Marnie Stern: Math rock queen, guitar goddess, giver of interesting interviews...WELCOME!

[the_future_modernes]

Marnie Stern made her first record when she was in her 30's. She frequently poses without makeup, has highly intelligent and interesting things to say when she is interviewed, learned to play guitar when she was 22 by practicing for 6 months for 4 hrs a day and can hold her own with the best of them. First saw her on a list of list of the best math rock of the past decade

Marnie Stern, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (Kill Rock Stars, 2008)
Because of her copious use of tapping and the presence of Zach Hill on her records (and the scarcity of women playing this kind of music) it’s tempting to think of Stern’s music as distaff Hella. In reality, her music is much more complex and layered than that of Hill’s band. The classically trained Stern frequently uses four or five distorted guitar parts at a time, creating the impression of a chorus of guitarists playing simple interlocking riffs. Stern arranges these dense, racing choruses to back vocal hooks that are head and shoulders above anything else in the genre, even considering her average voice. This is the only math-rock record along to which you will want to sing at the top of your lungs.MORE

What the hell is math rock? Here'sWikipedia to the rescue.

Math rock is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock^[1] that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords.^[2]MORE

Got it? Good. Here's Marnie Stern being freaking badass on her guitar.





Marnie Stern - "Transformer" Kill Rock Stars

Marnie Stern - Every Single Line Means Something

Marnie Stern - Crippled Jazzer

Marnie Stern - Grapefruit

Myspace

Wikipedia

Touring starts in Feb this year


Marnie Stern: Interview

How do you balance between the pop and technical aspects of your music?

The pop parts are innately in me. They come out no matter what. I don't even have to work on that. That's just there; it just wants to come out. So the balance works well, because I kind of focus more on the guitar parts and the other style of the music, and the pop part just comes on top of it easily. Not so much with the vocals, though. Melody is harder for me with vocals for whatever reason. It's hard for me to find placement to sing a lot of the time, especially because the stuff is so busy.

What are some of your influences on both the technical and melodic/pop ends of things?

On the technical side, Spencer Seim from Hella, Mick Barr, Brian Gibson [of Lightning Bolt], Weasel Walter -- his compositions for Flying Luttenbachers -- and U.S. Maple -- that band had a huge influence on me. And then Deerhoof, and Deerhoof pop-wise, as well. I remember they were one of the first bands I heard that were sort of incorporating a pop sensibility into their style. Sleater-Kinney and Television. Television, in particular, had a huge influence because the guitars were really angular, and I thought the vocals fit on top really nicely. The guitar parts were stripped, but they meshed well. And The Who and a lot of the older bands.MORE

Marnie SternInterview @ Prefixmag.com Question for you all. Have you ever seen a male shredder as self depreciating as this? I mean, the whole interview isn't at ALL like this, what I love about Ms. Stern is that she thinks and you are able to find interviewers who ask her interesting questions, and thus the interviews I've read are meaty and good brain food. But it just struck me so strongly that I have never read a guy going oh shucks in response to praise about his talent. Never. Not saying that it has never happened, but wow.

You're frequently lauded for your technical skills as a guitarist. I think I’m obligated to ask you about your “shredding” and the whole guitar myth.
I don’t think I’m a very good guitar player. I think I’m pretty OK but really not great at all. Almost everyone I know plays the guitar really well and really interestingly. For me, I’ve tried to develop my own kind of style, and that’s the part I’m proud of, of trying to be as original with my playing as possible. The reason I’ve always loved a band like Deerhoof is because they put together parts that you wouldn’t necessarily think would go together. They take classic-rock elements, jazz elements, noise elements and that kind of originality is something I’ve gravitated toward because it’s so different. Those are the types of things I’m attracted to, and so with my guitar playing I just happened to choose guitar as the instrument. Yes, I was attracted to technical players, but mainly because it was the style of music they were playing.

Do you ever think about your place with regards to critical perception about being such a dense "shredder"?
Of course, and that’s the one everyone goes to, and I’m finding that it holds me back in a lot of ways. My audience is in the indie small world. I mean, I’m not very well-known, but some people know who I am. When it comes to an audience at my shows, maybe it’s 150 people. It’s never really a huge crowd, and I don’t know why that is. I don’t know if people hear “crazy shred guitar” and think “Why do I want to go see that?” I am writing songs. The guitar is real pulled back on a lot of it. If I had chosen piano as the instrument, I probably would’ve found, hopefully, some weird way to play piano. It’s just -- [groans] -- “shred.” The word "shred."

...I know you have high standards, in terms of writing songs. A song like “Risky Biz” has, again, this self-affirming idea of trying to get something out there. Do you write the guitar part first, and then the lyrics?

Yeah. Usually the lyrics in bits and pieces. Vocal melody for me is the hardest to fit over parts usually, because parts are doing a lot, and it’s hard to find space for it. Space is my big quest, which is tough since I like filling up space so much. The main progression in that song is like a four-finger subtle tapping thing that has an interesting groove to it, and I was thinking about someone in particular and it seemed to match.

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Pitchfork Interview

Thanks to her love of busy percussion and her knack for virtuosic guitar shredding, Marnie Stern's songs tend to be rather complicated things. Nevertheless, the appeal of her music is rather simple: She writes awesome rock songs about making yourself even more awesome. In conversation, Stern's speech patterns often mirror the bouncy, manic qualities of her music. Her voice is trebly, highly expressive and generally quite enthusiastic, and she speaks quickly, as if she's just trying to keep up a pace with the speed of her thoughts. In this interview, conducted near her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, she fills us in on her long, convoluted path to becoming a guitar goddess, describes her songwriting process, ponders the pros and cons of not having a debut album until after she turned 30, and explains the significance of the title of her sophomore release, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That.

Pitchfork: So how did you come to start playing the guitar?

MS: There's no answer! Like, my mom was like, "Yo, you should learn how to play guitar, it's cool." I said, "Alright," and at 15 she bought me an acoustic guitar and I took three lessons. I barely played at all. Then when I was 20...I went to NYU, I studied journalism but I wasn't good at it at all. It didn't fulfill me, it was very difficult.

Pitchfork: How did you decide to go into journalism?

MS: My mom was like, "Pick journalism, I think it's smart." And I was like, "Alright." I mean, that's not fair, I read a lot. But up until around 22 I felt like, "Well, I'm okay at everything, but I'm not really great at anything, and I don't really love anything," and it was kinda frustrating. I'm really into philosophy and critical thinking, ideas of why are we living, that kind of stuff, but what is that? And I really thought about why, and what would push me into saying, "This is what I'm going to do." I was living with a bunch of people, and at 21, at the very end of college, I was like, "I'm going to learn how to play the guitar, and I'm going to learn how to write songs, and be a musician." And they were like, "Okay..."

Pitchfork: Was there anything that kinda sparked that?

MS: No! I don't know, maybe it's repressed. Something must have happened. I was always into it, but...something switched, and I'm very compulsive, so when I was like, "Okay, I'm going to do this," then that was it. And I didn't really do lessons, and I was on an acoustic. It was six months of four hours a day of playing.
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Marnie Stern on Her New Album and Beef With Best Coast

Upper East Side resident Marnie Stern has been paid much attention in recent weeks, owing in part to her strong opinions on the current state of music. But today she hopes to change the conversation a little with today's release of her third album, Marnie Stern, which marries her usual frenetic guitar work with some of her most personal lyrics so far. She'll play a record-release party tonight at the Rock Shop, and we sat down with her recently to discuss beefs, her album, and her favorite musical era.MORE

BTW this is the interview (@impose magazine.com) where she was less than complimentary about the Best Coast band.

And that’s why any artist will sell their songs for sponsorships.

Oh, fuck yeah, I’ll sell, I am so poor. Plus I never understood that thing because anything I put out I’m really proud that I did it, so I’ll put it anywhere, anywhere. Like, here it is, I made it! I’m real proud. I don’t feel embarrassed. But, if I was making money off the record, if I had more choices. But considering that I’m so in debt all the time…

So if Red Bull came to the door?

Oh yeah. If they said we’ll give you 20 grand to get naked with the guitar I wouldn’t do it, but in my brain, I might… “Oh, do I have to do anything?” [Laughs.]

Ok, Best Coast, I see everywhere. What’s with her?

She is Wavves’ girlfriend.

So that’s why she got famous? Is she famous? Like what, because buzz is different.

She went on the New York Times, and they reviewed her, did a podcast. How many records is she selling, I’m not sure. But she’s getting good reviews all over the place.

Of course I heard a song and was like “Are you joking me?”

She sings, un-ironically about loving boys. Her lyrics are “I wish my cat could talk.” No joke.

That’s unacceptable, that’s unacceptable. That’s not showing any part, that’s unacceptable. You might as well then be an 80s hair metal band saying “I want pussy.”

That’s what they’re going for.

If Pitchfork is the innovator of good…

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