10 Questions: An interview with Emma Reed of Ten Tigers
Yes, it’s “Noisy Night Does Brighton!” This time our spotlight falls on Emma Reed, lead vocalist and guitarist of Ten Tigers who answers our 10 Questions today. The Tigers are a band with lots of attitude and energy so lets hear from Emma….
1. What inspired you to become a musician and performer?
The desire to keep living as a student, but on the road! Doesn’t everyone want that? To work with their best friends making something unique. In broader terms though I was forced into music at the age of four when my headmistress told me I had no future unless I learnt to play the recorder. Bizarrely, she was right!
2.What is your show about and what should the public expect from your show?
I think the main theme of the evening is energy, we’re billing it as a punk show but that is more due to the attitude than the constraints of a genre. Brighton and Southend both have long love affairs with exciting aggressive and liberating music and that’s something we really wanted to celebrate. There will be lots of short fast songs!
My band, Ten Tigers, play a lot of different instruments and every song sounds very different from the last, so it’s pretty lively and attention grabbing.
Johnny and The Mullets have a more straightforward approach but there’s bits of punk and bits of disco, some heartbreak and some fighting back. They’re a girl band but that’s just anatomy. They gig like crazy at home and always get a good crowd.
Fashoda Crisis have been compared to McClusky, they have a really searing delivery and the most hysterically funny and obscene on stage banter. They suffer no fools! Seeing them live is a bit like a hot blast of air in the face.
And the headliners, The Machines, will probably do their own hype on this site but they’re proper, old school, actually bloody fantastic style trad punk. If that isn’t a complete oxymoron! They’ve being doing it since ‘77 and there’s no sign of them stopping yet, thankfully! It’s quite a varied bag on paper but when you listen to tracks by each band together it makes total sense. We’re all shaking life by the ankles to get at every last drop.
We’re also holding an exhibit in the basement to showcase the work of some of our favourite Essex music photographers, which I’m quite excited about. Many of them never exhibit offline and it’s a shame that no one sees some of these shots because a good photo can change the whole course of a band’s career, the whole course of music history, in fact. Without the musicians there would be no photos, without the photos there would be no legends.
And….. we will be giving away goody bags to the first fifty people through the door to make it a bit more of a special event and to encourage people to come early. My band’s on first so that’s a pretty important angle for me!
3. What is your favourite Festival or Fringe and why?
Well we’re newbies to fringing but Manda, Sophia (who writes Noisyzine) and I really enjoy going to ladyfests, there’s a real sense of openess and a desire to seek out the new and alternative. Plus that culture goes hand in hand with workshops and fanzines and cake, all of which can be immense fun! Anywhere that you can try new ways to express yourself or new ways of looking at the world and not be judged has to be some kind of utopia for the human soul. We all need intellectual space, which is hard to find.
4. What’s your best advice for aspiring artists musicians on the Festival/Fringe circuit?
We’ll tell you when we’ve survived this one!
5. What is your funniest experience and also your worst experience performing or attending a Fringe/Festival?
My funniest experience is also my worst experience, I’m just too shy to say!
6. As you travel performing to different festivals/fringes, where is your favourite place to vacation/chill out and why?
As mentioned we’re newbies to fringing but Brighton looks great!
7. Who is the person you most admire and why?
I don’t think it’s good to put all your faith or admiration in one bucket. Everyone human is going to let you down. I think it’s better to look at each person and then try to take on board their strengths. Hmm, that sounds like I’m one of the Borg from Star Trek! What I mean is, you should strive to be your own hero. Form a composite of what you love about others and then aim for it.
8. What is the best tip you have ever been given?
‘If it feels right, do it. If it doesn’t, then don’t.’ My mum said that and then got angry about the consequences! But she was right. It’s the only way to live.
9. What is the best book/s you have read and why do you like them?
Possibly the best book I’ve read was ‘Notice’ by Heather Lewis. It’s a devastating and harrowing tale which is at least semi autobiographical. It’s about a woman who falls between the cracks of life so totally and is just horrifically abused by everyone she meets, which sounds completely unreadable but it’s actually very compelling.
It just goes places and says things which people don’t say, and the constant fear of how much actually happened to the poor girl makes you feel you have to read on. You have to stay with her as if that will somehow protect her from what might come next. The author committed suicide though. The character is very universal even though she’s living an unusual life, she feels like your daughter, your friend, your enemy, your crush, your little sister. It’s horrible and I’d never lend it to anyone but it’s also completely wonderful.
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
We’d all go back to the barter system. Although that might make Ebay a bit harder to use….
