Comedian Lou Sanders breaks down the music that made her who she is today – from Blind Melon to Missy Elliott.
Lou Sanders has to be one of the hardest-working people in comedy at the moment. She regularly pops up on every panel show going – QI! Outsiders! 8 Out Of 10 Cats! Hypothetical! Would I Lie To You? all of them – won Taskmaster in 2019, is the resident assistant on Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable on Dave and hosts the podcast Cuddle Club.
As she embark on a months-long national tour of her new show, Lou Sanders, One Word: Wow, she talks Kerrang! through the songs that shaped her – from Seattle legends to a German version of a classic.
“My brother would listen to Bob Marley and Desmond Dekker. I remember bouncing along singing Bob Marley songs, singing Three Little Birds and looking at the birds outside my window thinking, 'Great, this sweet Jamaican lifestyle, gimme it!' And then there was a song when I was eight and a half called It's ’Orrible Being In Love When You’re Eight And A Half, and I was in love with this guy at my school and I was like, 'Wow, I feel so seen.'"
"I was quite young when this came out, but I was like, 'Yeah! Maybe girls do want to have fun!' At the time, we were being pushed really gendered toys. I thought, 'How come if my auntie or my mum’s friend is getting us presents, my brother gets, like, a parachute you can throw out of the window and actually do something with, and I get something passive like a kitchen set? A doll or a pregnant woman – is that my aspiration?' And so I was like, 'Yeah, Cyndi Lauper gets it, she knows that girls also want to have fun.'"
"I loved Blind Melon. Everything about them touched me – and we had the same flares. It felt like it was meant to be. They only really had two good songs, but there was a strange thing where you’d buy an album and there wouldn’t necessarily be loads of songs you liked on it, but you’d feel aligned with that band. I tried to go see them in the Roundhouse in London. I bought what I was told was the last ticket – I couldn't believe it. Then I had to get someone to drive me there, and I lied to my mum about what I was doing, and his car broke down, so then I had to try and get this other guy to drive me, and then someone else, and in the end I couldn’t get anyone to drive me, so I missed it. I was so sad. And then [vocalist] Shannon Hoon died not long later."
“Better Man was about what I was going through with my mum and stepdad and stuff, so that really transports me back to my bedroom in Broadstairs; feeling sad and angry, full of hormones and rage. And Daughter, as well. It’s all alright now, we all get on well now."
“You know that one? 'Call him Mr Raider, call him Mr Vain…' I remember sneaking into a nightclub in Margate when I was about 13 or 14 – they weren’t bothered at all – and dancing to that. I had these knitted culottes that were completely see-through. It’s such a funny thing to think of, a kid dancing to that and thinking they’re so grown-up."
"It’s such a good song, and listening to her stuff made me read interviews with her, and she talked a lot about inequality and racism and the American Civil Rights Movement and stuff. And so, just through a pop song, you could get a greater understanding of the world. And also that song is a good message for women to hear, about not letting men shit on you because you’re worth more than that."
"It's all about hip hop being fun – I love the bit where she goes, 'British knights and gold chains', singing about wearing fat laces. That song really speaks to me – it used to be much more innocent and about fun and stuff. She sings about how hip-hop was back in the day, and now I feel like hip-hop is all about stacking the deck of capitalism, and all about status. And it makes me so sad because we're buying into the wrong things. It's not about like, pissing about with your friends and making good tunes, it’s about, 'I've got this so I’m better than you.' That's our value system now, it’s capitalism and being in a hierarchy depending on how much you've got of this one thing, and I just don't think that's what it should be about. Life, not just music, should be about getting on and having fun – not sucking the dick of capitalism."
"Generally, if I’m feeling a bit sad, I ask Alexa to play Beyoncé and just let fate decide. Or Ida Maria, I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked, that cheers me up. It depends what you’re sad about really – if you’re sad about a boy you’d pick a different song to if you just wanted to be lifted up. But I don’t get sad about boys, so that’s okay."
"I love it when everyone joins in in karaoke, because I can’t sing, so I like anything that makes everyone else join in. You can’t not sing along to that, can you? Or Tina Turner, that’s quite funny. What’s the Tina Turner one where she dances around with her legs like a horse? That’s quite good. We're the same star sign, so I feel a real affinity with Tina Turner."
"The German version of Big Spender is big and silly and glamorous, and the words don’t quite fit, but there’s something lovely about it. I used it in a show once, I think it was my first or second hour – I came down a stepladder to it. Climbed up one side and down the other to Big Spender in German. I think I'd go out the same way, up a stepladder, up to heaven."
Lou Sanders' new show One Word: Wow tours the UK from March 3.
