Interview with Rachel Mason (Number 31) by Revista The 13th

The13th AÑO: 3

NÚMERO 31

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

JOHNNY INDOVINA

[ Interview with Rachel Mason by Diego Centurion ]

IT’S CRITICAL TO FEEL COMFORTABLE IN A STUDIO

Rachel Mason is an artist who has just released a new single, "Tigers in The Dark". At first glance, if we just have a listen to this track, it will remind us immediately of the Ice Lady (Siouxsie Sioux). However, when taking her previous work in account, a broader spectrum of influences are revealed. Rachel also contributed to our special issue on David Bowie… We are delighted to introduce Rachel to our readers… Hi Rachel, first of all, thank you for taking part in our special issue on David Bowie. When you first started making music, which artist(s) do you reckon had influenced you? Have your music influences changed with the passing of time? David Bowie was one of the first artists whose music felt like it was speaking directly to me, not just musically, but on the level of the kind of artistic world you could invent through music. There are so many artists, and many, many women in particular Carla Bozulich and all of her various bands (Ethyl Meatplow, Geraldine Fibbers) I worshipped when I was in high school- she’s someone that has a voice so untamed that it just felt, again, like Bowie, spea-

king to something much, much deeper and bigger than just music. Over time, I came to spent almost all of my Free time on my own music- so much so that, I am a little bit cursed, because I can’t listen to music without dissecting it to the point where I can not do anything but listen to it. If I’m in the grocery store, sometimes, I am plagued because I hear a great new pop song and I almost automatically begin noticing the number of hooks in a chorus, and think about the lyric choices, and chord progressions and even BPM, I can’t help but try to figure out the actual tempo… So now I am at a point where I truly don’t listen to music unless it is live- and I am always thrilled to see live bands- that to me is where I get the greatest joy with music. I do like a lot of classical music. That’s also what I tend to listen to the most. I find your work quite eclectic and unique. It’s also super impressive that you’ve already released 13 albums. If you were to tell someone, who doesn’t already know your music, where to start… which album of yours should be the one to begin with? Well, firstly, I would go easy on the word, “released” 13 albums- because nearly all of them are still unheard of by almost everyone in the world. One of the

first album that felt to me like a full and complete album is called “Gayley Manor Songs” and I wrote them all while a student at UCLA, living in a building on a street called Gayley Manor. They were recorded directly onto cassette tape. Is there an album of yours do you love more than the others? Did you ever have the feeling that a finished work fell short of your own personal expectations?? I still love that Gayley Manor perhaps the most of them all. It has so much of everything in it that I came to continue doing with music. I also love all the songs in Code Flight, which is an album that I wrote while working in a nursing home. But indeed, I wish I could have more properly recorded those songs- they were recorded in a variety of situations, including a few different studios where I felt really uncomfortable. I have since learned that it’s critical to feel comfortable in a studio. How much and in what ways do you think your music has grown from the time you first started creating music until now? Well, at first I just felt desperate to record these songs, and I had ideas and lyrics in my head that I would absolutely need to write and if I didn’t I’d feel like I was running after a butterfly that was about to fly away. I still have that feeling, but I also now have collaborators and people that I work with in different ways, and my music feels like it’s more something that I engineer with a lot more precision… it’s less like a kind of free for all. I do miss that early feeling, but I also am happy that I’ve been able to achieve more produced sounds. How do you see the music industry and people’s behavior in terms of how they receive (obtain and process) music nowadays? This question regards, in particular, the way we use the Internet to show what we create, although this somehow seems to creates an information breakdown. I feel like people are so overwhelmed they have no choice but to seek out their unique niche interests, which is really amazingly great for an artist like me-I have only recently started promoting my music in a consistent way and with the assistance of a label and professionals, and I see that it’s really helpful.

It allows the bloggers and writers like you, who are also independent, like me, to do their own searching and finding of the artists they champion. You are an artist who creates not only music, but art in several other media and you have received awards for this. Please tell us about your involvement in non-musical artforms. I went to art school and studied specifically sculpture, but I still am very active making performance art, which incorporates my music. I feel really happy to have been able to find a way to make this connection to my visual work. What is it like to be an independent artist in New York City and Los Angeles, where you’ve spent so much time in the past few decades?... This is interesting since these are crucial spots for the arts in the US. How difficult is it to make it there, taking in account the huge amount, variety and quantity of artists living there? It is really hard if you’re not good at socializing. I only started to truly enjoy and become adept at social interactions, but it took me about 10 years of living in New York. I found a community of artists whose work I love and I have a similar community in LA. I have gone back and forth I should say for the past ten years because my parents live in LA and I’m really very much an Angelino -- as we call it. Listening to your new single "Tigers in the Dark", I find a taste for sensual yet powerful rhythms... I’ve heard that two separate labels are releasing this and your upcoming album. Can you tell us a bit about that? Well at first I just developed the song from a riff that Jeff Hassay, my writing partner and collaborator started creating. The whole narrative for the song just came right away. And yes two labels are putting it out. A beautiful little cassette label run by Peter Hernandez, an artist in LA, and the fantastic Cleopatra Records who have a hugely diverse roster. When is the new album coming up and should we expect another single following ‘Tigers in the Dark’? The ‘Das Ram’ LP is going to release on November and I’ve got 2 album release parties lined up for that

(since I’m releasing on different media on two separate labels). If you are in L.A. on November 13 or 27, come out for my performance – there will be some other very great artists on the bill as well. Already on October 21, I’ll be releasing the next single “Heart Explodes”, along with a new video for that beforehand. What are your plans for the rest of the year? To Live! One particular thing I'm really excited about is a song which I wrote, borrowing the words from a young Chinese poet whose story was fleetingly in the news some time ago. He committed suicide after working at FoxComm. The music for the song

was written by TheUse, a dear friend and collaborator of mine, and it will be featured in the film, "Who Pays the Price." I'm developing a new group of performances at the Hammer Museum which is inspired by the city itself, my home city of Los Angeles. Well, the final words are yours… Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers? I’m grateful for the people you who care about independent music and artists. Thank you so much. Thank You, Rachel!!!!

The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA