spaces in between words

Lane Kennedy: Ooh, I'm the Quiet One. (laugh)

Sean Kennedy (architect): I'll admit, I never thought I'd end up giving an interview for a book about a rock band. We're just a very average single-parent family. We're all a bit artistic I guess, but we never expected to make a lot of waves, we just wanted to get by.

Ben Kennedy (student): I always thought Lane's art was what she'd be famous for. I didn't even know she played the bass. I guess she doesn't talk a lot about her accomplishments, she's pretty modest.

Peter Morris: Lane used to do all the band's press photos herself. She shoots film. It's quite impressive actually.

Lane Kennedy: I always knew that if something went wrong with the band, or just when we were ready to be finished, I'd go back to design. It's where my training is, really, and I guess I could have spent more time practicing the bass but ultimately I chose design instead.

Sean Kennedy: I think everyone has a different method of dealing with some kind of emotional upheaval. Lane just became very quiet.

Maggie Delacorta (student): For me, Lane's story is actually very interesting, because I also lost a parent when I was young. Basically, for Lane, the story goes that her father was in a car accident, which is that he was crossing the street and was hit by a car. My mum died of brain cancer, but I think—urgh, I don't want to say I feel a connection to Lane or anything like that, but I think knowing about her story helped me write down my own story and come to terms with it.

Ben Kennedy: I guess it was probably the hardest for Lane when Dad died, because they'd always been really close. They used to play football in the back garden, and go fishing. I think Dad understood that Lane didn't always want to talk about everything, she just liked to do something to keep busy. I didn't always know what she was feeling all the time, and I'm not sure if Dad did either but I know that Dad taught us not to try too hard to figure it all out.

Lane Kennedy: My dad always really encouraged me to keep creating art, even if people said that an art degree wouldn't get you anywhere.

Mary Kennedy (nurse): Lane is my beautiful baby girl. I try not to be too sentimental but I'm very proud of her. I'm glad she never gave up on her dreams. Even I tried to discourage her sometimes. That was really stupid of me. Really daft.

Lane Kennedy: My mum is really understanding, probably more than I deserve.

Mary Kennedy: The first time someone phoned me for a magazine piece, they asked me if I was ashamed of Lane because I'm Catholic. I could have bloody hit them right then. Ashamed? Of my own daughter? The most important thing anyone teaches in the Church is love.

Alice Hughes: I actually once read an article that said the way Knave used bisexuality to sell their music would offend any real queer person.

Emily Alexander (reading aloud from a magazine article): The band's omnisexual persona is not only clearly put on, it's also laughably outdated. It may have worked as a gimmick or a shock factor in the 1970's, but these days the only people shocked and appalled by this sort of behavior are the actual gay community.

Alice Hughes: First of all, I don't know where these people are getting their information. Alan's never had a boyfriend, it's true, but he'd also never had a girlfriend back when he was in school. Secondly, Emma really does like women. And thirdly, Lane is gay! Someone once actually said to me, she isn't really a lesbian, she's too feminine, too pretty.

I say: go fuck yourself.

Tom Thorogood: Yes, I'm actually the only fully straight one in the band. But it works out so that we're fifty percent straight. I think Placebo were fifty percent straight as well; they also had a hetero drummer. He wore awful shirts. Hilarious!

Lane Kennedy: No, I don't have anything to say about it.

Alan Léonin: Lane told me that she doesn't like talking about being a lesbian in interview because she hates how every time you have to talk about being different, you feel like you're standing for everyone who is in your group. Like when I talk about depression, which ultimately I really should say is just me talking about my own experiences.

Emily Alexander: I remember the first time I met Lane one-on-one. We hardly talked but she told me to look out for Alan. I didn't really know what it meant then but it didn't matter: it's that kind of selflessness that everyone in the band had, that was really important to me all along. Well, not selflessness, more like...togetherness. They cared for each other. Lane's practically the whole reason they existed as a band, so even if she isn't as obviously affectionate you should be careful how you look at it.

I mean, maybe the best way to describe her is understated. Which is actually wonderful because it's such a perfect opposite to the way Emma likes to present herself to the world. Lane always wore very comfortable, natural clothes, and she always stayed to the back and let the music speak for itself.

Alan Léonin: Lane's an enigma in some ways, but I refuse to subscribe to the idea that you have to understand someone perfectly to be her friend. You just have to be willing to understand her. That's the difference.

Sean Kennedy: Something that I think really reminded me of the sort of person my sister is, was the summer when she was sixteen. I was eighteen, and Ben was fifteen. I don't know exactly what happened, but something had just gone wrong at the end of school, perhaps she'd had a falling out with a friend, or in a relationship. Whatever it was, we could all tell she was feeling a bit down. So Ben and I dragged her outside because that's what brothers do, right. We all went up to the top of the hill in our neighborhood and kicked around a football until it got dark.

And then the stars came out, and Ben was setting fire to dead leaves with his lighter so we stayed out a while. Lane caught a glowworm in her hands, and it flew up and sat itself on her nose. She had hardly said a word that whole night, except to shout our names when we were playing football, but then she just nearly collapsed laughing. She has a brilliant way of keeping herself in balance like that. She's a good girl, is my sister.