After that you joined The Revolution for a time.
For a minute, yeah, but it was more like I was the girl that Prince called and said “I need you and want you to sing on this.” I sang on the ‘Black Album,’ I sang on the ‘Crystal Ball’ record. That’s all me. I sang on the Apollonia Six stuff as well. I did a lot.
So 26 years on from ‘The Family’ album, which has accrued a cult following today, how do you view that album now?
I’d like to go back in there and give it a little bit of a boost in audio terms. Although I love the analogue sound of it, it’s just a little tinny. I would like it to have a little bit more of a big, fat, bottom to it, but it’s fantastic to listen to; it’s a great record. It really is.
Do you have a favourite track?
‘Yes,’ and ‘Nothing Compares 2 U.’
It’s always been rumoured that Prince wrote ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ for you.
Maybe… yeah, but you know, it’s not like he said: “Babe, I wrote this song for you” (laughs).
So how did you feel when Sinead O’Connor had a massive hit with the song five years later in 1990?
I was like “fuck, that doesn’t sound like ours!” It was just the way she went and got a hit out of it. I was so used to not hearing it that way. I wanted to say to everybody: “wait a minute, we have our version – you should hear our version!” But I ended up getting to know her later on and I was flattered that she and her mates were digging our record, so it was flattery and it was great.
What about the name-change from The Family to fDeluxe? Is it true that Prince prevented you from using the name the family?
He doesn’t own the name: there’s no copyright to it. He owns the branding. So we could have used the name but we couldn’t go out even representing who The Family is. If we used the name The Family, we would have litigation problems that we would never be able to get ourselves out of. He would make it difficult. It’s not that he would win the battle because it wouldn’t show him in a good light but it was just something that we didn’t care enough about to fight about. What were we going to do? So we went for fDeluxe because – and I kid you not – there was nothing else available. Nothing. Trying to copyright a name and own a name, we couldn’t get it. You couldn’t get anything. So fDeluxe worked and the ‘f’ when we were designing the logo with Steve Park, had that very familiar kind of feel that it did with The Family. And it looked good on a T-shirt (laughs).
How has fDeluxe as a live experience been going?
It’s been fantastic. We had a great time and Joe’s Pub (in New York) is a great venue. It was great.
What does your set list consist of?
From the first record we’ve got ‘Screams Of Passion,’ ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ ‘Desire,’ ‘High Fashion,’ ‘Mutiny’ and then sometimes we put in ‘River Run Dry.’ The only songs from this new record we’re not doing are ‘Beautiful You’ and ‘The Vigil.’
Are you coming to the UK?
We’re working on that right now. I can’t wait to get over there. I think Europe is really going to respond well to the album. The further east we’ve gone, the more people really love it. LA is a tough crowd, man, although we got them up off their seats. We had Wendy and Lisa playing with us, who made it all the better so I’m hoping that if we can manage to get something going in Europe, we would love to have Wendy and Lisa join us for those shows.
Have you got any future plans beyond this album?
We’re just taking it one day at a time. Who knows what’s around the corner for anybody. All of the intentions are to keep creating.
‘Gaslight,’ the new album by fDeluxe is out now via Art Of Groove/MIG Records.
For more info go to: www.fdeluxe.com
