Drugstore’s debut album, Portishead’s ‘Dummy’ and Mazzy Star’s ‘So, Tonight That I Might See’ formed a kind of holy threesome of depressing albums with female singers during our first year of University. Each managed to soundtrack particularly late nights of melodramatic angst and each circulated campus between groups of friends. However, where Portishead sold a truckload of albums and made themselves rich and famous and Mazzy Star consolidated their position as number one purveyors of mellow country blues, Drugstore just kind of disappeared. Although they were the highights of a number of festivals that year and Isabel, their Brazilian frontwoman, became a bit of a left-field indie star they never really broke through into the mainstream and sold the amount of records they deserved.
However, now they are back with a new single, ‘El President’, that features Thom Yorke and a new album that makes enough significant creative leaps to satisfy old fans, but still has the distinctive sound and atmosphere of their debut.
Now we just need to find out what they’ve been doing all these years.
“Basically, we finished recording the album around Christmas-time a year ago, just about when Go! Discs, our label, were absorbed by Polygram, so we... sort of kinda had to take a year off waiting for all the legal... you know... situation to get through. Which just happened a month ago. It was pretty frustrating, just sitting around, watching daytime TV. But in a sense, it’s still fresh to us, because we haven’t had a chance to tour the album.”
However, the break has given them the chance to make friends and influence people, as it were, so that when they wanted record a duet they could call on Thom Yorke.
“Radiohead had invited us to tour America with them a couple of years ago, it was quite a long tour, seven weeks, and we got on really well. They invited us again to tour in Europe a year and a half ago, and we sort of became friends.”
“We knew exactly what we were doing, and I think Thom was quite keen on helping the band. And I’m proud of the song, y’know, just like any duet, it’s very special. When Thom came over to record his vocals, it was fine, but when we listened back to them afterwards, we realised he was very out of tune. We didn’t dare ring him up and get him to come back in. But, in the end, I had to call him, and ask him to do them again, and I was so embarrassed. He got it right in the end.”
Which sets us up for the second album, where Drugstore break out of the mould they’ve set for themselves.
“There’s a considerable difference from the first one, I think. The first one was so introspective, and the second album’s a lot more vibrant. It’s a bit like Drugstore opening the doors and looking in to the world.” Considering the number of problems that have beset Drugstore since the release of their first album it’s quite remarkable that they’ve managed to release a follow up at all. They’ve had to cope with all number of financial problems, as well as touring with a different drummer.
“There was a little bit of a personal reason for that, I think. It’s almost like, I like all the furniture inside Drugstore, I just wanted to rearrange things around. And I think I’ve been working with Michael for five years, and I wanted him to take a year off away from the band. Which kind of coincided with the year we had to take off. And also, we decided to do, I think it was supporting Strangelove, we just didn’t have any money to bring Michael over from America. But we still decided that it was a good thing to do, just to give us a sense that we still belonged in a band, regardless of the deal situation. We had a lot of financial difficulties, as well. A year off, huge massive tax and bills, so it was quite tough. I think it’s interesting to see that... it’s like couples, you know, when you go through difficulties, you have to really show your true colours”.
Isabel was talking to Dave, in June 1998.