web hosting short URLs photo sharing

     Rainer Maria is rad. I tried to set up an interview a long time ago, but due to a recent move on my part, Kyle’s response got to me too late for me to get in touch with him prior to their tour. Anyhow, on the night they played Phoenix I went to see them, tracked Kyle down before the show and set up an interview for after the show. After the show, me and my roommate rushed home for a tape recorder, then met the band at the nearest Denny’s for a late night dinner and a highly disorganized interview. This is a near full transcription of the tape that ensued.

Me: It should be able to pick up everybody.

Steve: Speak loud I guess. This is a good recorder though

William: Hello, Hello.....

Steve: Test, Test.

William: Shhhh.... You’re not in the band. I’m kidding.

William: Um, I’m William, I play drums in the band Rainer Maria.

John: I’m John, I don’t do anything for the band Rainer Maria.

Caithlin: Yeah you do, you sell stuff.

John: I sell things, I drive places, I carry things....

Kyle: I’m Kyle, I play guitar and I sometimes holler... (whispering) and sometimes whisper.

Caithlin: And I’m Caithlin and I play bass and sing too. Ok, lets go.

Me: Lets see...

John: Wait a minute who are you guys?

Me: I’m John. I uh... I live here.

Steve: I’m Steve. I’m just the, I don’t really, belong here, but I’m here.

K: We talked to a guy who was stuck in Salt Lake City.

S: He was stuck there?

Me: What happened?

K: Dunno.

C: Who? Colton?

W: No the kid who was, drove us around town.

K: Colton was there of his own will.

W: Yeah, which is even more disturbing. I mean, he moved there from Pensacola but...

C: Now we all know who Colton is.

Me: So how’s the tour been going?

W: Overall I would say it’s been a success...

C: This is William speaking.

S: Yeah, that was the drummer.

(laughter)

W: I lost my train of thought now. Oh yeah, overall success. The Northwest was a little rough. I would say the rough shows started in Missoula. That’s in Montana, if you didn’t know that.

C: Nobody else did.

W: Nobody in Utah knew where the hell it was... And then, after that they were downhill. For about three days. Then we hit the Bay area, in California and it...

J: It was paradise.

W: Yeah it was great. All of California was great, tonight was great. Um, and when we started out the Mid-west of course was really good cause we’re from the Mid-west.

K: We’re heading towards the promised land which is Texas.

W: Texas is pretty great.

S: John (me) here is from Waco.

W: Oh wow.

C: Kyle here is from Temple! (town near Waco) Did you know that?

K: Residents of the I-35.

Me: So how long have you guys been together?

K: Two years this month.

S: Are you guys gonna have an anniversary dinner or anything?

W: No, we’re too poor.

K: This is our anniversary dinner.

S: Isn’t two years like aluminum.

K: Yeah, isn’t it if it’s our two year anniversary don’t we get a free meal at Denny’s or something?

J: Try it.

C: I’m sure she would laugh anyways.

K: So yeah about two years.

Me: How did you guys hook up?

C: Should we talk about Ezra Pound?

K: No, we... Someone else.. make something up. Make up something interesting.

C: Go ahead.

W: Come on..

S: There was a bomb on a bus and you all were stuck there..

K: I was hustling, they were buying...

W: No, no no.. Ok, I was dating Kyle’s old um, girlfriend, and uhh.. he came over, one evening, to her apartment. It was like, you know “Listen Mister, I’ve been hearing all the bad things you been sayin about me and...”

K: Actually no, here’s the story. Bill.. I was putting on shows in Madison, and Bill was coming with his septum piercing... (laughter) And, I conned him into playing drums in this really lousy band I used to be in, and then, I conned Caithlin into playin bass for this great new band that Bill and I were starting. And that’s the story... In a nutshell..

J: Con artist.

K: It was all about the con. I conned ‘em out of every cent they got.

W: Which is not much so far.

K: No, unfortunately. But yeah, that’s how we got started.

Me: What was the really lousy band you were in?

K: Um, Erza Pund.

W: Ezra Pound.

K: Ezra Pound.

S: Not bad.

K: Not bad, not bad he says. No, not bad...

W: Not bad.

K: There’s worse.

J: I saw you a few years ago and I didn’t like it.

K: He didn’t like it. John didn’t like it.

W: Everybody else in Columbus did what’s your problem?

J: I didn’t like anything anyone else in Columbus liked that summer. That was part of my general...

W: You liked Beano.

J: I liked Beano.

K: Beano was awesome.

J: They were a great band.

Me: What was Beano?

J: They were the quintessential high school garage band. You know, like they were just horsing around and having fun. Well, I liked Beano a lot more than you guys at that show.

K: So did we.

C: I tended to like you guys.

K: Voila!

W: (whispered) Because you were dating the singer.

C: Not at first.

K: Let’s not wax sentimental. On with the interview.

C: Are you in a band?

(Various talk about my band history, then back to interview)

M: Let’s see, you guys don’t really sound like very many other bands, like where would you say you pull your sound from or is it like...

W: Like, right out of our ass.

(lots of laughter)

M: Well, I mean like... like what would you say...

K: Is this the “who are your influences question?”

Me: Kind of but more along the lines of like..

S: Where do you guys see your guys stuff fitting in?

K: Like how or why did that happen?

(someone, too many people talking at once to understand says something to the effect of it being the terrible influences question)

C: I think it might be a good question sometimes, I don’t, I wanna answer your question for real. Is... Do we...

J: Here’s the question I wish you’d’ve asked.

C: Do we want to... be categorized under a certain type of music, or when someone asks us what type of music we play it always seems very quagmired...

S: I find that like, really weird though like the whole trying to put music in categories you know.

C: I always just say that we play, like with my friends who don’t know any punk bands, I just say that we play the punk circuit, but we don’t sound like...

S: Yeah, it’s hard to explain to the people who don’t really know...

K: I always think that like the sort of music being categorized as, has to with like on the one hand, the.. like the accouterments that you use like your choice in amplifiers and drums and stuff like that and the ways in which the instruments have been recorded, in terms of the album sounds, and then on the other hand like the economic superstructures in which your band is placed. Cause like, you could be a punk band with a lap steel guitar, you could be like one guy with a lap steel guitar, and if you decide to play the punk circuit than you’re like a punk, lap steel guitarist.

S: It’s weird because there’s people in the punk circuit who wouldn’t be considered punk except that their playing with bands that are, or, you know...

K: Marxism man, the economic superstructure bro..

S: There you go...

K: Look out.

K: What was the question we were supposed to answer?

W: Influences.

Me: Kind of.

W: Kind of influences. Like where...

K: We were talking about Ringo Starr today, talk about that...

C: Where we pull our music from.

W: I’m sick a lot and they come from my deep fever dreams.

(laughter)

W: ...hallucinating...

K: Say that thing about Ringo.

W: What thing about Ringo?

K: Ringo inventing rock drumming and all that.

W: Oh yeah.. I don’t know if I pull a lot of influence but I see a lot of other bands.. umm... right now.... at least... pertaining to... um kay.

S: Pause? or keep going?

W: Oh, pertaining to like the percussion section of a lot of bands. Like bands playing the punk circuit and we’re, Kyle and I and everyone else were discussing in the van where we draw our influences musically and... What was the context of the conversation?

K: We were talking about how contemporary rock drumming comes straight from Ringo Starr. He like invented the style.

W: Yeah, exactly. That’s what I brought up.

K: Say something more about that. What does that mean? Like what’s the style that he invented, the four four back beat or what?

W: Oh yeah, and he invented the strong backbeat and like, you know, playing on the high-hat and keeping time on the high hat.

K: How was everybody playing before that?

W: They were doing that but I think there was a lot more of a Jazz influence.

K: A lot more of that like the country ticachickaticachikaticachika.....

C: dun ner neir neir ner dun ner (guitar sound)

K: Have fun transcribing that one.

S: How ‘bout the lyrical stylings, like where do you guys get that from, the heart?

C: The heart, the band, you’re right.

K: That’s a continuing question because it’s like, I tend to be more oblique in my strategies and Caithlin is more... choose your own word.

C: Is that what you’re saying, that I’m not oblique?

K: Well, we always have this discussion over and over about, I’m like “This is too straightforward, I want more metaphor,” and you’re like “I wanna say what I wanna say.” We’ve had that discussion like a billion times, you know what I mean?

C: Yeah. Well, it comes a lot from.. It used to come a lot from the poetry that we were writing.

K: I’m not one for confusion, but I’m more like one for understatement and subtlety.

S: Well how bout like the name Rainer Maria? He being a poet, does that have any bearing on the lyrics?

K: Poet?

(Laughter)

K: I don’t think there’s a particularly symbolist vein in the lyrics, but there’s some similarities to Rilke... not very transcendental. Not very talky about angels.

S: Your lyrics are kinda hard to understand...

K: You mean the words?

S: Yeah...

K: Or the meanings?

C: On a recording or live or both?

S: Well its just it’s just a lot of, it’s more of a lot of emotional... John, you handle that..

K: We’ve got a lyric sheet in the new album... Thank god.

Me: Yeah uhh...

K: These are great by the way (referring to his pancakes). You know how the McDonalds pancakes tasted when you were a kid?

C: Like crap. I always hated them.

W: I loved ‘em.

J: I don’t think I ever had them.

K: They’re good.

S: They came in that little styrofoam box thing..

K: Mhmm, and they were good.

W: They were wonderful.

S: I used to get dropped off before school and I had to get those.

Me: Yeah? I had like, the McDonalds box breakfasts when I was on vacation with my family.

C: Yeah.

J: I don’t think I ever had Mcdonalds breakfast except for like a couple McMuffins here and there.

W: Ok, snooty, upper class, son of yuppie Euro-trash...

J: That’s right.

K: Oh my god. J: You covered most of them. You probably missed one or two but...

K: We’re just drawing the class lines here... White trash over here..

(laughter)

W: I’m having a hard time accepting my true identity as having come from a working class background and tend to lash out at others. Anyhoo, back to the interview.

(confusion because i’ve forgotten my questions)

K: Isn’t that hard. Whenever i used to go see Jawbox and Naked Raygun in Austin, I’d listen to their albums for hours and hours, over and over, and i’d sit there and think up all the questions i’d want to ask them if i ever met them, and then i’d meet them and i’d be like “uhhh...”, and then i’d get in the car to drive home and be like “ohhh.....”.

Me: Yeah, i do that all the time.

K: I got Ian MacKaye’s autograph once.

Me: Oh yeah?

J: I got a letter from him.

W: That’s impressive. Ian MacKaye, he doesn’t go for that shit man.

K: He like made a big face, and like scribbled some like, terd on this peice of paper i was holding.

J: We wrote him a really antagonistic letter, and he wrote back.

W: Was he like, “Listen you stupid jock, why don’t you grow up!”

S: The only autograph i really went for was Jawbreaker.

K: What was your letter like?

J: I don’t really remember. It had to do with, just a series of sort of innane questions about things that he had a passing influence over. Like, he produced some seven seconds record. Some other things about Dischord. I dunno.

W: How is that antagonistic?

J: Cause it was just sort of like, it had a constant tone of mockery.

K: I had this letter, what did that woman say? The one you thought was secretly someone else from New York? Remember That.

C: Oh yeah. “I love you. Your songs make me so happy..” or something.

W: “My boyfreind bought me your cd and i just loved it. I love you so much.... My boyfreind knew that i would love you.”

C: I think it was a joke.

W: I don’t think so.

K: Did anyone write her back?

W: I did. I wrote her back. “Everythings great, thank you”... Yeah, i wrote her back and i thanked her.

C: Look at that little square! (i have no idea what she’s speaking in reference to)

S: Are you guys like widely accepted since you’ve been on tour?

W: Accepted but not liked.

(laughter)

W: “Ok, they’re playing. We’ll accept this fact.”

K: No i think the receptions been positive. I must say i think that, if i were Braid i’d be really happy having us open, cause i feel like, we warm the crowd up for them and by the time the get on they just rock out and everybody goes crazy.

W: It’s nice being out here with Braid because they’ve been out here twice before and this is their third time so... kids know ‘em.

Me: How did you guys hook up with Braid, like did you hook up with Braid first and then Polyvinyl or Polyvinyl and then Braid?

K: Braid are kind of famous passing through town and hooking up with people.

W: Ho ho, (he says something i can’t understand)

C: They’re proud of it.

W: Kind of...

K: Actually, I set up a show for Bob’s old band Friction, and then he called...

J: That was many years ago.

K: Yeah that was in the stone ages. He called me for a show for his new band Braid, and sent me a demo which is part of what would later be “Frankie Welfare Boy Age 12” or whatever..

C: Age Five.

K: And i totaly like, went ape for that tape at that time, and set them up, blah blah.... (he really says blah blah)

Me: So was Polyvinyl a mutual thing then?

W: We were first dammit.

K: Yeah, they settled down finally later. They have a thing about promiscuous label hopping as well... But not any more.

Me: So how are you guys getting along with braid on the tour?

K: Great.

W: Yeah, real well.

C: We love ‘em.

J: They’re alot of fun.

C: They take care of us.

K: Everyone should say, well no, maybewe all have the same favorite Braid member. I was gonna say everyone should say their favorite Braid member.

C: No..

W: That’s awful..

C: That’s horrible

K: What well do is everyone will say their favorite Braid member and then...

C: We just say it all at the same time and it’ll be each of them.

K: No, but then, you can’t say the one that’s allready taken. So at the end.. But i guess that leaves someone last.

C: Yeah and the first persons obviously... well, anyway...

Me: I could always just have this be anonymous and not put anyones name next to their favorite...

C: No..That’d be...

K: Then someone doesn’t get named.

C: You guys.. I don’t think of them that way. Do you?

J: Yes.

K: Oh, no, no, no, no.. I think they’re all great actually.

W: Yeah really.

K: It’s just a matter of some of them being extraordinarily sweet... But they’re all extraordinarily sweet.

C: Yeah.

W: They all have their character flaws as do we but...

K: Uh! (interupting William)

W: I mean, you know... Doesn’t everyone?

K: I heard they’re developing secret imitations of each of us.

W: Are you serious? Who said that?

K: I dunno. That’s what i heard.

C: So what, they’d imitate us on stage or...

K: No, like, “Here’s John when he gets tired, Here’s Bill when he has to do an extra errand” or whatever.. “Here’s Kyle all the time.”

J: Maybe we should work on them in retaliation.

K: Maybe i made that up.. I don’t know...

J: I think it’s time to retaliate.

W: I don’t think i can drink that much alcohol.

Me: You should learn a braid song and play it before they play.

W: we’re actually going to do that.

K: We wanna do a split single with them, where each of us covers one of the others songs. Who did that before? Didn’t Born Against and..

J: Screeching Weasel.. They didn’t cover each others songs though, they wrote lyrics for each other. So you got Born against singing about how swell Janelle is, and Screeching Weasel...

Me: Singing about El Mazote..

C: That’s awesome.

ME: Sohas anything extraordinarily strange or interesting happened on your tour so far?

C: What were we talking about earlier? Oh, the fruit day.. (laughs)

K: Sure.

J: It’s just a sort of depressing story.

K: It’s a good one.

J: Um.. In Salt Lake, which was about day, 7 or so.. is that right?

W: Day nine.

J: Day nine of the tour.

S: What are you on right now?

K: Speed.

W: Lots of speed.

J: Twenty.

W: Day twenty...

J: Anyway, we hadn’t eaten anything really all that good in a long time, and in particular i was misiing fruit. So, I decided that the next day, which was the drive from Salt Lake to Missoula, would be fruit day.

W: There’s lots of fresh fruit in that region.

J: This was misguided from the start, obviously. But, the plan was to have a minimum of three peices of fruit that day. And Kyle was joining with me in recognition of fruit day. But, what ended up happening instead, was that, we drove all night, well, we drove most of the night to Pocatello, Idaho, stayed in a hotel there, got up in the morning and drove to Missoula. The only fruit i got were these two sorry dried apricots wrapped up in a napkin that we got from a kid named Dick in Salt Lake.

C: He was so nice though.

J: It was very nice of Dick, but...

W: You just like saying Dick.

J: Dick, Dick, Dick,

W: That’s the only reason you tell that story.

J: Dick, Dick.. Anyway, so much for fruit day. That’s the moral of that story.

K: Otherwise, we once saw an incredibly obese man with two rows of teeth in Mississippi.

S: Wow..

C: Chopper

W: Old Chopperhead. He had two inc incisors coming down from the top of his mouth.

K: And they were cemented togerther with, what’s that stuff called? Tartar.

W: It was disgusting.

K: He gave us directions though.

W: “Get the hell out of my store” (In a weird voice)

Me: So what do you guys do when you’re not playing? Like what are your day occupations or whatever?

W: I manage a record store... In Madison.

C: I manage a used clothing store in Madison.

K: I work really hard at not having a job.

(laughter)

K: My most recent job was uh...

(laughter)

K: What are you laughing for? You don’t even know my most recent job.

J: I think I do.

K: WAs uh, I worked at this grocery store..

J: I knew it.

K: from midnight to eight thirty in the morning, and i had to wheel around this giant steel cage.. It’s sounds fake but it’s totally true. This giant steel cage, and in every row there were these rows of stockers..

C+S Stalkers.

S: Stockers like sock boy, not stalkers like..

K: NOt stalkers, stockers. And they would pull these pull these palletes of groceries down from above the rows, the ailes, and they would take the stuff out of the boxes and and put them on the shelf. And they would throw the cardboard boxes over their shoulders as they went. So there were these piles and piles of cardboard boxes everywhere. And so my job was to wheel around this steel cage, which was far bigger than i was, and throw the cardboard boxes into the cage, roll them to the back of the store, throw them in the trash compactor, compact them, over and over for eight and a half hours a day.

S: Wow. You should’ve tried to go around catching the boxes in the cage to make it fun.

K: I was a Tamster in fact.

J: That’s not bad.

K: I probably owe some dues right now.

Me: Well, I know you just graduated fom school, like, what’s your ultimate goal through that?

K: School and graduation? That was also a ploy for avoiding work.

J: It’s a great way to do it.

K: It is. It’s really good. Except for that debt thing.

J: It’s so legitamate sounding though.

K: School?

J: Yeah. “I’m at school.” Noone expects you to do anything.

K: They like it better if you don’t. “You can concentrate on your studies,” quote.

ME: What about John?

J: Umm, I had a temp job in a big office building, I had to wear a tie. And I didn’t do very much. I went to a lot of meetings.

K: You went to meetings?

J: Oh yeah, all the time.

K: Why?

J: I had like two meetings a day that were usually about two and a half hours. Most of my day was in meetings. Considering I got there a half hour late and left a half hour early. It was super boring, and then i quit.

K: Ok, next question.

C: It’s pretty long already.

K: Yeah, but most of this is just crap. He’s gonna have like a paragraph at this point.

C: True.

J: I dunno. I can’t remember.

K: Just go through it one step at a time. What does it take to have a band? You have people, music, touring, records, instruments, label, booking...

W: Clothing...

K: Clothing, hair, make-up,

C: Songs...

J: Pyrotechnics...

ME: Pyrotechnics?

S: A flashlight or something...

C: Families.

K: When i asked Joan Of Arc to play that Williamson Street Fair show, at the begining of their exsistence, they told me they were gonna play it, but they weren’t gonna play any music they were just gonna do pyrotechnics and puppet shows.

(laughter)

K: He said “Would that be Okay?” and I said “Man, you can do whatever you want.”

W: That’s because one of their members was having like, gallstones removed or something. So they couldn’t play.

J: Did they show up?

K: They cancelled last minute, so Sarge played, and they were a big hit.

S: So what are some of your favorite bands?

W: I don’t like music very much.

S: There’s Ringo Starr.

W: I hate Ringo Starr. I didn’t get to finish the point that i was gonna make...

K: Go ahead.

W: No, no, it’s not that important. I dunno why i brought it up it doesn’t pertain to the subject at all. In fact, cut it all about Ringo. Ummm.. some influences or just what i’ve been listening to lateley?

S: Lately i guess whatever. What are some good bands out there?

W: There aren’t many. That’s why i’ve been listening to alot of sixites, mid to late sixties psychadelic stuff like The Zombies, The Animals, and newer stuff i guess, in the punk circuit i guess i’ve been listening to The VSS a whole hell of a lot. I like the Joan Of Arc record a whole hell of a lot as well. That’s pretty much it.

K: I listen to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and...

W: Oh, The Hal Al Shedad too, you can’t leave ‘em out.

K: Of course not.

C: Gotta plug the Hal.

K: We’re waiting for the new record though.

W: WE are waiting anxiously for the new record.

K: Where is it? Send it Ed.

W: Come on Ed.

K: Come on Ed.

W: Ben.

K: James.

W: Come on James.

K: James Joyce.

W: If that is your real name.

(laughter)

C: Wait, what’s Ben’s stage name now?

W: Benjamin Britain.

C: (laughs)

K: His real last name is Rollins.

W: It’s Lucas.

K: Rollins!

W: Lucas.

K: He’s related to Henry.

W: Whatever. Come on..

K: I’ve been listening to Hendrix, Bowie, lately, but only like, two tracks per album of Bowie. I can’t listen to the whole album of Bowie. The new Van Pelt i like alot, for stuff that’s going on now. What else?

C: Eliot Smith.

K: You listen to Eliot Smith. I’ve been listening to something. The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

W: Yes.

K: And the Rolling Stones too.

W: For that matter.

K: The Beatles.

C: Elton John’s version of Candle in the Wind .

(laughter) (i think i can hear it in the background of the tape, playing on the denny’s radio)

K: Willie Nelson. I’m a big fan of Always On My Mind. That album is super amazing. Oh, and Rye Cooter. That’s the one i was thinking of. Rye Cooter Is the man with the lap steel. And Neil Young, how’s that?

W: You can tell Kyle plays guitar in Rainer Maria.

K: I Listen to a lot of guitar rock.

ME: but it’s not really stuff that’s sounds like the kind of Guitar you play in Rainer Maria.

K: That’s cause i can’t play the guitar. (laughs) ..to be quite honest. I mean, if i could play like Jimi Hendrix maybe i would, maybe i wouldn’t, i dunno. I think that my guitar, the type of guitar that i ended up playing, is completely derived from the fact that when i began playing in this band i could barely play the guitar.

S: Like John.

K: Well, it was just like instead of, well, I think most guitarists go through like, the metal years, and i think that’s where you get all of your technical prowess, and then you spend the rest of your life trying to live that down. Well, not the rest of your life but you spend a while, trying to get the wank out. Whereas like, i’ve never been able to wank, effectively. So, the Rainer Maria guitar is always about like, rythymn, setting up chord structures, and never about the wank.

S: How about your influences then?

K: Well, it’s hard to say. I can’t say that i’ve ever really tried immitate someone, conciously. well, maybe.

S: Even subconsiously? I know the stuff that i write sounds like Mineral or whatever, on the guitar, so, i don’t even.. intentionally.. so..

K: Well it’s difficult because i don’t play in standard, which is what most of your rock is written in. Standard tuning. So, I can’t even play the same chords usually. Not to harp on that or anything.

ME: What do you play in?

K: Variations on drop d, and open g, and standard a half step down. It’s prettier.

Me: I dunno, I can’t really think of anything else.

K: Closing comments? Fashion tip?

W: Fashion tip, hmm.. Well, i’ve got kind of a funny story. WE went to Armani yesterday and..

C: In Beverly Hills.

K: On Rodeo Drive.

W: On Rodeo Drive, and I walked in the door and they asked me, “Oh did you just step out of our front window? Oh my goodness!”

(laughter)

K: That’s what they said.

S: That’s like a compliment i’d assume.

W: Yeah.

C: You were probably the first person under age thirty-five who’d walked in all day.

W: Anyway, closing comments.

K: You gotta encourage people to do something.

S: Yeah, what’s your advice for struggling bands?

K: Hit it or quit it.

(laughter)

S: Wow.

C: No that’s just a, a thing wecame across yesterday. By Jessica Hopper, L.A.

W: You’re wonderfull Jessica Hopper.

K: (whispered) The menace.

W: Known as The Menace.

Me: Why’s she known as The Menace?

K: Cause she’s menacing. You ever talk to her? She’ll mess you up.

(laughter)

K: Don’t even think about putting out a bad record. Anyway, that’s enough. That’s good. C: You can think of something else later if you want.

K: Just take the bad stuff out and leave the good stuff.

(end of tape)