NEWS
EVENTS
Guestlist Talks to The Puppini Sisters
Other | Tuesday 12th June 2012 | Osh
The Puppini Sisters are a harmony vocal trio composed of Italian Marcella Puppini, English Stephanie O'Brien and Kate Mullins. With various vintage influences, Kate, Marcella and Stephanie are sharing with us their own view on what The Puppini Sisters are all about.
Firstly, can you tell us a bit about the background of the band. How did you meet?
Kate: We all studied at the same music conservatoire in London, Trinity College of Music. All at different times, but we sang in the choir together and when Marcella left college, she missed singing in harmony. So we were called up and asked whether we'd be interested in putting a project together. The rest is history!
Marcella: We all studied at Trinity College of Music at different times.
I graduated in 2003, and a year later I found myself pining for the kind of singing I was doing in the college's Jazz choir. I have always been quite obsessed with harmony singing, and so I decided to stop pining and put together a girl group.
I knew Kate from the Jazz choir, so I got in touch with her and she suggested Steph as the third member.
Stephanie: We all met through the music college we studied in London. I was a year into my course and was looking to fulfil a deep desire I had to immerse myself in performance and to experiment with music and it was The Puppini Sisters that provided that exciting, fun and creative platform. I had sung with Kate and briefly met Marcella and from the first time we sang together, we knew we had something special, musically and personally.
How did you come up with this old-fashion lifestyle?
Kate: We fell in love with the music first. We'd all studied jazz and the early era of swing, and the golden era of Hollywood were fantastic for their musical and fashion styles. We're all big fans of the old Hollywood movies too. To fuse these influences just seemed to make sense.
Marcella: The lifestyle and the look are an extension of the music and of our passion for old school Hollywood. It's also something that comes quite naturally to us. I have been wearing red lipstick since I was in my teens, and have always enjoyed creating glamorous looks. When I was at Trinity I used to ride a vintage Vespa in my stiletto heels. It's just part of who I am!
Stephanie: I have always been drawn to the 40s and 50s, as I love so many facets of the era- it's glamour, gallantry, old fashioned sense of romance and of course, it's wonderful timeless music that still persists. The band created an outlet where we could indulge in our love for this era, day in day out, singing wonderful music, wearing amazing gowns and bringing the sense of nostalgia, fun and glamour to our modern day fans.
You chose the name The Puppini Sisters in tribute to The Andrews Sisters. Why is that?
Kate: To pay tribute to the sister groups of the era. The Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters in particular. Puppini is Marcella's surname and we thought it had a certain ring to it.
Marcella: The Andrews Sisters and The Boswell Sisters were our biggest inspiration.
We liked the idea of paying homage to our idols, and we also liked the old-school feel of a family surname. Bands aren't called names like that anymore, and even though we're not related it takes a sisterly attitude to carry off such close harmonies.
Stephanie: The Andrews Sisters were the biggest girl band of their time, and of course, one of our biggest influences. Although we aren't sisters, taking a name in that vein, to me, states that this is a very specific sound- 3 part harmony, where everyone's voice is equal and depicts the type of relationship you have with each other to be able to sing in such a way.
According to the net (or Wikipedia), you were inspired by people like The Boswell Sisters, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, etc. What do you think about them?
Kate: They were such icons in their days and all so talented at what they did. Marlene Dietrich and Fred Astaire are two great examples of how multi talented stars in those days had to be. You would never find people getting famous for being famous, such a contrast to today's perception of 'fame'.
Marcella: They all became legends thanks to a work ethic the likes of which you rarely see nowadays. They all believed in striving to be the best they could be, and they produced some immortal art.
Stephanie: I am a big fan of each of them in their own wonderful way. I love the diverse lyrical content of the music they sang, along with the delivery which is so full of character. I think there is a lot of modern day mainstream music that has lost that essence and personality.
Your sound was characterized as "swing-punk" How would you describe your individual musical style?
Kate: 'Vintage Swing Pop' is the phrase we've coined.
Marcella: Our style is a mixture of our three personalities, coupled with our love of swing. It has both grace and swagger, sweetness and sass, and most of all it has a lot of respect for musical tradition peppered with a healthy dose of irreverence
Stephanie: When we first started the band, people always remarked at the fact our music sounded so different to everything else, that there was a sense of something very vintage but with a very modern delivery. When we were asked in interviews to define our sound, we coined the term 'Vintage-Swing-Pop', although by album two, we'd brought in more of the "punk"!
You must have great memories of your several television appearances such as 2011’s A Michael Bublé Christmas on NBC or of your performances at festivals like the Goodwood Vintage Festival. Any particular stand out moments you want to share?
Kate: Working with Michael was such a blast. And such an honour. He's pretty old school in the way that he conducts his career. He's a consummate professional, incredibly polite and courteous to EVERYONE that he works with, no matter where they fall in the grand pecking order, and he's good at what he does. Which is largely, being a cheeky monkey... We love him.
Was fab to be a part of the Goodwood vintage Festival at such a pinnacle stage in it's development. We play such varied and different gigs, it's a joy being a Puppini Sister!
Marcella: Performing on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour was definitely a highlight for me. And working with the Garanian Big Band in Moscow, which I now also occasionally conduct.
Stephanie: Yes, they were wonderful memories! We had the most amazing honour of appearing on a Xmas tv show with Carole King. She was one of my first big influences in music and I grew up listening to her album 'Tapestry'. I was in shock when I found out we would appear with her on the show, but was absolutely overwhelmed when she asked us to join her for a song at the piano. I will never forget that day.
You are actually performing gigs in several places for promotion. What are you going to do and would you like to do in your time off afterward?
Kate: We have a big show coming up in Paris on June the 30th. We're really excited about that, we're in preparation already for that. Then we plan to tour Germany over the summer and have lots of one off shows and appearances to make in between so it never really stops!
Marcella: What I would love to do is plonk myself by a pool and wake up in September. What I'm actually going to do is work all summer, both with the Puppini Sisters and my other projects
Stephanie: I am looking forward to our special show in Paris this month so we will be putting a lot of hard work into making it brilliant! I have other musical pursuits away from the band so when we have time off, I put a lot of energy into that, songwriting and creating new music. I'd also love to fit in a holiday to South America at some point!
You said that you are obsessed with american musical movies in terms of their song style. What can you tell us about your last album “Hollywood”? What was the main idea behind this album?
Kate: The main idea was to pay homage to some of the most brilliant and memorable songs of the era. It's always fun to take a song and flip it round when you rearrange it. You find new meaning and energy in a song when you do that, it's becomes something different. We're never trying to faithfully recreate the songs that we choose to cover, but present them in a different light and have a lot of fun in writing, rehearsing and performing them.
Marcella: We made Hollywood with the idea of treating ourselves and our fans to all of our favorite songs from all of our favorite movies. It was a feast of glamour, and we loved every minute of it.
Stephanie: We wanted to create an album that allowed us to indulge in our love of old school Hollywood and some of its most iconic tracks. We got to pay homage to some of our idols such as Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe and give some of our most cherished songs our unique twist. We also thought very hard about what type of live show we wanted to result from the album, so we created big scale arrangements with horns and strings and gave each song a lot of personality.
Personally I love all of your songs! But if you could listen to one song for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Kate: I really like Steph's arrangement of 'Get Happy'. It really makes me want to jump on a horse and go on a hay ride!
Marcella: If it had to be one of our own I'd say Wuthering Heights. It's one of my all time favorite songs, and our arrangement of it brings back some wonderful memories.
Stephanie: Thank you! That's a tricky question…..Well, from our collection, it would have to be Crazy In Love, as it holds a lot of great memories and away from our back catalogue, perhaps 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' by Carole King- a masterclass in songwriting perfection!
What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t in the music industry and what can we expect from you in the future?
Kate: Expect a lot. There are a lot of amazing opportunities in the pipeline for us at the moment. I think if I hadn't done a music degree, I would have studied law... Now that's enough to give any legal system nightmares!
Marcella: I'd be a contortionist, or a palm reader. Or we could all be TV chefs, as we're all excellent cooks.
As for the future, there's plenty brewing, so watch this space!
Stephanie: It's hard to imagine a life other than one in music, but I love to paint and would probably have continued on my artistic path if music hadn't taken over. I also love languages, so love the idea of being a translator and travelling the world with that skill.
The Puppini Sisters have a very exciting future ahead and I look forward to what we have coming up together!
by Nina Monceaux
