anderswolleck

Mates of State are made of the sweetest couple in the world, Kori Gardner on the organ and Jason Hammel on drums. They even have a little baby who goes with them on the road. But just because they a nice couple with child, it doesnt mean they cant rock the fuck out. Their latest album is Bring it Back.

Buy Bring it Back

Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you doing today?

Jason Hammel: Not too much, just trying to get some work done.

DRE: Where do the two of you live now?

JH: Were in New Haven, Connecticut. We moved here a couple years ago.

DRE: How come?

JH: We couldnt afford a house in San Francisco so we moved here.

DRE: How do you like New Haven?

JH: Its mellow. Its got good food, but theres not a lot going on but since we travel so much, its a good place to come home to. To be undistracted. Also New York City is like a little over an hour away, so when we need our fix, we just go to town.

DRE: What work are you doing today?

JH: Just a lot of email stuff and production stuff for the record because were doing a video next week in San Francisco so were nailing down all the details for all that.

DRE: What song is the video for?

JH: Its going to be for Fraud In The 80's.

DRE: Whos directing it?

JH: Arno Salters. Hes done a bunch of cool stuff so were going to go out and work with him.

DRE: Whats the concept for the video?

JH: Its going to be a lot of stop motion stuff.

DRE: Wow!

JH: Hey, Koris here too; let me figure out how to get this on speakerphone and we can both talk.

DRE: Hi Kori. Are you working as well?

Kori Gardner: Kind of, I just put the baby to bed.

DRE: Thats working. How old is your little girl?

KG: Shes a year and a half.

DRE: The two of you met in Lawrence, Kansas. Is that where you guys grew up?

JH: No, I just went to college there.

KG: I was actually born there, but I only lived there as a baby and then my parents moved to the East Coast. Then I gravitated back toward there because I had family and I liked the school. It had a really good art and music scene. We met there and moved somewhere else after that.

DRE: Did you guys ever meet William Burroughs?

KG: I ran into him at a Hallmark once. I just sat there and gawked at him. His boyfriend was with him. He was buying a huge stack of porn and cigars.

DRE: [laughs] Thats so cool.

JH: I accidentally went on a date with one of William Burroughs boyfriends when I was in Lawrence. I didnt know it was a date until afterwards. I was fresh out of a small town in Minnesota, snot nosed kid freshman, and he asked me to go to a Violent Femmes concert with him and I was like, Yeah sure. Then in the car ride afterwards I realized it was a date.

DRE: Did he have his hand on your thigh or something?

KG: Midway through the blow job he was like, Wait!

DRE: [laughs] How old was this guy?

JH: I was 18 and he was maybe 40. Lets just say at the end of the night I had to make a break for it.

DRE: What inspired the new album?

JH: Life.

KG: [laughs] Everything from having a baby, to being in a band, to moving to the East Coast from San Francisco.

JH: From being happy one day to being bummed out the next. It was just normal life things.

DRE: Whats the writing process between the two of you?

KG: It used to be completely fifty-fifty at the studio. We would just go and hammer out songs and piece them together and finish off the lyrics together at home. But since the baby came we actually started putting ourselves more on a schedule. We put our daughter in daycare two or three times a week and now we have that time to practice. We bought some studio equipment so that when she is around one of us can sneak off and work on piecing songs together. Everythings still fifty-fifty, but theres a little bit more alone time involved now because we can go to our little studio environment.

DRE: Does she go on the road with you?

KG: Yeah she has. Shes been on every tour so far. Shes a year and a half now and theres going to be a couple of short tours here and there that we leave her with my Mom. Then every other tour, shell come if its long and shell stay with my Mom if its shorter. We arent sure how shes going to do at this stage now. Its been great so far. She doesnt know where she is as long as shes with her parents. At her age, we would never leave her for very long and if things werent going right with her on the road we would make adjustments.

DRE: Do you play your music for her or do you play stuff like The Wiggles?

James: We play regular music and we play lots of kids music for her. She definitely has her favorites of both.

KG: She also goes to music class.

DRE: What do they do in baby music class?

James: They dance.

KG: They dance and sing and play percussion instruments. Its amazing because you wouldnt think they would learn that much at her age. But theres stuff that shes learned there like being able to copy certain rhythms and stuff.

DRE: Does she like your music?

KG: Yeah, she has favorites on the new record. She makes us fast forward until we get to her favorites.

DRE: [laughs] Oh, thats cute.

I interviewed this band a few years ago called Quasi. Its made up of two people who used to be married. They got divorced but theyre still in the band together. I interviewed one of them and I said that there was one reviewer of a live show who wrote that they stare longingly at each other with secret smiles or something. The band member said We probably do, but its probably just because I screwed up a chord. I read something similar about you guys, is that all just bull?

KG: Well when you know someone really well you feel comfortable looking at them as opposed to someone in the crowd.

DRE: When you guys argue over the music, what is it about typically?

KG: Weve had arguments because one of us didnt like a part that the other one was really pushing for. Thats pretty much the only thing we argue about when were writing. Then you just got to make some compromise. I think the difference between us and a lot of people is that we both are songwriters and so theres a lot of room for more ideas but theres a lot of room for trying to compromise as well.

DRE: How did the two of you first meet?

KG: We were a couple before we started playing music together. When we started playing music together we also werent a duo, we were in a band with two other people. The duo just happened accidentally one night.

DRE: How did it happen accidentally?

KG: We were supposed to practice with the rest of the band and they didnt show up so we didnt want to waste our time not playing music. I had bought this organ a long time ago and instead of playing guitar I decided to play around with the organ and Jason went and sat behind the drums even though he wasnt the drummer at the time. We thought it sounded really cool and wrote a song that night and then wrote a couple more the next day and it just came really quickly. There was no intention involved; it just totally fell into place.

DRE: Wheres the rest of the old band today?

KG: One of them is a lawyer in DC.

JH: One of them is going to medical school.

KG: Hes going to be a doctor in Kansas.

DRE: [laughs] So theyre kicking themselves basically.

KG: I think theyre going to be ok.

DRE: Howd you guys hook up with Barsuk Records?

JH: Weve actually just been friends with them for a long time. Theyre from Seattle so when we went down the West Coast, we bumped into them at a show of a band that they had put out. They almost put out our previous records. Then when our contract was up with Polyvinyl, they just started asking us if we were interested in talking about it. We realized it was the best one for us.

DRE: How are they doing for you?

JH: Theyre doing a great job. They started small but theyve been picking up a lot. They put out that band Death Cab for Cutie. So theyre starting to sell quite a bit of records and they definitely have their heads on straight and know how to market and promote records.

KG: Also to us support is like, How can you help us get to a bigger audience? and How can you help us find new avenues to get our music out there? Thats what theyre totally doing right now.

DRE: How was the response to that when you guys had the open contest for the music videos?

JH: It went great. It really actually surprised us. We didnt have any money from the old label to do a video so we made an open invitation to anyone that was interested in making a video and send it to us. We ended up getting hundreds of ideas. Its easy to put an idea down, but then to actually make the video is another thing. But we ended up getting 13 or 14 completed videos. We were astounded at how many people actually submitted. We watched all of them and the one that ended up winning was just astoundingly good.

DRE: Would you guys do something like that again?

KG: I think part of the reason we did that is because we wanted to do a video and we really didnt want to be in it. At the time I think I was nine months pregnant when that song came out, so there wasnt even an option of even doing that. So I would love to do that again. Definitely.

DRE: What do you guys know about SuicideGirls?

KG: I think its a good idea. Its an alternative for the horny indie male.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck