Camilla Sparksss

Take note of the name Camilla Sparksss, it’s one you’re sure to hear more of in 2014. Hard at work crafting her debut album, the alter ego of Canadian Barbera Lenhoff has already delivered three EP’s of pounding, uncompromising 80’s synth pop, music she’ll be showcasing on a short jaunt around the Netherlands. We spoke about the lack of humour in Switzerland and why driving the tour van yourself really isn’t that bad an idea

By Derek Robertson

‘The idea is just to show our taste – whether it’s funny or not, I don’t know’

Watching your videos, they have quite a subversive edge to them. Are they intended to be funny or humorous in any way?

I guess so. Humorous yes, but not funny; at least not directly funny. I really like creating contrasts, like if you have a really electro, poppy song, then doing something calm with the video.

I was thinking of the video for  “I’ll Teach You To Hunt” especially.

With the twins, bouncing around? I guess they’re awkward, so people might find that funny. The idea is just to show our taste – whether it’s funny or not, I don’t know. It’s deliberately awkward for sure.

Do you come up with the ideas on your own, or do you have others that you work with?

I work with my boyfriend, ‘cause we also have another band together, but we do everything ourselves. We’re actually very paranoid about having control over everything, so the ideas and so on come from us. There’s a playful side to it. We’ve tried , but we’re just not very good at it because I end up controlling and taking over. I should probably start opening up to other people – I think I’ll do that in the future, but at the moment we’re control freaks.

Are you a control freak when it comes to other things in life, or just with your music and art?

Probably with our whole lives. For example, I hate letting other people drive when we’re on tour.

It must be pretty hard touring and doing the driving.

It’s less boring than sitting there on the side. And we had a really bad experience with one really bad tour manager; he was a terrible driver, so we didn’t sleep on a month-long tour. Since then, we’ve done it ourselves.

What made him such a bad driver?

He kept stalling the van and burning the wheels when pulling away, it was a mess. Plus, halfway through we found out he had some kind of serious heart problem, so essentially he could’ve dropped dead at any moment. But it was fun.

I was going to ask if you had any funny tour stories, but it’d be hard to top that.

People always ask for stories, but I never remember them. Maybe something else will come to mind.

Hopefully it will. What do you find funny?

I used to watch a lot of Seinfeld, but I haven’t seen it for while. They don’t show it in Switzerland, but back in Canada they played it every day. I loved Kramer; I thought it was the funniest thing to watch him walk in through the door. I wouldn’t even follow the story, I’d just wait for those bits.

I know that the French don’t really do stand up, but what about Switzerland?

No, there’s no comedy here. In fact, there’s not much laughing at all. You have to go online to find stuff like that. I guess some people go to the movies to see funny films, but I like watching really stupid cartoons, just before going to sleep – things like Ice Age. I think I’ve seen three of them.

Do you have a favourite cartoon?

Not really, but when I was young I used to watch this show called ‘Mr. Canoehead.’ It was about this guy who’d gotten his head stuck in a canoe when he was portaging between lakes, and in every episode he’d save an old lady by hitting the bad guys with the canoe as he turned around; it was pretty silly. That was one of my favourites.

Camilla Sparksss is at WORM, Rotterdam with Dawn Hunger on 28 November. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.