Ahead of the British band Elastica even releasing their debut album, there was a monumental amount of hype around the group. The group’s first album was a big success, but their decade-long existence would be dogged by infighting, lineup changes, lawsuits, drugs, aborted studio sessions, and life under the spotlight.
Elastica front-woman and guitarist Justine Frischmann grew up in a middle class family in a West London suburb. As a child, she was surrounded by music. She began writing and studying music at age of 11 and had aspirations of being an artist but her parents pushed her into architecture.
“I never really thought I’d be brave enough to get onstage.” – Justine Frischmann
Frischmann studied architecture at the University College London, but at this point in her life, she didn’t see herself playing music professionally or even getting up on stage. She told Spin Magazine, “I never really thought I’d be brave enough to get onstage. It’s a particular set of balls you need. It happened by accident. Cause I started playing guitar with a couple of people from college and they started taking it seriously.”
Frischmann was referring to musician Brett Anderson. Anderson and Frischmann co-founded the British group Suede. Frischmann, though, wasn’t happy with her role in the group and thought their songs were too indulgent and long, telling Spin Magazine, “There was too much horror involved and I was the token girl standing at the back, strumming a guitar and I became frustrated.”
By 1991, Frischmann struck up a relationship with Blur frontman Damon Albarn. Soon enough, Frischmann would start her own project with another ex-Suede bandmate of hers, drummer Justin Welch.
Annie Holland Join Justine Frischmann and Justin Welch in Elastica
Elastica’s roots dated back to June of 1992 when Frischmann and Welch would join forces with bassist Annie Holland, who allegedly never played the instrument before joining the band. By August of 1992, the band put an ad in the Melody Maker Magazine looking for a second guitarist. They would end up finding guitarist Donna Matthews.
Elastica would write fast, punchy songs that usually clocked in under 3 minutes. For Frischmann, the project was cathartic, with her telling the the LA Times, “I think a lot of songs come out of frustration, where you can’t say something to someone so you sing it instead–kind of like revenge without getting the blame.”
“…I don’t feel any kind of need to bare myself in public…” – Justine Frischmann
Frischmann’s approach to music was pretty simple, with her telling the Guardian, “I have a low boredom threshold. I want the best bits – verse-chorus, verse-chorus, that’s it… Also, I don’t feel any kind of need to bare myself in public. I’m not into angst… I’ve always liked humour in music.”
By October of 1993, the band released their first single “Stutter”, which dealt with the subject of bad sex. It was heavily promoted by BBC Radio 1 DJ, Steve Lamacq, who also signed the band to his label Deceptive Records. “Stutter” was such a big hit that all 1,500 copies of the single would sell out in the UK in just 2 days.
The LA Times did a really great piece on the group in 1995 that summarized exactly what happened, “Here’s the widely heralded quartet’s game plan: Record a song that excites everyone who hears it but refuse to give a tape to more than a few industry friends–forcing eager talent scouts to scramble for ragged copies.
No one wants to miss out on a hot new signing. Add to the mystery by playing your first show under a fake name in an obscure club away from the heart of London, and then limit the number of copies of your first single to just 1,500, causing a rush to stores. No one in the style-conscious British pop scene wants to be without the record of the moment.”
Justine Frischmann Voted as Second Favourite Female Singer
The plan ended up backfiring. By 1994, before the band even put out their first album, or even had a major record deal, Elastica was gracing the covers of weekly music magazines in the UK and getting a lot of coverage. Even without an album to their name, readers of Melody Maker in a 1994 poll voted Frischmann as their second favourite female singer with first place going to Courtney Love of Hole.
“The more we did to downplay things, the more people got interested in it.” – Justine Frischmann
Frischmann looked back at the strategy the band employed, telling the LA Times, “The truth is none of that was designed to get attention for us. I have seen so many bands get caught in the rat race in England and destroyed by the hype machine, and we were trying to avoid that. It just backfired on us.
The more we did to downplay things, the more people got interested in it. It was madness in a way. Suddenly all these copies of the demo were sitting on top of people’s desks and there were like a dozen label representatives coming to our first show. Everyone was saying we were this great new band, and here we were without even enough songs for an album.”
“We were just into pleasing ourselves, and we happened to love the music of bands from the ‘80s…” – Justine Frischmann
Many in the press lumped the band in with Blur and Oasis, who were helping rekindle America’s interest in British music but the attention caught the band off guard, with Frischmann telling the Times, “It was surprising to see people start showing such an interest in what we were doing because it was so different from what anyone else was doing in Britain at the time. We weren’t trying to launch a movement. We were just into pleasing ourselves, and we happened to love the music of bands from the ‘80s…”
The band took almost half a year off in 1994 from doing any press to ensure they weren’t overexposed and it was during this time they also recorded their first album and became the subject of a bidding war between American labels. They ended up signing with Geffen Records in America as their British label didn’t have the resources to promote the band across the pond. While Geffen didn’t offer them the most money, they offered the band the most creative control.
Elastica were one of the most successful British acts in America in 1995. The band filled a spot in Lolapalooza’s lineup that was vacated by Sinnead O’Connor and they toured relentlessly for the next several years but the life on the road proved to be too much for some of the band members.
Annie Holland Leaves Elastica
Bassist Annie Holland left the group in 1995, with Frischmann telling Rolling Stone, “She left on good terms. It was really her saying, ‘I love you guys, but I don’t want to do this anymore’. She was tired of the grind. Either you like this lifestyle or you don’t.” The band would interview about 36 different bassists to fill her role.
By 1995, the media attention that Frischmann and Albarn were getting was crazy. Having any sort of private life was impossible given that anytime they left their home, they’d be photographed in the tabloids.
“I always thought being famous would bring me freedom and I suddenly realized that the opposite was true…” – Justine Frischmann
Frischmann, by her own admission, was naive about fame, but also tried to shun it at the same time. She told the Guardian, “It invades every area of your life and makes you paranoid in a really peculiar way. It takes the spontaneity away.
I always thought being famous would bring me freedom and I suddenly realized that the opposite was true, that when you have people peering into your life, you have to really, really watch your step and live in a very closed way. You have to be very careful of voicing any opinions or doing anything that people might disapprove of – and I’ve always been someone who says really awful things. I was definitely the most miserable I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
“We should have stopped there, but we were competing with the big boys.” – Justine Frischmann
After a 2-year tour supporting their debut album, the band was barely functioning. For Frischmann, the writing was on the wall when Annie Holland quit, telling Spin, “We should have stopped there, but we were competing with the big boys. I felt this might be the one chance to do something and it killed us really.”
When the band reassembled in 1996 to work on their follow up LP, Frischmann and guitarist Donna Matthews relationship was strained, as they wrestled for creative control over the band. They refused to be in the studio on the same days. Adding to the mix was that Matthews and Welch had struck up a tumultuous romantic relationship that was coupled with booze and drugs. It was a combustible situation. Frischmann admitted to Spin Magazine that by this point in time, the main 3 members of the band were using heroin.
By 1998, Frischmann was caught between her boyfriend and Donna Matthews, who despised each other. Each person thought the other was a bad influence on Frischmann. Eventually both Albarn and Matthews would exit Frischmann’s life in the same week.
Annie Holland Returns to Elastica
By this point in time, the studio bills were piling up for Elastica, having wasted 50,000 pounds on recordings they never used. The band also lost their American recording contract after their label merged with Interscope. However, things would eventually work out. Annie Holland returned to the band the same year.
By 1999, Elastica expanded to a six-piece and wrapped up recording on their second LP, The Menace. They played the Reading Festival the same year. By the time the band was ready to release their second LP, musical trends had changed. Britpop had fallen out of favour with American audiences. The album failed to chart in America and only peaked at number 24 in the UK.
“…The band has broken up on extremely good terms with each other.” – Justine Frischmann
In 2001, the band finally called it quits. Justine Frischmann released a statement that read, “Believe it or not, Elastica have been together for almost 10 years which is probably as long as any band should be together. I know it’s hard to believe but then we did spend quite a while in the middle dithering and being perfectionists. The band has broken up on extremely good terms with each other.”
Frischmann still dabbled in music, working with her friend MIA. By 2005, she moved to America, relocating to Boulder, Colorado to attend Naropa University and study painting. Donna Matthews became a Missionary, working with the homeless, while Welch remained involved in playing music. In 2008, Frischmann relocated to San Francisco and continued to paint and marry a scientist.
“…I don’t really have any desire to make music to be honest.” – Justine Frischmann
In more recent years, Elastica has gotten offers to reform but the chances seem unlikely. Frischmann told The Guardian, “At this point, when I look at the videos of my performances, I feel that it’s another person. I don’t really have any desire to make music to be honest.”
In 2017, the band members reconvened to work on reissuing their first album, which came out the same year, on Record Store Day.
Like this story? Check out Why Tom Petty Never Sued The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Check out our YouTube channel