INTERVIEW BY TARIK SALEH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK W OCKFENFELS 3
PRODUCED BY CASSIA HOFFMAN
STYLING BY LAWREN SAMPLE @ MARGARET MALDANADO
HAIR BY TONY CHAVEZ FOR LEONOR GREYL @ JED ROOT
MAKE-UP BY SARAI FISZEL FOR CHANEL @ JED ROOT
Studio: Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood, www.smashboxstudios.com

—

These days, in the music biz, there’s a great measure for whether you’re what the kids are listening to. And that measure is Glee. Of course, Lykke Li’s 2011 single I Follow Rivers was belted out by Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) on the second season of the Fox smash-hit, but that’s no real surprise. The Swedish performer has been heating up Europe since the release of her debut album Youth Novels in 2008 and her sophomore effort, Wounded Rhymes, is a Top 40 hit in the USA and Canada. She’s played at Coachella and Lollapalooza, acted her socks off in a music video with Stellan Skarsgård and even wrote a song for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Lykke Li’s star is on the rise, and who better to check in with her on this incredible journey than someone who’s directed music videos for two of her hit singles (Sadness is a Blessing and I Follow Rivers) and considers her a good friend – man of many talents Tarik Saleh. He finds out what it’s like being Lykke Li and how she’s handling the life-changing effects of success. Oh yes, the kids are listening, and so is everyone else.

Tarik Saleh—Where do you live?

LYKKE LI—I live in a suitcase between Stockholm and wherever I have to perform.

TS—What do you eat for breakfast?

LL—If I’m at home I’ll have homemade granola with goji berries, maca powder, yogurt and when I’m away I always have coffee and tea and scrambled eggs.

TS—And what are you up to right now?

LL—I’m in Stockholm; I’ve been here for one and half days. I’m leaving tomorrow to go up north to play at a festival and then I’m going to New York to do a shoot. After that I’m going to play at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark and then I’m coming back to Stockholm, and then I’m finally going off for a small vacation with my loved ones to Portugal.

TS—How long are you going to be in New York?

LL—For about 24 hours.

TS—That’s insane.

LL—It’s intense. I’m trying to block it out because I’m too scared of what the result will be.

TS—What’s the difference between intense and insane?

LL—I think intense is just a lot, but you can handle it, but insane is when you’re doing something inhuman and you’re stepping over certain boundaries. Insane is probably the guy who first walked on the moon – nobody ever did it, but I think a few people have flown to New York back and forth to Europe in 24 hours before, so I think that’s probably just intense.

TS—Have you been insane before? Have you been in insane situations?

LL—I feel like I am almost every other day. I just got back from Glastonbury. That was insane, but I keep surviving all the time so I keep on pushing my boundaries. So many times I feel like I couldn’t possibly handle anymore and then I keep on doing it all over again. And it scares me a bit because I wonder if there’s some kind of pool inside of yourself, that runs dry, or can you just keep on going forever?

INTERVIEW BY ELIJAH WOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM
ASSISTED BY KEVIN TRAGESER
RETOUCHING BY TODD @ 4C IMAGING

—

If you’ve never been to a Flaming Lips show, some might say you’ve never lived. Mirror-balls, confetti, dancing characters from The Wizard of Oz and a lead singer charging across the crowd inside a giant inflatable ball are all part of the travelling circus that make up the Lips’ epic performances. Much of that ‘insanity’ is thanks to frontman Wayne Coyne who’s been producing the soundtrack to alternative rock junkies’ wet dreams for a quarter of a century. They’ve released no fewer than 13 studio albums including the legendary The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot, made a feature film, and scored themselves three Grammys. Coyne may be embarking on the golden age – he turned 50 this year – but not in the way you’d expect. The Flaming Lips are cranking out more awesome music, playing more tour dates, working with more artists, and selling more skull-shaped gummy treats than ever before. Lord of the Rings alumni, music fan and Simian Records founder Elijah Wood was psyched to ask Coyne about his creative process, his recent collaborations and how he came up with those cranium candies. Pucker up Lips fans and read on.

Wayne Coyne—Hello, Elijah Wood.

Elijah Wood—Hello, Wayne Coyne.

WC—What are you doing today? I just arrived in Boston. There was a thunderstorm and the plane felt like it was going to crash. It’s 
a phenomenal thing, air travel. Has that ever happened to you?

EW—I’ve been on flights that were pretty harrowing and frightening. After a flight like that you feel happier to be alive because you may have actually averted death. That’s quite a good feeling, isn’t it?

WC—I have to agree with that. Even though previous to the near-death experience you’d rather not have it, but once on the other side of the near‑death experience you’re really grateful you had it. Once we were flying from New York to Washington and a fucking engine went out on the plane and there was a good 25 minutes where you’re just thinking oh my God, we’re going to die, and then it lands and 15 minutes later we jumped on another plane. I guess you think what would be the chances that we’d get on another plane and the engine would fail on that one, too. You almost feel like you’ve been given a get out of jail free card.

EW—So you’re in Boston. You’re still on the tour, right?

WC—We don’t ever think of it as a tour, because to me a tour feels like you’re going to be in Michigan one night and then you’re going to be in Minnesota and Chicago, but what we do is more like you’re in Texas one night and Madrid the next. You jump around, you go to Europe and Asia and everywhere.

EW—So you’re not on buses this time around?

WC—No, we are. We’re getting on the bus tomorrow, and then we’ll be on the bus for the next couple of weeks but occasionally we’ll fly to England and be on a bus there for a week and then we’ll fly back. We’ll drive from Seattle to Texas on a bus; we don’t give a shit about the distance. People don’t realize what a luxurious bunch of self-indulgent laziness you can get up to on a bus. You can lie in bed all day; it’s dark and quiet.

EW—I’ve spent a bit of time on tour buses with Gogol Bordello and you’re right, it’s like a dark cave and you can sleep the day away and then get up and go to your show. You have no concept of where you are at any given time.

WC—But after a couple of dates you don’t really care. Here’s why I think it’s so cosy. This goes back to prehistoric times when humans all lived and slept in caves together. When other people are sleeping it makes you want to sleep and when other people are awake it makes you want to be awake. There’s this urge. We go back to being cavemen – that’s what we really want to do.

INTERVIEW BY SEAN TYSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRISTIINA WILSON

—

British folk songstress Laura Marling was born in 1990 making her just 21 this year. In some ways she is your typical 21-year-old embarking on womanhood and the daunting world of adult life with a sense of trepidation and a mild yet thrilling uncertainty about what’s to come. But in most ways, of course, she’s nothing like her contemporaries. She makes and performs music for a living; she’s traveled the world on tour with Mumford & Sons, Noah and the Whale and Kate Nash; her first two albums were nominated for the prestigious UK and Ireland Mercury Prize and she won the NME 2011 award for Best Solo Artist, beating out the likes of Kanye West and Florence and the Machine. No, there’s not much that’s typical about Marling. Her contemporary take on folk rhythms and arrangements, infused with the rich, raw poetry of her lyrics is as delightfully surprising as Marling herself. She speaks the way she looks, all soft and fair and fragile. She’s slightly bashful and full of passion and optimism for her career and her creativity. But when she sings, guitar in hand, eyes ever so slightly turned towards the floor, Marling the performer is an unapologetic sage of broken hearts, unusual tales and haunting melodies, a strong, brazen woman and a force to be reckoned with.

Sean Tyson—Where are you right now?

Laura Marling—I’m actually on the west coast of Scotland; as far north as you can be, in a van.

ST—And how is the weather?

LM—It’s very typically Scottish – very grey skies, but very beautiful.

ST—Are there certain places you prefer touring or certain cities you really love?

LM—This tour we’re doing now, I did in November last year, and it really is stunningly beautiful and very scenic. It’s up in the Highlands of Scotland, and we play in tiny towns. All the people just come and see the show because it’s music, not because it’s any particular style of music, so it’s quite an interesting tour to do. The venues are really intimate – last night we played a little community hall. It was really nice.

ST—The first time I heard your voice I was listening to Mystery Jets and their song Young Love stood out the most because of your guest vocals. I know that you’ve collaborated with other artists. Have there been any moments where you’ve been really delighted with what’s come out of collaborating?

LM—When I started touring I played with Noah and the Whale, which 
I remember so fondly as the most fun time of my life. I was 17 and doing so much touring with them and then Charlie [Fink], the lead singer of that band, produced my first album and then I sang on their debut album and then we parted ways. I always remember finding it so much more fun being in Noah and the Whale, and less pressure than being the front man of my own music. So that will always be my fondest collaboration I think.

ST—I think that while producing your own music is totally empowering and freeing it is a challenge, but when you’re a featured artist or you’re working with someone else on their project you don’t really own the finish piece, so you could argue as a result that’s a more carefree approach. Do you agree?

LM—Mostly. Usually the pressures are totally relieved of you if you’re standing in the background. It’s great.

—

Alison Mosshart is living her own American dream. For the lead singer of alternative rock acts The Kills and The Dead Weather there are no 2.5 children, no white picket fences and definitely no sitting around watching daytime TV. In place of these quintessential grown-up wants and needs are concert tours, recording sessions and a music career that would have Josie and the Pussycats purring with envy. And despite being in the industry since her teenage years, the 33-year-old rocker has still got stacks to say. Good job we tracked her down for a chat.
Alison spent most of her childhood in Vero Beach, Florida, but studied her craft on the road touring with fellow Discount band mates in the 1990s. Since those years, song-writing and performance have become her way of life. After meeting London-based guitarist Jamie Hince in a hotel, the pair struck up a pen-pal relationship, mailing recordings on tapes to each other in an effort to combine their sounds. Patience with postal services wearing thin, she moved to London in her twenties so they could join forces, and thus The Kills was born. Not content being in one hugely successful band, in 2009 she went on to form supergroup The Dead Weather finding a whole new sound and excited new fans.
Alison also goes by the names VV when she’s playing with The Kills and Baby Ruthless for her stints with The Dead Weather. This multiple personality order suits her laid-back, spontaneous lifestyle and eclectic musical sound. Hailed as one of the best rock ’n’ roll front-women of her generation Alison’s still got plenty of steam and true enthusiasm for the job she does. Admitting to us that the musician’s life is not for everyone, it certainly seems to suit her just fine.

CORAL OSBORNE—Where are you calling from right now?

ALISON MOSSHART—I am in London at a recording studio.

CO—I wanted to get a feel for where you came from. I know you started Discount at age 14; did you go on your first tour at that age?

AM—I don’t remember. I think I was in the ninth grade.

CO—And your parents were going to let you take off then or were they conservative folks that you rebelled against? Did they support your creative endeavours?

AM—They were really supportive. They didn’t want me to go on tour. There was a bit of an issue with that, but the tour was sort of booked already. It was just one of those things – one of the guys in the band was a lot older than all of us, and he drove his parents’ car. I think everyone was older than me.

CO—I hear you’re working on the latest Kills album right now – how’s that going?

AM—Yes, it’s good. It’s just about done.

CO—Can we expect a major departure from the last album?

AM—It’s so hard for me because I’m so close to it. You never know how people are going to perceive it . I always think it’s good to make it different. I think that’s always the goal to keep pushing ourselves to make something like we haven’t made before. So we work on every aspect of it: guitar-playing, drums, programming, vocals, the way we sing, the way we write lyrics – everything’s always being pushed.

CO—Are there any differences between your on-stage personas – VV and Baby Ruthless?

AM—I think the music is so incredibly different. I don’t feel like I’m putting on an act, but I think the music makes you perform it in a certain way; it tells you what to do. I haven’t played a Dead Weather show and then turned around and played a Kills show and then turned around and played a Dead Weather show. I have been doing The Kills for so many years, and then I did The Dead Weather, and now it’s going to be The Kills for a little while, so I haven’t been put in that situation to really be able to be like, “Wow, that was different!”

]]> http://thelabmagazineonline.com/2011/03/the-kills-2/feed/ 0 http://thelabmagazineonline.com/2011/03/devendra-banhart/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=devendra-banhart http://thelabmagazineonline.com/2011/03/devendra-banhart/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:54:45 +0000 Jeremy http://thelabmagazineonline.com/?p=1844

INTERVIEW BY SEAN TYSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUCO

—

Musician and artist Devendra Banhart is known for many reasons: he dated Natalie Portman, received a Grammy nomination, played Beck’s record club with MGMT and Wolfmother, and remixed songs by Oasis and Phoenix. Unfortunately, he’s also largely misunderstood. His playful, adventurous musical contributions are relevant and mature, but to some he comes off as a hippie stereotype; an experimental cliché. What you really need to know about Devendra is that he’s incredibly intelligent, unbelievably ambitious and one of the most self-deprecating artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing. There’s no argument that he’s talented, but he’ll be the first person to try and start a debate on the matter.
Here, Devendra and I discuss his unorthodox art school education, the paradox of record label archetypes, the implications of his native Venezuelan architecture, the significance of skateboarding, and, of course, his punch up with Sammy Hagar.

SEAN TYSON—I read somewhere that you enjoy drawing, is that true?

DEVENDRA BANHART—I don’t know if I enjoy it but it’s something I’ve been doing since I started music. I went to the [San Francisco] Art Institute for visual art and I’ve never stopped doing art – I’ve been showing my work since I’ve been releasing music. And right now I have a show about Californian artists at MOCA [Museum of Contemporary Art] in LA. So that’s what I’m putting a lot of my effort into right now. It’s also showing at MOMA in San Francisco and in Spain.

ST—Why did you leave the Art Institute?

DB—I dropped out because I was spending more time making music. I went on a scholarship, but I realized that I could access these same tools – mainly the library, lectures, and students – as long as I looked like an art student. I basically went to school for free for the last year. There was only one teacher who gave a shit about me, and that was Bill Berkson. He’s an amazing writer, and we are still in contact, so as long as you make those connections you don’t have to really be paying for school. I was inspired by living in San Francisco and other artists, but not really from school.

ST—When you were with the record label Young God you said it was an environment where you were just doing your thing, and you suspected things would be different at a major label. Yet you’re with Warner Bros. now. Why did you move?

DB—That was a decision Michael Gira and I made. Young God is not a largely staffed production and it got slightly overwhelming for them. Michael suggested that I be open to other labels. My definition of selling out is not being on a major label, my definition of selling out is changing what you do for any other reason than the intrinsic necessity that change is, and that’s something that has to come from within. If you’re changing for anything outside of yourself, I think that’s selling out, and I’m proud to say I’ve never done that. I was really apprehensive at first but was spurred on by his enthusiasm about working with other indie labels like XL.
When the XL contract ran out I tried something new, which was to make a record and see who’s going to offer what you want. And so we made the record ourselves, not knowing who was going to put it out. We shopped it around and the label that treated us the most like you would expect an indie label to treat you was the one major, Warner. And the labels that acted most like a caricature of the evil major labels were actually the indies. In terms of what they expected from us and what they were going to give us, it was shocking. It just shows that the line between indie and major has been blurred. The old archetypes don’t really exist. Saying that, I did meet with one major that said “We’ll sign you if we can hire a team of song writers to help you finish songs.” 
The whole white, fat man chopping a cigar kind of shit.

INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL SHINDLER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEATHER CULP
STYLING BY JULIE BROOKE WILLIAMS
HAIR BY SONG ISABEL HEE
MAKE-UP BY BETHANY BRILL

—

Walking through tall grass, hands gently tickling the tops of the fragile stalks, you smell sunshine. Your eyes then open, revealing your cold apartment with only the harmonies from your stereo illustrating your mind. The music of Angus and Julia Stone evokes the crystalline sensation on your skin after swimming in the ocean and drying in the warm summer sun. Their music is deeply emotional and intense, yet as delicate as a butterfly. The brother and sister have a long history of music in their lineage, though only recently started crafting their soft and elegant melodies. Quickly gaining much deserved notoriety at home, the Australian duo soon took to the road, easily convincing European and North American audiences of their charm. Upon listening to their music, one is immediately transported into a world of innocence and magic. Julia Stone made time for The Lab while waiting in baggage claim at Boston Airport to chat about her friendship with her brother, getting eaten by sharks, and how their grandfather nurtured her sense of creative adventure.

MICHAEL SHINDLER—Where are you right now?

JULIA STONE—We just landed in Boston – I’m in the baggage claim area.

MS—How was the flight?

JS—It was OK, actually. We missed our check in time by ten minutes, so we had to get on another flight, but it’s all good. The sound check is coming up so the boys – the sound engineer and tour manager – are already here so hopefully it’s all set up and ready to go for tonight. 
They checked in earlier – they were smart.

MS—So it’s just you and Angus together right now?

JS—Angus, myself, our drummer Matt Johnson and bass player Rob  Calder.

MS—Did you play in New York last night?

JS—Oh yeah, we’re coming from New York. We played on Friday night in Brooklyn and then we played on Saturday night in Manhattan in this circus tent with a band called DeVotchKa. They’re so amazing. They had those girls who dance in the sky on pieces of fabric so it was really exceptional. And then Sunday night we played the Hoboken and then last night we had a night off so I went and saw our friend play a show on Bleaker Street at a place called Le Poisson Rouge.

MS—What will you do to get yourself ready for the show tonight?

JS—There’s nothing specific. We don’t have a pre-show ritual. Depending on where we are we try and find somewhere nice to go and have dinner and hang out and sometimes we have a bit of an acoustic jam if we can get a guitar and sing songs and play cards.

MS—I hear you like to bring your backgammon and poker sets from home on the road…

JS—The cards thing has taken a back seat to be honest because we’re touring with a couple of guys who don’t play cards. Dinner is the big thing for us. Usually when you’re in a city and you find a place with really good food you find really good people as a general rule; people who know a bit about the town and where’s good to go and see, or they tell you a bit about the history of the place. I’m sure there’s probably amazing people in places that serve bad food but we try not to go there.

MS—What’s your favourite place been on tour so far?

JS—I don’t have a favourite but in the last couple of weeks I really enjoyed our show in Portland. I thought that was a really beautiful city. It was so sunny when we arrived. It had a really good feeling. In that part of North America the air’s really clean, you can feel it. There must be something scientific about why the air is so clean.

MS—Does it remind you of home at all, especially the West Coast of 
the States?

JS—I think the West Coast really reminds us of home – maybe because of the surfing community, or because the ocean is so close to the city. Whenever we’re in California I always feel like I’m coming home in a sense, which is really strange because we hadn’t ever been there until we started to play music, but that whole drive down the coast, especially from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, with the smell of the ocean, it’s so beautiful. And the Australian coast line is a lot like that – you’re looking at the coast and surf breaks for miles. For me, the ocean is home.

INTERVIEW BY SEAN TYSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK W. OCKENFELS 3

—

Their intensity is genuine, their motivation is sincere, and their live shows are an unadulterated display of raw talent. Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Nico Vega is a three-piece alternative-rock outfit that believes in what they’re doing and thoroughly enjoys themselves in the process. Signed to MySpace/Interscope, the band released their self-titled, full-length album in 2008, and has been touring extensively ever since. They were already turning heads when a performance on Last Call with Carson Daly in 2009 thrust them into the limelight. Whether it’s an office cubicle or a packed and sweaty Viper Room, this group never hesitates. Their on-stage performances involve very little compromise, and often very little clothing. I was able to catch up with their captivating front woman, Aja Volkman, while the band was on the road in Austin, Texas.

SEAN TYSON—So, you’re from Eugene, Oregon – go Ducks!

Aja Volkman— [Laughs] Yeah. I’m from a really simple place, and it’s got a kind of hippy mentality – it’s a really laid-back town. I grew up with natural food stores and naked people so it is quite a bit different from Los Angeles.

ST—Your tours have taken you pretty much everywhere. Can you tell me more about your Nordstrom show? I heard you played in an office cubicle…

AV—Well we don’t like to limit ourselves, so wherever we are we try to use the environment to make it whatever it is. The Nordstrom show ended up being funny because I’m dancing in these people’s faces and they’re on their lunch break wearing their office clothing. It’s just normal day-time and there are neon lights. [Laughs] We’ve had a lot of fun everywhere we’ve played. And yeah, we played in a cubicle at MySpace Records during the day.

ST—Nico Vega was named after [original band member] Mike Peña’s mother. He’s no longer in the band but you’ve kept the name, can you elaborate on that?

AV—She had a large impact on my life. And that’s even more of a personal topic, but I’m happy to talk about it with you. She had a history of using psychiatric drugs – Prozac and things like that, and she didn’t react well to the medicine. Eventually, she actually died from the side effects. I used to take a lot of psychiatric drugs, and when I met Mike I really wanted to get off them. I’d wanted to get off them for a long time and I really couldn’t find any help. I wanted to take a more holistic approach to healing, whatever it was I thought was wrong with me and she was the spark in my life change, I guess. So I felt like it was an important thing to honor her. Mike’s still a really big part of our life and he really helped me through a rough time. Now I’m on the other side of all that and I think that it’s kind of part of our message to inspire people to look for other methods of healing, because there is an over-prescription problem, especially in the USA. I know
a number of people who have committed suicide who were on psychiatric drugs. And that’s not to say I don’t think highly of Western medicine but I’m really an advocate of looking for another approach. It worked for me after years and years of the wrong drugs. So that’s part of our message, just finding a more liberated approach and accepting who you are versus trying to suppress everything.

INTERVIEW BY ELLY SMITH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDRÉ PAUL PINCES
STYLING BY LEILA BANI AT THEYREP.COM, ASSISTED BY BRENNA HOLLER
HAIR BY TANIA BECKER AT NOBASURA
MAKE-UP BY SONIA LEAL-SERAFIM AT THEYREP.COM

—

Before Hollywood gobbled up her first album Lungs to accompany scenes from Grey’s Anatomy, Jennifer’s Body and the latest Twilight movie; before music videos of flowery floating coffins and leggy dancing in gargantuan churches; before “The Machine” even existed, Florence Welch was a south London art-schooler who made provocative statements with artificial flowers and baked a cake with the words, “It’s going to get worse” iced on the top before eating it as part of a performance. This is a girl whose mum partied at Studio 54, who’s been compared to Kate Bush and Aretha Franklin, who gives Gaga a run for her money with her treasure-trove wardrobe. Twenty-three years of living aside, this girl is a legend. Fortunately, she is the sweetest, most personable superstar imaginable. We talked about books, free speech, subatomic particles and crowd surfing in a chainmail dress.

ELLY SMITH—Hi Florence! I really want to know what you’re wearing.

FLORENCE WELCH—What am I wearing? I’m actually in my pajamas because I’m at home and I just got up – it’s really disappointing. I’m trying to spend as much time as possible not dressed up when I can. I’m a big fan of pajamas at the moment.

ES—Your outfits are always so creative. I saw an interview where you talked about a friend dressing you in a gown made of metal.

FW—The chainmail thing?

ES—Yeah, the chainmail dress.

FW—It’s not that good for crowd-surfing because it was quite heavy. When I first started touring my friend came along with me and we didn’t really have access to a lot of different clothes so we just piled all our clothes in a suitcase and took them with us, and we used to play dress-up before I went on stage, and it was just part of the mishmash that we’d thrown in there.

ES—While you were crowd-surfing in chainmail, one of your songs was chosen to appear on the soundtrack for the new Twilight movie, Eclipse. Have you noticed any new fans or attention from your song’s inclusion in the franchise?

FW—I have no idea. Maybe… I don’t really check the Internet, so to be honest I would be clueless. I didn’t even know the song had come out until yesterday.

ES—No fanmail or anything?

FW—I don’t really do the Internet thing. I’m really shit at keeping updated with Twitter and all that kind of stuff. I sort of forget about it a bit. It’s amazing for me to have done the song. I love the Twilight books and I thought the last two films were really good, and I’d wanted to do something for them. It’s amazing that I got a song in there. I’m sure it has put me in touch with people who wouldn’t have thought to listen to me before, but I don’t really know if they are.

ES—A lot of your music is featured in movies and TV shows. Do you think your songs have a particular cinematic quality, or do you just have really good relationships with music supervisors?

FW—I always wanted to make quite epic-sounding music. I think my favorite artists are people like Arcade Fire and Interpol, and I’ve being listening to the new Peter Gabriel album Scratch My Back which is just acoustic covers – it’s all strings and drums and big swelling melodies and it’s so powerful. I think I’d always wanted to make something that was quite ambitious in its sound; quite grand, because that’s always the music I’ve been drawn to. Music is such an emotional thing for me, like performing, and I guess that comes across in the songs.

INTERVIEW BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY XAVIER ENCINAS
STYLING BY JOY MAIRE

—

Sweden, Sarah Assbring says, is kind of boring. “To survive here,” she explains, matter-of-factly, “we have to make something beautiful out of it.” And the Scandinavian native would know – it’s where she retreats to write her music; it’s where the magic happens. Tucked away beneath the warmth of your headphones listening to her one-woman act, El Perro Del Mar, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were snuggled in bed while the Swedish winter howls outside your Gothenburg chalet. The rich musical experience of smooth psychedelics and catchy pop beats has been flattering dimly lit spaces from Stockholm to New York and making a name for itself along the way. Catchy tunes “Change of Heart” and “God Knows (You’ve Gotta Give to Get)”, whimsical videos and breathtaking performances make Sarah more than worthy of some serious Lab time. Here, the serene songstress muses on her collaboration with Finnish Rockers The Rasmus, tells us what English is best used for and lovingly recalls how she became El Perro Del Mar. Sweden may be boring, but it sure makes some sweet music.

JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE—Hi, How are you?

SARAH ASSBRING—I’m good. How are you?

JTC—Good. Finally, we get to talk.

SA—Yeah, exactly.

JTC—I’m glad you made it home safe amongst all the volcano drama.

SA—Me too. I got stuck. The volcano erupted and I was stuck in Paris.

JTC—Mother Earth is a scary place.

SA—Yes!

JTC—Did you just get off a tour? Where did you go?

SA—My tour was mostly in the US and I toured Australia and parts of Scandinavia and Argentina.

JTC—I know you made your way here to Vancouver and played the Biltmore Cabaret. How was that?

SA—It was really nice. I always like to play in Vancouver.

JTC—How is it touring for you? Do you like it? Is it exhausting?

SA—It’s definitely exhausting but it’s kind of a conscious mode you set yourself into and while you’re in that mode it’s enjoyable… I really like it.

JTC—You play the same show and you tour for so long, how do you keep each show fresh? It must be really strenuous to sing night after night.

SA—Yeah. Keeping the show fresh is something you really need to be aware of and always try to work on. It’s definitely like an actor going on stage and having to put themselves through the same emotional…

JTC—Preparation?

SA—Yeah, definitely.

JTC—Having lived with an actor my whole life I know there’s a lot of premeditation and prep work that you have to do before each show and little rituals that performers do as a team. Do you travel with a band?

SA—Yeah, I do.

JTC—Do you guys have any secret handshakes?

SA—We don’t. I just feel like it is extremely important to be close to each other physically and emotionally. It is very important to be close to each other in the fifteen or twenty minutes before you go on stage, just to feel like you’re synchronized and you have the same kind of rhythms in your bodies.

JTC—Can you tell me a little bit about your collaboration with The Rasmus? I read that this was the best recording session you’ve ever had! I know you’ve done a lot of stuff on your own, in isolation, not really collaborating with anyone during the recording process…

SA—It felt extremely natural because we did a lot of talking before actually working together. We’re both very into talking about music and about what we want to do. The thing with him and I was that when we started working it felt like we were twins or something, because it felt natural…

INTERVIEW BY ASHLEIGH BALL

-

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR BRADY
ASSISTED BY BENJAMIN LUK
STYLING BY DEANNA PALKOWSKI
MAKE UP & HAIR BY NEGAR AT (THEYrep.com)

—

You Say Party! We Say Die!, a name so frenetically urgent you’re not sure whether to charge the nearest frat boy or break out in spastic dance. Luckily, when it comes to this band, either will do. Hailing from Abbotsford, BC, this dance-punk quintet was formed in Vancouver’s “off season” (aka too wet for biking) and released their first EP, “Danskwad”, to much regional acclaim. After a few member changes, they released their break out “Hit The Floor” in 2005, and “Lose All Time” in 2007, touring internationally to such success that even my Grandma in England knew who they were. Now, with their latest album “XXXX”, produced by Howard Reddekop, (Tegan and Sara, New Pornographers) the band of many !’s finds itself in a niche of a richer, more mature sound with an impressive focus on songwriting. There are also hints of  The B-52′s and Siouxsie and the Banshees, paying homage to their New Wave roots. We had the chance to pick the brain of singer Becky Ninkovic amidst her crazy schedule. Here is what the songstress had to say…

ASHLEIGH—Hi Becky Ninkovic. So, where is Ninkovic from? What is your background?

BECKY—Hi Ashleigh. My dad is Ninkovic, that’s Croatian, and my mom is from California, but German background.

A—Do you have relatives in Croatia?

B—Far off relatives live there. I went there when I was fresh out of high school and my friend and I decided to go to Europe for… forever, really. When we left we were like,“Let’s never come home…” [laughs] So we ended up only going for three and a half weeks. I got to meet with some of my family and reconnect with the language, because my dad never really talked much Croatian at home. It was more the language used between my Baba and him when they didn’t want us to understand what they were talking about.

A—How did you respond to the language when you were visiting?

B—It came really easily, even though I’m not even close to being fluent, it felt really familiar. I remember just a sense of feeling at home there, in a way that I hadn’t felt anywhere else before. So, that’s the blood in me speaking.

A—Can you say something in it? I’d love to hear Croatian.

B—Um, “volim te,” That’s “I love you”.

A—volim te?

B—Yeah, volim te.

A—That’s nice.

B—Thanks.

A—Okay, so you are the front woman of You Say Party!, We Say Die!. You are obviously in the band full time but when you’re not touring or recording what do you do?

B—I work in a group home, supporting six ladies with various disabilities and mental illnesses.   They need a lot of support with their daily needs. Mostly a lot of it comes down to just helping them understand what they’re feeling, how to engage with each other, how to have relationships with one another, just helping them understand their dynamics and working alongside them. It’s always interesting, it’s always new, there is no routine, you know? Specific things like autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, you have to make certain things repetitive, but they’re very intricate, complex, unique individuals that go through changes and change throughout their life too, so in that way things stay interesting.

A—That must be extremely rewarding work.

B—Yeah. I love it.

A—You were on the front of the Georgia Straight not too long ago… in the article you talked about touring, getting super exhausted and how you got to a point where you were kind of…

B—…burning the candle at both ends? Pretty much.

A—Yeah.

B—I definitely survived this last tour a lot better. I mean, the fact that I’m here right now… [laughs] Usually I crash and burn at the end of tours and I don’t leave my house for a week or two, or however long. I kind of hit the ground running this time and I haven’t stopped yet.

A—Mm hmm…

B—I can definitely feel a need to take some time out and just get some proper sleep, proper nutrition and all of that going again, but it’s hard on the road, because everything’s working against you. You’re dehydrated from the very act of traveling, movement in vehicles and then you add booze and whatever else into the mix…

A—…No Sleep Club.

B—Yeah, no sleep, and we’re playing at like, midnight, one o’clock, most nights.  We’re not even out of the venue until three or four and then the long drives in Canada require you to wake up super early.

A—I hate that. It’s the worst, isn’t it? Why can’t all the cities in Canada just be super close together?

B—Totally.

]]> http://thelabmagazineonline.com/2010/02/you-say-party-we-say-die/feed/ 0