Lily Fontaine

Name, where are you from?
I’m Lily Fontaine and I was born in Huddersfield, raised in Colne, but I now live in Leeds.

Describe your style in three words.
Seventies, nineties and cheap.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Last Shadow Puppets at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester. They brought Johnny Marr on stage as a surprise to cover 'Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me' by The Smiths and 'Totally Wired' by The Fall. So special.

If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?
The Beatles and Amy Winehouse.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
I think it’s a shame and potentially a consequence of misogyny that no one talks about the golden era of teenage female tumblr as an important subculture. It provided a space for many of us to discover and explore art, film, literature and fashion, alongside a platform to learn about and discuss feminist, racial, political and social discourse.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history, who would you choose?
Rene Magritte and I’d ask if he’d give me an art class. No visual art moves me like his.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Always will be. It’s the place I’ve played the most and it’s the place I drink at the most. You can get a double and a packet of scampi fries for a fiver, there’s a pool room and the sound in the gig rooms is always brilliant.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex. Incredible musician and lyricist who was also a woman of colour in punk at a time where that was completely unheard of, and did so while subverting western beauty standards and the female ‘pretty voice’. I’ve been practising my impression of her in case they need someone to play her in a biopic one day.