Brix Smith - Interview

by Andrew Twambley

published: 30 / 8 / 2023

Singer/guitarist Brix Smith chats with Andrew Twambley about her time with Salford iconoclasts The Fall, her work with the Extricated and her acclaimed new album ‘Valley of the Dolls’ .

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It’s all too easy to think of Brix Smith as “Her from The Fall” or as “Mark E Smith’s ex”, but that would be a mistake. As the decades have proved, this would be a gross under-estimation of the talent and creative instinct of a one-woman powerhouse who writes honest and sometimes darkly haunting songs that take no prisoners at all. One gets the impression that in The Fall, The Adult Net and The Extricated Brix was hiding behind a band, maybe due to a lack of self-belief. With her new solo album ‘Valley of the Dolls’, the days of supressing her own abilities have long gone and we have an album where she not only puts her head above the parapet, but she dances on top of it shouting forcefully. PB: Hi Brix, great to speak to you. Where are you zooming from? BRIX SMITH: I am in my house in London relaxing and waiting to go out on the road and play my latest album and very much looking forward to our conversation today! PB: Excellent, now on the subject of the new album ‘Valley of The Dolls’, how did that come about and why now? BS: Well, it’s something I have been planning for a while since before lockdown really. A good friend of mine saw me in The Extricated and said that I needed to be doing something else, something a little more personal. Over lockdown, I started writing songs with Youth from Killing Joke. We had no agenda and just did what we wanted when we wanted, total artistic freedom. It began as us writing songs for others but after we completed banger after fuckin’ banger, Youth persuaded me that they were my songs. “It’s your time,” he said and now I have the album and the tour. Life just gets better and better. PB: There are a few guest appearances on the album including Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles. Didn’t you once live in her garage? BS: Yes, I did! Susanna has been my friend since we were both five or six. She lived near me in LA and was my best friend and still is. I would not have achieved what I have achieved without her guidance and friendship. She is the best and, yes, there was a time in LA, where I was “between houses” so I went to live with her in her garage. There were no cars in. It was like a little apartment. PB: To me, the album has a West Coast feel with a pinch of Ramones, a drop of Bangles and a smidgen of Joan Jett thrown in. It’s very solidly produced and has a real sense of empowerment. What sound did you aim to achieve? BS: Well, thank you. I am still a Californian girl at heart so quite a few of my lyrics reflect my early days and I think my background comes to the fore. I had been within a band like The Extricated for a few years and, yes, while writing these songs I felt empowered and wanted to do this for me! Thanks for what you said about the sound. I think it also contains a bit of Brix’s Fall in it. As far as the production goes, after working with Youth and getting the results, I realise that I need a producer. The production on ‘Valley of the Dolls’ speaks for itself, I think! PB: ‘Valley Girl’ and ‘California Smile’ reflecting your early life in LA are standout songs. BS: Well, ‘Valley Girl’ is about the porn industry and how it is centred around The Valley. You probably know that the San Fernando Valley is north of LA separated by a bunch of hills. There is quite a rivalry between LA and The Valley, like Lancashire and Yorkshire. I am not judging those girls in the porn industry. It’s up to them and if that empowers them, well, go girl! ‘California Smile’ is about the falseness of many people there, white teeth, perfect skin but it is all for show. Many of that type of people are shits underneath the plastic! PB: I lived for a year in The Valley in Encino, way back! BS: Oh, I love Encino. It’s a really nice town. I have many friends from there. It’s only just down the freeway from my home in LA. PB: Now, I am interested in the song ‘All My Luv’. Who is, or has the “diamond encrusted asshole”? BS: Ha! Jimmy Savile. He was lurking around when I was in The Fall and seemed to be everywhere with all the high ups, treating him like a King. It’s also about all the other scumbag, creeps, shitbags who perpetrate our industry and treat women like meat. I detest those guys. I am not big into the Me Too movement, I just hate those sleazebag guys and there are a lot of them about. PB: Taking you back many years, you were a fresh faced kid brought up in sunny California, worshipping Mickey Mouse then living for a spell in Chicago hardly out of your teens. Then you arrive in dismal North Manchester! What kind of shock to the system was that? BS: Oh, it wasn’t too bad. I kind of knew what to expect and I was meeting the man of my dreams, so that took precedence. It was bit grim though! PB: It’s probably five years since I read your book ‘The Rise, Fall and Rise’ but I seem to recall, you were greeted at your new English home by Mark E. Smith’s ex-girlfriend’s knickers on the back of the sofa. How come that wasn’t a turnaround moment? BS: Wooh, maybe it should have been, but I took it all in my stride. I picked them up by thumb and fingertips and dropped them in the trash. Thinking about it now, why didn’t he clear them up before I arrived? That’s what a normal fella would have done, perhaps I should have turned back. Ha, ha! PB: I believe your wedding meal consisted of sausage roll and pickled onions? Did you even know what a pickled onion was? BS: Jeez, don’t remind me. No, I didn’t know what any of it was. I suppose it was a bit of a novelty at the time, but I remember that I didn’t eat much! And I hardly know anyone there, just the band. PB: When you joined The Fall, I recall you getting bad press and bad attitude from other musicians, even those in the band, but you overcame all that and turned it all around? BS: I suffered a lot at the beginning. The Fall were a successful band and when joined I was just seen as a blonde who was Mark’s woman, which was the only reason I could possibly be in the band, or so they thought. I turned them all around by hard work and by co-writing many of the band’s best and most famous songs. Then they respected me for what I was. PB: You had two spells in The Fall which are well documented elsewhere, and it wasn’t too long after your second spell with the band that you turned your back on the music business. Why did you switch to fashion? BS: Mark was treating me badly, so much so that I had a breakdown and had to look elsewhere for fulfilment. I eventually met my soon-to-be husband Philip Start and we opened a clothes shop in Shoreditch and it all went from there. I have a gift in that I can see what suits people. I am not just talking about designer stuff, but market gear, second hand stuff etcetera, it doesn’t need to be expensive to look right. I knew I had this gift but the shop really brought it out of me. We were very successful and others started asking my opinion and I started to do TV work, it was great. PB: Just as an aside, when I told some of the slightly younger girls in the office, that I was interviewing Brix Smith Start they said, “Oh, the fashion lady?” They had no idea of The Fall. BS: Yeah, I get that a lot and really it is not surprising. If you are a Millennial, you are not going to have heard of The Fall, no matter how great they were. And, you know, I am not unhappy about that. I like being seen as a fashionista, but these days my music is back. PB: I’ve interviewed and photographed many musicians over the years but I don’t think I have ever spoken to someone who attended Princess Diana’s birthday party. How did that come about? BS: Oh yes, that was when I was with Nigel (Kennedy, violinist). Yes, I did go and quite a do it was. But I do receive invites to quite a few swanky do’s. Recently I attended a party given by Prince Alexander von Furstenberg. He is now a fashion designer and lives near LA. PB: And finally, it was years ago that I think I read this and I may be mistaken, but don’t you believe in aliens? BS: Oh, well that was all to do with Jo Wood, Ronnie Wood’s ex-wife. She was doing a podcast about her big interest, aliens and extra-terrestrials and I was invited on. When I was asked about aliens I said that I liked to lie on the ground, look up and invite them to come and get me, because I am sure I am from another planet. Ha! That’s where that came from. PB: Thnak you. Following our chat I had the chance to experience Brix live at Yes in Manchester. I had seen her several times in the past with The Fall and twice recently with The Extricated, but this was Brix not as part of a band, but as leader of a pack of badass ladies. I arrived early and checked out the crowd as they came in. Most were guys in their mid-fifties, who owned a bunch of Fall LPs, together with a few young ‘uns coming to see the post-punk princess in concert. I would imagine that the crowd were expecting a load of Fall numbers, and to be fair to them Brix did co-write most of The Fall’s best stuff. What they encountered was the singer’s brilliant new album, the aforementioned ‘Valley of The Dolls’. Crisp, alt. rock flavoured California orientated pop songs, co-written by legendary producer Youth. It may have taken two or three tracks to get the crowd accustomed to what they were experiencing, but when they got going they were more than happy to be at a Brix gig, with The Fall receding to the back of their minds. Albeit she did chuck in a couple of her Fall songs at the end). No longer the 19 year old Californian babe who was strong armed into The Fall as Mark’s lady, half a lifetime later, Brix is banging out meaningful rock music that matters. Long may she continue! Photos by Andrew Twambley www.twambley.com