MIDWESTERN BEAT: Q & A With Kristeen Young
by Aaron Shloss for Midwestern Beat Magazine
myspace.com/thebicycletragedy

MWB: The cover art on the new album evokes Ebenezer Scrooges' encounter with the human manifestations of Ignorance and Want, and on your first LP you quote Dickens from the same story. What is it about Dickens that appeals to you and what themes of that story do you gravitate to?

KY: Dickens is colourful and transcendent, but at the same time earthbound. He speaks about everyday problems, but makes it larger than life. That is the ultimate goal. Orphans, outcasts, and ghosts...I can't resist.

MWB: There is something very different about The Orphans as compared to the rest of your work. It seems more pointed, and more cohesive, and definitely less produced than Breasticles and X. Do you share this perception, and if so, what is behind that?

KY: I'm so glad you hear it that way. It was a result of learning how to communicate what we want...a lifelong struggle for me, personally.

MWB: Five albums into things, what individual songs are you most proud of? Are there any that you wish you'd done differently, or not recorded at all?

KY: Off the top of my head - and some people would like that- I'm pleased with "Wake The Dead" and "p.e. 9.14." I heard "Skeletons" the other day, by accident. It was on my friend's iPod. I thought it held up pretty well. I'm not going into what shouldn't have been done. I'm trying to not get depressed today.

MWB: You are capable of bizarre, intricate songs like "Incubator" and "Marley's Ghost" as well as fantastic, straight - ahead pop like 'Yesterday's Future Man" and "Kill The Father." Is there a certain style you feel more comfortable with, and what informs the feel and approach of each song?

KY: They all sound the same to me. None of my songs sound odd to me. They all come from the same place; a hole in my abdomen about an inch wide.

MWB: There are intresting production parallels between your music and that of The Smiths. If you listen to Louder Than Bombs, which collects tracks from a four year time span, all the songs run smoothly together and it is only upon listening to them individually, out of the context of the compilation, that the differences in the production/arrangement aesthetics come to the fore. The same could be said of your music...there is a uniform feel to it, and yet each LP on its own has a distinct personality and feel. What do you feel are the chief differences in your personal approach to making music between Meet Miss Young and The Orphans?

KY: There are a lot of voices in my head that I have to drown out now. I think that's why Breasticles and X aren't successes to me. You can hear the sad battle. I felt free and invincible when I was writing Meet Miss Young and Enemy. I had no doubt who I was. I knew who I was so intrinsically that I didn't have to discuss it or think about it. I think, when I was writing The Orphans, that I was at that place again....but from the opposite side. I knew the other way hadn't worked. I also knew there was no chance any label was going to sign me so I wasn't going to listen anymore. 'Out, damn spot...'

MWB: Do you have lyrical sketches written beforehand that you assign to melodies you feel they would fit well with, or does the music always come first?
KY: Sometimes one way, sometimes the other.

MWB: PJ Harvey said of early comparisons of her with Patti Smith by the music press that this was just "lazy journalism." Do you feel this way re. the copious remarks about you sounding "like Kate Bush fronting Gang of Four" or "Tori Amos singing for Metallica", or do you see justification in these remarks?

KY: They are puzzling to me. I can't begin to explain it because I don't understand them. I mean...Metallica??? How do I address that description?...I feel that maybe these people haven't really listened...and if they have...maybe it was whilst they were updating their Myspace profiles. As for Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Dresden Dolls...yes, we are all female singers. Yes, the piano is our weapon of choice. Now, can we begin to categorize men with guitars in the same manner?

MWB: Other female singer/songwriters in your age group who exist in the "alternative" hemisphere have garnered at least a fair share of media coverage over the last year, and it seems you are being overlooked in favor of those far less talented and original. I'm referring specifically to people like Chan Marshall of Cat Power and Regina Spektor. What do you think of these artists and why do you think the public is more receptive to them?

KY: I am flummoxed by Regina Spektor...it's way too middle-of-the-road for me...and precious. I like a bit of Cat Power, but it's nothing that changes my world. I like music that sounds like the apocalypse. I like music that moves me...any way, pick a way. A lot of people don't know of my music because the gatekeepers haven't let me in. Labels don't know what category I fit in so they won't sign me. I can't get a booking agent, apparently, until I get a label. But thank the gods for Morrissey who gets joy out of not following the rules. He is an anarchist...he follows his heart...which is only recommended for the truly brave.

MWB: You are obviously a huge Morrissey apostle. What was it like encountering him face to face for the first time and how exactly did that come about?

KY: He kicked me out of the studio. He didn'y recognize me as the girl in the video he had seen. I wear pinafores and banana curls in real life...no, I mean on stage...no, I mean real life.

MWB: During the time you have been on tour with Morrissey, what have you gained the most? Are there any experiences, good or bad, that stand out to you more than others, and how do you feel you have progressed, as a performer, since undertaking the support slot for the Ringleaders tour?

KY: There is no better way to spend an evening, in my opinion, than listening, watching, wallowing in...Morrissey. Luckily, I have been able to do this, at very close range, fifty-one times. Right now, I have forty-seven more times scheduled, but I would prefer it to be every night until the end of time. And...on another level...he is great fun. I miss him when he isn't around. The only way I feel I've changed as a performer from the tour is that now I have concrete skin. I'm even more determined to do things my way. I know I've "remembered" this from being around Morrissey. He reminded me -but not literally- of a lot of things I used to be. Things had been so tough, prior to this tour, for so long that I cut off a lot of my feelings. Just to keep moving...I've cut off a bit. Become encased. He...not in any direct way...just from being on the tour and around his energy...helped me love music again and, just in general, softened me. In retrospect...maybe just the validation of getting the tours with him, and all the loving things he's said about my music...gave me the encouragement to let my guard down a bit. It's hard to love when you don't get any love.

MWB: Morrissey has never missed an opportunity to praise your every breath. But what is it about his music that most draws you in?

KY: Oooooohhhhhh...he misses plenty of opportunities, let me tell ya. In fact, I think I'm going to have a talk with him...

MWB: Other than Morrissey, who or what was important to you as a teenager, artistically or culturally? What musicians do you respect or feel influenced by, or even just enjoy listening to even if you don't feel a particular artistic kinship with them?
KY: Judy Garland. Prince. Teena Marie. Annie Haslam. Anita Baker. Dr. Seuss. Dead Kennedys. Public Image Limited. The second chapter of Acts. Little Richard. Connie Francis. Marni Nixon. The Cramps. Missing Persons. The Jungle Book. Ella Fitzgerald. Bauhaus. The Swans. Sid and Marty Krofft. Butthole Surfers. Jerry Lee Lewis. Jack Kerouac. Allen Ginsberg. Bela Bartok. Public Enemy. I Love Lucy...Pink Floyd...The Who...Brian Jonestown Massacre...I like early PJ Harvey. I like a lot of Placebo. I like Louis the XIV. I Like the album Fever To Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I like that song "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado. I like almost every Ludacris single. I like Coheed and Cambria. I love Sunny Day Real Estate.

MWB: Is there anything you've wanted to do on an album that you haven't yet, and what are your grand plans after the Morrissey tour concludes?

KY: Perfecting the shade of my spray-on tan.

MWB: You were, from what I've read, a waitress at some point before or during the inception of your musical career . Looking back, what are your perceptions of that time in your life and what was your day-to-day state of mind before becoming an established recording artist?

KY: Confuuuuuuuused!

MWB: Before you left St. Louis for the east coast in 2002, had you toured very extensively or seen much of the country? What was the shift in headquarters like, and how do you feel it impacted your musical output?
KY: We hadn't been able to do much touring. We have never had any money to do anything much but scrape by. The cost of living in St. Louis is so cheap that it sort of imprisons a person. You don't have the money to really go anywhere else. I worked so hard and saved every penny for quite a long while before I could afford to move to the east coast. The only way I think the move helped me was that I was able to meet certain people I just wouldn't have, had I stayed in Missouri. I wouldn't have met Tony Visconti, David Bowie...and ultimately, Morrissey...had I stayed. These people, in particular, all gave me a hand out of the gutter that was my life. Artistically... it's hard to say. Maybe I would have been even less conventional had I stayed in St. Louis...completely wild...living and creating with no boundaries like a sasquatch in the Ozarks...actually, that sounds preferable. I'm moving back.

MWB: How often, if ever, do you go back to St. Louis, and what is that experience like?

KY: I try to go back home twice a year...and I usually succeed. I find it enlightening to revisit. I always leave with a new understanding. I miss the food there. I miss actual streets. I miss the thickness of the atmosphere, something I hated when I lived there.

KY: "Devil Girl" is a fantastic song; in my opinion it's one of your best. At 31 years old, what are your thoughts on fundamentalist Christianity and how do you think you would have been affected, creatively, were it not for your experiences with religion as a young woman?

KY: It's repulsive and every bit as destructive as Muslim extremist theory. I can't comment on the second part as I can't imagine what I would be like not being force fed over-the-top Christianity for eons...I've tried to contact the Devil...but he doesn't seem to want to return my phone calls. I'm positive, absolutely sure, he's busy with MySpace...constantly updating his self-portrait techniques, and all. Answer your phone Jeff!

MWB: While your childhood is safely behind you, it seems to be an often-referenced theme in your work. Are you at still at odds with your upbringing, or have you "organized your feelings" for the people and events you experienced growing up?
KY: You can try...and the good lords know that I have...but you can never fully erase childhood. First impressions are terminal.

MWB: You've mentioned an interest with fashion models/starlets of the 1960's. What is it about their style that appeals to you and what is your take on modern modes of female fashion?

KY: Big eyes, lots of make-up, angular cuts, extreme lines, plastic, silver, embracing the odd...that's what I like about the aesthetic of the 60's. I like the attitude in fashion today. I like the 'anything goes' attitude. I like that a lot is left up to the individual. I wish individuals would take that and run with it more, though. Sometimes it seems that people are more inspired when there are boundaries or when there is - imaginary or not - an oppressor. St. Louis is a great example of this...the great creativity of the St. Louis anti-establishment is mind blowing. When all is accepted, a lot of people feel, "what's the fun of being outrageous?" New York is a great example of this. Everyone in New York dresses in such a boring uniform manner...season after season, New York changes its uniform all together..."ta- da!"...a new uniform.

MWB: What do you feel is behind the given that rock music, 60 years into its existence, is still predominantly masculinist?

KY: I feel that females let this happen. Why is the gender equality movement soooo behind the racial equality movement, when it actually started first? Because females let it happen...by giving into the sexually intoxicating feeling of pleasing men...by being duped, by nature, into thinking they have to have a baby...the best minds of our time...maybe they could save the world in many various ways...but we will never know because,at some point, they felt they had to become a nurse maid. I think some women are born to have babies. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about women who are suited toward a different fight...women who never really felt inclined toward children...but, are made to feel they are not really women unless they give birth...but there are sooo many other types of births that we greatly need.

MWB: On "Automatic Love" you proclaim that women who assert their independence are inherantly flawed in doing so. This is a very interesting statement, and to what degree if any was it tongue in cheek?

KY: 'Automatic Love" is about the battle with estrogen ... thus, 'automatic.' It's about being a female and getting tricked by 'love,' which is really chemical instinct, i.e., "i'm in love with him. I would do anything for him. I exist only for him. I am his slave, maid...and it turns me on..." That's one of the chemical tricks of nature, to make females passive or masochistic to break down their barriers for procreation. I think it's an important topic to discuss, as a lot of females lose their otherwise productive lives because of this chemical. I'm not saying I've given up on the notion of romantic love. It's in my top three of things to live for.

MWB: You have a Top Three list of things to live for? What are the other two?
KY: Ping- pong and Sour Patch Kids.

During your offtime, what does a typical day involve? How consumed are you by what's going on re. the tour and the new LP, and how does it affect your day-to-day life as a person when you are not on tour?

KY: My typical day strates with a full body wax, followed by a long session of regressive therapy. After my hard day, I attend Bible study in the evening and cap it all with a couple of cosmos -the drink and the mag- before bedtime.

MWB: There are two different versions of Incubator. What was it about the Enemy version that you weren't content with?

KY: Initially, I wanted to record a different version of "Incubator" on every album, as I feel it's almost my life's theme song. But it didn't fit the 'anti-Ten Commandments' theme of X. The reason "Incubator V.2" was recorded for Breasticles was that, being the beautiful Martian that he is, Tony Visconti thought it sounded like a single! He just thought the arrangement needed tweaking. Now the rest of us mere mortals can't stop laughing.

MWB: How did the Frank Black support opportunity arise?

KY: The booking person at The Underworld in London,Jon Vyner, put us together.

MWB: Are you a big Pixies fan?

KY: Actually, I'm not very big at all. I'm 5'5" and a half. Rounded, yes...but small. You could even say I'm a petite Pixies fan.

MWB: You mentioned to me that you didn't particularly care for MySpace, yet obviously you'd concede that it is a massively useful tool in getting exposure .Can you expound on that feeling of personal ambivalence with the forum as a whole?

KY: I just can't stand to look at myself that much. I can't stand to read what people are saying about me that much...good and bad...I don't think it's healthy for me as an artist or a human being. I don't think it's healthy for our culture to be constantly looking at ourselves in such a superficial way and putting our own opinions on such a pedestal...as if we know so much. I think it's sad that we are a generation of graphic designers and self-portrait photographers.

MWB: Having dueted with Bowie on "Saviour" but then naming him as a target in "Kill The Father", one might wonder how sincerely you feel contempt toward him or any of the other stalwarts mentioned in that song. Is that track to be taken literally, or were you trying to make more of an overall point as opposed to actually decrying the specific artists mentioned?

KY: I just had gotten sick of hearing interviews where new artists fellate these same icons. I'm also sick of watered-down copies of copies. Gosh, at least come up with some interesting combination of influences...or how about writing about what's in your heart or stomach or small intestine? What is today's sound? Please don't let it be a diluted yesterday. For art to progress it must always kill the father. Bowie actually said that. I stole it from him. He said he stole it from someone else. I guess I am a modernist, as well.

MWB: On a related note, there is an old Morrissey b-side called "Get Off the Stage" which has a great deal in common, thematically, with "Kill the Father." Interestingly enough, you were both the same age when you wrote your respective songs. He now claims to be embarrassed by "Get Off The Stage", having reached the same age as most of the performers he was decrying 17 years ago. What do you think of this?

KY: I think "Kill The Father" has a different message from "Get Off the Stage." My message is not to the artists named in the song. It's mostly a frustrated outcry to new singers, writers, etc....''come on, nose to the grindstone, this is war'' and all...

MWB: Kristeen, I'm pretty tired, and my tooth hurts. I despise television, but I think I might take the plunge this evening, just to take my mind off things. What shows would you recommend?

KY: "Cold Case Files"...the documentary-style one, not the scripted drama. It teaches the amateur how to commit a murder properly.

 

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