Kimya Dawson interview

We called up our dear old friend Kimya Dawson for a chat about her new album and her upcoming tour of Australia:

 

“It just sort of happened.”

Kimya Dawson's seventh album, Thunder Thighs, is an unexpectedly expansive affair. Covering everything from gentle acoustic folk, big choral numbers, ten-minute epics and some rapping, it lands a long way from her initial vision. “My original plan was to do a home-recorded four-track album, just like my first three records. It didn't work out that way.”

In fact, at one stage, it looked like it might not work out at all, as Kimya found herself suffering a serious bout of writer's block, which occurred after she had given birth to her daughter, Panda, “I made [kids' album] Alphabutt and The Bundles' album with Jeffrey [Lewis], but I was really struggling for a while with writing my own stuff. It was like I was clogged.” This led to her assuming that she would have to put down the guitar once and for all, until everything became clear. “It took me a couple of years to realise that's supposed to happen when you have a kid; your brain is supposed to just focus on them. Then, as your child becomes more independent, your brain starts to work again.”

So, gradually the words and the melodies started to flow once more, and it became apparent that they were taking a different shape. Kimya explains how certain songs felt loud to her when she played them and that there was something bigger about them in her mind that she couldn't really place. Many of these new compositions grew to the point that they would no longer make sense were they recorded at home alone. So she got others involved, including the Olympia Free Choir, Aesop Rock, Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes and even Panda, who is now five. “There are so many parts of the album which are about coming together with, and leaning on, your friends. I had all of these people, both in the Olympia community and the wider music community, available to be a part of this project. It was really a gift. The first song (below) and the last song on the album are recorded alone on the four-track, and I figured they would be good bookends because that was the original intention, but in between, the whole process just got way big. It felt really good to let all these different elements that co-exist in my life right now come together. I have this choir stuff and there is this quiet, alone stuff and then there is, you know, getting to know people in the hip hop world. And I have a kid, so some of the songs feel really kiddish.”

However, along with its fun elements, Thunder Thighs still contains the kind of raw emotion you would expect from a Kimya Dawson record. Indeed, Walk Like Thunder finds the songwriter at her most vulnerable ever. The tough, ten-minute journey deals with her near-overdose ten years ago and the tragi death of two of her friends to illness. “Some of the songs were really hard on my soul. I had to just push through. As I was writing Walk Like Thunder, I didn't think I would ever play it. Admitting that kind of vulnerability was one of the only things that I had left because I've told people everything about me. Admitting to feeling like I wasn't taking care of myself was a really hard one.”

While she says she avoids writing love songs, there is little else she won't address. Another subject that the softly spoken and wonderfully friendly Kimya touches upon on her new record is the inverted snobbery she has experienced since Juno. “I don't give a shit what people think about me,” she shrugs. “But people were badmouthing kids who were just getting into me after they'd seen Juno. I'd get emails saying, 'I was a fan before Juno. Not like all these fake fans. You must hate your new fans.' And I was like, 'Really? You think I would hate them?' It's weird, the elitist 'I liked this before you did' attitude. People get into what they get into. Once music enters your being, you can't change how your brain responds to it. Today I posted on Twitter saying 'I feel like listening to Dave Matthews,' and someone replied, 'Dave Matthews sucks. I'm really disappointed in you for saying that.' I was like, 'What? So what if I like Dave Matthews? My brain might like Dave Matthews. Is it not cool to like something that you like?'” To qualify this point, she adds, “I listen to Phil Collins all the time. You can't control what you're into.”

If you happen to be into Kimya Dawson and you live in Australia, then the good news is that she is heading there soon for the first time since 2008, and is looking forward to being fully fit this time round. “I was having a really hard time with tendinitis in my wrist,” she says of her only other visit. “I was in a lot of pain. So I'm excited to come back and to feel like I am really there. There are a lot of new songs and the shows are a little different.” Ah yes, that brings us to the rapping. Kimya will be performing with American rapper and producer Aesop Rock, who she worked with on Thunder Thighs. Along with their mates Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz, they'll spend much of the evening sharing a stage. “There are songs where I'm playing guitar and singing and he's rapping. Then I play my acoustic set and he comes up for one of the songs from my album and one of the songs from our collaborative album [set to be released next year]. Then he does his set and I come back out and we do some more songs together.”

The lust for life and energy that is displayed throughout much of Thunder Thighs suggests that Dawson is absolutely loving working together with Aesop Rock. When she talks about it, she does so with unabashed enthusiasm. “I haven't felt this way about writing with somebody since Adam [Green] and I started writing together [in The Moldy Peaches]. Adam and I evolved and the feeling wasn't there any more. I didn't necessarily miss doing it with that person, but I did miss having that connection with somebody artistically. You almost have the same brain. Where one person stops, the other begins.”

Catch Kimya here: 
Oct 14- Sydney Australia - Manning Bar
Oct 15- Melbourne Australia- Melbourne Arts Festival- The Forum
Oct 16- Brisbane Australia- The Hi Fi

Interview by Bobby Townsend. It was first featured in Sydney's Drum Media. Click the below picture of Kimya and Bobby to read their previous interview from 2008.

Kimya Dawson to release new album!

Here at Bobbysix.com, we've been friends with Kimya Dawson for years and years. We first fell in love with her music when she was one half of the too-amazing-for-words Moldy Peaches with that crazy son of a gun Adam Green. Then we met her through a charity thing we were involved in and have always followed her solo career with love and interest - through her early stuff to her lovely kids' album via, of course, Juno.

She is one of the loveliest human beings on the planet; so full of warmth and love and kindness.

Anyway, the exciting news is that she has a new record out soon. It features appearances by Aesop Rock, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Nikolai Fraiture of the Strokes, Forever Young Senior Citizen Rock and Roll Choir, Olympia Free Choir and more. As a little teaser, here is a live clip of one of the songs that is included in the album. It is typically honest and heart-wrenching. And the video features some cool chickens.

Friends of Mine

You may have noticed a little widget down the bottom of the right hand side of the page. If not, check it out as it links you to some of my dear friends' blogs that I think are really rather good. Amongst the wry wit of Portsmouth's own Rhys Jones and the freelance writings of Guy Wilkinson and Colin (once, twice, three times) Delaney, you'll find blogs from Sydney's two finest photographers, Cybele Malinowski and Daniel Boud (above).

There are some owls and some pipsqueaks, and, amongst others, a newish fashion related offering from Sydney-based model Olivia Dunn Frost (below) and her sister Emerald. (If you would like your blog added to the blogroll, then drop me a line).

As for this blog, I'm looking to add to the music-related gubbins by branching out a little further, so keep your eyes open for interviews with people from the world of film, TV, fashion and many other creative areas.

Adam Green - Minor Love

Six solo albums on from The Moldy Peaches' indefinite hiatus, Adam Green has gone back to his roots. After albums that have offered lush strings, ambitious arrangements and, on last album Sixes & Sevens, a shimmering mix of swing, soul and jazz, Minor Love lands back in the anti-folk realm of his magnificent debut, Garfield. By playing almost every instrument on the record and recording it in one go, the New York-based artist may have stripped things back, but this is no regression. In fact, he shows an emotional maturity never before offered in his usually flippant and potty-mouthed lyrics. You see, this is Adam Green's break-up record.

Following the end of his marriage, Minor Love finds Green in introspective mood, and Breaking Locks is a downbeat start: "I've been too awful to ever be thoughtful, to ever be nice." If it weren't for that distinctive baritone croon, you'd struggle to believe this was someone more used to penning words like “There's no wrong way to fuck a girl with no legs.” However, this isn't a journey through tear-soaked self-pity, there are still sniggering mentions of flatulence in his often cryptic lyrics, but more so than ever, there are really interesting themes and stories which punctuate sadness with moments of optimism.

Jumping between acoustic ditties and occasionally ramshackle garage-rock songs, Minor Love may not contain the obvious, leftfield pop gems that have been scattered through his previous albums, but it is his most coherent record to date and finds a happy middle-ground between Adam Green's deliciously irreverent past and a new sense of humility and depth.

2008 end of year review

I’ve always loved a good list. Here is my best and worst of 2008 (please feel free to leave your own lists in the comments section):TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. The Felice Brothers THE FELICE BROTHERS (above)
2. Fantasy Black Channel LATE OF THE PIER
3. Alas, I Cannot Swim LAURA MARLING
4. Dog House Music SEASICK STEVE
5. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS
6. Twenty One MYSTERY JETS
7. Alphabutt KIMYA DAWSON
8. Sixes & Sevens ADAM GREEN
9. Only By The Night KINGS OF LEON
10. Sunday At Devil Dirt ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN

TOP 5 SINGLES
1. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You BLACK KIDS
2. Sex On Fire KINGS OF LEON
3. Paris Is Burning LADYHAWKE
4. Young Love MYSTERY JETS
5. American Boy ESTELLE

TOP 5 ARTISTS
1. Kimya Dawson
2. Angus & Julia Stone (read my bio of them here)
3. Ladyhawke (above)
4. Laura Marling
5. Late Of The Pier

TOP 10 GIGS
1. Kimya Dawson, Manning Bar
2. Arcade Fire, Big Day Out
3. Angus & Julia Stone, Enmore Theatre
4. Adam Green, Oxford Art Factory
5. Bridezilla, Annandale Hotel
6. SoKo, Oxford Art Factory
7. Rage Against The Machine, Big Day Out (below)
8. Cassette Kids, Oxford Art Factory
9. Cat Power, Enmore Theatre
10. Kate Nash, Oxford Art Factory
TOP 3 RADIO SHOWS
1. Mark Kermode’s Film Reviews, BBC Radio Five Live
2. Ricky Gervais podcast
3. BBC Radio Five Live football podcast

TOP 5 ONLINE DESTINATIONS
1. Youtube
2. Surf The Channel
3. Owl and the Grapes
4. Facebook
5. Myspace

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)
Australian TV show Underbelly about Melbourne gangsters. It was based on truth but played out like a high-school production of The Sopranos. Everyone went mad for it though. “OMG, have you seen Underbelly?” they would enthuse. “Yes,” I would respond. “But I wish I hadn’t because it’s shit.”

HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR
Well, the sky-blue leather jacket (above) I picked up in Vinnies for $10 was a pretty seminal moment in my year but, in terms of worldwide ramifications, I suppose it comes a close second to Obama’s victory.

QUOTES OF THE YEAR
“Sorry.”
"I try really hard actually." Michael Cera speaks for all indie boys when Juno tells him he's cool without even having to try.

TOP FILMS
1. Juno
2. Young At Heart
3. No Country For Old Men
4. The Dark Knight

WHAT’S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING SOMEONE WILL BLAME ON THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN DURING 2009?
The titanic flop that will be Jet’s third album.

PREDICTIONS FOR 2009
The Smiths to reform.

2008 IN REVIEW
It’s been an interesting year over here in Sydney. The world went into financial meltdown, Sydney brimmed with nuns for World Youth Day, everyone (deservedly) went crazy for a little film about a pregnant teenager, the NSW Government imploded and America surprisingly got it right with its Presidential election.
Musically, a look at my top ten suggests many of the big-hitters failed to perform this year, but, more positively, lots of up-and-coming Sydney acts – including Ghostwood, Mercy Arms and Angus & Julia Stone – have represented Australia well overseas. A big disappointment was the cancellation of The Great Escape Festival. This is a wonderful event, so if it returns next year, buy your tickets early to avoid the same thing happening.

Interviewing my old mate Kimya (above) was a lovely moment for me, as was interviewing another couple of heroes of mine, Adam Green and Albert Hammond, Jr. Seeing Kimya play twice in one day was great, and watching two of my dearest friends fill the Enmore two nights running made me brim with pride.

Anyway, Happy New Year. I hope the credit crunch doesn’t hit you too harshly in 2009. I doubt it will affect me, as I never had any money in the first place.

Adam Green - Oxford Art Factory

ADAM GREEN
SONGS
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst, 16/12/08

Sydney-based Songs opened the evening sounding a bit like The Go Betweens. While the set was slightly too long to retain momentum throughout, the four-piece offered intelligence in their sound and there were some stirring moments, as they carefully built up layers with guitars, keys, drums, bass and male/female vocals.

Backed by a makeshift band including Operator Please’s Chris Holland, Adam Green’s baritone croon sounded delicious during opener Emily. Dressed in a pink leather jacket, skin-tight purple jeans, silver shoes and no shirt, the New Yorker had a maniacal look in his eyes as he danced bizarrely – like a cross between Iggy Pop and a child high from too much soda. Before crowd-surfing his way through Broadcast Beach, he gleefully informed the crowd that, on this, his debut Sydney appearance, he was really, really drunk.

While there were obviously lots of tunes from his latest record, the brevity of Green’s compositions meant he was also able to extensively revisit his back-catalogue. It was a high-energy affair as he rattled off Gemstones and Friends Of Mine, and occasionally he had to bring the tempo down simply to catch a breath. After he embarked on some more crowd-surfing (this time topless, as his jacket had long-since been discarded), the highlight of the night came when he stood alone on stage and performed an acoustic rendition of Mozzarella Swastikas. The cryptic nature of the lyrics were typical of Green’s style: “He fed my dolphin stars/Like you’d put gasoline in cars,” he sang. His band soon rejoined him as he played further tracks from his debut album. Dance With Me got the crowd moving with its suitably jaunty chorus and Baby’s Gonna Die Tonight ended the set with a bang. After an encore which included the nasty No Legs (“There’s no wrong way to fuck a girl with no legs/Just tell her you love her as she’s crawling away”) and crowd-favourite Carolina, Green left the stage looking exhausted.

The show was always fun and occasionally insane, but the craziness on offer shouldn’t detract from the fact that, above anything, Green is a fantastic songwriter who can segue so many musical styles with incredible comfort. It takes some talent to go from a Sinatra-style croon to a post-punk holler all within the same song and make it work. It may have taken this unique artist five albums to make it to Sydney, but it was worth the wait.

Review by Rob Townsend

Adam Green interview

ADAM GREEN ENTERTAINS ROB TOWNSEND WITH TALES OF TRANSSEXUALS, SWEATY GROINS, VOMITING AND GHOSTBUSTERS

“I like it when my balls get all sweaty. I like it when it makes this special smell. I rub it on my neck like cologne. It’s quite attractive.”

Adam Green is not your everyday interviewee. Within 30 seconds of our conversation beginning, the American indie crooner has already gone off at the strangest tangent. “Something compelled me to think that if I put cologne on my neck before I went to bed I would have particularly good dreams. It worked for a while but the only problem is they were all about transsexuals giving me blowjobs,” the lynchpin of the New York scene tells me in answer to a question I think had something to do with his upcoming debut tour of Australia. He goes on, “Anyway, with the cologne being thrown in the garbage, those dreams have dissipated. Now I just like ball-sweat on my neck before I go to bed. I dream about hockey,” he says with such disappointment that I feel compelled to tell him there are certain places in Sydney he can go if he would like to meet some real-life transsexuals. “I don’t really want a transsexual hooker,” he interjects. “I just want to have a lovely transsexual that follows me everywhere and is really pretty and cuddles me at night.”

Wrestling the conversation back to Green’s first visit to this country, I discover that financial constraints mean he’ll be without his trusty backing musicians for the tour. “If I brought my band – like, five guys – it would cost a fucking fortune to do just one trip, not to mention the actual tour,” he frowns. While arriving alone is not ideal, Green has excitedly recruited a temporary band for his time here, and it might contain a few familiar faces. “I ended up hooking up with those guys from Operator Please. They helped me to put a band together that mostly just involves friends of theirs, and some people from Operator Please might also play. Maybe I’ll even do some stuff with strings with them.”

Though Green has never played here before, either as a solo artist or as part of legendary anti-folk band The Moldy Peaches, talk turns to the last time I saw him play in London a few years back. This sends the conversation hurtling in another random direction. “Oh yeah, that was a fun show but a crazy, horrible day for me because the night before I had gotten food-poisoning. I’d never had food-poisoning and always prided myself on having an iron stomach. All of a sudden… holy shit. I threw up 500 times. This shit wanted to leave my motherfucking body.” Barely stopping for breath, he regales me further, his chatter mirroring his lyrical style: funny, leftfield, snappy and littered with expletives. “I was watching that show Cribs. It was [American actor/comedian] Pauly Shore’s house. He is such a sleazeball, lowlife jerk-off. He was showing me his schmucky, stupid house. Then all of a sudden I threw the fuck up over everything.”

Considering how Green clearly enjoys veering away from the straightforward question slash answer dynamic of an interview, I ask just how bored he has gotten of being asked about Juno – the movie which ends with Michael Cera and Ellen Page singing Moldy Peaches’ song Anyone Else But You. “I don’t mind it,” he shrugs. “I’ve been a fan of Michael Cera and Ellen Page for a while and I am excited about the movie but, yeah, who wants to talk about Juno all the time? I like Ghostbusters too but I don’t talk about it every fucking day. The Ghostbusters song is probably twice as good as Anyone Else But You,” he laughs. Sardonically, he adds, “But, yes, Anyone Else But You is wonderful. Kimya [Dawson] and I wrote that shit together and it was impossible. You could never probably fucking do it. Never. Nobody. Just us. And we should be paid for it so handsomely.”

And with that tongue-in-cheek outburst, our time together comes to an end all too quickly. No time even to discuss his latest album, Sixes & Sevens, which is a delightful journey through folk, swing, indie, jazz, and honky-tonk. Before he bids me farewell though, he temporarily ditches his delicious irreverence in order to look forward – five albums into his solo career – to finally arriving in Australia. “I wish Moldy Peaches had come to Australia,” he laments. “It’s weird to me that this is the first time.” Though it’s taken him a while to get here, he promises fans heading to Oxford Art Factory that it will have been worth the wait. “I do believe in an old-style rock show. It’s really going to rock the house.”

Kimya Dawson interview

ROB TOWNSEND TALKS TO KIMYA DAWSON AS SHE PREPARES TO VISIT AUSTRALIA FOR THE FIRST TIME

When I last saw Kimya Dawson a couple of years ago, she hugged me. Not just me though; upon finishing her show in a tiny English venue, she hugged pretty much everyone in the audience. This is a typical way for her end a gig, and sums up the strong bond between the American singer/songwriter and her loyal fan-base.

Since forming anti-folk band The Moldy Peaches, Kimya has released five acclaimed solo albums, and through this year’s hit movie, Juno, has permeated the consciousness of mainstream music audiences. Her songs soundtrack many moments in the film and Ellen Page and Michael Cera sing the Moldy Peaches track, Anyone Else But You, in the closing scene. “I was on the set when they filmed that. Those kids were just super sweet. I know they were nervous I was there.”

The overwhelming impact of Juno means Kimya is hot property. While she is happy plying her trade in her own wonderfully understated and DIY way, record companies have been unsuccessfully dangling carrots in front of her in an attempt to cash in on the film’s success. “One of the super-huge ones offered me tons of money to do a publishing/album deal,” she sighs. “I told them: ‘No. I’m not going to make any albums you like and you’re going to pressure me into doing advertisements and projects that I’ll refuse to do.’ I don’t what to have the stress of dealing with somebody trying to convince me that something is a good idea.” She also recently turned down a request from McDonalds to use her music in their commercials.
 

Kimya has never been interested in fame or wealth, and although her raised profile finds her playing to bigger crowds, she tries to retain the intimacy her performances are renowned for. With just an acoustic guitar accompanying her delicate vocal and deeply personal lyrics, her gigs are captivating experiences. “I still do some small shows and house shows and I’ve always pushed for all-ages shows. I’ve been finding bigger spaces that still feel total comfortable, like old abandoned renovated churches that can hold a shitload of people, so that they can still be big but have a really good energy and vibe and not just be like, you know, a dude bar vibe, but to have an artistic feel.” She is always happy to deviate from her set-list too, although an injury is restricting her from being able to play her entire repertoire. “I think I’m getting tendonitis. My hand has just been fucked and my finger is hurting me so I’ve just been modifying the songs. I’ve just been playing them with my thumb which is how they were written. There are a couple of songs that I’m struggling to be able to play. I haven’t been able to play The Beer for a few weeks.”

However, happy as she is to take requests, don’t expect to hear any Moldy Peaches tracks. “Some people feel cheated that they don’t find out until they’ve bought a ticket that I’m not going to [play Moldy Peaches songs], but I’m like: ‘Wouldn’t you feel more cheated hearing a half-assed version?’”

While Kimya’s most-recent album, Remember That I Love You is new to people who have only recently chanced upon her because of Juno, it is actually over two years old. Excitingly, a new album has been recorded, and is due this year. She is just hoping to find a window in her hectic schedule to complete the artwork; if only there were more hours in the day. “It’s funny because I also had to do the artwork before we left on our last tour and I didn’t manage to do it then. Every day that I don’t get it done is just pushing the album release back a little bit.”

Arriving in Australia on the back of American and UK tours, Kimya admits she never thought life would turn out this way. “Becoming a professional musician wasn’t my dream growing up. We [The Moldy Peaches] just made up some songs, played them a couple of times, knew some dudes [The Strokes] that were getting big and who asked us to tour with them. We were like: ‘Weird. Okay.’ It was all pretty accidental. I went from being like: ‘I make expresso,’ to being like: ‘Wait a minute, I’m in Japan!’ It wasn’t like I set that as a goal and then worked at it for years. It just kinda happened. It is pretty surreal but I think I would have always ended up travelling anyway, so I feel super lucky.”

Her Sydney dates will be family affairs, with support coming from husband Angelo Spencer (above). Their 23-month old daughter, Panda (also above), will also be travelling with them. The combination of being a doting Mum and playing in larger venues gives touring a slightly different dynamic for Kimya and means, understandably, that she isn’t always able to hang out with all of her fans after shows. “A girl in Nebraska got really mad at me because I needed to get out of the venue and run back to the hotel to check on Panda. She said: ‘You loved having your picture taken with people before Panda was born.’ I was like: ‘Are you serious? You really want me to neglect my child so you can have a picture to show your friends?’”

While the affection between Kimya and her devotees makes such an encounter anomalous, her nature is such that she still wishes she could oblige every single request. “If I could be in ten places at once I would totally give them everything they need. I really try to give a lot of myself but sometimes people are like: ‘No, I need more. I can’t just have a hug. I need a hug, a picture, an autograph and I want you to call my friend on my cell phone,’” she laughs. Generally though, she loves engaging with fans; a fact that is illustrated by how pleased she is to receive my phone-call: “I’ve really been looking forward to this interview, because I know you’ve been following along for a while,” she excitedly tells me. During our conversation, the amity with which she chats to a long-term fan like me perfectly illustrates just how much she cares about the people who listen to her music. As Australia is set to find out, although fame and fortune have come a-knocking, Kimya Dawson remains quite the most sincere, grounded and kind-hearted person one could hope to encounter.

Interview by Rob Townsend

Adam Green - Sixes and Sevens

ADAM GREEN
Sixes & Sevens

With his profile raised by the part Moldy Peaches’ music played in Juno, the fifth solo album from New York’s Adam Green is gaining more attention than his preceding outings, so it is particularly pleasing that Sixes & Sevens is a fine collection of songs.

Following the disappointment of his previous long-player, the aggressive Jacket Full of Danger, Green rediscovers his charm as he dips in and out of a host of differing styles. His tongue-in-cheek, obscure lyrics are delivered with that familiar baritone cabaret croon, most pleasingly on the swing of Morning After Midnight and the Leonard Cohen-esque Getting Led, which comes complete with female backing choir. Elsewhere he takes a stroll through soul and jazz, while Exp 1 revisits the stripped back anti-folk style of his debut. Similarly, a duet with girlfriend Loribeth Capella on Drowning Head First is reminiscent of the Moldy Peaches at their most tender.

The beautifully produced, 20-song album is all over in 48 minutes, meaning there isn’t much meat to the bones here, but then we have come to expect that from Green, whose tracks are always so succinct that it seems unnecessary for them to last more than three minutes.

Sixes & Sevens really doesn’t play like an album but rather a random journey through the musical genres of the 50s and 60s. However, while its overtly eclectic nature makes for a noticeably incoherent body of work, a few of the individual songs represent some of his finest output to date, making this a marvelous return to form.