EARLASH
Interview with Julia Frodahl by Ray Dolber
December 19, 2003
The night I met Julia for the interview at Verb Cafe in Williamsburg it was raining out, as it always does when I go to that cafe. What started as an interview turned into a conversation about music, politics and life in general, but you only get the music part, some other things are meant to be secret.
Earlash: Who would you cite as your influences?
Julia Frodahl: There are so many. The less expected might be Gorecki, because of the intensity of his sound. It's so evocative, conjures up incredible emotion and visuals. And Nick Cave. But also hammocks and trees and my bicycle Roxanne. Those are influences. But I love Cat Power, Goldfrapp, Godspeed...
EL: You're missing one more in that group...my favorite one of all of those groups.
JF: Who?
EL: The Dirty Three
JF: Oh and The Dirty Three for certain. Britta [violinist] loves them especially and very much connects with their playing style.
EL: How about some background information on Edison Woods, where did the name come from?
JF: That one's a secret. [laughs]
EL: Not even a clue?
JF: No.
EL: OK, I can see where this is going. [laughing]...when did the band start?
JF: It started about January 2000.
EL: Was it always your band, your concept, and then you had people come in?
JF: Yeah, although it's evolved, it's always changing actually. This is the first music project that I've been involved in, actually. When I started out it was me and a very nice bass player. I lived in a cold converted horse stable in the neighborhood, it was freezing and it was the dead of winter. But Gus would come over and we would just shyly play some of the songs that I had written. Maybe it's because our fingers were so frozen that we started out playing so slow... Then eventually we found someone to play guitar. Then Gus left and the guitar player started playing bass and I found another guitar player, and then a drummer, and then a cello, etc...now it's this mini-orchestra with beautiful strings and incredibly creative musicians. It's a really beautiful combination of sound.
EL: Explain this whole barn thing to me...
JF: Bon?
EL: Barn, sorry, it's the Boston accent...
JF: It was a horse stable on Havemeyer and N 7th. They are lofts now. I was living on the ground floor and there were no windows. It was literally 1600 sq feet of cement and a few wires falling from the ceiling and a big skylight. It was an interesting space, a great space to make music.
EL: Did that space affect the song writing?
JF: I think spaces definitely affect song writing, or anything that's being created really. If you have an open space, your songs breathe, for example -- I guess because you can. More space for your mind to wander; no need to cram anything into small spaces physically or energetically...
EL: When did you decide that making music was something you wanted to do?
JF: [an odd look appears on her face]
EL: You're giving me these looks like "oh god I don't want to answer that" [laughing]
JF: No, I just don't know how much to reveal. [laughing]
EL: Why don't you want to reveal anything?
JF: I really struggle over whether or not to do interviews, actually. Mainly because I really want the relationship to first and foremost be with the music and not with me or the band. I think that the more we're involved in the picture, the more of a barrier there is between the music and the listener. On the other hand I'm always reminded that an interview can bring the music to people's attention who haven't ever heard it before and that's a good thing... But I am definitely hesitant for it to be about me. It's also just hard to talk about music; it's so abstract and sort of inexplicable. So I get tangled up...
EL: So do you want to answer the question?
JF: What was the question? [laughing]
EL: Where does the name Edison Woods come from?... [laughing], no... the question was the decision to make music?
JF: I've always played a little here and there. I'm self-taught, it's just coming from the heart really. And the more I began to play and write, the more I realized what a valuable and therapeutic tool it is for me. It's kind of my security blanket. Or it's a way of not only channeling the energy of your feelings but of converting the hard feelings in a positive way. Music becomes an energy converter, for me at least.
EL: If you could share the stage with any band or performer living or dead who would it be?
JF: Sharing the stage ... that's a hard question ... It would depend on the day...
EL: Today, right now...
JF: Right now, I guess I would go back to Goldfrapp. They gave the most impressive performance that I have seen in the last few years. When I saw them play at the Bowery Ballroom recently ... they are beautifully theatrical but in a very subtle way. I just felt completely basked in their world. If sharing a stage means somehow participating in that or being enveloped in that, then I guess they would be my answer. But there are so many reasons to want to share the stage with somebody, it's hard to choose.
EL: What is the name of the album that you are working on right now, does it have a name yet, or can you tell me that?
JF: [laughing] Yeah I can, it's called "7 Principles of Leave No Trace"
EL: When's it going to be released?
JF: We're looking for a label, so it depends. We are producing it with Mark Van Hoen in December in London. So realistically, it will be available in the spring sometime maybe.
EL: How would you compare "7 Principles of Leave No Trace" to your previous one, "Edison Woods"?
JF: I'd say that the first album is winter and that this album is ... the night before spring.
EL: What's your favorite city in the world?
JF: Is it OK if I've never been there?
EL: Uh...yeah sure, if it's your favorite city.
JF: For some reason I think Berlin is, but of course I don't know for sure since I've never been there. Maybe I just have some old art scene fantasy about it. Or maybe it's the anticipation of a great experience. We're performing there soon so I suppose I'll find out. It's a show called Murmur Machine... A wonderful group of dancers has choreographed to our music... we'll be playing live for a four-day run at a lovely theatre there. There's also a fantastic video artist who will be doing moving imagery, lighting and video that is intended as another dancer almost rather than a static element in a big rectangle at the back of the stage. These are things we're quite interested in doing more of.
EL: If Berlin were your favorite city then what album would be the album to listen to while you were walking through that city?
JF: I'll probably find that music when I get there...
EL: OK, how about your second favorite city.
JF: I think it's New York, I think it's Brooklyn.
EL: Are you from New York?
JF: I'm from a town called Loomis and it's a small town in Northern California named after a mailman.
EL: So what's the best album to listen to walking around Brooklyn?
JF: These days ... for me maybe Readymade. They're perfect for walking, daydreaming, thinking about the things I'm thinking about. Good soundtrack for streetlamps.
EL: I've read some reviews on your first album on other sites, some praised it and others trashed it ... the one about the Ebow being used too much.
JF: That was actually a really uninformed review; the song they referred to didn't even have an Ebow on it.
EL: Do you let these reviews affect you at all, do you let them second guess yourself?
JF: I guess, I mean sometimes there's a pang, sometimes it hurts a little bit. But not very much because I really, and this may come out like a cliche what I am about to say, but I am not writing music for anybody else. I'm just writing what I need to write and so if some people are enjoying it than that does feel nice and warm and it is of course affirming and re-enforcing...but it's not why I write. And the same is true if people don't connect with it.
EL: A lot of the reviews that I have read have used the same 8 to 10 words to describe the album, how would you describe your album?
JF: Well, the one we're working on now or the first one? I feel like the two sounds are very different.
EL: How about both of them?
JF: I think that the previous album was -- well, I mean it was sad. And it intentionally had a very veiled character about. It was here, but not here, intimate but painfully far away... The first album was coming from a much more fragile place. I feel like this next one still has that delicateness and a softness about it, but it has a sense of strength to it to, you get more of a sense of the buried struggle and the transformation, more dynamics of sound and emotion.
EL: How about outside influences on your music, whether it be poetry, movies, images...?
JF: Every single thing really...
EL: Can you think of anything in particular?
JF: ...
EL: You don't want to give it away do you?
JF: no, it's just everything really...
EL: What does the word melancholy mean to you?
JF: It's seems something like a prolonged sense of sadness, one with a quiet endurance and a constant hum to it.
EL: I just ask because I like the concept of it.
JF: Why do you like the concept of it?
EL: I think of it as a good sadness, melancholia, like the Dirty Three.
JF: And it happens to be a beautiful sounding word.
