Jo, the guitarist for Fuzzbox, recently talked about Big Bang!,
the band's second album (both on Geffen Records). The record was
produced by Andy Richards and recorded in London, England. All
of the songs were written or co-written by Fuzzbox except for
Yoko Ono's 1981 song "Walking on Thin Ice." The first
single is "Self!"
"Pink Sunshine": "You can take it as an up-and-happy,
swing-your-hips song but lyrically it's not as inane as it might
appear. Pink Sunshine is not a magical land with fairies and goblins.
Walking about on a summer's evening in Birmingham, if you look
at the city center, the sky's actually pink. The song sounds like
girl groups of the Sixties and is over-the-top but it says that
what you expect in life, what you're told is going to happen,
such as true love, rarely does happen. True love is a fallacy."
"Fast Forward Futurama": "A fantasy song inspired
by the bar scene in Star Wars. We got a bit of inspiration from
sci-fi for a couple of songs."
"Jamaican Sunrise": "A companion to 'Pink Sunshine.'
We're told to grow up, get married, have kids, and get a job.
But no one tells you that you don't have to. Sometimes you have
to find that out for yourself. We're all working class girls from
Birmingham and could've turned out to be housewives or secretaries.
But it's not what we wanted and so we changed that expectation
for ourselves. No one else would -- or could."
"Walking on Thin Ice": "I grew up with the knowledge
that Yoko Ono was a terrible woman who split up the Beatles. And
it's just not the case. But it says something about how the media
portrays women. The Beatles were the most successful pop group
ever. That she broke them up is ridiculous. She's been treated
very unfairly. That's not why we did the song though. Walking
on thin ice is really what we're doing, isn't it? If we're too
girlie we won't be taken seriously or if we're too serious we'll
be written off as loony feminists. We're walking on thin ice and
there are probably a few people hoping we fall in."
"Versatile For Discos And Parties": "That's a phrase
Vickie's mother uses. Vickie comes from an ideal, happy family,
the kids get along great with the parents. So when Vickie would
come in wearing one of her outrageous outfits, her mother would
try not to offend her by saying, 'Well, it'll be versatile for
discos and parties.' She's hilarious."
"International Rescue": "People seem to think we
wrote this about the television series Thunderbirds (British-made
with an American cult following). It was in the Sixties so we
saw them just in reruns but it was about these puppets who go
on daring missions to save people from great evil. only thing
is you could see all the strings behind the scenes. While that's
an amusing basis for the song, it's also saying that we have a
great deal of problems that need sorting out in the real world,
real problems. And because people seem incapable of solving them
doesn't mean they can be wished away."
"Self!": "This is not a 'he' or 'she' song, it's
for everyone, but it's particularly relevant to women. They shouldn't
allow themselves to be browbeaten or physically abused. They don't
have to accept that. Women have to take grasp of the situation
and have more determination."
"Irish Bride": "Maggie and I grew up in an Irish
Catholic environment. Well, things go wrong and now our parents
are divorcing. There always were problems but they felt trapped
because they felt they couldn't leave the marriage. Maybe it'd
have been better if they had. You don't have to throw away your
life because you think you have to."
"Do You Know": "When you're too obvious, you alienate
people. Actually, this song's about incest. The victimized person
is told to keep it a secret. But sooner or later it does have
an affect on you."
"Beauty": "A song about the environment, about
how people don't think about nature. They don't see that the bench
they're sitting on beneath that tree was once a tree too."
