INTERVIEW: The Breeders (Part 3 of 5)

...well, it's midweek so here's the midpoint of The Buddha Den Interview with The Breeders. We hope yr enjoying this as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Enjoy Part 3...

TBD: I think with any technological wave, everyone’s trying to figure out, ‘So we’ve got the Internet, and now digital’s now replacing CDs.

Kim: Thank god, I hate CDs…

TBD: Now everyone’s trying to figure out what to do with it. Some people obviously like vinyl…

Kelly: They’re trying to figure out how to monetize it.

TBD: Exactly.

Kim: There’s no way to monetize it. It’s free, ‘cause it’s free. I mean, you can monetize M & M’s, but you can’t monetize virtual M & M’s….

Kelly: [laughs] It’s true. I read this thing: do you guys know about Sims? They have cafes, you know music cafes. They have avatars, that is your screen representation…

Kim: That would be so cool, to start a band…

Kelly: One girl, she made, she’s from Georgia, she made like $10,000 in tips…

Kim: Are you kidding me?

Kelly: In virtual tips. And like $100 of these virtual dollars equals a [real] dollar…

Kim: Are you kidding?

TBD: There’s your future….

Kelly: She actually cashed in and made like….it doesn’t support her, but it helps her be able to get strings, ‘cause we all think about that, getting things like strings…

Kim: …battery, a 9-volt battery for your tuner.

TBD: There’s an overhead to being a musician.

Kim: Yes, there is. Even the most virtual one.

TBD: OK, I’m gonna steer us back into focus here….

Kim: I don’t know if you can. I’m still on ‘Sims’?

Kelly: My avatar would be hot. So hot…

TBD: So you guys worked with Albini again. What keeps you going back going back to Albini?

Kelly: His sounds. Not that it matters apparently….

TBD: No. Pod matters. I have a conversation a week about the sound of Pod.

Kelly: It’s beautiful. And for like “Chances Are” just….or “Here No More” from Mountain Battles, the sound of that upright is just beautiful.

Kim: He’s a really great technician. He really is.

TBD: And then Mark Lanegan. How did that happen?

Kim: So I’m in the basement with the Pro Tools. I don’t know how to run it. I have a friend that knows how to run it. I’m playing the instruments, it’s not programmed, it’s just played and recorded. Recorded means sound values are captured. I had written this song. Whenever I thought of the song, I’d thought of a guy singing it. In my head I could hear a guy singing it. Then me and him started this conversation about Mark Lanegan, but he’s talking about something else. That stuck in my head, and eventually I said to him ‘You know, it’d be so great if a guy sang this. Do you know how to get a hold of Mark Lanegan?’ [in a deep male voice] ‘I sure do. I recorded his solo album and I know….’

[Kim and Kelly diverge into how distracting the speaker near us at the Starbucks is…]
Kim: So he called one of Mark Lanegan’s band members, I think it was maybe the Gutter Twins because you know that [Greg] Dulli moved from Cincinnati, I think he lives in Louisiana now, New Orleans. I think Dulli owns a bar in New Orleans and this guy happens to know him a little bit. [Dulli] knows somebody that’s in that Gutter Twins band, or who had recorded it, I don’t know, some New Orleans connection. The guy gave him Lanegan’s email or number and I emailed him or texted him, ‘Hey Lanegan, would you like to do something like that?’ You know what he said? He’s a fan, he’d love to. Isn’t that sweet?

Kelly: He seems like a serial killer. Doesn’t he sound like a serial killer?

TBD: It’s intense.

Kim: It is intense.

Kelly: Yeah, it is intense. That’s a good word for it.

Kim: He’s actually a good singer.

TBD: It was very unexpected.

Kelly: So you’ve [tracks] already?

TBD: Yeah, I asked you’re publicist for them. I wanted to be informed, if I’m gonna ask you about what you’re doing…

Kim: Now see, Kelly thought that maybe [The Last Time] would be a duet of some sort.

Kelly: I did. When you said, ‘with’, I don’t know for some reason…

Kim: OK, there was no harmony to do.

Kelly: That makes sense when you say it.

Kim: And, it wouldn’t be cute back and forth…[imitates a line of back and forth to illustrate the point…] That would be so bad.

Kelly: It makes sense. We have a friend who had heard it, and he goes, ‘What? Wait.’

Kim: Oh yeah, his name’s Kyle actually. [in heavily affected male voice] ‘What am I doing playing a Breeders record and Mark Lanegan’s singing?’ Yeah, get over it. I think it sounds really good.

Kelly: Is [Lanegan] going to ATP?

Kim: I don’t know Kelly.

Kelly: ‘Cause we’re doing that song and from Pod we’re doing that song “Oh”…

Kim: Carrie [Bradley] plays the violin on that. Michael Allen did the vocal back then…

Kelly: And then we can do the new song. See, it’s all working out…

TBD: I actually played Pod at my weekly event last week.

Kim: Really?

TBD: Yeah. at the end of the night I put on Pod. Everyone was like, ‘What is this?’ Seriously. I was like listen to this: you’re version of “Happiness is a Warm Gun” came on…

Kim: Yeah, that turned out really good.

Kelly: You guys always said it was because you didn’t know the song very well that it turned out so good. That you didn’t learn it verbatim.

Kim: I think we knew it, but we just didn’t pay attention. We just did the parts we liked.

Kelly: That’s great.

TBD: the ‘Mother Superior’ part is one of the greatest…

Kim: Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah.

TBD: The first time I heard that I thought, “Wow, somebody actually beat a Beatles version.

Kim: Yeah yeah

Kelly: It’s hard to do that live ‘cause [Breeders drummer] Jose can’t really hear her vocal and he’s playing really hard. He’s banging real hard…

Kim: You what’s unfortunate is that there’s a really cool Tanya [Donelly] bark.

Kelly: I thought it was Britt.

Kim: No, it’s her. It’s like [makes sound]. Something like that during it. I love that part.

Kelly: I can’t do it at the same time. I tried.