Dig the scene: As New Wave goddess Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow chats with me about all things bright and beautiful, wise and wonderful -- and especially musical (she'd love to work with Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, David Byrne) -- we're just a splash away from the largest body of water on the planet. Today Ms. Lwin brandishes the lyrics of a soulful new song she'll be performing in a Buddhist celebration, and in a few days she'll hop the continent to the Atlantic side, for concert dates in New York and New Jersey. This blustery Pacific afternoon, we launch via her eternal single and iconic video: "I Want Candy."
"I was further that way, in the Venusian area," the songstress wryly gestures down Venice Beach, recalling prancing through the lively clip in her early teens. Worldwide smash. Ubiquitous to this day (likely forever). Later, she spent good times along that same sand. "What I liked was there was a bicycle path -- I only learned how to ride a bike a few years ago! -- can you believe it? Because I was working when I was a teenager! So I didn't have any time to do the normal things that teenagers did! As they say in England: 'Get on your bike and go.'"
Ms. Lwin assuredly does "go." Her energy astounds as she expounds, and as we leap from topic to topic -- Monkees and Motown and Muppets, oh my! -- she strikes me as a being truly "unstuck in time." Go-getter, jet-setter, trend-setter. A fair fit, as this savvy singer-songwriter -- hello, formerly-Mohawked superstar at age 14 (!) -- undeniably paved the way for many "girls unleashed," including Gwen Stefani, Janelle Monáe, Rihanna, Miley, Gaga, and perhaps even Lady Madonna. But as pleasing as her appearance is -- pity there are no ships nearby for her face to launch, for Helen ain't got nothin' on Annabella -- there's much more to Ms. Lwin, a self-described "child of two worlds."
"Probably more than two," I offer.
"Probably," Annabella smiles. "Well, my mother was English, my father Burmese, and they met in the U.K., because he was training to be a naval officer at Dartmouth Naval College. And she was a nurse, and they met when he went to visit his friend in hospital. Very romantic story, actually -- it's just a shame they couldn't stay married." Clearly she's thought this through. "And then the children get confused about Who, Where, What, Why, How -- 'Was it me?' you know."
She waxes at once sensitive and cinematic: "It does affect them. And, you know, seeing that happen, sadly, when parents do that -- it's not that they 'do it' -- obviously it happens, people break up. But it's how they do it, it's how they leave it, it's how they make the children feel -- Kramer Vs. Kramer, that wonderful movie sums it up, doesn't it?
"My mum took me to London. But then I ended up going to the countryside -- because my mother had family all in the countryside. You know, Cathy and Heathcliff? -- yeah, that was the kind of area I was brought up in." Ms. Lwin warmly reflects, then segues to her life taking a very big turn. "My mother, yeah -- she loved the city; and I was the opposite: I loved the countryside. Which is why there's 'Go Wild in the Country' -- Malcolm came up with the idea for that song. He asked one day, 'What do you like to do?' I said, 'I like to go to the countryside every summer.' So that's why that song came to pass: he thought it would be a good idea to write a song I could relate to," she quickly amends: "kind of."
The Malcolm is McLaren, of course, the recently-departed multihyphenate impresario who essentially gave the world Punk Rock (via The Sex Pistols) -- and transferred two of Adam's initial Ants over to Bow Wow Wow -- stirring up a sensation for Annabella's band's noteworthy run from 1980-1983. In the midst of enough memories to fill a book, I request of Ms. Lwin a reflection.
"I think he was quite a frustrated soul, in a lot of ways. One of the things I realized later was he got bored easily. When I met him, of course, I wasn't really aware of his so-called 'reputation' -- I just knew he was this man with this orange hairdo, and he used to wear a lot of pinstriped suits -- all kinds of pinstripes, with bands hanging down, which were called bondage trousers.
"When I met him, to me he just looked like a tall guy with a lot of orange hair. But when he started talking to you, he just made things sound really interesting. And as a child -- because I really was, effectively, a child: 13-and-a-half, 14 -- and I hadn't really been out there in the world, because my mother kept me quite sheltered: I was the only girl in my family. And I was the youngest, so she was pretty protective of me, in that respect.
"Malcolm was a great storyteller. And I think that's how he did it. When he first wrote all the early stuff -- the "Cassette Pet" [the first Bow Wow Wow song collection] I found out years later, they were going to be for a porno movie in France." Ms. Lwin glances up to our partly-cloudy firmament. "Thanks, Malcolm! And he got me, a virgin, to sing the lyrics."
Soon enough, Annabella joined in the writing process, contributing to Bow Wow Wow's terrific 1983 album, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going -- featuring the much-loved "Do You Wanna Hold Me?" (sensational video directed by the mighty Tim Pope, she informs me), and a song called "The Man Mountain" for which she plans to produce a new video in the near future.
That same year, to her shock, Annabella read in the British press that she stormed offstage in America -- while in fact she was in England recuperating after a long tour. (She discusses that experience here.)
"Do You Wanna Hold Me?"-- the video -- is bursting with iconic pop-culture characters, so I ask if Annabella had a fantasy-driven childhood, or a more reality-based one.
"Yes, in answer to your question, I did spend quite a lot of time on my own due to my mother having to work all the time, but through it realized what I enjoyed doing -- which was usually creating characters out of nothing! And imagining I had all these imaginary friends: which were mainly my cuddly toys, actually! I never, unfortunately, had that experience of the 'ghost friend' -- I don't think I had that -- but I did always feel something around me, like a presence, you know -- some kind of energy."
While I'm fishing around for some "Guess Who's Back?!" journo angle to put things in perspective for casual readers, Ms. Lwin is quite direct in stating that she hasn't been away. Her dedication to her craft has been lifelong: apart from the Bow Wow Wow hits, including her songs such as "Do What You Do," "L.O.V.E," "White Smoke, Blue Smoke," "Tell It Like It Is," and a U.K. club hit called "Car Sex."
When asked about the recent imitation of the band she helped make famous thirty-odd years ago, Ms. Lwin is blunt: "Its sad when those with nothing better going on in their life try to take all the credit. It affects the legacy in a negative way, especially for those too young to know the truth. Their lack of respect for the original lead singer or memory of the band is disturbing. Were they part of that history?" She pauses for thought. "Or in my case, herstory."
"Unfortunately, the essence of what I remember onstage, that the band stood for in the '80s, died along with the original lead guitar player." (She offers up praise to Bow Wow Wow's Matthew Ashman, who rocked us well, and departed this mortal coil in 1995.)
Ms. Lwin proves coy when I ask her what to expect from her new shows, instead entreating me to attend. "I have got an awesome group of musicians I'm working with!" she enthuses. "And I'm so grateful and blessed. I like working with nice people. It's nice to create good vibrations."
"I like your shoes," Annabella suddenly opines (as if the interviewer could possibly derive more gratification from the moment). Then she drives home the point:
"At the end of the day, no matter what 'he said, she said', it's all about the fans. I hope they understand when they attend my shows, it's with an open mind. It takes a little time to dust yourself off and start all over again!"
Annabella Lwin of the Original Bow Wow Wow on the East Coast THIS WEEK:
5 December: The Bowery Electric, New York City
6 December: The Brighton Bar, Longbranch, New Jersey
7 December: 10th Street Live, Kenilworth, New Jersey
Annabella Lwin's official website
Annabella Lwin on Facebook
Annabella: The Original Bow Wow Wow on Facebook
Annabella Lwin on Twitter