It's All In The Genes

Midnight in Chicago, and the Gene Loves Jezebel concert c’est fini. Backstage, the complimentary stroganoff dinner has been indecorously strewn about the room and plentiful quantities of liquid refreshment have been tasted – nay, guzzled. Amidst the typical post-performance carnage, the Welsh twin towers, Michael and Jay Aston (a.k.a. Gene Loves Jezebel, respectively) recline in serene langour, reflecting on the long, strange trip it’s been. 

“If nothing else, I think Gene Loves Jezebel kicks against the grain,” opines jaunty Jay. “No one else like us has come out of England in the last couple of years.” 

Well, the Bros. Aston have yet to win universal cheers on those latter points, but Gene, Jez and their whole gang o’ love (bassist Peter Rizzo, guitarist James Stevenson, and drummer Chris Bell) don’t lack admirers these days, as the packed houses on their current stateside tour attest. Besides contributing their hit ditty “Desire” to the soundtrack for John Hughes’ spanking new flick, She’s Having A Baby, they’ve whipped up their own splendid LP, House of Dolls. Featuring such swelleroo concoctions as “Motion of Love,” “Gorgeous” and “Twenty Killer Hurts,” the album’s a winning pop-rock rarebit – not too heavy, not too sweet, with no cheesy synthesizers and lotsa good beats. What’s the secret of their saucy sound? 

“It’s five people working together,” explains Jay, “and that’s a very unusual situation in 1988. The whole band is competitive; it’s a kind of democratic thing. Other than that, we beat the shit out of each other. Hah!” 

Skeptical observers might dub the Welsh wunderkinds as just the latest flash-in-the-pancake harlequins to blow in from Blighty, but Gene Loves Jezebel’s staying power bespeaks au contraire. They’ve been putting our records for a good five or six years already; so why has it taken so long for them to blacken the public eye? 

“Because we never toured!” exclaims Michael. “We’ve always had this sense that we were never part of the pop realm, the industry; we always wanted to do things our own way. We weren’t in a hurry to be mega-stars. It was only when we first came touring in America and went through a few '‘harrowing'’ experiences that we decide we should perform and make our music more widely available, because there are so many inferior things around.” 

A trifle cocky perhaps, but the Genetic Jezboys make no excuses. “When we came out, we were very different,” admits Jay, “and there’s a price to be paid for that. People try to dismiss you; ‘Oh, that’s not cool, it’s not what’s going on.’ It’s radical, something they can’t digest. It’s this way all over the world with Gene Loves Jezebel; they’re not sure if we’re just kinky, or sexual deviants.” 

“Well, they’re right!” proclaims Michael. “But all kidding aside, there’s an element of fun to Gene Loves Jezebel that’s much more into the theatrical side of it, whereas a band like U2 would rather stand on a soap-box and take all the kudos that go with it. These days everyone is jumping on charities – all this wonderful ‘I’m here to help the planet and still sell 60,000 tickets.’” 

“A kind of ‘Live Aid’ establishment exists,” complains Jay. “It’s a very down-to-earth Age of Aquarius feeling about being creative. We’re not that at all!” One thing Gene Loves Jezebel are, unquestionably, is flamboyant with a nuclear “F,” particularly the jewelry adorned, lami-bedecked Aston Bros. 

A couple of Star Hits issues back, former tour mates Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) and Peter Hook (New Order) delivered some snippy critiques regarding the daubing duo, accusing them of lipgloss overkill. In response, jugular Jay casts down this gaudy gauntlet: “I say to anybody out there in Star Hits land, let’s take the Bunnymen, New Order…any band you like, okay? Give me their five best songs, I’ll give you our five best songs; take us musician for musician singer for singer – there’s no competition at all! 

“That’s why those bands freaked out. In the ten to twelve years of their existence, we’re the first support act they’ve ever mentioned in depth. I’m sure the Bunnymen are really talking about Leather Nun in great depth on this tour. And who supported New Order last? Do you know?” 

On the shopping list of Gene Loves Jezebel’s pet gripes, overtly moral rockers rankle them supremely. “It’s very dishonest for any human being to be on stage and not, in some way, project sexuality,” Michael argues. “It’s absurd to claim they’re celibate. Morrissey, for example – I don’t believe he could be that numb. Great rock music has always had sexual innuendo; once you take that away from it, it’s meaningless. Whitney Houston slags off Madonna for her flagrant display, while her poster’s got three of her 501 buttons undone! There’s so much hypocrisy nowadays!” 

And what crystalline insights have the gamely Gemini’s gleaned from the excesses of their colleagues? “This game is 30% talent and 70% determination,” asserts Michael “Nobody’s Fool” Aston. “If you haven’t got the stomach for a lot of humiliation and kicking and climbing, don’t do it; if you’ve got that mettle, do it. But talent alone is not enough. We’ve played so many cow-town places, where you show up and ten people are there…” 

With so much adversity to contend with in the corrupt, green-eyed world of music, do the boys ever pale before the fray? Is there any sacrifice they consider too great for their shot at immortality? “None!” Michael defiantly snorts. “Hahaha! Nothing! I don’t fear death, so that doesn’t really matter to me. I do fear growing older, but I don’t fear death. Life’s too short – and if life isn’t too short, then maybe you are. Hahahahahaha…!” 

 

 

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