Bandcamp page<\/a>\u00a0– just click on the Tears Before Bedtime image. There\u2019s a Listening Party link where you can RSVP. I don\u2019t know if numbers are limited but Skep Wax say it\u2019s probably a good idea to sign up as soon as possible. You may be asked to upload the Bandcamp app on your device. At the appointed time on February 11 you just sign in, sit back and listen as the album plays. There\u2019s no Zoom\/camera element but people will be able to make comments or ask questions in the chat room as the album plays, although you don\u2019t have to join in.<\/p>\nI haven\u2019t seen the cocktail menu yet but I\u2019m sure they will be appropriate to the songs. One of them, The Tears of Cora Pearl, is actually named after a 19th-century cocktail which includes cr\u00eame de violette, champagne and edible flowers. One for Peter, who\u2019s partial to Parma violets.<\/p>\n
++ And you have a few gigs lined up, all in the UK so far. Is there one in particular that you are looking forward to the most? And any chance you’ll be playing abroad next year?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019re all looking forward to playing in the Wales Goes Pop festival in April. The weekend festivals we\u2019ve played before (GlasGoes Pop in 2024, Paris Popfest in 2025) have been fantastic.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t have any gigs outside the UK in our diaries at the moment but we love playing abroad so if anyone\u2019s interested in putting us on, please get in touch.<\/p>\n
++ Let<\/i><\/b>\u2019<\/i>s go back in time. What are your first music memories? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Sitting on my father\u2019s lap, aged three, listening to a record of John Williams playing classical Spanish guitar. I also remember him singing me old songs which were meant to be funny but which always made me cry, including \u2018My Darling Clementine\u2019.
\nThere was always a record on the turntable in our house. My mother (who played the violin and mandolin) liked classical music (Bach, Sibelius, Debussy, Satie, Poulenc, Peter Warlock, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov) and musicals (from \u2018Top Hat\u2019 to \u2018Hair\u2019). My father liked \u2018cool\u2019 jazz (Dave Brubeck, Modern Jazz Quartet), Django Reinhardt and songs from the 1920s and 1930s, especially Hoagy Carmichael\u2019s. There were some pop records too – Fran\u00e7oise Hardy, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and The Papas, the Beatles\u2019 \u2018Help\u2019 album, Dionne Warwick singing Burt Bacharach, S\u00e9rgio Mendes, and later ABBA.<\/p>\n
++ You grew up between Singapore and England. Why was that? When was the last time you visited Singapore? What are your fondest memories of that place?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>My father was in the Fleet Air Arm and was posted to Singapore. We lived there until I was eight. I\u2019ve never been back. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much left of the Singapore I knew, with its dilapidated 19th-century shophouses, street markets and sampans in the Singapore River. At the weekend we used to go out in an old fishing boat to islands where we\u2019d picnic on the beach and swim in the warm water. It was a shock coming back to cold, grey England.<\/p>\n
++ Are you originally from London?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>No. We moved around in my childhood and my family is from all over the place, so I never know what to say when people ask where I\u2019m from. But I\u2019ve lived in London since my early 20s and feel I belong here.<\/p>\n
++ Had you been in other bands other than The Would-be-Goods? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
In my mid-teens I desperately wanted to be in a band but couldn\u2019t find anyone else who was interested. I\u2019ve always written songs of one kind or another but didn\u2019t record with other musicians until my early twenties.<\/p>\n
++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Peter wrote to me, in 1995, I think. He told me he was a big Would-be-goods fan, asked if I\u2019d written anything new and said that if I was interested in playing live, his band Heavenly would be happy to be my backing musicians. A few years later we met in London and I played him some of my new songs. (I\u2019d started writing again in the mid-1990s.) He persuaded me to record them.
\nPeter and I did our first live shows as the Would-be-goods in 2001. Our drummer Debbie Greensmith and bass player Lupe Nu\u00f1ez-Fernandez (from Pipas) joined us in 2002, recruited by Peter, who is well connected in the world of indie music. When Lupe left the band in 2004, Andy Warren (who had played on the first two Would-be-goods albums and had become a friend of mine) took over bass duties.<\/p>\n
++ How is the creative process for you? It was only after “Mondo” that you learned the guitar, right? How did you compose previously?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>I\u2019ve always composed songs in the same way, writing everything in my head rather than with an instrument and singing it onto a tape recorder (nowadays, the voice recorder on my phone or computer) as I go along. The starting point might be a title or a very short musical phrase (just a few notes) I\u2019ve overheard, or remembered from an old song. The words and music tend to come to me simultaneously, a few bars at a time. When I first started to play the guitar, strumming chords could sometimes spark something but very soon I went back to writing in the old way. I\u2019ve always been able to \u2018hear\u2019 my songs, with quite detailed arrangements, but they do tend to change a bit when we start working on them in rehearsal. An example is \u2018Miss La-Di-Dah\u2019 (from The Morning After) which I imagined as a mid-paced, rather downbeat Motown-type song Iike \u2018Heard It Through The Grapevine\u2019 but which the band took in more of a garage direction.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t tell the other band members what to play although I might occasionally ask them to try a part I\u2019ve come up with.<\/p>\n
++ Where do you usually practice? Has it changed much after the many changes of the band?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve always practised in a rehearsal studio under the railway arches in West London. It looks exactly the same as it did 20-odd years ago.<\/p>\n
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s the title of a 1901 children\u2019s novel by Edith Nesbit. I\u2019ve always loved her books although The Wouldbegoods isn\u2019t my favourite. It came to mind when I was recording my first single and needed a band name. Mike Alway didn\u2019t like it but Simon Turner encouraged me to stick with it. I might have picked another name if I\u2019d known we\u2019d become popular in Japan, as \u2018Would-be-goods\u2019 doesn\u2019t work well in Japanese.<\/p>\n
++ Who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
People say we have a distinctive sound but it has changed a lot since the early days. On the first two albums the Monochrome Set were my backing band – the sound is more sophisticated and the arrangements more complex but it doesn\u2019t sound like a Monochrome Set record. The third album, Brief Lives, was made with the help of guest musicians and feels more like a studio project than a band album. The Morning After is the first Would-be-goods album that captures what I think of as our \u2018band\u2019 sound. On that album and the follow-up (Eventyr) there\u2019s a touch of garage-band rawness and energy which comes from Debbie\u2019s drumming and Peter\u2019s guitars, but there are other\u00a0 influences, such as French chanson, which you can hear in songs like \u2018Bluebeard\u2019. The new album has a more lush sound, with more complex arrangements. Our sound has evolved naturally – we\u2019ve never tried to sound like anyone else.<\/p>\n
++ I have always wondered how you ended up working with \u00c9l Records. How did that relationship start? And who picked the two songs for the first single?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I was a fan of The Monochrome Set and met Mike Alway in their dressing-room at one of their shows after a friend dared me to go backstage. This was a few years before Mike started \u00e9l Records – he was the A&R man at Cherry Red. We met up a few times while I was doing a summer job in London in my gap year. He kept in touch and sent me records while I was at university, and I wrote sleeve notes for his new label, \u00e9l. After I graduated and moved to London he asked me if I\u2019d be interested in making a single. I was surprised but of course I said yes. His first suggestion was that I should cover a song by \u201860s band The Herd and\/or a very early Bowie song from his Mod period, then he wanted me to do a duet with a footballer, Vinnie Jones, but in the end he asked Simon Turner to write a couple of songs for me.<\/p>\n
++ After the single, which had songs written by Simon Turner and Colin Lloyd Tucker, you decided to release an album of your own songs with The Monochrome Set as a backing band. Were you already friends or familiar with The Monochrome Set before this record? Was it something \u00c9l got for you?\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t my decision to make an album. Mike suggested it after the single got good reviews and some airplay. He approached various songwriters but either they were tied up with other projects or their songs weren\u2019t right for me, which is why I ended up writing my own songs. Mike asked Bid, Andy Warren and Nick Wesolowski to be the backing band. As a long-time Monochrome Set fan, I was thrilled. I\u2019d met them a few times but had never exchanged more than a few words with any of them.<\/p>\n
++ I’ve always been curious about the photos of you and your sister Miranda from that time. Curious about what sort of hats you were wearing in them?\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
People often ask about the outfits we\u2019re wearing on the album cover. The hats and jackets were from East Asia, I think. Mike sent us to a theatrical costumier (Berman and Nathan\u2019s) and told us to choose anything we liked.<\/p>\n
++ After this record you left music to work in the City of London. What did you do there? Did you enjoy this job?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019d already been working in the City for a year when we made The Camera Loves Me. I studied English Literature at university then to everyone\u2019s surprise (and by a rather roundabout route) I became a trainee Japanese investment manager. I loved my annual visits to Japan but I felt out of place in the City. So after a few years I left and worked as an editor for a small and eccentric publishing company before going freelance, recording Mondo and becoming a mother.<\/p>\n
++ Soon after you recorded “Mondo”. I read in an interview with Marcus T\u00f6rncrantz that this record received no promotion at all after being re-released in the UK (it was originally a Japan-only release on Trattoria). What happened? Why didn\u2019t Cherry Red support this record as they should have?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
++ Reading your biography on your page, it mentions that between 2000 and 2001 you recorded 22 songs with Orson Presence, Struan Robertson and Jim Kimberley. Were these songs released?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Yes – they were the songs that became Brief Lives, the Emmanuelle B\u00e9art EP and the Sugar Mummy single. Orson Presence played keyboards and Struan Robertson and Jim Kimberley played drums. Another track, \u2018Leave My Mind Alone\u2019, is on a compilation, All\u2019s Fair In Love and Chickfactor.<\/p>\n
++ Then you started working with new labels, much smaller and indie than Cherry Red, like Matin\u00e9e and Fortuna Pop. How did these relationships start?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
After we\u2019d finished recording Brief Lives, Peter and I approached some independent record companies. Several of these were interested in releasing it but we decided to go with Fortuna Pop!) and Matin\u00e9e.<\/p>\n
++ “Emmanuelle B\u00e9art” was your comeback EP in 2001. One thing that I always thought about your music is that it is very cinematic in a way. From the top of your head do you have a top 5 favourite movies?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>People have said my songs are like novels but maybe they are more like little films. My imagination is quite visual – when I\u2019m reading or writing I \u2018see\u2019 the characters and events.
\nFavourite films, off the top of my head: Jacques Tati\u2019s Mon Oncle; something by the Hong Kong film director Stanley Kwan (maybe Rouge or Centre Stage); Bergman\u2019s Smiles of a Summer Night; Kind Hearts and Coronets; something by Eric Rohmer (maybe A Winter\u2019s Tale).<\/p>\n
++ Then came “Eventyr” which of course means adventure in Swedish. Previously you had sung songs in French, so wondering how many languages you speak?!<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>My French is very rusty these days but I do try to read in French and speak it when we go there. I studied German for two years at school but have forgotten most of it. In the 1980s I learned a bit of Japanese. I started having lessons again a few years ago. I really enjoy it but it\u2019s quite challenging.<\/p>\n
++ And I have to ask, all of your albums had a photo of yours on the cover. But not on “Eventyr”? Why did you decide to change that on this one?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>I wanted it to look like the cover of a book of fairytales from the golden age of children\u2019s literature. \u2018Eventyr\u2019 was the title of a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen, some of which inspired songs on the album.<\/p>\n
++ During the Covid pandemic you started making and releasing music on your own, as a solo project instead of with the full band. Four EPs have appeared on Bandcamp of wonderful new songs. What made you decide to pick up your guitar and start posting these on the web?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I needed a project while we were all stuck at home and only allowed out for one short walk a day. So I came up with the idea of writing (and demo-ing) a song a day, using a title which my partner Peter Momtchiloff would give me the evening before (with no other guidance). I sang, played and recorded everything myself. Making songwriting into a game took a lot of the pressure off and opened up all sorts of new songwriting avenues for me. For the first time since my teens I was writing without any intention of releasing the songs. Later I decided to make some of them into digital EPs. I took five songs at a time and worked on the original demos, re-recording parts if necessary and getting Peter to play bass if the song needed it.<\/p>\n
++ And I have to ask, is there a possibility if all of or some of these songs will be re-recorded by the full band? Or a possibility for them to be released as they are in physical format?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I ended up writing 173 songs so it\u2019s very unlikely I\u2019ll ever release them all. The sound quality of the early songs is terrible. They sound as if they were recorded underwater, as I didn\u2019t really know how to use Garageband and lacked some vital bits of kit, e.g. a guitar interface. It was a slow learning process.<\/p>\n
I released twenty of the songs on Bandcamp (and later on a CD). You\u2019ll be able to hear more of them on the new album and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll work on others with the band for future release.<\/p>\n
++ Only “The Camera Loves Me” was released on vinyl back in the day, and I wonder with these trends of reissuing things on vinyl, have you considered doing so?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Our new album is coming out on vinyl, as well as CD and digital, but there are no plans for any of our other albums to be re-issued in any format.<\/p>\n
++ Are there more recordings by the band? Unreleased tracks?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>There are a few songs which we started in 2019 and didn\u2019t finish for one reason or another.<\/p>\n
++ I think my favourite song of yours is <\/i><\/b>\u201c<\/i>Pinstriped Rebel\u201d (though it is hard to pick just one), but as I use it as my personal email address (!). I was wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? You know here in the US people who read my email think I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox, or a baseball fan, because of the name! What<\/i><\/b>\u2019<\/i>s the story behind it?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>The title came from an article in the Financial Times, which I read every day when I was in the City. The character in the song is based on someone I was very briefly in a relationship with – he was the archetypal \u2018City boy\u2019 of the 1980s.<\/p>\n
++ Comet Gain did a wonderful cover of this song. I was wondering what you think of it? And also if there are any other Would-be-Goods covers that you would recommend checking out?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s very good. It comes from a project which Matthew Jacobsen of the US label Le Grand Magistery began in the mid-1990s. He asked various indie bands to cover songs by \u00e9l artists for a tribute album. It\u2019s never been released, although some of the songs (including the Comet Gain \u2018Pinstriped Rebel\u2019 cover) appeared on another Grand Magistery compilation. I liked all the Would-be-goods covers I heard from that project – the bands took the songs and really made them their own. I don\u2019t see any point in covering a song unless you do something different with it. The Softies covered \u2018Perfect Dear\u2019 and still play it live. And a young Canadian band asked me if they could cover \u2018Too Old\u2019. They did a good job – I think it\u2019s on YouTube.<\/p>\n
++ If you were to choose your favorite Would-be-Goods song, which one would that be and why?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s a hard one! It changes. At the moment it\u2019s \u2018Ouija Board Romance\u2019 from my lockdown project. It was one of those rare songs that came to me pretty much in one go, despite being one of the most challenging titles Peter gave me. Most of them gave me a bit more scope, e.g. \u2018A Family Secret\u2019 or \u2018I Loved A Ghost\u2019.<\/p>\n
++ Did the Would-be-Goods gig back when the first two albums were released? Perhaps with the Monochrome Set as a backing band, or not?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>No – Mike Alway was very much against the \u00e9l bands doing shows, although there was an \u00e9l showcase event at the Limelight Club in London and a short Japanese tour. I sang backing vocals for Simon Turner and Louis Philippe in London and Tokyo but I\u2019d never have had the courage to perform as a lead singer in those days, with or without the support of The Monochrome Set.<\/p>\n
++ Did you play many gigs? In other countries?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been playing gigs since the early 2000s, mostly in the UK but also in the USA, Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.<\/p>\n
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The Chickfactor 2002 show at the Fez Club in the Lower East Side was one of our favourites – there was such a gala atmosphere. The Would-be-goods were all wearing tuxedos. I was expecting to borrow an electric guitar but they could only find an acoustic one with a strap that kept slipping. Peter had to fix the strap to my back with a big \u2018X\u2019 of gaffa tape.
\nGlasgoes Pop in August 2024 and Paris Popfest in September 2025 were really special, too.<\/p>\n
++ And have there been any bad ones?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
We did a show in Nottingham in the early 2000s. It was a very rainy night and the promoter didn\u2019t turn up. We played to an audience of five, all of them from the support band.
\nWe also did a show at Cecil Sharp House (a folk venue in London) where we kept triggering the noise restrictor. It was the first and last time we\u2019ve ever been told we were too loud.<\/p>\n
++ There have been no promo videos for the songs for the Would-be-Goods in the past. How come? If you would have been able to pick one song that should have had a video, which one would it be?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had plenty of ideas for videos but for some reason never got round to making one until this year. \u2018Velazquez and I\u2019 would have been a contender.<\/p>\n
++ Right! \u2018The Gallopers\u2019 is your first video ever. It was quite a surprise. So I wonder how it came together? Did you make it yourselves or did you work with someone? Where did you record your takes and where does the old footage come from?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Skep Wax like to release three singles before an album comes out, so we needed videos for these. We\u2019ve been working with Ian Button, who\u2019s made videos for Pete Astor, Louis Philippe and his own band, Papernut Cambridge.<\/p>\n
I filmed myself singing and Peter playing guitar at home, and the old footage is from amateur films made in various parts of England.<\/p>\n
++ Looking back in retrospect, what has been the biggest highlight for the band?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Playing live. Not just being on stage but everything that goes with it – meeting other musicians and people who\u2019ve come to see us, and getting to spend time with the other band members.<\/p>\n
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>Drawing, cooking, walking around London, going to art exhibitions, but most of all, reading.<\/p>\n
++ Been to London many times, and really liked it but I would ask a native about it, what are your recommendations? I want to know what would you suggest them doing here, like what are the sights one shouldn<\/i><\/b>\u2019<\/i>t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/b>I would go on a long bus ride through the city (a regular bus, not a tourist bus), sitting on the top deck; I\u2019d take a boat up the Thames from Embankment to Greenwich, or if the weather\u2019s good, I\u2019d walk along the river – eastwards from the Royal Festival Hall along the south bank to Tower Bridge and beyond, westwards from Hammersmith Bridge to Richmond, or along Regent\u2019s Canal from Ladbroke Grove to Islington. The permanent collections at the National Gallery, V&A and British Museum are must-sees, and if you have time there\u2019s the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south-west London which has a lovely small permanent collection and often has good temporary shows. I\u2019d go to Golborne Road at the top end of Portobello Road (north of the Westway flyover) on a Friday and have a coffee and nata at Lisboa Patisserie.
\nI don\u2019t know what counts as traditional food in London – it\u2019s such an international city and we\u2019re adventurous eaters. I do drink a lot of tea, always loose-leaf, which I buy from the wonderful Postcard Teas in Dering Street, W1.<\/p>\n
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Listen
\nWould-be-Goods – The Gallopers<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks so much to Jessica for the interview! It is no secret that one of my favourite bands are the Would-be-Goods, so it was really cool for me that during the Covid pandemic I got in touch with Jessica Griffin. I may have had opportunities before, the one time I remember most clearly was in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11981"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15561,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981\/revisions\/15561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"http:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wouldbegoods-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![setlist<\/a> that time around). But yeah, being a big fan and all, didn’t want to bother! So yes, for me this interview is quite important and means a lot. And on top of it all it is great timing! The band is releasing a new album called “Tears Before Bedtime” on February 13, 2026, on the very fine label Skep Wax. You can pre-order the album on](\"http:\/\/www.cloudberryrecords.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/setlist.jpg\"){kind=link}