I don't know why I lost touch with The Jesus And Mary Chain.  But we were out of touch for a long, long time and I was very surprised when Jim asked me to sing on the Sister Vanilla album.  But meeting up with them (Jim, Ben and Linda in London, and then William and Linda in Glasgow) felt familiar and good.  I saw what they had, and didn't, and I knew I could help them through the final stages of their record, which re-connected me to their amazing music.  So for me this is maybe the coda, a rambly email conversation between me, Linda Reid and Ben Lurie.  

STEPHEN: How do you feel now that the Sister Vanilla record is finally completed?  You must be proud of it, but it can be hard to let something like that go - do you think it spun out partly because it was something odd that kept everyone connected?

LINDA: I am proud of it but because it's being going on for so long it does feel weird to let it go.  Initially, when William and Jim first asked me if I wanted to do this record, William's idea was to go into the studio for no more than a couple of weeks and have it finished.  That was well over 10 years ago now!  But I guess there have been some good reasons for it taking so long to finish and I'm just happy that it is now.  It kind of did keep us all connected, especially after the JAMC broke up.  Even though William and Jim might not have been getting on together, the idea was always that this would be a William, Jim and Linda (and Ben) record that we would all be part of.  We always kind of knew how it was going to sound in our heads and that has always remained the same - for me anyway.

BEN: It's good to have it done, all wrapped up and to actually hold the final thing in your hand, while at the same time it does feel a little like the end of an era. But who knows, maybe we'll do another one; we could probably have it all wrapped up by about 2020.

STEPHEN: Ben, how would you describe your role in the making of the record?

BEN: In a word - varied.  It changed from track to track.  On the whole I worked with Jim on the songs he had written, some of which we recorded at the Drugstore (the Mary Chain's studio), some we did at home on a 16-track machine. Sometimes Jim knew pretty much what he wanted and it was just a matter of helping him get it down on tape, other times it was more experimental. I ended up being the engineer because this was something I could do and something I enjoyed and I played quite a lot of the instruments on those tracks too, sometimes the parts were mine, sometimes Jim's. Perhaps an apt description of my role was collaborator / facilitator.

I did work on one of William's tracks, Slacker, which was a strange kind of one-way collaboration.  He sent Linda a rough as guts acoustic recording of him singing the verses and chorus and suggested to her that I do a backing track so I put the song together from there.  It was at Christmas and everyone was out of town and I just sat upstairs in my little room for a week fiddling around with it and once Linda was back in town she put down her vocal and that was it.

STEPHEN: Without wishing to de-mystify the recording, I felt I glimpsed something slightly shambolic on my two visits, but I also thought that both times it was really interesting and that everyone had a good sense of what they were trying to achieve.  It seemed like you and Jim were quite tuned in and had a good working mode.  With the SV record, was there ever much discussion or was it completely intuitive?

BEN: I think our working mode came from years of making records together.  Spending a lot of time in the studio working out how to get the sounds we wanted, what kind of sound or instrument would fill what space, and I guess we shared a view of what sounded "good", as in what we were happy with. But there was discussion too, there had to be. Discussion at the start of a track to set it off in the right direction (or at least in some direction), and discussion when we would realise that something wasn't working and how were we going to fix it. As I've always found when making music, some tracks just fall into place from the start while others don't sit right for a while and you need to knock them about in a few different directions until you figure out what's going on. And sometimes the odd beer or snifter of brandy helped.

STEPHEN: Who would you say instigated the project?

BEN: As far as I know it was Jim and William's idea in the first place (which probably means it was either Jim or William's idea really), but Linda is really the one to ask about this. It was pretty much a project of two halves - Jim's half and William's half. We really started work on the record after the demise of the Mary Chain and Jim and William had a long time when they were not communicating, certainly not collaborating. Then William moved to LA so he got on with his tracks there and Jim and I continued working on it in London. Both Jim and Linda ended up collaborating on various tracks with William on visits to LA (I'm sure they can tell you something interesting about this). So half was led by Jim, half by William, but Linda was the glue that held it all together, the one who would ask us if we were ever going to finish such and such track.

LINDA: William came up with the name.  He says I have the palest skin he's ever seen - like vanilla.  And I'm his sister.  So, Sister Vanilla.  I liked it right away.  We first spoke about making this record after I sang Mo Tucker on Munki - that was originally supposed to be a b-side but everyone loved it and Creation wanted to make it a single.  Making my own record just sounded like fun so I instantly said yes.

STEPHEN: It seems like it took quite a long time to complete, and in a way I think all your lives have changed fairly dramatically.  I was wondering if you maybe listen to it in an almost nostalgic way?

BEN: It sure did take a long time to complete. I think maybe the first half dozen songs were done in a year and then it slowed right down, but by then we had done too much just to abandon it (and of course we liked what we had done).  Yes, it is kind of a nostalgic record for me, but then all records I've been involved in take me back to the time they were made, what the sessions were like, what was going on in my life when I was making it.

LINDA:  To be honest I don't really feel nostalgic.  I love the record but I don't listen to it very much anymore.  All throughout our recording this record I was just anxious to get it released and that wasn't happening.  I like looking back on when we recorded The Two Of Us because that was the first time I met you, and I'm a big Pastels fan, so it was like getting to sing a duet with Paul McCartney for me.  I feel nostalgic about things like that.   I have memories of how Jim and Ben were so drunk that day that we had to re-record it at a later date.  Luckily you didn't mind.  I have memories of recording Pastel Blue in William's recording studio / bedroom in his house in Muswell Hill and thinking how great it sounded and how William wasn't so sure and then getting a phone call from William the next day saying he listened to it some more and he loved it too.  I like remembering things like that.

STEPHEN: Ben, how do you feel it compares to records you've made together in The Jesus and Mary Chain?  I imagine that many people will be very excited that there's suddenly something 'new' with that sound.

BEN: In terms of how it was made, I think it is reminiscent of Munki, which was also pretty much an album of two halves. Of course it is going to be something of a continuation of the JAMC sound because the same people were involved and as I mentioned earlier, over the years you develop a certain way of making music. That doesn't mean that everything will end up sounding the same, but that the same ethic will generally be applied to the music you make.

STEPHEN: Linda, you were a fan of The Jesus And Mary Chain.  So was I.  It's quite strange being inside the sound isn't it?  That's how I felt when I was singing The Two Of Us?  Did you ever think - this is really weird?   

LINDA: Yes I did.  Even though they're my brothers who I grew up with, I was always in awe of their talent and I knew that I liked them because they were great and not because of any family loyalty.  So to work with them was a big thing for me and I'm very grateful to them.  

STEPHEN: I think a lot of the music came out quite tender sounding.  Do you think everyone tried to play in a certain way because the record was for you?  

LINDA: I'm not sure - they could probably answer that.  The songs could have easily been Mary chain songs.  It just so happened that I sang on them instead of Jim or William.

BEN: I think it's Linda's voice that gives it a tender touch.

STEPHEN: Linda, how was it when you were young and at school, and your brothers were in this super-cool group?   I bet you were pretty snotty.

LINDA: It was great.  Everyone knew who I was because of it, but I always stuck with the friends I'd had since I was young, and we all gained from it in some way.  It was great being able to get in to see pretty much any band I wanted to see and for free - that was one of the best things about it at the time.  I also got to travel with them during the summertime so when people I knew at school were going on holiday with their gran to Largs during the summer I was going on a European tour with the Jesus and Mary Chain.  Hahahahah, I thought!

STEPHEN: Tell me something funny about Linda.  And Jim.  And William.

BEN: When we were touring Munki in '98 Linda came with us to a few festivals we were playing at to sing Mo Tucker (the track she sings on Munki). We were wondering if quiet, shy Linda would be okay in front of a huge crowd or if she would panic or freak out. Turned out she strutted up to the microphone, elbowing Jim aside, and blasted out the song - she was the least shy of all of us.

Jim had a crush on Billie Piper.

William looks like an Italian when his hair is wet.

STEPHEN: Linda, what about the others?

LINDA: Jim's daughter told her friends at nursery recently that her daddy is a singer and dancer.   William loves all soaps.  He even loves City Lights and watches it when he goes back to Scotland.  He calls my mum and gets an update on all UK soaps every week.  Ben and Jim shared a house together once and it was like the odd couple.  Ben was the tidy one obviously.

STEPHEN: Don't you love the Reids and their mad genius ways?

BEN: I sure do. I loved the time I was in the Mary Chain and learnt a lot about making music - not just technical stuff, but attitude, approach, outlook, that kind of thing. I loved that I could be in a band with my friends, and it was through that that I met Linda and we also became friends.

STEPHEN: What are you doing these days?  Could you imagine another Sister Vanilla record in the future?

BEN: I'm a graphic designer these days, which somehow to me doesn't feel that far removed from making music. Instead of producing records I produce artwork.  Instead of using sounds and arrangements and lyrics  I use colour and layout and typography. I still fiddle around with my guitar and I'm starting to feel like making another record that, just like Linda’s record, will probably take me years to complete but that doesn't matter. I don't know if I'll do anything with Jim or William or Linda in the future but I wouldn't rule anything out - when I left Australia nearly 20 years ago and moved to London I didn't plan on ever coming back but here I am (for the time being anyway), so who knows what might happen. If the opportunity arose I'd love to work with them again.

LINDA: I don’t know if we'll ever do another SV record - maybe nobody will want another one!  Bastards!

Stephen Pastel, Glasgow, March 2007