Elizabeth Fraser talks about her lyrics
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2009
- Interview with Elizabeth Fraser from 1FM radio. Elizabeth gives an insight into her songwriting and the inspiration for her inimitable lyrics.
To watch the LIVE 'Bluebeard' video go here:
• Cocteau Twins - Bluebe...
To watch the 'Whales Tails' video go here:
• Cocteau Twins - Whales... 
Видеоклипы
Even when she's not singing , I could listen to that voice all day. She's one sweet lady
indeed. her daily speaking voice may be even more beautiful than her singing voice. and funny thing is, she was not even made a part of the band for her incredible voice. the guitarists saw her in the crowd at a club, and thought, "hey, she's a really good dancer......"
I am so with you on this 2ndMOUSEofficial, such a beautiful singer and person, pity she was being interviewed by a total dickhead who needs to find another job
obviously the interview doesn't agree. he'd rather hear himself talk.
I like your pfp
Hey! Carbinax! Seen you in bandcamp. Great tunes!
Liz certainly has one of the most charming speaking voices I've ever heard.
She sounds like a very gentle soul. I like it too.
Check out interviews with Kate Bush too. She has a very similar sweet/pixie-like voice.
She's just magical. She is. I would love to sit down and have tea and cookies with her and just talk to her. She is not of this world.
+Sofia M I would do the same
that's because she is a satanist. Fact.
Crush Thy Flowers Never heard of them before- love this song!
she is from my planet, we all the same over there, its boring over there, we speak that language its not pretend language like she says it is, we here undercover to raise stupid low religious vibrations
Kianu Collis Foolish statement.
Elizabeth Fraser is an angel and I want her to sing me to heaven.
Or Las Vegas. 😉
@@chuckaudio3191 I choose what’s brighter than the soon is to meeee
@@r.i.pyoutube6881 So good... So good...
Yes. Same.
@@r.i.pyoutube6881 I don't know my expiration date, but I want this song to open my memorial and I want "Road, River and Rail to close it.
Her voice is unbelievably sublime, in my opinion her music is simply about having an emotional impact on the listener and its beautifully done.
Yes,she is an impressionist no?
Yes! No place for literal interpretation. Her place is a place of total feeling. And of freedom, as she said.
i love her little confidence, "they sound good once i sing them." she is absolutely magnificent and intriguing.
She is a very shy and not very confident person and as a radio programme the interviewer has to keep things flowing so I can understand how it seems he is interrupting but he can sense when she is faltering and so tries to keep the momentum going. He did a good job and got a lot out of her which we have not heard before. Fascinating interview.
It's Simon Armitage interviewing Liz.
In a different interview in 1996, you can see her become more confident.
Not confident HOW precisely?
@@robyndismon394 exactly.. usually when we search videos of artists explaining their music and meaning we expect a long analysis but its quite the opposite. Because what they create in the studio, the magic that happens there cant be easily described in interviews or podcasts. The Cocteau Twins music is something you experience while listening mostly
I think it's extremely rude that he constantly interrupts her. It negates that anything she has to say is of importance and it is extremely rude and offensive!
LET HER FUCKING SPEAK
Exactly
THANK YOU!
This is ridiculous but I've been listening to Liz since 82 but this is the first time I've heard her in a normal speaking voice. My god what a sweet angel and her laugh at 2:49 melted me to the floor
The album "Heaven or Las Vegas" is absolutely fabulous, the best Cocteau Twins album in my opinion. I'm a mad, mad CT fan.
1:52 "(recites unintelligible lyrics) which I have NO idea what it means" oh my god, she is so charming.
This wouldn't make sense to me if anybody else were saying it. But, like everybody who loves her, I understand perfectly.
Wow, what a revelation to hear this after years of wondering what kind of place such musical magic and brilliance this work came from. The greatest alien rock and roll band that ever lived, and my favourite otherworldly band of the 80s along with the Cure, DCD, and Siouxsie and the Banshees (I have to say, my late discovery of Cranes now has them on this list). Her speaking voice is sooo enchanting and charming. I just did not expect this❤️
After all these years it's so good to hear her process, and with such incredible vulnerability, which is what the world desperately needs more of.
Great interview. I remember Robin Guthrie being interviewed on radio around the time when the collections were released. The interviewer asked about Elizabeth improvising in the studio and he said absolutely not, all the melodies and lyrics were well well prepared and she came in with her notebooks ready to sing.
Her voice gives me an otherworldly feeling even when she's not singing, it just makes me smile.
OH MY GOD i could listening her voice all day!!
I don't think she ever completely stopped with the sound over meaning style of writing (although after Heaven Or Las Vegas, many lyrics are often a lot more straightforward). I wouldn't have it any other way. The bulk of her (the Cocteau Twins) songs are forever shrouded in mystery with seductive titles & sumptuous words scattered throughout that act as catalysts for the imagination. Everyone who listens comes away with unique interpretations and feelings of their very own. And their brilliant musicianship never failed to create the most exquisite frames for the songs. It reminds me of the Victorian era of great British fairy tale painting. Many of the finest pieces sit within the most extraordinarily crafted frames. I'm so glad someone uploaded this old interview. Thank you (-:
It’s cool
her voice tho!
Liz is so adorable and so fragile and yet so powerful! I love the way she talks too. Her accent is soo cute!
i sense her childhood has a deep impact on her personality and music.
People are criticising the interviewer. I understand why, but I suggest there was no chance of Elizabeth accepting centre stage, and delivering a monologue. She freely gave him the infornation we wanted about her lyrics. It worked for me.
I heard once that Elizabeth Fraser was abused as a child, at about the age of 8, & that her mind forced itself to consciously forget the memories, burying them deep into her subconscious. Years later after the Cocteau Twins had started their career, the emotional pain of having been abused was still there, and closer to the conscious part of her mind than the memories were, and that this trauma displayed itself in a passive-aggressive sort of way, in her lyrics. So, that when she sang she heard the words, she heard herself singing the lyrics just fine; but, no one else could necessarily understand them. At some point, one of her band-mates, I believe it was Simon Raymond, was asked in an interview about, while the singing is still beautiful, the lyrics not making sense. This caused a rift in the band that some believe did lead to their break up; but, it did cause her to seek professional psychological help, to help her to work through any trauma that was causing her to singing in a way that was not exactly decipherable.
The story is very similar to the story of Siouxsie. Now I understand how close they both were in some point
I believe she was channeling sacred languages maybe without knowing it. I wonder how it really influenced us, the consciousness. It surely opened up something within me, a feeling which grew stronger throughout the years, almost like being able to see the actual world behind the music.
I wholeheartedly agree! Elizabeth was channeling healing, wisdom, inspiration and overflowing love!
I believe this as well.
Deep within the dreaming Oceans Vast Krishna blue
I love this. Now I can prove to my doubting friends that the words published on some sites is false. Perfect
Indeed, they are indecipherable at best. It's what we think they are, what they mean to us, and how we interpret the lyrics is all that counts.
Don't really see the merit in taking pleasure out of proving your "friends" wrong.
@@miketodd6477 I do if the situation arises. But I don't go looking for the opportunity. It just happens naturally.
I hear you because they can get almost militant about the belief that they've nailed the lyrics. They're everywhere and they all contradict one another. She certainly started to use more coherent words and phrases in her later work.
Someone figured out the lyrics to Mud and Dark word for word in the comments section:
ruclips.net/video/R5H7l59uomk/видео.html
Damn i love her laugh... so much.
A life changing band, Liz is one of a kind.
Omg- as a drummer and a teenager in the 80’s, I always thought i had lost my mind when I listened to the C T’s and I could never make out the lyrics- lol.
Glad to know after all these years.... it wasn’t me!
Still one of my favorite vocalists of all time.
Brilliant!! Her voice....I love her voice!! Her laugh too!! Now I can go on holiday, and THANKS for this beautiful moment with Liz, see you soon....................
I have a bug for words, their sounds and creating new words😍😍😍 such iconic voice
Una de las voces mas angelicales de la historia de la musica. No solo por los rangos y las texturas alcanzadas sino tambien por la singularidad de las mismas. Liz eres
unica, magica e irrepetible.🌠
I like the avatar pic you have...
Don't she sound so young.
Words from another world.
So original aswell 😇
Man, what a great find this was! Thanx for posting it! It's so nice to hear Liz' sweet speaking voice. I just wish we'd hear something soon from her telling us about the imminent release of her solo album!
Thanks again for posting this. She's absolutely divine! :)
Thank you so much for sharing this video!!! I'm a huge fan since the 80's
I really miss listening to her x
I can't still understand how she can remember her own songs but it is great. She is great, a great voice in great music. And to hear her speak is charming as well.
What a beautiful voice !! Even when she is talking she sounds like an angel...
They made music that will always remain as the most beautiful and most mysterious music that I've ever heard of, i believe that will not change.
Wow the goddess speaks and imparts her wisdom! Thanks for posting
its like listening to nessun dorma - you dont understand a word of it but you somehow get the emotion and meaning from the way she sings. gives you the odd clue from a couple of discernable words and leaves the rest up to your own emotional imagination. great band.
Her voice is absolutely sweet and Heavenly!
AMAZING this song on LIZ voice. Whales Tails. Is a dream your voice. Thank You LIZ - I love!!
Fascinating artist-Beautiful soul!
I recently found the great music offered by this band, and like many fell in love with her. I agree with Youri Carma that lyrics in general are pretty dull, especially in pop love songs, it becomes so much drivel one feels like editing them out. I love her for what the music, with her voice as the foundation does to me. It is certainly synasthesia, her songs are filled with mystery and joy. Music is so much more than just words and sounds.
wow her voice deepened as she got older. she's so magical
Thank you so much for posting this!
How many times must I have to listen to these songs to be able to sing along without knowing Word #1 of the songs (and not wanting to know) AND the harmonies too-- even the one that turns out to be butterfly species in Latin -- anticipating the next chord change, purely enthralled? Wonderful
her voice is like an angel omg
she's amazing I love her
A bug for words - love it!!
You are so right. I came across Bluebeard over a year ago after promising myself for ages that I'd research the CT. I listened to it a dozen times trying to make out some of the words in the 'verses'! I learned decades ago that I was pretty poor at making out and/or understanding lyrics so it is usually the combination of words and music that attracts me to a song. My most profound lyrics that I love and do understand are from Cut Here by The Cure - written about Billy M from The Associates. Sad
She has beautiful voice
I agree with all of the other commenters. Let her talk. If you pause before asking another question, most likely the interviewee will most likely say more and reveal things that they might not have if immediately asked another question
She has such a wonderful and magic mind…… I love her
Utterly. utterly amazing and really lovely💞
i found this band by using sound hound app on a 404 page and the first song i heard from them was Throughout the dark months of april and may i love it so so so so so so much totally my new favorite band....
I had a dream that I got these scrapbooks and they were all the Cocteau Twins lyrics written by hand with illustrations. I wish she would publish these for real! I must have heard this interview before.
I love this!!!
Cocteau's music speaks for itself, doesn't have to be explained, their music is timeless and awesome in its existence, they were a creative force , ethereal, emotive beautiful and surreal, ye this guy ir=s a little annoying . .
It just gives us an insight to the genius that is Liz and quite possibly the best band of the indie scene, ever!!! Could someone please tell me when this interview aired? Thanks for posting this important interview.
Been a fan since "Loves easy Tears" dropped on MTV's 120 minutes show. The look the sound really blew my mind. As a huge car audio nut i can assure you their music sounds amazing at earblasting volumes!
Very insightful. Thank you for posting!
Her ingenious method is not a far cry from the cut-up technique but w/ a sonic component
thank you so much for this.
BEAUTIFUL VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing singer and writer.
Thanks for sharing this!
I've always liked the way the lyrics are in the cocteau Twins music they sound like words that you should be able to understand but nothing is quite perceptible so after a while if you're listening to it without deliberately thinking of what the words mean your brain sort of fills in the words it thinks it should be there and makes its own words so it's a bit like an abstract painting. You the listener are part of the creation
incredible voice
Its like Tim Buckley said in one of his songs: "I talk in tongues..." unbelievable to what spherers this can take and surley just a few, not the many. "Its only mine to sing a song...." (ebd.) - Buckley had it and the CT had it.
Buckley was a huge influence on a number of 4AD artists too, unsurprisingly.
What a lovely speaking voice!
thanks for posting this
DUDE HER ACCENT IS INSANE. DAMN I WANT A GIRL WITH THIS VOICE
Stop interrupting her!
Are you talking about John Wilson or Alex Jones?
You're spot on there 👍
I agree.
Otherwise, interesting interview.
Hahahahaha... ;-)
In their heyday, just the sound of Liz's voice was enough for me. I took issue with Morrissey's complaint haha that Cocteau Twins went about things the wrong way (hah, talk about irony...!)...I alwayz delighted that they did pretty much everything differently.
I really do believe that, "success" isn't following someone elses methodology; sure, you can make music, art, poetry, etc., by following a structured measurement. This is where school begins, but the true innovators "break the box."
I work by making theoretical worlds - enviroments. Most of the time I have to obey gravity, but if I can get away without it I usually will. Music and Architecture are alot alike and I listen to the Cocteau Twins while thinking and EBM, Cyber-goth, Aggr-tech, etc - for production.
I Never like following the rulles, but, I don't like jail cells either - there's a balance.
What did he say about them??
@@PolarisCastillo Hecsaid There's a right way and a wrong way to go about being a pop band and CT "do everything the wrong way." He didn't like Liz's vocals/indecipherable lyrics, the album graphics, song titles, and he said they look awful, ha.
objectively speaking The Smiths are the greatest modern band, only because their lyrics are smart
The Cocteau Twins are still my all time favorite tho - the music's just so damn original
Thank you so much for posting this treasure. Too bad the interviewer keeps interupting Liz (!!) but there are some great insights in hearing her speaking voice and comments on lyrics. Thanks.
god, LET HER SPEAK, man
She is... a Beautiful and Unique Human... but she's not of this planet (also her lyrics & voice) Cocteau Twins it's an other planet music
I loved the pudding comment, too! It's neat how she seems to be suggesting, at least for some of the earlier albums, to focus on the emotions created by the music and the singing, as opposed to the concrete "meaning" of the lyrics alone.
What a voice.
one word.........................................'HEAVENLY'
To continue from my previous message:
Speaking on behalf of all the fans who have been, very-slowly, gaining insights into the "hidden poetry" of the Cocteau Twins songbook:
Flying in the face of everything we've learned about Elizabeth Fraser, I continue to really wish she would consent to the publication of...not a "lyric book" of the sort we're accustomed to, but rather a reproduction of some of her fabled notebooks, containing the raw material [found words in assorted languages, neologisms still-being-refined, couplets, actual verses] from which those songs were assembled. No, not all the raw material, just a substantial portion.
Because - apart from invalidating, once and for all, some of the crazier "transcriptions" and "interpretations" being passed off as "lyrics" (and I'm not just talking about "lyrics websites"...am I, Mr Knowles!) -
I'm confident that the publication of such a book would confirm Elizabeth Fraser as something more than just an inspirational singer: as the extraordinary creative phenomenon some of us always believed her to be.
As a mad-genius sculptor-with-language (antecedents: "Finnegan's Wake", Hugo Ball, Raoul Hausmann, JRR Tolkien and whatever).
But one who is also capable, when she lets her guard down and expresses her inner self, directly, of just "cutting your heart out"...with words, even when she's not singing them. (It may have been borne of a crisis, but I no longer believe Four Calendar Cafe was wholly unprecedented).
Of course we need to put this in context.
Physical and psychological pain are not the same - e.g: the kind of self-exposure that threatens your physical body is one thing, but the kind of self-exposure that threatens your very Self, your very sense of identity, is quite another...
and I understand that, as of now, the publishing her lyrics is unthinkable, publishing her raw material would be just too terrifying for her...
But there's a reason for her to "brave the pain and do it anyway", and it's this:
I really think she still has yet to discover just How Much -
and, importantly, In How Many Ways -
she is loved.
I suppose, like what happens in "Rilkean Heart" and "Half-Gifts" videos - verses flashing around, here there & everywhere, over collages and paintings and drawings related or not to the "environment" of each song...
Yeah, it would be great!
I suppose, like what happens in "Rilkean Heart" and "Half-Gifts" videos - verses flashing around, here there & everywhere, over collages and paintings and drawings related or not to the "environment" of each song...
Yeah, it would be great!
An interesting rant. Liz would never consent, because, it would undermine everything the Cocteau Twins worked so hard to achieve. Their mystic would be lost. Liz already said, "It's My Secret", born-out of her personal pain, her personal love, and she doesn't care what others have to say. If anyone just wants the words, so they can be, "right" that's not a good enough reason, their music, provides you an opportunity, to make your own meaning. But, on the other-hand, the guy interviewing Liz, had a golden opportunity, to view Liz's codex; instead, he preferred to mock her process.
Thank you.
What an interesting take on writing ! Could you picture how time consuming that'd be ? She definitely gets back what she puts into it, that's for sure.
He never lets her finish a sentence!!!
Fantastic!
I understand what she's saying. When I was younger my brain worked in a similar way - getting hooked on sounds, the way they flow and stick. I would wake up with words, non words and beats in my brain that I couldn't shake. I would write them all down and they would turn in to poetry or whatever. I suppose if I had a good voice and muso friends they would have been lyrics.
This is excellent. So interesting.
Wow ! what a cute little voice !!
Beautiful voice :)
fascinating stuff! wow.
1972 Adriano Celentano: Prisencolinensinainciusol. Really catchy. If the classroom performance is watched, I always find his performance mesmerising.
Note to interviewers: Ask a question and then shut up and listen to the answer. Don't fill in the pauses with your answers because you're uncomfortable with reflection and thought.
Podrian hacer una traduccion para nosotros los fanaticos Latinos! :( Saludos desde Argentina! Es fantastica esta banda! LOS GRANDES COCTEAU TWINS!!!
@Cassyan No, that girls voice is Charlotte Gainsburg from a sampled speech in 'The Cement Garden'.
liz and simon armitage in conversation. two brilliant humans 👍
YES DIRK,BECAUSE ALL ART HAS TO MAKE SENSE.ALL PAINTINGS ALL MOVIES,ALL DANCING,ALL PHOTOS,ALL SONGS.
sou muito fã de Cocteau Twins !!!!!
In the 90s I just thought there was something wrong with my hearing and/or my brain until I heard 'Bluebeard'.
Didn't help me with any of their other songs!