ERASE ERRATA'S POST-RIOT GRRRL, POST-FEMINIST POST-PUNK // The Bay Area quartet creates a new kind of noise. |
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Interview Jenny Tatone Photography Jim McGinnis | |
Ellie Erickson "It was so impressive to me how restrained we were and how polite we were about all the injustice. I felt like we were all just eating shit and smiling. And the song came out of that and it just exploded." Jenny Hoysten, re "How to Tell Yourself From A Television" |
Tatone: You've also been called post-riot grrrl. Do you feel,
in any way, associated with that movement in music, or affected by
it, connected to it?
Hoysten: It definitely had a big impact on me when I was like 16, 17 years old. Sparta: I wasn't really affected by that. I was in Texas, so that wasn't really going on. I missed that whole thing, but all the riot grrrl musicians are still around. Erickson: We play with them a lot. Sparta: And we play with them, so we have a semi-community with them in a certain way, but it's not like we all identify with them. Tatone: Is there any sort of feminist thought in the music you make? Jaffe: Sure, not necessarily in terms of an agenda. Erickson: I wouldn't say that anything really has an agenda necessarily. We're empowered women [laughing]. Jaffe: I really think there are a lot of girls out there playing, you know, fucked-up guitar or whatever, and that makes me feel... Sparta: There are so many girls playing music, I think it's sort of funny how there's such an emphasis on... Erickson: Do people forget like from band to band "Oh my God! All these girls are playing music too!" [laughing]. Hoysten: It's the scene we're in, 'cause we're around that stuff all the time. I've lived places where I've been like, "There's no girl bands in this town. I have to form a band just so that there's not just a bunch of dudes playing music." I mean, we're definitely privileged to be in a scene where that's not the case, so I think it's easier for us. Tatone: Has there been any discrimination, then, that you've felt, being musicians, being girls? Sparta: Sound guys yeah especially during sound checks. Tatone: What do they do? Sparta: Think we don't know anything about our own equipment. Hoysten: They tell us like where to plug in our cords [laughing]: "You plug in your cord right here." More just ignorance. Tatone: As musicians, do you live your life day-to-day, or do you have long-term plans? Hoysten: We have places we'd like to go and, right now, we're planning on writing for a second record. Erickson: We have like six-month plans. Hoysten: Generally, we think like six months ahead. |