Caturday With Alison Goldfrapp

Yana McKillop: Following the release of your first solo album Love Invention back in 2023, you’ve now gone independent and founded your own record label, A.G. Records — both an ambitious and uncommon move. How did you find the experience of working on Flux as an autonomous artist?
Alison Goldfrapp: It felt like an exciting idea to put out another album, especially on my own label. I was quite nervous about it to begin with and had to do some research and make sure my accountant was confident! My management have been very key in the whole process too. I love writing songs, but to own my own masters feels pretty liberating.

YM: Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the album, and more generally, about the process of working on the new music.
AG: For this new album, I wanted to go back to focusing more on the melody and lyrics. I guess a more traditional strong structure, different to The Love Invention, which was more about starting from rhythmic ideas. I’ve been in Sweden quite a lot. I love it there. Some of the songs were written there in Stockholm and here in London.

YM: You toured with Scissor Sisters this summer, performing on some of the biggest stages across the UK, where you also debuted Find Xanadu, a song from the new album. How did you find the experience?
AG: I mostly loved playing in those big venues, I didn’t think I would actually! Sometimes those vast spaces can feel a bit clinical and the sound feels like you’re underwater. But quite a few of the venues had a great sound and the audience seating felt much more intimate than I imagined, so yeh it was a lot of fun.

YM: This year marks 20 years since the release of Supernature. Given the recent trend of band reunions — which people seem to enjoy, perhaps out of nostalgia for better times in light of the current state of the world — can we expect a Goldfrapp reunion for an anniversary tour?
AG: I do of course stay in touch with Will (Gregory, the other half of Goldfrapp) and there’s always ideas being discussed between us and our management. It’s certainly a very special album to both of us. You’ll need to watch this space..

YM: You have a very good eye for fashion — back in the day, you worked with the iconic stylist Cathy Edwards of Another Magazine and Dazed, who styled the covers of Supernature, Head First, and Seventh Tree, as well as your live performances. Was it a collaborative process or did you know exactly what you wanted for that imagery and look?
AG: It was definitely a collaborative process to work with Cathy, but I had specific ideas that I presented to her too. When I’m writing songs and lyrics, images are always part of that process. Things pop into my head that inspire sounds and lyrics. So it’s always important to me to be able to incorporate these atmospheres in the visual somehow. I love the process of image making. Cathy was a very creative stylist, she adored inventing looks, so it was very special and exciting doing all those albums with her. Seventh Tree and Supernature were the ones I felt visually were the most successful and satisfying.

YM: Is fashion something you find easy to navigate? And do you find that dressing for the stage or a shoot influences the way you dress in real life, or are those worlds separate for you?
AG: I love fashion, clothes, style, but dressing for stage always feels very different to dressing for a photo shoot. An outfit for stage has to function in so many ways, you have to think about all the elements to the outfit, how it feels to move in, how it works and looks when moving in it. In a photo, pretty much anything is possible, depending on your intentions. You can be both subtle or extreme and focus more on detail in a photo. On stage, I like what I’m wearing to have a graphic shape, like a good silhouette and to move well. I like to feel unfussy in an outfit and for it to be light in weight…basically I don’t wanna have to think about what it’s doing during a performance!

MY: Having worked in the music industry for close to three decades — during which massive changes in technology and lifestyle have had a profound impact on how we interact with music, from watching concerts almost entirely through our smartphone cameras to streaming on platforms like Spotify — what have you found the most challenging, and which changes have you embraced gladly?
AG: Social media and streaming have changed the way people discover and consume music completely since we started releasing records as Goldfrapp. It can be overwhelming at times and often quite stressful to ‘keep up’ but I DO enjoy the ability to communicate more directly with fans, it’s always interests me to hear what everyone thinks.

YM: What is next for Alison Goldfrapp?
AG: Next?! Next is a holiday. Getting out into nature and then starting to organise myself and work for next year.