The greatest Cat Power interview?

nomowish · 08.23.2006, 07:26 PM

Link - http://perso.orange.fr/alain.serrano...GregWeeks.html

She talks about how "Moon Pix" came about.

...

Greg Weeks: Okay. So, last year when we left off...

Chan Marshall: [Joke's] You're talking like a shrink, you know this?

Greg Weeks: (laughs)

Chan Marshall: I was 25...

It was the Knitting Factory show, and it was a total meltdown on stage...

That was last year, right? Yeah, it was horrible.

What exactly was it ... I know there was the whole political thing...

Suicidal... voices.... breakdown. Complete confusion about what's real and what's not real, and what matters and what doesn't matter. And how am I feeling? Do I feel? Am I evil? Am I smart, am I stupid, am I insane? It was definitely just a breakdown. It had nothing to do with being on stage or being a female or being in a band or from living in New York. It had nothing to do with anything except that, like, it was the most difficult ... [struggling with what to say next] The day after I left New York I went and bought a truck, and was going to move to Mexico but ended up in Prosperity, South Carolina.

And what put you in that direction?

'Cause I had to leave this fuckin'... I couldn't function at all.

Why didn't you go through with going to Mexico?

Because I found a town called Prosperity. I found this house that was for rent and it just stopped me. It was like, [mimics a car screeching to a halt] I went in and the woman had the house ready and she was like "it's $425, and it has eight rooms," and there were fields all around it. No people anywhere. I just stopped my car and looked at the house, gave her some cash, called BILL [CALLAHAN] and told him, and we moved there. And it fuckin' made me so happy.

That's how you worked through everything that was going on in your head?

Mmhmm, yes.

What about all the stage anxieties that you had as far as performing in front of people, and whether being a performing artist was a worthwhile career choice for anyone?

I totally had put that in... that night [at the Knitting Factory] when I was walking away from the stage and Bill was about to go on, it was over. When I was standing there I was sealing the envelope and closing it on myself and just throwing it into the wind. I just totally threw it into the wind. While I was up there playing I was just sealing the envelope and closing it and just giving it away. Just like, "fuck this."

Basically, you were thinking of resigning from being a musician entirely?

Absolutely! I already knew that I wanted to do that like six months before. I mean, on tour, like six months before that, just realizing that it was just over. October. The end of October, Matador thought I was moving away to write a new record. And, I got the fuck outta here and just cooked, and read books, went swimming, played tennis, went to the dog pound, went to museums...

How much of a help was Bill? He moved with you... was that as a friend or something more than that...?

Total companion.

And he helped you work through all that kinda' stuff?

Bill taught me something. I understood something new because of what he taught me.

Which was...? He seems pretty grounded, is that what you got from him?

He's very grounded. He taught me that the feelings that I was feeling... there were reasons for my feeling this way. He told me that it was natural. That I should have such extreme feelings from such extreme cause.

And the cause for you was this onrush of semi-fame?

Not at all. Not at all that. I was like a mechanic. Like, an audience was an engine and they needed their engine fixed. They brought money to see me fix their engine. It just became a mechanical thing where I wasn't allowed to feel anything.

Do you feel that that's what the audience was asking of you or was that just the way that you started to see it?

No. It's a reality. It is a reality that I play my songs. That's reality. It is a reality that people like to go see shows and have some beer and, like, people actually talk about how they feel about the show, and it's sorta' like, it's this sorta' world where people get paid to be photographers and interviewers [Hear that Jack, she thinks you pay us!] and people go buy vintage stuff and do all these record collections and it's like charts and graphs and coolness and factors and science and method of rules. [And] all I'm doing is this thing that seems really natural, but then ... there's no way for me to really describe it because it's a feeling. It's negative. But I've learned that now. I've learned something new. That's what I mean. And it's spiritual, and my songs have changed because of it, and I feel better. I feel like I've turned. I feel like I'm coming down the mountain now. It's interesting.

So, you attribute the shift in your musical styles to...

Has the style changed?

Yeah.

It's more hymns now, isn't it?

Umm.

Than the blues.

Well, it's funny because...

It's how I feel.

Yeah, it's a lot more soulful. There's definitely something that's been injected here. A different kind of realness. You're not obsessed with melancholia. It doesn't seem like that's overwhelming you. I went through Moon Pix and listed a bunch of the themes that immediately come out, and almost all of [the songs] seem to be about salvation, transformation, celebration, or isolation.

What do you mean?

The thematic text within those songs talk about becoming "someone different," becoming "someone better." Things like that.

That's "Colors And The Kids."

That is, yeah. I can't go through every song and tell you specifically each part, this was just something I did as a thumbnail. I could listen to the album and give you lots of different examples. There's still fatalism, and there's still self-destruction dealt with in here [glancing at disc]...

Which one!? "Moonshiner?"

Um, "Moonshiner" definitely.

That is the only song... that's a traditional song, I didn't write that song.

And "Back Of Your Head."

That's an old song. That's before I felt good.

Yeah! I remember you playing that before.

See, the other songs are not bad.

But that's what I'm talking about.

All the ones that I wrote one night, because I quit music, and I'll tell you really quickly, let me tell you really quickly what happened. I quit playing music, lived in South Carolina. Really enjoyed my life. Went to Wall-Mart, bought some bluejeans and a t-shirt and some flip-flops. And I just existed as a... I cooked. I ate smoothies. I made créme broulé. I made biscuits. I met a beautiful kitty that became my good friend and whatever. I read books and wrote some things down, and I painted [you can check them out on the Matador website] and watched Seinfeld, and I watched Matlock and... I listened to NPR, and I listened to Mountain Radio and went canoeing. And I saw horses and petted cows and did things, and talked to birds and stuff. I went on walks and I saw abandoned shacks and shoes and suitcases and clothes and bottles and refrigerators, and people and children and had conversations with rednecks and racists and Jehovah's Witnesses and Baptists and janitors...

So, basically you grounded yourself. That's real life.

People that are not a part of Babylon at all. People that are not a part of Manhattan life. They're not city life. People that go to bed at 9:30.

check link for more info...

_tunic_ · 08.24.2006, 12:33 PM

this is the weirdest stuff I've read for years. I always thought Moonpix was a very strange album, and I hardly listen to it. I listen to all her other albums very often, especially in the car.
This interview shesd a totally different light on Moonpix, thanks very much for sharing the link.

To make things even weirder: I finiished reading the interview, I decided to put Moonpix into my CD player, walk back to my PC, log in to Dime to see what's new and I spot this DVD: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-d....php?id=108923

Cat Power

40 Watt Club - Athens, GA

29 September 1998

Chan Marshall: Vocals, Guitar
?:Guitar
?: Drums

55 Mins

NTSC

Aud

Vhs(?) > DVD

Metal Heart
Schizophrenia's Weighted Me Down
He Turns Down
Naked If I Want To
American Flag
Werewolf
Cross Bones Style
The Leopard & the Lamb
Colors & the Kids

Danny Himself · 08.24.2006, 01:29 PM

That was very interesting. I feel like running away to South Carolina now.

nomowish · 08.24.2006, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kegmama

Have not seen this yet, unfortunately I can't watch it here at work. But it says its a vid of Cat Power doing Living Proof on the Late Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iNOpxFeYio

Other Cat Power vids:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_sort=rele vance&search_query=cat+power&search=Search

EDIT: By the way, thanks again nomowish.

Thanks for the YouTube link to her Letterman performance. It's so great to see her smile, dance, act silly... Her "Lived in Bars" video is in the same cheerful vein. And check out those legs of hers! This is definitely one of the best videos Ever.

Link to Lived in Bars - http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2752743

Lipslikewindows · 08.24.2006, 04:27 PM

The rest of that interivew (the part that wasn't posted on the board) is something I read a long time ago and thought was immediately completely awesome.

HaydenAsche · 08.24.2006, 04:30 PM

Chan is such a beautiful, talented woman.

pao-lino · 08.25.2006, 07:27 AM

I saw her a couple of weeks ago and she was anything but shy or anxious-she played two hours and joked a lot, danced on stage. can't say I liked the show very much (the usual dead times, many dull improvisation, just few seconds attached songs and then changes) but she's... beautiful.
you can see she's fragile-she said "sorrysorrysorry" too many times...
she didn't drink on stage! hope she overtook that "problem"-the other time I saw her she finished a jack daniels bottles within 4 songs and then fucked the show up.
bad thing about this gig she was alone--all of her songs in the end are made of the same two notes, so if at guitar or piano they turn out repetitive. greatest's songs are really great if accompained with trumpets and steel guitars.
here's a video of the festival I was. notice how she's happy and glorious saying "sober".
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...nze+disturbate

08.23.2006, 07:26 PM	#1
nomowish children of satan Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Miami Posts: 373	Link - http://perso.orange.fr/alain.serrano...GregWeeks.html She talks about how "Moon Pix" came about. ... *Greg Weeks: Okay. So, last year when we left off...* Chan Marshall: [Joke's] You're talking like a shrink, you know this? *Greg Weeks: (laughs)* Chan Marshall: I was 25... *It was the Knitting Factory show, and it was a total meltdown on stage...* That was last year, right? Yeah, it was horrible. *What exactly was it ... I know there was the whole political thing...* Suicidal... voices.... breakdown. Complete confusion about what's real and what's not real, and what matters and what doesn't matter. And how am I feeling? Do I feel? Am I evil? Am I smart, am I stupid, am I insane? It was definitely just a breakdown. It had nothing to do with being on stage or being a female or being in a band or from living in New York. It had nothing to do with anything except that, like, it was the most difficult ... [struggling with what to say next] The day after I left New York I went and bought a truck, and was going to move to Mexico but ended up in Prosperity, South Carolina. *And what put you in that direction?* 'Cause I had to leave this fuckin'... I couldn't function at all. *Why didn't you go through with going to Mexico?* Because I found a town called Prosperity. I found this house that was for rent and it just stopped me. It was like, [mimics a car screeching to a halt] I went in and the woman had the house ready and she was like "it's $425, and it has eight rooms," and there were fields all around it. No people anywhere. I just stopped my car and looked at the house, gave her some cash, called BILL [CALLAHAN] and told him, and we moved there. And it fuckin' made me so happy. *That's how you worked through everything that was going on in your head?* Mmhmm, yes. *What about all the stage anxieties that you had as far as performing in front of people, and whether being a performing artist was a worthwhile career choice for anyone?* I totally had put that in... that night [at the Knitting Factory] when I was walking away from the stage and Bill was about to go on, it was over. When I was standing there I was sealing the envelope and closing it on myself and just throwing it into the wind. I just totally threw it into the wind. While I was up there playing I was just sealing the envelope and closing it and just giving it away. Just like, "fuck this." *Basically, you were thinking of resigning from being a musician entirely?* Absolutely! I already knew that I wanted to do that like six months before. I mean, on tour, like six months before that, just realizing that it was just over. October. The end of October, Matador thought I was moving away to write a new record. And, I got the fuck outta here and just cooked, and read books, went swimming, played tennis, went to the dog pound, went to museums... *How much of a help was Bill? He moved with you... was that as a friend or something more than that...?* Total companion. *And he helped you work through all that kinda' stuff?* Bill taught me something. I understood something new because of what he taught me. *Which was...? He seems pretty grounded, is that what you got from him?* He's very grounded. He taught me that the feelings that I was feeling... there were reasons for my feeling this way. He told me that it was natural. That I should have such extreme feelings from such extreme cause. *And the cause for you was this onrush of semi-fame?* Not at all. Not at all that. I was like a mechanic. Like, an audience was an engine and they needed their engine fixed. They brought money to see me fix their engine. It just became a mechanical thing where I wasn't allowed to feel anything. *Do you feel that that's what the audience was asking of you or was that just the way that you started to see it?* No. It's a reality. It is a reality that I play my songs. That's reality. It is a reality that people like to go see shows and have some beer and, like, people actually talk about how they feel about the show, and it's sorta' like, it's this sorta' world where people get paid to be photographers and interviewers [Hear that Jack, she thinks you pay us!] and people go buy vintage stuff and do all these record collections and it's like charts and graphs and coolness and factors and science and method of rules. [And] all I'm doing is this thing that seems really natural, but then ... there's no way for me to really describe it because it's a feeling. It's negative. But I've learned that now. I've learned something new. That's what I mean. And it's spiritual, and my songs have changed because of it, and I feel better. I feel like I've turned. I feel like I'm coming down the mountain now. It's interesting. *So, you attribute the shift in your musical styles to...* Has the style changed? *Yeah.* It's more hymns now, isn't it? *Umm.* Than the blues. *Well, it's funny because...* It's how I feel. Yeah, it's a lot more soulful. There's definitely something that's been injected here. A different kind of realness. You're not obsessed with melancholia. It doesn't seem like that's overwhelming you. I went through Moon Pix and listed a bunch of the themes that immediately come out, and almost all of [the songs] seem to be about salvation, transformation, celebration, or isolation. What do you mean? *The thematic text within those songs talk about becoming "someone different," becoming "someone better." Things like that.* That's "Colors And The Kids." That is, yeah. I can't go through every song and tell you specifically each part, this was just something I did as a thumbnail. I could listen to the album and give you lots of different examples. There's still fatalism, and there's still self-destruction dealt with in here [glancing at disc]... Which one!? "Moonshiner?" *Um, "Moonshiner" definitely.* That is the only song... that's a traditional song, I didn't write that song. *And "Back Of Your Head."* That's an old song. That's before I felt good. *Yeah! I remember you playing that before.* See, the other songs are not bad. *But that's what I'm talking about.* All the ones that I wrote one night, because I quit music, and I'll tell you really quickly, let me tell you really quickly what happened. I quit playing music, lived in South Carolina. Really enjoyed my life. Went to Wall-Mart, bought some bluejeans and a t-shirt and some flip-flops. And I just existed as a... I cooked. I ate smoothies. I made créme broulé. I made biscuits. I met a beautiful kitty that became my good friend and whatever. I read books and wrote some things down, and I painted [you can check them out on the Matador website] and watched Seinfeld, and I watched Matlock and... I listened to NPR, and I listened to Mountain Radio and went canoeing. And I saw horses and petted cows and did things, and talked to birds and stuff. I went on walks and I saw abandoned shacks and shoes and suitcases and clothes and bottles and refrigerators, and people and children and had conversations with rednecks and racists and Jehovah's Witnesses and Baptists and janitors... *So, basically you grounded yourself. That's real life.* People that are not a part of Babylon at all. People that are not a part of Manhattan life. They're not city life. People that go to bed at 9:30. check link for more info...
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08.24.2006, 12:33 PM	#2
_tunic_ invito al cielo Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: I could live in eurHope Posts: 3,944	this is the weirdest stuff I've read for years. I always thought Moonpix was a very strange album, and I hardly listen to it. I listen to all her other albums very often, especially in the car. This interview shesd a totally different light on Moonpix, thanks very much for sharing the link. To make things even weirder: I finiished reading the interview, I decided to put Moonpix into my CD player, walk back to my PC, log in to Dime to see what's new and I spot this DVD: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-d....php?id=108923 Cat Power 40 Watt Club - Athens, GA 29 September 1998 Chan Marshall: Vocals, Guitar ?:Guitar ?: Drums 55 Mins NTSC Aud Vhs(?) > DVD Metal Heart Schizophrenia's Weighted Me Down He Turns Down Naked If I Want To American Flag Werewolf Cross Bones Style The Leopard & the Lamb Colors & the Kids __________________ what comes first, the music or the words?
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08.24.2006, 01:29 PM	#3
Danny Himself invito al cielo Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 9,623	That was very interesting. I feel like running away to South Carolina now.
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08.24.2006, 04:27 PM	#5
Lipslikewindows bad moon rising Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 163	The rest of that interivew (the part that wasn't posted on the board) is something I read a long time ago and thought was immediately completely awesome. __________________ www.themuggabears.com
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08.24.2006, 04:30 PM	#6
HaydenAsche invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 10,755	Chan is such a beautiful, talented woman. __________________ rip
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08.25.2006, 07:27 AM	#7
pao-lino bad moon rising Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 200	I saw her a couple of weeks ago and she was anything but shy or anxious-she played two hours and joked a lot, danced on stage. can't say I liked the show very much (the usual dead times, many dull improvisation, just few seconds attached songs and then changes) but she's... beautiful. you can see she's fragile-she said "sorrysorrysorry" too many times... she didn't drink on stage! hope she overtook that "problem"-the other time I saw her she finished a jack daniels bottles within 4 songs and then fucked the show up. bad thing about this gig she was alone--all of her songs in the end are made of the same two notes, so if at guitar or piano they turn out repetitive. greatest's songs are really great if accompained with trumpets and steel guitars. here's a video of the festival I was. notice how she's happy and glorious saying "sober". http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...nze+disturbate
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