Fuzzbox Interview by Giorgia Lynch.

Fuzzbox

Are Back, with Maggie Dunne at the Helm!

Interview by Giorgia Lynch.

“I thought I’d be a character rather than being myself, because being myself is really boring.”

The Zoom call begins and I am greeted by a bright white face and a huge red smile staring down the camera at me. Although this was my first time meeting Maggie Dunne from We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Going to Use It, aka Fuzzbox, I guessed that this wasn’t her usual make-up routine. As Dunne spent the first five minutes of the hour-long interview perfecting her make-up, putting her hair into two plaits and placing a red head dress on, I could tell this was going to be far from boring.

But how could it be? Dunne is a legendary ‘80s Rock icon. With two studio albums (‘Bostin’ Steve Austin’ in 1986 and ‘Big Bang’ (UK#5) in 1989), reunions in 2010 and 2015, and now a brand new concept album entitled ‘The Lift’ coming out, we had a lot to talk about. But, I can’t tell a lie, I had never heard of Fuzzbox before this interview. Being born in 2001, I grew up listening to all of that era’s Pop legends like Britney Spears, Girls Aloud and the Spice Girls. My music taste never diverted to the ‘80s Rock music genre. I never got to witness first hand Fuzzbox’s bright coloured clothes and their vibrant hair (that had so much volume something could be hiding in it). So, before we talked about their recent achievement, I had to learn about their past by playing songs such as ‘Rules and Regulations’ (UK#41, ‘Bostin’ Steve Austin’) ‘Pink Sunshine’ (UK#14, ‘Big Bang’) to get a feeling as to what they are about.

Right, so as you are finishing your hair and make-up, which looks absolutely amazing, I thought I’d start with a little throwback to the late-’80s, so can you just tell me what

‘Pink Sunshine’ (UK#14, ‘Big Bang’, 1989) is actually about?

I can indeed! I used to live by Birmingham Airport and I had a pet dog called Paddy. He was absolutely beautiful, absolutely lovely - I don’t think of him as a dog, I think of him as my four-legged hairy brother really! He was so lovely and we used to go for walks together, we’d go to the airport and watch the planes coming in and out. And in the evening the sun would be setting, hence the ‘pink sunshine’, but the pink sunshine, what I hadn’t realised when we were writing it was that it was actually caused by air pollution. So it’s not as romantic as your first thought. It was about imagining you are going somewhere else, getting out, getting out of suburbia and doing something exciting.

I could feel the rapport building after just asking the first question. Dunne’s infectious laugh made for such a comfortable environment and I hope that I made her feel at-ease too as she was open enough to talk about her late sister and guitarist for the band, Jo Dunne (who died in 2012) after listening to the song ‘Rules and Regulations’ (UK#41, ‘Bostin Steve Austin’, 1986).

‘Rules and Regulations’ is just about growing up and what you might do with your life. Go to school, follow the rules, do what people say and don’t make a fool of yourself - work your brains out until your head bursts. It’s just about the mundanity of life and there must be more to life, there must be more than this. It’s about growing up and making use of your life and try and do something different. But that song is particularly special to me because it’s the song that my sister [Jo Dunne] left this world to, so it was the last song that was played at her funeral. So, it has a special place in my heart.

When I was listening to the song, and I hope you don’t mind me saying this, it doesn’t sound like your “typical” funeral song. You would normally think it would be slower and sadder, but it’s quite upbeat.

But, something that did stick in my head when listening to it was the lyric “There must be more to life”. That works, it’s a nice lyric. After finishing her laughter at what was maybe a surprising question, Dunne said:

It is and also it served as a reminder to people at the funeral that you’re only here for a short amount of time.

But it seemed like Dunne and the rest of Fuzzbox enjoyed sending out a message to people that maybe others were too scared to show off, especially in the ‘80s. When I was talking to Mike Bennett, the producer of Fuzzbox’s upcoming album, ‘The Lift’, he was saying that you were “the original girl-power group.”

We never set out to be empowering, we set out to be annoying! [Laughs].

But sometimes being yourself is the empowering thing.

Exactly and we didn’t set out to be that, but just by being who we are, we wound up being that. It’s something that I have talked about before, if you look at all the images of Fuzzbox there is four very different characters in there and Jo especially stands out because you never see her in a skirt. And I know Sporty Spice was kind of based off Jo apparently, but Jo was a lot more obviously tomboy than Sporty Spice - I think Sporty Spice got the short end of the poo stick, didn’t she? Jo was just Jo and it was never a thing and we never made a song and dance about it, it was just who Jo was, and I think that naturalness was very evident and that is very empowering.

Right, so we will start talking about your new album, which is called ‘The Lift’ and it is a concept album. So far, I have heard a few very interesting things about it, so if you just want to explain a bit about what your plans are with that?

So, during lockdown, I watched the musical ‘Hamilton’ [2015] as I was

wondering what the fuss was about. But I found it a bit boring mostly; some of it was alright. But it got me thinking about what sort of musical I’d quite like to watch, and then I thought that I really like watching programmes about serial killers, which I do. It’s a dreadful thing really because it’s like you’re supporting it. So, it got me thinking and I spoke to Mike [Bennett] about it. We were thinking about doing a musical, but it was lockdown so we couldn’t do that, so what we could do was think about a concept for an album and that is how it came along. We came up with various titles, ‘The Lift’ might not be the final title, ‘Tragic Carpet’ was another one [title]. We wondered how we could get people from one scenario to another and then we finally settled on ‘The Lift’. You go in the lift and it is a bit like a horror movie, you go in the lift and you don’t know what horror scenario you will come out at, which I really quite like, because I think that is it quite scary getting into a enclosed space, you don’t know what is going to be behind the door and so that was the whole sort of thing. It started off being that, but it has kind of changed to something a bit different, so we got different people doing different songs but they have put their own stamp on it and I think it has actually made the project much more exciting. It’s not just a lift of serial killers, they have put their own perspective on it.

So, without giving away too much, do all the songs link in some way to form some sort of story in the lift?

They don’t, it doesn’t have a linear narrative, but we will be having the lift operator doing some sort of connection between the story. Once we have got them all in [the songs], it is a bit of a chicken and he egg situation, we can link them altogether. Mike is a prolific writer. he has done stuff for TV, so between us both, we will come up with this lift operator and we are hoping to make it into a film later.

Oh wow, do you know much more about that?

Again, we are waiting. Today, I have had a message to say that another song has been done, so as soon as it is all done we will gel it all together. Another thing about Mike is when he is on a project, he will work really, really quickly to get it all together, but obviously, when you are working with other people you have to give them time to do their thing, so it is coming together as quickly as it can be done, wouldn’t want to rush anyone.

And you have collaborated with a lot of people on this album as well, such as former Sub Sub vocalist Melanie Williams and Christine Sugary Staple of From the Specials. What is it like working with these people in a collaborative way?

I think COVID has made working collaboratively much more easy, it has become normal. Christine sent over her idea and Mike and I talked about it. Mike and I are very similar in our production values, it is rare that he sends me something and I go ‘Oh gosh, no’. But if he did, I could tell him and it wouldn’t be an issue and equally, he could tell me if it was rubbish or not. I think that is quite important when you’re working with people to have a certain degree of honesty.

So, what is it like working with Mike Bennett as your producer?

He is mad as a box of frogs! Well, a box of frogs have nothing on Mike actually! He is very intense and I have to tell him off sometimes because he is naughty! But he is amazingly creative and he has been a very good friend to me.

Now, I have been mesmerised by your outfit for the whole interview and obviously you were a part of Bennett’s movie ‘Vegan Vampires from Zorg’ (2022), which also featured Melanie Williams, so can you tell me about your part in that?

What I did, well I’m not sure what I did really because I haven’t seen the full film yet, so I’m not sure of how much of what I did is actually in there. But I did some scenes with John Otway in a record store and that is quite funny, but I’ve seen some extracts of the film and it is completely bonkers! I think it is going to be one of those cult films, it’s not mainstream at all.

Thank you so much Maggie!

This has been Maggie Dunne from Fuzzbox, the OG power-girl group and the OG power-girl!

For news on Fuzzbox’s upcoming new album, ‘The Lift’ and much more, visit the link below.

www.facebook.com/ OfficialFuzzbox