After their previous band Full Sketch dissolved, singer-lyricist Katie Sketch and organist Jenny Smith formed The Organ through auditions. The result: 5 girls and an Hammond X123 organ, which gives its name to the band. With such an ID card, I expected The Organ to be a Canadian equivalent of England’s Electrelane . In fact they’re not so similar but at least, there is one common point between them I could advance: I fall in love with both of their music almost instantly.
It’s always perilous to describe a band’s musical style but I suppose that if Kristin Hersh decided to associate with Interpol to cover some Smiths ‘ song, the result might be approaching. Because among the many post-punk 80′s influences that embrace Grab That Gun , The Smiths’ legacy is easy to perceive. In songs like Love, Love, Love and Memorize The City , there are crystal and obsessing guitar’s convolutions that Johnny Marr would not have disavowed, rolling around metronomic and hypnotic rhythmic, and hooky bass lines. Disenchanted, multiplying emotional torsions, Katie Sketch’s voice will also remind Morrissey’s vocals. But there’re only reference points which don’t prevent The Organ to develop its personal sound, cultivating catchy atmospheres and moody romanticism.
Grab That Gun ‘s not really a funny album: it mainly deals with disappointed loves and choked resentment, tainted with self-abandonment (as on well-named There Is Nothing I Can Do : “and there is nothing I can do / But cut and think about you ”). It’s a melancholic album which is more likely to be listen curl up into a ball in your bed one grey cloudy Sunday morning than Saturday evening on the dance-floor… Although now, curiously, I easily sing-along while listening to it. Because these sad songs, I find them more comforting than miserabilist; and because these are short pieces, and it doesn’t leave enough time for self-pity, I’m only fascinated by the passionate side of these melodies. With a little effort, I believe that I could even dance on it, in some disordered and vaguely epileptic movements, while following the organ’s vibrating irruptions which haunt I am not Surprised or Brother . From here, there is only one small step left from saying that The Organ’s music put me in some kind of trance experience…
Passion, melancholy, hypnotism: perhaps it’s the mix of all these sensations that make me listen over and over again intense songs like Steven Smith or Sinking Hearts (“Our hearts didn’t come together / But I saw the two collide / I can see the hearts sinking… ”), whose emotional impact strikes me each time. Tightened, without filling, the whole thing is admirably achieved and focused, making me think that Grab That Gun is one of my favourite albums of 2004, and The Organ one of its most invaluable revelations.
Then trying to put aside all my admiration for this album and curious to learn more about the band, I asked to singer Katie Sketch to answer, by e-mail, to some questions. She nicely accepted. And here it is.
The Organ was formed in a rather unusual way since several among you were not musicians: can you tell me when and how the band was created? Which were your goals, your objectives, when you started this adventure?
My original goal was to try to get a group of people together who all played music that I enjoy. This was much easier said than done. I probably went through 10 people and had to get rid of them due to the amount of wanking they put out. I wanted simplistic playing. I also wanted players who could commit to the band… I guess, I didn’t want it to be a hobby band. I wanted the band to be everybody’s priority. And that’s what I got… eventually.
The making of Grab That Gun was long and complicated; you decided to re-record the entire album because you find Kurt Dahle’s production too “clean”: was this perfectionism, the desire for making an album which you would be proud at 100% with each small detail?
I doubt it would be possible for me to ever be 100% satisfied with my own album. In retrospect, there are always parts of a record that an artist wished that she or he had done differently. This being said, I would not have been proud to have released our first take of the album on any level. Not only did it sound too clean, it also sounded totally void of emotion. I suppose clean and void of emotion are similar.
You’re the only one to write the lyrics then how the songs’ creation works with the rest of the band? Does each one bring its small part to the whole melody? And do the other girls of the band plan to write lyrics someday?
Usually a song begins when Debora and I find a riff that we like. Everyone builds their parts around the riff. The vocal melody is inserted last and the lyrics are inserted right before we play the song live. I have a hard time deciding on which lyrics I want to use and so they tend to change up until we’re in the studio.
Grab that Gun’s songs are mainly about melancholy and obsession in love, or the loneliness, sadness and pain which can result from this: are these songs as personal and introspective for you as they seem to be? Do you think that love is the key for “personal blooming”?? “All You Need Is Love, Love, Love”?
The lyrics are personal and introspective. I’m not particularly good at writing lyrics that I haven’t experienced in some way. Love and sadness are definitely two concepts that I spend way too much time thinking about: I can really bore myself to tears obsessing over them. As far as love contributing to personal blooming… Love comes in many forms – obviously… and everybody’s experience of it differs. It’s hard for me to say what I think of it in any definitive terms.
I really like Memorize The City’s lyrics, I find them very visual and realistic, with this melancholic, solitary walk in the city, by night. It’s a silly question but precisely, don’t you think that the best ideas, the finest thoughts come to mind while walking in the streets?
Yes. I think the finest thoughts come from walking in the streets and lying awake in bed.
Your music is often compared to The Smiths, Joy Division and The Cure: but if we put them aside, which are other artists who influence or inspire you? And among the contemporary artists, are there any ones who impress you particularly?
Oh god. There are so many artists that impress me that it would be impossible to make a list. but here’s a short few: The Shins, Interpol, The Unicorns, The Arcade Fire, The Magnetic Fields, Hot Hot Heat, The Hidden Cameras, Wolf Parade…
I would say that it is impossible to determine which artists have been particularly influential. There are five of us and we all grew up listening to different music. the three bands that everybody names were definitely influential to all of us at one time, but I couldn’t say that The Smiths influenced me anymore than Liz Phair or The Pretenders or The Talking Heads or Emmylou Harris, etc.
It seems that you are little irritated to be always presented like this “all-girl band”: do you take care to preserve The Organ of any feminist connotation?
Actually, that’s not true. I don’t mind being presented as an all-girl band at all. I’m just a little tired of being asked “are you treated any differently because you’re in an all-girl band?”… Surely, people can come up with a more imaginative question (like you just did). I’m also aware that there will always be feminist connotations attached to being in an all-girl band. And that’s fine. I wish there were more girl bands so that this issue didn’t have to be discussed at all.
I read that your live shows were very detached, static and interiorized, specially at your first gigs where you were terrified by the audience: does this fear, and any lack of self-confidence, vanish with time?
I’ve become more self-confident over time. I think all of us have, but I would say that we’re still not comfortable with the live experience. I suppose we’re not natural performers. Perhaps, much of our audience can relate to that.
Grab That Gun received some strong reviews and significantly increases your fan base: how do you feel with this positive reaction to your music?
The positive reaction feels great. I try not to get too tied up in it though, as I’ve noticed that if I buy in to the positive reviews, I also buy in to the negative ones. Ultimately, I’d like everyone to listen to the record and decide for themselves if our music is for them. Hopefully, reviews good or bad won’t deter people from listening to us. Increasing our fan base is important to the longevity of our careers after all; it would be difficult to have a career if nobody was buying the album.
Since a couple of years, Canada seems more creative than ever, with so many different and exciting bands: The Arcade Fire, The Stills, The Unicorns, The Dears, Broken Social Scene and many others…: how do you see that, at your level? Do you have the feeling to belong to some kind of Canadian “new wave”? Are you close with some of them?
We’re close with Hot Hot Heat, The Dears, The Hidden Cameras, Controller.Controller, and The New Pornographers. We’ve met some of the other bands but I don’t know them well enough to invite them to my birthday party. There is a new wave of great Canadian bands, but to be honest, I’d never really thought about it. It’s great to see our friends do well.
What’s next for The Organ? Do you plan a tour to promote Grab That Gun’s recent release in the USA? And do you already have ideas for your sophomore album?
We’re starting to song write for our next album, but it won’t be released any time soon. We’re slow songwriters. Very slow. We’re putting out a 7″ and we’re currently discussing how we’re going to go about touring the USA. We plan on playing SXSW in March. I think we’ll be touring the states around that date.
One last question: is “Steven Smith” really a sort of tribute to Morrissey [[Real name of The Smiths' singer is Steven Patrick Morrissey]] ?
Can you believe that you’re the first person to ask me that? I’ve read many reviews that have flat out stated that it is, but nobody has bothered to ask me.
My answer in short is: yes. They were right.
Commenter