Cocteau Twins vocalist Liz Fraser explains why PJ Harvey “scares” her
Back in 1993, Liz Fraser, the enigmatic vocalist for Cocteau Twins, was asked to name her number one “vocal hero” for Melody Maker. By that time, the Scottish musician had cemented herself as one of her generation’s most inventive and inspiring singers, her work with Cocteau Twins having exploded the public’s understanding of the pop vocalist. As well as talking about some of her favourite performers, Fraser was also asked for her thoughts on a couple of contemporary female artists, one of whom she confessed to being a little “scared” of.
On being asked to name her favourite vocalist of all time, Fraser, after some debate, settled on Nina Simone: “Just because she’s played such a big part of my life recently.” When pressed for her reasoning, she explained: “She’s just done so much. I don’t know much about her life, but that doesn’t bother me because I’ve learnt so much about her through her material. She’s so vulnerable. And I can really relate to that. A lot of her songs are about being fallible. She’s a really dysfunctional person. And dysfunctional people are attracted to each other. I guess that’s why I am attracted to her. We both had a rough life. She’s familiar.”
Relatability seems to have been especially important to Fraser. She and Simone have numerous things in common, not least their complete immersion in their music. “When she sings, when she performs, she tends to get very caught up in what she’s singing about,” Fraser continued. “When you listen to Nina Simone, she’s so vulnerable. And because you’re implicated in her plight, you automatically share it. I don’t really do that with people. And I want to do that, and so I guess I am using her with which to do that.”
Later in the interview, Fraser clarified that she struggled to settle on just one vocalist, there being “so many good singers about at the moment”. After confessing her love for Thom Yorke and Radiohead’s song ‘Creep’, she was asked for her thoughts on Polly Harvey, later PJ Harvey. “She scares me,” Fraser began. “She goes on about sex a lot, which is another subject I don’t particularly want to tackle. It’s great that she’s allowed to do it, though. That she’s allowed to express herself.”
