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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?
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