 |
|
| home | about us | issues | record of the day | subscribe | MARKETPLACE | advertising | artist profile | family | |
current issue
|
|
|
Issue No. 3 Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney are a power combo from Portland, Oregon. The twin guitars and Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker combined with the snare pummeling of Janet Weiss have made for some of the most intense and moving music to come from the pacific northwest over the last ten years. Their latest The Woods is being hailed everywhere (including here at MagnaPhone) as a bona-fide classic. I got a chance to briefly chat with Carrie Brownstein this past May. MP: How did you hook up with Rick Moody to write your press and website bio? MP: Where does Sleater-Kinney fit in right now in the world of Music and Art? With the other outsiders. I don't feel like we fit it in at all right now. I feel like we are always in the periphery. I think we're a little harder to grasp. With indie music having a resurgence and being popular right now and yes, we technically are an indie band, we still don't sound like that kind of cleaned up pop-indie rock that's coming out right now. I do feel like we fit in with Northwest music and that region of sort of wilder, unadorned, not-afraid to be ugly music. Whether that's contemporary or part of a larger sound I don't know. I kind of feel like its up to other people to decide where we fit in while we do our thing. MP: Is the title of the record (The Woods) a reference to your standing as a 'Northwest band'? I definitely think that's one interpretation and an apt one. Other elements of the title have to do with the exploration of things that are darker and unfamiliar. Metaphysical elements and harsh realities as well. I think in essence we needed a place or a title to bear the weight of the record MP: This record features a lot more Improvisation and Guitar Solos that your previous work. Why? I think that stems from songs being written in the live context, we used to have these songs with very fixed structures, and then when we would play them live we would begin to loosen them up a bit, and explore the space of the songs and see where we could go with them. When we started writing this record we began in that space and built parameters from that freer area. Approaching things from that free area you start to speak in musical sentences rather than phrases. We wanted moments that were less certain and sat out in space and in different directions. We found that was a more interesting way to communicate with each other. MP: Well that be reflected in your live set? Yeah, these songs are a lot easier to play live. Improvising made the recording process a lot more exciting because I didn't feel like if I played a guitar exactly right it would make the song wrong. The weirder and wronger we played the better and I think the unpredictable and spontaneous makes for great live shows. Its good to have that built into the songs. It kind of makes the old songs harder to play live but we're figuring that out. MP: What was it like working with Dave Fridmann? It was great. He wasn't too familiar with us, I mean he knew who we were and was familiar enough to want to work with us but he had never heard us play. So we sent him the old records and then when we got there we played the new songs for him for a few days and he felt really emotional about them, he thought they were really powerful. He wanted to capture that, and I think he did. Sleater-Kinney will be supporting the White Stripes for a show in Olympia, WA before heading back to Europe. I urge you to experience them live. 2005-08-06 Gorge, The George WA White Stripes |
He
is a mutual friend and I met him at an event at the Whitney Museum
in New York. When we were thinking of people to write our bio I
remembered that he was a fan of our band and I was a fan of his
writing. So I approached him and he very graciously said yes and
I was still really surprised at how extensive his knowledge was
of our band. It turned out he knew things about our band that I
didn't even know. That's what I really love about writing, both
fiction and non-fiction, that some people can explain something
you were never able to put into words before. That's always exciting
to read something about your band that you were never really able
to describe.