| "I love sports," says Casey. I think after this I'm either going to be a dancer or an athlete. I'm going to move beyond language." Fischerspooner is basically sports," confirms Casey. "Sports with a really good soundtrack." Cos think about it," enthuses Warren. "Any opera, rock show, play - it's all choreographed, but sports..." "...you have no idea," says Casey. "Which is how we approach a show - it's just a set-up system. We get a bunch of elements together, agree that it's going to be about this long and then we just see what happens." What happens is that, by having a video link to the dressing room (Casey: "I think it's sexy") and talking over the words he's meant to be miming to, Casey turns a would-be slick pop show into a confrontational art punk event. Over the three shows NME sees, Casey grabs a camera from the crowd, rides around the audience on a fan's shoulders, stagedives, has a drug-addled lunatic thrown out mid-show and stops one song to bawl out a girl for yawning. In LA last year, he spat on an unresponsive audience, then gave them a good kicking. "It's like good sex," sasses Casey "A little bit of violence, a little dangerous and a lot of release." "Music sucks, it's manufactured by bureaucracy, it's based on committee decisions, it doesn't represent any individuality," says Casey. "I'm young and exciting. Hungry. And irreverent." There are two of them. Singer Casey Spooner is 24, German born, gay and publicity hungry. Warren Fischer is 42, American, bisexual and rarely seen. They met as students at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. And, no, they're not an item -Warren's married, Casey's not the commitment type. (Iris says: and so the fans of slash fiction go mental and type madly into the night! ahahahahah!) "We're popular in Britain? I heard a rumour. Maybe it's that ~ classic fascination, love/hate relationship between the British and the Americans. Maybe it's the fetichising of the New York myth. Maybe it's just because we're incredible. I can see us playing the Jubilee celebrations for the Queen. I would tell her a thing or two! I would remind her what her people did to my people. I'm sure I'll talk the talk and then once I got there I'll completely freak out and be yet another American kiss ass. Eventually, I hope that I can get busted and run all over the tabloids. I'm sure they could dig up something on me." Interviewer: Are you friends ? or do you see each others only for working ? do you know each other for a long time ? Casey: We were friends but now we are primarily collaborators. Purely professional. Sex can really fuck things up. Warren again: "Most fun shit is low-levelled," explains Fischer. "So we're trying to create this weird, complicated low art. It's irreverent, exuberant, stupid and smart simultaneously." "I'm glad you're witnessing the reality," says Casey, squeezing into a diamante cod-piece and checking his dancers' 'look'. "Ooh, that looks good Mindy," he trills, securing a cummerbund before donning a gladiatorial arm piece and gazing at Mindy's reflection. "I love how you are little Miss Plain and then all of a sudden… Carumba! It's mon poospoos." "You know what?" replies Mindy, revelatorily. "Seriously, it's fake. That's not me," as Casey goes all real on us and confesses some personal truths. "I was the only art fag in the entire school… I'm the most dull, fashionless person...I completely hope I never sound like myself or look like myself." Hence the emphasis on dressing up - "The best part" - and the unrelenting desire for change - "I don't have a consistent image, personally or professionally." Warren: Fischer continues. "I was annoyed by all the electronic people into antique analogue gear cos it's old and sounds bad. I was like 'that's really retarded. I'm going to make an all fucking digital record." With his hackles raised Casey's a well-stoked ranting machine; a painted pitbull with a limb twixt its jaws. Next up for a ripping is George W. Bush, another of history's mistakes. "It's completely embarrassing," laments Spooner describing the bizarre US presidency. Not to worry, though. "The prophecy can come true," states Peanuts the attendant. "What prophecy?" asks Spooner. "That every president elected in the year with a zero on the end gets assassinated or there is an attempt on his life…" explains Peanuts. "Thank God," sighs the over-dressed singer. "Lincoln, Reagan…" rails Peanuts. "I just want him to be assassinated, just for the principle. I still can't believe it happened. He did not win," argues an exasperated Casey. "He'll be shot," deadpans a convinced Peanuts. "This project has taught us all a lot about spirituality. A new, sexy spirituality is on the horizon. We are in search of that transcendent ecstasy. An ecstasy that is pure and truly human." "I’m mostly excited about the audience. I really hope that people come from the entertainment industry. I want to show them what they’ve done to me. This is my revenge, and they will pay dearly for infecting me with their illusions." Interviewer: On the phone last week, you told me you'd just gotten back from Fashion Week in Paris. Casey: Oh, it was a little bit of cultural research. But everyone was so relaxed and countrified there. You'd see one homeless person a day, with a small, poetically cut out sign that said "J'ai faim." And even they would look as well dressed as anyone else. Interviewer: As a performer, Casey, you’re very childlike. Where did you get your wonder and awe? Casey: I’m a big baby. I love to cry. Spooner also stopped the group's single, "Emerge," to declare, "Electroclash is dead! Are you sure you want to hear this song?" The audience lit up at this assertion, one of the few times they would bother making any sort of noise all evening. Spooner also took some time to dig into current events. "I normally surf the crowd, but I'm a little freaked out with the whole SARS thing," he said early in the show. After the duo's cover of Wire's "The 15th" (in which he implored the apathetic crowd to "pretend that it's hip-hop"), he was feeling a little better. "Fuck SARS!" he yelled. "Death doesn't scare us!" There were also U.S./Canada diplomatic issues to address. While asking the crowd if they wanted to hear an encore, Spooner asked, "Do you hate us because our president sucks?" Obviously he's not scared of a Dixie Chicks-calibre backlash. Spooner and I had a little chat on the phone, and he agreed that the music world could use a bit of flash. "Keep it real, nuthin'!" he exclaimed. "I want to keep it unreal! We just want to have a ball and let everybody watch us!" I’m always irritated by how condescending pop culture can be. I’m not that dumb, and I don’t think the rest of the world is that stupid. It’s interesting to try and make something a little bit complex for a larger audience, instead of it being, ‘Okay, the avant-garde people need to stay in dirty basements in urban environments, and it’s KFC and Pepsi for the rest of the world.’ |
| QUOTES 4 |
| "I completely think I am the most exciting thing," Spooner laughs. |