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I'll Just Climb Up To Nowhere

HEATHER DUBY

by Lorenzo Casaccia ©, 2000

 

Are you satisfied with the results of the record: feedback from the critics and from the public?
Yes, I have been very pleasantly surprised. I didn't anticipate this much response, it's nice when projects move of their own volition.

How did you become a musician? It was something you had always dreamed about, or it was something that came out in your life later?
I never thought I would actually pursue a livlihood in the arts, I've always been involved in various kinds of performance, writing, things like that, but it wasn't until I went to college to find some other career that I realized how central these things were to my happiness.

How were your teenage years? Do you consider yourself a lucky person? How much is your life changed now? How much do you think your life influences your music?
Ugh. I don't think I know anyone who can recount their teenage years with much pleasantry. Mine were certainly no different, I can only hope that I was able to glean some sort of wisdom about myself from much tragedy and adolescent flailings. I think I must be a lucky person, I have benefitted too much from serendipity to think otherwise. My life is much more my own now, as opposed to operating from an entirely reactionary basis. I think that overcoming past abuses so that they don't define the way you live your life is the greatest thing any person can do for themselves. I certainly am not a master at this, but the pursuit of that kind of freedom is probably the biggest change I've encountered as an adult. There is no separation between my life and my music, really. The two feed each other is the hope.

I have read that you did the record kind of without a label (she signed later, when the recordings were over): can you tell me how things went exactly?
All of that was really very difficult, a huge extension of faith on everyone's part I think. The details are insignificant, I can only say that I am amazed the thing reached completion, there were certainly enough times when I thought it might not.

Comparisons have been raised with a number of great female voices and artists: Nico, Enya, Diamanda Galas, Jane Siberry, Tracey Thorn. What is you opinion and how do you like those artists?
I must confess that I am very ignorant to much that I am compared to. I really don't do alot of musical research into other artists, voices,etc. Tracy Thorn, Elizabeth Fraser, older Ella Fitzgerald, and Patsy Cline are my staples.

How do you create your music (on which instrument)? Do come first lyrics or melody?
I play both guitar and piano, most of my writing for the record came from keys, and each song is different. Sometimes it's all melody first, other times the text is something I'm so fond of that I force a melody around that first. It just depends. I think this is probably the way with most writers.

In my opinion, the record is above all a great work in studio. Was it hard to get to the final result you wanted? How do your songs look like before entering the studio?
Because the whole project took so long, the songs would come in very rudimentary, off my four track, bass, drums, keys, voice, then they would invariably go through the whole process of Steve and I trying to ascertain what they were supposed to do, how much they were supposed to hold. They would fill up alot, we'd sit with that for a few weeks and then, 9 times out of 10, they'd get thinned out again, hopefully striking a balance between the two. So much of the process is based in language and how to explain to someone else what it is your hearing.

How are the live versions of your songs? Who plays with you on stage?
I like to say the live show has bigger kahonas, there is obviously less of the production aspect, but I think that there is a much rawer energy to the songs. I sing with considerably more fortitude, we play almost everything live, there are only a few times that loops and samples come in, they are there enough to allude to the electronic elements, but overall it's all happening simultaneously. Cody Burns plays guitar, Bo Gilliland plays bass, Michael Shilling plays drums, Dawnya Wittenborn sings backing vocals, and Joe Irving plays keys and programs some of our beats and things.

Do you think you will come to Europe to play?
I would really like to think so, it's all a matter of how things proceed.

What is your typical audience in your concerts?
It's always surprising to me, it really seems to vary, I suppose that's a strength of the album.

The tracks I like most are You Loved Me, For Jeffrey and Halo Sky. I consider Halo Sky a little masterpiece among the songs for voice+electronics. One could also have doubts about putting your record in the rock area of a music store: comments?
Certainly a valid consideration.

Where does the title come from?
Post to Wire is a term used in horse racing, for example "Post to Wire it was Secretariat all the way!!!" And so on... I'm a big horse freak, I have an aunt who trains racehorses and I used to ride some of them on occassion when I was a kid. She used to always give me cards on my B-days that said I could pick a day and we would go out riding on the dunes or something like that. Some of my fondest memories by far. I also like the way that the phrase has this transcendental sort of implication, ya know, like when they would send things by wire, stuff like that.

I have liked your lyrics very much. I found that they express an disenchanted, disheartened approach to love. Do you agree? How much is there of poetry and how much or real life?
These things called relationships are testing grounds for how rotten we can be to ourselves and another person. There is certainly the potential for enlightenment and growth, but I suppose I am a little inept sometimes, not able to quite get there. Obviously a touchy subject.

What do you do in real life, or what did you do before recording Post To Wire? Has it changed your life from any point of view?
Ha-Ha, haven't you heard? I bus tables for a living and have done that very job, in that very restaurant for something like three and a half years. The people there have been very kind to me, it's an extremely busy place and the work is hard, but I think that it's been good for me to do the manual labor thing, and concentrate on my music.

Do you listen to contemporary rock? What do you like?
I really like Mogwai. I think the Breakbeat Era album is great, I love drum and bass, I have a hard time dancing to house now, it seems too slow. Juno is probably one of the most beautiful melodic bands I have seen live. Yo la Tengo, I like spacerock too, Slowdive, (even though they're not together). What else, there's just so much anymore, it's hard to say.

Are there unknown artists you advice me to listen to?
My friends in Voyager One just finished an album, if you like spacerock I think this is probably going to be a good one. We're playing a couple of shows with them. The record should be out on Loveless records, April 7th.

What are you priorities in life?
I can't begin to extrapolate on that, I'm still trying to figure it out.

 

LINK:
Heather Duby page at SubPop.com