So, how did Solex start?
Well Joe, it was a sunny winter’s day in Amsterdam 1997.  I was at an auction to buy CDs for the second hand CD-shop I co-own.  Because the prices of all CDs had gone up too high I was sitting there quite bored, not buying CDs at all.  Then they brought on this 8-track tapedeck and a crummy old sampler. Being the singer of a noisy pop band, I hardly knew what a sampler was. I owned a 4-track at that time and was interested in going 8-track. So quite involuntarily I raised my hand and had the whole deal for the first bid.  And that is actually how Solex started.
Later that day I got home and started working with the gear immediately.
Within 3 months I had finished my first demo, which I sent to twenty record companies I liked.  Within one month five of them replied offering a deal.  Matador, one of them, sent me a ticket to New York, I flew over and within a month I was "Solex, Matador recording artist".  Half a year later, Solex  vs. the Hitmeister was released, that was within a year after I bought the  stuff at the auction.

What happened to the noisy pop band? 
I quit the band, they were pissed off, but they still play together.  They have never talked to me since then, and they're still looking for a singer.

Have you always wanted to make music?
Yep, I started playing classical guitar, and then I joined some new wave band as a singer.  I always sang in bands as a kid.  Later on I became a drummer.

How was Roskilde?
Huge!  And a lot of drunken Danes.  I didn't see any bands . . . only parts of REM, which was pretty OK.  Cibo Matto played right before us and they were great.  Great drummer!!  We drove 3000km in 3 days, so I'm still beat.

How do you write your songs?  Do you start with the beat, a cool sample or what?
I start with a COOL BEAT.  Then I look for the samples.  The beats can be drum loops (samples), from live drums, or records.  On the new record there are some full-length drum tracks played by one of those old analog breathing guys.
The other instruments I sample from bad CDs (as on Solex vs. the Hitmeister), or live musicians I record in my studio.  On Pick Up I also took my recorder out of the studio . . .

What about the vocals? The lyrics are, for the most part, fairly indecipherable—do you mainly use your voice as an instrument?
So after recording all the instruments and samples, and edit the song, I come up with a vocal part that I hum, or sing in some stupid language.  So  the melody of the vocals is real important to me.
Now I know how the phrasing should be and how long every line should be.  I write lyrics when I work in the shop. I think of a fictional/non-fictional character and come up with some story.  When I finish the lyrics I record the vocals.

Do you always write about other people?  Are the songs always narrative-based?
Yeah, They are sort of “fictive autobiographical” . . .  So I guess they’re about stuff I hope might, or might not happen to me one day.  Or stuff that I hoped happened to me but in fact happened to other people . . .

Your voice has an unearthly quality—one part Bjork, one part Alison from Cranes, and two parts altogether new—almost oriental-sounding.
I like dissonant harmonies, that might account for the “altogether new-almost oriental sounding”.  I mix the vocals “in” the music.  In that sense I use my voice as an instrument.

What have been some of your favourite records to sample from?
Stuff like Jamaican Candlelight Party, Soft Gothic Part 1, Etruscian Muses from Venus, Your Contemporary Innerself, and of course all Technofax records.

What’s Technofax?
A Dutch-German threesome that is sort of a Krafwork rip-off.  They were in a dutch comedy one day . . . BRILLIANT!!

What's the music scene like in Amsterdam?
Anybody with a set of decks in his bedroom calls himself a DJ. It's hilarious!!  Then there's the always flourishing Amsterdam guitar-pop scene.  Most of the bands on the Excelsior label are worth a spin.  There's also a connection to the Shibuya-pop scene from Tokyo.  Richard Cameron makes great Tokyo-influenced pop.  And believe it or not....there's a pretty strong Gothic scene in Amsterdam.  Of course I won't be able to tell you anything about that.  Then there's still the improvising modern jazz scene at the Bimhuis.  They have a strong influence on the US-noise scene (Sonic Youth, etc.) and one of the best-known people from that scene is Han Bennink . . . a drummer.  And Herman Brood is still alive . . . I think.  He is the guy that had a number 1 hit in the US with “Saturday Night”.  Or that’s what he made everyone believe in Holland . . . anyway, he’s probably an incontinent old sod now!

What other bands do you admire?
Sonic Youth . . . and . . . I admire Pavement . . . that's about it.  Great live bands that record nice records.
But admiration is a great word . . . 

How do you see your music developing?
Step by step . . . It's hard to speculate about the future.  Ideas often follow each  other . . . so one is the result of the other.  If I buy a harp tomorrow, you can only tell, say next year, were that led to . . .  It's not that I'll be Andreas Vollenweider the day after I bought it.
I'd never have my own backdrop projections, if I hadn't bumped into a cheap video camera at an auction.  Or . . . I wouldn't be doing this interview if I didn't buy a cheap computer in Seattle last year on tour .

So you do the projections yourself?  They are pretty neat, rather spooky . . .
HEY, I am pretty neat and rather spooky!!! . . . I guess . . . (sound of a theremin swelling . . . ).  Anyway I did all the filming myself.  The first tours I had an (by accident) upside down projection of a nice bike ride through Amsterdam.  Then after I had an upside down film of me driving a car through the US . . . and recently I used a . . . upside down cartoon a friend of mine made.  Pretty arty-farty huh??

What does the future hold for Solex?
Cheap hotels . . . hamburgers . . . sushi . . . motel 6 . . .Tokyo . . . hands . . . journalists . . . customs . . . . visas . . . burritos . . . demos from bad harassing bands . . . lonely cats . . . meeting nice people . . . sunshine when it's ugly in Amsterdam . . . festivals . . . beer . . . camels . . . guarana . . . many miles . . . tons of gas . . . bratwurst . . . croissants . . . etc., etc.
 

And that’s it.  Thanks go to Elisabeth for answering my questions.  Solex’s new album, Pick-up, is out now on Matador.  You can find the Solex website, run by Elisabeth herself, here.