total:spec - Betty Curse

For a while there it looked like the so-called ‘goth revival’ might have been a bit of a fad, one of the more forgettable moments of 2006. And while that may be the case when it comes to fashion, in the music world the love all things goth looks set to continue apace in 2007.

Not only did we have big-haired band The Horrors on many critics’ tips for 2007 lists, but former teen actress turned ‘goth pop princess’ Betty Curse also looks set to build on the promise she showed throughout the latter part of last year.After being named Emerging Artist Of The Month by Yahoo back in August, 19-year-old Curse (real name Megan Burns) released a couple of singles - God This Hurts and Girl With The Yellow Hair - neither of which made much of a dent in the charts. But her distinctive gothic look and similarly distinctive outlook on life got her plenty of attention, both from the press and an eclectic bunch of music fans.

“We thought we’d appeal to young girls,” says Curse in her soft Liverpudlian accent. “I love dressing up and we thought the whole dressing up and having fun aspect would appeal, plus we’re singing songs as well, rather than just moping around and trying to be sexy.

“But it’s weird because at our gigs you see boys and girls from 12 to 25 and we’ve got a few friends on MySpace who are in their 30s. There’s even this American woman who’s, like, 42 who loves our music. I just think there are so many aspects to me and my band that will appeal to a lot of people. The adults read the lyrics and get what we’re doing.”

But it’s Curse’s appeal to her younger audience that has saved her from falling at the first hurdle. When her album Here Lies Betty Curse was released on download in October it did only fairly well. It was her success on the first Schools Singles Chart (which was started back in November and saw her coming in at No 2 behind fellow teen act Lil’ Chris), however, that made her record company Island pay her a bit more attention. A proposed CD release of the album in January was scrapped and Island made it one of their priority albums for the Spring.

And so Betty Curse might be your new favourite pop star for 2007. She certainly makes an interesting one. Despite her obvious teen appeal - the gothic imagery, dark lyrics and catchy guitar pop are perfect for any ‘woe is me’ teenager - she is an interesting proposition for adults as well. Along with the assured melodies - created by Curse’s partner in crime Steve Ludwin, former frontman with Little Hell - Curse writes some witty, thoughtful and sometimes outright political lyrics.

“When I went to college I was really politically aware,” she says. “I would do art projects on what was going on in the world. And I still like to keep in touch with what’s going on. But not too much,” she adds with a grimace, “because it’s just so frustrating.”

Curse vents her frustration at world events most clearly on album track The Look On Tony’s Face, her own witty take on the now ubiquitous Iraq war protest song.

“When we wrote that there were loads of punk bands coming out with all these anti-Bush statements,” says Curse, “and it started getting farcical. British people were wearing ‘Fuck Bush’ t-shirts and it was like, okay, yeah he’s a dick and whatever, but do we really need any more American flags floating around?

“In saying, ‘Fuck Bush’ it seemed like we were becoming more and more Americanised by it. So that song was almost like we were taking the piss. We made up a song so ridiculous that that was our anti-war statement - Tony Blair getting ‘blown’ away by Bush. It was all innuendo and more like a Carry On kind of thing.”

It’s the war on terror and the unrelenting coverage of it that Curse feels is the reason for people’s renewed interest in mortality the darker side of life, and all things gothic. “People are looking for a way to understand it and bands are offering it now,” she says. Last year saw goth everywhere, from the on-going popularity of Japanese cartoon character Emily Strange amongst teens (which Curse’s look is slightly based on), to Marilyn Manson’s wife Dita Von Teese featuring in magazines like Vogue and Elle. Even Coronation Street had its own teenage goth characters.

But what Curse brings to the table has elicited as many raised eyebrows as it has interest. Her songs, joyful pop songs aimed predominantly at teenagers though they may be, tackle subjects such as murdering cheating boyfriends, suicide and self-harm. As such, she is perfectly set up for people to use in the argument that music has an often bad influence on teenagers.

She disagrees, of course, saying that parents should look at their own relationship with their children rather than blame the music they listen to. But quotes like, “I don't encourage self-harm, but if someone wants to damage themselves they should be allowed to” are never going to go down well. As such she’s learned to keep her opinions to herself.

“It’s a hard issue to discuss,” she says. “It’s quite a personal issue, even to me, and I’d never promote that kind of thing. It would be ridiculous for me to do that because young kids are listening to my music. If I was trying to fly the flag for it, which people say I am, that would be irresponsible. But that kind of criticism comes with the territory, and I think I’ve got a good enough argument to defend myself.”

The song that’s caused the fuss is Excuse All The Blood, which came out as Curse’s first single last year, a double A-side with Met On The Internet. The chorus goes, “Excuse all the blood, we’re just having fun”, but it’s not about self-harm, she says. Instead Curse and Ludwin were inspired by the suicide note of Dead, the singer of Norwegian black metal band Mayhem who shot himself in 1991. The note simply said, ‘Excuse all the blood. Cheers.’

“Everyone thought he had no sense of humour but his suicide note proved everyone wrong,” says Curse. “We thought it was just hilarious, to leave it until that point to let everyone know what you’re like, and have such a gruesome death. We thought it would be funny to take his suicide note and make people more aware of Mayhem. That’s all, we wanted people to listen to Mayhem,” she laughs. “And then we got all this self-harm criticism when actually it was just a funny song. It’s a weird one, because it’s like, what is it actually about? It could be about a number of things. If you think of a girl singing about blood,” she grins, “it could be anything.”

When it comes to Betty Curse songs, however, that anything usually revolves around death. This softly-spoken, coolly intelligent and modest young woman is absolutely fascinated by it. But, as she explains, she sees her interest in it as a positive thing.

“It’s so fantastical,” she says. “A lot of it is based on people’s imaginations, and it’s very mysterious. No one actually knows what death is. We’ve all got our own theories, but no one will actually know what it is until they die, and then there’s no coming back to tell people what it is. To me that’s so beautiful. There’s almost like a death envy in us because we’ve got this whole, like, I want to know what it is thing going on.

“Maybe I’m just comfortable with the fact that when I die all my questions will be answered, and so I’ve got rid of the fear. I can live my life without constantly thinking about it. Obviously I’d be upset if a member of my family or a friend died but once you realise that we’re all mortal and we’re all going to die we can just appreciate everything that is happening now, and you don’t look too far ahead because you don’t know how far you’ve got.

“That’s why I never look too far into the future with regards to what I want to do. I’m just riding it for all it’s worth. I’m not saying live fast die young. Whatever,” she laughs. “Can you be arsed? What I’m saying is go with it, don’t worry.”

In Ludwin - a former rock star who gained some notoriety in rock circles by filming himself defecating on an NME, attending industry events in full drag, and regularly injecting himself with the venom of rattlesnakes in an attempt to stay young - Curse has found her musical soulmate, one with a similar interest in the macabre and twisted. Even the way they met was a bit creepy.

Hanging out at the end of an 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster gig while her boyfriend at the time went to get a setlist, Curse was approached by a woman asking if she could sing. “I just thought, fuck it,” says Curse, “and said yes. Then she called Steve over and introduced him as her boyfriend and I was like, oh here we go.”

But they weren’t after anything untoward, instead Ludwin told Curse he liked her style and wanted to set up a female-fronted rock band. Curse, despite being unsure about getting involved in something that might be manufactured, agreed to get together with Ludwin to work on some music ideas.

“I soon realised that he wasn’t interested in doing something plastic, or use me as a puppet,” she says. “He wanted me to bring what I was to it. Yes, he wanted it to be a pop act, but with a contribution from me, something more genuine than the Avril Lavigne-type stuff which was being churned out at the time.”

Music had long been an interest of Curse’s, much more so than the acting which she had dabbled with, to quite some success, as a teenager. As Megan Burns she clocked up performances in two memorable films - as a survivor in Danny Boyle’s zombie flick 28 Days Later, and as a kitchenmaid in Stephen Frears’ 1930s-set Irish drama Liam. For the latter she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival, where Hollywood legend Rod Steiger gave her some advice which would have a big impact.

“He took me aside,” says Curse, “and said to me, ‘You’ll probably get a lot of offers of work because of this, but only do something if your heart’s genuinely in it. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ll make, if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to succeed’.”

As such the only role she took after that was in 28 Days Later, just because she loved Boyle’s previous film A Life Less Ordinary. But the acting had done its job to a certain extent - improving a little on the crippling shyness Curse suffered as a child.

“My nan sent me to drama class,” says Curse. “I was so introverted. When I was about 11 I wouldn’t even go to the shops on my own, I was so shy. I hated the idea of anyone talking to me because I was embarrassed about how I spoke.”

It wasn’t always this way. Curse says that, before her parents split up when she was three, she was quite a confident child, chatting away to all the adults in the hotels where her parents worked. She moved to Liverpool with her mother after the split and found it hard to fit in at school, not least because she had a slightly southern accent, but later on because she had her own distinct style and liked bands - Bauhaus, The Cure, Nick Cave, The Birthday Party - that none of the other kids had heard of.

Her reaction? She knuckled down with her work and got the best grades she could. “I’ve always had this desire to do as best as I can to just prove other people wrong,” she says. It worked, and she went to college in Southport where she found more like-minded people.

But her school years still resonate with her and, while she’s endlessly chatty, it’s done with an endearing shyness and an unforgiving self-critical eye. Ask her how much of Megan Burns there is in Betty Curse and she’ll confess they’re mostly interchangeable.

“If I’m introduced to people as Betty Curse then it’s not Megan and I can say I’m this and that when really I’m probably dying inside,” she says. “It’s the same when I get on stage - the confidence is all an act. Everything else is genuine but because I’m acting confident in a way it makes me confident. It’s what I’ve always wanted to be but haven’t had the guts to be. So in a way I am being what I want to be. But I still haven’t got as wild as I want to,” she adds with a slight grin. “I can still feel there’s something needing to get out, but I don’t quite know what.”

As such Curse is a mask Burns wears most of the time, despite the amount of effort that must go into her hair, make-up and dress each day. There is, it seems, no situation too small or insignificant not to be seen fully attired. Ask her if she ever slobs around in trackie bottoms and a t-shirt and her look is incredulous.

“What do you think?” she says. “My flatmates laugh because even if I’m in all day I’ll come down with full make-up on and sit there in my heels. One of them came in the other day laughed because I was just lying on the couch smoking in heels and this outfit with frills and satin. He went to his room, put on some vintage pants and we just sat around and drank wine.”

You don’t get much more gothic than that, surely - Byron would be proud. But Curse has had yet more critics, this time amongst music fans, who say she is anything but goth. Her look and lyrics might say otherwise, but Ludwin’s pop melodies let her down, they say. Curse, unsurprisingly, isn’t bothered by the comments.

“Most of my favourite bands have all got their roots there,” she muses. “But then the music I make isn’t. I do take elements of it, of course, because obviously I’m going to be influenced by bands that I love. Also, though, you’ve got people who think Slipknot and Korn are goth. Really that’s just young kids in baggy pants with shitloads of eyeliner moaning about how much they hate their parents. That’s not goth.

“I see goth as more like a literary thing, more of an art than a style. I think of it more as a way of thinking and more of an aesthetic. So it’s funny when people get confused by my look and my music. They don’t really know what to do with it, rather than just taking it for what it is. They can’t pigeonhole it because it’s not pop, it’s not goth, it’s something else. It’s goth-pop!” she laughs. “It’s death-pop!”