Following her appearance on the runway at Gucci Cruise 2018 last night in Florence, we revisit Bobby Gillespie's interview with the “very sharp” Jehnny Beth
“There was a book given to me by Johnny Hostile, called My Voice Will Go With You, by Sidney Rosen. It’s a series of case studies by Milton H. Erickson, an American pioneer of hypnosis and family therapy. He was a nurse, then started to develop his own techniques. It’s really well written; little tricks of the mind to make people feel better or change their habits. It’s really fascinating, hypnotherapy, when you’re into language. I’m interested in the idea of music and words being able to trigger things... to put a seed in your mind that grows and changes you profoundly. I think hypnotherapy is like that. Words can heal you. The book is also very entertaining, because it’s little stories about people’s lives, so it has a lot of humour in it. I’ve passed it on now. I often send books to my friends; if I like a book I just buy it online and send it straight to their house. I think everybody needs this one.”
I was intrigued by Savages when they first appeared on the scene. They came across as very severe, very serious in sound and attitude – an intimidating image. I bought the first album and played it a lot and dug it, but when I saw them live at the Royal Festival Hall when they opened for The Stooges, it really hit home. The sound is sharp and angular. No meat on the bones. Reductive purity. Punk for now. I first met Jehnny backstage at a Saint Laurent show in Paris in February 2014, and I was struck by how friendly and sweet she is. She’s very sharp and great to talk to. She has something to say – I like that. She’s a great frontwoman and a good soul.
Photographic assistant Chelsea Jackson; Styling assistants Rosie Arkell-Palmer, Molly Shillingford.
This article originally appeared in AnOther Magazine A/W16.
