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TRISTE: Many artists covered by Triste Magazine seem to defy easy
categorization, but critics struggle to get a handle on you. How would
you describe your music to someone who hadn't had the benefit of hearing
it?
LYS GUILLORN: I always tend to give a flip answer like "cowgirl goth"
or something, but my music isn't that dour and it's just a little
twangy. Factually speaking, without trying to sell it to anyone, it's
slightly twangy rock with surreal, cryptic lyrics.
TRISTE: So are there any other artists ploughing a similar musical
furrow to yourself?
LYS GUILLORN: This is seriously the hardest question to answer, and
it's so early in the interview. I think I need another cup of tea.
These days I'm enjoying Kristin Hersh, Nina Nastasia, Andrew Bird. I
think there's a certain changeability each of them possesses and
attention to arrangement while still maintaining their songwriting. I'm also
just starting to get into Howe Gelb/Giant Sand.
When I wrote and recorded my CD I was listening to Big Star, Astrud
Gilberto, Yo La Tengo, Galaxie 500, and also Lilys. When I was in high
school, I of course listened to the Cure, Smiths, Cowboy Junkies, Sonic
Youth, but it was mixed in with stuff from a slightly older era like the
Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Buffalo Springfield, Sandy
Denny, Bob Dylan.
I'm all over the place with this. I hear a lot of weird stuff in my
head and I'm not sure where it comes from. Who knows, my next record might
be influenced by Robert Wyatt...but I want it to sound like "Songs of
Leonard Cohen" or maybe "Oar", so that might be tough.
TRISTE: Do you think that having such eclectic influences and a
desire to explore different styles in your music makes it difficult for
people to get to really know you and so build up a following? Even when
such famous musical chameleons as Bowie and Dylan changed styles, they
lost thousands (but probably gained other) listeners.
LYS GUILLORN: It probably does make it difficult, but I haven't been
out and about long enough to find out if that's really true. There seems
to be a thread linking my work together, but I'll find out over time.
I'd rather do what makes sense to me than arbitrarily pick a style and
stick with it. You might have to ask me again in four records.
TRISTE: I’ll hold you to that. Moving on a little, can you tell me a
little how you first got interested in making music?
LYS GUILLORN: I've been making music since I was a little kid. I always
had access to musical instruments--piano and mouth harp were the first
two. I would pick out TV theme songs when I was very, very young. The
show Sesame Street was a big influence on me, because
it was so musical. I think everything I can remember being on
television in the in the 1970s had a musical component in it somewhere.
I took piano lessons for a number of years, but I preferred to play by
ear. I also took banjo, guitar and violin lessons for a couple of years
apiece.
When I was in high school, I wanted to form a band with some friends,
and we did - a bunch of freshman girls - and no one would sing because
we were all afraid to. I think secretly everyone wanted to sing but no
one knew how to be the centre of attention. We wore all black and
listened to the Cure, the Smiths and Sonic Youth. So I always had in the back
of my head that I wanted to write and play music.
TRISTE: I presume Jargon Society was your first "serious" band. What
happened in the time between your high school band and forming Jargon
Society?
LYS GUILLORN: I played in a band with my brother for a short period of
time on violin and keyboards, and I sang a little. It was my
introduction to performing in front of a live audience. In college I was in an
indie-rock band called the American Pragmatists, and I was the rhythm
guitar player. I didn't sing - I just played guitar in support of a
songwriter I really liked. We played around campus, and a couple of shows in
New York and Philadelphia, won a few
"battle of the bands" competitions at school, made a demo and then
broke up. In a brief later incarnation I played violin.
In 1997 and 1998 I was playing with a couple of other musicians for a
while under the name Good Citizen Star - singing some early songs and a
few covers and playing guitar. We broke up in 1998 when I started to
make my record. I played mostly solo shows between 1998 and 2000 when
Jargon Society was formed.
Jargon Society was a good way to get around and perform and yet not
need to have enough material to fill a whole set. I got to show off a
little on guitar. It was great working on Elisa Flynn’s and Peter Riccio’s
songs and it was interesting to hear what the other folks would play on
my tunes even though it was nothing like the arrangements I was writing
for myself. It was also a good excuse to play in places I couldn't get
into as a solo act. And we had a cellist. Fun while it
all lasted.
TRISTE: You mentioned that you were a reluctant vocalist at first,
so was the decision to sing driven by the need to get your own
self-composed material out in front of an audience?
LYS GUILLORN: I started singing for my own enjoyment before I started
writing. I always wanted to sing, but didn't think I was singer, so I
took some voice lessons to build my confidence. Eventually I started
writing and I knew I had to sing in order to get my songs out there.
I realized that I didn't need an absolutely smooth, pitch-perfect voice
in order to perform.
TRISTE: So what was the actual motivation to start writing songs?
You play a range of instruments and sing, so would obviously be a
valuable member of a band - purely as a musician in your own right. Why take
the step to being a songwriter and, by default almost, putting yourself
in the spotlight?
LYS GUILLORN: At school I met a few songwriters who amazed me and I
wanted to be like them. I learned how to use my brother's 4-track and that
helped me learn how to put the pieces together. I was just compelled to
write and thought I should perform because I was so frightened of being
in front of people. It's a little perverse, I guess. Less frightened
maybe of being in front of people and singing than actually talking to
people at a party. Getting up in front of a class to read a paper...too
scary!
TRISTE: Are you a prolific songwriter?
LYS GUILLORN: I go through phases with songwriting when I write a lot.
I have quite a few songs and a lot of ideas, but I don't write every
week and actually I didn't write from January to mid-October this year.
When I can't write there's just no forcing it at all and it's
frustrating. It would be more frustrating if I had to put out a record, but when
I'm not writing I work on parts that eventually work their way into
things later.
When I feel a song coming, I hear the music in my head and I can
usually just listen to what needs to come next. I'm just writing what I want
to hear and what I need to say and remember. Right now I'm on an
upswing.
TRISTE: So the music arrives fully formed - lyrics and music
together? Or do you mean you try and then fit lyrics to the music in your
head?
LYS GUILLORN: "Throne" and "Little Wren" were written all in one
sitting, if I remember correctly. I used to spend really long days 4-tracking
when I still lived at home with my folks and I wouldn't let myself come
out of the room until I was done with a song. It happens a couple of
different ways, but a lot of times everything happens more or less all at
once and I just come up with lyrics and music together. I have a lot of
snippets of music fermenting in my head
and eventually they'll assemble and lyrics will stick to them and they
become songs or parts of songs.
Many times I come up with songs when I'm nowhere near an instrument or
recording device, like when I'm at work in the darkroom. I'll jot
lyrics down and hope I remember the melody later when I get home and can
whip out the guitar. Usually there will be a key part missing
and I'll have to come up with it later, but I trust my subconscious
most of the time.
TRISTE: But that must be so irritating - that experience where
you've got a killer melody line in your head and by the time you get to an
instrument or tape it's either gone or changed into something
predictable and uninspired. Given your musical background haven't you learned
enough musical notation to salvage the bones of the tune from scribbled
notes on scraps of paper? But then conventional notation, I suppose, is
limited too?
LYS GUILLORN: It does seem odd after all these years, but I play
entirely by ear. I probably could notate if I tried, but usually I have no
reason to. Luckily, there's a guitar in the lab where I work, so if I
really need it, it's there. I use mnemonic devices like thinking of bits
of other songs that make me think of the melody I just came up with.
Even if they don't sound that alike, it does help. Also, for some reason,
if I can write down some words I can usually remember what I sang to
them, at least for a day or two, sometimes for way longer.
The words seem to lock in the music for me.
When I can't recreate a sound I hear in my head, I'll usually go really
left field and add a lot of voices layered on top of each other. When I
use the 4-track, I'm sometimes kind of lazy but resourceful and use my
voice instead of other instruments.
TRISTE: What triggers the lyrical themes of your songs?
LYS GUILLORN: Sometimes lyrical ideas will start with a single word or
phrase that makes me think of a certain thing or feel a certain way. I
remember having the word "impossible" written in the back of my
songwriting notebook for a while before I wrote the song on my
record, and the end had been written about a year before the beginning.
Most of my songs come from my life and other people in my life-if not
in a narrative style of what's happening, then an impression of
something I feel. I write lyrics and music that evoke the feeling, at least for
me. It's a way of remembering something and telling other people about
it. So just the word "impossible" made me think about an impossible
situation in my life and it was kind of silly to me, so I wrote about its
silliness. As I've probably hinted earlier in the conversation, I rely
on my subconscious quite a bit to lead me in the right direction. It's
just easier not to push an idea around and let something come to me
even if it doesn't make rational sense immediately.
I've also stored away a lot of ideas from books, TV and movies, so
there are little snippets floating around in my head that sometimes work
their way in.
TRISTE: So there's no key to your lyrics that would allow them to
always make perfect rational sense? You know, the kind of thing people do
with Dylan?
LYS GUILLORN: Haha. I'm not sure. I can't really tell, and I'm not
sure it's necessary to make rational sense of things to get the feeling of
the songs, which is, to me, more important. I do wonder, periodically,
what people see in their minds when they listen. Well, I guess a key
would be a timeline of my life and what I was doing and then match up the
songs to what was going on.
TRISTE: You have been criticised sometimes for your esoteric
vocabulary and extended similes. For example in "Throne" there's that line,
"Your back's a linden bough, a Turkish caravan, a sinking anadama
confection". What would you say to people who think your lyrics are obscure or
pretentious even?
LYS GUILLORN: Well, I think I know which review you're talking about.
That's just the way I think. I don't really want to address that too
directly--everyone's entitled to an opinion. I write what comes to mind.
I'm not sitting around struggling to pull words together.
TRISTE: Your debut album seems to have had an extended gestation
period in that the recordings were sat around for 3-4 years before
actually being made into an album proper. Can you tell me a little about the
story behind the album?
LYS GUILLORN: In 1998 my friend Jamie Siwinski introduced me to Jeff
Feuerzeig. He had heard a tape of some of the songs done on my 4-track
and at first, it wasn't clear what we were going to do. Then Jeff very
kindly offered to produce and engineer a record for me and we'd figure
out what to do with it later. So over the course of the next year I'd go
down to his studio in New Jersey to record.
Then when the record was finished, we sent it out to a bunch of labels.
I was on my way to having a record deal with a very small label and
went through contract negotiations up through the very last step. The
label folded and everything fell apart. I think it was for the best, but it
took me a few years to be able to put it out myself.
It does seem like an albatross after a while, having a finished,
unreleased record. I'm happy with the way things turned out, though.
TRISTE: So how much of your current set is made up of songs from
this record?
LYS GUILLORN: If I’m playing solo, sometimes I’ll only play a couple.
With the ensemble I’ve put together for a couple of shows recently, I’ll
play almost the entire thing.
TRISTE: You got some famous names to appear on your record. How did
you manage this?
LYS GUILLORN: It wasn't something I set out to do. Jeff just happened
to know these people from being involved with different bands and his
documentary project and other work he had done and they were pretty close
by--whether in New Jersey or in New York City which isn't far at all
from Montclair, the town where the studio was located. It all came
together kind of suddenly. It was a vague possibility when we started out,
and then those folks said yes and came in as we were wrapping up each
song.
Their contributions enhance the songs so much. The solos were
definitely beyond the scope of what I would've played had I done them. Mine
would've been more predictable. Dean, Quine and Glenn just kicked ass.
Brenda and Stanley gave the songs a great backbone, which they had to do
after my guitar and vocal parts. Add a spine later.
TRISTE: Any particular reasons for choosing the cover artwork?
LYS GUILLORN: Elisa Flynn, the artist, is my friend. She was the other
songwriter/guitarist/singer in Jargon Society. The image was hanging on
her living room wall for much of the time we were practising at her
house, and I fell in love with it. I like the suggestion of loss, the
sparseness, the quality of strength. It's a wolf, but it looks kind of like
a dog and it's missing a leg--maybe it chewed it off to get out of a
trap. Elisa's work is very dream-like and each print is like a short
story. I'm a fan of her songs and her prints, so it means a lot to me to
have her work on the cover.
TRISTE: You mentioned in an interview that you've experienced
moments of real transcendence playing live on stage. Are you a particularly
confident performer or is it something you've had to work at?
LYS GUILLORN: I had to work up the confidence to perform because I used
to be a pretty shy person. At some point in my early twenties, I
decided I wanted to play out as a solo performer and hotwired my brain to do
it despite horrible nervousness. I guess I'm not shy anymore, but I do
get a little anxious before I play sometimes.
People comment on my stage presence even on nights when I feel shaky
internally, so that helps my confidence. Some nights, I really feel on
top of things and have absolutely everything under control. That feels
great, but it doesn't always happen.
TRISTE: How do you cope with adversity when you're playing live and
things go wrong? In other words, you're not in control - maybe the
audience is inattentive or the gear's playing up?
LYS GUILLORN: I just keep playing. If my voice gets warbly, I just keep
playing and I might smile a little. Shows me nobody's perfect. Serves
me right for being a perfectionist in other ways. If I
temporarily forget words, I just make them up. Those very few people
who know a lot of the words to my songs can tell when I'm messing up.
There was a period of time in early 2003 when I was having trouble
remembering certain songs, and that was embarrassing. I'd be in the middle
of a song I'd played a hundred times and be unable to continue. I
thought I was losing it. I'd just pick up wherever I could and continue, or
I'd stop the song and play another.
I kind of enjoy moments in other people's shows that proves they're
human. I saw Andrew Bird at the Knitting Factory in NYC last week and he
definitely was having a strange show, but it was so beautiful, in a way.
One of his shoes fell off during the first song he played and
he didn't put it back on or kick off the other. Things like that make
me feel better when I forget to plug in my guitar for the first song in
a set.
TRISTE: I know you play mainly solo now. Do you miss the camaraderie
of playing in a band and the and musical versatility that it can give
you?
LYS GUILLORN: I do miss playing in a band sometimes, but in a way
there's more freedom playing by myself. In some places it's easier to get a
show with a band, so I'll put together something that almost resembles
one for a certain occasion. Sometimes I have Peter Riccio
from Jargon Society and now of the Sawtelles play drums for me if I
feel like I need a fuller sound because he's such an intuitive player.
This past winter I played with Adam G. (who has six records under the
name Hatestick), as the River Birds because we had been solo for so long
we had started to miss playing with other people. It was fun. Elisa
Flynn from Jargon Society and I plan on doing something else
together soon, as well. I like to put out a few tentacles and play with
others every now and then. Besides, I love to play the guitar on other
people's songs.
This October I put together a group to open a show for Amy Rigby at the
Space in Hamden, Connecticut. Chris Greenland, who booked the show,
challenged me to put together a band to sound sort of like the record. He
ended up playing keyboards and accordion, so he was a good sport about
it, too. The backbone of the group was Peter Riccio on drums, his wife
Julie on backing vocals and Pete Brunelli, the bass player for their
current band. My boyfriend, Jere Smith, added orchestra bells on a couple
of tunes, too.
The experience was thrilling. It took a lot of rehearsals to get
everyone up to speed over the course of a month, but it definitely worked on
stage and that made me happy. We're going to do it again soon, I think.
TRISTE: You mentioned trying to sound like the record on this
occasion. But in your normal solo set are there any numbers you can't even
get close to with just a guitar and voice - for example
“Counterproductive” - with it's samples?
LYS GUILLORN: I play “Counterproductive” every now and then by myself,
and it's just
sparse and scary. Even when the ensemble played with me last month
there was no sample of Lightnin' Hopkins and obviously no Quine guitar
solo. We tried to fill out the sound with the bass player using an E-bow.
It's interesting, but it doesn't sound like the record, either.
I think “In Sleep” is another good example. When I play it with just
guitar and voice I feel like it's completely wrong because I wrote it on
an old Hammond organ with a built-in samba beat. Stripped down, the
focus becomes my voice and the melody. I guess it's okay in a
pinch, but it's not the way the song is supposed to sound.
I hope people will forgive me for deviating from the record, but it
would be impossible to duplicate solo. I'm not like Radiohead. I'm just
one person.
Interviewed by Steve Wilcock
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