Gossip: Success 'doesn't really matter'

By Greg Cochrane
Newsbeat music reporter

Singer Beth Ditto talks about her clothing range, their new LP and how making another Standing In The Way Of Control would have been 'insane'.

Gossip return to the UK this summer to play festivals

Gossip's Beth Ditto has said the band aren't bothered if their new album isn't as successful as 2006's Standing In The Way Of Control.

The Portland band's Rick Rubin-produced fourth album Music For Men was recorded in Malibu and will be released this coming June.

Lead singer Beth Ditto was speaking after her band played new material live for the first time at Radio 1's Big Weekend, Swindon.

She said: "If it doesn't do as well as Standing In The Way Of Control then it doesn't really matter - the label would think differently but I don't really care."

New material

Gossip had huge success in 2007 with single Standing In The Way Of Control but they're not concerned with replicating the success.

"You can't make the same record twice," said guitarist Nathan Howdeshell.

Gossip played the In New Music We Trust Stage at Big Weekend

Ditto: "You can't, and you can't expect the same results. Isn't that what crazy people do? To keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect the same results? That's the definition of insanity.

"If it's not like Standing In The Way Of Control was, I don't really care that much," she added.

Music For Men, which includes single Heavy Cross, will be the band's first LP in three years.

"I really want people to like it, that's the difference," said Ditto. "I really want it to be like the dance record of Ibiza."

Fashion line

Beth Ditto also confirmed that she has finished designing a clothing range for high street retailer Evans and that it will be in the shops this July.

"I'm so excited. It's going really well. I finished. I sketched it and everything," she said. "It was so amazing, like the most amazing process.

"I would sketch a shoe and I'd be like, 'I want it to be this colour, I want it to be this print'. I would send them a sketch and they would send it back to me.

"The things of your imagination, they would just happen. It was amazing, it was miraculous. I did some two-tone domino things for Evans. I feel really cutting edge."