Chicks On Speed- The Fashion Needs Music Needs Fashion Needs Graphics

"All aspects of Chicks On Speed are equally important, it depends on what project is important at a certain time, which decides how much energy we put into something. We also have assistants now to help us fulfil our dream. Music is no more important than fashion and fashion is no more important than the graphics."

Currently putting their energy principally into their music (specifically new and third album 99 Cents) Berlin based electro-pop trio Chicks On Speed appear poised to crossover beyond the fashionista circles they've dominated since forming as a fake band in 1997. Still distinctly contrived in some aspects (notably the amateur dramatics of their stage show and much of their music) they're nevertheless confident of their power to succeed.

"We want to reach people with our album and to have an influence on this really dreadful music industry machine that's running and running and churning out terrible music," Australian expat Alex Murray-Leslie told Skrufff this week.

"Our aim is to change the music system, to get it away from being an accounting business and back to the music."


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): It's been six years since you started and you seem to have millions of projects going on, is there now a specific Chicks On Speed agenda or plan-

Chicks On Speed: "Everything is the same as when we began, it's just bigger and there's more happening. We started with our webshop, expanded into a record label then started doing graphics for magazines, and made clothes and we're still working within these realms of creativity, we're just doing more and getting more invitations to exhibitions, whether in New York, Miami or Tokyo. We've also just finished a book which is a new project."

Skrufff: Do Chicks On Speed stand for anything specific, any particular values-

Chicks On Speed: "No, because we're three individuals and we always change our minds. Though having said that, maybe Chicks On Speed stands for doing things yourself, in the sense of saying if you want to do something, such as be a painter of make music, then go ahead and do it. We collaborate with a lot of people and we don't believe in working alone but we do believe in encouraging people to fulfil their creative needs in any medium at any time and at the same time."

Skrufff: All your guests on the album are women, was that a conscious decision to avoid male collaborators-

Chicks On Speed: "No, it wasn't deliberate because when we first compiled the album there was a song with us and Gonzales, a second version of 99 Cents, which is going to be released in Japan. It was a pick-up song and Gonzales was going to be picking us up then we changed the version so our male collaborator got accidentally kicked out. We just happen to have a lot of female friends in the music industry who live in Berlin, Miss Kittin and Peaches are here, Angela Reed is here, though she's not on our record. We chose the collaborators more based on friendship."

Skrufff: Miss Kittin's changed her musical style quite a lot in the last year, away from electro, how much attention are you paying to musical trends-

Chicks On Speed: "We put a lot of thought into the music and we don't like to repeat ourselves or copy music that's already been released. Of course we've been influenced by the likes of The Slits, Delta 5 and lots of German new wave music but we want to go ahead and find new sounds with modernity. We want to go forwards rather than backwards."

Skrufff: The Face ran a spread of you recently alongside electroclashers Larry Tee and WIT, do you feel much common ground with them-

Chicks On Speed: "Sure, I know that when Larry came up with the electroclash term he gave us a lot of credit and said he'd been listening to a lot of our seven inch records, which was really cool. We all share an open-mindedness together. We went on tour with them in America and it was a great. They have an open mind to the fac Tags

• chicks on speed