natalie speth - bass

(this interview was done over the internet via instant messenger)

James Flanagan: Do you like being in the Coughs?

Natalie Speth:Why, yes I do.

JF:What's your favorite thing about it?

NS: I hear even more of what sounds are going on around me in everyday life
than ever before. There are so many that it's like playing with a thousand
new toys. I hope this is okay... I'm sleep deprived.

JF:This is good

NS: Okay.

JF:Do you think sleep is important for making good music?

NS:Not necessarily, it depends on if your body needs the sleep in order to
function in any way. if it does, then i say you should go to bed and rest.

JF:Do you think that as a woman in an all-male band there is more or less
pressure on you to do well?

NS: It can go either way at any given time. When I feel pressured it's
usually because females generally make different sounds than males, and in
an all-male band you can feel like your out of place and nothing you play
goes along well with the guys.... then there is less pressure when you just
forget completely that there is a difference in sexes there. You just play.

JF: Do you think females are less aggressive when they play?

NS: I don't know, I think I've noticed myself getting more aggressive.

JF: As you play more?

NS: Yes, but it comes and goes quite frequently like wild mood swings,
(laughs)

JF: Do you think androgyny is possible or is the idea of it a bourguiese con?

NS: Sure, androgyny is accepting confusion

JF:But isn't a lack of androgyny more confusing?

NS: Yes it is, but once you accept confusion, hopefully you are not
nearly as confused as before

JF: Now I'm confused.

NS: I'm not.., It makes sense to me. Let me help.

JF: No, I see, I just don't know how that refers to androgyny.

NS: Androgyny is being neither one nor the other right? Unable to tell...
male/ female.. and what not. It's a place for confusion but this confusion
almost always is a better choice in the confusion department.

JF: Do you think noise will ever be a popular art form?

NS: James, I'm a basket case.. I don't know what goes on in my head
anymore. It is with me, but probably not with a major audience.

JF: I guess I mean, do you think noise will ever change the world we live in?

NS: But I think it will. Our world but not everyone's world.

JF: But don't we have to live in everyone's world?

NS: I don't want to live in everyone's world. (laughs) I live in my
world, and I come out and visit much more frequently now. Did you think I
thought we should become part of everyone's world? The big world out there

JF: I don't know. How does politics come into it?

NS: into what?

JF: Into your music. Is there a way to involves politics in your music
without compromising both things?

NS: I don't know. I haven't given it much thought. Politics haven't
been that important to me until I worked for Disney.

JF:Talk about Disney.

NS: Disney: they made their money off manipulating people into
believing that a toy, or a doll, or evan a six dollar sticker of a character in a movie
would help them relive a special moment or feeling, they had when they saw
that character in a cartoon. and then they want to buy it.

JF:And it can't?

NS: It can. They are good manipulators

JF: Right. So do you think it's like pornography?

NS: How so?

JF: People go to get a sentimental thrill rather than a sexual one. It's
like an addiction.

NS: The world is addicted to buying.

JF: Are you addicted to buying stuff?

NS: Sure, I was addicted, but I think I have more self control when it
comes to buying than I used to and not big stuff,but junk, lots and lots of
little junk.

JF:Has that improved your life? I buy lots of little toys all the time, it
amounts to a lot of money. Why do you buy things?

NS: Because I want to play with them, listen to them, look at them,
feel them, even if it is just for a short while.

JF:Does it help you feel more connected to the world?

NS: No, I think it's more of an internal feeling.

JF: You feel more connected to yourself?

NS: Yes and no, when I don't it's because I feel as if I have spoiled
myself.

JF: A lot of times when I would waste my money, I would buy things for
homeless people to make me feel better.

NS: Me too.