Amanda Tannen of stellastarr*

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/stellastarrinterview.jpg" alt=" " />Right between the release of their new record & starting the U.S. tour, stellastarr*’s Amanda Tannen talked to QRO. ...

 Right between the release of their new record & starting the U.S. tour, stellastarr*’s Amanda Tannen talked to QRO. In the conversation, the singer/bassist talked about the upcoming tour, the new record, Civilized (QRO review), why it took so long to come out, their endless deliberations, having to get day jobs again, whatever happened to “Civilized”, playing high-heeled boots, nipple tape, hair, and much more…

QRO: How does it feel, now that Civilized is finally out?

Amanda Tannen: It feels amazing, actually.  It’s been a long time in the making.  It feels good.  We put a lot of work into it.

QRO: Why so long between records?

AT: Basically, well, we left our label: we left RCA.  On top of having to fund everything ourselves – we had to raise the money to record the album, to write it – we also wanted to give ourselves enough time.  We didn’t want to work on a deadline.  We wanted to be able to create when we felt creative, and not feel like we had to write music for any other reason other than for the fun of it, had something to express.

So we took our time, originally writing the record.  But then, on top of that, having to get jobs, after touring for so many years…  So we only really rehearsed three or four times a week.

And then, after it was all done, after it was all recorded, and totally mastered, and finished, we had to figure out a way of releasing it, which took a whole ‘nother year.

It was just a lot of steps that had to be taken, and it just took up a bunch of time.

QRO: Do you feel that, not working under a deadline, you didn’t have a deadline to help you get stuff done, maybe procrastinated a little bit?

AT: A bit.  Sometimes, it could have been perceived that way, but I think we needed it.

We were just so – every second of our day was planned.  We were touring for so long, the second record we wrote in two months; we came home and didn’t take any time off, then we went right back on the road.

We needed to reconnect with each other; we needed to reconnect with the fun of making music, because our so rigorous, our schedule.  Instead of trying to put deadlines, we did the exact opposite of what we were used to, to get our new stuff out.

QRO: Which did you prefer?  What would you do for the next record?

AT: Well, I definitely prefer not having to work…  That was great.

Doing music 24/7 was my dream, but in this day & age, it’s not really possible, with the kind of music that we make.

So, this is good – it just takes more time.  Having to work during the day – it’s a lot of extra energy, but it’s worth it.  If you really love music, you make it happen.  Any sort of person who’s creative knows that’s what you need in your life, and you can’t just ignore it.  You make it happen.

But, for the next one, it’ll probably be in the same way.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to do it in a shorter amount of time, now that we’ve figured everything out, now that we have our own label (Bloated Wife), we have that set up, and we have ways of getting it out, we know exactly how much money it would take us to record the way we want to record it.  We have it a little more streamlined now.

QRO: What was it like, transitioning into getting day jobs again?

AT: It was weird.

Basically, for me, a couple of years back, I went straight from playing Coachella to the next week, working at a magazine.  I worked at Men’s Vogue magazine.  I went straight from that to a desk job.  It was really surreal to me, because I’d been on the road, at that point, for three or four years.  I just hadn’t worked for that long.

Having to get back there, and being treated like…  It was, you know… [laughs] Yeah.  It was a real-life check.  ‘This is what real life is.  Traveling around the world, playing weird countries, and playing music every day, isn’t real life…’

QRO: What do you all do for day jobs?

AT: I’m a freelancer.  I do a couple different jobs: I do graphic design; I also do magazine production.  Arthur [Kremer, drums] does graphic design, Michael [Jurin, guitar] is a waiter, and Shawn [Christensen, vocals/guitar – QRO interview] writes scripts.

QRO: Last year, did Michael work at the beer tent at McCarren Park Pool (QRO venue review)?

AT: He did, yeah.  A close friend of ours runs Jelly NYC [who throws the Pool Parties].  She originally worked for our management company, and she branched off and started her own company.  That’s kind of where Michael kind of got that job… [laughs]

stellastarr* playing “School You” live @ Piano’s, New York, NY on December 2nd, 2008:

QRO: There’s a song on Civilized that you primarily sing, “Move On”…

AT: Well, it’s a duet.  [Shawn and I] sing at the same time.  We sing at the same time for two different songs, “Move On” and “Prom Zombie”.  Both of those are equal times.

QRO: Why did you decide to do that?

AT: It was something I personally wanted to do more, to sing more on this record, and we really felt like Shawn & my vocals work well together.  We felt, for this record, we would try doing some of those songs where we both sing at the same time.  And it worked out.

QRO: At previous shows, on the set list, there was a song on the set list listed just as “Mandy’s Song”.  Was that “Move On”?

AT: [laughs] No, that actually isn’t – that’s actually “Graffiti Eyes”.

There’s a couple of different ways we tried writing songs on this one, and one of them was that we’d delegate a leader for each song.  How we’d normally write songs was, we’d jam.  Someone would have a riff, and we’d all create around that riff.  For the brand-new song “Graffiti Eyes”, it was around the bass line.  That’s why it was called “Mandy’s Song”.  Because I was the leader of that song.  I was the one who had the final say.

Because we’re four people, and we’re very democratic, we put everything to a vote.  So a lot of times, we stalemate.  And in that case, the leader of the song always wins.  The person we decided is the tiebreaker.

For while, we didn’t have a name for that song, so it was just “Mandy’s Song”.

stellastarr* playing “Graffiti Eyes” live @ Piano’s, New York, NY on December 2nd, 2008:

CivilizedQRO: Why did you name Civilized after a song that isn’t on the album?

AT: Yes, it was a song that didn’t make the album, “Civilized”.  We just really liked the title, in conjunction with the artwork that I did.

‘Cause my artwork, I was kind of going for a duality.  In the record, I really feel like we have this fun, cheeky aspect, but we also have this aggressive, angry thing going on, depending on how you look at it, and when you listen to the song, and what you hear.

So when I was doing the artwork, that’s what I was trying to come across.  Depending on how you look at it, what mood you might be in when you’re looking at it, the meaning changes.  ‘Civilized’ kind of works with that, ‘cause you could look at the word in a lot of different ways, depending on what it’s paired with.

QRO: But you guys don’t play that anymore…

AT: No, we don’t play it.  We haven’t played it since [Highline Ballroom on August 23rd, 2007]… [laughs]

Another way we were writing this is album was, we toured a couple different times while we were writing the album, just to play the songs out and see the kind of reaction we got from people, and we what was working, live.  And that was one of the songs that we felt didn’t really ‘hit’ the way we wanted it to, so we just stopped working on it, and focused on other things…

QRO: I took a video of that performance at Highline (QRO venue review)…

AT: Are you the one who posted it on YouTube?

QRO: Yeah.

AT: That’s good, because none of us remember how it goes!  So we actually pull up that video, to see how it went… [laughs]

stellastarr* playing “Civilized” live, for the last time to-date, @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY on August 23rd, 2007:

QRO: Is there a Sonja of “Sonja Cries”?

AT: I don’t know.

Normally, Shawn just keeps meanings to the songs to himself.  I’m not sure what “Sonja Cries” is about, and if there is a real Sonja or not.

Most of the time, there are.  Most of the time, his songs are based on his past experiences, or someone he knows, a story he heard from someone he knows.

I’m pretty sure there probably is a Sonja, but I don’t know who that is.

QRO: You said you were the ‘leader’ on “Graffiti Eyes”.  Was there ‘leader’ on each song on Civilized?

AT: Not necessarily.  It was just like a little period in time where that’s what we did.

Some of the songs, Shawn would come in with a chorus and verse, and we would sit there and put them together in the right way, figure out how it starts, how it ends, maybe put a bridge in there.

We all write our own parts, but it depends on the day how we decide to write.

QRO: Did you or anyone else ever have to use the ‘tie-breaker’?

AT: Yes, of course, all the time… [laughs]

We are a band that loves to debate.  We will sit around and talk about something for hours.

No decision is a ‘whatever decision’ – it’s always debated, it’s always talked about to the point where you’re just like, ‘Okay, okay – let’s just make a decision now!’

It’s never flippant: we always work through it and make sure it’s the right one.


QRO: How were your recent dates in New England?

AT: We stayed up all night – played Providence on Thursday, and drove back on Thursday night, and then we had a radio show, without getting much sleep.  I slept maybe three or four hours, and then I woke up, drove to the Bronx…

It’s been a lot of work, but we’re just happy that it’s doing well, and people want to listen to it.

QRO: What’s it like, playing to crowds who can actually now know the new record?

AT: It’s kind of weird – everyone has a different favorite.  With the first record, it was “My Coco”, everyone loves “My Coco”; there were definite favorites.  This one, we just can’t figure it out.  We play all the songs on the record, because everyone likes something different, which is interesting.

There’s no clear-cut single.  It was one of those things where we were just like asking around, and got different answers from everybody.

But it’s good when people know the words, and get really into it.  We’ve always had fans that do that, and it helps us on stage, getting into it too.

stellastarr* playing “My Coco” live @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY on August 23rd, 2007:

QRO: Is this your first ‘full-fledged’ tour in a while?

AT: Yeah, this is our first full U.S. tour in three years.

I think we did two different East Coast-West Coast tours over the past couple of years, where we just played like five dates on each coast, and didn’t really go into the middle too far.  So we have toured, we just haven’t done full U.S. tours where we actually leave for a month, which is what’s going on: we’re leaving town for a month.

QRO: What are you looking forward to/what are you fearing about doing a full tour?

AT: [laughs] Well, what I’m looking forward too is just playing music everyday.  It’s one of those muscles you’ve got to build up, and I’m excited about being able to do it, just going out and performing every day, I’m looking forward to.

As far as the negative, we’re doing it in a van.  When we used to tour, for the last year or so, we were in a bus; that was very convenient, and nice.  Now we’re going back to the van, which means very little sleep, lots of driving, no personal time/space…  That’s sort of the negative of touring: you just eat horribly, you don’t get any sleep, you’re just haggard all the time…

But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

QRO: Are there any places that you haven’t been to in a while that you’re really looking forward to going back to?

AT: Austin, actually.  We haven’t played Austin in a long time, and that’s one we made sure was on the tour.  It’s one of the only southern dates we’re playing.  We haven’t played Chicago in a long time – basically, the middle.

We love playing the West Coast, the West Coast is a lot of fun to play, which I’m looking forward to also, but we played there a year ago.  We played L.A. and San Francisco.

QRO: You’re going to be playing Highline Ballroom on Thursday (QRO photos) – is it at all weird, considering you played there almost two years ago in what was then a ‘preview’ show?

AT: Yeah.

It’s what I was telling you, when we were writing this album, we tried to play out songs when they were just written, so we could figure out how to change them, to make them better, after getting crowd reaction.

That was the same thing at Gramercy [Theatre – QRO venue review – on March 7th, 2007], Highline – we played five dates at Piano’s [QRO venue review] in December.  That was all part of it, trying to get a reaction, and being able to write from that.

QRO: What Civilized songs do you really like playing live?

AT: Let’s see – I really like playing “Graffiti Eyes”, “People” is awesome, a lot of fun to play.  So’s “Prom Zombie”.  I like the rowdy songs.  The rowdy songs are fun to play live.  Things where you get to scream, go balls out on.

QRO: What about older songs?

AT: Umm…  I really like playing “Jenny”, ‘cause I get to kind of have fun with it.

The second record?  “Love and Longing” is fun; we don’t play it a lot because there’s a bunch of instrumentation we can’t necessarily do live.  Sometimes we’ll do backing tracks with it, but that always adds an element that could go wrong.  So we don’t play it as much we would like to.  But it is a fun song to play.

QRO: Do you feel like you have to play certain older songs, like “My Coco” or “Sweet Troubled Soul”?

AT: Well, it depends.  We don’t feel like we ‘have to’.  We do actually like playing songs the audience wants to hear.  When the audience is excited, we get excited, so, therefore, it’s fun to play, no matter how many times we’ve played it.

So we don’t feel like the ‘have to’ comes into effect.  It’s more just what are people going to enjoy?

stellastarr* playing “My Coco” live @ Piano’s, New York, NY on December 2nd, 2008:

QRO: When you did the five nights in a row at Piano’s, how did you do the set lists then?

AT: We each got to make a set list for each one, because there were five nights & four members.

We normally sit around and deliberate what set lists we’re going to do for an hour.  This time, we were literally like, “Okay, we have five shows.  Everyone gets to write their own, and no one gets to say anything about it…”

That’s how we did it.  We didn’t really think about it that much.  It was just kinda like, “Okay, you want to play these weird songs that never were released?  Okay, we’ll do that on this night…” [laughs]

QRO: What did you do on the fifth night?

AT: That one, we deliberated on…

QRO: How are you currently balancing new and old on the set list?

AT: We play a lot of Civilized stuff.  I think we normally play six or seven songs off the new album, on each of our new sets.  And then we span the other two albums.

Our sets are around fifteen songs, so around half of them are off the new album.

QRO: Are there any songs that you don’t like to play live, or can’t?

AT: There’s one on the first album that we don’t play live, “Untitled”.  It’s a song that has keyboards and drums in it.  It’s almost impossible for us to play live.  We’ve only played it live a very few times.

It’s also a song that’s very intimate, and it doesn’t necessarily fit in a live set.  It’s soft & intimate.  A lot of times we like to get people excited & enjoy live music.  It just doesn’t work so much.

QRO: Are you doing any festivals this summer (QRO Festival Guide)?

AT: We are not.  I’m not sure why, but we’re not.

QRO: Do you do anything differently, when you play outdoors, like at Central Park Summerstage (QRO venue review)?

AT: No, we don’t do anything differently for outdoors.  We don’t consider playing different kinds of songs or anything.

I mean, I’m sure our sound guy does something different to prepare for us on an outdoor stage, but for us, we don’t really think about it.

#1 fan...QRO: Do you know that bald guy who’s at all of your shows in New York, and always up front, on your side?

AT: I don’t know him personally.  I’ve talked to him a couple of times, yes, but I don’t know who he is, really, other than the fact that I’ve had a couple of conversations with him at shows, after.

QRO: Was he at all five of the Piano’s shows?

AT: Hmm…  I don’t know.  He was at a lot of ‘em. [laughs]

I’m not sure if he was at all five or not.  I can’t keep track…

rockin' in bootsQRO: A female fan of yours wanted me to ask – how do you perform in those high-heeled boots?

AT: [laughs] Much practice…

I used to not ever wear high heels on stage.  It was one of my biggest fears.

First off, the ones I wear aren’t very high.  They’re doable.

I’m just used to them.  I can do anything in ‘em now.

QRO: You now have really long hair.  Does it ever get in the way when you’re playing?

hair!AT: Yes, it does… [laughs]

Talk about outdoor stages, we played a show up in Albany, and it was very windy.  What happened, in the middle of “Graffiti Eyes”, when I was singing by myself, I ended up breathing in, and I breathed in all hair.  I had to stop singing!

It can be a hazard, but it’s a lot of fun to shake around, too.  Whatever…

nipple tape*QRO: Final on-stage fashion question – does Arthur still wear tape over one nipple, in the form of an asterisk?

AT: Sometimes.  I think it depends on his mood, at this point.  Sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn’t.  It’s been random lately.  It used to be the norm, he had to have it before he went on stage, but lately, it’s been, if he was in the mood to put it on, he well.

I used to be the ‘nipple-taper’ myself.  That was my job for a while, then I was like, “No, really, you can find a mirror…”  But when we first started out, I was the one who applied the tape.

QRO: How did you get stuck with that job?

AT: I think just because I was the girl.  “I don’t want a guy doing it!  You do it, Mandy…”

That, plus I do graphic design.  I know how to do it to make all the legs equal…

QRO: Do you have a favorite tour story?

AT: It’s not one story, but there was a tour we did, it was like a ‘hell tour’.  Our van got four different flat tires, we ran into a semi – it was one of those ‘is it ever going to end? tours’.

Our van was taking a beating.  We had a ton – literally a ton of lights we were dragging behind us, and I don’t think the van liked it.  It was popping the tires; the transmission was making weird noises…

We have these pictures – we lost our bumper!  I don’t know how it happened, but our bumper fell off in the middle of the highway.  And we were like, ‘Oh no!  They’re going to charge us for that!  We gotta get that back!’

We ended up – the four of us ran into the middle of the highway in the middle of the day to seize the bumper from our rental van.

It was pretty hilarious.

And one of the times we broke down, we were in the middle of Arizona, and it was in this section of Arizona that’s not just desert, it’s huge sand dunes, like Egypt.  We broke down there, and there was nothing for miles & miles.  I, personally, was like, ‘I can’t deal with this – I’m going to go walk in the sand dunes.’

So I’m walking in the sand dunes, and someone pulled over to help us.  ‘Hey, do you guys need help?’  And they’re like, ‘No, I think we’re okay.’  So instead of helping us, he asks us, ‘Okay, do you want some drugs?’  He comes over and asks us if we want Valium!  I guess we look like the type?… [laughs]

And then he was like, ‘Oh, and by the way, that girl shouldn’t be walking in the dunes, there’s snakes…’

QRO: He waited until after offering the drugs to tell you about the snakes?

AT: Yeah, he did…

stellastarr* playing “Robot” live @ Piano’s, New York, NY on December 2nd, 2008:

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