Syd Straw
Archived
Syd Straw deserves to be the SLUG cover girl. If she were, then some around town could ridicule this paper more than they already do. That would be good. Syd Straw’s latest album, her second as a solo artist, was released several months ago. It is a weird amalgamation of all the combined influences she’s absorbed over the years. She’s signed on to the revivalist garage band, the Skeletons, to back her. Syd Straw is from the golden years of CBGB’s, a New York scene-maker from the start and a musical conspirator with everyone from Michael Stripe and Jack Bruce to Richard Thompson, Henry Kaiser, Anton Fier and John Lydon. She has done nearly every possible thing anyone could imagine doing including sleeping with a bouncer from CBGB’s, hosting a children’s television show, singing with the all-star conglomeration named the Golden Palominos and traveling all over the world. She is slightly eccentric, if not a bit insane, (I’m surely not.) as this transcription proves. Truly creative people tend to be that way and Syd Straw is, if nothing else, a creative person.
SS: Sorry, I think I’m about a few minutes late. I had to let in this nice gentleman that’s working on the building. There’s some things they need to fix. He’s like, “well I could come and fix it Sunday” and I’m like “no, how about later today? That would be great.” So he’s doing it and I think I have him situated. So I called you.
SLUG: Where are you?
SS: Chicago, I’m having a wonderful week off and loving it.
SLUG: Actually I am too. I’m having a wonderful week off myself.
SS: But, this is work…kind of. Not as bad as breaking rocks in the hot sun I’d imagine.
SLUG: How about the Skeletons/Morells?
SS: The Skeletons, some of them were Morells, some of them were symptoms before that. Some of them are me.
SLUG: It’s a little bit amazing to meet someone who has heard the record Shake and Push.
SS: It’s a great one isn’t it? It’s so fun. Where are you by the way?
SLUG: I’m in Salt Lake City.
SS: Oh really, I’ve never been to Utah.
SLUG: I’m not surprised.
SS: Why?
SLUG: I don’t know. It just doesn’t surprise me.
SS: I used to go to the Mormon church when I was a young teenager.
SLUG: (Now I’m surprised) You did?
SS: Uh, huh. In Glendale, California, actually in the La Cresenta Ward.
SLUG: How did you get involved with the Mormon church?
SS: I fell in love with this handsome man who was a lifeguard at the high school pool. I wasn’t even in high school yet, but it was where you swam in the summer. It turned out he was Mormon and he had his black book up on the lifeguard stand. I swam over and I was like “Hey, what’s in your black book? A bunch of girl’s phone numbers or something?” He was like, “Well I’d love to tell you about this black book actually. It’s the Book Of Mormon,” (She is laughing the entire time she is relating the story.) I thought he was really cute so I started going to that church for a while. Until I realized that I really liked a lot of the people, but I didn’t…uh…like the religion that much. I liked the people and a lot of the songs that we sang in church. Really nice people, big families, nice, I liked all that. I got a lot of good out of it.
SLUG: I think it’s a little different in Utah than it is in Glendale, because they rule this place.
SS: Really? Is it kind of scary?
SLUG: More than scary.
SS: What are you doing living there?
SLUG: Ah, I was born here.
SS: Oh, so you have every right to be there. It’s kind of like, sometimes I think Colorado is the most gorgeous place but there are so many people there, who, if you ask me, are so white and uptight. They don’t deserve that gorgeous land. (I was laughing myself at this.)
SLUG: You think they are uptight in Colorado? Well, you should come here if you think they are white in Colorado.
SS: See, that would drive me nuts, to be honest, because I’m a hot head and I don’t think I could tolerate much oppression.
SLUG: That’s the fun of it. You try to subvert them, go underneath them.
SS: You are an insubordinate, you are. Covert operations.
SLUG: This is for SLUG Magazine.
SS: SLUG Magazine, SLUG, that sounds neat. SLUG. I think it really works as a concept and a name for the paper. That’s cool, will you send it to me? Hold on, I’ve got to let Tony out. Hold on, I think he fixed things. Hold on. (Syd had a loud conversation with Tony while I was on hold.)
SS: Hey, I don’t think he believes me, he thinks I’m just jawing on the phone. I’m like, I’m doing an interview, but I don’t think he believes me. He thinks I’m making this all up.
SLUG: He doesn’t believe that you’re doing interviews?
SS: I don’t think so. There’s a certain language barrier, it’s minimal, but it’s there. Kind of like a three-foot-tall brick wall. You can see over it, but the wall is there.
SLUG: How did you decide on the Skeletons as the band for your album?
SS: It’s almost as though fate decided on me. My manager, Tony Margherita. You know him? (Is this the Tony that who is supposedly fixing the plumbing and Syd Straw is fucking with me? I’ll never know for sure.)
SLUG: No, I’ve never met him.
SS: Well let me just say that he’s important. His name is M-A-R-G-H-E-R-I-T-A. That’s Tony and he’s helped so much. He’s been managing me for about two years. He;s gotten an awful lot done. I was really in need of help and I didn’t know who to trust and I’m glad I trusted him. He really put the idea to me. “Wouldn’t it be great, you really love the Skeletons, they really love you. Wouldn’t it be great to hear how they played some of your songs?” We went to record three songs in two days. On a weekend, we drove there, to Springfield, MO, where Lou Whitney has a wonderful studio called The Studio. It was a swell place to make a record so that’s what we did. I thought, hum, I really like the way that’s going. I’d like to do about eleven more. Actually we did thirteen more.
SLUG: What have the Skeletons been doing? (Now she’s pissed.)
SS: Oh, they’ve been playing with everyone from Chuck Berry to Marshall Crenshaw to Dave Alvin to Jonathon Richman. (This is probably not the right paper for Syd to mention those names.)
SLUG: Do they have a recent album out?
SS: Not one that came out last week or anything. I’m sure they’ll make more records, but I plan to keep them kind of busy for a while.
SLUG: Are they touring with you?
SS: Uh huh. We are the band.
SLUG: Well, how come you don’t come here? That would be an amazing show!
SS: You know what, it sure would. I guess there had to be a rallying cry, some sort of demand for us, so somebody would book us. where they’re pretty sure they can sell those tickets. Maybe you should start a rallying cry on your day off, like on a Sunday afternoon. Circulate a petition. You need to book Syd Straw, she needs to come here.
SLUG: Who have you been playing with around the country?
SS: Oh wow! I just had one of those weird, weird moments. I have the TV on cable without sound and this old boyfriend of mine just appeared on the screen.
SLUG: Which one?
SS: I can’t say. There he is though. Lookin’ good. (She’s laughing.)
SLUG: Who are you touring with?
SS: The Skeletons.
SLUG: Are you headlining?
SS: Yeah.
SLUG: Who is opening for you?
SS: This guy named Hammell On Trial. He’s really neat. Kind of eighth notish, 4/4 protest songs. Beat poetry. Kind of angry, it’s good, he’s really funny. Caustic, witty, and aggressive. Let’s see… I know that the Smashing Pumpkins opened for me on my last tour when I was on Virgin. I love knowing that. I found that out when I was having an enchilada in a little restaurant in the middle of the afternoon. And they came in and sat at this other table right behind me. They were talking about a video they were working on. So I turned around and asked, “Hey, what video were you working on?” And this guy goes “Hey you’re Syd Straw.” I said, “right, guilty.” And he goes, “Hey, we opened for you.” I went, “Really? Who are you?” He goes, “Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.” I was like “Neat. I’m going to tell everyone I gave you your big break.”
SLUG: You didn’t know they’d opened for you?
SS: Sometimes, sadly enough, you can’t always be there because that’s your only chance to take a shower before the show. It depends on a lot of things. I try to see whoever is playing but it doesn’t always happen.
SLUG: What kind of places are you playing?
SS: Everything from theaters to bars to barns. We’re going to do barns on our summer tour.
SLUG: Where have you played a barn?
SS: Up in Vermont. I played a big gray barn in Weston, Vermont.
Next Syd went over her touring schedule. She played Boulder and Denver and skipped Salt Lake City. Why is this? What is it about this city that makes more than half of the actual good bands in the country skip this place? The circle is complete and it is back to the local band issue.
SS: We’re just hitting the major markets. We can’t afford to tour everywhere yet. We’re in a super-duper-low-rent, haul-your-own gear, do-the-best-you-can, kick-ass-every-night, rock-out, tour. Everybody puts out every night. We do a really long, kind of tight, but loose show. We pretty much are out there having a blast and I think a lot of the audience are too.
Finally we get to the record.
SLUG: About your album.
SS: War and Peace?
SLUG: Yeah. Your first solo album was a big budget recorded on a shoestring. What would you do for a third?
SS: Well, you know I guess we’ll find out. It won’t have to be as shoestringish as this one was by nature of the fact that I made it on my own and then we sold it. I did it in a very, very bare bones, oh, oh, another Skeletal reference. I did it in a very bare bones kind of way and I dug that. The simplicity, the catchiness of real simplicity. I won’t mind if on the next one…for a couple of songs I have some strings in mind, again more simple stuff, but a few more elements, but mainly it will be me and the Skeletons again. I think we cover a lot of the bases and I’m writing some new songs now while we’re out touring that are specifically for us to record together for the next record. Hopefully by the time I finish touring I’ll have written the next record. We can take a little breather and go just do it.
SLUG: I really had no idea that the Skeletons were your band now. I knew they played on the record, but…
SS: That’s partly what took so long. I insisted this time on doing it with a group of people who could then go back up the record. (“How’s everything going Tony? Hello, Tony. You know I’m working, how can I help? I’m working here.” She’s off talking to the maintenance man again, or is it really her manager?) He doesn’t believe me. I’m bringing the phone to him so you can be my witness. (“Sorry? I’m talking to this man from the press. He’s in Utah. What do you need? Wire? I don’t have any wire. Okay”
SLUG: He needs wire?
SS: Isn’t he scary?
SLUG: I don’t know. What is he fixing?
SS: I don’t really have plumbing parts you know? As a rule, there aren’t that many hanging around.
SLUG: He needs wire to fix the plumbing?
SS: Yeah, isn’t it called in some languages jerry-rigging? Or is that jury rigging? Or jury tampering? I know he thinks I’m just out here pretending to be on the phone or something.
SLUG: He wants you to help him?
SS: Yeah. Sorry, you know I’m working here. It’s true, but only you and I know it. Doesn’t it just beat the heck out of beating rocks in the hot sun?
SLUG: Your songs on War and Peace.
SS: What do you like?
SLUG: “Love And The Lack Of It” and “Almost As Blue.”
SS: Good ones.
SLUG: What if one of those songs made you a country star?
SS: I would love that so much.
SLUG: What if country radio picked up on them?
SS: Wouldn’t that be smart? That was part of my intention, but I don’t know how to push it. My opinion is that it is so hard to get into markets because there are so many of us. And so much of everything. I think, wow, push it in every market we can conceive of. That’s really a viable… I would like to be popular in that way. I think I really have that in my heart. On my next record, definitely I’m going to get Greg Lieson in there playing some pedal steel and some slide and some Dobro stuff. That would be really fun and actually… I’ve talked to the Skeletons about him playing with us some time. Do you know him?
SLUG: No. Tell me.
SS: He’s played pedal steel and guitar for years with kd lang. Before that he was playing with me but of course she could pay a lot more. But now he’s back to producing and making a lot of records with a lot of people. He’s a musician’s musician. He’s the kind of person that I could weave into the Syd and Skeletons weave. I can’t say that I could think of too many people I would want to enter that mix, because I think it is enough. He does certain things that I would like to incorporate into the next one.
Syd went into a description of her restless nature and her feeling that the songs on her album encompass a wide spectrum of emotions before…
SS: Hold on, I think he wants to show me something. (I’m glad her dime is paying for this call.) It’s like the Marx sisters around here. He’s gone and everything is sort of temporarily fine. “I really have to get back to the gentlemen on the telephone. I guess you will be back this weekend with a part that fits?”
SLUG: How did you come to write a song with Johnette? (Johnette Napolitano, co-wrote “Million Miles” with Syd.)
SS: You know, I can’t even talk about it.
SLUG: Why?
SS: Ah… because she is apparently not a friend of mine and I thought we were friends, but apparently we’re not. I can’t even discuss it at all.
Syd Straw loves the name SLUG for a paper. She gave me the address for her manager and made me promise to send her a copy if and when my conversation with her was ever printed.
SS: I think SLUG should put me on the cover. If I make the cover of SLUG the chances of me coming to play there would really improve drastically. Tell SLUG, I’m not kidding. I would be really honored to be on the cover of SLUG.
Well Syd, I did my best. I tried my best with the gossip about Johnette, because she has appeared on the cover, but it just didn’t work. —Wilhelm daFoe
Read more interviews from the SLUG archives:
Les Thugs
Smart Brown Handbag
