ANGIE REEd Vs Ovary Action, Oslo.

In the reception of the Scandic hotel, Oslo, 16:00. Angie sits on the brown sofa between her boyfriend and me, putting a steaming tea on the low table in front of her. They have been in Oslo for two days, thanks to these cheap tickets that make it almost cheaper to fly to Berlin than to use public transportation in Olso. The atmosphere is quiet relaxed on this International
Women's day afternoon and the interview thus quickly turns into a very informal chat. This takes place some hours before the Women's day speeches on Youngstorget, the parade through Oslo's power arteries, and the party at Bla (which was the most attended of the 3 events. Angie speaks slowly, playfully emphasizing some cliche american drawls, practicing for Barbara?

Oa: To start with, what shall I call you, Angie, or Barbara? Mz angie and doctor Barbara?
Angie Reed: Professor, please (laughs). Whatever you want, really, Angie is fine.

Oa: Is it your real name?
Angie Reed: Angie is my real name, yes. Well, my actual name is Angela, but my parents never called me Angela, they always called me Angie, because my dad is American, my mum is Italian.

Oa: When did you start this schizophrenic stage persona then?
Angie Reed: I guess that, like any kind of schizophrenia, it happened coincidently. It is a very practical type of schizophrenia. I had all these slides, they are old drawings of mine, and I did not want to go up there as Angie Reed explaining my slides. I always wanted to work with slides, and tell some funny stories about them, and make music.... some kind of concert with story-telling and visuals. The best way to have a bit of distance from your own persona, is to invent a character, so that's what happened.

Oa: Your approach is then a bit similar to that of Tracy and the Plastics?
Angie Reed: Yes, I have been compared to her a couple of times. I have never seen her live, though.

Oa: she works with videos, though, rather than slides.
Angie Reed: Well, that's my next plan, not because of Tracy, or anything, but because it is what I want to do. That will be a step up for my next show. It's in the making now.

Oa: Are you still going to use old artistic material of yours?
Angie Reed: It's all gonna be new. Probably old problems, but.... new perspectives (laughs) All the ancient pains, but maybe new solutions, or no solutions, but new drawings.

Oa: Is the whole new show ready?
Angie Reed: Well, yeah, it is in my head (laughs)

OA: Is it where the last album comes from as well, or did you get some help, as far as song writing is concerned.
Angie Reed: No, I did it by myself. Well, I didn't do the production by myself, but I wrote the songs by myself and I played the instruments by myself, and I was doing the arranging. I did have my talented friend Patrick Atoni give me some assistance, you know, because he's got good tastes. He recorded it for me ad he did the mixing, so there's a lot of his touch in there, you know, which makes it so cool in my opinion. Then Bon Twenny did compose the music, under my request for jungle gigolo and BB Co co-produced it. You know when you're working together, you just go hey, why don't you try this or that, but they are my songs, and I say this because sometimes I find articles that makes it sounds like you just sing on it, like you didn't do anything yourself. This is my first album, so every once in a while, I feel the need to put my feet down and say' no, that's mine, I did it (laughs)

OA: What do you write your songs on? Messing around with keyboards and computers?
Angie Reed: Yes, I am messing around with all that jazz and I write the lyrics, I forget them, I find them again, then I work on them a little more with a bit more distance and attitude. Some of them I reread, and I just go 'oh my god, what kind of bullshit is this?' and for some of them I go 'hey, that was a moment of great wisdom, I don't even have to work on this one.' On the last record, for instance, I made the beats, figuring out how worked this sampler that I bought. it took me half a year to have the courage to touch it, let alone programming... Then all kinds of interesting things were happening with that, so very weird beat, home basic beats, I thought they were all very sympathetic to me, so then I took them over to my friends's place -very proudly and I played them into his computer without any protest from him and then they all seemed to kind of roll and fall into my lap. Then I would play synth over it, or a guitar. Most of the things are first take and I laugh about the mistakes that you can hear here and there and the slip-ups because they have funny tours, and for me they give more character to the songs. I didn't want to make any impressive computer music, it's enough people doing this really well, and I don't even want to try, I just wanted to do some kind of charming stuff.

OA: What about the other bands you were in you played with Stereototal and before that in a band called Angie et ses Tigres... Is that a reference to Le Tigre?
Angie Reed: No, that was way before, if they copied me, I don't know (laughs). Maybe a little birdy told them about the tigres, but I don't think so, I think it's just a coincidence, I don't know how it happened, but sometimes strange things happen across the world, you know. But I played bass for Stereototal for four years. I played in Oslo with them twice, for RadiOrakel, actually. Playing with them was a lot of fun and then it was time to proceed with my own things, so I quit the band in 2000 and wrote this show of mine in Fall-winter 2000, and started performing three years ago in April.

OA: Do you feel more comfortable with solo projects?
Angie Reed: Yeah. I am a comfortable person when it comes to some things but I didn't even think about it... I just did it. Doing a show on my own is not any more difficult than doing the show with other people. It's just a different thing, you're more responsible, and that's ok. Whenever you need to do something, you can do it, you just have to let yourself do it, or want
to do it.

Oa: Were you involved in the song writing in the other bands as well?
Angie Reed: No, I played bass, that was it.

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