Where are you from originally?
Jenny Drag (vocals): Park Ridge, New Jersey in the USA. Exit 172 (off the Garden State Parkway) as we say.

Guri (guitar): I'm from a small town called Ålesund on the north-west coast of Norway. It's a sleepy fishing town with about 35,000 inhabitants, surrounded by fjords and wild mountains.

Hege (drums): A little place in Norway that must have been forgotten by God, because

When did you move and where did you move to?
J: I moved to London in Jan '01.

G: I moved to London in the summer of 1998 (from Bergen where I lived then).

H: I moved from the deserted town as soon as I could after high school, explored the arctic, and ended up in a really nice town in the Norwegian West in the end. Finally I was kidnapped by The Priscillas, and ended up in London.

Why did you decide to move there? Was the decision related to your music?
J: I have always been an anglophile. Despite coming from Irish blood, I was always drawn to England. Music was a huge part of this. I grew up listening to many British groups, the earliest being The Beatles and later found bands like The Smiths, Sex Pistols, The Cure, Siouxsie and tons more. I was in a couple of bands including Drag Triplets and High School Sweethearts and we played the New York circuit for a while. After talking about moving to England since I was about 15, I finally took the plunge. I also saw that US bands such as Blondie and R.E.M. found success over in the UK before they did in the US so I thought I'd try my luck there too.

G: The decision to move to London was made entirely on music. I was in a band called Peachfuzz, and I persuaded the other 3 members to move over.

Ever since I started playing guitar when i was 12, my BIG dream was to move to London and play in a band. I chose London, I think because Norwegians are in general completely Anglofile and most of my favourite bands are British. Coming from a small town, the idea of living somewhere with gigs every night, lots of people with the same interests and likes, and a place with endless possibilities, was rather appealing.

The band only lasted 9 months, as the drummer was homesick and the guitarist started up a band called Kings of Convenience instead.

H: Definitely related to music. After the Priscillas took me on, I cannot believe I didn’t come here before. The variety of music and other arts in this city/country is endless, and that provides a lot of inspiration for creating

new stuff. It also allows us to play with and talk to people such as Nick Cave, Jack White and The Flaming Lips....

In what ways is your new home country different from your old one?
J: There are plusses and minuses to both countries. I miss the convenience of things in America and easy access to healthy food. And better customer service. London and New York are not hugely different though. I like that London has greenery whereas New York is a concrete jungle. They are both wonderful cities.

G: More people. A lot more people. And less space. Here are opportunities a-plenty, but there are more people fighting over the same ones.

H: It’s so much harder. More people, tougher socially because people here can seem very cold - until you get to know them. In the beginning I thought that I would never meet people again after having seen them once. You eventually realise that most of the people you meet are actually very nice and it’s just a matter of having the time to sit down and chat...

But(!) it’s really difficult to get a bank account here! You have to prove with x amounts of

documents where you live, and a tenancy isn’t proof of residency... That’s a bit bizarre for a naive Norwegian.

G: The class system.

Did you have any particular difficulties when you first arrived?
J: It was difficult for about the first six months. I was very homesick. I'm very close with my family and have some amazing friends back home. That was the hardest part. Being 3,000 miles away. Also I was living on the 5th floor walk up of a grim council estate in South London where we had things like the heating and hot water on a timer, just a bath with no shower, electricity on a meter. All very old fashioned British things. Maybe I'm just a spoiled American but it was like walking into a time warp. I eventually moved out of there, over the river to Noth London and things got a lot better. All mod cons and cool pubs to go to!

H: To find work.

G: It was difficult adjusting from being a big fish in a small pond to being more of a shrimp in the ocean.

And the hierarchy. it was difficult coming from a equalities based social democracy to a more class based system. And going about 50 years back in time when it comes to women's liberation! I'm still struggling a bit with that one...

J: I agree with Guri about England being behind the times with women's lib. In America, I've found that there were always girl bands around at least where I was. In England, they're just about cottoning onto the fact that this is a possibility. It's ridiculous. I don't know what is is. Maybe it's lack of role models. We were lucky to have people like Patti Smith, Kim Deal, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde. I could go on but you get the point. It's very odd indeed.

Has moving to a new country influenced your music?
J: I get a lot of my material from the area I live near. There are a lot of colourful characters in quite a grim area. Songs like 'Jimmy In A Dress' and '(All The Way To) Holloway' on our forthcoming album come directly from living here. It's quite inspirational.

G: Living in London means having access to a wide variety of music and art and it has been good for me musically to listen to different music & see different bands than I would have if I still lived in Norway.

Seeing a huge amount of bands also makes you slightly jaded and bored of seeing the same thing over and over again. I particularly have issues with bands who don't make the effort to dress up & put on a bit of a show. I think that part of the inspiration for The Priscillas was and is to entertain and make the effort as well

as rocking good & hard and having great tunes!

H: UK is quite special, as there are so many musicians here, and the standard of the good quality bands is really high compared to other places I have lived, so some of the objectives for me has been to get better first of all, following experimenting with new techniques and influential directions. Living in London is like an musical education for me.

What tips would you give to a band/artist considering moving to a new country?
J: Well, it's much easier to live in a country if you're there legally. So, if you can sort that out somehow, I recommend it. Musically--tell

everyone you're a musician, go out to events and make contacts. Get out there! Go to auditions, put ads in papers, in studios, but usually word of mouth is how it happens. It's not just what you know, it's who you know!

H: Go for it! Well... it depends on where you are from of course.

Interview & photography by Paul Madden
www.thepriscillas.co.uk

Wathc the video for 'All My Friends Are Zombies' by The Priscillas