Loquat

Frontwoman Kylee Swenson teaches you all about Italian sonnets and iambic pentameters to create your next makeout song

By Mia Horberg
Published: July 25th, 2005 | 4:07pm

I am pissed. I've had Loquat's album, It's Yours to Keep (Jackpine Social Club), for only about two months and I've already managed to wear the disk out. You see, I love this album. I have a sloppy high school crush on this album and, with as much sweetness as it has given back to my ears, I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. Lead singer and guitarist Kylee Swenson's voice is sultry and sweet. It's similar to an American version of Beth Orton. While Orton's sad songs make you want to take a spork to your wrists, Loquat's sexy vocals laid atop soft beats make you want to make out.

Swenson and pal Earl Otsuka (guitarist) started the band in 1996 after some nudging by a friend. The addition of bassist Anthony Gordon, drummer and vocalist Christopher Lautz, and keyboardist Ryan Manley has made the band complete and added depth. They are San Francisco's darlings and one of the city's best-kept secrets. During a recent phone conversation, I caught up with Kylee, who along with being the incredibly sweet and gracious lead singer of the band, is also the trailblazing editor of Remix magazine.

So, I'm a little nervous because I know that you interview people for a living. Oh no! Not at all. You shouldn't be because, honestly, it's so cool to be on the other side once in a while, ya know? It's a different perspective of things and it's fun for me. I like talking!

You got to interview Bjork and Missy Elliot who are two of my absolute favorites, what was that like?

It was funny because the first time I interviewed Bjork was when she did Post and I was pretty green, pretty young, and I was just flabbergasted. It was super early on a Sunday morning. But you know, just listening to her ask for a Dr. Pepper from somebody in the background was just like [sound of idol worship]. I was freakin' out! [Breaks into Bjork impersonation] 'Can I have a Dr. Pepper?' And you're like, oh my gawd!

I've loved her since the eighth grade and the Sugarcubes. Everything she said was just so inspiring. The fact that she produces so much of everything that she does… She's just a definite inspiration for me. Missy Elliot too. Maybe she's not quite as much into the dirty work as far as the computer stuff goes, but she sings everybody's parts for them. People don't give her enough credit. She's also just so nice. Unbelievably down-to-earth and nice.

I'm bummed that you guys are half-way across America and I can't drink with you. I heard all of you can throw back a few.

(Laughs) I guess that's the reputation we've built up? I don't know if it's a good thing, but I don't know if we're lushes any more than any other bands. I don't think we could necessarily win any beer chugging contests. I guess people don't expect that kind of, like, happy-go-lucky party thing to come from a pop band such as ourselves. But yeah, we can kick ass and take names.

Have there been any fun or weird or particularly creative inebriated nights together?

Yeah, you know, when Earl and I started making music, we started out writing our songs, and — we don't do this anymore because it's not really a good thing to get trashed and write music — but we would have a bottle of vodka. One of our songs, "Timebomb," used to be named "Vodka" because we would name it after whatever we were drinking at the time. And of course I hadn't written lyrics or anything yet so we didn't know how it was gonna go. But other than that, the one thing I would say is that we don't get trashed before we play anymore. It's like a rule, it's a band rule that nobody can have more than one drink and nobody can get drunk before we get on stage.

I have to tell you, I love this album. "Take it Back" is one of my favorite songs ever. I don't know what it is about that song but...

I love that different people say such different things. Like, you know you don't want to think that there's one weak spot [on the album]. Some people will be like, 'Oh I like this one, or I like this one.' You're gonna always get good and bad comments, but I'll get bummed if somebody says, 'Oh, I don't like this one.' Then the next day somebody will be like, 'Oh, that's my favorite one!' and then I feel better.

Well, the album itself is really tricky. Upon the first listen, if you're not paying attention to the lyrics, it's really hard to know how you're feeling when you listen to it. And I don't mean, is it enjoyable or is it not, it's more like, am I feeling happy or am I feeling sad? I'm not really sure.

Well, that makes sense because maybe… even if you're not listening to the lyrics, somehow subconsciously it's seeping in or something. Everything about what we do is totally conflicting. The music tends to be pretty poppy but the lyrics are pretty conflicting. It's bittersweet. It's happy, sad, bitter, angry. I can understand the confusion, probably because we're confused (giggles). Yeah, I think that makes sense.

Well it's weird, because when I really wasn't paying attention to the lyrics, it seemed kind of like a makeout album to me. There's a very sexy quality about it. And then I was really concentrating on the lyrics and I was like, 'God, this isn't really a makeout song, it's kind of like a “hold me” song.' It's a really emotional album.

That is true. I think that — How do I explain it? — I don't write purely happy songs. I heard once that Bono said something like, 'Too many people write with a black brush,' and that's fine. It's easier to write songs when you're unhappy because when you're happy you're probably out at a bar celebrating your happiness and not at home writing songs. I like mixing it up. … When I was in school I took a lot of poetry classes. We'd write in all these ways like in iambic pentameter and there was this one that was an Italian sonnet. I think that was the first time I started thinking about conflict. And it's simple, it's not like this is a huge revelation or something. I like the idea of conflict and resolution, it just makes it have a little more dimension.

When I wrote the lyrics to the song "To the Floor," the bass player and I had just started going out and I played it for him and he got all freaked out and was like, 'Are you breaking up with me?' and I was like, 'No! No! Not at all!' It was basically that I had just copied the format of an Italian sonnet. For a certain amount of lines you talk about the conflict and then at the end you solve it. So what happens, it's like, 'Oh I'm so unsure of what's going on, I'm trying to make you laugh but you're not laughing. Is it gonna get worse?' Then at the end I'm like, 'You know what, why have I been worrying about this? It'll be fine.' I think he didn't get that at first. I'm still trying to explain it to him (laughs). It's just kind of cool to not just have one dimension of feeling. Because people are conflicted in their daily lives, it's not just one emotion.

What got you interested in the technology of music?

When I was 22 I finished school and I went to Germany — actually, this is kind of an aside because Germany has nothing to do with it — but I was a maid in a hotel and it was actually a really fun job! It was a beautiful town and I had so much fun. At the end it was like this fairy tale and I knew I had to get back to the real world. When I got back everyone had moved on. So I was kind of freaked out and one day I was just like, I need to get a job. I got the Sunday newspaper and I was sitting at a skate park with a friend who was skateboarding and I saw this ad for a magazine called Bass Player and so I applied for it. I didn't end up getting the job but I did end up getting a job with their sister magazine, Keyboard Player like a month later.

So, I knew that I wanted to write and that I wanted to do something with music. So, it was kind of accidental, I mean it was and it wasn't but I knew I wanted to end up here. Keyboard magazine is like the technical, how-to-play-keyboards magazine and that's where I first interviewed Bjork and they review gear and stuff. I basically learned that you can record on a computer and you can do all these things and I started getting all of this information on how to build your own studio. So I would start amassing gear, like software and computers, all these things to make a studio with and Earl and I together did it and he just loved reading manuals and I hated reading them. So, I would ask producers or whoever I was interviewing at the time to help me with what I was doing. After years of that - then I worked at Guitar player and now I'm at Remix magazine - basically that's been my school. It's been like going to recording school. I've just been very fortunate to be able to ask Bjork or whoever how to do something or how to get unstuck. I've been obsessed with it since then.

You have to be one of the only females in this field.

Yeah, there aren't many. It's been a boy's club for a long time. But there are female producers coming out. There are some amazing women like Angela Piva. I am totally impressed with her. She's produced and engineered for Mary J. Blige and Janet Jackson. There are women who are doing far more than me and my little band. It's so impressive to me, but it's slowly changing. It's still a boy's club. Even as far as music editors in these kinds of magazines. It's a guy's world still.

Well, I wouldn't cut yourself down too much with you and your 'little' band. I know you're being modest and all but you're doing some really great things, not just with the magazine but with the band as well.

Well, I appreciate that. What I think is interesting about women getting into men's industries is that it really takes seeing a woman doing it to make a light bulb go off in your head. Like, is this something I can do? For me it was when I was 22 or 23 and I met a couple of women who were engineering and working at these big mixing consoles and I was like, No way! It's because when you see something like the Grammys and you see the best producer of the year, it's usually some older dude who runs up there. You don't see women generally. But it's so cool when you have that feeling when you see these women and they have no qualms about it and they're not apologetic about being a woman. They're just doing it and they're not afraid. They're not afraid of technology, they're not afraid of hanging upside down off a bridge doing construction. There are definitely women who made me realize that I could do something like that. If it weren't for them, I probably would not have gone there.

If only there were stories like that on Oxygen and the Lifetime network instead of the crap they normally put on there. Besides music and the technology behind it, have you been able to pursue any other hobbies? I know that they're both full-time jobs, but have you gotten into any other fun stuff on the side?

To be honest I haven't given myself a whole lot of time to do anything else. But I love snowboarding and I love to play tennis. Unfortunately I just haven't done it in a little while. I think it's important to have some balance, to not completely obsess over one thing at any given time or else you'll give yourself a heart attack. I just need to - yeah, I'm looking for tennis partners right now.

You should really make some more time for yourself.

Ha! Thank you I'll try. I need to get the tennis going cause people are like, 'Yeah totally, I'll play tennis with you,' and then nobody follows up. They're like, 'Oh, I'm hungover, nevermind.'

That's usually how my plans get cancelled.

I've had enough of the hangovers.