Beat Magazine

Let's start with the origin story of The LipSinkers - how did you guys begin? What or who inspired you to start a lip-synching troop?

We were originally a manufactured band put together to cover weekend slots at a local cabaret bar. We'd rehearse in the afternoon and perform in the evening, getting changed in the toilets at the back of the room. We did this for almost 6 years and as you can imagine when things are left in a toilet for a very long time they start to grow.

Did you imagine in 2006 that you would have such continued popularity?

Popularity has never played a big part in our manifesto. Our early days were defined by long weekend runs over 3 and four months in the same venue and 6 week Christmas shows - the gigs kept coming and time slid by! By the time we moved to The RVT the work and our love of it and the amount that we had created had become part of us and keeping it going almost unquestionable. We never imagined it - but we're totally, absolutely thrilled to have lasted a decade!

What do you think is the key to your enduring appeal?

Our popularity.

We love the variety of your song choices, with numbers ranging from Queen to Will.I.Am - how do you decide which songs to include in your repertoire? What makes a song perfect lip-sync material?

The songs arrive in many ways - backs of cabs, the martini girl, late night sessions, gifts, commissions, deliver.

What's the process for creating your routines?

We work hard together. Our process is on-going and omni referential. We have a monthly gig at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, we never perform the same show twice and this structures our year. We’re in constant rehearsals whilst also making new work - we don't stop the process as a company, we don't take holidays (individuals are allowed out occasionally!). As a structure this plans out the rest of our lives which we aim to colour in with our work. The work draws from the socio political climate of the time and often refers to previous work as well as drawing on more personal and/or abstract matters which may be affecting us.

Your shows make frequent references to current affairs and political events - is this important to you? / why is this important to you?

We are a queer political performance company. Current Affairs Matter. Dead Celebrities Matter. Cats in Dustbins Matter. Black Lives Matter.

Especially with such frequent and fast costume changes, have you had any entertaining on-stage mishaps you can tell us about? How do you overcome these?

Things happen in the moment. Our work is very live, that's part of its charm. It can be a right Carry On at times.

Off the top of our heads… Over dressed. Under dressed. Misjudged stage dives. Spaghetti underfoot. Glitter on the tonsils. Falling stage weights. Unexploded confetti cannons. Flying wigs. Broken heels. Accidentally singing. Vomiting hen party.

Have popular television shows such as RuPaul's Drag Race, Jimmy Fallon with his Lip Sync Battle or James Corden's Car Pool Karaoke had an effect on your popularity or the type of crowds that you draw at your shows?

We don't feel a lot of affinity with these shows. From what we've seen of any of them- which is pretty limited - we appear to have little in common, though that's not for us to decide really is it? Our audience is beautifully broad but there hasn't been a noticeable spike to tie in with any of these shows' growing in popularity.

We like this quote.

“The LipSinkers are a drag troupe who mime to other people's songs, but they're not a night out with Danny La Rue, and they're not Ru Paul's Drag Race. They are weird, wild, funny and fresh” ***** The Scotsman

Why do you think these types of lip-syncing videos and celebrity musical shows have become so popular on the internet? Do you watch these clips yourselves?

Why? More TV channels, more on line platforms, more celebrities needing stuff to do, more devices to view it all on. That kind of thing maybe?

If you could invite anybody to cameo in one of your performances who would you choose and what song would they sing?

We'd invite Wilson, Keppel and Betty to join us in a rousing performance of Ali Baba's Camel.

Do you have any top tips for budding lip synchs?

Move your lips. A mirror is not an audience, it's a tool. Your body is the greatest instrument you will ever own.

Describe The LipSinkers in 5 words?

Like Muppets with a pulse. (Someone once wrote this about us and we've forgotten who - but we still love it).

The LipSinkers are at The Firestation in Windsor on 19th November, check their website for full details.

Hi Cecilia, how are you and what are you up to?

Hello! I’m very well thank you. Currently sat on my bed with my cat drinking coffee and trying to write new things. Not bad for a Tuesday afternoon really.

How was your summer?

It’s been gorgeous so far. Summer is festival season so I’ve been reading at a few festivals as well as rehearsing and performing my one woman show - Finding Home - at the Roundhouse.

I’ve also been doing some teaching, at Huddersfield Uni as well as in schools, a prison and for charities. I love that part of my work. Working with people who don’t think they can write and helping them tell their stories, having the pleasure of getting to know them and hear what they have to say.

In between all of that I’ve been doing the obligatory park dwelling with cans of beer and attempting barbecues in temperamental weather, so yeah it’s been pretty cool.

We (almost) caught up with you at Brainchild Festival. How was that for you?

It was amazing. I love Brainchild. I love how small it is. You can walk from your tent to the main stage in a matter of minutes but it’s packed full of interesting people and artists and kind humans. The care and attention put into how it looks and what there is to do is so uplifting. There’s amazing panels and talks and films and dance and pop up performances and hula hooping and jam sessions and it just reaffirms your faith and hope for the world. I hosted and performed in the spoken word sessions in the Forum. There were so many people there to listen and the writers were all incredible.

Are you happy performing your work live, or more or an on-page person?

I can’t really decide that because they are two such different things. I enjoy performing because I enjoy the telling of the story, the energy of the crowds, the shared experience of it. There’s something really special about that moment, that collaboration between writer and audience. You can vibe off the people in the space.

But writing, or reading on your own off the page is also incredibly important to me. Sitting down and writing is my time to figure out my thoughts and make sense of the scramble that they are when they are in my head. I can’t explain the feeling I get when I write something that helps me make sense of a feeling or a situation I’m experiencing. It’s like this complete, serene calm mixed with pure joy and I don’t get it from anything else.

What first got you in to writing?

The discovery that it made me feel good. I was in my own head a lot as a kid, making up stories, wanting to know other peoples stories and asking questions. Knowing other peoples stories made me feel less anxious and alone so I just used to write it all down.

Tell us a little about your Roundhouse residency and work with Polarbear?

When I first moved to London I was feeling a little lost. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I went to see a poet who lectured at my University do a reading in Soho and I saw a poster for a Polarbear show. I went home and watched him on Youtube and was so excited by what I saw.

I saw he was running a poetry course at the Roundhouse in Camden and went along, not knowing what to expect. But in short, it changed my life. I met 5 other aspiring writers who became some of my best friends. We used to sit in a room every Sunday afternoon, the 6 of us and Polarbear, writing, trying new things and reading them to each other. It gave us the space to find out who we were as writers. We were all at a stage in our lives where we were lost and needing direction. It was so serendipitous that we all came together at that time, this group of misfit aspiring writers bundled into a room telling their stories to each other. The Roundhouse continued to support us afterwards, giving us gigs and opportunities. I became a resident artist there and they gave me rehearsal space, advice and endless support. They still do.

What’s happening with Finding Home now? How was it to make such an ambitious piece?

Finding Home did really well when we last ran it in late May 2015. We had 2 sold out nights at the Roundhouse as part of their spoken word festival. The plan is to tour it, starting with the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October, where I am also one of their guest curators. I’ll be doing Finding Home as well as some exciting other events I am in the process of planning. Then we’re taking it on the road early 2017.

I want the show to be seen by as many people as possible because at it’s heart is this message about loving yourself in spite of everything. It’s about finding your home physically, finding a place to call your own, but also finding the home within yourself. The show is about a lot of things; growing up as a girl with a single Dad, falling in and out of love, moving away from home, meeting important people, but predominantly it’s about the suicide of my older brother Leo and how you deal with losing someone in that way. The show aims to be candid about this type of bereavement because it’s a topic that is so stigmatised in our society. I want to demystify bereavement and loss through storytelling and sharing this experience so anyone who has been affected can feel less alone.

It was hard making such a charged and personal piece, but my ambition to get this story out there and try and help others in this small way made me power on through the times when I felt like I just didn’t want to have to say it out loud anymore.

Which writers inspire you?

Great story tellers. I’m reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche at the moment. Every book of hers I read I get completely lost in her worlds. I also just finished Max Porter’s Grief is a Ting With Feathers which is the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever read. It’s about Grief, like Finding Home but approached in a different way, part poetry, part memoir, part allegory. It’s a beautiful example of how writing can address and confront these enormous and terrifying emotions.

What’s on your Netflix watch list?

I am so ashamed to say that I’ve never seen Breaking Bad. Every time I say that I haven’t seen it someone gets incensed so I need to just watch it so I don’t have to deal with the incredulous cries anymore.

What’s in your headphones?

At the moment ABRA, Eska, Christine and the Queens and Anderson Pak. Oh and James Blake’s new album is delicious.

You work with C.A.L.M. How did that come about?

After my Brother Leo died my awareness to suicide and metal health was opened. I heard that suicide was the biggest killer of young men in the UK which is a truly shocking statistic. A really close friend of mine, Jack Rooke was working with the charity and I asked to go along to meet them. They are a tiny organisation made up of the most wonderful, dedicated people. I felt instantly at home and wanted to start helping. I became an ambassador but I wanted to do more as well. I really believe in the transformative power that creatively expressing yourself can have. Writing has saved me at times, I really believe that.

I wanted to put on an awareness raising night for C.A.L.M that promoted this idea, using great writers, musicians and comedians, so Jack and I did just this and called it ‘Save the Male’. We did the first one at the Roundhouse 3 years ago and still put them on regularly. We have been to Bestival, Leefest, Secret Garden Party and all over London promoting C.A.L.M’s message that we need to talk more openly about suicide and mental health.

What do you have coming up that we should know about?

Keep your eyes peeled for Finding Home tour dates on my website, as well as other poetry gigs coming up in London and across the UK. I’m working on a new piece of theatre with a company called I.O.U which will also be touring next year. I also run a lot of workshops if anyone wants to try their hand at some writing. Also, check out C.A.L.M. as we have another show with them in September.

What’s your most pressing ambition?

I just want to keep getting better and keep making work. I’m currently working on my debut poetry collection but I’m also writing a novel. It’s early days but I’m enjoying it.

Biggest disappointment?

You get set backs all the time as a freelance artist, gigs that fall through, finding out some one else has been chosen for a commission, funding applications getting rejected. But you just have to remember to be grateful for what you have. I’m so lucky I actually make money from something I love so much. I’ll never stop being grateful for that.

Rainy days or beach lazing?

Give me a beach and a book.

Pancakes or french toast?

Pancakes every time. With maple syrup.

Brexit of Brexin? Why?

Brexin. It broke my heart when we left. I’ve always seen myself as European, part of a bigger community, a rich and diverse community. I’m more than a bit terrified of being left on this tiny, Tory run island without being part of Europe. We are living in very dark and unstable times and I think the most important thing is to continue to love. To send as much love out as possible. Keep loving and creating and fighting against hate and unfairness.

You’ll find latest news, event information and videos on Cecilia’s website here.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. Tolkien and I have been in an on/off relationship for most of my adult life. I even had a go at George R. R. Martin’s never-ending juggernaut Game of Thrones, but couldn’t get passed the first 3 paragraphs of clonky dialogue. Love the series though.

Allen Stroud’s Dreams of Chaos though, I got all the way through. Start to finish. That alone is like the Booker Prize of my bedtime universe.

The official book accompaniment to Snapshot Games and Julian Gollop’s Chaos Reborn multiplayer (itself a reboot of Gollop’s 1985 Spectrum classic Chaos: The Battle of Wizards), Dreams of Chaos spans the best part of 50 years in the 14th century, across a fair few countries, with a good fistful of characters and the occasional portal.

Galina and Katya are twins girls struggling to understand and accept their powers. Piers Gaveston is a courtly exile, haunted by his collapse of faith after witnessing a disastrous ritual by the Knights Templar. Hino is a Japanese nobleman, betrayed by the Emperors enemies, who sheds his mortal life to uncover the mysteries of time and magic.

The book hops between places and characters with pace, allowing them to brush against each other and cross paths as the story evolves. The dialogue is well crafted and the characters well researched and convincing, with some nice moments of darkness as each character wrestles with their personal demons and the weight of the approaching apocalypse.

Dreams of Chaos does take some time to hook you though, it took me a good half-way through to feel truly engaged. The scene setting in the early chapters and jumps from sub-plot to sub-plot can interrupt the flow a little, meaning a fair bit of page flipping is required to work out what’s happening to who. But it’s a small price to pay, as the story ultimately builds into a rewarding journey into a mysterious world and the void beyond.

If you’re an avid fantasy reader this will certainly tickle your staff. If you’re not, this may well be the book to ease you in to a richer life of immortal wizards, fire conjuring girls and crystal dragons.

★★★★

Daniel David

Dreams of Chaos is on Amazon right here.

More on Allen Stroud here.