FREE KITTEN

"So at the same time we had this other song that we had been working on that we had been planning on recording, so we said, "Why doesn't she play drums on that?" And she just nailed it or whatever! That was such a very natural thing. All of a sudden it was like, "Ooohh! It's nice playing with a drummer..It's fun!" So when we decided to do the Japan tour we did it as a three

piece with Yoshimi on drums. So then Kim was like, "Well now that we've strayed away from the two guitar thing, it would be nice to have a fuller sound and have a bass player", and I'm like, "Well, I don't really like most bass players!" I like bass players who play the bass like a guitar or something. Less conventional bass players, like Kim herself. So I was wary of the idea if it wasn't the right person, but Mark... He's such a great guy, Period, that even if he totally sucked we'd have been willing to give him a shot! But he's also a great bass player. The scary part was playing without a drummer, and that's a really scary thing, not having drums there. And so having broken that there was really no big deal adding bass."

Did you play live much as a two-piece?

"Yeah, we played quite a few gigs and if Mark and Yoshimi weren't available - like we almost thought we would have to do this CB's (GB's) show just the two of us again, which would have been incredibly scary and we would have to had really worked out the songs a bit differently or whatever, but it's very exciting doing that too - so it's conceivable that if we had to, we would play the two of us again. We like writing the music the two of us.

So you both write all the songs?

"Well, No! This last album we wrote with them (Yoshimi and Mark). We have the sort of thrust in mind, so say Yoshimi tries something swingy, I mean, we don't tell her what to fucking write or play exactly; nor do we have to tell Mark. There was one song on the record where we were writing this song but didn't have that much time. Some of the songs were completely written, but then a lot of the other things were just like, Kim would come up with a riff or I would come up with a riff and then we'd all start playing off that and then figure out a place for it to go. But sometimes we'd be doing it and three of us would really get it and it would be, "OK, Let's record that now!", and maybe one of us is secretly thinking, "AaahAaahAaahAaah! I haven't really worked out my part!!! How did that break go ?!" So there are a couple of tracks where like, I couldn't necessarily hear what Mark was playing all the time. You'd get to a song and it'd be like, a song that you thought was a mess would actually be really great, especially when people like Mark's the one person who didn't get it down. Sort of like, there's one song that's like, "I Can't Stand What Mark Is Playing!!" You know, like "Take The Faders Down!....." There's Only One! He's so offended by that but you can tell who you want. And there were one or two songs where I was like "What The FUCK am I Doing Here?! Get My Guitar out of there!" So I practise what I preach. Three people in a group and one person just like, "UhhUhhUhhUhh!" on their little own island wasting away!"

What are you doing in production at the moment? You did Guv'nor didn't you?

"I did Guv'nor because I love the band and I've known Pumpkin for a really long time. It's one of those things. Like had Pumpkin started a band with some lame boyfriend that I didn't like and they proceeded to make music that I found terrible I would have just been like, you know..."Good Job!!" I would have maybe dropped by the studio and went, "Yeah, It's Sounding GREAT! Yeah Well, I'm out of smokes... Gotta Go!" And this was a unique combination of me really liking the band and me thinking that I could help them. It was very comfortable to do, recording it in their practise space on their eight track. It's Michael's (the drummer) eight track so he really knew his equipment and it was a very comfortable and easy way to work. I really thought I could do something. I wasn't there every minute of every day. Some of the time that I was there it's like, Gonza can be much more anal about something than I am, like he's trying to find this one perfect guitar sound and I'm like, "Just fucking turn the thing UP!", you know. So I just throw my two cents in and he ignores my advice, although at a later point that's exactly what he'll end up doing! I like sat there and perfected my Sega Genesis game, smoke cigarettes, you know....

I would go in with other bands. There have been a couple of bands who have asked me who I had liked and I would have done it but it just didn't work out or something, but I don't consider myself a producer you know. I'm sure Steve Albini could kick my ass in a production alley duel. I'm certainly not interested in working with bands that I don't like or people I sense I wouldn't like even if their music was terrific. Or people that I love but who make rotten music...there are plenty of those too."

Are you planning on staying in New York? It seems to have a very insular scene there?

"Well it really isn't though, because New York is very much to each its own. There's always a small number of interesting bands doing similar things or whatever, but they don't have much to do with each other. It's very competitive. Apartments are so small and time is so short that you really can't spend much time Being NICE! to the other guys! (Chuckling) Similarly, Kim and me and my sister Daisy, who does the clothing line with Kim and is also Pumpkin's best friend, we've got a little collective going in that we all support each other, but in general every band is sort of isolated.

"I never ever wanted to live in New York City for the rest of my life. I never actually ever dreamed of living in New York City, Period! But it's very hard to think of any place you would rather live, but it's like, I get sick and tired of there not being enough physical beauty, the fact that you can't have a house with a yard or something. On the other hand, all the places that you can do that are really Horrible places to live! And then you send your child to play around in the yard and it's probably more trouble because they're probably sitting in the treehouse getting stoned or something! And sheer boredom. I'd much rather have to fight homeless people on the way home!!!! So I don't necessarily see myself moving away, although a drearier life as an old lady I can imagine. Especially like, I'm five'two now. I assume that when I'm eighty or ninety I might actually go under five feet tall! And then I'm like one of those little Jewish OLD LADIES That I see walking around New York! You know, just crossing the street! I can't imagine how they Do It! So I'd hope not to live there. I'd rather live in Brighton or something, by the sea, and spend my time in teahouses boring people."

There's a place along the coast (Eastbourne!) where the average age is over fifty five...It's really weird going there!

"Well, we've got Florida!! Florida is a huge WALL of old people in retirement villages. And really, anybody whose parent's live on the East Coast. If you're in California you've already got the sun. Like old people can stay and rot in the sun in California, but on the East Coast there's this migration...You see them flying in the air South...and it always starts like, "I'm just going there for a couple of months in the winter", and they always end up buying the house. Literally, I mean my grandparents did it, and then actually found it repulsive and moved back. But it makes sense, and I think it might be a pleasant place to live. If there weren't all those other old people I might consider it!"

Julie (to Judith): Has anybody ever told you you look like Jennifer from Royal Trux?

Judith: No!

Steve: I don't give her any compliments at all!

Julie: Well, You Do!

What's Thurston doing here?

Oh, changing dirty nappies and getting in the way.

So he's babysitter?

Actually we've got one of those too 'cos he's sort of incompetent! Ha Ha!...Thurston, not the babysitter!... No, Thurston's having fun. Thurston is like Free Kitten's number one fan. And groupie. And he'd be a helluva roadie if he wasn't so damned lazy! He's the kind of person who, if you were struggling to carry something, would help, if all six foot five inches of him wasn't walking in the other direction to the record shop in town.

Have you got a nice tour bus?

"We've got a huge fucking bus! We've got like a, well, in America its the equivalent of these little diesel things that you see on college campuses that take the nerdy kids back to their door, afraid of getting raped at eight o'clock at night on the way home or something ! For free! But it takes an hour to get six blocks! We're riding in the equivalent of one of those. Guv'nor have a really sporty little miniature red van. It looks like some sort of child's toy, but very fast."

And you're in the mystery machine....

"Yeah. And I developed a bad case of sciatica on the plane ride over, so I do things like lay newspapers down on the aisle of the bus and lay flat on the floor, and Thurston's feet sort of form a bridge over me. Typically we have a VCR and a CD player in the back, none of which work. Like we brought this old set of Fall videos and I was looking forward to watching them cos they're like the best videos ever, secretly knowing that the video machine, if it worked, would probably eat the tapes, these irreplaceable tapes or something! But we didn't even get that far!"

What do you get up to at home?

"How do you make NOTHING sound interesting??? I recently graduated from university, but as my mother would point out, when is a little over a year "recently"?"

Sounds horribly familiar!

"But I'm debating whether to go back and get a Masters degree or not. I'd love to teach. I don't like school myself, so I'm not that enthusiastic about getting the Masters degree. But it's important. Because I'd love to teach literature to high school or college level or something. But I read; I watch television; I spend time with my cat; my boyfriend. We set up in one room in our apartment this mini recording studio with everything except any kind of recording capabilities. And we've got a lot of tacky keyboards and childs' organs, and it's like, I've got the next Stereolab record! I've done it! Like, I'm a genius if I play one note on a broken organ that sort of went Phummmmmmmmmmm! Phummmmmmmmmmm! Phummmmmmmmmmmmmm! And I'm like, "Yeah! No wonder people get into this." My sister, who's my best friend, and Kim, we all live close by to each other, so they're always really busy with X-Girl, and she always insists that I help, so I manage to fill my time with specific things, so luckily I've avoided the fear of having any kind of day job. That is my job: avoiding work! That really takes up a lot of time! "

What's your favourite TV show?

"I really like Melrose Place. I used to like Bev Hills but it sucks now. Too moralistic. There was this show that was really good but I think is about to be cancelled called My So Called Life. It's the first show about so-called 'alterna-teen angst'. It's really good. It's as accurate as TV can possibly be. The best show I think is Larry Sanders, which lampoons talk show hosts. I'm incredibly into movie star gossip. Any show like that. Hard Copy. Movies...I love movies."

Is New York really good for movies then?

"The actual theatres aren't that great anymore. They've all been chopped up for the most part. When I first moved there, there used to be tonnes and tonnes of really big theatres, and that's not true anymore. But there are lots and lots of screens. You pretty much get everything....You know...We've got seventy channels. It's hard to pick a favourite show."

Shit, we've got four!

I know! But you've got four really great channels. I would die for four channels that were of the quality....aaaaaah.

But we didn't get to talk about UFOs!

Time for me to shake my money maker!