Rebirth of LA cool

THE hottest new band of the year, girl-group Warpaint, are a seductive blend of indie-pop grit and Hollywood glamour.

From Los Angeles, they boast an appropriately glittering fanclub, including actors Billy Zane and Jake Gyllenhaal and Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante (who briefly dated lead singer Emily Kokal). Their most famous admirer of all was the late Heath Ledger, who used to go see them back when they were playing seedy rooms on the Sunset Strip.

“Why are people so interested in this?” sighs Kokal, clearly at bit fed up with questions about Ledger (whom she met only briefly and knew not at all). “If you are a musician in Los Angeles and play for any length of time, you are going to have movie people in your audience. That’s the way it is. It’s inevitable. It’s funny if people think we’re living some sort of glitzy existence. I’d love for them to spend a few days in our company. They’d see how glamorous it really is.”

With their boho chic and photogenic pouts, Warpaint have effortlessly wooed the international music press (NME splashed them on the cover before their debut album, The Fool, was even out). However, there’s a dramatic contrast between their fashion-mag image and defiantly strange sound, a woozy alternative rock suggestive of Cocteau Twins and early Siouxsie and the Banshees. They may follow in a long line of LA girl-groups but there’s no mistaking this quartet for The Bangles or Belinda Carlisle’s Go-Gos.

“I honestly don’t know where or how people started hearing about us,” says Kokal, contemplating Warpaint’s overnight success. “Maybe it’s ’cos we’re from Los Angeles which appears to be hot right now. Or that we’re signed to [storied indie label] Rough Trade. I guess when you put something out, people hear about it and word gets around. Or so I’m told. I try not to think about it too hard.”

Though Kokal closes down somewhat when the subject of Heath Ledger comes up, she is happy to discuss John Frusciante, who mixed one of Warpaint’s early EPs. Aside from their personal entanglements, collaborating with a rock star of his stature was, she says, enormously instructive.

“He is one of the hardest working people we’ve ever met,” she says. “The guy’s work ethic is extraordinary. It really is incredible. Whatever he does, he throws himself 100% into it. Obviously, at a technical level, there’s a lot to learn from him. To just be around him, though, is such an education. When a band gets to the level that they [the Chili Peppers] are at, the number of demands that are made of you are endless. It’s encouraging to see someone stay true to the music through it all.”

Warpaint are themselves no strangers to honest toil. An aspiring artist and actor, Oregon-native Kokal formed the band with her school friend Theresa Wayman after the two of them fetched up in southern California. Recruiting sometime actress and model Shannyn Sossamon, on bass (she has since departed), they began to perform around the city, though, unlike many LA bands, they never quite slotted into a definable scene.

“Those who aren’t from here seem to perceive LA music as a series of cliches,” says Kokal. “We’ve never really tried to fit in. On a few occasions, we played the Sunset Strip. We played The Viper Room once. It seemed like a cool place, though it’s not quite as happening as back when Johnny Depp ran it. For a long time in Hollywood I didn’t have a car, so I couldn’t really go anywhere. We are one of these bands that always sort of stuck to themselves and haven’t really tried to fit in. ”

Still, it hasn’t escaped their attention that Los Angeles is now rivalling Brooklyn as one of the world’s most fashionable music scenes. From the fuzzy art-rock of Health and No Age to the cutting edge electronica of Flying Lotus and Gonjasufi, the city is on the cusp of shedding its image as home of all things superficial and becoming the hippest locale on the planet.

“It’s weird. Before I came to LA, my impression of the place were pretty much the same as everyone else’s. I never thought it was a place I would warm to. It has really surprised me. I’ve sort of ended up liking it. The weather is great, obviously. But also, there’s a sense this is a place where you can be whatever you want to be. For a musician that is a really excitement environment in which to find yourself.”

On the other hand, there is, she says, a undeniable downside to the city’s suddenly acquired cachet. “Cheap neighbourhoods which artists were drawn to because the rents were so low — they’re getting gentrified now. Which means the emigrant communities that traditionally lived there are being driven out as the rents go up. It’s a shame because those places give LA a lot of its culture. The city can be a place of hard-knocks for great many people. That’s the gritty side you don’t see in the movies.”

Brought up by hippy parents in one of America’s most liberal states, Kokal spent much of her early 20s backpacking across the globe and seems to have a greater awareness of the world outside the US than American musicians often do. On the other hand, she does have her moments of starry-eyed naivety — especially regarding Ireland for which she apparently nurses an long-time fondness.

“I’m half Irish on my father’s side,” she gushes. “I love Enya and Clannad and all that Celtic music. I can’t tell you how many times I listened to Shepherd Moons when I was growing up. My mom played it a lot. At high school I discovered U2. A song like Sunday Bloody Sunday — that opened my eyes to things going on outside of America.”

One thing she definitely doesn’t sign up to, however, is the idea Warpaint are in a tradition of LA girl-groups. Indeed, she claims complete ignorance of the city’s rich and very long history of all-female ensembles. “Who are those bands? I honestly don’t know any of them,” she says, shaking her head. “Do girl-groups come of LA? That’s news to me. It’s not something we’ve ever thought about. We used to have a male drummer. We recruited our new drummer, Stella, not because of her gender, but because, the first time we played together, something special happened.”

Striking looking and self-assured, Kokal is perfectly at ease with Warpaint’s recent success and not fazed in the least about all the attention coming her way. That’s not to say, however, she takes anything for granted. She knows other bands would kill to be in the position Warpaint find themselves. Careerist in the best sense, she’s determined to make the most of the chances laid at her door.

“It makes sense that this is all happening for us now. We’ve been around a while, our line-up has changed. We’ve been patient. I feel we’re in a good place. This is exactly the right time for us to getting our name out there.”

* The Fool is out now.