Poe!

Poe. She’s been everywhere. Almost. Her style is very eclectic. Her voice is graceful. She backs up her talent with strong conviction. And no one even knows her name… 

SLUG: Where should we start? Explain how you wound up with the name ‘Poe.’

POE: The Poe name? I went to a costume party when I was a kid, dressed as a plague. From Edgar Allen Poe‘s Mask of the Red Death and called myself Poe to give everybody a hint. And it kind of stuck. It came and went and came and went and came and went and it made a lot more sense to use as a performance name cause it was a nickname already. That’s sort of how that happened. 

SLUG: Did anybody get it? 

POE: No, nobody got it. They just said it was funny. I was very insulted. I thought it was very serious. But I think what happened was like my mother’s friend called her the next day and said, “How’s Poe?” and then it just stuck. And I liked it, I was like, “Yeah, fine that’s my nickname.” Cause I never had a good one. 

SLUG: So now where were you born?

POE: New York City. My dad made films so when I was very young, we traveled around a lot. So, I was born and then we were on the road for eight years. He did a documentary in Africa so we were there for a year. He did a film in India, we were there for a year. He did a movie in Spain so we were there for a year and a half. So yeah, we moved around a lot and then we sort of settled in New York. And then when I was in junior high school, we moved to Utah and my dad worked at Brigham Young University and with the Sundance Film Institute. 

SLUG: Were your parents Mormon? 

POE: No actually, they weren’t. Not even remotely, which made it weirder. 

SLUG: So were you religious? 

POE: My father was Catholic and my mother was Protestant.

SLUG: And you were stuck in Provo.

POE: Neither one of them were religious. I’d been to church twice in my life. 

SLUG: That must have been hell.

POE: It was wild because like the first bizarre thing, you know, I remember like making a friend and this is actually before the school year had started like in my neighborhood. And I was like, “Oh, let’s get together tomorrow.” And that tomorrow was Sunday and she was like, “Oh we can’t play on Sunday.” I remember that was a total shock to me. 

SLUG: That’s funny. So when you were in Provo you did a fanzine and promoted local shows and things like that. 

POE: Yeah, I don’t want to play it up in the sense that it was some big thing. I mean I was in high school, it was more like a newsletter because you know, it was really cheaply done, but it was sort of cultural politics and ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ types of opinions about things. Once the school had decided to have a John Lennon week, and a bunch of the parents in town had complained that John Lennon week cannot be on the marquee of Provo High School because he was a drug addict. Okay. So one of the articles was blasting the culture for denying the youth culture their icon.

SLUG: When was this? 

POE: This was in like 1983. The early 80’s. 

SLUG: So you went to Princeton? 

POE: I went to Princeton and… 

SLUG: And studied what? 

POE: English and creative writing. And I mean the thing that is interesting just about that whole Princeton thing, cause I remember this too. Like I remember having the couple friends I had in high school that were like…I mean some of the brightest, most interesting people I have yet to know, you know what I mean? And there was something weird like psychology. Like I remember when we were talking about applying to schools and stuff like that. You know just talking about the possibility of going to college and everyone was like “Oh, no it costs so much money and I couldn’t go.” Like no one could fucking get out of Utah, you know? It was such a tightly knit community…And the thing about my time at Princeton is I applied and got in and they have like really amazing financial aid programs. I had no money so they gave me a $14,000 grant. And it wasn’t because I was smart it was totally need based.

SLUG: So about the band. I’m trying to be objective. I like the record but I’ve also heard the objections to the record. You know the music industry creates this persona of women and now I think it’s just fucked because talented women can’t go anywhere without getting labeled. 

POE: It’s totally fucked up.

SLUG: The slant is that when someone like Alanis Morissette comes along then the big record companies go, “I gotta have one of those.” So thus comes Poe and these other female artists because of the exploitation of the first one. You know what I mean? 

POE: Well, I mean that’s totally fucked. Number one I finished my record before Alanis Morissette came out.  Second of all, it’s true that there is this feeding frenzy that someone like Alanis Morissette breaks and kind of maybe helps out or ruins it for others, right?

SLUG: So your answer to the complaint that this is Atlantic’s product is that it’s not true?

POE: Well it’s just not as simple as that. I mean if people understood the process of what it takes to make a record in the first place…it isn’t as clear cut as that. I have a new A&R guy at Modern…I can have the craziest most outlandish idea and come in and say I want to do this or I want to do that and he’s always been incredibly supportive and non-controlling. So, I don’t really think of the record as a record company product.

SLUG: So the producers of the record weren’t coming in and saying “Here, we want this beat because this is the hip thing”…?

POE: No mean, I called every shot on this record which is why on most of the songs I have writing credit. I like to take…I mean one of my dreams is to produce other people’s records. You know cause I love putting talented people in a room and like putting elements together like some guy might be a great programmer or some guy might have a certain flavor on a guitar and really get these certain sounds out of it. I love molding all that stuff together. I don’t know, I can’t really waste my time thinking too much about what people think one way or another. If I’m in a room and I hear something cool happening like Sergio Mendez kicks down an octave and laughs, I go “oh my god, let’s loop that.” That’s all I’m thinking, “why don’t we try this disc player, why don’t we try this chord progression in this bridge, you can never pre-conceive something. It never works, you know. And I also don’t think if Geffen was out there and found some girl who could sing and tried to create another Alanis Morissette, 99% of the time that shit doesn’t work because it’s just not authentic.

SLUG: Right, it’s just that if Atlantic’s pushing you to be big those are the kind of questions you’re going to get asked. People only like you when you’re small and cool and not important. And then when you get big, you’re not cool anymore.

POE: By the same token, I would even argue that there’s a kind of…female artist. There’s so many female artists out there that for the first time record companies have some chic now. To have female artists on their radio stations. Before it was only a few every now and then. I don’t care what people say. I’m glad about that. I don’t like the stigma of female artists. But by the same token, I’d rather have people wanting to help break female artists than not. You know? 

SLUG: Well, if you look at the rise of Motown. I mean that was pretty much brought about by all of the very strong black women of the time.

POE: That’s true. I think the history of black music is a little different than…from a female point of view, I mean those were the strongest blows. I mean one thing, it’s funny you should mention this cause when I was in Detroit, I had some really strong friendships with some black women artists that are in Detroit that are more R&B sort of hip hop artists. I don’t think I’ve met stronger women in my life than from African American heritage. You know even the stuff I saw at Princeton, I didn’t really come from that background and these girls that would spout all this feminism and this and that and you’d be this sort of victim…you know women are always robbed and women are this or that and then I’d see these black women who would just be harassed and they’d just be like “fucking get off my back.” I guess that’s a little bit of a scattered statement. I guess what I’m just trying to say is that the whole women thing is complicated. 

SLUG: So you’d like to take this band in and do your second record with them and just keep the one band and go with it that way?

POE: I think so, they all have very different talents and I think it would be very cool. And they’re just great guys. It’s really hard as a solo artist to find the players that are not hired guys that don’t give a shit about anything but getting a paycheck. And these are guys, it blows my mind, they’re as obsessed with doing this as I am and it’s my record.

SLUG: Now you mention that you share writing credits with almost everybody on the record and I notice that you do but is it writing credits or is it…do you write all the lyrics? 

POE: No one wrote any lyrics but me. 

SLUG: So why are you sharing writing credits with different people?

POE: It’s another thing that’s tricky. You can be in a room with somebody. I could have a song that’s half finished, so it’s okay well I’ve looped these things together and I like this and someone can just reach…it’s even harder when you’re programming. Because on some of the tracks in Junkie and Angry Johnny we were dealing with a lot of loops, somebody can bring in a really cool horn or bass loop or even if I have the general vibe of the song and it changes the song enough to really merit writing credit. People are very uptight about getting writing credit. So, rather than fight and destroy the relationship over who deserves this or it really isn’t writing because you took it off a record. I just always figure it’s  like I want everyone to get something out of having worked on the record. And that’s in some instances and in some instances people do an enormous amount of the writing with me. On Trigger Happy that was completely co-written by me and this guy Jeffery Conners. He came up with the verse kind of that chord progression and the groove underneath that. And I sort of sang on top of it and then I sort of hummed to him my idea of the bass line for the psycho part and it just evolved. It’s easier to say okay look we’re writing this together, we split writing credits than it is to go back and pick and choose, well you did this and I did this. It’s better for the relationship. To me, that’s more important. But I love writing with different people because I learn a lot. Music is very much a team sport, so I’d much rather be co-writing with some talented musicians in a room than sitting by myself doing it. 

SLUG: What are your plans for a second record?

POE: I have two albums. So there will definitely be a second record on this label.

SLUG: When are you thinking of doing that? 

POE: I don’t know when I wake up one morning and think of…What I’m hoping is that if I go on the road, I’m having really good creative chemistry with these guys I’m working with right now. I have a feeling we’ll write the next record on the road. The other thing about writing by the way–pick any band–mostly it’s written by different members of the band together. It’s very seldom that people write every aspect of their own songs. Usually in my opinion it’s not that great because you tend to get one kind of thing happening.

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