INTERVIEWS
Each season, the website will feature an interview with a different Spade Kitty artist. We'll discuss their current happenings, their ostensably shady past, and what's coming up.
2002 SUMMER ARTIST:
POST OFFICE
SK: Can you two explain how Post Office came into fruition? I know Larry was in San Francisco with Malcontent and decided to move back to the Midwest 6-7 years ago? And Stephen, you were out west?
Stephen Becker: I grew up in Seattle and was fleeing from grunge. I arrived in Chicago in 1992, and noticed an ad that mentioned four of my favorites: The Posies, Felt, Lloyd Cole and the Embarrassment.
Larry O. Dean: My SF band Malcontent had actually mutated out of the ashes of the Fussbudgets (not the asses, as previously reported). Anyway, when I arrived in Chicago in 1995, I placed an ad looking for like-minded musicians to form a band with.
SK: When you were making your sophomore effort Fables In Slang, recorded right here in Chicago, you elected to mix it at Chris Stamey's studio in North Carolina. Can you explain how Chris came to be involved with Post Office and Fables? Was it intimidating to work with a father figure of modern pop?
SB: It was not intimidating, because Chris is totally low-key and cool. But I was in awe and incredibly thrilled to meet him. The location of his studio in North Carolina is beautiful and pastoral. It's in a converted country farmhouse. I enjoyed sitting in the garden on breaks.
LOD: First of all, Chris was a pussycat to work with, although he whupped me many times at impromptu arm wrestling bouts. I'd always been a fan of the dB's, and Chris is pretty accessible. I sent him of copy of PO's debut, Public Displays of Affection, as well as some of the other work I'd done and he was game to mix the album. He has a very cool pop aesthetic, that's true, but part of why I admire him so much is because he digs avant garde and experimental music as well. I really didn't want to leave the album in the hands of someone who didn't have more than one oar in the water.
SK: Daydream a bit. You're playing a once-in-a-lifetime show with four of your favorite bands from any era. What bill would each of you choose to play with? What slot would you want Post Office to play?
SB: I would like to be on a bill with Lionel Richie, Stephen Tin Tin Duffy, Death Cab for Cutie, and Ken Stringfellow. Wait, I'd also like to see Rick Derringer someday take the stage again with Lionel Richie or with Steve 'n' Edie. Those were great moments in show business to have seen!
LOD: For me it would be the Stranglers, Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Sly & The Family Stone. All were very influential to me at the time when I became more serious about playing music, and all continue to bring me pleasure when I listen to them. It seems like an odd combo, but such a show would've been more likely in the late '60s. Today everything's "narrowcasted" so much, there's no variety. I probably laughed more at Stranglers shows than at any others. Those guys were hilarious! Oh I'd have Hall and Oates in there somewhere too. Seriously! With PO right smack dab in the middle!
SB: In fact, the vitality of most Post Office performances stems from the constant struggle between Larry and myself to attain the Hall role (if only for a song), while forcing other into the a state of Oatesian subordination.
SK: Do you write separately and then flesh arrangements out with the group, or do you write together
LOD: Separately. I've never written with anyone else. I see the process as rather solitary. Why be in a band if you're not going to let the band flesh out the arrangements? I've also never been fond of the "play everything yourself" mentality. I used to do that with early four track recordings, but that was by necessity and because I got a kick out of the technology.
SB: Larry and I write separately, but we both believe that if you have the chords, melody and lyrics tightly crafted, that this forms the unalterable core of the song. The other members can build on that or people can produce recorded versions of it doing this or that, but you can't really ruin it or change it if that core is there.
SK: Where can a pop aficionado find your music if the local coconuts fails to meet his/her eclectic tastes?
LOD: online; Amazon.com, Not Lame, Miles of Music, and some other indie distributors. Carrot top gets the stuff into the cooler shops across the country too. And Parasol is top notch mail-order.
SK: Your debut, Public Displays of Affection, illustrates your roots in power pop and Americana. How do each of you feel about public displays of affection? Do you like holding hands? What about hugging?
SB: This country is profoundly sexless. PDA, as long as it is a genuinely sensual experience, should be a duty to all of us who want to change the status quo. It is a political, culturally defiant gesture. Especially when you are french kissing with a George W. Bush mask on and your girlfriend is wearing a Ken Lay mask. That is good fun.
LOD: I've had sex before in public. Does this make me a bad person?
SB: Well, that is pushing the limit. But no, not if you were wearing
the right masks. Last time I was having sex in public I had on a Larry Dean
mask...but just for a while...when things started getting smokin' hot,
I threw on my Rick Derringer mask and sang "Rock and Roll Kootchie Koo"
LOD: Those Larry Dean masks are now illegal in California. Better watch yourself!
SK: What are your favorite songs to play live?
SB: I like to play Anhedonia because sometimes Larry mentions Buffy. He is an American badass. And Brain Damaged because Jeff gets his Keith Moon on and I get to stop playing guitar for a minute, stalk the stage with the mic, and be a rok star.
LOD: Well, the line changes all the time, depending on whatever current TV show is most faddish. (Let me add that I love Buffy. I mean the show, although if the opportunity arose to do otherwise, I would�where was I? Oh, yeah.) You know, my favorites to play change all the time as well. Depends on my mood and the show or venue. Some songs seem more suited to a place or time and I'll get amped up if that's the case.
SK: What are each of your feelings on an artist listening to his/her own music? Do you take the Prince, ( you only listen to your own music) the Gene Simmons point of view (you never listen to your own music), or somewhere in between?
LOD: I can get pretty tired of hearing my own music. Hopefully, the global economic community does not feel the same way!
SB: I take the Lionel Richie point of view, which is: "Listen to music? Whatever...look, I may not have the strongest backhand volley at the club, but my rear court forehand will destroy you. It's a tennis fiesta forever, baby!"
Conducted by Spade Kitty's Reed McAdams and Post Office, April 2001.
