This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist Interviews
Q&A: Screaming Females
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 26 October 2010
Formed in 2005, the then underage members of The Screaming Females found it difficult to find venues where they were legally allowed to play in the New Jersey town where they lived, so they began putting on their own gigs in a basement.
This DIY outlook continued, as they self-released their first two albums, spreading the word of this new punk band and frontwoman Marissa Paternoster’s guitar heroics even further. The band released ‘Castle Talk’, their latest album, via Don Giovanni Records last month, and begin a tour of the UK this week. We spoke to Marissa and drummer Jarrett Dougherty.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Marissa: I didn’t start playing an instrument until I was fourteen. At the time, I only wanted to be a in a band so I could wear funny outfits. I suppose not much has changed in the way of funny outfits.
Jarrett: Music has always been a huge part of my life. My father was a semi-professional singer-songwriter for most of my young life. My mother is a music therapist and plays a dozen instruments. I didn’t start playing drums until I was nine years old. To my family that was incredibly late and they thought I might never pick up an instrument. From nine until eighteen I took classical percussion lessons. I learned to play dozens of instruments and most importantly learned how to listen, practice, keep time like a metronome, and to never stop. I’ve never been able to play as fast or as hard as a lot of other drummers out there but I think I am more creative, interesting, and subtle than most other drummers I hear. I think that that can only come from a lifetime of critically listening to music; growing up with it all around me.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Jarrett: Going into the recording process of our new record, ‘Castle Talk’, we would have never guessed at what would become its biggest inspiration. We had given ourselves more time to work on this record than any of our previous studio releases. We thought we would have all the time in the world. It turned out that we ran into every mechanical failure that can happen in a studio.
Our recording time got squashed and we had to work our asses off to insure the record would come out. If we didn’t get it done in the time we had allowed we would have had to completely rework both our North American and European tours. Despite three broken analogue tape machines, snowstorms, uncontrollable tape hiss, a complete album remixing, two mastering sessions, and extremely high tensions we managed to make our best record yet. The determination that made that happen is definitely something you can hear in the final product.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Jarrett: The writing process for Screaming Females has been the same since the beginning. The three of us come together, usually in someone’s basement, and play music until something interesting happens. Then we refine that raw material and try to work out changes and individual parts that combine to make a song unlike the rest of our songs. We’ve never defined what the sound of Screaming Females should be, so that allows our sound to evolve into anything we want it to be.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Marissa: We spend quite a bit of time in the van together so our personal tastes often develop similarly. More often than not, we are influenced by bands that we play with and get to know. I’d say that collectively, we’re pretty analytical and get kicks imitating bands that we like during rehearsals and stuff.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Jarrett: What do you think?
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Jarrett: I hope that the new record sells a few more copies than the last and that a new audience gets to enjoy it. I hope that for long time fans ‘Castle Talk’ gives them a new reason to love our band and a reason to continue coming to our shows and following our strange rock n roll art project. I guess there is still the hope of having a breakout record, but after four full lengths and a bunch of singles I’m incredibly happy with our slow steady build. Doing things they way we want and, I hope, retaining a high level of honesty and integrity, is important to me.
MORE>> www.screamingfemales.com
