New Jersey’s own Screaming Females have carved out a pretty notable career since forming out of New Brunswick back in 2005. Since then, they have since been a band on the rise by touring relentlessly and keeping a good old-fashioned work ethic.
New Jersey’s own Screaming Females have carved out a pretty notable career since forming out of New Brunswick back in 2005. Since then, they have since been a band on the rise by touring relentlessly and keeping a good old-fashioned work ethic. Despite managing themselves and touring in a tiny van, they’ve performed with the likes of Titus Andronicus, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Dinosaur Jr., and even Garbage, with whom they collaborated on a Record Store Day single earlier this year. Last Wednesday they made their much-anticipated return to Strange Matter, in hopes to not only brighten our day but also give hope to all who yearn to add some guitar-heavy punk rock to their lives. We spoke to singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster and drummer Jarrett Dougherty (the band is rounded out by bassist King Mike) in advance of the show, while they were touring on the West Coast. [Sadly, we were unable to get this interview posted before their show, but we hope you will enjoy it now!–ed]
You guys are coming back to Richmond and Strange Matter to perform, so any memories tied specifically to Richmond?
Jarrett: Yeah, we’ve been to Richmond a bunch of times. We have some good friends who although some have moved away but were based out of Richmond. Now some have moved down to North Carolina or other places in Virginia, but there was one particular time right after a show we went over to their house. We’re hanging out and they introduced us to the wonderful world of Korn Unplugged. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but Korn did a unplug session for MTV that is well worth everybody to check out.
Is it pretty rocking?
Um, you could say that. It’s definitely like stand-up comedy, sort of, you know?
What era of Korn was this?
I don’t know. I guess it would probably be five or six years ago. But they had guest spot from members of Evanescence. We had the pleasure of watching that for the first time in Richmond.
So it’s like “Got The Life,” but real slowed down?
Yes, you know how their bass player just slaps the bass? He doesn’t just play it but just hits it. It’s sounds like that but with an acoustic bass so it sounds really good.
Although you guys never toured with Korn, you have toured with some interesting acts. Is there any that surprised you in terms of how you thought they were until you actually met them?
Um, not really, I think everyone we’ve toured with has come across how we would of expected them beforehand for better or worse. Yeah, no real surprises in terms of people’s personalities.
I think after doing a couple big tours with big famous rock-star kind of bands, going out on tour with someone like Ted Leo was really an eye opening experience. You would see in some cities he would play he would sell out the same venues [as] the bands with tour buses, two or three managers on tour with them, handlers, and everything was a big production, you know? Whereas Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were driving themselves to shows and they would have one person with them helping them with merch and stuff. Which is kind of how we operate, but we’re still able to get on stage at these huge venues and play for tons of people and sound great. Although it wasn’t unexpected, it was definitely cool to see a band operate with such honest integrity and hard working ethos.
It was kind of inspiring?
Yeah, it was cool to see you could just be a small group of people with rock and roll equipment in a van and roll up and play to two thousand people and sound and look great. You don’t need a tour bus, three tour managers, and someone to iron your clothes to be able to play venues like that.
Yeah. You guys did a single with Garbage, how exactly did that come about and how was it?
Well, a few years ago we did a tour with Against Me! and Butch Vig produced [Against Me’s fourth album] New Wave, that record and the following [Against Me!] record. So Marissa as a teenager was a huge Garbage fan; [they were] one of her first favorite bands. So Marissa gave Laura from Against Me! some of our records and said, “Could you could get these in Shirley Manson’s hands?” And Laura did that for us. So we didn’t really hear anything about it, but at some point Garbage put up a photo or something of Marissa on Facebook with “Check this woman out, she’s amazing!” with no information.
It got back to us about it, and Marissa and Shirley started a correspondence via email and I think at some point Marissa was just like “if you’d ever like to, let’s us know, we’d love to do [a collaboration]” and they asked us to do a bunch of shows with them. Which they were really great and they were totally gracious. They are definitely huge, huge rock star people, but they’re really down to earth and easy to hang out with. So towards the end of that tour, they wanted Marissa to come out on stage and play a song with them. So they chose that they wanted to do a cover and wanted to do something a little punk and fit in with Garbage’s sound. They decided to do that Patti Smith song, and it went over so well that they asked us to come out and record it with them. We went out to the biggest studio we’ve ever been in and had both bands playing live at the same time. We cut it in a day and a half, pretty much. It was a great experience. It was sort of dream-like to be able to record, even if only one song, and it was a cover, with Butch Vig. Especially if you look at the stuff he’s worked on in the past ten years, it’s all like Foo Fighters, Green Day, and these behemoth rock bands. Not a band that drives itself in a van playing DIY shows.
It’s got to be surreal. So when you guys write songs does it start out as a concrete idea or is it a small idea that you build off of?
Normally the way we write songs, I’d say 90% of our songs come from getting together playing something interesting, working with that idea, and trying to figure out where to go with it–or maybe letting it sit for a while. So it just really just comes from us playing together and we’ll create these little nuggets of ideas and taking those and expanding them and fleshing them out. That’s usually how our process works.
For these new batches of songs, because of the way we write, the lyrics and vocal melodies come afterwards. That’s largely what Marissa works on by herself. So for the new batch of songs that we’ve been working on, there’s been a conscious effort to be making to be more space for more vocal melodies. A lot of times we’ll write these compositions that are full, melodic, and rhythmic ideas without vocals being there, because we’ll continue to work on these ideas until we feel like they’re full. Then once it’s already there, full, you try to add vocal melody on top of that. It was something when we were hanging out with Butch Vig, he said we shouldn’t be scared of that, because that’s something we do really crazy. Listening to our band it sounds really manic, because of all these ideas all going on at the same time. I think for the new songs, what we’re concentrating on is leaving a little bit of room to allow the vocal melodies take the lead for a lot of the songs. That way we can complicate them a little bit, but it isn’t a starting point for the melodies.
Are you guys done writing the new album or in the midst of it?
We’re sort of in the phase of finalizing the songs, kind of going back, now that we’ve had them for about six months or more in some sort of completed form. Being able to now take a look at them and figure out sections [that] have been bothering us, or how make some sections pop by changing them up slightly or changing the way they transition, finding key moments before we go record them sometime next year.
Photo by Joseph Steinhardt
What would you say has been influencing you lately?
I would say…
Besides Korn…
Yeah, besides the Korn unplugged session. I’ve been listening to a lot of Dead Moon, and Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted a lot. And a lot of Pearl Jam–I’ve been listening to a bunch of Pearl Jam for some reason. I think it’s kind of amazing they’re the last rock band that didn’t become some weird theatrical thing like Green Day or something, where they’re just Pearl Jam and they play these massive arena tours and stuff. But they’re essentially the only rock band that anyone pays to go see anymore. So it’s weird, I guess I’m obsessed with bands that last for a long time.
It’s good to have a mindset that you’re making a career for your band.
Yeah, I don’t know if Pearl Jam ever had that mindset, which is what is really crazy about it. They were all like wild men. I think they thought they were going to break up after pretty much every album they did for about ten years.
I really can’t think of a time where there wasn’t Pearl Jam. I’m only 26, but it’s been in my peripheral since I’ve … been. It would be very strange if Pearl Jam broke up.
They’re like the new Rolling Stones–you kind of expect them to always be there.
Yeah! But I would say Pearl Jam has aged more gracefully than most bands; remarkably so.
Yeah, they still sound like a rock band and not some sort of Broadway production or something.
As a band, have you ever said no to anything that you’ve been offered or asked to do?
Yes, we’ve said no to a lot of stuff. We’ve said no to really big tours because we didn’t want to sacrifice our sanity, because we tour a lot. Sometimes you get offered something at the wrong time, at the only two month stretch you planned to have off for like eight months, and so just have to turn it down. Where people around us were telling us we were crazy for turning it down. Just things like offers from management, which we don’t really want to get involved with. We like handling our own management. You know, stuff like ads. Never say never, but of all the things we could [do], putting our songs in an ad would be the last thing we would actually consider doing. So we turn those down.
It’s not really a new thing for bands to turn more and more to advertisements to make ends meet…
Eh, I think that’s kind of bullshit. I think they turn to advertisements because they value money more than their art. You can make ends meet by working at a gas station or working at a café or whatever, and you’ll be able to play in a band. I don’t know. I think when you make music with the intention of selling it [to an ad], then that’s one thing–you’re making a jingle. But if you take a song that you wrote that you had some sort of feeling and meaning and it had meaning to you, and then you just sell it to whoever wants it to put with their product, that’s just garbage. It just means you really don’t care what you’re making; you’re just making something disposable.
Tom Waits refused to ever sell his songs to ads, and actually sued a couple of advertising agencies for ripping off his songs after he told them that he wouldn’t let them use them, and they used the almost exact same thing done by somebody else. When he was asked about it, he said, “If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi so bad, why doesn’t he just get a suit and a desk at their headquarters and be done with it?”
It’s a good point. Is there ever a worry whomever would ask for your song might make a sound-alike version? Does that bother you?
I don’t know. We’ll have to see–that’s something you can’t really predict. Time will tell.
Since you guys are from New Jersey, I’m assuming you’re aware of The Best Show On WFMU with Tom Scharpling. How bummed are you that it’s ending?
To be completely honest with you, the three of us don’t have strong ties to The Best Show, because it’s like daytime soap operas, where you would have to insert yourself with the determination that you’ll have no idea what’s going on and you won’t know what’s going on for weeks, or even months on end before you finally catch up and become immersed in the world of these characters and these long running gags and bits. I don’t think any of us had the emotional fortitude to really figure out what the hell is going on [with] The Best Show. Although we have really good friends who love it, so we all just assume that it’s really good, but it’s beyond our fortitude to enable us to engage in.
I just recently got into it a year or two ago, and I’ve become addicted to it and look forward to it every week. I’m sad to see it go.
Yeah, I think anyone who’s interested in alternative media of any sort is aware of The Best Show and understands its importance because there’s not really anything like it that I’m aware of. I guess the closest thing would be is a weird shock jock, Howard Stern wannabe. It’s obviously pretty far from that sort of thing; it’s sort of like a post-modern version of those old radio shows where they would have sound effects. It’s like that but contemporary age you know?
Also, it’s a very good lesson to learn about New Jersey as I have a lot of places in New Jersey now in my head. I have no clue how accurate they are, but places like New Bridge or Asbury Park they a talk about sometimes. It revs up my interest in it.
I’m going to pass you over to Marissa because I have to use the bathroom and we’re getting gas. It was great talking to you, Kyle!
Marissa: Hi!
Hey Marissa. What in your head makes for a killer Screaming Females show?
[Laughs] Hmm. When we play really well…and when we play the best notes.
The best notes?
Maybe not the right ones, but the best ones.
As a band, do you have concrete goals?
No. [Laughs] No, not really. To have fun, write good songs.
Who or what has helped you the most in your career so far?
Mike and Jarred. They’re my best friends. Good eggs, solid dudes. We stand by each other even when we’re mad at each other.
If Mike and Jarred ever had to leave, the band would probably end, right?
Yes. Absolutely.
Do you consider Screaming Females to be a political band?
Well, I think that there are a couple of things about us that kind of make us inherently political. One of which is the fact that is I’m a woman, and that is viewed as an oddity in lot of situations, specifically playing rock and roll. Another is that I’m queer, which is also viewed as an oddity in the world of rock and roll, unfortunately. I think that the way we live our lives, a lot of us try to make good purchasing decisions, like where we eat, the clothes we wear, and the people that we associate ourselves with. I think the way we live is political. There are certainly songs that make references to some things that are vaguely political, but I try to avoid being too blatant about it. I just don’t really want to be pigeonholed to being a band that is solely concerned with politics. I think our primary concern is with art, and making good art.
So you can say you have a political conscience rather than a direct political voice?
Yup.
Do you ever look up things about your band online? How much is it actually true?
Yeah, we read stuff that is written about us online sometimes. Usually it’s not anything too deep. I can’t remember if somebody ever was spreading, like, vicious lies about us on the Internet. Usually it’s just weird trolling about how we’re fat or ugly or something like that. Usually stuff I read about Screaming Females is that I’m small and that I’m a woman, two facts that are true, or I play the guitar, people also write that, and that’s also true. So it’s not a lot of riveting Screaming Females editorializing going on.
I came up with these next questions while at a bar. I asked a few patrons if they had any questions and I’m pretty sure they had no idea who you guys were, but they were curious. What’s your favorite bar in Richmond and your favorite drink?
I don’t really have a favorite drink, but one time Mike got this really gross thing at Strange Matter–what was it called, Mike? There was some Juggalo themed drink; it was called the Hatchet Man and it had Faygo and some flavored vodka. Crazy. That drink tastes weird. Weird drink.
So when I’m there I should ask for “The Hatchet”?
I think it’s called “The Hatchet Man.” Don’t get it, I don’t recommend it. You’re familiar with the Juggalos, right?
Yes, of course. Also, who would win in a fight; Morrissey or Robert Smith?
Morrissey. Well, no, actually Robert Smith, since Morrissey has all those health problems. Robert Smith is kind of chubby but he could just sit on him. Morrissey would probably lose; doesn’t he have some kind of gastro-intestinal problem? But he is in way better shape in general.
That’s true. He seems healthy.
I would go for Robert.
OK, final question of the evening. Would you rather cut off your dominant arm, or whenever you listen to any music at all it would have to be Limp Bizkit?
[Laughs] Holy crap. Um, I guess the arm’s got to go. They have the bionic options, right? I could get a Kickstater to get one. It probably won’t be as good as the real one, but it would be all right.
Well it was discussed that Limp Bizkit could have its perks and you might grow to love them in some weird way.
Yeah that’s the thing. If I was required to listen to Limp Bizkit once a day, but was also allowed to listen to other things then I’d be fine with that. But this is only Limp Bizkit. I have to get rid of my arm.
Yeah, this is where, if you’re watching a Quentin Tarantino movie and a song plays, it’s going to be a Limp Bizkit song.
Yeah, that’s fucked up.
Also, you could probably get government assistance as someone who only listens to Limp Bizkit.
I could probably get one of those cute little helper monkeys if I wanted one. Adorable.
Yeah, like Mojo from The Simpsons!
Oh is that an episode?
It was an episode. Homer had one for a while and it became horribly obese.
God, I haven’t watched [The Simpsons] in like fifteen years. It’s been really bad.
Yeah, it’s a little depressing.
Yeah I don’t remember that one.
But those were the best questions.
Yeah, those were great, solid. Tell them good job next time you see them.
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