Note: Today’s feature graphic brought to you by Jon of The Vinyl District

Blonde Redhead is a very serious band. I’m not a very serious interviewer. I think Svetlana set me up with this one just to watch me squirm. I spent about 30 minutes chatting with Amedeo Pace, who along with his twin brother Simone and (apparently not his wife) Kazu make up this NY indie powerhouse. A nice fellow indeed, and talented, but not even a hint of a sense of humor. Or at least not a juvenile one that is. My inner thoughts in italics:

Brightest Young Things: So how’s the tour going so far?

Amedeo Pace: Well we’ve actually been on tour for quite a while, on and off, but this short one we just started today and we’re playing Lollapalooza tomorrow.

Thick accent + terrible reception, this is going to be fun to transcribe later…

BYT: Who are you playing with?

AP: Actually I haven’t looked at the schedule yet.

BYT: Really? But what if it’s a bunch of shitty pop punk bands or something and then you guys?

AP: I don’t know, I think there will be some good bands.

I didn’t really mean that literally…

BYT: Well, I mean, surely back in the day, but I haven’t really been paying attention lately…

AP: Yeah I haven’t been either.

Someone else chimes in with the answers

AP: Oh, LCD Soundsystem

BYT: Alright! They’re playing the big Virgin Fest this weekend in Baltimore as well. So is this the first time you’ve really been playing the new songs live?

AP: Well yeah, but we’ve been on tour for quite a while.

BYT: Right, but do you guys always record new songs in the studio first or do you ever road test them?

AP: Yeah, we always record them first, then figure out how to do them live.

BYT: The new album is pretty dense, do you have to simplify things for the live setup?

AP: A little bit, but we also bring drum machines and stuff, but yeah we’re still trying to really figure out how to best play the songs so they sound right, so we have to experiment with different ideas.

BYT: Do you do the same set list every night or do you wing it.

AP: We change it up.

God, this has got to be boring for him, I gotta ask some retarded questions or I’m gonna lose it. Maybe he’ll be game…

BYT: So can you rank the members of the band in order of proper tour bus hygiene.

AP: No. No I can’t.

Fuck. FUCK. I feel like I’m telling dirty jokes to my grandma. There goes half my interview. Ok, quickly, scan notes for serious questions…

BYT: Um… ok… so you guys are buddies with Fugazi right?

AP: Yep.

Is he still upset about the hygiene question?

BYT: So Guy [Picciotto] produced a couple of your albums?

AP: Yeah, he did Misery is a Butterfly, and In an Expression of the Inexpressible, and uh, I think he did Fake Can Be Just as Good as well… actually no he didn’t do that one.

BYT: But he wasn’t involved in the new one?

AP: No, we produced it ourselves.

BYT: So is that why you’re playing Baltimore instead of DC, cause you didn’t want to run into Guy cause you felt bad?

AP: No no, we don’t feel bad

BYT: No, I… I mean I was just kiddng…

God help me, I know I don’t believe in you, but please.

BYT: Ahem, so can you tell me about the cover art for the new album.

AP: It’s an old photo of these people standing in front of a big circus poster that Kazu found in a book , I think it’s from the early 1900’s. And the poster has this woman with four legs and a tennis racket and it says “She Really Existed”, it was some sort of freakshow poster.

BYT: So you guys just liked the image?

AP: Yeah, we liked it –

The reception goes bad, and the call is disconnected. I re-dial…

BYT: Hey, you there?

AP: Yeah, we’re traveling and there is not much around here so it might come and go, but we’ll just see what happens.

BYT: Ok, so howabout we stream a couple songs on the site, you can pick which ones, and then give me a little commentary on them.

AP: Uh… sure…

BYT: Your choice, maybe two or three.

AP: So you just want me to talk about them and how they came about?

BYT: Exactly!

Yaay! We’re bonding!

AP: Let’s see… 23, which is the first track, it was the first song we started writing, and when we got to the studio we weren’t really sure what to do with it. We had figured out the main idea and what we wanted the tone to be, but we hadn’t figured out what instruments we wanted for it. It was really kind of bare. It just kind of started to come alive when we started putting the distorted guitar on it, and then when Kazu started singing on it, we started to figure it out. But usually when we go into the studio we’re more prepared, we don’t like to go for too much time, we can’t afford to be in the studio for months and months. So that was kind of unusual for us. And then when Alan Moulder mixed it he kinda gave it another life, gave it a lot of character.

BYT: So did that song kind of set the precedent for the rest of the album?

AP: Yeah, it was the song that broke the ice in the recording process. We didn’t have any expectations for it, and I love all the songs, but I think it turned out to be my favorite.

And once again we’re disconnected for a few…

BYT: Hey, I think I got everything for 23, let’s do two more.

AP: Ok, Dr. Strangelove, we were listening to a Nina Simone song called Baltimore, and it’s a song Kazu used to listen to in Japan when she was growing up and fell in love with. So it was kind of born from that.

BYT: So when you guys write songs is it kind of an organic process where everyone contributes?

AP: Yeah, I usually bring the initial ideas and melodies, and then I work a lot with Kazu in terms of figuring out how we want to sing it or how she wants to sing it, and then we work with Simone on figuring out what works best as far as rhythm. That’s how it usually works.

BYT: Ok, last one.

AP: Publisher. I quite like it, I think it’s an unusual song for us –

Connection lost

This is a disaster.

BYT: Ok so you were talking about Publisher but I got nothing.

AP: Oh ok, it’s just that it went through a lot of changes as we were writing it. A lot of different ideas and different ways of approaching it, but I really enjoy listening to it now. I actually did all my vocals on my own, alone, without anyone helping, because it was something I really wanted to try. I felt very free to come up with different approaches of singing and how I wanted to sound. I’m so glad I stuck it out, because I came up with things that I knew I wouldn’t be able to do if I was around people.

Wow, maybe he’s just been nervous this whole time… I mean, this is BYT, pretty prestigious…

BYT: So you think that experience will inspire a solo project next?

AP: I don’t know, it just takes such a long time to finish things, and I envy people who have different projects, but I think it’s difficult for us to do that.

Ok, maybe I can try a slightly light hearted question

BYT: So I was reading an interview…

DISCONNECT

BYT: God dammit!

Ring

BYT: So I was reading an interview with Kazu earlier today that she had just done, and at the end she was kind of joking about drinking too much on tour and that she was going to stop, I was wondering if she was sticking to it or not.

AP: You know, she really doesn’t drink that much, a little before the show because she gets nervous. You know and then maybe some nights, if there is something fun, she’s drinking, but, I mean I spend time with her and she goes days without drinking, so it’s not like she has a weird drinking problem.

BYT: No, no I wasn’t suggesting that-

MISTAKE

AP: I think she just does it to relax a bit before the show and sometimes she does get drunk, but she can handle it really well, she can handle it a lot better than me.

Ok, need to change the subject.

BYT: Have you guys ever received any strange gifts from fans? I know you have a lot of obsessive fans out there…

AP: Um… not strange, this woman made us a doll of the four legged woman on the cover, it was quite beautiful and really detailed.

BYT: That’s a pretty cool gift. So you guys are twins, do you ever trick people by changing outfits or whatever?

AP: No.. we didn’t even do that when we were little.

Shocker

AP: Now we look quite different, but no we were never that way.

BYT: So how did the Mike Mills video project come about?

AP: He just offered to do 5 short art pieces to our songs.

BYT: So he just called you up one day and asked?

AP: Yeah, he just got in touch with us and asked if it was ok, and we thought about it, and we had done one video already and thought it would be interesting to see what he would come up with. I haven’t even seen them all yet.

BYT: Yeah, there is an interesting one with Miranda July doing poses every second… so there wasn’t really any direction from you guys, it was basically him going off and doing whatever?

AP: Yeah, I mean he told us what he was going to do but he was in charge.

Check em out here: http://www.4ad.com/features/mikemills/index.html

BYT: What music have you been listening to lately?

AP: I just got a new Neil Young live album, the new Interpol and LCD Soundsystem.

BYT: I love me some Sound of Silver.

AP: Yeah, it’s really good. Did you listen to the new Interpol?

Hey, we’re buddies now! He’s interested in meeee!

BYT: I just got it, I’ve only listened to it a little bit, buy nothings really grabbed me yet.

AP: Mmhmm

um… was that the wrong answer?

BYT: Anything else?

AP: I like Beirut… hmmm… we’ve been on tour so much in the past two months I feel like we’ve only been working on our own music.

And we’re disconnected again. I call back…

AP: Ok, so we’re getting into a more remote area now, I think it’s going to be getting worse.

BYT: Yeah, I think we can wrap it up here, just two more questions.

Getting worse indeed.

BYT: So, I was on a message board today where they were talking about the upcoming show and I asked if anyone had any questions they wanted me to ask you guys. It was kind of last minute so I only got two replies. First, Samantha wants to know if you will have sex with her. All three of you. At the same time.

AP: What?

BYT: Um… Samantha, on the message board asks if you will have sex with her. All three of you. At the… um… same time.

AP: What do you think?

BYT: I’m gonna go with no.

AP: Uh huh.

BYT: Ok, and Grace, she asks “Kazu sings really pretty”… which um, really isn’t a question…

AP: …Thank you …very much.

When you’re this sexy, I guess you’re allowed to be aloof

BYT: So anything else you want to promote?

AP: Not really, this tour is a lot of work.

BYT: No doubt.

AP: Well, we might do this song on this AIDS benefit album, but we haven’t figured out how we’re going to go about it just yet.

BYT: Ok, we’ll be on the look out.

AP: Thanks so much.

BYT: My pleasure!

sigh

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Blonde Redhead will be performing August 8th in Baltimore at Ram’s Head Live, which is actually gettin a bunch of good shows these days.

Official Site: http://www.blonde-redhead.com/

Ram’s Head Live: http://www.ramsheadlive.com/

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