We sat down last year with electro-pop royalty Alison Goldfrapp on her first post-pandemic visit to Berlin to hear about her latest musical venture – the glittering new album “Love Invention”. It’s an electrifying dance-pop debut that marks a new era for her creativity and combines the disco and house influences that form the basis of her musical DNA.
Always one step ahead of the curve, she’s a daring, original, and shining glitter ball who awakens hidden emotions inside you as her sultry voice silks its way through synth-soaked beats. As she steps her platform heels out into this new era we talked about how lockdown created the space and time she needed to reconnect with her music mojo, and bring this new record to life.
This interview was recorded in May 2023 just as her Love Invention album was about to drop.
KALTBLUT: How did you come around to the idea of releasing a solo record?
Releasing a solo album is just something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Will [Gregory] and I worked together on Goldfrapp for over 20 years, and Will has always done other projects. I’ve not been able to do that just because of time more than anything. So it was something I was really quite eager to explore. To try working with some other people, and there were some particular sounds that I wanted to try. I just thought I needed to get on with it. It was a sort of now or never thing.
KALTBLUT: Was it a personal choice for you to produce this new music at home in your private studio?
Actually no it was initially because the pandemic happened. I’d sort of had a little time out doing other things and I had an idea about wanting to work with other people. The first thing I did was work with Röyksopp, which was really fun, but then because of the pandemic, I was forced to set up a little studio at home, so that was more out of necessity really. But what was interesting about that was that it gave me a kind of confidence and a space to explore things more than maybe I would’ve done had there not been a lockdown. In a way that was a kind of positive thing for me to have the time I needed to create this record.
KALTBLUT: It’s almost as if – for a lot of creative people – removing all of that pressure we usually feel left this big space for something new to come to fruition. It’s hard to imagine another time where we would all have so much free time just to explore and play and to create.
I think we were all sort of forced to sort of rethink where, where we were, what we were doing, and why we were doing it. All without the guilt or pressure of not being productive. Even though it happened out of necessity and of course there were a lot of negative things about that time, it actually really helped me grow, and I really enjoyed it.
KALTBLUT: Were you also spending a lot of time listening to music at that time?
Yeah. I totally got my mojo back with music at that time. I’d sort of lost it a little bit, but I feel like I reconnected with it and got excited about it again.
KALTBLUT: Even if it was produced in isolation, the new music is very positive and joyful and it really invites you to dance and like to celebrate life. Did you also miss that feeling of dancing together, or were there other inspirations?
Well, there were other inspirations, but it’s true, I think I probably did miss it, but then I think I’ve even been missing it for a while even before the pandemic happened. I think that’s why I was focused on making something that was very rhythm-based. I still wanted it to be melodic, but I wanted that to be the core of it.
KALTBLUT: It was very strange to live in a city that is so much about nightlife and dancing and then have this completely removed from us. Now that it’s all come back people seem eager to celebrate the thing that they couldn’t have at that time.
I think what’s interesting is that whenever there’s a sort of crisis on the planet the thing that comes after a very hard period is that people want colour and elaborateness and dancing — they wanna celebrate. I think historically that’s always happened. So it’s very natural to want to be with people and celebrate with each other. Working on your own, being on your own is wonderful on one hand, but then it can be isolating. After having so much of one thing, you realise you also need the other. It’s about having a balance.
KALTBLUT: Is this the sound that you want to continue to explore with your newly launched solo career, or do you also want to explore other genres with this project?
I definitely feel like I want to do more and delve deeper into what I’m doing now but you also never know what’s gonna happen and how you will be feeling when you start to make new work. I’ve just always gone with my instinct and, and let the ideas come to me. But I would like to do more with this sound for sure.
KALTBLUT: You also mentioned earlier about the collaboration that you did with Röyksopp. Do you imagine that you’ll keep collaborating with different artists?
Yeah, possibly. I’d love to. I love working with people and I love that energy of when you don’t know someone and they always bring something new and another way of looking at things having that new input. So I’m really open to it.
KALTBLUT: As an artist, you’ve always explored how art fashion and sound all connect together. Did you feel you could do something totally new with this album when you were thinking about how to visually represent the music as well?
I definitely did feel different about it. It was quite a nice feeling to be able to just focus on how I want things to go on the shoot, it’s a totally new and different experience from what I was doing with Goldfrapp. I feel a bit liberated to be honest.
KALTBLUT: Do you feel like you are going to explore some different themes in the visual world of this album? For example with the music videos or the live shows.
The music videos and the artwork are both very deliberate. When it’s live, it’s always slightly different, because there’s so many practical choices that you have to make sure. I mean, now when I see Björk, for instance, coming on stage with some fantastical piece, like she was wearing in Coachella this last time, I find that absolutely incredible but for me personally it’s just a bit too much fabric. I need to be able to move and feel quite free and flowing and not so restrictive when I’m on stage. Then of course there’s always the budget topic. Not to be boring but it’s still a bit of an issue for artists when it comes to touring generally especially now post-pandemic, post-brexit etc etc. There’s quite a few things now when you’re making your art, you’re going into that fantasy place and having all these ideas but then when you bring it into reality you’ll have to scale it back and be a bit more practical.
KALTBLUT: We can totally imagine this record being played in a club environment, have you thought about doing something like that when you take the record to a live setting?
Oh wow yeah I would like to try something like that. I haven’t ever done a show like that before, but I’d give it a go. Of course when I was releasing music with Goldfrapp, Will never toured anyway, so in some ways that side of things doesn’t feel that different for me. I love touring and playing live, but it’s very different from the process of making the music. But equally wonderful.
KALTBLUT: You’ve always had such incredible style and creative fashion choices. For this new record are you working with any designers or are you bringing back any of your pieces from your own collection?
I’ve always loved fashion, collaborating and also making my own things in the past. It’s definitely going to be different depending on the context of what I’m doing, so if I am playing live, then most often I’m going to have to have something made for me, because of the practicalities and being able to move on stage in that outfit. But I want to be comfortable, I want it to feel right and be able to move in the right way. But I did a piece for TV the other day and I was wearing Alexandre Vauthier, I really love his clothes and he kindly lent me some of his beautiful couture pieces. I do love fashion, I love clothes, I love dressing up. I’ve got way too many shoes [laughs]
KALTBLUT: You can never have too many shoes! [It’s worth noting that during this convo Alison was sporting the most incredible pair of golden cowboy boots]
Well, it’s so ridiculous really because I always buy shoes when I see them just because I know I’m so particular about what shoes I have on when I’m on stage. I’ve also had shoes made for me for the stage in the past. You know you’ve got to feel good, you’ve got to feel strong, but then half the time nobody will even notice my shoes and I would have spent a fortune on a pair of boots if I see some I really like, I’ve just gotta have them.
KALTBLUT: It’s such an exciting moment but you might have also felt a bit nervous maybe, about how are people going to receive the new music.
Absolutely, but the feedback’s been so positive, which is so nice. I mean there might always be people who prefer the slower or more theatrical tracks of the earlier Goldfrapp records, but they can still listen to that, that music’s still there for them and I think it’s important as an artist and as a creative person that you keep growing and trying out new things. I think you have to ignore what people expect of you and try not to compare yourself to other people.
KALTBLUT: You’ve been pretty present on social media but this must feel very different from when you were first releasing music, which would have felt a bit more distant from the fans. Do you enjoy engaging more personally with the listeners?
It’s so nice to feel more connected to the people who are listening to the music. Whereas when I started out it was always about the record company and they seemed very much in control of what you were doing and how things went. Now you have this immediate contact and connection which really gives you a totally different perspective on what you’re doing and how the record is being perceived, so actually in a way that feels much healthier than how we used to release music before. There’s of course a lot of downsides with social media, but there’s a lot more diversity in music. You can also find a lot more music and dig into some really niche things, that makes it really exciting I think and it’s much more open and more open to curiosity. Also, lots of genres of music have merged a lot more now which is great.
After our interview, Alison released a rework of the album entitled The Love Reinvention in collaboration with Richard X and James Greenwood. We’re obsessed with both versions! Which one’s your favourite?
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Feature photo by Mat Maitland @matmaitland
