Do I need to tell you how great Psychonanny And The Babyshakers are? They're great! GREAT! Go and see them on the 26th of June at the Red Rattler, the 1st of July at the Oxford Arts Factory or the 18th of September at the Excelsior. Actually, fuck it, go to all three of those shows. Full House ain't going anywhere.
CS: Do you wanna be celebrities?
Sonia: I think I would, actually. Yea.
Simon: I want Sonia to be a celebrity.
Sonia: He wants me to be a celebrity. (To Simon) I want you to be a celebrity too.
Simon: I don't think I'd be very good at it.
Sonia: I think you would. You have really expensive, decadent taste and you're an exhibitionist, you'd be an awesome celebrity. We'd be celebrities in the grand style of celebrity. Not, like, boring celebrities.
CS: Like, plastic surgery, tabloid magazine types?
Sonia: Well, not plastic surgery/tabloid, but you know, old school grand gesture, 1940s celebrities.
CS: So the fur coats and the fancy cars types?
Sonia: Not the fur coats. No, I think it's just all about making grand gestures in public. And have the ability and power to do so. The money to do so.
CS: Do you think becoming rich and famous can compromise musicianship? Like, if a musician gets a lot of fame and attention, how do you think would that affect their output?
Sonia: I read the dude from Portishead was talking about how, before he was famous, he was making this really lo-fi, depressing music. And then after they got famous, when it came to the second album, he was like, 'Suddenly, I had money to pay my electricity bills, had a girlfriend, I was kind of happy. I didn't feel like writing that kind of music any more.' But, I don't think that would necessarily happen. I think that as long as your music's still coming from the same place and it's not, as you grow in popularity, trying to please people, then I think it'll be essentially the same.
CS: Except with more money.
Sonia: Yea, except with more money. Maybe even just more time on your hands to write music and practice it and play it and spend time on recording your album. Not having to go, 'Oh, we only have this much money, and I can't take the day off work.' And, you know, (to Simon) how many times have you wanted to take the day off work and just stay home and play guitar all day or work on a song, and you can't?
Simon: This morning.
CS: What do you think the pros and cons are of being famous?
Sonia: Maybe altering your behavior for the public.
CS: So that's a con?
Sonia: Yea, that's a con. Maybe, trying to like, cater for more people whereas before you might have just written for yourself.
Simon: Or maybe people discovering secrets from your past.
Sonia: Yea... digging up the real dirty shit. And all of your friends from high school coming out in Hello! Magazine, saying that you diddled with them or something.
Simon: What?
Sonia: I don't know! I was looking into your past, you look like you would've been a little pervert. People cashing in on you, not being able to tell who your real friends are... But I think you'd have to be pretty stupid not to be able to tell who your real friends are.
CS: I guess it'd be hard when you're a celebrity though.
Sonia: I think it would if you started believing in your own mythos. Which is, you know... dangerous. If you're prone to flattery.
CS: What do you think it is about regular people, the plebs, that makes them want to buy tabloid magazines and watch reality tv, and just buy into this whole cult of celebrity?
Simon: It's a fantasy.
Sonia: Yea, it's just a fantasy. You know, they're the new gods, the new royalty.
Simon: It's like that game you used to play when you'd imagine you'd won the lotto. And you think, 'What would I do with all that money?'
Sonia: Yea. But I don't like that they're on reality t.v shows and whatnot, because celebrities should be these crazy, well dressed, god like figures who do grand gestures and they live in this realm where... like, you know, in the middle ages where you had the serfs and the peasants and there was this noble class who were allowed to just go about their business and practice stuff and learn languages and become accomplished. And there's that realm of people and once they're separated enough, once they have enough money or whatever, then they can do all of that. You can concentrate on creating something. You're supposed to be a, you know, a light. And all of these other celebrities, they're just boring. Who gives a fuck about Jennifer Anniston, walking down a beach with her dog, looking depressed?
CS: She's probably thinking about Brad.
Sonia: Yea
CS: But yea, there's been a lot of stuff around about the death of the "Star." That there aren't any Stars anymore there's just these dickheads in tabloids. You know, we used to have people like Rock Hudson who could be gay as anything and women still worshiped him because you never heard about that sort of thing.
Sonia: I reckon George Clooney's gay.
CS: Yea, for sure. Maybe he could be the new Rock Hudson. Or maybe not...
Sonia: No, totes. Or, who's another one? Cary Grant. Cary Grant was fine, and then he married Dyan Cannon so he could have the perfect Jewish child. No joke.
CS: What do you think the implications are, though?
Sonia: Of what?
CS: Of having these boring, ugly celebrities who we hear everything about? Of losing the idea of, you know... crazy, enigmatic Stars?
Sonia: It's just boring. It's just photos of Britney Spears dressed like a dairy queen, looking like white trash. Putting petrol in her car or something. It's really mundane. It's like, what do we have to aspire to? That's why I like the Kate Mosses and the photos of her taking coke and... celebrities should misbehave, like rock stars. Like the Rolling Stones.
CS: Do you think that... I mean, I'm probably going on to a different subject now but do you think having these famous people who see pictures of all the time, looking more or less like a regular person on the street, do you think that ever affects the way people dress or act or relate to each other? Like you said, it doesn't give us anything to aspire to.
Sonia: Yea, I mean, it's just celebrating mediocrity. And maybe people, they like that better. The girl next door or whatever. Maybe it's a group thing, but it's still fucking hypocritical. Because people are like, "Jen looks like the girl next door", but she still spends thousands of dollars on a personal trainer, and on her clothing, it's just really boring clothing.
CS: Do you think we tend to project on to celebrities at all? Like, with the whole binary things they set up all the time with Jennifer Anniston v. Angelina Jolie, and Taylor Swift v. Miley Cyrus?
Sonia: I don't know, I think idiots do that. Like, they'd go, "What are you, a Jen or an Angelina?" I don't think it affects as many people, I hope it doesn't affect as many people, as you might think. Simon, do you have any thoughts on that? Am I a Jen or an Angelina? Please say I'm an Angelina.
Simon: I did have a thought, but it's gone now.
CS: What are your thoughts about the celebrity photoshopping stuff?
Sonia: Interestingly enough, I was at my mum's house the other day, and she had this Woman's Day, and they had a photo of Britney like, before and after shot for this new underwear thing she's doing or something. And it really was amazing, like her arse looked awesome in this shot...
CS: Oh, I think I saw that. Is that for the shoes?
Sonia: Shoes or undies, I don't really know.
CS: Well, I saw it, and it's like Britney Spears' new ad for Candies?
Sonia: Yea, Candies.
CS: Yea, but she's wearing that two piece swim suit thing? With her back to the camera? And I was like, how is that advertising shoes? I'm not even noticing the shoes...
Sonia: Yea, you're just staring at her awesome photoshopped butt. But it was dramatically different. Like, in the before shot, she had all of these bruises on her legs and this kind of dimpled arse. And what they could've got for that ad, if they wanted a girl with a perfect arse, they would have just gotten a model. But they just want Britney Spears. And it just shows there's no imagination in advertising, you'd probably rather see something real, like bruised legs and-
Simon: Why do girls have bruises on their legs?
Sonia: They don't always.
CS: Britney probably gets them from falling down outside nightclubs.
Sonia: Yea, totes. Or carpet burn.
CS: Or dropping her children.
CS: Yea, dropping her kids. I loved it when she went nuts. There was this photo of her, and she's get like no hair and she's just going, "RAAHHHHHHHHH". She looks like Sigourney from Alien. But yea, the photoshopping... I think most of the time, these days, you can pick it. Most people assume a lot of things are photoshopped. I mean, of course, it's like, 'Oh, it puts unrealistic, you know, things on women and people' but even a model who's not photoshopped does that.
Simon: And it's been going on for years.
Sonia: Yea, I mean 'lighting' it used to be called.
Simon: Or 'retouching'.
Sonia: Yea, 'retouching'. It's always gone on.
Simon: Anyone who wears make up is basically photoshopping their face.
Sonia: Yea, exactly. Same shit.
CS: Do you guys ever read tabloid magazines? Do you indulge that?
Sonia: Like I said, I read them when I go to my mum's house. Because she, out of habit, just buys one every week.
Simon: When I used to shop at Coles or Woolworths or something, and you're standing in the line with your trolley. That was the only time I really read them. But I don't shop there anymore.
CS: What do you guys think think about them? Have I already asked you that? Sort of.
Sonia: Yea, sort of. I don't know, they're just kind, of whatever. They've got some glossy pictures in them, but I don't know how they come up with writing stuff every week, because there's nothing...
CS: Yea, that's one of the things I really love about them. Because they've got heaps of pictures and words and stuff, and then you look closer and it's like "Sarah Jessica Parker took her dog for a walk!" And that's it.
Sonia: Yea. "A friend says she really likes her dog!" She looks like a horse.
CS: She looks like a foot.
Sonia: Australian ones are the worst. Australian celebrities.
CS: We don't even have any good celebrities.
Sonia: They're just people from Home and Away.
Simon: I said hello to Peter Garrett last night.
Sonia: Did you?
Simon: Yea. He's getting on.
Sonia: Anyway... Staying with the celebrity thing-
Simon: I'd like to buy the Hydro Majestic.
Sonia: In the mountains. Which you could do if you were famous.
Simon: And maybe a steam train. Or maybe, like a (here Simon made an up and down pumping motion with his hands and made some squeaky noises, which I'm assuming is meant to indicate a hand pump rail car, which I've helpfully included a picture of below, for those of you born after 1900).
