Posts in Punk
Corin Tucker, Sleater Kinney
Corin Tucker, Sleater Kinney

What is it with the connection between manual labor and songwriting? Corin Tucker becomes the third interviewee (Grace Potter and Lissie being the others) to tell me that working around the house inspires her to write, be it housework or yardwork.  Tucker offers an explanation: the time when brain and hands are moving is "meditative time" that stimulates creativity.  

We know Corin Tucker as the singer and guitarist for Sleater-Kinney.  In October she released a solo album entitled 1,000 Years (KillRockStars) that she called "a middle aged mom record." In her late thirties, Tucker is a mother of two with a full-time job outside the record industry.  And the routine of her writing process reflects that: her day job has given her a healthy respect for deadlines when it comes to writing, even though she often can't work on meeting those deadlines until after she puts the kids to bed.

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Influencers, Kill Rock Stars Records, Sub Pop Records, Indie, Indie Rock, PunkBen Opipari1000 years, corin tucker, kill rock stars, killrockstars, sleater kinney Comment
Patrick Stickles, Titus Andronicus
Patrick Stickles, Titus Andronicus

There were only a few times during my talk with Patrick Stickles, singer and songwriter for Titus Andronicus, that our conversation felt like an interview.  Instead, it really felt more lit an upper-level lit seminar.  This is what we talked about: Camus, Faulkner, reader response literary theory, and whether a text has any inherent meaning.  The depth of our conversation reflects not just Stickles' concern with the songwriting process but the anxiety of being a writer and his concern with whether the audience (and by audience, I mean the people hearing or reading his words) understands his authorial intent. It takes Stickles months to finish a song, and indication of the care he takes to craft that message. The result is an album like The Monitor, a concept album loosely based on the Civil War and civil war: it's about both the historical event and Stickles' existential angst.

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Indie, Indie Rock, Punk, XL Records, Merge RecordsBen Opipariamy andronicus, amy klein, patrick stickles, the airing of grievances, the monitor, titus andronicus, xl recordingsComment
Hutch Harris, The Thermals
Hutch Harris, The Thermals

One of the things I always ask writers to do here is describe their ideal writing environment, where they would be the most productive.  Most mention someplace scenic, whether it’s the water, the woods, or high above a landscape looking down.  Whatever it is, it’s a place of beauty.

Then there’s Hutch Harris of The Thermals, the anti-hero of the picturesque writing environment.  Whatever is in front of him, it’s probably too much.  He doesn’t want the sea, the trees, a gazebo, or a bay window.  He wants nothing.  Just white walls.  Anything else is a distraction.  That’s why I told him that if he ever does time, he could write The Great American Novel.  Or if he ever becomes a monk, that would also work.

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Indie, Indie Rock, Kill Rock Stars Records, Punk, Saddle Creek Records, Sub Pop RecordsBen Opiparihutch harris, kill rock stars, killrockstars, personal life, the thermals, thermalsComment