ADAM: Greg, you mentioned in an earlier interview in the SF Weekly that the band's sound was unstable and still morphing into something else, but that you weren't sure where it was going. Any clues yet?
GREG: We are in the process of writing new material and have several songs nearly ready for public consumption. Several of them have originated from Joe Ostrowski, the second guitar player, and that's a new development. We are becoming more collaborative and learning how to operate as a band that writes songs together. Before this, I have written nearly all of them. Kelly and I have worked closely together on vocal arrangements and lyrics, but to have an actual song emerge from another bandmate is a new phenomenon. It's an exciting shift. As far as where the sound is going, I don't think any of us have a mastery over the direction of the music, other than the usual intuitions and hunches about what sounds good and what doesn't. I would love to provide with our next recording, however it sounds, a startling experience, something that seems unprecedented and thrilling. I think the last time I felt that way, as a listener, was when I heard Pinback's first album. If I could do that for someone else, I would be satisfied.
ADAM: My mother's most time-honored critique of my work as a writer is "Why does it have to be so dark all the time?" Your songs certainly cover some dark territory, so I'm hoping you can help me with this one. Why are we so drawn to the darkness?
KELLY: I think partially because it's more interesting. Also, none of us want to be trapped there in the darkness, and working it out through music or art or cinema seems the healthiest way to exorcise the demons. I just find that there's always something inside of me that feels too deeply or needs a little bit of help... something that if left alone, begins to feel desperate. That sounds really indulgent... but truthfully, if I let it go too long, it can creep into every day life... and so it's much better to let it out in small doses through writing or music. It's sort of like a fault line getting relief through small tremors. Recently, I've tended to write more about real life situations, as opposed to just making up random stories. Situations in my life have become the story... I try to keep it rather cryptic, so not to seem like an exhibitionist, but it's therapy. Art can be therapy. I know that I get a lot from music written by others, confessional or otherwise, the emotional/dark content can really be therapeutic to me.
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