Interview: Kathryn Calder

 

Kathryn Calder started her musical career in the band Inmaculate Machine, which she left after 2 albums and 4 Eps because it was impossible to coordinate with her new role in the New Pornographers, band that she joined before “Twin Cinema” and she is still with them. During 2009 she saved some time for the recording of her first solo album which was released in 2010, called “Are you my mother?” and that was the second best album of the year for this blog. All those musical projects are worth listening and we are also looking forward for her new songs. Now, just before the start of her first proper tour to promote her first solo album in the US, she has been kind enough to answer the questions of this blog. Here is the result.

You started your music career in the band Inmaculate Machine, which you left in 2008, what are your views about that stage?

I love those guys and I grew up in that band. We had so many crazy experiences and did so much travelling together, we became family.

 

In the album “Fables” you got Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand and the Cribs to do the backing vocals of “Jarhand, how did that happen? Do you still keep in touch with them?

The Cribs were recording in Vancouver with Alex Kapranos producing, and our producers invited them to get a tour of the studio where we were recording. We needed a gang vocal done, and it was perfect. We were so happy they were willing to sing on our album.

Interview: The Lucksmiths

About 8 or 9 years ago, while I was writting tof a fanzie called Starshy (when fanzines were still printed paper) I had the pleasure of interviewing Marty Donald from The Lucksmiths, just before the band finished the recording of “Naturaliste”. Since then, the band released “Naturaliste”, “Warmer corners”, a double compilation with rarities and b-sides “Spring a leak” and “First frost”. Then the band decide to break up and started a long farewell tour around Europe and Australia, which last ever farewell show was recorded and just released in a new DVD called “Unfamiliar stars” by Lost and Lonesome Recordings and Matinee Recordings, including a short documentary about the last days of the band. In this blog we’ve always been big fans of The Lucksmiths (we reviewed their whole discography in Spanish here and here) so we could let go the chance of interviewing Marty Donald once again and ask all those things that sprang to our minds since the previous interview. Here you have the result, a sincere an extense interview that would clarify a lot of you doubts about the past, and maybe future of this great band.

Try to go back to your first years in the band and tell me what the younger Marty Donald from “First tape” would have thought if he would have listened at that time “First frost”… Would he recognise himself in those songs? And does the older Marty Donald still recognise himself in “First tape”?

I’m not sure what I would have thought of First Frost all those years ago. I might have found it a little slow in places! But I think there are enough common threads running from our early work to the last songs we wrote that I would have found plenty to like in them. I would have been impressed by some of our musicianship, too — particularly my finger-picking in “California in Popular Song”! I’ve had to listen to the First Tape songs a bit lately, as my young son really enjoys it (no more than First Frost, though!), and I don’t enjoy it at all. I mostly find them hopelessly naive and embarrassing. The one exception is “Weatherboard”, which we revisited for our farewell shows, and which I think stands up surprisingly well amongst our later work.

Interview: Math and Physics Club

Math and physics club (hereinafter, MAPC) are an Indie pop band based in Seattle (though the members live in different cities in the USA), they released two beautiful EPs in 2005 for Matinée recordings and they already caught our attention. Two years later, in 2007, they released their first album, with such wonderful songs as “Darling , please come home”, “la la Lisa” or “April showers” (since then, one of my favourite songs ever). After that, they remained a bit aside from the music scene, the band members were reduced from five to three, until 2010, when they released their first 7” “Jimmy had a polaroid” that later would be included into “I shouldn’t look as good as I do”, their second album. It was one of the best albums from 2010 (in fact, it was number 9 in the top ten of albums 2010 for this blog). MAPC songs are indiepop songs, apparently easy, direct, without tricks, as the best pop songs should be. They make music just because they love music, and we are lucky because we can enjoy those songs, because a record doesn’t need to be overproduced to be able to move you. Charles Bert, voice and rythim guitar in the band, has been kind enough to answer some questions for this blog, and here is the result.

Can you tell us something about how did you form the band? Why did you choose that name?

CB: James and I have been friends since we were kids, and we’ve either been in a band together or talked about being in a band together for nearly as long. We came up with the band name before we actually had any bandmates. It was inspired by a line in the movie The Breakfast Club, which we watched a lot in high school.