Lino - Not just for the floor

Lino - that stuff people put on their kitchen floors 'cause it's easy to clean. Also a Sydney electro-pop outfit that recently released an album called Inclinator. What have they got in common- They're both smooth, a little plastic and have uniquely Aussie feel.

Lisa French is Lino's singer, and very charming lass to boot. She's also a dancer and choreographer who works as a sales assistant in a home-wares store in Sydney. She says she brings the cheese to an outfit that, without her influence, may well have been too cool for school.

"I bring the kind of daggy element," says a sunny voice down the line in Sydney. "When the boys are being too cool, I sing some daggy lyrics over the top. I think I bring a pop sensibility into Lino - whether that's good or bad I'm not sure. But, I love and crave trashy pop culture and so I think that is probably reflected by what I bring into Lino."

Lino had three members until the unfortunate demise in mid-2000 of dj, and the electo influence on the group, Jad McAdam. This loss has affected the group in a profound and emotional way, and caused them to alter the way they perform.

"As you know we were originally a three piece, and Jad who was a dj with us passed away this time last year so obviously our live line-up is quite different now. The whole album was pretty much finished before he passed away so when we did live stuff with him, he was on decks and doing live sampling play-back and stuff."

"And so now, we haven't replaced him for obvious reasons, the live setup is quite live. We've got a drummer, a keyboard player and a bass player and Andrew on guitar. I think at this stage that's the way we're going to kind of keep it, like another element of Lino -quite a raw element - but I think down the track we'll include the samples and the more electronic feel that we create in the studio."

Inclinator is Lino's second released work. Their first self-titled album was, according to Lisa, little more than a demo album created as a sound track to a Melbourne fashion show. Despite it's humble intentions, the demo was snapped up by EMI and released.

The new release is an entirely different box of lobsters. With Lisa actually becoming involved with the project from beginning to end the songs have a quite different bent.

"The second album we actually sat down in a lounge-room and Jad was on decks doing stuff with the vinyl and Andrew had an acoustic guitar and I had just a crappy old microphone. We kind of started organically the songs like that and we thought if they can work with just the three of us doing this, then once we produce them up they'll still have a nice solid structure."

Both current members of Lino both have dual creative outlets. Andrew Lancaster is a filmmaker, and his short film In Search of Mike received some attention at a recent Sundance Film Festival. Lisa is a dancer and choreographer, as well as a sales assistant. She says she found the movement to a purely vocal performance slightly disturbing.

"The first lino gig we ever did was quite odd, 'cause I'm so used to doing dancing and stuff and using your body in quite a different way of feeling as opposed to just walking out and singing in front of a microphone. So the first gig was a bit of nightmare, but I think I'm getting used to it now."

Their multiple interests and careers have also influenced Lino's creative process.

"Because Jad was from a sort of theatre background, as well as myself (and) Andrew is in film, we all when we're writing, we're writing to an image we see the record like the soundtrack to the film, because Andrew directs the film clips for us and we pretty much have strong images in our minds when we write the music."

Lino's first single, Augerwell, was shot in the ACT. And although she's loathe to admit it, that's also where Lisa grew up. However, that was not the only reason they chose the nation's capital to stage their rather disturbing film clip.

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