Music

5 Questions with Warpaint

by Anne T. Donahue

After their appearances at CMJ in 2009 and SXSW earlier this year, LA’s Warpaint has come under the spotlight, earning accolades from fans and media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic while helping to further establish California as a bankable and relevant music scene.  Since the release of their highly-applauded EP, Exquisite Corpse (mixed by former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante) last year, the band has seen the departure of previous drummer, Shannyn Sossaman, as well as the addition of drummer and keyboardist Stella Mozgawa, who helped cement the group’s familial vibe as the four worked closely under time constraints and the hurdles associated with recording in the studio recently.  Scheduled to release their debut LP later this year, and having recently announced another North American tour in addition to supporting dates with The xx this fall, Warpaint are finally beginning to receive the recognition they deserve, and prior to their unforgettable performance at NXNE  at the Horseshoe, they found time to talk to AUX TV about SXSW, their musical evolution and the different between men and women in music.

AUX TV: You’ve had a devout following for some time – especially after the release of Exquisite Corpse last year.  But after this year’s SXSW, the media really seemed to clue in.  Do you see SXSW as the catalyst for Warpaint’s increased exposure or do you think deserving bands eventually achieve the notoriety they’re entitled to?

Emily Kokal: I think SXSW had probably a lot to do with it.  We played 11 shows total so we were playing three shows a day and there was a lot of press there.  I think there was maybe a minimal amount of buzz leading up to that because we had been a band for so long and we’ve gotten little bits of press here and there . . . [and] we had CMJ so there was a little bit happening before, but I think that kind of took it over the edge.

AUX TV: You just came out of the studio after recording your first LP, and your last album (Exquisite Corpse), received so much recognition.  What is it about this LP that you think will surprise existing fans the most – or do you think it will surprise them at all?

EK: I think the EP was kind of all over the place – which was awesome, I think – and [with] this record, Stella came on board about three weeks before we were about ready to record it.  So I think there’s just more consistency going on in every song.  I don’t know – I just think it’s an evolved version of our EP.  It’s an evolved version of all of us – I would say it’s like the bigger sister to the EP.  So we hope that people like it – I mean obviously we hope people like it – but it’s where we are or where we were when we wrote the songs and recorded them, and it’s what we’re doing, so we’re not trying to do anything other than that.  I guess it’s open to interpretation.  If they like it, they do, if they don’t [then they don’t].

AUX TV: Well being an all-female band, do you find that being a “girl band” or a “girl group” still comes before the music or has it finally equalized?

Stella Mozgawa: On the surface, maybe [being a “girl group” comes before the music].  I think that just happens naturally to every all-female band.

EK: It’s rare, it’s uncommon.

SM: And people will always compare you to other all-female acts.  It’s the same as being a band that has a drum machine.  There’s always somewhere they want to generalize because it makes it easier to consume for people: “if you like this, then you’ll like this” or whatever.  But I think it’s kind of died down.

EK: I think people are pleasantly surprised.  Like, “oh it’s a girl band” and that generally turns their ears on, turns their eyes on – they’re drawn to that.  And that might be the first draw – the fact that we’re women.  And I was saying the other day that I feel like they’re pleasantly surprised because they don’t expect the music to sound that way – or I know I’ve heard it often.  And I feel that way at times, too.  I don’t actually go, “oh we’re women and we’re playing music”, or “that’s why we’re playing music and that’s why we’re a band” and “we need to be an all-girl band”.  We all four get together and we love what we’re doing with each other, and there’s an intuition that goes on sonically, musically that I don’t experience with other people.

If we were four dudes playing the music that we’re playing I don’t necessarily think that [it would be like] “oh there’s Warpaint – four guys – playing the music that we’re playing”.  . . . For some reason, in the back of my head, I’m like, I bet if it was four dudes I don’t necessarily know if we’d be getting this much attention.  So there’s something to be said about that.  Not that we’re going to change our gender or anything, but I do think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are four girls doing something that four girls have never done before in music history.

AUX TV: Well there’s a vulnerability to it – or a different type of emotion.  Do you think in that case women can bring something more to music that men can’t?

EK: Yes, I do actually.  I do.  And all of those words you just said – vulnerability, emotion, sensitivity, intuition – there’s all kinds of feelings.

SM: It’s just biological in some way, you know?

Emily: More emotional.  I mean, men definitely make emotional music – most male musicians are really, really emotional.

SK: I think it just comes down to frequency.  I know that sounds really pretentious, but the way that a woman sings and a way that a man sings [is different].  . . . Like, when Kurt Cobain sings Smells Like Teen Spirit and Tori Amos sings Smells Like Teen Spirit it’s a completely different thing with a completely different intention and connotation to it.  It’s a complete different meaning.

EM: Or just different interpretations of music [between] women and men.  They’re just different – a different species in a weird way.  Women think absolutely different than men do and so when they’re going to approach music, they’re going to approach it absolutely different.

AUX TV: Having learned what you’ve learned since 2007, do you find that when you look back you can see a marked difference between who were then and who you are now?

SM: I think it’s a personal evolution as well.  I mean, any human being – you hang out with your friends three years ago, and you hang out with them now, it’s a different dynamic.  You’ve learned so many different things, you approach things differently, you have a completely different understanding of what you’re doing musically and creatively.  So I think just by nature there’s always a difference.

EK: And it’s a different approach.

SM: It’s a very scientific  response to that question, but just objectively, that’s how I feel.

EK: Yeah, when we recorded the EP and when we actually went into the studio we had two months to record these five songs and we knew exactly what we were doing and exactly what we wanted to do, so going in and recording, there wasn’t that “oh, what should we do here?”  . . . We’d just practised the songs for so long we were reading to record them, but we spent a long time working out tones and making sure the performance was right and it was clean, and there were 30 takes of the drums . . . but this recording process with ten songs – and that was just five in two months – we had a lot less time to record and we also didn’t actually have the most concrete idea . . . so we definitely worked through a lot of the shit while we were recording.  And we had an ample amount of less time to do it, so I think that was just like, “wow – we’ve really grown as musicians and we really stepped up to the challenge”.  . . . And that wouldn’t have happened before.