#Inspired #0063 - Emily Breeze
Bristol cult chanteuse Emily Breeze released her album ‘Rituals’ last month, she took a moment to talk to us about all things that inspire her.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
It changes all the time. I am more likely to get obsessed with a single song than an artist’s whole body of work although Leonard Cohen, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker have a high hit rate for me and create a grand romantic myth out of themselves and their listeners. I like sexy weirdos with a powerful vision.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
My number one favourite film is Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I could watch Jack Nicholson peel potatoes and be mesmerised so watching his slow descent into a murderous rage with perfect set design and a Penderecki score is a treat that never fails to deliver. The moral of the story is don’t fuck with failed writer’s or failed rock stars for that matter. “I have always been the caretaker”.
Honorary mention also goes to Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls which always seems to be on T.V when I get in late at night. Between Elizabeth Berkeley's spirited thrusting and superbitch Gina Gershon’s arch diva antics, the bitter rivalry reminds me of other much loved camp classics such as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and All About Eve but Showgirls is raw unfiltered technicolour trash and all the better for it.
What city do you find the most inspiring and why?
A version of New York which I have never been to and only exists in my imagination between the years 1964 and 1977. I attend an early Velvet Underground rehearsal on Ludlow street before cruising past Lexington 125 to visit Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory and attend a reading from Allen Ginsburg before doing my makeup with Edie Sedgewick and Candy Darling. We hit CBGB’s and somehow The Stooges, Patti Smith and Suicide are all on the same bill. Bianca Jagger drops by on her white horse to give me a ride to Studio 54 where we explode in a supernova of decadence with the queens, club kids and leatherboys upon which Divine and Grace Jones legally adopt me as their child and we live happily ever after in a luxury apartment in the Statue of Liberty's tits.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
I can’t pick one person. everyone is interesting, even when they are being boring if you watch closely enough. I like people who cannot be contained or pushed into small spaces like Patti Smith and Grace Jones. I like people who refuse to be told they can’t such as Lizzo or Ian Dury. People who have swallowed terrible grief and carry themselves with grace. People who get up every morning and face the day without spewing negativity all over themselves and everyone else. French resistance fighters, figure skaters, teenagers, faded sirens, stand up comedians, strippers, serial killers, I could go on.......
How would you like to inspire people?
I would like to inspire people to buy my album Rituals which is out now on Sugarshack Records, oh and like follow your dreams and believe in yourself, be kind to small animals and stuff.