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Download: Marnie Stern “Ruler”

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(from This Is It… out now on Kill Rock Stars)

Marnie Stern is back in town for a show at the El Rey and so we have excavated this interview from our silver-edition 25th issue from last year. Her new album This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That is out now on Kill Rock Stars. This interview was by Nikki Darling.

What was Marnie Stern like in high school? What was a typical weekend like?
Oh, that’s a good one! I’ve never been asked that. Well, I went to a really small high school with only twenty kids per grade. It was not a normal school and none of those normal popularity issues existed, which was good. I studied a lot. I was never really a wild child at all. I wasn’t uptight—I just never went through a rebellious phase. But I think that has to do with growing up in New York and having so much freedom and access to that stuff, there isn’t a need to get rebellious or angry or any of that. It’s all right there.
Is this your rebellious phase now?
Definitely. I got rebellious later. Financially, mostly. I always had a nine-to-five job and I always saved, so yeah, not having that kind of security is rebellious. Being on the road and not having something to fall back on can be scary.
You never answered my question—typical weekend?
I guess I went out a lot in New York. You went to bars even if you were twenty-five or sixteen. They weren’t as strict. I’d go to Central Park and sit in the fields with friends and hang out. I went to the movies a lot. I spent a lot of time with my mom.
You didn’t get into music until much later in your life—what happened?
There was nothing specific. I had always had a pull toward it and I just never had the courage to explore it and then in my early twenties, I just leaped because you know… it just takes a lot of time and energy and then it just started happening. I wish I could play other instruments, too—I would love to play the drums well, or have a booming gospel voice.
What was the focus of your life before music?
Journalism. I studied journalism in college. I’d always been interesting in reporting and that was really more where the pull came from. David McCullough is a good history/biography writer—people like that.
Were you ever published?
No, no. I just studied it in school and I thought I’d want to write for a magazine or a newspaper but I never enjoyed it enough. It just didn’t come easily to me and I decided to switch.
Transcribing interviews with a cell phone between your ear and shoulder doesn’t sound like tons of fun?
No, it does! It does! The only other thing I wanted to be was C.I.A. or a private investigator or a politician. When I was younger and in college, I was really interested in politics and change, and C.I.A. because… well, C.I.A.!
What was the hardest song you ever learned to cover?
I never learned anyone else’s stuff on purpose because I didn’t want it to interrupt my own style. But a couple times I sat down and learned some Slayer songs.
What song do you wish you’d written?
Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid.’
If Slash and Tommy Lee got in a bar fight, who would win?
Slash. No question. I just think Tommy Lee is such a joke and really I don’t know if both of them are still obsessed with the spotlight, but Tommy Lee seems like he’d find some way to come out on top with the media. But Slash just seems tougher.
How did you get hooked up with Hella?
Slim Moon called up Zach and asked him if he would listen to my tapes and if he would play for me, and that’s how it happened. My favorite band ever.
When you found out, what was your first reaction?
Surreal! Extreme, ecstatic, unreal—a great feeling. It took fourteen days to record. The drums were recorded in California before I got there, and then I arrived and we mixed and recorded all the parts. We worked every day for fourteen days and then it was finished.
What was it like touring with that iPod?
It was difficult because it was a machine and I had a lot of problems with it. I much preferred the band.
What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on the road?
Last night there was this guy hitting on some of the girls with us on tour—our merch girl and manager. They were just sitting there, and we went to eat, and this guy is just staring at them. Then he finally comes up to talk to them and asks if they like tattoos, and Zach was just staring at the guy like, “What are you doing, man?” And the girls say, “No.” But the guy doesn’t go away, so Zach asked the guy what was going on and the guy goes, “You’re weird.” And Zach goes, “I am weird.” And then the guy said, “I’ll pull out a gun and kill you!” And then he was mumbling to himself that he had a “36″ in his pocket and when he walked away he was going, “Bang! Bang! Bang!” And once there was this lady—we were in Manchester and we played in a part of town where there are a lot of prostitutes, and this woman in an acid-washed skirt was walking around, and she just reaches into her skirt and pulls this… this object—we didn’t know what it was!—out of her vagina—a mystery object!—and put it in her mouth!

MARNIE STERN WITH GANG GANG DANCE, LUCKY DRAGONS AND DJ DAISY O ON SAT., NOV. 15, AT THE EL REY, 5515 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 8 PM / $16-$19 / ALL AGES. GOLDENVOICE.COM. MARNIE STERN’S THIS IS IT… IS OUT NOW ON KILL ROCK STARS. VISIT MARNIE STERN AT MYSPACE.COM/MARNIESTERN1.