Hey! Its been almost a month since I last posted and for that I am SORRY.
Today we have Ms. Marissa Paternoster: the singer and guitarist of Screaming Females and Noun fame...and also one of my favorite people. She is incredibly intelligent and naturally talented but also a super hard worker. Like...SUPER hard. Everything she creates is uniquely her own and instantly recognizable as hers. She is one of the only guitar players whose solos seem thoughtful and not fancy for the sake of being fancy. I could go on and on like a total psycho, or I guess you could just read this interview. ENJOY <3
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| from the "Awesome Girls in Bands" blog |
What made you want to play the guitar?
I never really wanted to play the guitar. I wanted to play the drums. But I didn't have any, and my dad had a guitar. He's a good guitar player, and I was sitting in my bedroom, listening to Nirvana, (of course) and my Dad said, "I can teach you how to play this". So he did, and that was that.
How did your playing evolve over the years?
I
don't really know. Now that I'm older and I've spent a lot of time
playing with other people, I think a lot more about rhythm and space. I
used to try to consume every sonic minute with guitar noodling, but now
I'm a little more sensible...I think.
What guitar players inspire you and is there anyone in particular that you think shaped your playing?
I
guess Billy Corgan is my number one, but I really like a lot of
players...Joey Santiago from the Pixies, Carrie Brownstein from
Sleater-Kinney, Billy Zoom from X, and Viv from the Slits. I could go
on and on!
Your lyrics are surreal but not unrealistic, if that makes sense...what goes into your lyric writing process?
Lyrics
usually pop up in my head out of the blue. Sometimes I arrange words
because they sound good in whatever order, and sometimes I intentionally
draw a theme. Aside from the meaning of the words themselves,
positioning them, cadence, and pacing are the most important elements of
lyric writing (for me). Now that I'm a little older and less scared to
let people know what I think and feel, my lyrics have become a lot less
abstract.
How conscious of your singing style are you and how, if at all, has it changed over the years?
I
used to be really, really shy about singing. I thought I was terrible
at it but I couldn't find anyone else to do it, so I reluctantly did.
When I first met Jarrett from Screaming Females, Mike and I went to a
barbeque at his house in New Brunswick and Jarrett gave me a guitar and
asked me to sing a Noun song he liked, which was sweet, and I really
wanted him to be in a band with me so I did it, but I felt like my head
was going to explode because I was so incredibly nervous and I had never
sang out loud all by myself with a guitar before in front of other
people. I used to have a lot less control over my voice. Eventually I
learned how to scream proper, and I think through practice I've been
able to access a lower octave range I didn't know I had. I really enjoy
singing now.
Talk about Courtney Love and Hole.
Jesus.
God, ok. Well, where can I even start? Hole is one of my favorite
bands. I like "Live Through This" way more than "Nevermind." I like
"Live Through This" more than I like a lot of things. I know that
Courtney isn't the most terrific role model, but when I was fifteen I
was pretty certain that I wanted to be her, maybe sans heroin,
but I love how bat-shit crazy and fierce she is. Before I knew about
riot grrrl, all I knew was Hole, and in fact, Hole probably guided me
towards Bikini Kill. Hole was awesome, cathartic, really powerful stuff
for a teenage girl. Courtney is a totally effective character, even if
she is a train wreck, and she has killer pipes. Not to mention that
her band ripped, and their influences taught me a lot about punk - Young
Marble Giants, Beat Happening, The Germs, etc.
Talk about Edith Piaf.
You're
killing me!!!!!! I LOVE HER!!!! What can I say?! I think she's the
greatest singer that has ever graced the earth, I listen to her all the
time. I have no idea what she's saying or singing, but her voice makes
me weep. The story of her life is so brilliantly bittersweet. She had
tenacity, grace, and talent. She is my new Courtney Love. I think I
want to be Edith Piaf, sans morphine. Sometimes I think some
sort of supernatural force pushed Edith off of the planet early in her
life because she was too much for the cosmos to handle.
Your art and music are really connected in my opinion.
Talk about what goes into the art that you make and whether or not that
connection feels conscious or on purpose. Do you feel like you give art
and music equal time or have you had to put one or the other on a back
burner from time to time?
I love to make art,
but it's a lonesome pastime. My visual art is deeply personal, although
a lot of it is off the cuff. Making music is a bit more satisfying for
me, 'cause I get to make things with other people. Sometimes I find
that other twenty-somethings who are interested in music find visual art
sort of inaccessible, or difficult to understand. I mean, sometimes I
feel that way too. My music and my visual art are all sourced from the
same place so it must be true that the two are intrinsically
intertwined. I think I give both mediums an equal amount of attention.
PERSONAL
How has your family life and childhood affected your art and music?
Well,
my family is very beautiful and very small. For their sake and for my
own, I don't really spit the details of my childhood out into the
interwebs. Everyone has a tough time growing up, and I think my
childhood shaped me in ways that my family would have never expected.
They give me a lot of attention and a lot of patience. I am very grateful to have them.
I
have a theory that the most compelling artists/musicians are the ones
who could not survive without making art/music. As in like, if it feels
like a hobby to the artist it is less important to the artist's audience
and the art itself suffers. What are your thoughts on my (very dramatic
and serious) theory?
I feel the same way.
Edith Piaf is one of those characters, she was born to perform. She
said she would die if she couldn't sing. She forced doctors to shoot
her up with morphine so she could get on the stage. And she collapsed
from exhaustion and sickness on several occasions. She essentially
killed herself so she could get out onto the stage. She needed that
love, the love from the audience and the love of music. That's how she
saw herself. Without her art, she was fragmented. It makes a lot of
sense to me.
Have you ever seen any ghosts?
Have you ever seen any ghosts?
YES. Yes, I have. Jarrett mentioned this ghost in his interview with you, but I totally saw it. My friend Alex moved into a haunted house in New Brunswick, and for the first week of the June he refused to sleep in his room. He crashed at my ex-girlfriend's house. He insisted that there was paranormal activity and he absolutely could NOT sleep in that house. Eventually he forced himself back into his room, and grew used to the ghost. Alex said the ghost would turn the toaster on all the time and drop drinking glasses. One day we were hanging out in a crawl space in his attic and someone thought it'd be totally funny to summon the ghost. I forget what Alex decided to name the ghost, but he began to call out his name and all of a sudden a bunch of boxes near the back of the attic came crashing to the ground and we all saw a little blip of white light pass through the room. I nearly wet myself. Totally true, I believe in ghosts.
Thanks Marissa. <3
http://screamingfemales.com/
http://nounmusic.bandcamp.com/
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