JOHN MORRISON speaks to incendiary GOSSIP frontwoman BETH DITTO about her band’s subversive success in the mainstream media, and the creation of their first major label album, Music For Men.

There must’ve been moments in their life where the three-piece group Gossip thought that their musical career would simply continue apace – indie album would be followed by a D.I.Y. touring schedule, which would’ve been followed by another indie album, then a D.I.Y. tour, then rinse and repeat. 

But something happened: Gossip became stars. Their single Standing In The Way Of Control from their last album of the same name took them to stratospheric heights, catapulting what was ostensibly an underground band inspired by the likes of Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre into a mainstream success. 

Their front woman, Beth Ditto, also became something of a celebrity separate to her music – her naked body adorned the cover of magazines, and her face was seen at important things. She had something to say too: as the daughter of a dirt-poor mother, she also happened to be a lesbian and on what could definitely be termed the ‘plus-size’ side of life, she was almost larger than life, opinionated about anything and everything. 

“I used to be like I want to do things the punk way, I want to do things the ethical way,” she opines, “and then I started to question what punk and ethics even meant to me. 

“And then I was like, you know what, being punk to me means being able to take care of people who took care of me,” Beth continues. 

Part of the biggest change in the band’s career was the decision to allow the UK teen TV hit Skins to utilise Standing In The Way Of Control as a musical bed for their advertisements. 

“Sometimes you don’t know how your music is used in some countries,” she says, “and people will say ‘I heard your song on this’ and you’ll be like ‘WHAT?!’, and you’ll have no idea. People think the world’s a lot bigger than it really is and it’ll never get back to you, and we didn’t even give Skins permission to use our songs; our label did. We found out about it in an interview. I thought that meant ‘skinhead’ because that’s what ‘skins’ means in the US, and I almost lost my mind. 

“What’s really funny about that is that I was RELIEVED to find out that it was about 14 year-olds having sex and doing drugs,” Beth jokes. 

“So a lot of things happen without your control,” she surmises. “I know that we’re no Queen, or anything like that, but there’s something amazing about the idea of jocks being at a club and grinding their girlfriend to Standing In The Way of Control. It’s the ultimate revenge – it’s like We Are the Champions being the number one used song at any sports event ever. It makes me very happy.” 

The success of the single and album that preceded Music For Men is clear to hear – there’s something a lot more upbeat about this album, with that overall theme seemingly being to make a very positive and ‘pop’ album, with many of the songs as dancefloor ready as Standing in the Way of Control. 

“I think that we’ve always been a band where that was a really major focus for us,” Beth argues. “The first record we made in 1999, 2000, whatever, it literally says ‘thanks to all the kids who dance and no thanks to the kids that don’t’. We’ve always wanted to inspire movement inside of people. It sounds really silly but we’ve always wanted to be one of those bands that you felt comfortable enough to have fun with. I really do think that there’s a ‘cool complex’ that happens between a band and an audience and I don’t ever want to feel that – I want people to feel welcome and have fun. 

“So we carried that over into this record, for sure,” she confirms. “I don’t think people really knew what to expect.” 

Part of the reason for that is that not only have the band jumped from the indie label world of their past onto a major label, but they’ve also teamed with the incredible Rick Rubin as producer. 

“It sounds like a Gossip record, I think,” Beth shrugs. “It’s different to the last one and it kind of succeeds in what we wanted to do with it, which is to make a grown up record with a budget, with someone who has the patience to deal with us, which was definitely Rick Rubin. He was very patient with us.” 

He’s regarded as one of the best producers in the world, ever, and to work with him was – as you’d expect – an absolute thrill for the band. 

“He’s one of the few people who are famous for being good at what they actually do,” she says. “Rick Rubin is a genius at what he does and I saw it with my own eyes. It was one of the most amazing things that was ever said to me while making a record: I was nervous, it was the second day, I’d left my lyric notebook at home, we had to get it FedEx’d from Portland to L.A. the next day ... and I was like ‘what’s our process, I need to know our process’, and he was like ‘well, we’ll know when we’re finished’. 

“And all the anxiety was gone.” 

What’s pleasing is that Rubin hasn’t messed with the Gossip aesthetic – the music is still focussed around Beth’s amazing voice, the coruscating guitar work of Brace Paine (aka Nathan Howdeshell), and the primitive drumming of Hannah Blilie. Added flourishes can be heard on Love Long Distance, which features a keyboard prominently, so it’s clear that Gossip have still experimented with their sound on Music For Men without messing with their basic nature. 

“I think Rick gave us the courage to work it out,” she comments. “Nathan and I were going to do a strictly dance project; we’re big dance music fans. We were going to do Gossip After Dark, and it would give us room to do what we want, and Nathan started learning how to play keyboards. So we wrote Love Long Distance about two-and-a-half years ago, and it’s on the record now. 

“The thing I love about Love Long Distance is I think it’s three keys the whole time,” Beth says with a laugh. “I think that is so classic it’s ridiculous – people are like ‘wow, you added keyboards’, but he really is doing it with one finger!” 

GOSSIP’s MUSIC FOR Men is out now through Sony Music. www.gossipyouth.com

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