Ebony Bones Aims to Educate With Debut Album

Posted on Feb 10th 2010 11:00AM by Kenneth Partridge

Mainstream music has become so safe and predictable, British art-pop upstart Ebony Bones says that it's more than just mind-numbing. It might actually be mind control.

"I just have this conspiracy [theory] that the radio is set to play songs that dumb people down, stop people from thinking and become even more apathetic than we already are," Bones tells Spinner.

That's why Bones, a former child star, self-taught multi-instrumentalist and designer of outlandish stage outfits, was so surprised when the BBC's Radio 1 started playing her single 'We Know All About U.'

A space-age disco-punk take on George Orwell's '1984,' the tune is a reaction to government surveillance in Bones' hometown of London. She wrote the song after hearing a news story about fancy new cameras capable of yelling at people seen breaking the rules.

"For me, I think music should always educate," Bones says. "When I heard the Clash, it wasn't just screaming out problems, it was kind of asking questions. A lot of artists still do that, but unfortunately, I speak to my nine-year-old niece and she hasn't got a clue about any of those artists because they don't get played on the radio, or they're not in the mainstream anymore. I thought, 'That's a shame.'"

In writing her debut, 'Bone of My Bones,' due out this spring, Bones tried to make an album that would sound like "a conversation between friends" -- political discourse without all the ranting and preaching that can suck the fun out of music.

On such songs as 'In G.O.D. We Trust (Gold, Oil & Drugs),' she coats her social commentary in plenty of sugar, hitting listeners with pep-rally vocals, hypnotic dance beats, robotic synths, soulful horns and all kinds of literal bells and whistles.

"I'm not trying to be bloody Bono, [but] it's kind of about being a young female growing up in an environment where you kind of feel something's not right," Bones says, summing up her approach to political songwriting. "There's an elephant in the room, and no one's f---ing talking about it."