TKLOVE IS NO TAMBOURINE GIRL. BUT SHE IS A HIGHLY-TALENTED MUSICIAN, AND SHE HAS LEARNED MORE INSTRUMENTS AND PLAYED IN MORE BANDS THAN I CAN EVEN NAME. SHE\'S ADDED HER TALENT TO THE LIKES OF LULLABY FOR THE WORKING CLASS, MAYDAY, BRIGHT EYES, AND, MOST RECENTLY, HEAD OF FEMUR. ABOVE AND BEYOND THAT, SHE IS AN OLD AND DEAR FRIEND OF MINE. SO SIT BACK AND LEARN WHAT I\'VE KNOWN FOR YEARS: THAT WE ONCE TOOK A BATH TOGETHER.
Wayne: I’ve done a lot of interviews with people, but this is the first interview I’ve ever done where I didn’t have any questions prepared.
TKLove: But you said you had one question ready.
W: Yeah. But it’s just in my head. And the question is this: I’ve known you for a long time, and I’ve always known you to be into music, but my question is, do you remember when we took a bath together?
T: (laughing) Shut up.
W: (laughing) What? I’m serious! Do you remember?
T: Um,... (pauses) W: Of course you don’t. T: (laughing)
W: You probably don’t even remember when we made love.
T: (laughs) Shut up.
W: (laughs) Okay. Why don’t you start off by telling me how you got into music. I know that from an early age you were interested in a lot of different types of music. You were the person that turned me on to classical music.
T: Well, I started when I was three, with the Suzuki Method, which they put kids through. And I found out later in life that my parents put me on it because of my problems with dyslexia. I was having a problem looking from left to right, so they figured that maybe if they gave me some other medium, like musical notes, that would help me. Of course, it didn’t work. (laughs) But I’ve always memorized everything I’ve done since then. So that’s how it all started. I quit a couple of times, but I always ended up picking it back up.
W: Did anyone else in your family play any other instruments?
T: Not anyone in my immediate family, actually. But I grew up in bars, and there was always music there. And a lot of my extended family played music.
W: Would you then say that your friends influenced you more in what you were listening to than your family?
T: Yeah.
W: What kind of stuff were you listening to during your childhood?
T: I was oblivious to a lot of things when I was young. I liked radio music,.. just lame stuff. I was never really into music as much as some people are when they’re young. Like, my boyfriend has records that his parents used to listen to. We had nothing like that. We didn’t even own a record player.
W: Really?
T: Yeah. There were a lot of things I had to revisit as an adult, older stuff, like Neil Young and Led Zeppelin. I missed out on all that stuff when I was young. I was yelled at by one of my friends because Neil Young was on the television, and he was like, “You don’t know who that is?” But I never had that phase in my life.
W: So, I know you play a number of different instruments, but where did you start?
T: Definitely with the violin. And when I got older, like in middle school, I got bored with it. You know, the whole rebellious thing.
W: Right. So you started playing the accordion.
T: (laughs) Yeah. No, I picked up the piano and the flute, but I hated those things, too. So I quit all together for a little while, until high school. I played violin in my high school orchestra. But then I quit again when I was 18. I got to the point in music where someone would say, “Here’s your piece. Learn to play it by tomorrow.” And I could never read the music. I mean, I can read music. But I can’t sight read very well. So I quit again. But when I was 19 I met Sage from an old band in Milwaukee named Wild Kingdom. He owned a cafe called Hi-Fi, and they used to close at 10pm. But after closing, people would just bring in instruments and play some stuff. And someone brought in a pedal steel, and I remember thinking, “I want to learn how to play this thing, so let’s just goof around.” They wanted to do a lot of Hank Williams kind of stuff; like old bluegrass and country. And I had never played that type of stuff on the violin, but it was just all for fun anyway. But then we started getting shows. So that’s where everything kind of started. I picked up the bass from there, and then the guitar from the bass. I play the vibes, too. A lot of the other instruments came about when I joined Lullaby (for the Working Class). Whatever needed to be played, it was me that needed to play it.
W: So you started off in Milwaukee, but I know you lived in Nebraska for awhile. How did that come about?
T: I went to go see either Low or Ida, one of those bands, and Lullaby was opening up for them, and they had a cello player. And I’ve always loved a violin and cello combo. So I asked them if they needed a violin player, and they said, “We do actually,.. but we live in Nebraska.” At that point in my life I had just broken up with a long-term boyfriend, and I didn’t really have very much going on for me in Milwaukee. So I moved out to Nebraska.
W: That’s a big move to make. So how was Lullaby for you? And tell me a little bit about that cello player. (laughs)
T: (laughs) It was fine. At that point, I still wasn’t taking music that seriously. I just did it for fun. I didn’t try as hard as I should have, in retrospect. It was fun, because they had already been playing for a year or two and had already done all of the really crummy tours. By the time I joined them they were already established, so I got on some good tours. Like the second tour I did with them was through eleven countries in Europe. So it was a nice introduction to that world.
W: Do you like touring?
T: Yeah. I love it more than anything.
W: So you’d rather live nowhere and just tour?
T: Yeah. I just got an apartment, actually. But it’s like, you always want what you don’t have. Once you’re on the road for awhile, you’re like, “All I want to do is go home and cook a meal and take a bath.” But when you’re at home cooking a meal and taking a bath, you’re like, “I’ve got to get on the road again.”
W: So after Lullaby, what did you do?
T: Well, I moved to Chicago and finished school, which was a landmark after eight years. (laughs) I never stopped playing, but I only played in bands that didn’t tour. Bands that would stay in Chicago, like Sweep the Leg Johnny. But after I graduated, I decided to go back to playing music again.
W: So where did you go?
T: I stayed in Chicago for awhile and formed the band Head of Femur, whose first album comes out really soon.
W: I think it’s supposed to be out in two or three weeks.
T: I love it. It’s so good.
W: I know you’re excited about it.
T: I am. It’s going to do really well.
W: There is a rockin’ picture of you on Head of Femur’s website playing a tambourine.
T: Oh yeah?
W: Yeah. Your hair is flying around; you can’t even see your face.
T: (laughs) Yeah, I get a little tambourine solo. And I never wanted to play the tambourine. I would always be like, “I’m not being the tambourine girl.” But I love it. I’ve embraced it now. I also feel like I’ve established myself as a musician more, so I feel like I can play the tambourine now.
W: It could be worse. You could be a cowbell girl.
T: Exactly. I play tambourine during a cover of a Brian Eno song called “The True Wheel”. And it’s kind of a joke to us because everyone tells us it’s our best song, but it’s just a cover song. But we do a really good job of it. We even ended up putting it on the album.
W: What label is it going to be on?
T: It’s being put out by a small label out of Portland called Greyday Productions. They’re also doing Mayday’s vinyl that is coming out soon. And they handle a lot of bands from L.A., like Consafos and Still Life.
W: You sound like you’re really excited about Head of Femur. When I saw you last time you said that this was going to be the band that blows up. How is Head of Femur different from Lullaby?
T: It rocks. Lullaby is a very intellectual type of band. The lyrics and orchestration are very complex. It’s a sit down and think type of music. Head of Femur is about getting up and dancing. But yet, it’s not radio pop. It’s also very complex. It’s more like a Kinks and Beach Boys kind of rock.
W: Is stuff like that more fun for you to perform?
T: Yeah. It’s more fun, but it’s also got its own,.. you know. I mean, with Femur, if everyone is playing, there will be eight people on stage. So that makes it hard to be heard because there is so much going on. But with Lullaby,.. Lullaby is dead, actually. Mayday is basically the new Lullaby. Well, not really. It’s just the same singer and me.
W: (laughs) Where’s the cello player?
T: (laughs) We went through a lot of cello players with Lullaby. And now Mayday doesn’t have a cello player.
W: I don’t really care. I just like giving you shit.
T: I know. Look, you wanna do this or not? (laughs)
W: (laughs) What? It’s okay. She’ll never read this.
T: Yeah right. Anyway,...
W: Okay, so how did Lullaby die and give birth to Mayday?
T: It’s always been Ted Stevens’ (lead singer) baby. And he always had Mayday as a side project, even when Lullaby was a band. So there would always be these Mayday celebrations. Ted would always bring the people that lived with him to these things. Mayday’s drummer, Pat Oakes, used to live with Ted. So after Lullaby formerly broke up, Ted had a lot more creative control over what he wanted to do, because he didn’t have anyone else to answer to. So it’s changed quite a bit in that respect. And he’s been getting a lot more country lately.
W: Yeah. I saw Lullaby play and, I told you this before, I just wasn’t that into it. But when I saw Mayday play, it had more of an old country feel to it, and I was really into it. What influences caused this change?
T: It’s more that he personally has changed his musical tastes, and that influences his music. I still don’t listen to country. And it’s not even that we’re country. Or radio country.
W: Ugh.
T: Yeah. That’s miserable. It’s more old-timey. And that’s what Ted has been wanting to do. There were a few shows on the last tour where we performed completely acoustic in the middle of the audience. We stripped down everything; no mics or amps, just us playing. And I think he likes that rootsy feel.
W: That’s cool. Alright, so you also have spent some time with Bright Eyes. How did that come about?
T: Well, when I moved to Nebraska, Connor (Oberst, lead singer) was 17, and was in Commander Venus at the time. We were just friends, and we’d play together every now and again. And when I was in Chicago, I would perform a couple of days with him if he was in the area. Then last year we made the new record, which got huge. So he asked me to tour with him. It was a huge production. That was a lot of fun.
W: You’ve done both small and large tours. Even beyond the money aspect of it, what are the differences? And do you think the size of it affects it artistically?
T: I don’t think so, because most of the bands are true to the Saddle Creek label. Like, Connor will always be with them. So he’ll never have a corporate executive telling him, “I don’t like that song.” He’ll always have creative control. But I think it affects people personally. Especially when it comes to what is expected of them musically. I think the band Cursive has been getting a lot of scrutiny for stuff like that lately.
W: And Ted is in that as well, right?
T: Yeah. Ted replaced the guitar player a couple years ago when he went to college.
W: Do you always see yourself working with this group of people? Is this like a family to you, or is it just where you are right now?
T: Well, I’d say it’s a little bit of both. I’ll always be with Ted and Connor. But it’s also brought me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had before. Like next week I’m going to be playing with M. Ward, who is from Portland. His new album is on Merge Records. I never would have met up with him, had it not been for Bright Eyes. And then you have people like Dave Dondero, who has been playing for ten years and will never get the recognition he should. I’ll play with anybody who will take me.
W: You’re a music whore.
T: Music whore. (laughs) It’s never come down to making a choice between Ted and Connor, but they would both be my number ones. Like if there was a tour for both bands at the same exact time, I don’t know who I’d pick. Because I’ve been playing with Ted for over six years now, but it would be hard to say no to Bright Eyes.
W: Name something funny that happened to you while touring.
T: I’ve got a million. Pick a band and a state.
W: Well, you told it to me before, but can you tell the readers the Michael Stipe one? (laughs)
T: Oh yeah! That’s a funny one. (laughs) Alright, while we were in Vancouver performing, R.E.M. was also there recording a new album. Our tour manager was Sullivan, who has toured with The Replacements and Soul Asylum. This guy has been on the road since ‘84, so he knows just about everybody. So he invited them to the show. And during the third song, I wasn’t playing anything, so I got off the stage. And Michael Stipe followed me backstage and said, “Excuse me. Do you have tweezers?” And I said, “Sure.” So I handed him this pair of tweezers, and he said, “I’ve got this piece of tissue stuck in my ear and I can’t get it out. Would you mind getting it out for me? I can’t see it.” So I extracted the napkin from his ear, and scolded him for putting such small things in his ears. (laughs)
W: (laughs) Did you sell it?
T: That’s the big thing. Everyone was like, “Did you keep it?”
W: Why would you honestly keep it? T: I don’t know. I probably could have given it to a friend.
W: You probably could have put it on eBay and some freak would have bought it. That’s what I’m going to do when you get big. I’m going to sell all of my--
T: What? Yearbooks? (laughs) “Look, she wrote in my yearbook! ‘Keep in touch.’”
W: (laughs) Yeah. Okay, so what other things are coming out that you want to plug?
T: Well, the newest things that are coming out are the new Mayday and the debut of Head of Femur. The Dave Dondero stuff is finishing up recording in June, so I’ll be recording with him then. That will probably be on Future Farmer out of San Francisco. Dave Dondero is a singer/songwriter that just circles the country in his pick-up truck by himself. I went on tour with him right after the Bright Eyes tour. It was such a humbling experience. You go from these large venues with people waiting on you hand and foot, to crummy clubs with 20 people. And that’s the bad part about being an auxiliary musician, and not having it be your own work. It’s up to somebody else to decide whether they want a violin or not.
W: Right. So what tours are coming up next?
T: Well, we’ll be opening up six shows for Bright Eyes as Head of Femur. It’s a lucky break. The day after we get back, Mayday comes out. So it’s going to be busy until June.
W: Last question: do dogs have lips?
T: Yeah. Dog lips, man.
W: That’s what I’m saying.
T: They totally do.
W: Cool. You know, I can’t believe you don’t remember taking a bath with me.
T: (laughs, pauses)
W: Is this making you feel awkward?
T: (laughs) Where was it?
W: Your first apartment.
T: In Milwaukee? (laughing)
W: Yeah.
T: Wow.
W: It wasn’t anything like that. We were just sitting around and I said, “Do you want to take a bath?” And you said, “Sure.” So we did.
T: Wow. You’ll have to excuse my memory. I repress these sorts of things.
W: Whatever. It’s all the drugs.
T: Yeah. It could be, huh? (laughs) I don’t do those,.. (pauses) anymore. (laughs)