Underwood Stables sponsored another show in their series at the Tractor Tavern on October 2nd with Nikki Lane headlining. Portland-based Jenny Don’t and the Spurs opened, followed by Jaime Wyatt, originally from Gig Harbor. Denver, also Portland-based, were next with their three-part harmonies. Nikki Lane (Nashville) was not on tour and made a special trip to Seattle. Her band were all local performers who learned her songs just for this show. She’ll be back in town in January in support of her upcoming album, Highway Queen. For the encore, all of the evening’s performers were back on stage for Bob Dylan’s ”You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – from left to right: Peter Hayes, Leah Shapiro & Robert Levon Been
Black Rebel Motorcycle is cool. You can look up cool in the dictionary and there BRMC would be. I am sure people have begun articles about the trio in this way, but man, it’s true. I’ve been a fan since the BRMC debut album, B.R.M.C. came out in 2001, and I’ve seen the band here numerous times in Seattle. Every single show – including one daytime outdoor Bumbershoot appearance – has been swelteringly excellent. Have I given the game away that I am a fan? The now Los Angeles-based trio, featuring guitarist/singer Peter Hayes, bassist/singer Robert Levon Been and drummer/singer Leah Shapiro, has loudly, yet at times delicately, established its place in rock as an essential band of this decade, and the prior. Each band member of the psychedelic/rock/all-around awesome sounding BRMC is such a uniquely talented musician on record and live.
BRMC drummer Leah Shapiro joined the band in 2008, coming in after drummer Nick Jago left. But Shapiro was no replacement drummer added out of panic, but one who brought her ace drumming skills and powerful presence. The Danish-born Shapiro, who has lived in New York (where she studied music business), England and Boston, recently came through brain surgery for a condition called Chiari malformation (CM). She’s super tough, and I’m thrilled I talked with her last week about how she approaches her art. Oh, and that she actually rides a motorcycle!
I first saw you when you were playing drums with the Raveonettes. I caught you at the Triple Door – great show, by the way.
Leah Shapiro: Thank you. I have very good memories from those times.
You were also in a group called Dead Combo. I saw some videos on YouTube, and they sounded great. Was it after this band you joined BRMC?
LS: Yeah. Dead Combo was actually the cause of it all. Dead Combo was the reason I ended up in the Raveonettes, and the reason why I ended up with Black Rebel. I’m thankful I got to play in that band. As chaotic as it was, a lot came of it.
Are they still a group?
LS: I don’t know if they’re actively doing stuff, but Dead Combo was opening for us on the Specter (at the Feast) album tour in Europe. They came along as a duo. I played a couple songs at some of the shows, and Pete played with them a couple times. It was good fun. They’re great friends of mine.
Do you select what parts of a song you’ll be singing on? You have a lovely voice.
LS: Thank you. You know, I don’t particularly like singing that much. I’m a drummer first. It makes it a little bit harder to play, if I also have to sing harmonies and stuff. But we do have a lot of harmonies, so sometimes live I have to do it. And I’m happy to; it’s a good challenge. I’ve gotten better. I think I am just a little bit too shy to be a singer.
I always think it would be really hard to play drums and sing at the same time.
LS: You’re bouncing around a lot, so it’s hard to get a steady tone.
What’s your favorite BRMC song to do live from before you joined, and after?
LS: I think “Awake” is one of those songs where no matter what my mood is, no matter what’s going on, I always love playing that song. It has this meditative feel almost. You just float into the music. It’s a trancey experience – you get to step outside of yourself a bit, which is nice.
“Returning” is a cool song to play because the feel of that song is pretty delicate. Or “Lose Yourself.” Both of them have this very delicate feel, and when I was making the parts, I used to have this rolling feel, like waves rolling. You can float into the music, and exist within the song. I love that feeling, it’s really great.
How do you think you’ve affected BRMC’s sound?
LS: It’s tough for me to say how it’s changed. When I first came in, in the middle of a tour with Baby 81, I spent a lot of time trying to study how the songs were played live as well as the recorded versions. I tried to mimic that as closely as I could so it wouldn’t feel like a shock to the system for the guys. That can be hard. Two people can play the exact same part, but it can sound completely different, and it can feel completely different. Once we got into writing, I started feeling comfortable with my creative input.
I don’t know how I’ve affected or changed the band. When we started writing Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, in the beginning I wanted to sit back and observe their writing process, so that I was able to find my place within it.
It might be one of those things where it’s easier to tell on the outside. When I’m in it, I’m not that objective.
You’re a motorcycle rider. Do you get to ride often?
LS: Every once in a while. More and more, I really don’t like riding in Los Angeles because the driving is just so insane. It’s really scary. I actually saw a really horrifying motorcycle accident the other day on the freeway. People aren’t paying attention. They’re on their phones. There’s too much chaos. It’s more stressful than an enjoyable experience.
If I’m gonna ride, I like to be far away from the city, where you can relax. [In the city] any car that’s anywhere near you could be potential death, and that’s not a comfortable place to be in mentally.
Was Specter at the Feast the first album you worked as a producer on?
LS: Beat the Devil – we did that on our own too, with Michael (Been). For Specter, we had other people come in that who helped us out. There was a lot of time spent (by the three of us) in the rehearsal studio, trying out every possible arrangement for every song.
LS: That’s a lot of work.
LS: It can be a rabbit hole, for sure. It’s hard to say when something is ever done.
That’s a benefit of live performances.
LS: Exactly. The songs continue to grow, change, and become something different the more we play them and the more we tour the songs. I really like that. It’s nice to have the freedom to do that, and not be locked into “This is the way it was arranged on the record, so this is the exact way we’re going to play it every single night.”
What other things do you like to do, music or totally unrelated?
LS: I’ve started teaching drums. That’s something I really enjoy doing. I could see myself getting into that a little more. There’s a perception that drums can be this aggressive thing. For me it’s actually more meditative, calming than anything else. And of course if you need to get rid of an aggression, drums are great for that too. It is a great tool for slowing everything down, slowing your mind down and having that focus on repetitive movement.
You’re one of my favorite drummers; you get so much emotion through drums. That is awesome you can teach and share some of that
LS: Thank you. I really love teaching, especially women. It can empowering, especially if you think you’re not strong enough to do it. And then, as you start letting go of those perceptions of what you think playing drums is, and what kind of a person you have to be to do that well. . . It’s really cool to see that process, see a person’s confidence change.
Did BRMC fans embrace you when you joined?
LS: Some people did. I remember my very first show, it was in Brussels. I think there was a little bit of skepticism in the beginning, because of the whole gender thing. That slowly dissipated, and it’s not something that’s popped up that much. Gender has nothing to do with the music, or how well someone’s gonna be able to do their job. For the most part, people were great, really supportive.
The wonderful duo JOHNNYSWIM headlines the Neptune tomorrow evening, Friday October 14th. Combining folk, rock and pop, husband and wife team Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano are now on their fourth LP, Georgica Pond, an album with lovely songs – including one with none other than Vince Gill! JOHNNYSIM is well known for passionate shows, with music drawing from deep emotion. After meeting at church in 2001 and then continuing their own lives, Ramirez and Sudano didn’t reconnect until four years later, being introduced again by fellow musician Mat Kearney. How fortunate are we that fate brought them together? Very. They continue to create beautiful together, and the partnership has also created life last year with the birth of their son, Joaquin. Very special side note: Amanda Sudano is Donna Summer’s daughter. I’m so happy to see that Summer, who remains one of my favorite singers, has such a talented daughter. While Sudano is her own artist, of course, I can at times hear Summer in her voice. So awesome.
How is Joaquin? I really love the updates on your Facebook page!
Amanda: He’s doing great. He’s nineteenth months old now. He’s a fun treasure.
Before we had him I didn’t think about how we’d be travelling, and bottling our dreams and having him at the same time. I had a good friend tell me, before I got pregnant, that babies are portable. I didn’t realized how focused I would be, because my time is somewhat limited. I’m not always available, but when I find that I do have the time, I’m focused and happier to do what I love.
Does he go on tour with you?
Amanda: We’ve put him on, like eighty four flights, and he’s been traveling with us since he was seven weeks old. There’s only been a handful of shows where he hasn’t been somewhere nearby, and that was to keep him at home, to keep a routine.
You are two very positive people. How do you maintain such positivity in an industry that can be very difficult?
Abner: I think it has a lot to do with how we were raised. My parents came here in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift. They came to find opportunities. I was born in the US, but my two sisters were seven and eight years old when they came. I remember when I graduated high school, my dad almost kicked me out of the house, saying, “What do you want to do?” And all I could think of was music. Growing up in the Westside in Jacksonville, Florida, pursuing music as a career isn’t something that anybody you know has even tried. It didn’t seem like a real thing I could do. I was struggling to commit to a college. I wanted to play music for a living. He said, “Where do you have to go to do that? New York, LA, or Nashville?” He said, “We can’t afford New York or LA, so let’s get you into Nashville.” So my dad dropped me off at school, Trevecca Nazarene, and my said to me, with a tear in his eye, “Don’t come home until your dreams come true.” But then he called me and said, “You know I mean don’t ever come home, just don’t give up.”
It’s funny, I was talking to our manager today, we talked about how so often, we found true, that it’s not the great times that define you, or the great times that even chart your course – it’s how you handle the bad times. We see negativity. It’s not that when we get bad news we ignore it. We’re really lucky to do what we love for a living. And of course there’s bad news, bad times, hard times. We’re committed to seeing them through because we believe it will just make us stronger.
JOHNNYSWIM
What was it like starting out as a duo?
Abnber: People mocked us, “Are you trying to be Sonny & Cher?” We had eight years in complete obscurity. It was impossible! We did it because we loved it. We weren’t going to stop making music, so we might as well make it together.
Has touring affected your songwriting?
Amanda: Yeah. I think in our live shows is where we found our voice the most, it’s where we let ourselves be extra free. There’s energy and freedom in the room. I think it’s taught us to trust our instincts.
How do you decide who will sing which parts of a song?
Amanda: It’s always different, but we don’t overthink that part. It’s always organic.
What made you decide to make a Christmas album? (A JOHNNYSWIM CHRISTMAS was released in 2014)
Abner: We’d just gone on a Christmas tour. Christmas in our house is our favorite time of year. Amanda, it turned out, just wanted an excuse to listen to more Christmas music during the year. She started research in May, playing Christmas music all the time.
Did you go through rebellious stages as teenagers?
Amanda: My rebellious stage was going to college. My parents, knowing how much I loved music and singing, were encouraging me. But I thought, no, maybe I’ll be on the business side. I would joke with them that graduating from college was my rebellion.
You had two introductions before you got together?
Amanda: We first saw each other at church and then we didn’t meet until Mat actually introduced us four years later. I think those four years were definitely needed for Abner to get out of his rebellious stage.
Abner: I am so grateful I had those four years, because I needed them to grow up. I was a bit of a handful.
Amanda, you mentioned in another interview that a Vince Gill album was one of the first cassettes you bought. What was it like working with him on “Lonely Night in Georgia”?
Amanda: It was so surreal. I was so happy. I think my cheeks still hurt from how much I was smiling the whole day. I think I contributed the least to that song of any song on the record, only because I was so excited I couldn’t even think properly. Everything was awesome. We were writing with Vince Gill. That was a dream come true.
Continuing in the amazing tradition of great Scandinavian music (with, of course, her own electronic magic), Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora was in Seattle this spring. Aurora’s first EP, Running with the Wolves, received so much positive attention in 2015 she followed up with a full length, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, in 2016. Well done! You are probably familiar with the title track of her EP, which also made it on to the LP. . . and, Seattle fans: Aurora returns to Seattle on December 2nd with a headline Showbox appearance.
Electronic duo Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson, well-known as VNV Nation, have a headlining show this Friday, October 7th at the Showbox!
Originally from Dublin, Ireland and Essex, England, respectively, Harris and Jackson created VNV Nation (that’s Victory Not Vengeance Nation) in 1990. Are they dance music? Goth? EBM (Electronic Body Music in the tradition of Kraftwerk)? They’re a bit of all kinds of electronic goodness, and they’re currently based in Berlin, Germany, an excellent location for electronic music. The pair has steadily released very well-received albums since their 1995 debut, Advance and Follow; from that point on VNV Nation became influential in their own right. How did I learn of them? I don’t mean this as a plug, okay, maybe a little because I love the show so much. I heard them on Seattle’s C89.5’s On the Edge, where I have found such great music over the years.
VNV Nation
Before I leave you with the title track from 1998’s EP Solitary, here’s where you can get your tickets. The show did just sell out a few hours ago, but check the page. Who knows, you might get lucky.
And fun Halloweeny reporting from Wikipedia discovered: Mark Jackson raises tarantulas. Is this true? Please tell me this is true.
