. Well, as long as you got it out of your system!

Michael: (Laughing) Yeah, right.

No one in the band is married, right?

All the Bangles: Oh, God no!

Do you have boyfriends, and is that a problem for you?

All the Bangles: Yes to both questions!

Michael: All the boyfriends are understanding some of the times, and some of the boyfriends are understanding all of the time, and...

Debbi: ...lotsa the time it’s just plain difficult!

Susanna: There are no relationships that don’t have problems, no matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you have a nine-to-five job or you’re a rock ’n’ roller.

Vicki: If you’re going to be devoted to anything outside of your relationship, then you’re going to have a problem. We are very devoted to this band, so you have to figure we have problems with our relationships from time to time.

Susanna: We’re normal people and our relationships are normal, in that they are not full-proof or problem-proof.

Vicki: You try and find someone who’s going to be understanding about you being gone nine months out of the year!

Susanna: If we’re lucky! That’s why we go out with other musicians. Just kidding!

You must be getting money by now. What do you find yourself spending it on?

Michael: We’re basically at the point now where we can actually pay our rent and put a little away on the side.

Do you reinvest any of it in the music or the show?

Michael: Oh, yeah. There’s one thing about stage clothes. When you’re wearing them every night, you’re sweating in them. So even though they’re perfectly good garments, you can get sick of them real quick! That’s one of the things that we go through quickly. We destroy things, we sweat in them so much.

The Bangles sweat!! Girls sweat!???

All the Bangles: Yes, yes...it’s true.

Michael: Another girl group myth bites the dust.

Thank goodness!