INTERVIEW: Kristine Leschper of Mothers

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During the Savannah Stopover festival, two women sit down late at night in a dimly lit park with a box of fried chicken. One of them is me, and she unceremoniously asks a series of interview questions through mouthfuls of greasy bird. The other, a dainty, stormy-eyed fawn of Czechoslovakian stock bearing a last name bursting with consonants, answers them comprehensively. Her name is Kristine Leschper and she is the vocalist and lead guitarist of the band Mothers, who released their debut album When You Walk A Long Distance You are Tired earlier this year to glowing accolades of music writers and regular-Jo(sephin)e listeners alike. Mothers is a composite of musical ideologies resulting from Athens GA’s storied art-school scene, folk composition, rocks both indie and math and even a smattering of prog polyrhythm. Everything you want to think about how mesmerizing Kristine is based on the music she makes is completely true. Here’s what I mean:

Joanie Wolkoff for AudioFemme: You guys are on the go these days.

Kristine Leschper: Even though I say I live in Athens, it doesn’t really feel like it; when I look at our spreadsheet, we’re touring 10 out of 12 months. It’s so nice when we’re home again, but it’s a rarity. It doesn’t feel like we live anywhere.

Do you like it?

It’s a lack of comfort but I like it.

Part of the lore surrounding the forming of Mothers is tied in with how you took a left turn from printmaking in college to music. How’s this shift to music treating you?

Suddenly we were just on tour forever! This came out of nowhere. Our drummer Matt wanted to sign a six month lease and we said, “We’d have to be touring so much for you to not sign that lease,” but then a month down the road we found out how much we’d be traveling and were like: “It’d be stupid for you to sign this lease.” So he doesn’t have a place right now. Which is cool for him.

Cool for him of cool of him?

I think it’s cool for him to not have a place right now, to be experiencing that. At the same time, though, I’m really glad I have a home.

How did you meet?

We were all just living in Athens and playing music. We knew what we were all up to and had mutual respect for each other, and we we were all into what the other was doing. It was organic.

What were you listening to while you taught yourself how to play guitar?

The Microphones’ The Glow Part 2 which is written in a linear style was a big thing for me. Just the fact that when they write songs they have an “anything can happen” outlook and it doesn’t have to be a specific structure. Also Don Caballero’s American Don and other mathier music with complicated rhythms.

Do you identify with art school rock? Prog?

Maybe a little bit. Mothers is really affected by things that were happening in Athens in the late seventies and early eighties, like Pylon who where college-aged visual artists and didn’t play any instruments, so it was this guessing game of self-taught musicians. It was this desire to figure something out without being properly taught. We’re tied into a lot of Athens’ songwriting history.

Do you write together?

We’re not really a band that can get together and stand in the same room and jam. It has to be more defined, so me and Matt, our drummer, get together, hash out what’s been in our heads and then bring it to the other guys later. Otherwise it risks never turning into anything. Me and Matt have been playing together for the longest as far as Mothers go. He was the first person that I really started playing music with; we have good chemistry musically.

Any contemporary musicians you’d like to collaborate with?

I would love to work with Spencer Seim, who played guitar in Hella and is active in a group called Spock. He’s just my favorite guitar player. I love everything that he does.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Looking down at my impromptu meal] I’m just eating this gross chicken because it’s warm and gives me heat on my hand. This biscuit tastes like car exhaust.

It looks great.

If you could sit at a table and eat bad friend chicken with someone who you’ve really drawn inspiration from, who would that person be?

Does it have to be a musician? E.E.Cummings was a big part of me discovering the written word, that led me to becoming a creative writer.

What feeds your writing when you develop song lyrics?

I tend to write about the human condition. I think the way we perceive the world through emotions is the most important part of how we experience the outside world. I want for people to get out of shaming others for hypersensitivity. I really respect people who are honest about their emotions. The way we relate to ourselves and other people is so much based on knowing that you’re going to die, the limits of being a person and stuck inside of this body.

What has sensitivity given you, and what has it taken from you?

Oh, it just takes everything away. Really. It makes everything hard. It’s given me a sense of purpose, I guess, which is shitty. To be overly analytical of everything that happens is something that I do to myself. I sort of like it though. I like to make things difficult for myself and see if art comes out of it. I’ve come to terms with sacrificing myself for art.

Do you think it’s your hardwiring or learnt behavior?

I think it’s just the way I am.

Look at your white sneakers!

They’re brand new. I thought I might be able to have fun if I bought white sneakers.

You appeared to be having fun at your backyard set earlier today in the Starland District. You move so nicely while you were performing. You push up on one toe and then lean into your strumming and it’s agreeable to watch.

Sometimes I’ll get really nervous and go through the first ten minutes of a gig without moving at all, and then I’m like, “Just tap your foot! Just bend your knee a little bit,” and then it works itself out.

What’s your relationship with your instrument like?

It’s one of the most important relationships in my life. We don’t sleep together but we’re very close. I got a headphone amp recently that only has enough wattage to send an output to headphones so you can play electric guitar in the back seat and no one else can hear you. It’s been a lifesaver on this tour… you can only sit in a back seat of a car feeling car sick for so long before you’re destroyed.

Do you have any rituals before gigging?

Just getting time alone, writing a set list. I love handwriting. It’s not carefully written every time but the hardest thing to do before a show is break away from a conversation you don’t totally want to be having. I have a hard time talking to people when I know we’re going on in five minutes. Sometimes it just means hiding in the bathroom for a bit.

What’s your musical map look like?

It’s self indulgent. One side is ego and the other side 9s doubt. You could see it as a Venn diagram.

Do you live in the middle of it where the two circles overlap?

No, I live on both sides, I go back and forth.

Who even lives in the middle? Life coaches?

Probably so.

2016 finds us toggling between the ego stroke and the ego…

Death. Everything is very personal in sort of a shitty way.

What do you do about that?

Exactly what I usually do.

Do you keep a finger on its pulse?

I feel that I’m very much out of the know. To an unfortunate extent at times. I’m sometimes too wrapped up in what I’m doing to understand what else is going on out there.

As for the great trope of musical womanhood, any closing words for female artists?

As far as all that, all I have to advise is to not let it affect you. People really have an issue with that and sometimes when they’re trying to be empowering they sort of victimize them saying things like “Oh, she really shreds!” in surprise, as if being a woman in the first place is this huge hinderance. It’ll do everyone a lot of good to not talk about gender in music so much. Women can play guitar just as well as men can. Just getting out of those ideas has been really important for me – not thinking of myself as a woman in music, but just thinking of myself as a musical person.

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ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Andy Ferro

Andy AudioFemme

To begin with: Andy Ferro’s Dad. The man remembers the the first time Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” aired on Australian radio. But more importantly, he crammed his son’s young ears with as much jazz and blues as they could contain. Meanwhile, Ferro spent his childhood ping-ponging back and forth between the the UK and Nashville, where he’s planted his flag since the tender age of 10.

Today, Ferro’s hometown is teeming with artists drawing from the communal psych-folk pot, but Ferro’s austere creations err on the side of minimalism, which is why his forthcoming LP Muirhead might be the exact sort of winningly raggle taggle rarity your ears have been craving.

Inspired by White Fence’s Tim Presley and drawing insight from the likes of The Kinks, Capain Beefheart, Bob Dylan and 70’s Krautrock darlings Can, Ferro also cites his friend group, lady, and mentors as a primary source of artistic stimulation. These auspices can be warmly felt throughout his new lo-fi solo project, much like his off-kilter upbringing.

Crowning Ferro as AudioFemme’s February Artist of the Month, Joanie Wolkoff of Wolkoff, formerly of Her Habits, and Artist of the Month herself, Wolkoff shared a conversation with Ferro over his music, growing up, and what’s shaking these days in Ferro’s neck of the woods.

Joanie Wolkoff: How’s life in Nashville?

Andy Ferro: It’s growing really quickly now. There are a lot of good opportunities, but we’re dealing with traffic, which is a new thing. It’s an inspiring place to be, with lots of people doing great stuff. I don’t know what it’d be like to make music in a place where I wasn’t connected to my community. There’s a lot of… not competition, but I’d say that the bar is set high. It definitely makes you try harder. And I prefer the smaller hang; the typical Saturday night is about finding somebody’s house to have dinner at.

No all-night ragers or underground raves?

Oh, they happen. I’m just not there when they do.

What would you say is happening instrumentally on Muirhead?

It’s stark. There aren’t drums, or a lot of lead guitar or electric guitar at all, for that matter. I’m really into the Leonard Cohen and Syd Barrett solo records, and I recorded everything on the LP myself except for some of the weird noises and piano which were sourced by my friend Mitch Jones. As you can imagine, you run out of space pretty quickly when you’re only recording with a four track.

It’s a medium that could certainly account for your minimalism here.

Yeah, I just worked until I felt I’d done my part and then I took it to Mitch who put it on a computer and did a few things here and there; what he added brought a lot to the album [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Ferro’s voice cracks]… excuse my voice, I lost it two days ago and it’s only just coming back now.

The first time I ever lost my voice I was really excited because I thought it made me sound like a character I idolized on GI Joe, so when I got to school and spoke up in class I remember thinking, “Finally! I sound interesting!”

I know what you mean. I’d been sort of excited about losing my voice, like “Maybe when the release show comes around, I’ll have this gruff voice!” but I tried to sing some of my songs last night and it wasn’t working.

It makes you sound like you’ve been through a lot! Seasoned! 

Ha. Seasoned.

Are all the the tracks on the LP tied into a theme or are they just moments in time for you?

It’s a story but not intentionally encoded that way. For example, the song “Crystal Tongue” is about being with my dad in Tennessee two Christmases ago. I woke up in the morning to the sound of his voice saying, “Merry Crystal Bum!” So I wrote this little poem in a card for my girlfriend about a child with a crystal bum. Anyway, later on I turned it into a song.

We also say “bum” in Canada, where I grew up. In America, people say “butt.” Anyway, if you close your eyes and look at a visual version of Muirhead, what do you see? 

I can tell you easily. Since the beginning it’s been green. It feels like standing on a creaky, rickety boat dock thats rocking back and forth a little and it’s dusk. You can’t see the horizon across the water.

Tell me about your recording setup with the four track.

Most of it was at my girlfriend’s apartment. I hit this two-week window of time where she and her roommate were gone for the first part of the day and I didn’t have to go to work til mid-afternoon , so I would just sit there working on songs. My girlfriend lives on a main road, which is why you can hear cars and birds and stuff on the tracks. I’d already demo’d a few songs on Garage Band with iPhone headphones plugged into my computer.

Garage Band is a good, sturdy little donkey that’ll take you over the mountain. Some people get snobby about what “digital audio workstation” you use, but Garage Band’s so user friendly, and a great gateway drug into music production. 

Absolutely, Garage Band is approachable. So then, I bought a four track from my friend David Stein, who sold it to me when I mentioned that I was looking to buy one. He said if I gave him a ride home, he’d sell it to me for $150.

Are you friends with your four track recorder?

Oh, man. I didn’t have any problems with it at all, besides not knowing how to use it and erasing bits of songs that I didn’t want to erase for the first little while. But now I feel comfortable with it. It opened the door.

How does your girlfriend help to shape your music?

Friends and family and the people I see every day are the primary source of influence on my music, aside from stuff I listen to. I want to articulate my girlfriend’s role in a good way: I’ve been playing with a band of best friends for a long time but this album was a first go at showing the public what I can make on my own.  I don’t want this to sound like [Ferro uses a sappy voiceover drawl here], “Without love, I wouldn’t have written these songs.” But it certainly plays a role, this relationship, having someone so genuinely supportive and honest. It’s encouraging. For me, it’s a really sweet validation.

Give me three adjectives for this album.

Stark. In terms of instrumentation, anyway. And rich. Or… sorta thick in a way? The analog approach made it… textural.

It has teeth?

There you go.

How does the omnipotent beast that is the Nashville’s music industry affect your life as an artist?

It provides opportunities, but it’s up to me to take the right ones. This year I just want to make lots of music and share it with lots of people. I’m not gonna worry about quote-unquote success. That can stifle your creativity if you focus on it too much. At around fourteen, at which point I didn’t have an inkling that I’d end up playing in bands at all, I met my friend Mitch. He’s played in bands for almost as long as I’ve been alive, and that’s when I figured out about jamming. Later, I started going to college and my band Ranch Coast formed one semester into my studies. I didn’t want to do both. But I still try to learn every day.

What do you think you might’ve studied if you hadn’t pursued being in a band full time?

Philosophy. Or writing.

By osmosis of making and being around music, I’m pretty sure you do both of those things all the time!

I hope so.

Well, none of your songs are about going to the club and finding out who’s wearing the best thong. Then again, that’s its own philosophy.

You’re right. That’s the next record.

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TRACK REVIEW: Wolkoff “The Homecoming”

Wolkoff by Matthew Solarski

A star by any names, Joanie Wolkoff, formerly performing under Her Habits, an AudioFemme Artist of the Month, is back. Wolkoff’s addictive collaboration with The Hood Internet, “Going Back” is still stuck in my head, yet her latest release, “The Homecoming” might just be the first song by any artist to start a new reign in my grey matter.

“The Homecoming” is the Canadian-turned New Yorker’s first song off her debut album, Without Shame, due out April 15. Indeed, shame is for humans, in the synth-pop artist’s transformation to surname recognition she flutters into goddess territory. On “The Homecoming,” Wolkoff’s signature vocals remain, delicate yet undoubtably lethal, like assassination via tai chi. They’re paired with glittering and hypnotic synth beats; the song and album were “inspired by symphonic 90’s euro-pop and deep house coupled with new wave motifs.” Adding spice to the cauldron, the album was engineered by the Grammy-winning Ariel Borujow and produced by Icarus Moth.

“The Homecoming” just premiered on Noisey, take a listen below.

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LIVE REVIEW: Wolkoff @ Baby’s All Right

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While most of New York fled the city for Labor Day 2015, Wolkoff, aka Joanie Wolkoff formerly of Her Habits, performed at the venue famous for those lights, Baby’s All Right. She covered the entirety of her EP “Talismans” and finished with a few new tunes. She started the show covered in a cape – removed to reveal a shiny jaw-dropping black mini-dress, a look completed with her signature white Reeboks and tube socks. She was joined by two talented and flexible modern dancers, complementing Wolkoff’s moody pop with sweat on muscles and even a samarai sword. Her EP  “Talismans,” which you can stream here, shows Wolkoff’s lyrical emotional depth and alt-pop writing chops, but seeing her live truly takes the experience to the next level. Sure, she’s blonde and pretty – but far from appearing traditional or boring.  Joanie Wolkoff is just one of those goddesses who is on to something and found a way to exist in this world that is wholly unique to herself, yet captivating to all. Those attributes shine through in her stage presence, performance, aesthetic and of course, music, to create quite the enchanting package.

If you missed this show, come see Wolkoff at Atypical Beasts and AudoFemme’s CMJ takeover show Friday, October 16th at The Delancey. Until then, watch Wolkoff’s video for “Too Quiet” below:

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Wolkoff “Going Back”

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Joanie Wolkoff, former vocalist of Her Habits (and my forever crush) has moved onto something new and isn’t going back. She recently released “Going Back,” the first single from her new project, named straight to the point – Wolkoff. If Her Habits was a persona, from the name alone I’m excited to fall in love with the person.

Putting aside all music blog jargon – I love this song. Like, listen on repeat love it, play it on a rooftop in the summer love it, put it on my sex play list love it, cry in the shower love it. “Of the lies you told when you kept me down now I’m building speed just cant turn around…Not going back again.” It breaks my heart to hear about anyone hurting the goddess that is Joanie, but dear girl, your artistic expression of pain (with a triumphant ‘tude) is musically pure pleasure. It’s slowed-down synth pop that hits the soul, something pop music rarely achieves, but when it does it’s enough to make you dizzy.

Wolkoff is finishing up her new EP, a collaboration with producer Icarus Moth that we can expect to see out in late August.

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ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Her Habits

HerHabits 1 by Mikaela GauerWhen discussing artists, a phenomenon frequently comes up among those who work in the industry. You may adore someone, yet not be so into their music, or discover your favorite artist is kind of an ass. Her Habits (singer/songwriter Joanie Wolkoff) passes both the human and art test with flying “tropi-pop” colors (a term meaning tropical pop she used to describe her earlier work, before finding her rock and electro sides in part with Her Habits collaborator/producer Sanford Livingston).

Originally from Toronto, Joanie grew up in a musical household “Mom played folk guitar and dug (Canadian legend) Gordon Lightfoot and dad sings and writes his own blues songs to this day,” says Joanie. She lived with her father and stepmother (her mother passed when she was nine) as an only child. “I explored a lot of imaginative avenues because I spent a lot of time alone when I was a little kid,” she says. After attending a conservative all-girls school, Joanie fell into an artistic community of “elective kin” during her time spent at an alternative high school, a sharp (and assumed appreciated) change from her early education. “I sort of found myself at age 14 or 15 surrounded by a much broader spectrum of demographics,” says Joanie. “I left home early and found myself in a really creative community of folks who were a few years older than me, and who really wanted to empower me and help me find my footing. They helped remind me that I had jurisdiction over my life even though I was 17 and super young and super intimidated. I think I still had these ideas around what I as meant to do or entitled to do instead of just following all my passions.”

After a successful enough modeling career to support herself and save up for college, Joanie moved to Paris to study. What was meant to be a brief stint turned into four years. Eventually, Joanie found herself in New York in 2006. As noted in the interview, we’re skipping over the internship in rural China, the chandelier making, and other glimmering gems of experience that fall out of Joanie’s lips with a humbling nod. “I do carry an expired state issued barbering license,” she adds.

HerHabits by David Gillespie 6 high res

While music had always been a part of her experience, the energy of New York sailed Joanie through the progression that emerged to become Her Habits. “I think there’s a professional blood lust in America that gives its art a really powerful reach,” she says.

Her Habits is a recent initiative after four years of Joanie and Sanford working together. The two met a while back working on a pitch for Hershey’s chocolate. They didn’t get the gig, but it lead to a creative partnership of filtering Joanie’s songwriting through Sanford’s production skills, who along with honing in on that unique style (like being able to tell who made the vegetables at a potluck, she describes) also pushes her musical boundaries. “Make no mistake, Her Habits is a collaboration,” Joanie says. “We had to join forces to create the particular energy and texture and production value that you get when you listen.” When asked of her creative process, she says “It’s kind of insular, like I’ll try to construct really interesting really stimulating melodies.” Stimulating melodies indeed. From someone who has dabbled in everything from stoner rock to commercial pop and lived a life encompassing the grit of a farmer and the glamour of a world model, Her Habits is a clean and sparkly well-though out collection of driving beats and sugary melodies. The grit and the glamour is all there in the music, I like to imagine twirling under the lights of a disco ball spinning from a log cabin as I listen, but check the forthcoming EP out for yourself. It also comes with an illustrated booklet created by Joanie after asking around what habits people found to be unique to women.

Her Habits debut Northerner EP will be out Jan 27th. I

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