Photo by Michael Simmonds

Chocolat circa Henry
Photo by Katrina Dickson

CCC: Where you a good student in high school?

Chocolat: I wasn't good, and I wasn't bad. Just average.

CCC: What was your favorite subject?

Chocolat: Karaoke.

CCC: Karaoke?!! You had karaoke in school?

Chocolat: Yeah, in my music class the teacher made time for karaoke. Of course, that's really rare, but it was definitely the most fun!

CCC: What song can you sing best at karaoke?

Chocolat: A song by Mariya Takeyuchi called..... what was it called? Oh, "Single Again." I think I'm pretty good at singing Mariya Takeyuchi songs.

CCC: Andy, do you ever partake in karaoke?

Andy: No.

CCC: The record company never took you while you were in Japan?

Andy: They didn't actually. But I was over in Japan one summer with my friends from the band Tahiti 80, when they had a big single in Japan. So the closest I got to karaoke was in a drunken stupor when we ran around Tokyo going into different karaoke clubs looking for one that had their single. But I was there to produce too, so I left them at like 3:00 am to go back to my hotel room to try to get some sleep for work the next day. So I left them wandering the streets. But if I had stayed with them, I probably would've ended up at one.

CCC: Do you collect anything?

Chocolat: Bags and shoes.

Andy: I guess not because nothing is coming to mind. I used to collect stuff when I was a kid, but I've stopped.

CCC: Do you still have all your vinyl from when you were a kid?

Andy: Yeah, I have all my records, stamps, coins, rocks. (laughs) My parents threw out all my knives- I had a great knife collection until I was sixteen.

CCC: Why did you decide to switch from Neosite/ Sony to Warner Bros.?

Chocolat: It's kind of hard to explain, but basically the director who signed me to Neosite/ Sony, all of a sudden left Neosite. And I felt that there was no reason for me to stay since he wasn't there.

CCC: When it was decided that Sony was bringing over Puffy and other J-pop bands for the SXSW festival in Texas, you were originally scheduled to play. But then your name was taken off the list- what actually happened with that?

Chocolat: That was right at the time that I left Sony.

CCC: IVY has had their fair share of label problems, what's happening with the label situation now?

Andy: Well we were on Sony, and we were actually making our new record when they decided to drop us right in the middle of it! But luckily we got the rights to our record back. It was the first time we were actually free and had a record since we started our career. So the first thing we did (even before we went to an American label) was go to a Japanese label, where we had been dying to get a release since we started. We went to Warner Bros. and licensed the record to them. So Long Distance came out in Japan in October 2000, and then we signed to Nettwerk Records for the rest of the world.

CCC: It's great that you finally got the record out here!

Chocolat: What label is IVY on?

Andy: Warner Bros.

Chocolat: You're on Warner Bros. too?!

Andy: Tell Chocolat that that's the reason we were able to work together. Our A&R person is a friend of her A&R person.

CCC: Have all the hassles with the labels made you wary of major record labels?

Andy: We're wary, but we're not as jaded as we could be. We've put it all in perspective, and we know it's just a big business. Even independent labels are a business, just not as big. And they are all in it for the same reason to some degree, which is to be profitable and to make money. The independent labels are a little bit more altruistic, but at the end of the day they are all trying to earn a living. And that's what it comes down to. The companies are a bank and once they sign you, they loan you money to make your record, and eventually you have to pay it back. The mistakes are just bigger at the major label level. So the lesson we've learned is this: the labels help you to start your career and to acquire a fan base. But once you have enough of a fan base, you can make the records yourself, and then sell it to the fan base. So we felt that we had a big enough fan base that would allow us to release the record ourselves. At this point in our career we didn't think it would make sense to sign to another major label, we felt that it would be going too far backwards. So we licensed the record to Nettwerk, and we are still acting as the label. But you still have hopes that a company like Nettwerk, which is pretty strong, will do what any label would do, and that is to get it into the stores and promote it.

CCC: Chocolat, on your album Hamster you covered Janis Ian's "At Seventeen." Why did you choose to do that cover?

Chocolat: Because I really love that song.

CCC: Are you a big fan of Janis Ian?

Chocolat: Well yes, but the generation is different- the people that listen to Janis Ian are old guys. That's why I don't know much about that generation of music, but I had her CD at home, which I listened to, and I really liked it. I especially liked "At Seventeen," which is why I really wanted to cover it.

CCC: When you recorded "Wonder Xmas" with Darian Sahanaja (The Wondermints), many girl group fans were amazed by how much the song sounds like an original sixties girl group track- are you a fan of sixties girl groups? Did you like that track?

Chocolat: Yeah I kinda like that girl group sound, but it was Darian who wrote and produced the song by himself in Los Angeles. I wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals in Japan. I didn't specifically ask Darian to write a song for me in that style, he was the one who decided on the sound. It's really Darian who loves the girl groups.