Louise Distras

An Interview With Louise Distras

I first met Louise three years back supporting The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing at The Cluny 2 in Newcastle. I was really impressed by her performance and grabbed a copy of the "Street Revolution" EP (there's a link to my review at the end of this piece).

At the weekend I got a Facebook friend request from her and when I realised it was really her I accepted and we have had a lot of messenger chats since then.

On November the 4th (the day before Guy Fawkes Night) she releases a new single "Black Skies" but this is her interview, and it is a brilliant read.

I will include a link to Black Skies here on Friday but you can preorder it from Louise's Link below (The Black Skies text):

What Is Your Preferred Artistic Medium and Why?

If you'd have asked me before the pandemic I would've given you a different answer. I would've said “music, music, music!”. But looking back, my entire life up to that point was rooted in being some weird traumatised touring musician. It was one dimensional, isolated. I'd been totally run into the ground and became very sick. I needed putting down to be honest!

So when the rug was pulled out from under me, I saw it as a golden opportunity to start from scratch. I remembered I love reading, drawing and messing around with film – all the things I never had time to do...like being a normal person who goes to the pub. I'm still weird though!

What Inspired You To Do What You Do Initially And Who Or What Inspires You Now?

I used to say it was Nirvana's album 'Bleach' that first inspired me to pick up a guitar coz I struggled to put it into terms that people could understand. But the truth is that even I don't understand why I do what I do, I just do it.

I've developed as a songwriter by just purely through tapping into my feelings. Always have done it that way, always will. Dunno why, don't really care why. I guess you could call it my “calling” or a hunger I was born with, so I don't really question it too much.

What inspires me now? Comedians. I don't trust anyone who says they don't like comedy...

Are You Influenced By Anyone?

Again, I used to be arrogant. I thought I was I was above being “influenced”. I'd be like “nah, not really. I just wanna be me on my own terms” which is still very true. But I'm just a product of my environment and my own individual human experience. Art is a reflection of life. So I'm not gonna get all “intelligentsia” about it, coz nobody is ever gonna totally get it anyway and that's fine by me! Even I don't get me.

I went to see Doug Stanhope recently! Got ratchet wasted and smoked a fag with him after. I don't even smoke anymore, haha. Totally worth the hangover, I really enjoyed myself! Also saw Richard Ashcroft at Leeds Millenium Square which I can only compare to magic mushrooms, or seeing God.

Fave writers at the moment – Hunter S Thompson, James Hillman, Gabor Mate, Plato and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses!

Who Are Your Favourite Artists In Your Sphere?

Oh god! I have no idea what my sphere is or what sphere other people put me in or who else is in it. One of my best mates is a jazz musician who told me “if you ride on someone else's coattails you end up smelling like their shit”. So I've always just done my own thing. It's a good thing to be an individual and not have that herd mentality. It's a gift! I like artists who don't lie to themselves. I don't really trust anyone who pretends to be a solid upstanding citizen or a master of themselves. Coz nobody is, nobody is perfect, there's no escape from it. So get over it!

What Was The First Piece Of Art That You Made? (At School of After)

That's a silly question, I can't remember! Probably playdough? Actually I still play with playdough. I even made a castle out of lego the other day, it had a suicide bridge and CCTV and everything....don't act like you're not impressed!

What Are You Most Proud Of?

Don't get me wrong, I take pride in myself and my work. Especially as a woman and being working class...but nowadays I try not to take myself too seriously. I'm not so full of pride that I think I can write my own bible, you know what I mean?

Sometimes it seems that proud people are the only ones who win elections, receive big awards or become rich and famous. Our principality in western culture is attracted to braggers, so with me being a bit more humble some people have taken the piss out of me...and I actually don't mind, coz I laugh at myself all the time. But coz my humour is quite self deprecating, some people mistake it for weakness.

Too much pride can destroy a person I think. It can delude you into thinking that you don't need any help, that you can do it all by yourself. Especially when like me, you're a bit of an outsider and have felt maligned in some way. I ended up being sooo self-focused that at times I overlooked others because I was so eager to be heard, share my own thoughts and make an impression. But in my experience, it always ends up in tragedy.

How Do You Feel About Performing Or Showing Your Work In Public?

Well before the pandemic I was running round like a blue assed fly and pretty much lived my entire life on the road. Then along with lockdown everything came to a grinding halt and I crashed into a brick wall. Now the live scene is totally trashed and people can't afford to goto gigs. So I don't know how to feel, I'm in the same boat as everyone else - trying to figure out how I'm gonna pay my bills!

What Is Your Worst Artistic Experience?

I've pretty much tuned out of the music scene coz the punks have turned into cops, and the handful of once rebellious artists I used to respect have now turned into narcissistic bullying little nazis.

One of the things that makes social media so great is everybody gets to have an opinion, but when people ram their opinion down your throat it kinda becomes a problem. So yeah, I'm finding it hard to hang out with anyone who takes themselves too seriously, or tells me which who I should vote for.

I think as an artist, to tell your friends and fans to think the way you think...it's such an abuse of perceived power. At that point you're not an artist, you're a bureaucrat. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I've always thought art was about freedom? Cancel culture is a bigger problem than global warming. Nature wants us to be ourselves more than it wants us to survive. If I can't be myself then what's the point? I'd rather jump off my lego suicide bridge than rot in a death camp of tolerance on a dying planet.

What Has Been Your Most Fulfilling Moment?

Before the pandemic I experienced moments that should've been fulfilling coz I earned them, but I was “back in 'nam” and couldn't appreciate them properly, or wasn't allowed to.

Yeah I don't have a million followers on Tik Tok but coming from a small town like Wakefield, being working class and living the kinda life I live...I've done so many things I was told I'd never do.

Some people think the fruit falls down from a magic tree. But the reality is that I come from shit and was told I'd never amount to shit. I'm not a particularly agreeable person either so the odds have been stacked against me in such a massive way or so I've been led to believe. Just like any other situation in life, I don't have any handouts so I've had have to work a hundred times harder than a lot of my mates in order to be taken seriously.

So it's nice that people still give a shit and it's nice to be acknowledged for being myself, coz my songs are what I've done with my life and all I have to show for it.

It's sad to think that I never, ever gave myself any credit for anything that I ever did and I was never fully able to appreciate those fulfilling moments. But ya live and learn!

Where Are You Going Next?

Reality is the weirdest trip of all and I'm just along for the ride. So I've got no idea...but it's gonna be fun finding out!