Megan Remy's stark diva is based truly in the gutter as U.S. Girls, coming off like some dark American Idol gone wrong, all running make-up and despondent dreams. Her songs are hollowed and have a resonance that echoes well past the gritty DIY aesthetics -- but Chicago, where she's partially based (split between there and Portland) isn't exactly renowned for that sort of stuff. Nonetheless, her Siltbreeze debut LP Introducing… has America running through it like a Greyhound bus, crumpling together primitive percussion loops, distorted vocals, muffled samples, and blown out acoustics.
In fact, Remy was on a Greyhound when I called her. While we had a fairly good discussions earlier that day on Google Talk (about beetroot), our phone call focused more on this Americanism in her work, pop music, and Bruce Springsteen.
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There are lots of bands that come from Chicago, but what's the DIY sort of scene like there?
There's a lot of venues and live spaces and bands and stuff, but not really bands that I like. I dunno, I don't really go out that much. My roommates are in this band called Mayor Daley; they're probably the best band in Chicago -- they're incredible. So I go see them, and there's this band Oakeater that I really like, and this other really great one called Vigilante. So, yeah, there's stuff going on, there's lots of noise music, but I'm not really that into that. New York seems to be where the good bands are, I think. I played three shows there recently and played on the radio -- that was really fun.
So where did you make Introducing…? In Chicago?
No, I made it in Portland. Someone gave me a 4-track, and I just started recording at my house, and that's kind of how I started playing music by myself. Because, before that, I'd always just played in bands. So, I just got really into using this 4-track and figuring out how to do it, and I just made that album. I made 100 copies of it for when I went on tour, just like CD-Rs, and then Tom from Siltbreeze heard some stuff from it and decided to re-release it on vinyl. So yeah, I recorded it a while ago, from the Spring of 2007. So it's maybe a little dated now. I play a couple of the songs still at shows, but this past year I've been working on all new stuff in Chicago, so that album and those songs, its kind of behind me now. I've been working on more structured stuff, and more lead vocal and weird heavy stuff, too. More complex pop songs, I think.
Okay. Yeah, I never thought of Chicago for being known for Siltbreeze-y DIY sort of stuff; it seemed like Portland had more of that vibe.
Yeah. I mean, I guess if you just found me on the internet. It's kind of like an aesthetic thing; it just happens to match up with the stuff that he likes or something. It worked out; it's a great label, and Tom really takes care of bands. It's been good, and not having to fund putting out a vinyl record is pretty nice [laughs], especially now, with oil prices and stuff. Because, you know, records are made out of oil.
Totally. Well, with the more structured pop songs you mentioned before -- I mean, on the LP, there's stuff like that cover of The Kinks, and that song is super poppy. Are you interested in the idea of ‘pop' as a genre or thing and making your own take on it?
Definitely, yeah. Pretty much all the music I listen to has some sort of pop flair to it. I listen to a lot of oldies -- old R&B stuff, British pop, stuff like that. And that stuff always seems to be pretty vocal-heavy. Not like, a ton of vocals, but that they're the main thing you remember about the song and you sing along with the vocals -- I really like that. I've never really done anything before where my voice was really used, and I wanted to try and use it, just like coming up with all kinds of melodies; there's just so much you can do with pop music. It isn't necessarily a thing of trying to make it accessible, but it's just the kind of music that I like and I enjoy writing. We'll see though. I'd ideally love to write songs and record them with a full band. I think that would be a lot of fun, but maybe in the next couple of years.
I think some of the appeal of Introducing… for me comes from how "alone" it sounds -- this single voice in this murky forest of percussion and hollowed-out sounds.
I made it at a really lonely time, at a time where I was kind of drowning and kind of trying to hold onto myself and stay above water. The only thing that was keeping me okay was doing this recording. I know it's pretty stark and maybe sounds pretty sad and maybe haunted, but yeah, it was a weird time in my personal life -- it just came out that way. The newest record's not as dreary. I'm feeling better, I think.
Maybe this'll be your triumphant doo-wop pop album or something.
[Laughs] Well, the things I'm writing about now are a little bit more uplifting and positive I think, but the voice on Introducing is pretty beaten down I guess.
There is that haunted and spooked-out kind of thing going on in the album, but I noticed, particularly on the track “National Anthem,” that it gets almost serene or pretty after awhile from its repetition.
Yeah, I think that's maybe why I put that as the first song. I think it's the first or second song that I ever recorded, and, uh, yeah it's a beautiful song and it feels kind of -- oh, I dunno... uplifting angels or something. It's kind of like me crying out in that song; it's called “National Anthem” for a reason, living in America -- it's an incredible place right now. There are so many things that I love about it and that I'm proud about, but there's this underlying [sigh] I don't know, repetition of all these new cycles that keep coming and going and keeping us where we are.
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"I made it at a really lonely time, at a time where I was kind of drowning and kind of trying to hold onto myself and stay above water."
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Well there certainly seems to be a big influence of America on the album, with that track “National Anthem” and the Bruce Springsteen cover and the name of U.S. Girls itself and this idea of being alone in America as well. It made me curious about what it would be like to live there right now.
It's weird -- everybody seems just kind of beaten down, and everyone seems to be in the same negative boat right now. The elections coming up and people have all this hope in Barak Obama, but it's like, I dunno, it's more like he's the lesser of two evils. It's just going for it because things have been so shitty during the Bush administration, and there needs to be a change, and it seems like he's going to be the one to do it. But, of course, it runs deeper than just who the figure head that's in the office. It's just a hard time to live here; everything's going up in price. It's basically impossible to tour; it's the only way I could afford to do it -- like I couldn't afford to pay for all the gas in a car. It seems like there's been an end to the vacation touring thing, like going on tour with your friends because you have some time off. You can't really do it anymore. The people who are touring and who really want to do it and who're making it happen, they're coming up with really creative ways to do it or they're going in debt. It's weird; it's a weird time. But I think it's not just in America, but the whole world.
It's expensive over here in England too, yeah. It's such a shame how it limits your movements so much -- I mean, it's always so great to go on a road trip or just drive somewhere, and that seems like such a big American idea, too, come to think of it; the road trip. And it's such a massive place: it's sprawling, there's so much to see, but there are such limitations now. You can't just drive wherever like you're supposed to be able to do.
Yeah, I'm limited now in every area of my life. I don't have insurance and I have a rotten tooth in my mouth at the moment, but there's nothing I can do about it apart from keeping my mouth as clean as possible. I can't get my tooth fixed, because I cant afford it, and just shit like that. Everyone's just kind of living and just doing their best just to get by.
Well, one idea I heard from your album was this sound of the American dream gone wrong, or, the American dream as it is today, with how it sounds as well as references to Springsteen and, again, the name U.S. Girls.
I think about that stuff all the time, and I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. He's written about everyday people and such interesting perspectives. A lot of he time, it's about the underdog or the beaten down and stuff like that. And I don't really write about anybody but myself, because I know myself the best and I can speak to myself. I wouldn't ever try to speak for anyone else, and I don't think I could really come up with characters. But It's like American Idol gone wrong or something; everything's fucked and I'm like crying in my room or something [laughs], when really I just want to be on stage in some sequined gown, but everything's dirty and it doesn't sparkle anymore -- all these things that are covered in dust.
For sure, that makes a lot of sense. There's almost like a singular image of that in how a lot of the songs sound. I feel kind of under-qualified to talk to you about Bruce Springsteen, though; I've never really got around to listening to that much of him. What do you like about him so much?
Everything, I guess; he makes music that makes your heart hurt. I really like that -- any kind of music that stays with you days or weeks or a lifetime after you hear it. It's the same thing with books or film or something like that. He makes things that stay with you. I like that he's blatantly American, and he's not embarrassed about it. I like that he's almost in his '60s, and he still plays for like four hours for every show. Nobody does that; nobody plays for four hours. He puts on a show; he's an entertainer, but he's not cheesy. The entertainment is just him completely exposing himself. I just think the music is this combination of everything I like. You can hear the influence of Phil Spector in his music, in the writing and production, and maybe like, The Animals -- just all this great old stuff he grew up listening to and he took the best parts of it and put it into this thing that's completely unique. It's just him; no one else could make that music.
Yeah, I guess that's why they call him The Boss
He rules it, for sure.
[Photo: Nic Hughes]