I found Michelle by surfing along to www.darkpop.co.uk where I saw that Darkpop made the site themselves, and that it’s the only way to get your sticky paws on their exceedingly sublime album ‘Golden Lillies + Mr Smith.’ If you have a look at the Biography link, you’ll see that the mesmerising vocalist is our very own Michelle Breeze, of Fetish fame. There’s an intriguing remark on the website’s front page too, “We know that we are definitely not cool, therefore your love is all the more true.” Well they sound incredibly cool to me, but then, I think the coolest things happen when people aren’t actually trying to be cool.

I first heard of Darkpop from an online connection of mine - another lesbian, who started the Fetish fan group on Facebook. So I had a listen and fell in love and added Ms Breeze as a friend on Facebook. I landed up chatting to her there late one night and so I thought I’d ask for an interview. It happened thus …

Ulla: What made you decide to handle so much of your own stuff yourself? You guys designed your own website and you’re very proactive on Facebook too i.e. taking the time to interact with fans, uploading tracks to the iLike application and so forth. How’s the personal approach working and are you finding it very different to past experience?

Michelle: I suppose it wasn’t a decision we made overnight, we never started recording music with any specific path in mind. Once we started to realise how much we believed in the project, it became obvious that we could not follow the conventional route - with the music industry what it is today it seemed stupid to give away all the power to someone else. We had an offer for distribution and turned it down on the grounds that the deal was unfair; we just thought, “what is stopping us from doing it ourselves?” In retrospect, if we knew then how much work it would be we may have been less keen. however we have learnt an incredible amount about the business and ourselves. The personal approach is working well for Darkpop, but it is a huge challenge to find the energy to maintain momentum, especially on such a grass roots level project - but it feels honest.

Ulla: The album has a raw, grungey feel, with your rather pure angelic voice over it - was that dichotomy deliberate?

Michelle: No i dont think its deliberate, it was just the way it seemed to be. Perhaps the way we recorded it made the dichotomy more obvious - 95% of the album was recorded in a home studio in Chris’ lounge, so i think the vocal takes are quite intimate.

Ulla: Where did the title “Fade Caress” come from? Can you describe the concept in physical terms?

Michelle: I sometimes wonder if giving explanations can take away the magic of a song, but i will try to explain without doing that. Its about the struggle of remaining faithful to a partner; the song has scenes of a failing relationship played out - and one of those is a fading caress.

Ulla: 40 Hours is currently my favourite track, for its haunting, trippiness - care to share what the “40 Hours but not your voice” represents?

Michelle: A forty hour week is what I was working in the UK, so it seemed that they wanted 40 hours and not my voice.

Ulla: After 7 years in the UK, what’s your accent like these days?

Michelle: Oh god the accent … it can sound very English at times; I dont have many SA friends and I work in a shop with the British public so it just seems to creep in. I hate it, I would much rather sound South African. Most people dont even recognise where I am from anymore, as i now say ‘jumper’ instead of ‘jersey’ and ‘knickers’ instead of ‘panties,’ but you have to, otherwise they just dont understand you. The worst is when they think I’m Australian, that really does my head in, I mean, can’t they hear the difference?

Ulla: How do you feel about your gay fans?

Michelle: I have been with a few girls over the years, so it’s something I’m familiar with and maybe people know about. However I think that I am a strong woman, which is probably more what appeals to my gay fans. As fans they are very dedicated and loyal, which is really fantastic.

You can listen to Darkpop using Facebook’s iLike application, or on their website at www.darkpop.co.uk