Gossip's Nathan Howdeshell doesn't begrudge Beth Ditto her high profile
‘IT’S never felt like an albatross,” shrugs Nathan Howdeshell, guitarist in punk-soul trio Gossip, face concealed by his floppy fringe and think-rimmed glasses.
“I mean,” he sighs, “we were happy with its success. We don’t really pay attention to the media, and we still enjoy playing it.
“And it was a political song that was written with meaning, so it’s always going to be like that for us. We think it’s still impactful and important and we like playing it live.”
The 29-year-old is discussing that song, the cast-iron anthem that catapulted Gossip from a cult underground band so unknown that even Google would shrug ‘Beats me’ to a mainstream success story.
Riot grrrl punks
Thanks in part to a year-defining Soulwax remix, 2007’s Standing in the Way of Control (a pro-gay attack on Bush’s religious right) became the Gossip’s Smells Like Teen Spirit crossover moment, propelling them into a land where no Riot grrrl punks had ever ventured.
Always armed with a quip and opinion, 16-stone feminist dykon Beth Ditto was crowned ‘The Queen of Cool’ by the NME; posed naked on the cover of the magazine that anointed her, and became the toast of the fashion world, regularly papped hitting the titles with BFF Kate Moss.
Behind the Heat covers, broadsheet agony aunt columns (Ditto was employed as The Guardian’s version of Dear Deirdre) and clothing ranges for high-street retailer Evans, murmurs of dissent were rising.
Blooming celebrity
The phrase ‘one trick pony’ was bandied about by critics sniping that the group were starting to become more known for Ditto’s blooming celebrity and BMI than the group’s musical output. Newly signed to Sony, there was a lot riding on their fourth album.
As their first record on a major label, they would be pressure to make it pay. With rumours percolating that Gossip were struggling with writer’s block, it looked as if they were buckling.
If Gossip faced sleepless nights following up their breakthrough record, Howdeshell is defiantly denying it today.
“We treat every record differently each time. I think if you try and worry about making the same record or making a hit, then you probably won’t actually achieve that.
“And we religiously don’t read our own press. We don’t pay attention to the media. At all. I think that’s the only way you can be a healthy band,” argues the avowed Morrissey fan, before quipping “Heat is murder!”.
Creative drought
What of reports that the trio – completed by drummer Hannah Bilie – underwent a creative drought?
“That’s not true at all,” he disclaims. “We just weren’t ready to record. We had been obsessively demo-ing for like, two or three years. I have 200 songs all the time but we weren’t really confident.
“We didn’t think things were snapping into place. I mean, it usually takes us about three years to make a record anyway. We were touring so much; we were all exhausted and needed the time off.
“As soon as we started to work with Rick, we knew we’d found the final piece of the jigsaw.”
Pugnacious indie micro-label
Rick is Rick Rubin, the genre-blurring producer who successfully oversaw the career reinvention of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, and a man who refers to Howdeshell as ‘a virtuoso’.
In contrast to their days on pugnacious indie micro-label Kill Rock Stars, Gossip’s new album, Music for Men, cost over $300,000 and saw them record at Rubin’s studio in Malibu.
They were originally signed in 2007 to the Sony label for LGBT artists Music With A Twist, but when it dissolved, they shifted to Columbia. Although Beth Ditto may be the focal point of Gossip, she is deliberately absent from the cover of Music for Men.
Instead, it features Bilie, a tomboyish lesbian, resembling the quintessential male icon: think James Dean or Elvis.
Gender identity
Ditto has been in a relationship with Freddie, a female-to-male transgendered partner, for eight years, and gender identity and queer politics have always been a hot-button topic for the band.
Indeed, mooted single Men in Love is a response to the fauxmosexual posturing of Katy Perry.
Despite being the sole straight member of the group (he’s been linked to Peaches Geldof), Howdeshell encountered more relentless, homophobic bullying than Ditto when the two teenage friends were growing up in their Bible Belt hometown that inspired Footloose.
“I can remember being in church and thinking that everything that they were saying was totally ridiculous and wrong,” he remembers.
Staunch hatred
“We’re talking about a place where the Ku Klux Klan still held sway. So there was a staunch hatred for what we were at the time there.
“I was heckled and victimised for supposedly being gay even though I wasn’t. I don’t know why I’m such a magnet for that,” he guffaws dryly.
He can appreciate the subversive nature of Standing In The Way of Control, a song about gay marriage being belted out in nightclubs and at festivals by the same thugs who used to taunt him.
Yet he’s smart enough to recognise you need the tunes to back up the polemic: he hopes the message will never come at the cost of the music.
Suffered a breakdown
“I think you can be subversive for subversiveness's sake,” he says.
“And then you start looking like a pompous Johnny Rotten. It’s more about trying to be positive and exposing the kids to new things and showing them there are different approaches to life, music and creativity.”
Howdeshell and Ditto are thick as thieves. Back in Searcy, Arkansas, he was responsible for releasing her first band (which included original Gossip drummer, Kathy Mendonca) on his own label; and when he heard she had suffered a breakdown, offered to send her the plane fare so she could come and live in Washington.
You get the feeling there is genuinely no festering ‘Blondie Is The Name of A Band’-style resentment at Ditto’s tabloid profile dwarfing the group as a whole.
“We’re really comfortable in our roles,” he professes. “I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with that sort of recognition.”
Lip service
While paying lip service to a region (seriously, what band has ever said ‘It’s great to be here in Plymouth!’ and meant it?) is expected of a group, the Gossip – whose A&R is Mike Pickering – have consistently evangelised about Manchester, with a zealousness that suggests they’re on commission from the tourist board.
The last time Nathan played here, he sported a Joy Division T-shirt.
“Whenever I go to Manchester, there’s always a piece of me that feels really giddy,” he enthuses.
“I mean, Factory records is the most important label ever. Tony Wilson, he was more than a label head, he was the voice of a generation,” he continues.
Graphic design
“He understood rave, he understood punk, he understood soul, he understood art as well, he understood graphic design.
“Then you had the Hacienda. He had his hand in every single pie. That’s really inspiring.”
Music for Men is out now on Columbia.
Published: Wed, 01 July, 2009
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