Four years and several gold discs later, the trio is back with The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo, which takes them to new heights creatively. Not only do The Puppini Sisters deconstruct Beyoncé’s mega hit “Crazy In Love” and put it back together with awe-inspiring zing and panache on their latest release, they move beyond swing to explore new territory touching upon Latin-flavored and hip-hop rhythms along the way.  

Covers of tracks like The Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian,” Dusty Springfield’s “Spooky” and Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic” blend seamlessly with standards like “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If You Ain’t Got That Swing)” and original tunes like “And She Sang” and “SoHo Nights,” all of which reside in beautiful three part harmony on The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo, which is a genuinely creative and headily enjoyable recording.  

I caught up with the Puppini Sisters ( Marcella Puppini, Stephanie O’Brien and Kate Mullins) in New York City, the day after they had raised the roof at popular gay Chelsea watering hole, Splash. Here’s what they had to say about having Prince Charles as a fan, how  Christina Aguilera blazing a path for them in America, their enthusiastic gay fans and their plan for world domination:  

GayWired.com: So ladies, how did you come together to form The Puppini Sisters?  

Kate: We all studied at Trinity College of Music in London at various times. Marcella had left…and we all decided that we weren’t getting enough out of the course. There was not enough emphasis on the performing element of it [and] we were all a bit frustrated by that.  

Marcella had seen a film called Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) and she was very impressed by their styling and their sound. She thought “Why the hell is no one doing this? Let’s get something together.” So we started it for a bit of a laugh really.  

Marcella: …And we’re still having a laugh, by the way. {Chuckles}  

GW: So you’d say your unique style was inspired primarily by the Triplets of Belleville?  

Kate: Well they were a bit dowdy.   

Stephanie: We’d like to be style icons.  

Kate: We’re inspired far more by the actual stars of the 30’s and 40’s…the Hollywood sirens and that sort of thing.  

Marcella: I think what we’re aiming to do is what the songs do with the music which is to take something that is really old and update it and make it into a personal style. We don’t really do costume, we’ve got an updated look.  

GW: You’ve covered everything from The Smith’s “Panic” to Gloria Gaynor’s “I will Survive” and your take on “Crazy In Love” on this new album is absolutely insane. How do you choose the songs you’re going to cover?  

Stephanie: We’re all quite ambitious in our choices. We take the songs that we like and think we can do a lot with. “Crazy In Love” was one of those massive R&B hits that would be completely removed from what we do as a group, but then again if you change it, it fits in so well with what we do.  

GW: Has Beyoncé heard the song yet?  

Marcella: We don’t know, but I’d like to know what she thinks.  

GW: I have a feeling she might want to perform that one with you.  

Kate: [Singing scales mimicking Beyoncé’s signature trills] Yeah…that would be great. [Laughs]  

Marcella: Well what we do know is that Christina Aguilera heard us and then after a couple of months she had “Candyman” and the video with the blonde, brunette and the redhead sampling “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”.  

Stephanie: She stole it! [Laughing]

GW: I didn’t even think about that!  

Kate: But it’s fine. She [Christina Aguilera] kind of paved the way for us in the American market. That’s one of the elements of what she does. She will move on and do something different. This is what we do.  

GW: So that’s how you choose your covers, but how do you choose your material in general? What are the essential elements of a classic Puppini Sisters track?  

Marcella: What we’ve done on this new album is to expand the range of the sound so it’s not a swing album. It’s a Puppini Sisters album and what a Puppini Sisters album has to have is definitely fun…and raucous fun at that. It has to have a moment of pathos as well. It has to have a mixture of fun, humor and real feeling.  

GW: So is this new ‘Puppini Sisters sound’ what separates your new album The The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo from your debut album Betcha Bottom Dollar?  

Marcella: Yes definitely. The majority of Betcha Bottom Dollar was swing. You could call it a swing album. You couldn’t call Ruby Woo a swing album though because there’s so much more going on – the jaunty wonk of “And She Sang,” the Latin rhythms of “Soho Nights” – so there’s a lot more that has come in to influence our sound. What we’re moving toward is something that will not be mistaken for anything else.  

GW: Your bio says that Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are fans. How do you know that they are fans? Have they been to one of your shows?  

Marcella: Yeah. Last year, we performed at the Royal Variety Show …the Christmas Gala… which the Royal Family attends. After the show, Prince Charles came up to us and said ‘Hello.’  

Then as he was about to move on to the next person, he turned round and said, “Oh it’s you.”  

Then he came back and told us that he’d been given our album for his birthday and that he absolutely loved it. He stayed around and had a chat us and told us he thought we were ‘splendid.” 

GW: The royal seal of approval. How very swish. Shifting gears a bit, it’s no secret that London has been on the cutting edge lately in terms of leading a sort of return to what I call ‘real’ music with acts like James Morrison, Amy Winehouse and Paolo Nutini. Do you feel a part of this increasingly organic approach to music?  

Marcella: Most definitely. We’ve always believed that live music was bound to come back. It’s the only way that music can go now so as not to implode.  

We are a part of that wave of musicians and we are recognized for that in Britain, Whatever we do is not enhanced and we can do it anywhere with just the three of us acapella.  

GW: Speaking of doing it anywhere, let’s talk about your gay fans. You must have many.  

All: A lot. [Laughter]  

Stephanie: Our biggest audience are gay. [Laughs]  

GW: So suffice it to say you’ve been embraced by the gay community.  

Marcella: Well yeah. We get along with the gay community very well  

Stephanie: They are an inspiring crowd to be around.  

Kate: Yeah.  

GW: Tell me about your most interesting interaction thus far with gay fans on or off the stage?  

Kate: There’s a club in South London called Duckie, which is where we started out. A number of the arrangements that we did including Panic by The Smiths, were done specifically for this [gay] night at the club. The first time we performed there we were really frightened because they’re a really respected organization. It’s like the Globe Theatre in Shakespearean times…the audience will throw things at you if they don’t like you.  

Oh and then there’s one fan that we have that we love. He’s called Terry. We don’t know if he’s an ambulance driver or a hairdresser. He turn up about five or six hours early at all the gigs that we do. And each time he wears a customized shirt with our picture on it that he makes himself. It’s hilarious. He’s so lovely.  

GW: What about drag queen fans? I’d think you’d be ripe for that audience.  

Kate: Oh yeah. We’ve got a tribute act in Italy and they’re called Drastik Queens and they do the Puppini Sisters. There’s a redhead, a blonde and brunette. It’s a quite scary sight actually.  

Stephanie: There’s also a big drag queen in London called Jodie Harsh. She’s invited us to DJ with her before. She’s quite a fan as well.  

GW: Last question. What do you see for the future? What’s on the horizon for The Puppini Sisters?  

Stephanie: What? Apart from world domination? [Laughs]  

Marcella: While we wait for that, we’d like a number one hit.  

Kate: And I’d like to play all the gay clubs in the whole world in a collection of costumes and an extended engagement in Vegas, of course.  

Marcella: We’ll take over for Celine.  

Indeed they could.  

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