LIZ McGRATH

COME ONE, COME ALL. FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE FAIR MAIDEN OF FREE WILL, LIZ McGRATH. SHE'S AN ARTIST, A MUSICIAN, AND SHE LIKES CHEAP BEER. TASTES LIKE CHICKEN'S HUMAN FREAK SHOW, DEBBIE, INTERVIEWED HER. PROBABLY BECAUSE HE'S SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH HER.
debbie: Seeing as how L.A. is a pretty large test market, you’ve probably tried the newest beverage to hit store shelves -- beer. What’s your opinion of this miracle elixir?
Liz: I love it. I don’t know if it’s quite new. I mean, they had it back when-- I guess Jesus didn’t drink beer. He drank wine. It’s my drink of choice.
d: Is there any specific brand you’re into?
L: I like Budweiser, just because it’s cheap and easy to get out here. Although it kind of sucks when you go to other states and they don’t have Budweiser. They’ve just got that dark crap.
d: You don’t like dark beer?
L: I don’t like dark beer. I can’t handle dark beer.
d: That’s odd because dark beer is all the rage. Everybody wants to be Irish and drink dark beer.
L: I’m a wimp. It just tastes like soy sauce or thick gravy or something.
d: It does it’s job. How did you get started with everything; your band Tongue, art, fashion?
L: I was just kind of into it. I didn’t go to school for it. The band thing came about because I was into punk rock when I was a kid. One day this guy calls me and he’s like, “Yo, I want to start this all Asian punk rock band with a girl singer, and you’re the only chick I can think of who’s half-Asian and into punk rock.” It just kind of evolved from there. One day we were passing out flyers and this guy’s like, “Hey, I’ve got this studio down the street. I could really use your talent down there.” He was an animation director named Fred Stuhr and he did all the Tool videos. My flyers were like Kentucky Fried Chicken with a dick coming through a chicken or just some really crass, weird line art. I went from there and figured out how they were making stuff and went on to art direct videos for him. From there I went on to the other things. Working at Trashy Lingerie was the fashion stuff. I went to a community college so I could take fashion. I did really well until it came to the sewing. Then I quit. No spirit. I couldn’t sew.
d: How do you get by with the costume design work you do now? Do you work out the details and get someone else to do the sewing?
L: Actually, Juxtapoz didn’t really get their facts straight on that part of the interview. I worked for Trashy Lingerie and they make costumes for people like Madonna. But I did costume accessories, which is a big difference. Strippers would come in and say, “I want to be a sexy zebra.” My best friend, Winter Rosebud, is the designer over at Trashy. She has 30 sewers in the back and they make everything there. My involvement with the store was accessories.
d:I read that you went through a pretty strict school system. Was it a Catholic boarding school?
L: I was raised Catholic but my parents freaked out. My dad was gonna be a priest and my mom was gonna be a nun. Basically, I was all punk rock and they were like, “Oh my god! What is this?” I got kicked out of seventh grade. So one day my parents are like, “We’re going to the wild animal park for your thirteenth birthday!” So we go and it turns out they’re dropping me off at a southern Baptist home for girls.
d: Whoa.
L: It was horrible. We drive up to this gate and it opens. My parents are telling me, “We’re just gonna get directions. We’re lost.” As they’re driving up, the gate slams shut behind us with barbed wire. Then I see these Christian weirdos coming. I went crazy and wouldn’t get out of the car. They finally dragged me out and locked me in the “G.R.” room -- the “Get Right With God” room. It was a little closet with religious tapes playing outside the door. It was hell. They said, “You’re here for a year.” I thought, “I’ll escape. They can’t hold me here.” But they could. It broke my spirits, but then again I was a bad kid. So, I don’t know what I would’ve been like had I not gone there.
d: Well, at least you got through it.
L: Yeah. It taught me a lot of discipline. I also learned a lot of scary things about the Bible.
d: Like how you can go to hell just for having impure thoughts?
L: Well, that’s the Catholic belief. It’s different for Baptists, but I was raised with both. I think the Catholic religion is way creepier. In the Baptist religion, the people are just dumb. They’re so, “This is the right way; there’s no other way.” But Catholics add this creepy element to it that has this mystique about it. I kind of dig that. But it’s all the same bullshit. It’s just that some of them are a little more fun than others.
d: Which ones are more fun?
L: I don’t know. Santaria ones are kind of cool. (laughs) You know, people dancing around with chicken blood on them or snake handlers.
d: People told me I needed to let Jesus into my life and go to church group meetings. But I think it’s up to the individual to determine their relationship with God, whatever it is.
L: I think organized religion is just an easy way out. It’s easy to be like, “Oh, I feel empty. I better find Jesus.” It’s a part of human nature. We don’t know why we’re here and curiosity is gonna make us search for an answer. Don’t make me get deep.
d: (laughs) Don’t worry. I’ll bring it back down to Earth. Didn’t I tell you tastes like chicken is a deeply seeded religious magazine. If you’re gonna make jokes we just won’t do this.
L: I’m being deadly serious. I mean, there’s a unicorn out there waiting to be discovered. (laughs)
d: So, are you still working on Censor This?
L: I do every now and then, but I do Internet interviews. It’s a lot easier.
d: What have been some of your best interviews?
L: Well, we interviewed Stephen Hawking. That was cool. We used to meet at this restaurant ‘cause it was the only place that under-aged people would be able to sit and drink, and he just happened to be there. Someone was like, “Oh my God. That’s Stephen Hawking,” and I’m like, “Who the fuck is that?” They got me to interview him and it was really short. Another fun one was when we interviewed The Vandals.
d: You mentioned on your website how excited you were to be featured in the same issue of Juxtapoz as Robert Williams.
L: Yeah, I was pretty happy. And Joe Coleman. Those are two really strong influences in my art.
d: I read that you would collect their concert flyers and trace them in the sixth grade.
L: Everyone collects the flyers. Of course my parents burned all of mine. The gallery, La Luz de Jesus, used to be in a different area. I remember seeing Robert Williams’ and Joe Coleman’s stuff at La Luz, and being really blown away.
d: Were you into drawing before you found the punk flyers?
L: Well, my grandfather was a cartoonist. He would always tell me, “You can draw a monkey with the number eight.” I would always say, “This isn’t art.” I was into art, but I was disappointed because I wanted it to look like the paintings that were in church. They were all bloody and gory. They were really cool looking, and I was disappointed that my drawings didn’t look like that.
d: Were your parents supportive of you becoming an artist?
L: They weren’t into it. My mother didn’t know what to do when she saw an issue of Censor This. She’s like, (in mother-like voice) “Elizabeth, I have to take shower. I feel so dirty when I look at this magazine!”
d: So what’s going on with your band Tongue? Are you guys recording a new album?
L: Our CD just came out on Hello Records.
d: Have you guys gotten a pretty good response to your tours and previous releases?
L: It’s been going pretty good. We’ve been a band for a long time. I just started doing more art. Everyone else started getting busy, because they’re doing commercial stuff, too. I think that we’re gonna have to tour again and we might be out in your neck of the woods.
d: You say you’ve been making more art. Now that your show is up, what would you like to focus on?
L: I have a show coming up in September at the Copro/Nason Art Gallery. Next week, I’m going in to record with my friend’s band. I have a few other projects like that. After that I want to do a solo show. All the new stuff that I’ve got is different than some of my other work. It’s more Art-Nuevo and there are more dolls and stuff in it.
d: Is it based more off the religious artwork that first influenced you?
L: Yeah, it’s a lot more religious. There are some other things in there like circus freak show-type weird anomalies. The featured piece is on heroin and religion.
d: You do a lot of technical and artistic stuff. Other artists I’ve talked to also do more than just one thing. Do you think it’s necessary to be versatile to survive as an artist?
L: I don’t know. I think that it could be good and bad. For me, I’m gonna try and exploit every aspect of what I know.
d: The jack of all trades but the master of none.
L: Exactly. I want to try and morph it all into one. That’s what my dream project is all about. It’ll probably be a two year project. Hopefully I can get enough freelance jobs in between so I can fund it.
d: Now, this is a question we ask everybody: Do you think dogs have lips?
L: Yes. I’m looking at my dog right now. She looks like she has black lips around her mouth.
d: (to insane wayne, as he walks into the room) She says they have lips.
wayne: Good.
d: (to McGrath) That was insane wayne.
L: Ah.
w: (grabbing phone from debbie) Hello.
L: Hello?
w: Hi. I’m wayne.
L: Hi, wayne. You think dogs have lips, too?
w: Of course. But, uh, debbie here, he’s not really doing an interview. He’s just madly in love with you. I just thought I’d let you know.
L: Oh, okay.
w: Right on. Here he is again.
d: Yes, Liz! Will you marry me? I’ll fly out to California right now!
L: Well, ya know, I’m really a small, Filipino boy. So I was kind of hoping you were a girl named debbie.
d: Damnit! Is there anything you want to tell the people? One final message?
L: Um,.. what tastes like chicken?
d: Everything.
L: Alright. I like it.


VISIT LIZ AT HER SITE.