Well, when she’s not wowing the shit out of crowds while fronting the band, Lisa Faithfull teaches music to young folk. They tell her stuff that they can’t tell their own parents, and Faithfull’s not liking what she hears: 13-year-old girls taking diet pills and kids being bullied based on their looks.
“It’s just horrible,” she sighs. “So much pressure to look a particular way. I’m lucky. I never felt that, probably because soul music is not like that – we can wear what we want because we’re not pop stars. I’ve got pink hair and tats.”
That the band have elected to take this tack is not surprising. They sing about real issues affecting real people and they’re not afraid to get a bit gritty. The love of funk and soul goes way back for Lisa Faithfull, the band’s enigmatic frontwoman, and now she gets to share it with a band who are equally committed to the music.
“I guess as a kid I always played Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and Stevie Wonder – that sort of thing,” she reflects. “Even when I was six or seven I remember them being on. Then, when I was at uni, I met the band’s drummer and we decided to start Soul Safari.
“That was just when the Bamboos and Cat Empire were starting out, so we took some inspiration from them. Back then, we were much more soul than funk. We wanted our songs to develop organically, but they always came out soul. That’s the way they were always written. Our ears must just like that sound. I sometimes feel like I was born in the wrong era.”
The band’s sound evolved from old school soul to a modern sound and Faithfull’s very happy with it. “Yeah, old soul is sometimes a bit clean,” she puts carefully. “Sometimes there isn’t enough grit. Lyrics should grab you in the stomach and wrench emotion out of you. In the last year or so, it really feels like the band has become what the drummer and I always wanted it to be. To start off with, we sounded more like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Then we had that lineup change and we changed from traditional soul to more a funk thing. It gets a different response. Now we’re able to play places like The Espy, and because we’re more funky, people dance. It’s been a long journey, but it’s definitely been worth it. We’re in a good place now.”
It’s inspiring talking to Faithfull – she is genuinely passionate about what she does and she doesn’t take it lightly. “There’s no job that could pay me enough not to do music,” she states. “Music is an important job. Having an awareness of how music will affect people is really important. We need music that moves people – that moves them to dance, to feel things or to be comfortable in their own skin. If you take a step back, it was love songs and protest songs. I want to do music that inspires people.”
Faithfull is super excited about the release of The Programme, which will be the band’s first single off their debut album (due November). For Faithfull, this is gratifying and a relief. “All the emotion and energy is starting to pay off,” she enthuses. “Everything we’ve earned playing is going into recording this album and because of the feedback we’ve been getting, we now know that people will really embrace it.”
Coincidentally, the launch coincides with Faithfull’s birthday. What a perfect way to celebrate.
BY MEG CRAWFORD
