NNF 2012 > NNF Highlights
Interview with The Handsome Family
02/05/12
The Handsome Family, a duet between husband and wife, are a band who know how to vocalise our own humanity more than most other bands I can recollect. They are able to emote crushing heartbreak,
You’re playing in the Famous Spiegeltent, the beautifully constructed travelling arena; are you able to feel the performances past of a venue, and how do you think the show will feel in this nomadic wonder?Rennie: What a gorgeous place to play. I will try and hear the echoes of every clapping audience that has sat inside and even the ants that have crawled beneath it and paused in their work to remark on the rise of a beautiful harmony.
I also read that you consider the 100 Club in London a home in terms of gigs – have you had a strong reaction from the UK in general?Rennie: We had a very special show at the 100 Club when there had been a bomb scare in London. No buses, trains or taxis were running into town, but people came anyway on their bikes and on foot. A lovely night after a scary day. From the UK in general the reaction seems to be that I am changing lanes on busy roundabouts at exactly the wrong moment.
I was listening to your Daytrotter session and there’s a real immediacy in the connection with the music hearing you live – do you find that’s the case performing live?Rennie: Of course. There's no other reason to see a band live save to get to know them and their songs better. And for the musician, well, singing a song for someone else is one of life's sweet pleasures.
You’ve been described as having an “Unorganised live show” – with so much touring is there a danger that you may achieve an organized perfection?!Rennie: I'd like to know who said we were 'unorganised'. They even spelled it wrong. Sounds to me like the ravings of my many enemies. That being said I do adhere to what the Navajos around our hometown believe: you should always leave one dancing maiden in your sand painting empty-handed even if all the others are holding ears of corn.Brett: I prefer to think we leave room for chance. Why see live music if it's completely premeditated.
To talk about your environment, your home is now in Albuquerque – do you take much from your environment, or is that hard with touring so much?Rennie: I always take a turquoise ring with me to remind myself of the amazing blue skies of home. Also I could probably trade the ring for a scotch egg if things got rough.
Your most recent album was ‘Scattered’, which allowed you to revisit lost / previously unreleased material. Do you treat these tracks as old friends, and what changed to make them see the light of day?Rennie: Well we certainly wouldn't release a record of songs we weren't on friendly terms with. Each song on ‘Scattered” has a story to how it came to be and how it went into hiding. You have to buy the CD to read about it.Brett: It's nice to give the ‘real fans’ a little something extra. A glimpse at those things that somehow fell through the cracks. These CDs are to me much more adventurous than our ‘studio’ LPs.
Not to tie you down to one genre, but to look at a strong aspect of your music, country music has always been a strong vehicle for raw emotion – is this why you found your way into its arms?Rennie: When you take songwriting seriously then you're going to have to take some time to consider, ‘The Grand Tour’.Brett: Rennie's right, I would add: If you are serious about songwriting, this pursuit will inevitably lead you to Folk music and its older brother, Country. Also will lead to Tin Pan Alley and its older sister, Jazz.
Rennie takes on the writing duties; Rennie, do you write based on your collective experience, or just your own?Rennie: Ah, what would Jung say about our collective experience? I suppose I'm dipping my thimble into the same old dark well as the painters of racing buffalo in prehistoric caves. I just keep trying to get another thimble-full of that old dark water up here into the light.
Your subject matter varies from singing about animals, historical figures, but you still manage to deliver the emotion like they’re living human beings – how do you find the life in subjects?Rennie: How can anyone avoid their own brain when using it to write something? That being said, I feel a great kinship with people like the medieval astronomer, Tycho Brahe, for example, who realized not only that the night sky was a vast space not a mere, black firmament, but that it was a bad idea to keep an elk in the house after his pet elk got drunk and fell down the stairs. True story.
Many people discover their music from the fallout of heartbreak, but you two manage to reach the depths from the sanctity and warmth of marriage – is it a myth that you need to feel pain to be creative?Rennie: Believe me, I still feel pain. I was recently bitten by fire ants in the yard. Inspiring stuff!Brett: Sanctity? Just because I'm "happily married" doesn't make me all better; happy. I have mental illnesses that man will never concoct a cure for.
I’m interested in your musical lives before the matrimony… can you tell us briefly about your journey?Rennie: I played bassoon as a child because I thought that 'bassoon' was the name of the instrument that turned out to be the oboe. I was too embarrassed to switch.Brett: I've really done nothing but waste my time, my whole life, with this nonsense.
I’m so taken with the title ‘The Loneliness of Magnets’ and it made me wonder - in your case, is it opposites attract, or have you defied the polarity of similarities between yourselves?Rennie: Magnets stick together so firmly I can't help worrying at such desperate, unquenchable hunger for a shared embrace. Our marriage is more like two cats that are willing to clean each other's ears. Miraculous and helpful.Brett: But that's where I draw the line.
Emma Garwood
The Handsome Family come to the Spiegeltent in Chapelfield Gardens on Saturday May 26th. For tickets, go to www.nnfestival.org.uk or call the Theatre Royal Box Office on 01603 766400.
The Handsome Family, a duet between husband and wife, are a band who know how to vocalise our own humanity more than most other bands I can recollect. They are able to emote crushing heartbreak,
You’re playing in the Famous Spiegeltent, the beautifully constructed travelling arena; are you able to feel the performances past of a venue, and how do you think the show will feel in this nomadic wonder?Rennie: What a gorgeous place to play. I will try and hear the echoes of every clapping audience that has sat inside and even the ants that have crawled beneath it and paused in their work to remark on the rise of a beautiful harmony.
I also read that you consider the 100 Club in London a home in terms of gigs – have you had a strong reaction from the UK in general?Rennie: We had a very special show at the 100 Club when there had been a bomb scare in London. No buses, trains or taxis were running into town, but people came anyway on their bikes and on foot. A lovely night after a scary day. From the UK in general the reaction seems to be that I am changing lanes on busy roundabouts at exactly the wrong moment.
I was listening to your Daytrotter session and there’s a real immediacy in the connection with the music hearing you live – do you find that’s the case performing live?Rennie: Of course. There's no other reason to see a band live save to get to know them and their songs better. And for the musician, well, singing a song for someone else is one of life's sweet pleasures.
You’ve been described as having an “Unorganised live show” – with so much touring is there a danger that you may achieve an organized perfection?!Rennie: I'd like to know who said we were 'unorganised'. They even spelled it wrong. Sounds to me like the ravings of my many enemies. That being said I do adhere to what the Navajos around our hometown believe: you should always leave one dancing maiden in your sand painting empty-handed even if all the others are holding ears of corn.Brett: I prefer to think we leave room for chance. Why see live music if it's completely premeditated.
To talk about your environment, your home is now in Albuquerque – do you take much from your environment, or is that hard with touring so much?Rennie: I always take a turquoise ring with me to remind myself of the amazing blue skies of home. Also I could probably trade the ring for a scotch egg if things got rough.
Your most recent album was ‘Scattered’, which allowed you to revisit lost / previously unreleased material. Do you treat these tracks as old friends, and what changed to make them see the light of day?Rennie: Well we certainly wouldn't release a record of songs we weren't on friendly terms with. Each song on ‘Scattered” has a story to how it came to be and how it went into hiding. You have to buy the CD to read about it.Brett: It's nice to give the ‘real fans’ a little something extra. A glimpse at those things that somehow fell through the cracks. These CDs are to me much more adventurous than our ‘studio’ LPs.
Not to tie you down to one genre, but to look at a strong aspect of your music, country music has always been a strong vehicle for raw emotion – is this why you found your way into its arms?Rennie: When you take songwriting seriously then you're going to have to take some time to consider, ‘The Grand Tour’.Brett: Rennie's right, I would add: If you are serious about songwriting, this pursuit will inevitably lead you to Folk music and its older brother, Country. Also will lead to Tin Pan Alley and its older sister, Jazz.
Rennie takes on the writing duties; Rennie, do you write based on your collective experience, or just your own?Rennie: Ah, what would Jung say about our collective experience? I suppose I'm dipping my thimble into the same old dark well as the painters of racing buffalo in prehistoric caves. I just keep trying to get another thimble-full of that old dark water up here into the light.
Your subject matter varies from singing about animals, historical figures, but you still manage to deliver the emotion like they’re living human beings – how do you find the life in subjects?Rennie: How can anyone avoid their own brain when using it to write something? That being said, I feel a great kinship with people like the medieval astronomer, Tycho Brahe, for example, who realized not only that the night sky was a vast space not a mere, black firmament, but that it was a bad idea to keep an elk in the house after his pet elk got drunk and fell down the stairs. True story.
Many people discover their music from the fallout of heartbreak, but you two manage to reach the depths from the sanctity and warmth of marriage – is it a myth that you need to feel pain to be creative?Rennie: Believe me, I still feel pain. I was recently bitten by fire ants in the yard. Inspiring stuff!Brett: Sanctity? Just because I'm "happily married" doesn't make me all better; happy. I have mental illnesses that man will never concoct a cure for.
I’m interested in your musical lives before the matrimony… can you tell us briefly about your journey?Rennie: I played bassoon as a child because I thought that 'bassoon' was the name of the instrument that turned out to be the oboe. I was too embarrassed to switch.Brett: I've really done nothing but waste my time, my whole life, with this nonsense.
I’m so taken with the title ‘The Loneliness of Magnets’ and it made me wonder - in your case, is it opposites attract, or have you defied the polarity of similarities between yourselves?Rennie: Magnets stick together so firmly I can't help worrying at such desperate, unquenchable hunger for a shared embrace. Our marriage is more like two cats that are willing to clean each other's ears. Miraculous and helpful.Brett: But that's where I draw the line.
Emma Garwood
The Handsome Family come to the Spiegeltent in Chapelfield Gardens on Saturday May 26th. For tickets, go to www.nnfestival.org.uk or call the Theatre Royal Box Office on 01603 766400.