The Breeders: Cannonball Run.

The Breeders play the Arena on Sunday.

It’s 10am on a blissfully wet Monday morning, and I’ve pulled myself out of bed to talk to one of the sexier rock’n’roll bitches there is, Kelly Deal. Ah yes, many a boy has watched and re-watched the ol’ Cannonball film clip just to soak in the beauty of the Deal sisters on film. There ain’t many things I get out of bed that early for, but this is one of them.

Kelly’s southern twang rolls down the phoneline.

“Yeah, I’m in Ohio at the moment, I’m living here with (her sister) Kim. I’ve actually just spent the day over at her house cleaning the place up. It’s absolutely filthy, the bathroom is disgusting and the boys are coming round to have a rehearsal before we tour down to Australia. You know, those boys just hate the place if it’s filthy, and the two of us just let it get into some terrible states. So we spent the day cleaning the place, and it’s looking a little better now. But we’ve come nowhere close to finishing the job, it’s just near enough.”

Funny, I always saw that problem being one specifically for males, you know, the new girlfriends coming round so it’s time to get the place shipshape. First time I’ve heard it the other way round. Kelly laughs “Yeah, we’re not really your average girls though”

It’s been quite awhile since the Breeders have hit Australia, with the last tour back in 1995. “I can’t really remember a thing about Australia, last time I toured over there I was enjoying my alcohol far too much. All I can really remember is that your pubs look a lot like ours do from the inside. And when we got to Tokyo we discovered you could buy beer from vending machines on the street. That’s pretty cool”

Kelly pauses for reflection.

“I can see a pattern forming here with my memories. I had to quit drinking soon after that though, when I went in to rehab for heroin. I’ve not drunk any more after that, but I did go back to the heroin, it’s a lot better for me really. Though I find nowadays I much prefer painkillers, which are really just a medicated tablet form of heroin. And a lot easier to find”

Getting a bit off the topic there methinks. So you’re coming back to Australia hey?

“It’s almost going down for the first time again this time, I’ve got that little memories of the last time. And you know, it’s not cheap to get there, it’s a very expensive process. We kind of get in, play shows, and get out. We don’t really hang out. I don’t know about other bands, but we don’t go down there to make money, we go because it’s Australia for fucks sake. You’ve got to do it, it’s just down there in the middle of the big ocean by itself and it needs it. We’re off to New Zealand afterwards, and then over to Japan and back home“

So who’s rocking it for the Breeders at the moment? Being such an influential band are there any acts who move you? Kelly laughs. “We’re hardly influential, but I do really like the Strokes. I don’t know if they are doing anything new, but I really like what they’re doing. I think they got a lot of people interested in music again, and not in the pre-programmed bullshit that gets fed to us most of the time. And that’s always a good thing.”

And on to the political side of things, it being rather topical at the moment. How do the Breeders feel about their president’s stance on war at the moment?

“You know, at the end of the day you’ve just got to sit back and ask yourself : Why are Christianity and Islam still fighting? Can’t they just leave each other alone. They’re all worshipping the same god and looking for the same thing, they’ve just got different names for it. Some of them even have the same names. And yet they’re still wanting to kill each other. What’s going on when all religions preach peace and hate each other to the point of death. It really turns you off being religious in the end.”

“As for Mr Bush, we don’t know what he’s doing. A lot of people here in America have no idea what’s happening. No one is talking like we’re going to war, it’s kind of like we are in denial of the whole thing. We can’t be going to war, not for those reasons. It’s crazy really.

Amen.

“Oh, I just opened my fortune cookie. Do you want to hear my fortune? It says: Your present plans are going to succeed! Wow, I don’t really have any current plans, I wonder what it could mean. Maybe we’re going to rock out in Australia.”

Indeed.