Porn jingles, the bible belt, black fairies, being screened to LSD godfather Albert Hoffman, having the opposite of colour blindness, and sonic honky tonk – welcome to the world of filmmaker and musician Tiff Mcginnis, aka Crazy Girl.

Being long-term secret admirers, ever since one particular mind-expanding night watching Crazy Girl’s Southern Belle from Hell DVD, we decided it was high time we took a closer look inside an insanely creative mind.

Being a bit of a colour freak myself I love how you really go for it with colour in your films. What attracts you to using colour in this way – and how do you think you’d cope working entirely greyscale?
We are so bogged down with sadness in our grey, modern world, so my videos are an alternative reality or a protest against modern life. The color transports me to another place where life is bright and fun. I could never work in black and white and have turned down jobs that specified no color, it’s just not what I do. I recently had an eye examination. I am blind in my right eye, I have a bit of sight, but my optic nerve is not connected to my brain; but I scored exceptionally high on my color test. The doctor was amazed. I respond to color. It’s what I do.

You’ve created a really unique visual identity – was that something you consciously tried to do or did it evolve organically?
No, it all happened by accident. In 1998, I downloaded a kids animation program called Animation Maker. It was the old bit map, pixelated style. I made a few videos for fun of a few of my trax, and people responded well to them. I moved to London in 2001, and in 2002 made my first flash animated vid and it just took off from there. I made a few more and began to incorporate them into my live shows. I never set out to be an audio/ visual artist, it just happened. But in retrospect it makes sense. When I was a kid at school I never did the work, I just doodled drawings all day, and when I got home I would put on a costume and go into the family’s “music room” and play rock star and sing for hours. Many years later, I am still doing that!

If you weren’t making film and music what would you be doing?
If I wasn’t working in some sort of creative field, I always thought about being a social worker for the learning disabled. I like to think what I do as an entertainer/ film maker helps people to forget about the real world, but I would like to do something to make a difference too.

With the radio show Eclectic Crazyland and obviously your own music projects, it looks like music’s a big part of your life. How would you characterise your music and what music-based projects of yours should we check out?
I have done so many different kinds of music. Dance, Children’s Theater, Porn Jingles, Pop, Rock; In fact, work wise, the music is most definitely before film making for me. I grew up in a musical family and it was the law to know and love all kinds of music. The radio show – Eclectic Crazyland, is a celebration of my passion for rare music from the 1920’s to present. You won’t hear any hits or top 40 sounds. I like to think of myself as more of a sound archivist than a dj. I play all kinds of music from blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, psychedelic, to classical moog and anything and everything in between, plus I talk and give the listeners facts, anecdotes and do a bit of storytelling….

[Click here to check out Eclective Crazyland.]

In 2008 I released my first album/ DVD – Southern Belle From Hell on Tummy Touch Records. It’s hard to describe the sound and visuals, a bit of quirky, garage, electro, 70’s rock I suppose. There are a few box sets left. All come with the album/ dvd, radio show, t shirt, badges and signed certificate of authenticity…

But my biggest and proudest musical achievement is my current project – Leather Tuscadero. I have been recording it all this past month and have a few weeks left at Wendy House Studios. It’s been the most exciting time of my life! My first album was pretty much done on my computer, but this has been done to a real high standard with brass and string arrangements, pedal steel guitar, harmonica, and more. As well as some pretty amazing vintage gear and some of the best musicians in the UK. So I am over the moon right now. The best way to describe the music is SONIC HONKY TONK. It’s very southern, and evocative of roots rock and roll. We are still recording now, but you can hear some early demos here – http://www.myspace.com/leathertuscaderoband
.

Making music and making film, do you have a preference for either medium? Or do you find they feed into each other?

I like to think of myself as a storyteller. It all goes hand in hand really. First the music or spoken word is the story and instantly the visuals come to mind. I don’t have aspirations to make music videos for other artists. It takes too long and I have enough animation projects I want to do that will probably keep me busy until my death.

What piece of work are you proudest of?
My latest video “The Shakes” is definitely – visually – my best work. The music (from my new band Leather Tuscadero) is still a demo, but will be finished soon. It took me 5 months off and on (2 months straight) to make. I probably wont be doing anything so detailed again.

But I would say my greatest achievement as a piece of work, is my short film “The Black Fairy”. It’s a trueish story of my ancestor whose name translated in Gaelic meant – Black Fairy. My mother is a genealogist and has our family traced back to the 1500’s. In 1986, she went to the Isle of Jura in Scotland to meet some distant cousins. It was there that she learned of our Ancestor Dubsith Shaw. She brought some literature back and for 20 years, I told the story at dinner parties how I was a direct descendant of a Black Fairy. Once I started really getting into animating I decided to make it come to life. It’s a great story and now it’s finally out of my head!

What sort of thing inspires you?
Loads of things. Some of my fave animations and films are – Savage Planet (1973), Bottles(1931), School House Rocks(1970’s), Jack and The Bean Stalk(1976), Triplets of Belleville(2003), Tommy(1978), Auntie Mame (1958) and Always for Pleasure (1978).

Crazy Girl – how did that name come about?
A stupid idea that came to me when I was wasted. I totally regret it now, but google crazy girl and I am the first out of 60 million (changes daily), so I am keeping it for now. BUT this new music project is not a Crazy Girl project. It’s my band – Leather Tuscadero. I think I will use Crazy Girl for my art/ film and side projects from now on…

If there’s one thing that bugs me its when journos lazily describe things as “xxx on acid” (altho have probably done it myself in my time…). But I reckon having your first film screened to Albert Hoffman on his 100th birthday means your work has a pretty legitimate claim to the psychedelia crown hehe. When did you find out that was happening? What was it like?
My video “High Tide Hell” was the first flash animation I ever did. In 2002, I was broke and had been here for about 6 months. I went to my Tummy Touch, my label, and told them I needed money. They said they would give me £150 if I did a video for my single that was coming out. It was spoken word about an acid trip gone awry. I thought to myself “Wow! £150! I’m gonna be rich!” ha ha! I didn’t really know the program, and taught myself as I went along. Once I started it consumed me, I couldn’t sleep or eat. All I thought about was what would come next. 17 hours a day and 3 weeks later, it was finished. 2 days after I handed it in, it got licensed to a magazine in the states and that kicked off my animation career so to speak.

In 2006, a friend of mine Mark McCloud, was speaking at the LSD Symposium in Basel Switzerland. It was a 3 day celebration to commemorate Albert Hoffman’s birthday and his genius invention. He was friends with Albert and showed it to him. I must say I was over the moon when I found out he watched it. It’s an understatement to say LSD has been an influence on me.

How do you think growing up in proper bible belt land has influenced your work?
I hated growing up in the bible belt! My family was from New Orleans and we really had no connection to the culture. I was raised in a catholic school and were looked upon as devil worshippers to the evangelical majority (not really, but kinda)… But all the fire and brimstone preaching really has had a profound effect on me. I always have devils, scenes of hell in my work. It’s funny because every where you look in the south there is always a proverb, from tire stores and gas stations to the Dairy Queen, there will always be some end of the world quote from the bible to scare you. But I like being a bit scared, it’s kind of fun and exciting.

My video The Rebel is a mixture of New Orleans voodoo meets bible belt fire and brimstone