Interview: Candy Darling

“Rock ‘n’ roll is timeless, endless and universal,” says Emily Breeze. “The central themes – love, desire, sex, sadness, rage and death – are relevant to people of any age, demographic or location.” Emily has an evangelical faith in rock that makes Bobby Gillespie sound like Alan Bennett. Fortunately she has the voice to match the attitude, not to mention the gutter-scraping, stargazing songs.  

Emily’s band Candy Darling are steeped in rock ‘n’ roll: the music, the imagery, the excess. While they draw on everything from grunge to power ballads the biggest influence is the New York underground of the ‘60s and ‘70s, where pop met art and glamour got gritty. They’re even named after one of Warhol’s “superstars”.

“It was a time when a leather jacket or a tattoo still meant something,” Emily explains, “and being an outsider, a freak or a weirdo was genuinely dangerous and subversive. The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Suicide, The Stooges…these artists sheared off the more tedious elements of rock music – endless guitar solos, vapid lyrics – then injected some violence and poetry into the remains.”

Emily has long been one of Bristol’s most distinctive voices, sounding something like Karen O with better bookshelves and an old fashioned smoking habit. Equally convincing as a torch singer or rockabilly belter, she’s previously taken on country, blues and Bad Seeds-style existential gloom, but with Candy Darling she looks and sounds more like a rock star than ever. Does it feel different this time?

“It does feel like a big deal to me”, she says. “Firstly I am older, uglier and better at what I do than when I was in my early twenties. Secondly, Candy Darling is the most collaborative project I have been involved with. When Rob and I met, we were both bored and disillusioned with rock bands so getting in a room with some beers and loud guitars was purely for our own entertainment, but music is like the mafia – you can never really leave.” The chemistry between Emily and fellow guitarist Rob Norbury is clear from their live performances. They look great together – like Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, or Mick and Keith circa 1967. 

They formed Candy Darling with Adam Coombs, who plays keyboards and is responsible for the group’s distressed-pop production style, and until now they’ve performed as a trio backed by minimal machine beats. “When we started the band I was listening to a lot of 80’s end-of-the-disco tearjerkers,” explains Emily, “and was inspired by the combination of a heart-breaking lyric and vocal being offset by the cold sterility of synthetic drums.” 

Those dead eyed beats became such a feature of the band’s sound that it was shocking to learn they’d hired a flesh and blood drummer called Andy Sutor. “The original drum sounds can be triggered as part of his kit,” explains Emily, “but we’re gaining an enormous amount of dynamic range and creative freedom. Andy also has great ideas…” His live debut for the band will be at Exchange on December 4, where they’re playing a mysterious new night called Thorny combining music, art and film. “Thorny is run by Joe Bligh,” says Emily. “The first time I met him he was wearing a velveteen jumpsuit with slicked back, bleached-blonde hair and black lipstick. I instantly knew I wanted to be friends with him…” 

Bursting with hooks and drama, Candy Darling songs range from Pixies-style fever dreams (Waves) to JAMC-ish smack ballads (Going Straight). Then there’s Money, a deliciously trashy fantasy about using success as a weapon against those who’ve hurt you. Are Candy Darling ambitious themselves?  “I used to think I was highly ambitious,” says Emily, “although in retrospect I can see that those feelings rarely translated into the insane work ethic and strategic thinking that’s necessary to succeed”. Older, wiser and making the best music she’s made in her life, Emily Breeze sounds like an artist who’s finally learned what she’s made of. “My true and abiding ambition is to continue to learn and improve as a writer,” she says, “and record a collection of devastating, beautiful and terrifying songs.”  

Candy Darling play Thorny at Exchange, Friday December 4. For more information visit candydarlingmusic.bandcamp.com