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.”