Film of Nazi Pop Twins Highlights Neo-Neo-Nazi Family
Lynx and Lamb Gaede are growing up. But is April Gaede, white power's most notorious stage mom, losing her grip?
"NAZI POP TWINS"
By James Quinn
Tiger Aspect Productions, 2007
53 minutes
The same week that Lynx and Lamb Gaede took their neo-Nazi pop singing act Prussian Blue to Sweden and Germany this July, a revealing new documentary on the girls and their white nationalist stage mom debuted on British TV.
"Nazi Pop Twins," made by James Quinn for Channel 4 in England, contains several profoundly creepy scenes. Chief among them is a speakerphone conversation set up by April Gaede between her daughters and white supremacist terrorist David Lane, who was in prison serving a 190-year sentence for his part in the 1984 machine-gun murder of a Jewish radio talk show host in Denver. (Lane died in prison this May, shortly after filming was completed.)
"When the girls were little they were like daughters or something," says Lane, 69, who later in the conversation calls twins Lynx and Lamb — they were 14 at the time — his "fantasy sweethearts." "Now that they are grown women, and being a natural male, it's… well, you know what I'm trying to say."
Filmed over the span of a year, "Nazi Pop Twins" takes a critical look at neo-Nazi stage mom April, who comes across as a manipulative, domineering — and often hysterical — "momager." Although April insists, "I'm not living through my kids," the documentary suggests precisely the opposite. Once her unwitting puppets, the maturing singers seem fatigued by their mother's political agenda and the direction she is pushing their musical career.
In one scene, April, a longtime activist who broadcasts a white-power radio show from her basement in Kalispell, Mont., implores Lynx to autograph merchandise for their fans. When Lynx complains, April scolds her and orders her to put on a happy face for the cameras. "Then you can act like as much of a c--- as you like for the rest of the night!" she snaps at her daughter.
In another vignette, April, Lynx and Lamb are at a diner discussing the storyline for an upcoming Prussian Blue music video. When the girls question their mother's vision for the shoot she erupts, tries to unplug their microphones, then gives up and stomps out the door to pout on the sidewalk outside.
The twins calmly continue the interview without her. "We have other dreams and other goals than this," one of them tells the camera while their mother broods in the background. April remains outside until finally one of the girls goes to get her, urging April to come eat her breakfast before it gets cold. Their mother reluctantly sits down, but is unwilling to let her temper tantrum pass. She makes a point of sliding her stool down the counter away from her daughters and refuses to talk to or look at them.
The film also makes it clear that April's already prepping her youngest daughterto take up her fight. She's had the blonde toddler's photo printed on mouse pads to go along with the Prussian Blue merchandise she sells, and is savvy enough to recognize — and exploit — a good photo op. April and her daughter pose in a meadow of tall grass, going over white power ABCs for the film crew. "A is for Aryan ... a noble white person," April coos to her baby. "B is for blood, can you say blood?"
Other lowlights include interviews with April's father Bill Gaede, a California rancher who brands his cattle and horses with a swastika. While the cameras roll, Bill negotiates the purchase of an M-16, claims Mexicans rape horses, and boasts that he's personally shot six Mexicans in the past four years.
But Bill's wife — April's mother Dianne — appears to be at least as weary of white power as her granddaughters. "This goddamned Nazi shit … it's f------ ruined my life," she sputters. "Even though we've lived here 30 years, I don't have a single friend. You know why? ... Because he's so hateful. I've seen my kids just torn apart by it," she says. "Not April. She really loves it."
April, infuriated that the filmmakers interviewed her mother against her wishes, ultimately has a falling out with the "Nazi Pop Twins" director. "It strikes me that you're very manipulative!" she spits in a feigned English accent.
"I can't believe, April, that you would say that to me," filmmaker James Quinn retorts calmly as April storms off with her blue-eyed twins in tow.
