Oct. 26: Experimental rock act Xiu Xiu performs at Nova Arts
As part of their tour in support of the new full-length, Xiu Xiu are going to be performing at Nova Arts in Keene on October 26. I had a talk with Stewart ahead of the show about the creation process behind the album, having a couple other bands do some remixes of their music, the current lineup of
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KEENE, NH – When it comes to experimental bands, a lot of them can be all over the place. They’ll either embrace the avant-garde aesthetic while crafting songs with abstract arrangements or they make an effort to defy classification where nothing they put out fits into a distinct genre.
It’s rare to find one of these bands having a sense of cohesiveness within their sound, but Xiu Xiu from Los Angeles definitely do. Led by Jamie Stewart, the act forges an artistic blend of pop, noise, electronica and post-punk into an emphatic approach. This approach has been consistent throughout their existence with the latest installment of it being the album Ignore Grief that came out via the Polyvinyl Record Company on March 3.
As part of their tour in support of the new full-length, Xiu Xiu are going to be performing at Nova Arts in Keene on October 26. I had a talk with Stewart ahead of the show about the creation process behind the album, having a couple other bands do some remixes of their music, the current lineup of the band and always feeling grateful when it comes to being able to play a show.
⇒Check our Xiu Xiu on Bandcamp
Rob Duguay: Ignore Grief has this double-sided structure where you’re singing on half of the record while Angela Seo sings on the other half with this clash of industrial and modern classical tracks occurring. What inspired this dichotomy during the songwriting and recording process?
Jamie Stewart: It wasn’t really something that we consciously decided on ahead of time. When we started working on the record, we found that we were doing two distinctly different types of songs. We always attempt to, within certain parameters, allow the record to evolve how it’s going to evolve and try not to get in the way of it. Once we found that the structure was happening naturally, Angela suggested that she sing on half of it. She’s been wanting to sing more and then that opened up the idea of it consciously being a record of us doing five modern classical-type songs and five post-industrial songs.
Angela sang on half of them and I sang on half of them with half the songs being about real events and the others being about imaginary ones. It initially happened organically and it seemed as if the music was leading us into that direction when we decided to embrace it as an idea.
RD: The lyrics explore dark content such as prostitution, sex trafficking, murder, cults and substance abuse with, like you said, these themes coming from either real-life stories or imaginary ones. Did the real stories come from actual conversations with people, did they come from news articles or did they come from something else?
JS: The real stories unfortunately are from people that we know. They were all things that were going on around us during the time that we were working on the record. None of them were happening to any of us on a personal level, but they were happening to people that we know.
RD: Ahh, okay. I’m sorry to hear that those people had to deal with these unfortunate events. Following the album’s release, a couple tracks off of it got remixed with A Place To Bury Strangers remixing “Brothel Creeper” and Rawzilk remixing “Pahrump”. Did both of these acts initially reach out to you to do these remixes or was it vice versa? How did this all happen?
JS: For A Place To Bury Strangers, we had done a remix for them, which is a common theme between bands who are acquainted with each other. We did one for their last record and we asked them if they’d do one for ours. We’re big fans of theirs and we actually just played with them for the first time a few days ago, which was nice. With Rawzilk, we’re also fans of theirs and we talk over the internet occasionally so I thought it would be interesting to see if they wanted to do it.
RD: Very cool. Since you started Xiu Xiu back in 2002, the band has gone through numerous members with Angela and percussionist David Kendrick currently rounding out the trio. What makes performing and recording with them different from previous lineups?
JS: We’ve definitely had a few lineup changes, but Angela has been with the band since 2010, which is nearly half of the existence of the band. Interestingly, I used to play with David when I was a teenager so I’ve known him for more than half my life and we have played together quite a bit in the past. Even though he’s new to being an official member of the band, we have a long-standing and close relationship. When it comes to playing with the two of them, a lot of the lineups would often happen with people who I had never really played with that much before. With David and Angela, because I had such a long relationship with both of them, Angela is also my best friend and we’ve been friends before she joined the band so she’s been a close part of my life for a very long time, it allows for a level of trust and vulnerability in playing that isn’t possible with people who you don’t know as well.
It makes it almost a natural state to be in. It’s much easier to completely throw your heart into something when the people you’re with you trust complicitly.
RD: I totally understand that, it’s cool that you all have this connection. Being from Los Angeles, what are your thoughts on performing at Nova Arts?
JS: We’re excited to do it. Any place that we get invited to play, we feel grateful to have the opportunity to do so regardless of where we are. We always try to do the best that we can and it’s a great honor to be able to play. If anybody takes the time to show up, they’re absolutely deserving of us giving it our best shot.
