Warpaint

BRM has done it again. We've hunted down, captured and documented the most innovative and exciting artists to recently emerge on a number of different scenes. All month long we’ll be running interviews with our discoveries to help get you ready for what’s to come in 2010. But to get a complete look at our full list of emerging artists, check out our current winter issue.

It was starting to seem like all-female bands were a dime a dozen, especially if you were looking for one that didn’t completely suck. But the ladies of Warpaint are representing for everyone and their moms, proving psychedelia isn’t just for the boys.

The L.A. based trio of Jenny Lee Lindberg, Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal have been experimenting with their sound for around five years, playing shows in L.A. and going through a handful of drummers. In fact the search for a drummer was still ongoing, though when I spoke to her, Lindberg was hopeful that they had found the girl (Stella Mozgawa) who would bring them back to their estrogen-fueled roots.

Of course, the core of the band has always been the three ladies, who consider themselves to be a complete collaborative. All three share vocals and songwriting duties, but the girls aren’t writing any emotionally charged ballads. Nope, instead Lindberg believes (discounting their clearly feminine vocals) it’s hard to call them a “girl band.”  Though they’re not necessarily going to follow in the combat boot trail of the riot grrrls, we can definitely score one for the girl’s team.

While Lindberg was relaxing at home in California, we got a chance to chat about feminism, Billie Holiday, and simple music, which despite what you might have thoughy, isn’t always a bad thing.

BRM: Everything I read says you guys are “experimental.” Do you think this is a good description for your music or is it a little too broad?

Jenny Lee Lindberg: Actually experimental is kind of awesome, better than boring or simple. Actually, you know what, there’s actually nothing wrong with simple, I take that back. It means… experimental, like we’re not really afraid to take chances we’re kind of just going with it, experimenting, and it’s just they get that.

You girls started working on the band in 2004. Did the music sound like it does now, or were you working on something much different?

Well we’ve been a band on and off for 5 years. We recorded the EP a few years ago…we definitely went through a lot of changes, starting the band off with four girls, the other girl being my sister (Shannyn Sossaman), then her leaving, us breaking up for a little while and then getting back together as a three piece, Theresa, Emily, and I. Doing that for about eight months and writing new songs. Theresa was playing the drums so it was a totally different sound than Theresa playing the guitar and singing. We did that for awhile, then my sister got back into the band and then from there we sort of took off where we had left off. When we broke up the band again and had somebody else come and play drums with us we wrote newer songs with him. We just did the tour and [we’re] getting ready to record songs again and the new songs… you can tell that it’s Warpaint. It’s just the next step in the evolution of our music. It’s definitely a bit more mature, the writing process and the songs we come up with, but it still sounds very much like us, which is great. The music…still fits in with the songs that we wrote for the EP.

Since you recorded a while ago, do you sort of listen to it and wish you could change anything?

When I listen to the EP…it’s almost like I like it more than when it was first done. I wouldn’t want to change anything. I think when we play a live show we’ll jam it, make it longer, but I love the way that it is.

John Frusciante produced your EP. How did he get involved?

Well Emily and him…were boyfriend and girlfriend for like 3 years. So we met him before, and he was very supportive, really supportive, probably the most supportive person ever that we had during that process, still is a very dear friend.

I read that you guys are a four piece with a drummer that is constantly changing, but in recent interviews it says your drummer is Josh Klinghoffer. Is he now the permanent drummer?

Once my sister left the band again, we were going, booking a bunch of shows a month away, we had our really good friend David Orlando come and play drums. We needed someone to fill her shoes. He just default, became our drummer, that wasn’t really working. We created the band with four girls and there was a certain sound that we created together that we were really in love with. So since then we’ve really been trying to fill that, reach to find that. We’ve had drummers imitating what she had recorded on the EP and it was always just a little bit different. The feeling, it wasn’t bad, it was just different. At the end of the day it wasn’t super fulfilling or what we were looking for. I mean he was awesome and an amazing drummer and he has a great style, it was just kind of, going different ways and we just kind of wanted to go in a different direction, a little more flexible and not the same sound.

So when he left, Josh, who was my boy friend at the time… was like, “I’ll work with you guys during this transition.” He then did that and wrote three songs with us and played a bunch of shows with us. He’s got his own thing going and he’s really busy so that was never really a permanent thin. We basically had this tour booked, that we just did, and found this guy Quinn who’s on Manimal Vinyl who just released our EP, and he went on tour, we hired him, he was like a session drummer. There was no writing with him, he just learned the songs and now, this is really funny, we’re about to record a record and we have this girl, Stella, who’s phenomenal and amazing and she’s going to play with us and hopefully just be in our band because it would be real nice and we’d go back to being an all girl band which is really, pretty powerful and really cool and also the way we started.

Since you’re an all-girl band, is there a sort of feminist side to the music or is it just assumed that there is because you’re all girls?

It’s not about “Oh, we want to be an all girl band. We have to be an all girl band.” It’s about finding the right person who has the sensitivity, is intuitive, because the three of us girls are very intuitive with each other musically and we really enjoy writing with each other. Unlike other all-girl bands, there’s not really many of them, I wouldn’t actually say we write music like girls. Like if I heard it, other than listening to the vocals, which is obviously girls, I wouldn’t necessarily think, “Oh, that’s a girl band.” We’ve all played music for a long time and all practice really hard and I don’t think we approached music in a way that’s super feminine. You know, I feel like I definitely don’t.

Also right now in California there seems to be sort of this female movement. With you guys, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast and Glasser sort of playing this organic, psychedelic sort of dream pop. Do you think something’s in the water?

You know, I don’t know. I think times are changing….and I’m not trying to dis California people in music, but they’re probably like a lot of cool bands and a lot more cool music than there’s been in a long time coming out of L.A. I would probably even say there’s cooler shit going on outside of California. Maybe it’s just the time. I think people sort of, not copy or hop on, but [we’re] all sort of experiencing life at the same time and what’s happening now I think people are influenced by similar things. I wouldn’t say it’s this specific thing in music. It’s probably bigger than that.

You guys seem to work very close with each other, what is the writing process like?

We’re a total collaborative outfit. I’ll bring in a bass line that I have, and Theresa put a guitar part in and Emily will write lyrics or put a guitar part in. Or Theresa will come in with a guitar part or Emily will just kind of bring in an idea and allow space for what’s going on. Often times we’ll just go in a room and start playing at the same time and just jamming and intuitively listen to one another and the song will just kind of write itself.

I had heard that when you first started playing live you would just create songs onstage.

Well, I wouldn’t say every song, we definitely like to begin our set with a jam, just something free, get loose, it’s really, it creates comfortability on stage and just kind of be loose. Let’s get loose, get comfortable, start the set with a jam and we end the set with a jam, just to kind of close it off. Sometimes when you’re playing shows, it’s hard to separate yourself from the audience or from being conscious and aware that you’re being watched, you know what I mean? It’s a little awkward at first. I would say for me at the very beginning, it was like, “Gosh, this is making me nervous I wish that the lights were off” or “I wish I could turn my back to them and really concentrate on the music.” After a while that feeling goes away, you get really comfortable on stage, it’s like…the most comfortable place to be ever. Creating that element of “let’s just be loose” and basically, we’re at our band space and connecting with each other. So basically opening our set with a jam and ending our set with a jam creates that connection with each other and we know we’re here and we’re connected. We’re making music and no one’s looking.

You mention that you begin and end your set with a jam. Do you consider yourselves to be a jam band?

I wouldn’t say, “Oh, we’re a jam band.” I would say that’s an element in our music and that’s how it’s created, sort of go with the flow. I don’t know why there’s such a negative connotation of it. People think it’s a genre of music, it’s like anybody could be a jam band. [It] sort of just means to me you’re kind of just free flowing, nothing’s planned, you’re improvising, I think the more you’re able to do that solidifies you really truly being a musician. Being able to just go with the flow and be honest and just listening, really listening to what’s going on.

You guys will be going on tour with Akron/Family soon. How did you hook up with those guys?

You know I actually never listened to Akron/Family. It had been on my iPod forever, but I never really listened to them. Emily was like, “Hey, Akron/Family wants to go on tour with us.” So I listened to it and was like this is really amazing. One of the guys, Miles, he wrote the coolest email ever that said he wanted the tour to be super amazing. He wanted to exchange music and do a cover of each other’s songs. He’s never met us and wanted to get acquainted. I think that’s nice if you connect with the people you’re on tour with. I’m into the idea of going on stage with them, playing with them, and having them come on and play with us and making an even bigger extended family. It makes for a good show.

One of the most talked about songs is “Billie Holiday” which is sort of cover, but not really. How did you guys come up with the idea for that song?

Well, Emily had the guitar part for a long time, jamming around with it. We were in Deep Cove, Canada to record an album ourselves with an 8-track. Basically there was a poster of Billie on the wall and before the words were Billie Holiday it was just la la las. She just looked at the picture and was like, “Shit, her name fits exactly with the la las.” So she started working with that. There was a book of old r&b/Motown music, Theresa just opened the book and it was sort of an exercise for singing and she started singing the “My Guy” part to that and it just stuck and we loved it and thought it was super cool. It’s not really a cover but you’re still using the words and not many people do that.

Are there any other songs you’d like to cover or sort of give the same treatment?

There’s this Unwound song that I think is just absolutely amazing. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that band, but they were out around the same time as Fugazi and they’re a bit harder and the music’s just so sexy. I haven’t run it by the girls yet, but I really want to cover it. It would be super cool to cover that song, not even doing it as another version, but just covering it. It’s definitely a harder sound. We have elements of hardness in our music, but the whole song is just really sexy. Hopefully we get to do that, but we talk about it all the time…a covers record, but not a cover per se.

Also everyone does cover songs, it’s nice to sort of change things up and try to put a different spin on it.

Yeah, it’s just a lot of the time, not in every case, but I like hearing songs like that, I like hearing a spin off of it. It’s like [if] you’ve covered the song, which sounds like the person who already did it, you leave yourself open for criticism when you throw your shit out there, but if you do your own interpretation on it, it’s just a little more special. The normal version you kind of just want to hear the normal version.

As a female musician is there any pressure to be a role model for young girls?

There’s this whole thing, being in a band, we’re hearing stories about rock ’n’ roll music…maybe two years ago, that wasn’t a big deal. More photos are taken, as more shows are played…We were doing a video for the song “Billie Holiday” and we were in Texas so we’re having a really good time, but I have a beer in my hand, and it’s in the video with a beer right in my hand because I’m holding the microphone. I don’t want that to be the emphasis. A lot of these photographers in these photo shoots are like, “Light a cigarette!” and it’s just like it’s dorky. I’m not proud that I smoke and I’m definitely not trying to push it or encourage drinking beer while you’re playing. I don’t know it rubs me the wrong way. As time goes on we’re learning… I like to encourage being real, in a way there’s no pressure, just in general. It’s like we’re given this opportunity to be put out there in the world, it’s nice to be a positive influence [rather] then a negative one.

What are some of the influences of the band?

The music I grew up with and was listening to as a kid was the Cure, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Blonde Redhead, all the Heads. My mother listened to pop music when I was little, I mean really pop music like Debbie Gibson, Janet Jackson, Laura Branigan, a lot of old school r&b. The other girls grew up in Eugene, Oregon, so that’s very much a hippie based town, listening to psych rock. I think that’s why when we come together to make music, we bring a lot of different influences, matched together [our music is] everything we want to convey.

“Beetles” has some of the best lyrics, which was apparently just Theresa expressing frustration. Is that common when you guys are writing, that you just sort of improvise lines?

That is definitely what happens when we’re coming up with lyrics. Theresa definitely has, like a story about the lyrics she comes up with and they’re always based on something very specific, which is what I love about her. Taking something specific from her life and creating a beautiful poetic song and Emily does that, coming from a different side. Vague…and she might not even know but you can interpret them. In many ways, it’s like poetry but very different. Theresa is, this is what happened, and you’re all going to know that’s what happened. They both have a different way of approaching it and I love that… it kind of sounds similar, but of course it’s different because they’re different people.

It’s been a gradual growth for the band. Has there been anything you’ve learned over the course of 5 years that you think is helping you deal with all the hype now?

You know, it’s all sort of happening rather quickly. I’m a little tripped out, it all seems really surreal. We just finished a tour, first time across the country… what we’ve been working to the last five years. It’s all I really wanted. I wanted to go on tour and do this and do that and it’s all really happening and it’s all really intense. It’s really surreal, you’re in town one day and then you’re leaving. I would say…I just think being patient. We were really, really patient and we took things really, really slow. The recording of the EP happened a couple of years after being a band.

I think we did it right. It gets hard being a musician; it’s hard when that’s what you’re doing. You want to be compensated for it, at least be able to pay your bills. It’s hard to do so many things at once. I think if there’s anything we’ve learned it’s that it pays off to be patient and take things slow, to be in the moment with everything that you’re doing, and I think that will pay off for anyone doing anything.

It took five years for you guys to get to this point. What is your vision for the next 5 years?

In five years it would be really great to have five records. I just want to keep doing this, evolving as musicians and in our music.

Words by Shannon Carlin

Photo by Angel Ceballos

www.myspace.com/warpaint