COOL KIDS
#10: THE DUTCH KILLS
★★★★★★★
The duende is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought … The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.
– Federico García Lorca
Marc Giuffre, if you’re reading this, please text us back.
– The Dutch Kills
I think about Missouri a lot. I never would’ve guessed I’d fall in love with a small, Midwest college town. CoMo, baby. The Bushwick of Missouri, I call it. Lots of green. Grass, trees, parks. The Katy Trail that runs through both of my homes. Long, winding roads. Mario Kart-like highways. Kind people. Artsy people. Hittsville: Record store, movie theater, eatery. All under one roof. The Caesar salad with chicken and extra sauce and a hummus sandwich and a High Life. Terrible, blizzard winters. Hot, empty summers. Many delivered sandwiches and car troubles. My crazy, dirty hippies, I called ‘em. But I love ‘em. Long live Sub Shop. RIP Mike. “Hell on Earth,” they called it. Secret homemade recipe whole wheat, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, no olives, add jalapeños, add bacon, or add Italian sausage, moz, Swiss, no American, through the 49-year-old oven, tomatoes, mayo. I’ll never eat it again. I’ll always remember the taste. I’m the only person poor alcoholic Joe Stock ever tipped. Ten dimes. Long, winding car rides. Driving in foot-high flood water to get some pie. Blueberries and Mennonite-made sandwiches. CD-only CDs in the CD player. Pouring Gene a swing of whiskey beneath the 8-Ball in Tipton. A visit to the hay farm. A real-life farmer with the hat. Sometimes lots of anxiety. Mainly car hangs, sandwiches, and good, good music. Teaching Bridget how to use a lighter. Funny frat mixers. Dumb costumes. Two-dollar Tuesday. Wing Wednesday. FAC (Fridays After Class). Jennifer Rowe’s magazine editing class. I miss Cornell. Getting pulled over. A lot. And my criminal defense attorney. I think my cool peak was when I worked at Hitt. Haven’t listened to as much good music since. The smell of moldy vinyl. ‘Twas a simple life. I made more money delivering sandwiches in CoMo than I have ever made writing about music in NYC. That’s for sure. I often want to escape and make it on time for the MoX and be on Kyle’s porch overlooking the green smoking a cigarette drinking a coffee just before the sun goes down.
Julia Von Dutch (vox/guitar)
Maxine McCormick (bass)
Alec Berry (lead guitar)
Heather Jensen (drums)
Newest release: “Molly Screams,” single, December 12, 2025
★★★★★★★
Marisa Whitaker: I went to y’all’s show before knowing who you were. I went to the Deli Mag 20th Anniversary show at Arlene’s, just to meet the editor because I was about to start writing for them. I didn’t clock until the other day, when I came across the flyer, that y’all were on that bill.
Maxine McCormick: An older woman came up to Julia and me that night. She’d been looking at us from across the room and said, I just have to know – you guys are so cute. What’s your story? [Laughs] We were like, We’re in a band together. She was like, Sorry. You guys just looked – never mind.
MW: I’m sure that happens to y’all all the time. Are you dating or sisters?
MM: We kiss a lot.
Alec Berry: Why are there no Alec-dating rumors?
[Laughs]
Julia Von Dutch: A lot of people think that we’re dating sometimes. Especially at shows.
AB: Because I’m clinging to you and not talking to anyone?
MW: That’s not a bad rumor, though.
MM: What, that everyone’s dating each other? We’re like Fleetwood Mac.
MW: Exactly. Let ‘em think.
★★★★★★★
MW: Y’all know I’m your biggest fan. But I missed your set again, for the second time, when you opened for Dallas Wax at Baby’s. I saw Julia go up there and sing, though, with Wax.
AB: That’s when you had the raccoon hat. Bring it back.
JVD: We had just gotten back from SXSW.
AB: The night before.
MM: We did the promo the day before. We had just landed and went straight to Desert 5 to ride the mechanical bull for promo. We went from no food to riding a mechanical bull.
JVD: I remember I got tacos, and Whit [Hemphill] knocked them out of my hand. Then they were out of the cauliflower; I’m a vegetarian. He was being over-apologetic, and I was like, You know what? They weren’t meant for me.
MW: I honestly don’t remember when I really started talking to y’all.
MM: Pretty recently. I think around when you booked us at Silver Lining. Over the summer.
JVD: I had a fever at that show.
MW: I remember you texting me that you maybe couldn’t sing.
MM: That was a great time. I remember right before, you were like, I can’t go on.
JVD: We had just gotten back from Berlin. I was so sick. I had never canceled on a show, but I thought, If I’m ever going to cancel, it’s today.
MW: I’ve had bands cancel within an hour of the show.
MM: If you’re going to cancel, you have to give notice.
MW: I’m like, I’d rather you get up there and do acoustic or comedy. I don’t care. But how long have y’all been playing together? Did y’all go to school together?
AB: The three of us [Alec, Julia, and Maxine]
MM: We also went to school with Schuylar, Heather’s girlfriend.
MW: I read that y’all went through a couple of people before finding Heather.
MM: Did you find any info on how Alec and I used to do improv comedy together?
AB: That’s how we met. It was a few days after I turned 18. I auditioned for Maxine’s improv group.
MM: And you didn’t make it, but you should’ve. Then I recommended you to our sister improv team.
AB: I got on that one the next day.
MM: It ended up being way better.
MW: Were y’all in school for music and doing improv on the side?
AB: I got a music minor. I don’t think either of you did.
MM: No. I did English and Sociology. I wrote a thesis.
MW: I did that. That shit sucked. Going into college, did y’all know you wanted to be in a band or make music?
AB: I certainly did. I played guitar and was really into it, but I wasn’t actively trying to find a band in New York. I didn’t know how to do that. It wasn’t until they asked me to join.
MM: I always played piano and guitar and sang, since I was really young, but I never wrote music seriously before. Julia and I started jamming in her bedroom in the summer of 2022. We’d show each other songs and thought, We should take this to the next level.
MW: How did y’all meet?
MM: We went through a mutual friend.
JVD: Yeah, in college. Before college, I busked a lot. I tried out for America’s Got Talent. I didn’t make it. I have a video of it, but it didn’t go on TV. I got to college and thought everyone was really talented. So I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to try too. But then I was like, If I don’t do this now, I’ll never do it. That’s when we reached out to Alec to play guitar with us. Then we found a drummer on Craigslist.
MM: Our Craigslist ad was so funny. It was like, Two hot women looking for drummer for hot girl band. Preferably girl.
JVD: We got all these men being like, I’m not a girl, but …
[Laughs]
MW: I know a lot of bands that did the Craigslist thing. Were y’all not scared?
MM: I was like, God will protect me. I don’t believe in him. But I feel like I know how I’m going to die – falling down the stairs. So Craigslist didn’t feel like a threat. Ironically, I’m afraid of elevators.
MW: Do you know Sandy Denny? From Fairport Convention? She died after falling down the stairs. I don’t think she died immediately. She was an alcoholic. I think it was partially what was in her system and then the trauma.
MM: I joke, but it’s so genuine. Sometimes I’m walking down the stairs, and I’m like, You know how easy it would be?
★★★★★★★
MW: I fucking love what y’all wear. The visual is very integral to the band. It’s like you’re not even trying, in the best way possible.
JVD: We used to think about it more. Sometimes it’d lean schoolgirl.
MM: I always play the best when I feel the most like me. If Liv’s not styling me, which she hasn’t for a little while, I’ll just do – black dress, pigtails, big boots. It takes away the stress. There was one time when we were dressed as Dutch girls, and I felt like such a loser in my big skirt and bandana.
MW: That’s so valid.
JVD: I feel like everyone, at least all the guys – sometimes girls, like Boy Genius – wear suits. Bands will make it their thing. We all have our unique style and like to express it onstage. Sometimes I wear something tight. One time, I wore four belts.
AB: One had bullets on them.
JVD: You’d have to solve an entire puzzle to get into my pants.
[Laughs]
AB: Do you remember the show in that basement, where your shirt was made of belts?
MM: I was like, The belts are gonna fall.
MW: You kind of pioneered that look. That was early on.
AB: That was December 2023. We played a Hole cover. The only time we ever did that. We played “Celebrity Skin.”
JVD: We should bring that back.
MM: We also loved playing the Freaky Friday song.
JVD: It’s one of those songs that you don’t really think you remember until you hear it again. The crowd would go crazy when we played it.
★★★★★★★
JVD: We’ve always been talking about releasing an EP or album called Double Dutch.
MW: The second one.
AB: It’s either this EP that we’re working on or the next album.
JVD: The first one is I’m Going Dutch, and the second is Double Dutch.
MW: It’s spelled out for you. Tell me about the new EP.
JVD: “Molly Screams” is the first single. It’s so fun. I wrote it about my friend Molly. I still don’t think she’s listened to it. [Laughs] She’s on the cover of it.
MW: Isn’t she the cover of another song, too?
AB: “Cheap Love”
JVD: She’s such a muse. She’s a photographer. All-around creative. I met her in 2020 when I was running a flea market. Her boyfriend was selling vintage. I thought she was so cool, really expressive, and just did not give a shit about what other people thought about her. And that’s what the song’s about. She’s all that; she’s feeling herself; her personality is screaming. I wanted to get her onstage for one of our shows, but she plays bass in sweet93. They’re so cool. It’s funny, she’s never played bass before. Chloe, the singer of sweet93, asked Molly to be in her band: Do you know how to play bass? And Molly said, No, but I will try for a day. I will know within one day whether or not I can do it. She did it, picked it up, and I’m in. Now, she’s touring with them. She’ll do fucking whatever.
MW: I love that she’s a muse. Every band should have one. She’s reflective of the project.
JVD: We’re not even close anymore. But I admire from afar. I’m inspired by her.
MW: And you released “Cheap Love” before that. It’s so sick. It’s a longer song, around four minutes, but it feels even longer.
MM: We haven’t played it live in forever. It’s very elastic, which adds to the experience of watching it live.
MW: You really expanded the sound on it.
MM: It’s been fun jamming on the songs in practice. And leaning more towards the grunge element, rather than a basic pop structure. To be able to mold a song on your own terms is super cool.
AB: We’ve gone in both directions more. We’ve done more soft songs and more hard songs. We’ve done a lot to expand the sound; rather than being pigeonholed into, we’re a band that sounds like this.
JVD: The first song I wrote was “Are You Kidding Me?”
MW: I love that demo.
JVD: Our demo sounds crazy. It sounds like Subway Surfers or some shit.
AB: I recorded the guitar on GarageBand on my laptop.
JVD: If we were ever gonna get a song in a video game, it’s “Are You Kidding Me?” I always think of it as the Malcolm in the Middle theme song.
MM: That theme song is written by They Might Be Giants. It’s awesome. I really want to write an intro song for an iconic sitcom.
JVD: Back to the EP – “Molly Screams” is the first song. The next song is “We Both Can’t Be Wrong.” It’s a ballad. We have such a different range of grungy, pop-punk songs. And we’re exploring the softer side of our sound. I’m really excited. It’s around five and a half minutes. I wrote it during a tender place in my life. Now I hate the guy; who cares.
MM: It’s beautiful to hate the guy whom you write a beautiful song about, because when you stop loving and caring about him, the song becomes not about him. It’s not tied to him.
AB: It’s about your experience rather than someone who sucks.
MM: It’s something much bigger than that one person.
JVD: The song is about being so completely in love with someone. Your worlds revolve around each other. We both can’t be wrong. We must be singing the same song. Please don’t say we’re wrong. You don’t know the words to our song. No one else can chime in. This obsessive love.
MW: I’m really excited to hear the new music. You have such a range in your voice. And that often informs the song.
★★★★★★★
MW: Y’all have known one another for a while now. Do y’all hang out outside the band?
AB: All the time.
MM: It helps that we were friends first, for years, before we ever played music.
AB: I met Maxine a few days after I turned 18.
MM: We had never been in a band before. I was always nervous playing in front of people. Jamming and sharing creative input was never something I could do. But we had this great camaraderie already built. To be creative in that environment has been a blessing.
JVD: People will say, You guys look like you’re having so much fun. And we are.
AB: They’re surprised. I’m like, is this not what it’s about? Do you not like playing with your band?
[Laughs]
JVD: If you look at Alec at any point during a show, he’s loving it. He’ll always almost tackle me.
AB: I do. I’ll be playing a song, and then go over and elbow you. Do you remember that time with the beer? I fully slipped on it, like a cartoon.
MW: That camaraderie informs the band, the music. And it shows.
★★★★★★★
JVD: I think we’ve made a great spot for ourselves within the local music scene. Now, we want to branch out, want to get streaming up, and all that. We’re very comfortable here, and now we’re looking for people to help us.
MW: Y’all have had a lot of great opening slots.
JVD: Most of those shows, we were asked to play, like with Snowmen and Teen Jesus and the Teen Teasers. We have friends who work at Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom. When we played Music Hall of Williamsburg, that was through a friend, Danny, who likes our music.
MM: This was the craziest story that led to a booking. I went to Knockdown with a friend to see Sofia Kourtesis. We didn’t have tickets, and it was sold out, but we went and tried to get in anyway. We passed the first security guard, and he was like, It’s sold out. But try at the ticket booth if you want to. When we walked up, the guy at the booth goes, Are you The Dutch Kills?
JVD: This was almost two years ago. He slid the tickets under the glass and said, Don’t tell anyone.
MM: We danced all night. Two years later, he’s booking for MHOW. He was helping with booking The Frights, and thought of us, and we got that opening slot. It was awesome.
AB: That show was like the best day of my life. It was so fun.
MM: Looking at those pictures, seeing our name projected against the wall at the MHOW, is so awesome.
MW: Y’all have a show coming up with garbagebarbie at 101.
JVD: A friend of mine from Arkansas, who’s going to help us with SXSW stuff this year, had mentioned them before. She’s tight with them. The band’s from LA. She invited one of the members to our Rubulad show, who was in town. This was over a year ago. We were going to take a break from performing until we play New Colossus, to work on writing and recording. But we’re super excited. Veronica Everheart is DJing, and she’s really cool.
AB: I’m glad we’re playing. Anytime there are a few weeks before we play a show, I get really sad.
JVD: We used to play, like, ten shows a month.
AB: That was awesome. So fun.
MM: There was one week we played five shows.
★★★★★★★
MW: I don’t think social media follower counts are always reflective of live show draw. It can suggest it, for sure. But I know bands with zilch followers, who can pack out a Bowery Ballroom. And people with a six-figure following who don’t really draw at all. It’s interesting.
JVD: We show up so much. We have so many friends in the music community, and we all go to one another’s shows. We have a nice group.
AB: We’re pretty recognizable as a group.
MM: That’s one of the best parts about playing music, the community. It’s the whole point. Why do it if you’re not having fun? It would be great to get bigger streaming numbers, get super famous, and be able to do this forever, and not have to worry about work. But even with a band like Greet Death, when they’re not touring, they’re postmen. It’s very hard to make money from music. So just do it because you love it.
AB: If I could go back and tell my 13-year-old self, when I was first learning guitar, that I’d be in a cool rock band, I would lose my fucking mind. It’s something I never thought would happen. If 13-year-old me could go to one of our shows, he’d think it’s the coolest thing ever.
MW: It’s so rad. It’s an honor to be a part of a community. I was talking with Marc [Giuffre] the other day. We go out often, and at this point, we see at least one person we know at every event. It’s a small world. But we went to a Baby’s Dance recently, and we didn’t know anyone. It’s sick to discover new people and new bands and new things every day. That’s New York.
MM: We went to a rap show at Baby’s, and we were like, We don’t know anyone here! And it’s sold out! Even if it’s rock bands with a sound different than that of the bands that we’re friends with, hypothetically, it’s people we could know. But we don’t sometimes. There are so many pockets, and it’s nuts. … Life is not greater than the sum of our experiences. You can have any success or advancement in life, and it’s ultimately what you experience day-to-day. It’s so cool to live in a city where the music scene is so big, the web is so intricate, that at any given time, you can go to a show and know everyone or no one at all. They are all cool experiences, even if it is a shit show. I think it’s really unique for a city of this scale. Even Philly and Austin, you hear about the same bands that are coming up out of there. It’s always a smaller amount. I’ve never lived there, but you probably end up going to the same shit. But here, you never have to see the same band twice.
MW: It’s a privilege. It’s how it’s always been around here. Contributing to what’s around you is so special.
★★★★★★★
MW: Do you have a band ethos? Have you discussed as a group, This is why we do this? Why do you do The Dutch Kills?
MM: We don’t necessarily have conversations about why we do it, because it already feels so fulfilling, the experience of doing it. Our goals have morphed over time in really similar ways. When we started the band, we went in with no expectations. Let’s just have fun. I remember, specifically with Alec, him being like, I just want to play for an audience. And that was the goal – to play and let our friends see. For the first couple of months, that’s what it was, and it was so fun. It then picked up steam, which meant we could play with other cool bands, and then, organically, we wanted it to grow.
JVD: When we started, it was kind of the tail end of shoegaze. And we just wanted to write and perform music that was fun. Where you’re engaging with the audience. Not where there’s a wall between you and the audience, and not interacting. The main goal, the ethos, was having fun together and putting on a show. If you read my lyrics, some of them are pretty dumb. But it’s playful and fun, not everything has to be super serious. It doesn’t have to be that insightful to have an impact.
AB: I remember us going to a lot of shows together early on, even before we played our first show, and the scene then felt like they didn’t even want to be there. They thought it was artsy, I guess, to seem like you don’t fucking care. We were talking about how this, the band, is a fucking party. Especially with the rock music that we play, that’s one of my favorite things about it, is that it is just party music. It’s fun dancing around and going fucking crazy.
JVD: Even being silly onstage. Most of the time between songs, I say the stupidest shit to the mic. But I feel that we’re very earnest, very much ourselves.
MM: Or not talking at all, and trying to be cooler than the audience. I loved the shoegaze revival of the early 20s, but there was so much seriousness in that scene. And that goes back to the point that there are so many scenes. We play this music that’s more fun and engaging, and then we met all these other bands that also have a similar ethos, many that I didn’t even know were also playing this whole time.
AB: Finding our spot here for sure took a second.
MW: Something about y’all is very innate. I say this most positively. You don’t have to try too hard. Y’all are having fun; have this uniform, visual outfit, that for some people takes a long time to curate. Y’all have a swag. I don’t think y’all overthink. It’s cool.
AB: Just buttering us up.
MW: When I first saw Julia, wearing the raccoon hat, I was like, That bitch is bad.
JVD: I bought it at SXSW. I wore it all week, so all the photos look the same. I’m not taking this hat off.
★★★★★★★
MW: Talk to me about being a woman-fronted band.
JVD: I knew that I wanted to have a woman majority in the band. I’ve always known Alec was so talented and always wanted him in the band. He’s taught me so much about guitar, and we teach each other. The dynamic really works, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s all-girl or not. I feel like there’s definitely, not politics, but there’s a different dynamic about people trying to sexualize women all the time, but it feels more powerful when we’re working together.
MM: Within our band, it makes me feel more creatively free, which is great. But the outside conversation about our band is an unfortunate reality, a reality nonetheless, that needs to be spoken on. There’s this very unconscious idea that a lot of music consumers and band members who are men, in the larger sphere, where a lot of guys will pick other bands to play with them that are also all men. I notice that pretty often. There’s little to no space made for bands that sound so similar, with such a similar energy, but that are female-fronted. That space is much smaller.
JVD: They just don’t even realize it. If I’ve called out a bill like that and say, There’s not a single woman on there, they make that face.
MM: Yes, they make that face all the time, and go, Oh, I didn’t even think about it. And they should, though. It’s not inherently that, though; it’s that you like these bands and want them on your bill, which I can respect.
MW: It can be one thing when it’s an obvious choice. You want to play with an incredible band because they’re brilliant. But there are times when bands book a big venue or stage, and they book their friends’ bands to play with them, even if those bands aren’t brilliant. It’s great to want to play with your friends, of course. But I think when given that big stage, it could be worth it to share the opportunity with young, up-and-coming, diverse, brilliant talent. I can’t think of a band in town that blatantly does not want to play with or book a band with women. But wouldn’t you want to play with and uplift other bands that are also on your level?
JVD: It’s not because they feel bad for us; it’s because you respect us. It’s not about feeling bad for bands that don’t have as much attention. Just respect us and our playing.
MM: I think that it’s very rare for someone’s intention to be exclusionary. I don’t think there are very many people who inherently hold the belief that female-fronted bands around them are worse in any way. It’s missing the intentionality of also booking them. Though there’s no malice.
Heather Jensen: I think it’s interesting that girl bands are looked down upon, but if you have a token girl player, it’s super fucking cool. I’ve played in five other bands in my life. I started playing in college, and we were always the coolest fucking band because I was in there with the dudes. I could play really well. That’s the separation. It changes everything. Most of them respected and wanted to play with you when there was at least one girl in the band.
JVD: And it’s way easier to sexualize. I think about this a lot, especially with sports. People respect someone like Serena Williams way more than they watch the WNBA. Whenever women work in a team, it’s way harder to sexualize them. It’s not as exciting. They want to see women superstars. They don’t want to see a collective of women working together. It’s not as “sexy.”
MW: That’s a great point. I’m obsessed with Kim Gordon. I read her book. This is a huge part of the book and her experience. She was in her 30s when Sonic Youth took off. Even though she was the bass player, they wanted her to stand in the middle of the stage anyway.
MM: She gets so diluted down to just her as a fashion figure and sex symbol. She has great fashion taste on her own, and that’s clearly a passion of hers, and she naturally took on being an it girl in her own way. And that in itself is so cool, but she’s, foremost, so musically talented. It sucks that it’s always characterized separately outside of that. Though, to her credit, if you think of Sonic Youth, when you visualize it, you think of Kim Gordon.
★★★★★★★
MW: Your first EP, The Rot, is all about Julia and her experiences. Y’all had cool producers work on it.
JVD: Gordon Raphael and Aleksi Godard. Gordon had a band drop out, and we got a four-hour session. We recorded all of the vocals for five songs.
AB: Aleksi was our producer on the rest of it. He and Gordon were already working together.
JVD: It was really cool to work with them. We got to record in cool places.
MM: We got to record a little bit at Electric Lady, while Clairo was recording Charm.
AB: Yeah, she was upstairs. The house engineer kept being like, Someone’s upstairs. I’m not going to tell you who it is. Then we went outside, and Aleksi was like, I’m going to tell you.
[Laughs]
JVD: It was so cool just being there.
MM: It was awesome. It gave me chills. It’s such a historic place. To just stand in that space, where so much history had been made. It reminded me why I do music.
JVD: It has such a curated vibe. All of the murals, the carpets.
AB: The guitars that they had matched the wallpaper. Like, what the hell? I’ve definitely said this before, but going to the bathroom, I was like, I have to sit down because someone cool’s butt has touched this toilet. I was reading an article about the recording of Weezer’s first album, which was there, and Rivers Cuomo was like, When I used the bathroom, I made sure I sat down, because Ace Frehley from KISS’s butt was on this toilet. Holy shit.
MW: That’s so fucking sick. Out the gate, your first EP, and that’s your experience.
JVD: We feel very lucky. We did five songs in two days at The Hit Factory.
AB: We walked in, and they got the fucking Justin Bieber “Baby” platinum record, or whatever. We took pictures with it.
MW: What is it like listening back to The Rot now?
JVD: It’s nostalgic. There are some songs that I don’t really like playing that much anymore. We’ve grown so much, with our song structure and sound. I’m really excited for the new music. One of our new songs, “Boulder,” is one of my new favorite songs. We have a new maturity. Listening back to songs like “Dangerous,” the bridge is so silly, but it’s still fun and a part of us. That playfulness we always have. Our sound now sounds more developed.
MM: And more assured, too. It’s really rewarding listening to the first EP now. I didn’t play bass before The Dutch Kills. I played other instruments, but I barely knew how to play bass by the time we were at the fucking Hit Factory. I’m really proud of what I did, having only played for a couple of months. Now, a few years in, I really understand my instrument, in a way I never did before. We’ve been working together for so long, and we’ve grown together. We have this language that we use when we’re developing songs. And with my basslines, I feel more confident being able to explore with you guys. We played “Dangerous” at practice recently, for the first time in almost a year. It was fine, but we just thought, We are not there anymore. We’ve evolved. But it’s so cool that we’ll always have that song. To be organically working on your music, adapting it, and morphing it to be something that you’re proud of, is so cool.
AB: Going back to listening to the EP now, in terms of sound and recording and everything, it is the reference point for what is next. We want to zig in this way and zag in that way, but we have a place to start from, which we didn’t before. We had a bunch of ideas in our heads, and then it was like, Here it is. And now, where do we go from here? I remember going in on the first day and us being like, We’re gonna do live takes and build from there, kind of thing. For years, if I’d recorded it, it was always in someone’s apartment, plugged into a laptop with headphones on, by myself. It was such an uninspiring way to record. It doesn’t get me going. You can’t groove with other people you’re with. So doing it in the room with everyone, after doing one take, then going into the other room and hearing it through the speakers, I’d think, Oh, this is what I like. It already sounds good because it’s just us playing. The sound is the most rewarding thing. I’ll never forget that. Moving air.
★★★★★★★
MM: There’s this article that I read in Pitchfork, years ago, that I think about every single day. It changed the way I approach music. I don’t remember who it was, but this musician was talking about how she was really inspired by this concept of duende, which in Spanish translates to goblin. The musician heard about it from a professor who gave a lecture on it. It’s this idea that what makes art beautiful is not proficiency or talent. It’s this weird, twisted thing inside of us that makes us human; this dirty thing that brings the art to life. The professor said that he went to a party once, and there was an opera singer there, and the party asked her to sing a song. She sang a song really beautifully, but no one was moved. And somebody was like, Do it again with feeling. She took four shots, and her voice was shot. She sounded technically worse, but everyone was crying. Music shouldn’t be about how much you know about your pedals or whatever. It’s about the feeling, and if you can translate that adequately. You need some tools and skills to be able to do it. But it’s about the feeling more than anything else.
★★★★★★★