Stunt Lover – New Single Cisyphus City
First off, Stunt Lover is back at it and it’s a a blast – Imagine a dive bar in downtown Hades, they have a house band that sounds like a Tom Waits and David Lynch after party. Tidal waves of crashing/angular guitars, snarling vocals, found sounds creating idiosyncratic polyrhthms, insistent bassline trying to catch the heartbeat kick. It all adds up to something vicious and daring yet ultimately fascinating. And then you get lines like, “The sound of a planet crashing into a planet A moral compass so badly cracked,” and fuck me, that line is soooo good. If the rest of the album is like this then we are all in for a treat!
As a fan of Stunt Lover I have often wondered what goes into the music. The first release Aldona’s Daughter kicked my arse the first time I listened to it and as a consequence has been an album still on my rotation list, it’s also something I will champion at any opportunity. As things conspire it turns out after a hiatus that Stunt Lover is back with a single and new album which promises to be a blast going off what I’ve heard so far. Luckily for me I got the chance to ask Kaylee Bear of Stunt Lover a few questions about her music and process.
Favourite piece of music that you have created and why?
Maybe Apple Cider Vinegar? It was one of the most autobiographical and grounded pieces- by that I mean the lyrics were pretty literal. And the uptick at the end was hella fun to play live, it was a beautiful mess.
What is your creative process?
As I assume it does for a lot of people, it can vary from song to song. Coming at music and sonic art from a literary and visual background, most times I have lyrics first; there have been times that I developed a visual piece that then prompted a song idea (Sky Below and Dope Ride, for example). Other times you get a good riff in your head and work around that (I say sonic art as well because I’ve had pieces in exhibitions that had narratives as equally dependent upon the visual elements as they were the interactive audio that was produced).
How did you start in music? Were you taught formally or are you self taught?
I was living in Mongolia back in 2000-2002 and some friends asked if I wanted to play bass in their band, and I said “yeah!” Then they asked if I knew how to play bass- “Not at all!” So I started out on a seriously abused bass with only three strings, and would stand across from the left-handed guitarist and just ape his index finger. We actually played some of our first gigs that way. Maybe the second best punk band in Mongolia.
Best piece of advice you have received.
Being self taught, and coming off of a five-year hiatus from music, I was extremely self-conscious when I started playing with the lads in Dublin during Aldona’s Daughter- they’re both top tier hot shit. I was apologising for the weird structure of one of the songs and the bassist stopped me and said it was actually really interesting to play and that I should lean into the idiosyncrasies of my writing and arrangements. And now, after a seriously bad go with Covid and another musical hiatus due to that, my voice is different, so I’ve applied that same approach to my vocal ability as well- it is what it is, this is what I have to work with so might as well lean into it rather than trying to hide or “fix” it.
Best advice you could give.
I really don’t think I’m in a position to be giving advice to anyone.
Influences musical and otherwise
At just the right impressionable age, the book Hiding (Mark C. Johnson, 1997) radically shifted my comprehension of what art is. It affected my writing and, consequently, my lyrics; it impacted my use of metaphor and conceptualisation of objects and bodies in my art practice across all forms. For a more practical musical reference, however, I am through-and-through a child of the late 80s and 90s- Blondie, Joan Jett, then Nirvana, Pixies, Radiohead. Maybe that comes through in the music, maybe it doesn’t, but some less obvious influences might be Brody Dalle and Dead Sara, Tom Waits, Eels, Portishead, NIN. Bikini Kill, Built to Spill, Soul Coughing. The Tragically Hip. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Viagra Boys and Idles. Funnily enough, though, when I’m at home alone I listen to a lot of hip hop and rap.
Your new music seems to be quite a departure from your previous album Aldona’s Daughter – is that intentional or just progression?
Yeah, so, that is very much intentional. The live set videos on You Tube are markedly different than the albums versions- they are more raw, in my opinion more vibrant and real. It was my first time working with a producer, and I was just so happy that someone was interested in the project that I gave him that I gave him carte blanche. And he sorta… well, he got carried away doing producery stuff, and in the end it was way more polished and poppy than I intended. So I’m over-correcting on this album and doing everything myself, nose-to-tail. The singles released will be a bit more traditionally structured, but the other tracks are going to have room to just go where they want.
Which DAW or Equipment do you use – small rundown if possible.
This is my first time using Logic Pro, so even though I try to keep the processing to a minimum, the progress with this first track from the upcoming album has been a bit slower because of the learning curve. I really love using pedals to get the sound I want in real life, in the studio, so I use them on the guitars, I’ll use them on vocals and found objects, or my kalimba-turned-terror box. I use a Yamaha CP keyboard, a Fender American Jazzmaster pro, and a Marshall 300w tube amp (when I can get away with the noise).
Then there’s all the pedals and various banjos, basses and the like. I was sponsored by Burns Guitars USA for a hot second, so I have a Barracuda baritone guitar floating around, I’d like that to make an appearance on this album. I’ve started making instruments too, like cigar box guitars, Chinese fiddles and whatnot, so if I get one done in time I’d love to include that as well.
I’ve got too many pedals to do a full rundown, but my main staples are the Red Panda Tensor, Earthquaker Devices’ Data Corrupter, and the Danelectro Spring King. For drive and distortion, I rely on my old classic black Russian Big Muff, Stone Deaf ‘s Warp Drive (great versatility), and two boutique bits- the Zoo Drive from Elteko Sound Design in Bulgaria (a great tube screamer alternative), and a gorgeous, albeit brick of a pedal called the Mig Fuzz from Electro Mechanical Labs in Oregon.
I can hear a lot of found sounds in your new track and have seen you mention online about recording and sampling various things. What kind of things have you recorded and do you process in the moment or is it post?
All the drum and percussion sounds are found objects- buckets, barrels, wine boxes with snare gear on them; I’ve got a typewriter in one track, matches being lit in another. City sounds…. and a two-person saw, called a “misery whip.” That’s doing double-duty: I’m using it as a cymbal as well as running a signal through it for a plate reverb effect. I really want to lean heavier into how far I can take it all and still retain a musicality. I was afraid I’d balanced out the drum sounds so much in Cis City that the elements weren’t as discernible as they could be, but I guess not.
What are the themes we can expect in the new album?
The title, A Huge Problem To A Sane World, is attributable to Helen Joyce, an Irish FINANCE JOURNALIST who decided she was qualified to write a book on trans people. She has essentially called for the eradication of all trans people, claiming that even a single happy trans person was still, in her opinion, “a huge problem.” Sooo I guess I do concept albums, because Aldona’s Daughter was all about one heartbreakingly short relationship, and this one is all just the anger and frustration towards the ridiculously anti-scientific, illogical, knee-jerk reactionary hateful shite that useful idiots like Joyce regurgitate from christo-fascist groups that deliberately planted anti-trans seeds as a wedge issue after losing their fight against marriage equality in the US. Some of the lyrics are over a year or two old but they feel even more relevant now, what with the renewed attacks on LGBTQ by the US and UK governments. It’s also why all the songs are in odd time signatures-defiantly odd, as in queer. Queer time signatures!
You also have a video coming out as well – what was the creative process there?
As I mentioned, I’m a writer and visual artist by trade- I have a fairly useless doctorate in postmedia audiovisual narratives- so it makes sense to also be using video as a narrative medium. This one is a fairly straightforward representation of the perpetual punishment that Sisyphus found himself suffering- pushing a rock up the mountain only to have it roll down, repeated ad infinitum. I could dive into how that’s a commentary on the cyclical attacks on civil rights we have to fight against, but it’s also just my wife and I having fun running around at four in the morning making videos together. The dog didn’t want to be left behind, so Nina the Beast is featured in it as well. She’s very labour-intensive. So who knows, maybe she’s the rock.
Check out our thoughts on Stunt Lover’s previous release,the stompingly good Aldona’s Daughter.
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