Veteran Brighton pop duo Chungking – former couple Sean Hennessey and Jessie Banks – have been a semi-secret connoisseur’s pleasure for years, without ever really crossing over into the mainstream. With feisty new album Stay Up Forever, they’ve taken a harder, more electropop direction in search of that mythical commercial golden egg.
MM: You used to be described as “psychedelic soul” but now it’s “gothic electro pop”. What happened, did you start taking different drugs?
JB: We’re working backwards. In our 20s we made music 50-year-olds would make, so I’m hoping by the time I’m 60, I’ll be fronting a heavy metal band.
MM: How do you get on with making music with your ex?
JB: It was hideous at first but we cried, wrote songs for each other and saw it through. Now, years later, we’re just like a squabbling brother and sister.
MM: How do Sean and you work? Your songs sound like they’ve taken ages to piece together.
JB: Basically, ideas for songs are quick but making them sound really good takes months.
MM: A lot of your lyrics are about the more brutal nuances of relationships. Is that what your love life is really like?
JB: Yes, my love life is shambolic, I’m a love addict!
MM: How does being signed to a really “involved” record label like Gut affect the way you make music? Does their corporate vibe inhibit your creativity?
JB: You have to make something that’s commercially viable but also make songs that please yourself. And that’s a really big challenge.
MM: If you weren’t a singer in an electro pop band what would you be?
JB: I have a dream of having a 1950s-style hotdog trailer. People will always need sausages.
MM: OK, some daft questions. Describe your fantasy supergroup.
JB: Frank Zappa, Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Aphex Twin.
MM: Your iPod only holds three albums, what are they?
JB: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside and Chungking’s Stay Up Forever.
MM: You’ve been compared to bands such as Goldfrapp, Scissor Sisters and Moloko. What do you think of them? A bunch of slags or like-minded heroes?
JB: All a bunch of slags!
MM: Is it well glamorous being an electro pop queen who stays up forever, or do you still shop in Primark and get spots?
JB: I shop at Peacocks and my photos are airbrushed.
MM: As a live performer you’re entrancing to watch, do you still get nervous going onstage?
JB: Well I think the more nervous you are, the better performance you give. At the Big Chill this year I was very anxious, all day I felt sick and in the end the gig was absolutely amazing.
MM: With an album called Stay Up Forever, what’s the longest you’ve stayed up for yourself?
JB: Once my mates left me at a party dancing on my own. Then when they returned 12 hours later I was still in the corner, dancing.
www.myspace.com/chungking20
Chungking Stay Up Forever
out now on Gut Records
