CREEP interview: "Oh my god, so good!"
Meet Lauren Dillard, one half of new Brooklyn duo Creep. Creep’s other half is world renowned house DJ, Lauren Flax. Together the Laurens make sexed-up trip-hop, pulling in guest vocalists from different genres to lay pop melodies over their sinister soundscapes. Creep’s first single, Days, came out on Young Turks in December, and boasts guest vocals from The xx’s Romy Madley Croft. The video [below] was directed by Fischerpooner’s Warren Fischer, and is sort of like a music video version of The Craft in slow motion. Starting the end of March the duo will be supporting Klaxons on the road around America.
Is there a specific sound you’re aiming for with Creep?
We’re leaning toward the darker side of pop – dark music that’s more universally accepted, I guess you could say. The music is really just a mixture of all of our influences – everything from commercial R&B, to Portishead, to the Cocteau Twins to… I don’t know… Katy Perry.
You recently worked with Romy. What other collaborations do you have coming up?
We’re planning to work with lots of different vocalists for the album. We recently recorded a song with Nina Sky, which was amazing. We’re working with the woman from Blonde Redhead on a song right now, and also Andrew Wyatt, who sings in Miike Snow. Also we have plans to work with Planningtorock, which is cool because she’s a visual artist as well, and our live show is going to be very visuals heavy, to fill the visual gap since we don’t have a lead singer. We’re making a video for each song that features the song’s singer, this way we can include the guest vocalists into the live show.
How would you describe your night, Filth?
Uh, it’s sort of a juvenile delinquent, fun hip-hop party. We play commercial R&B, dub stuff, pop. It’s pretty mixed between gay and straight. My friend Andrew, who I do the night with, DJs some super random stuff sometimes. Like the other day he was playing techno remixes of monks chanting. I was like ‘Dude, what the fuck’ and he was like “Oh yeah I just downloaded a bunch of this.” I was like ‘From where?” But then sometimes he’ll just play like Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha and Avril Lavigne.
Do you like the new Avril Lavigne single, What the Hell?
Oh my god, so good! Have you seen the video? Basically the whole premise is that she’s trying to get away from her boyfriend, so she’s like stealing cabs and vintage shopping for some reason. First there’s some shots of her wearing just lingerie and it’s so obviously a body double, then she’s playing basketball at one point, and then she goes into this vintage store wearing like Wayfarer glasses with the lenses popped out. Inside she finds what I actually researched is her own clothing line, with a t-shirt that say What The Hell on it. And then suddenly she’s in a club that was at the back of the vintage store apparently, she’s crowd surfing and making out with her boyfriend. It’s mayj.
What other music you are excited about at the moment?
I’m excited about what Kim Ann Foxman, from Hercules and the Love Affair, is doing with her new solo stuff. And the new stuff Jamie from The xx has been doing is amazing. He just recorded this dub album with Gil Scott Heron and it’s sooo good. And I’m excited about Ciara in general. I think she’s underrated, and that she should be bigger than Rhianna. And I really want Missy Elliot back. Where is she?
You’re about to go on tour around America supporting Klaxons. Sounds fun/dangerous.
Yeah, for a month starting March 25th. And at the end of the tour Sleigh Bells are joining as well. We’re so excited to go on tour with Klaxons. They’ve been friends of ours for a long time, and since we’re really just starting our live show it’s going to be so nice to have friends on the road. I think we can learn a lot from them.
