I fell in love with Melbourne’s Teeth & Tongue earlier this year when I heard their second record Tambourine. Jess plays guitar, bass, keyboards and rocks a drum machine as well as vocals on the album. Rolling Stone has called her a combination of Patti Smith, Kate Bush & PJ Harvey… have a listen (at the end of the post) and see what you think! I’m looking forward to the new record Jess is currently busy working on.
How did you first come to music?
My mum had an acoustic guitar lying around the house. I think she played it a bit once, but I never saw her play. Her and my dad always had music playing though, and it was my job to pick the music we’d listen to during dinner. I just started playing guitar and writing songs, and making fake radio stations on my cassette recorder.
Your hometown is Wellington, New Zealand, why did you decide to make the move to Melbourne?
I was living in Nelson in this hippy town when I was 19, where nothing was happening. All my favourite NZ bands were moving to Melbourne so it made sense.
Marc Regueiro-McKelvie is a longtime collaborator of yours; tell me about your creative partnership, how did you first meet?
I can’t remember the first meeting; I think he played guitar in a side project I was working in for a while. But that didn’t work out and later I asked him to come and play some songs in Teeth & Tongue. That DID work out, luckily. I’ve always liked what he’s done in his other projects (Popolice and New Estate)
What inspired you to first start using a drum machine?
I’ve always loved them, I like the fake sounds and the portability, and the mathematical grid-like way of programming. I think I was also a bit sick of looking for drummers. But that’s not to say I won’t be using real drums for future albums and shows. The two can be very different, and equally as good.
In a previous interview you mentioned that when you started playing music at 14 you were “a terrible singer… and played very rudimentary guitar” how do you feel about your singing and guitar playing these days?
I think I’ve improved at both, I mean you’d hope so! But there are still plenty of people who hate my voice, and there’s plenty of stuff I can’t play on guitar. You just have to do it for yourself.
Rolling Stone Magazine said that you were a beguiling combination of Patti Smith, Kate Bush and PJ Harvey, are you inspired by those ladies?
Not really. I mean I like them and it’s flattering to be compared to them, but ultimately I think the only reason people make these comparisons is because it’s easy to reach for the most widely-known females making ‘not-particularly-mainstream’ music. I’m just as influenced by males, David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Chills––and female soul singers, even Beyoncé.
What do you wear on stage?
Sometimes I make an effort; sometimes I wear whatever is clean.
How important is your stage outfit to you?
It changes. I’d like to have the time and money to create ridiculous things to wear onstage, but ultimately it is secondary and usually falls by the wayside.
Who are your style icons?
Hah! I don’t know that I have any. Maybe David Bowie in the Labyrinth!
What do you do creatively when you’re not creating/playing music?
I write restaurant reviews and other non-fiction stuff, and try not to kill the vegetables in my garden.
What current projects are you working on?
The next album.
This year has been amazing for me in terms of discovering new (to me) music! All too often I hear people complain that there is no ‘good’ music around, that music was better back in the day, that there’s so much crap on the radio and on TV etc. etc. you get the idea. I am a big believer that great music is always being made somehow, somewhere—you just have to look for it! Actively seek it out! Don’t let radio, magazines, television, even your friends tell you what’s happening or who to listen to… experience music and artists for yourself. I decided to compile a Top 12 (one for every month of the year) list of music makers whose work has blown me away this year. And how lovely, they are ALL female! The talent and creativity of female artists that I have come across (and interviewed) this year has been incredibly inspiring and motivational to so many aspects of my life. These fierce ladies have made up the soundtrack to my year. These Creatives make me want to do better & be better!
Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes
(pictured above) An interview with Teri will be posted on ConversationsWithBianca.com soon!
I super love UK electro-pop duo Robots In Disguise! You might know them from their appearances in The Mighty Boosh! Here’s my Q&A with Dee…
What do you wear on stage?
At the mo[ment] a black playsuit I customised with help from my flatmate It’s got chains all over it to promo our single Chains.
How important is your stage outfit to you?
I have to get in the zone to perform so I use dressing up as part of the process of transforming myself into ‘the performer.’
Make-up-wise what’s your onstage must?
Wearing it. And eyeliner!
What’s your biggest beauty indulgence?
Organic products ha ha
What are your offstage outfits like?
I wear leggings and tees mostly but I am trying to sophisticate up at the mo[ment].
Who are your style icons?
My mum – she taught me everything I know about style – and that’s a lottt!
What do you do creatively when you’re not creating/playing music?
Try and make £. I’m getting back into speaking French and learning to touch type coz it’s hard to make a living out of music. I dance all night too.
What makes your musical style different?
Two Vocals. We write what we want.
Have you ever encountered sexism within the music community?
Yes, but also people have paid us more attention because we are women.
How do you deal with the haters?
Live n let live. I don’t look to people I don’t know for approval.
Tell me about your latest projects? Psycho Delia V The Ward – my solo writing project with drummer Fay Milton. It’s just electric guitar and drums, Riot Grrrl. It’s funnn! Check it ooot!
Readers of ConversationsWithBianca.com will know that I love print magazines. A little while ago I posted my favourite magazine covers of 2010. With the year drawing to a close I thought it was time for a post of my favourite covers from 2011.
All the covers I’ve chosen feature female musicians. Once again for the most part, magazines specifically music-based let me down as far as representing awesome lady musos on their covers – as usual it was the pop culture and fashion magazines that (thankfully) delivered the goods! Without further ado here’s my favourite covers from 2011…
Lo-fi dream-pop shoegazing grunge psych band Sneakpeek from Los Angeles is another great find. Featuring members of The Willowz. They’re currently working on their debut EP. Expect to hear a whole lot more from them next year. Frontwoman Dora Hiller was awesome enough to answers some questions…
Before you started Sneakpeek you were in an all-girl folk band but decided to quit, what inspired that decision?
I think ultimately I wanted to try out writing songs that were my own and start a band with my boyfriend Aric and our two best friends Mike and Aaron.
How did you first come to music?
Singing and performing has always been a big part of my life but I didn’t start playing in bands until after high school.
How did you learn to play guitar and then later on bass? Who or what inspired you to pick them up?
I actually learned bass first and then guitar. My brother bought me my first bass and Aric really encouraged me to start playing seriously.
You work for a vintage clothing company; I wanted to ask you how you would describe your style?
I am obsessed with the 1970s; polyester leisure dresses and anything Gunne Sax by Jessica Clintock. I also love the 40s and 90s floral cotton pieces because they are cute and comfortable.
What do you wear on stage?
Something that I can move around in that looks pretty.
How important is your stage outfit to you?
It’s definitely important to wear something you feel confident in but most of the time I go for practical instead of restrictive.
What are your off stage outfits like?
Pretty much dresses, tights and boots.
Who are your style icons and what is it about them you love?
The early twentieth century Gibson Girls for their ethereal beauty. I’m also very fond of the 60s French New Wave actresses such as Anna Karina and Brigitte Bardot for their charming sophistication.
What do you do creatively when you’re not creating/playing music?
To be honest, whenever I have free time, it goes towards something Sneakpeek related. We are still recording the EP so that takes up a lot of time, energy, thought and effort.
How far off is the Sneakpeek EP? Can you tell me a little about its creation?
We are finishing up now. We’ve had do redo some things but overall we have grown so much since we started recording. Everything is sounding awesome. We are excited to share it with the world.
Tell me about your latest projects?
Well for now our main project is to finish the record. But we hope to visit Australia soon!
Miss Pussycat would have to be one of the most fascinating people that I have spoken to all year, that’s saying a lot because I’ve spoken to over 100 creative individuals this year. She’s a puppeteer, musician – one half of the dynamic music duo that is Quintron & Miss Pussycat that play a unique style of music all their own ‘swamp tech’- artist, seamstress and secret club owner. I came to Q&MP’s music thanks to my Jhonny who put their song Fly Like A Rat on a mixtape for my driving adventures, the driving organ and Miss P’s vocals won my heart instantly – I listened to the song on repeat eight times! We spoke the day after Q&MP’s annual Halloween live spectacular bash while Miss Pussycat was nursing a hangover.
MISS PUSSYCAT: The show was amazing! It was super fun! It was great! Do you guys have Halloween down in Australia?
From what I can tell, each year it is starting to get a little more popular. A lot of people I think see it as more of a US kind of thing. There were a few kids around my neighbourhood trick-or-treating and I’ve never really seen that before here.
MP: Did you dress up?
No, I didn’t. I went to sleep early.
MP: Oh oww aww. It’s so fun! In Europe I think they consider it the same kind of way, like a really commercial US holiday. It’s the best [laughs] it’s so good!
What it is it that you love so much about Halloween?
MP: Because it’s really evil, you get to listen to Halloween records, there’s candy and it’s all spiders, ghosts and witches—the dark side! People dress up as dumb stuff like a sexy nurse. It is a really pagan holiday. It’s just really fun to celebrate the dark side [laughs]. It’s a good time!
I saw a YouTube clip of Quintron & Miss Pussycat doing a Halloween live show a few years ago playing Fly Like A Rat (you were wearing a witches outfit)…
MP: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah that was a good year. That was really fun! Quintron and I both dressed as witches and our maraca players were dressed as witches. I wore that witches outfit a week ago just for fun, it’s so good. This year we were ‘clouds of doom.’ That was pretty good too. Everyone dresses up in New Orleans. The French Quarter is really crazy and fun, you know, it’s a good time. Everything is dark and creepy.
Clouds of Doom would be an awesome name for a band.
MP: Yeah it would! ‘Clouds’ with anything. Yeah.
What first drew you to living in New Orleans? You are originally from Oklahoma.
MP: It was just some kind of a weird fluke. I had to say the city really drew me to itself in a bizarre way. I didn’t have any friends here, I didn’t have any family here, I didn’t have a job waiting here for me, I had nothing. I had no good reason to move to New Orleans. I’m going to tell you something that only a couple of my friends know, I’ve never really talked about it. When I got to New Orleans, like I said, I didn’t have any friends and I just kind of showed up here. I went into this café, this book store and I was reading the paper to see if there were any rooms for rent anywhere or what the job market looked like in the classifieds. This guy came and sat down and said, ‘if you’re looking for a place to live you can talk to The Judge.’ I’m like, The Judge? Well ok. He said, ‘we’ll just wait around because there is going to be a meeting and there you can talk to The Judge. So I’m waiting around and I talked to The Judge he said, ‘are you on food stamps?’ If you’re poor and haven’t got any money you can get food vouchers, that’s what food stamps are. I said, no I don’t have food stamps. The Judge was like, ‘ok well you have to go get food stamps and when you get them you give those food stamps to me and that will be your rent to live here.’ What actually happened was that I moved into a halfway house. I didn’t know that’s what I was moving into. There’s this place called the Abstract Café and it was full of these people that had just got out of jail, prison or a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation facility—and I moved into this place! I had to go to AA meetings; Alcoholic Anonymous meetings at night. I had just graduated from college. I was definitely really in a strange place but I lived there for three months.
It was this really special, crazy place. They were actually squatting in the place that he was renting me a room in. They didn’t own it, they were like, oh we’ll just take this over! He had all these crazy people run the shop and café. The Judge really tried to help people. He’d go and pick people up from jail that had just gotten out of the drunk tank. The Judge had a really nice car, a Mercedes. He made the people get in the trunk of his car to drive them to this place to live because he didn’t want them to pee on his car [laughs]. It was this totally insane place. I was just like, wow! This is the weirdest city I have ever… I couldn’t imagine anything weirder than were I am.
Finally I saved my money and was able to rent somewhere else. Everyone was really nice to me there. It just really was a strange situation to be in. I rented this other building which eventually became Pussycat Caverns; it was a secret nightclub that I ran. That building just kind of changed my life. It had a stage in the building and people started asking if they could put on shows there. Bands wanted to play there. It was really easy, all of a sudden I was promoting shows at an illegal venue but nobody cared about that. New Orleans just had its own plan for me.
I spoke to Sean Yseult the other month, she lives in New Orleans too. She was telling me how amazing it is. She said it’s really hard for someone to describe how magical it is.
MP: Yeah it’s true. Have you ever been here?
No. It’s somewhere I have always been fascinated about. I’d love to go there.
MP: Yes! You should definitely come for a visit. Have you ever been to the States?
Yes, but mostly just places on the west coast.
MP: New Orleans is really special. You should totally come visit.
How would you describe Mardi Gras to someone that has never been?
One of the first punk rock vocalists I ever heard was Keith Morris. My brother gave me Circle Jerks’ Group Sex on vinyl when I was a teen, it was one of the records that was my gateway into punk rock. Later on I’d pick up Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP and over the years amass quite a collection of Keith’s work with all of his bands – most recently I’ve added latest musical project Off! In the week just passed Off! Played two amazing shows in my hometown of Brisbane. Keith was kind enough to speak with me for my Conversations With Punx project. Here’s a little snippet (we talked for over an hour). The full conversation will feature in the next zine in the CWP series (which I’m putting together at the moment). This conversation means a lot to me, Keith is one of the loveliest people I’ve met in punk rock. I’m so stoked that at 56-years-old he’s creating even more than ever—it’s truly inspiring!
You’ve been working on a book and a film. Can you tell me about them?
KEITH MORRIS: I’ve been working on the movie for about five to six years. I probably started working on the book about two years ago.
Is it fiction or non-fiction?
KM: The book is: Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Off!, working for a record company, working at a restaurant, working for The Commodores – you know The Commodores?
Yes!
KM: Slippery When Wet, (She’s A) Brick House. The movie is my take on the Wizard of Oz.
Wow! That’s like my favourite movie ever!
KM: Well you know how the Wizard of Oz starts in black and white and when Dorothy and Toto get to Oz everything becomes beautiful and all of the colours are bright well my story is the Wizard of Oz upside down.
That will be amazing! I’ve heard that you’ve talked to Josh Homme from Queens of the Stoneage and Chris Goss [Masters of Reality] about working on the film score?
KM: And Daniel Lanios [who has worked with U2, Brian Eno, Neil Young and more]. Daniel said, ‘Keith when you’re ready to create these songs this is how it normally works – you’re pretty much playing other people’s music anyway because it’s all been played before so all you do is change what you need to change. If you’re writing these pieces to fit certain scenes in the movie, the music is going to move to what’s happening in the movie.’ If something is moving real slow then you’re just going to [makes sounds at a slow tempo] ‘wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp.’ When it starts to get energetic you’ll toss in a [picks up the tempo] ‘wa boom boom boom boom.’ It will be a guitar orchestra. I’m thinking maybe ten guitar players. You put ten different guitar players in a room and everyone wants to solo! You’ll have a couple of them whose egos are bigger than everybody else’s, it’s like ‘oh I have to play more notes.’
Do you find that when you create things whether it’s writing a book, lyrics, film or making music that you do it sometimes to help you make sense of your own life?
KM: That’s a good way of putting it. Most of the stuff that I write is mostly stuff that just bothers me, stuff that affects me; like I just need to purge myself of that, I need to blood let and just let it all out. A lot of it’s out of anger; a lot of it’s out of frustration; a lot of it’s just out of being depressed; a lot of times (like we were talking about) going down town to skid row; a lot of times we don’t have the opportunity to do that and we find ourselves in a situation where I feel like I’m in a hole. I feel like I’m in a ditch, how am I going to get out of here? Maybe the only way that you can lift yourself out of the hole or climb out of the ditch is just by screaming and yelling [laughs]—well that works for me! I don’t know if it would work for anybody else.
I also find when I do interviews with people that it helps me with things in my life.
KM: I have a lot of friends who are creative people and I believe that the majority of them don’t create out of anger or out of depression. I find a lot of their stuff to be more cheery and not so dark, not so heavy, but I like that. I like that ‘well let’s take this colour and through it against the wall. Let’s take some pink and toss it in there.’ Dimitri [Coats – guitarist for Off!/producer] and I, we think black and white. I eventually want to get to the point, well there’s some green, there’s a couple of dabs of some yellow. Why not add some red and some blue over here.
Readers will know that one of my favourite bands in the whole wide world is The Death Set. I love their energy, positivity, pursuit of fun and desire to keep moving forward no matter what challenges they face. I recently caught up with frontman Johnny Siera while he was on tour in Europe playing shows to between 5,000 and 10,000 people a night! Not bad for a guy who grew up in the ’hood where I currently reside. The Death Set is living proof that if you have a dream, work hard and believe in yourself and what you’re doing you will succeed.
The Death Set are known for being a dynamic live band with out of control shows however recently in an interview you commented that you love the writing process a lot more these days.
JOHNNY SIERA: Yeah. When I started the band I definitely just wanted to play live. Being an audience member that’s what I loved seeing: the human experience of being up the front of a show. It’s like anything you know, you experience things and once you experience them you want to experience more. I don’t want to be doing the same thing for my entire life—it’s not who I am or what I am. I haven’t lived in the same city for more than two years for the last twelve years. It’s an extension of that. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience touring in every sort of facet and now I’ve come back to what I’m really in love with and what I’m in love with is really just expressing myself through music. As cheesy as that sounds, I really love the writing process now. It goes in waves, talk to me in six months when I’ve been in a studio for that long and I’ll probably be itching like a mother fucker to get out and play live [laughs].
In regards to the latest record – Michael Poicarrd – how do you feel about it?
JS: I’m really proud of it. I think that we did the best that we could and the most that we could and we were true about where we were at, at that time in our lives. At that point in our lives when we started writing that record it was pretty intense. I think if we didn’t write that record and we didn’t write a lot of those songs on that record, I think that it would have been contrived. In hindsight I’m a hundred and fifty million percent proud of that record. There’s always things that you could call up in hindsight that you may not have done but I think the errors are part of the process that makes it beautiful as well. I’m happy with it. I’m happy to move forward from it as well.
When you started working on the record it was a month or so after Beau’s passing right?
JS: It was right after Beau passing. It was right in the middle of Beau passing actually, we’d already started it.
Was making that album cathartic for you?
JS: Yeah in a sense it was cathartic [sighs] I can’t even tell you if it helped or not, I’m not sure. I can definitely tell you though that it was hard not to write a song about him or the situation. In means of a release in hindsight it probably was. There are definite songs on the album that are undeniably about that. There are definitely songs on the album even more so that are still true to the Death Set’s spirit. When it comes down to it Dan [Walker – guitar/vocals] and I knew that we couldn’t stop, we knew that if we did stop that we would have stopped. It was a situation that we just had to go through it. I can’t speak for Dan, I can only speak for myself but I think it would have been a lot harder for us to stop and start again and not go through it. I’m glad that we decided to keep writing and keep going on with the record. Actually I think it was cathartic. I also just think though you just have to keep going… no matter what happens you just have to keep going.
You’ve always done that. Since the very beginning no matter what challenges the Death Set have faced you guys just keep moving forward. I remember you telling me last time we chatted that there was a time when you were over in the States by yourself and had no band members, no money, no nothing, no van, you just had this record that you believed in. It’s so admirable how you’ve just keep going.
JS: What’s the other option you know? [laughs] It’s what we’re built on and what we love. It has been a struggle in a lot of ways but I try to look at all of the positive things and all the awesome things that it has provided. Through struggle brings rewards.
What song do you love most on the record? Which one holds the most significance to you?
JS: I really love I Miss You Beau Velasco – that’s my favourite song. It’s something that we stepped out of our comfort zone to write. I think songs like that and Is It the End Again? are songs that you would never expect on a Death Set record. It was a little confronting to actually decide that I love these songs and it was a decision to decide to put those songs on the record. It comes back to, again, I think it would have been contrived if we didn’t acknowledge everything that happened, to acknowledge that musically and emotionally and not be plastic, to make this what we love and to make it come from the heart. It would have been easy to write a ‘spazz’ punk rock record, that shit comes out like jelly beans for us but to write songs that are actually real was a lot harder and more scary. I’m most proud of those songs because I think they hold up. It’s a testament and a tribute all in one.
There’s a lot of different kinds of singing than usual for you over the album too?
JS: Yeah totally! We wanted to move forward. I think the sophomore record is a difficult one. It’s where you’ve gone through so many different experiences and you want to move forward as a band but you don’t want to alienate the fans but you want to be where you are at this present moment. In essence I wrote the record with Dan who is an amazing producer so the production stepped up as well. We post produced it with XXXchange who is an absolute mind blowing genius. In every way we wanted to step it up: in song writing, in musically and production –this was the result!
Diplo and Spank Rock are on the record as well.
JS: Yeah. Spank Rock has been a friend for a long-arsed time. I stayed on Alex XXXchange’s floor when I first moved to America so I automatically kicked it with Spank Rock. They’d been friends forever so it was a no-brainer to have Naeem on the record. Diplo is a funny one [laughs]. We’ve had up and down run-ins with Diplo. All in all he is a good dude. He thought I punched him in the face one time but it was more a friend did. He came over to us and we were like, oh shit what’s going on? We ended up sorting it out and ended up drinking cups of tea all day. The Mad Decent guys are awesome, I have a lot of respect for those guys. It’s been interesting. In essence we’ve always thought of this band as not a normal punk rock band. If anyone asks what kind of music do we play? I don’t even know what to say: punk rock? Electro-punk? That makes me want to throw up! I always just say strange punk; we’re a punk band but a little weird.
I really love it. It’s like Death Set progression!
JS: Thank you, that makes me feel really good.
You guys are all the things I love mushed together.
JS: Thanks buddy it’s all the things that I love mushed together too!
Recently The Mess Up was released, a remix you guys did of Australian band DZ Deathrays. The clip has a censored scene, what was that scene you decided not to show for fear of having to find new management?
JS: [Laughs] just a bunch of cocaine. It was a gram of cocaine snorted in that thirty second interlude. Our manger was probably right that we would have had visa issues from here to kingdom come because of it.
I like the kitty that you show in that space.
JS: [Laughs] I do like the kitty too!
Have you always had a love of cats?
JS: I actually have! I’m quite obsessed! I bought Dan as his birthday present, a subscription to Cat Fancy magazine. We have cat centrefolds all over our bathroom. It’s so ridiculous!
I read that you’re interested in opening up a bar in New York once the touring and whatnot finishes.
JS: Yeah I’m actually opening up a bar once I get off this tour which has been my main focus. It’s just again, what we all kind of come to, we get to certain periods in life when opportunities come and I really want to move forward. I love playing music and I don’t want to hate playing music because I have to play music. This is a brilliant opportunity where I can still stay involved and be a booker and create an awesome bar and book awesome events and make a little bit of money instead of touring and not making any money [laughs]. It’s one of those things where once you are not dependent on your art to earn a living sometimes it’s easier to sit back and look at it with a bit more perspective about what you really want to make. I’m hoping that this opportunity will give me that.
I can hear that, out of the 100 interviews I’ve done this year I’ve probably been paid for around 10 of those.
JS: Wow. I think it’s really great to get paid for what you love to do but I think there gets to be a point in time where you need to get paid to live. You learn that you either have to compensate your credentials and do other things and you’re in the field that you love or that you have to do something completely different and keep the field that you love completely pure. That’s the decision that I’ve made. I want to keep the music that I make completely pure. I don’t want to write or do anything else unless I really love it. I’ll have something else to make money and just keep doing the music that I absolutely love. Both sides are totally fine but that’s just the way I see myself and the way I want to do things. I can’t be on stage hanging off rafters when I’m 70 years of age unless I’m like Keith Morris! [laughs].
Catherine Maddin is the bassist for cosmic Brisbane band Dreamtime who have been said to “boast the kind of guitar meltdowns you might hear on old Ash Ra Tempel albums.” She is also co-owner/creator (along with pal Amy Wardrop) of Velvet Pins – a line of clothing and more that features “digital prints and fine silk garments that showcase the flowing easy fit and psychedelic look.” I cannot wait to rock some Velvet Puns creations. Catherine chats on style, becoming a musician, music, transcendental experience and more.
How did you first come to being a musician? Who or what inspired you to pick up an instrument?
I remember being a little terror at school until I went to my first singing class with a teacher called Mrs. Hancock. It seemed to calm me down and invigorate me all at once. I went home from school that day with a big smile and couldn’t stop singing! A huge fascination with Rage developed and I just loved to watch bands on TV on a Saturday morning, they seemed like the coolest people in the world to me, plus film clips in the 90s ruled! It continued on from there, I’ve luckily been drawn to some amazing musicians and like-minded people so far. The recent release of the Dreamtime LP actually make me feel so proud of what my friends and I had achieved and how far we have come together and I was finally able to comprehend that maybe it isn’t such a far-fetched idea that I might be an actual musician someday.
What does music mean to you?
Music enables a profound connection to others and the inner-self. It’s the one thing I rarely have to think about, it’s a totally transcendental experience.
Have you ever encountered sexism within the music community?
As a kid I was the only girl in this guitar class; some kid said I must be gay because of it. That’s about the extent of my negative experiences. I don’t really buy into the whole feminism thing with music. It is your own choice to take on board perhaps being pin pointed or gawked at for being a female on stage. The reality is that playing and watching music is an incredibly visceral experience on both the musician and the audience’s part, and it can have a great deal sexiness to it, it’s something that undeniably exists. If you’ve never seen Tamara Dawn of Hits (from Brisbane) all you need to do is look at her face when she plays, she is pure joy and guts. I find myself with a big grin watching her play, she is the most honest and talented women in music I’ve ever witnessed. She is one of few I’ve seen who has been able to transcend that awkward concentration-vibe so many of us have. A true inspiration.
Please tell us a little bit about your band Dreamtime (pictured below).
Dreamtime is just about my favourite thing in the whole world. Between the three of us we a vast taste in music genres, that influences the way our music turns out. We don’t talk about what we want to be or sound like, which I feel is important. It’s a great vessel for channelling energy; I think we all have times where we come to practice with various personal issues which we can use to our advantage. Sometimes it comes out surprisingly dark and evil. It’s a good way to vent and transform negative energy into something strong and gutsy. We are ultimately a jam band…It just feels right. Ha ha, so romantic!
What was the first band tee shirt you ever brought?
Hmmm… It was a red Kiss shirt… NERD!
What do you wear on stage?
I think dressing is all about being comfortable and I guess that also means being appropriate to your surrounds… Most of the time it’s just jeans because bending down and doing stuff with pedals is a total drag in a skirt. That being said it is fun getting all jazzed up in something real psych!
How important is your stage outfit to you?
Again, COMFORT. It’s enough having a bunch of people looking at you when you’re up there.. You don’t need to worry about your skirt being tucked into your undies and not realising. That being said, I like the look of a band when their aesthetic is unified in some way, I think the way we look is reflective of how we feel on the day… Style icon: Shellac.. Dad jeans and joggers
What are your offstage outfits like?
Pretty much just your regular 70s style Joe.
Who are your style icons/inspirations and what is it about them that you admire?
My absolute favourite style icon and bass girl goddess is Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Cirlce, The Entrance Band). She dresses like some kind of Argentinean dream-boat hippy and shes got the longest hair ever. She has the best onstage steeze… I think she figures if she’s not dancing why would anyone else… She’s totally cosmic!
What do you do creatively when you’re not creating/playing music? I know you also design clothes for the label Velvet Pins you co-own with Amy Wardrop.
Mostly doing Pins which is a lot of sewing and playing with fabric and colours… Amy and I love fossicking through op-shops and antique stores too, just to look at so many awesome things that have stood the test of time soothes the soul.
Tell me about the beginnings of Velvet Pins?
Velvet Pins has been kickin’ for quite some time now [since 2007].. Amy and I have known each other for well, forever – Amy is Tara(Dreamtime’s drummer)’s sister and Zac(Dreamtime’s guitarist)’s girlfriend and my sisters best friend). Needless to say we’ve always been pretty tight and shared a lot of the same interests. We decided to start it together for that reason I suppose.
I’ve noticed the clothes you create have a ‘cosmic’ and maybe occult kind of imagery/vibe to them; do you draw inspiration from these subjects? Where did your interest in them stem from?
Hmm, inspiration stems from being drawn to certain topics and taking interest in researching them, not dissimilar to listening to music and then jamming… I like the idea of not over-conceptualizing things. The inspiration just manifests over time through being curious about different happenings in the world. Amy and I are both interested in spirituality and health-something that eventually stems off to crazy religions and rituals and the general concept of psychedelia. But mostly I think we are inspired by each other, Amy is the most interesting and best dressed person I know. She’s totally unique in every aspect.
Do you have any ‘official’ qualifications? Do you think having formal training is important to what you do?
Yes, I have a degree in fine arts/fashion. Amy has a diploma in fashion. Studying is a good thing to do as it keeps your mind active which is something that you can’t truly appreciate until you stop studying.. Whether what is taught is comprehensive enough or that uni is the most nurturing environment to be in is another story. It’s a good platform but it isn’t something that (most of the time) you will leave being the best at and get the best job and make the most money. You need to work hard, long after leaving to make that happen. Studying can also be good to show you what you don’t want to do too..
What’s your greatest vision for both Dreamtime and Velvet Pins?
I am waiting for the day where the two shall meet and intertwine. Amy and I want to open a big collective space for music, vintage, velvet pins and more. Somewhere that people can come and comfortably hangout and look at and listen to cool things, eat food, drink beer and have a lovely oasis to come to. Somewhere that isn’t solely driven by sales would be a nice change of pace.
Tell me about your latest projects.
Latest projects include making a custom range for a woman in Paddington with a beautiful store called ‘Mood’ using custom vintage Marrimekko print fabrics which she has donated to Velvet Pins. We are also working on our own range for the end of summer. Dreamtime are writing a new album to be recorded by the awesome Steven from SCUL HAZZARDs and we are wanting to go to Austin next year for the Austin Psych Fest. My life seems pretty good on paper, so much fun to be had!
Omar Rodriguez- Lopez is one of my favourite musicians. You might know him from At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta, De Facto or his 20+ solo records or you may know him for his films (his most recent The Sentimental Engine Slayer – trailer at end of post). He is incredibly prolific and offers beautiful insight into creativity and life through his eyes. Whenever we catch up we always have the most thoughtful, inspiring chats. I’m super excited about the Australian tour that kicks off on December 9th…I’m even more excited he’s bringing the Mexico/Los Angeles band Le Butcherettes he signed to his label. He will also be joining them on bass! These shows are not to be missed. Seriously.
What’s life been like for you lately?
OR-L: It’s been mellow. I’ve been taking time off and just being around my family.
That’s lovely, family is so important.
OR-L: Definitely! Without a doubt.
You live in Mexico now these days?
OR-L: Yeah. I’m in the process of moving. I’m actually going to move back to Texas to be with my family.
What inspired your move to Mexico?
OR-L: Just being around my culture. I’m Puerto Rican so I like being around Latin culture. I was raised in Mexico as well. We went from Puerto Rico to Mexico and then to America. I just wanted a higher quality of life than what America has to offer.
Do you play music and create every day?
OR-L: Yeah pretty much. In some form or another, yes, I express it every day.
Do you have a daily routine at all?
OR-L: Yeah to a certain degree. I wake up, I eat, basic things like that. It’s not like when we spoke last time and I pretty much had the routine of at 11am to midnight I’d be in the studio. It’s just laid back now. My priorities are waking up and eating right and figuring out the day from there.
You’ve said in the past that your records are just opinions, notebooks and journal entries; you discovering life and beautiful things and learning lessons – is there any important lessons that you’ve been learning lately?
OR-L: Oh sure. There’s a lot. If I had to simplify it and boil it down to its most common denominator it’s that there is nothing more important than love. There is nothing more important than love whatever that is to you—family love, people… everything else has to come second to that. I’m a romantic and with most romantics it’s easy to fall under the illusion that love is enough and that love will fix everything—it’s not enough! Love is an art form, love is a craft, love is like anything else. If you want to be a good piano player you have to practice playing piano. If you don’t play piano for 20 years you’re not going to be a very good piano player. Love is the same way. You can’t just think because you love your mother or you love your father or you love your woman that that’s enough, you have to refine it and you have to work on it every day. What the means is that because it’s a craft and an art form it has to come before anything, it has to be at the top of the list. All things being equal, if love is an art form and if guitar is an art form, painting is an art form, it comes down to you have to decide which art form is more important to you because that is the one you are going to excel at. If you spend most of your time painting you’re going to excel at painting. If you spend most of your time playing piano, you’re going to excel at playing piano. I want to excel at loving and I realise that everything else is secondary. It is the root of everything. If you’re great at loving you’ll be great at playing piano or painting. Everything else becomes so small in comparison. It goes back to why spending more time with the family and doing things outside or whatnot it important.
You’re an avid journal keeper, is that something you’ve always done?
OR-L: Yeah since I was very little. Like any kid, you have your notebook where you draw your dragons and space monsters and whatever else comes to your mind. It’s a way of creating your own personal world. I love keeping a journal.
What’s one of your first musical memories?
OR-L: It would have to be my father and my uncles and my mother, just basically being at home. It’s just part of my culture and my upbringing. Puerto Rican culture revolves around music and food. Everybody plays something even if they are not musicians. Music is used as a language, it’s a second language. Before I ever learnt English I already knew the language of music because it was what was most spoken at my house besides Spanish, those are my musical memories. In other cultures, in America say for example, they have Christmas songs… when Christmas time comes around – I say that because it’s almost Christmas time now – there are a lot of communal Christmas songs that everyone knows and sings, they have that thing where people go door-to-door singing, well, Puerto Rican culture is like that all the time, it’s not just Christmas, it’s everything. There are songs that talk about the food you’re eating, there’s songs that talk about what it is like to be Puerto Rican. There’s songs that talk about what it’s like to be like from this village or that village—it’s just inherent in the culture. For me I’ve never thought of music as something separate from life or family life. I’ve never been cognisant of music like when people ask, did you ever think you’d end up being a musician? It would be like saying, did you ever think you were ever going to eat rice and beans with fried plantain? It doesn’t enter the consciousness when it is something that is around you all the time, it is just something that is there.
It’s like breathing.
OR-L: Exactly!
You also film lots of things. You’ve been filming since the beginning of At The Drive-In and documenting your journey as a musician; why do you feel you have such a need to document everything so avidly?
OR-L: Because I can, because it’s there. It’s another brush stroke and another colour on the palette of paint. I was born in era where the average person can walk into a store and buy a video camera. Thirty years ago that was only something that was there for rich people. We live in an era where you can get a couple of hundred bucks together and you can by a camera and document things. Going back to it again, it is how I was raised. When we moved to America and my father starting doing well with his business, one of the first things he did was by one of those VHS camcorders. He used to film all of our family outings (pretty normal stuff, families film their family outings) that was always stuck in my head. When he first brought a camera he showed me how to use it and I started filming right away. I’d make little short films. It felt very natural. My dad didn’t film family vacations in the normal way, he always turned it into a narrative somehow. There was always a narrator. He’s always would turn it into this big fun event that would involve everybody, so then everybody wanted to play with the video camera. Being the second oldest son I was allowed that luxury. It’s just there in your subconscious or the makeup of how you do things. When I grew to be an adult and At The Drive-In started making some money, one of the first things that I did was go and buy myself a video camera. I filmed stuff because I thought it would be a cool thing to show my mom back home and eventually my children.
Do you think the footage will ever come out to the public?
OR-L: I’m sure parts of it will, yeah definitely. I have about three films in my closet/vault, together with unreleased records. I imagine at some point as the years pass by I won’t care and I’ll just put it out. Over the years they’ve just been journal entries. I cut together a small film of my experience of At The Drive-In. I cut one together about my experience in De Facto. I started to cut one together about my project The Mars Volta, about what became very, very long. You also start to lose interest after a while and you start to film other things or become interested in other things. I imagine at some point parts of it will come out definitely.
I know that the new Mars Volta album has been finished for a while, the musical parts were finished for a very long time while awaiting the lyrics/vocals. In an interview recently when someone asked you about what the record sounded like you said ‘The first thing that pops into my mind is that it sounds like me and Cedric finding answers and insight into each other’s spirits.’ I thought that was really beautiful. I was wondering what insights you found?
OR-L: It runs pretty deep so it gets tricky. Off the top of my head some things would be like, I never realised how much my controlling-ness or my dominate personality affected him. I just always saw it as I was doing it for the greater good of us both. I never stopped to think about how it affected him and in inadvertent ways. I was able to see that during that process. It’s hard to get into because it is so layered and a lot of it is so personal which is why I usually just try to speak in general broad brush strokes. You learn a lot about yourself when you do a project and you learn a lot about whoever you let into that project. At the end of the day that’s the only real reason to do anything – to make records, movies or anything else – it’s to learn.
I know exactly what you mean. I learn so much from each conversation I have/interview I do. Our last chat taught me so much.
OR-L: Exactly. I remember it well.
You are bringing Le Butcherettes (pictured above) to Australia on your tour. I’m so excited to see them! I read an interview with Le Butcherettes’ frontwoman Teri Gender Bender and she said that you discovered them when you went to a show they were playing. She went on to say that the power went out and that they keep playing regardless. What was it that you saw in them?
OR-L: What I saw with them is something that is undefinable. When you talk about it you can only use general terms like, I saw that spark or that spirit. It’s so abstract in a way. You see that thing in people where you know that it is honest, you know that they are doing it because they have to do it, you know that it’s a primordial type of urge.
There’s people that like entertainment, there’s people who like playing music and then there are people that are searching for God. God not being… I’m not talking about Christianity or Judaism or anything like that, just in broad terms for whatever the fuck you want that to be. Those are the three different sections that I found when you talk about art: entertaining, people that are being expressive and that want to play music, that love to play music and there’s people that are trying to communicate with God—they fell into that category and that was what I was able to see very quickly. Like you were saying, the electricity went out but they still played! Somebody else would say, well what’s the point of playing with no electricity? Another person would say, because they absolutely have to, this is how I’m trying to communicate with God. God could be me, it could be myself, I could be trying to get to know myself—the point being, it is absolutely vital. That’s what I saw in Le Butcherettes.
Le Butcherettes:
Omar live:
Trailer for Omar’s latest film – The Sentimental Engine Slayer:
I’ve been interviewing creative people for close to two decades. I create zines. I am the 2011 Australian Zine Maker of the Year! I’m passionate about interviewing, creating, music, writing & having fun adventures every day. I love supporting and collaborating with rad creative people making positive contributions to the world. I love the life I live and live the life I love.
