Mary Timony Issue #12

an interview regarding 'The Golden Dove'

By Amy Schroeder
Published: June 18th, 2002 | 8:52pm

Mary Timony has never really been one to mess around with sugary lyrics – and if she does dabble in it, there’s always a hint of sarcasm. On her second solo album, The Golden Dove -- which is scheduled to be released in June 2002 -- she challenges the listener with twisted, intriguing stories about, for instance, "the kind of music that can kill your mind" and "looking a ghost in the eye every day."

Like her first solo record, Mountains, Dove is, at times, dark and mysterious, but this time around, she goes more in-depth by adding richer textures, layers, and more instruments -- mainly guitar, piano, and strings.

One of the most compelling songs on the album is "14 Horses," which splits its imagery between gothic/Medieval ("Planet of Kingdom Come / … Through the waters I saw hell") and modern disturbances ("Take the telephone outside / Someone bury it alive"). A slow, steady drum beats while Mary sings in a disturbingly sweet voice, backed by chant-like female vocals repeating her words.

"I realized lately that one of my major influences is the old folk songs I learned as a kid," Timony explains on the phone from her home in Boston. "I really try to write songs that sound like that – songs that originate from the 1700s and 1800s. I really like some of the stories that are in those old songs – like rounds you sung in camp. Some of them are really fucked up. There’s this song I learned called "Outlandish Night" – it basically describes a murder … a woman drowning a man who tried to murder her, which is bad-ass. It’s nothing you’d hear in Britney Spears songs."

In January you went to Seoul, Korea, to play with Stephen Malkmus. What was it like?

It was the first time we’d been to Korea. Not a lot of American indie bands go there. It was a really different experience. It’s not worth it for some bands to go there, because the only city to play really is Seoul. I’d never been to Japan or any part of Asia before. We had time to do some site-seeing and ate a lot of crazy food -- we ate dog.

What’s dog like?
It’s gamey. It’s not something I’d do again, but I really wanted to do it. They actually have dog restaurants – it’s sort of like an old-school thing in Korea. A lot of the old people in Korea eat dog -- younger people don’t eat it. People believe it gives you strength.

Being in Korea was like a vacation. It was really fun. We had four days off and then we played one show. We did some interviews there … Koreans are into American music. A lot of the kids found out about stuff through the Internet and MP3s; the people I met knew a lot about American indie music. The weirdest thing is that Stephen played with a Pavement cover band from Seoul, and they sounded exactly like Pavement. It was pretty awesome -- it was funny. … I played solo and played keyboards and guitar.

How is your new record, The Golden Dove, different or similar to your first solo album, Mountains?

I think it’s different -- mainly because I recorded in a different studio. For me, I can’t really answer that. Mountains was an emotional, dark record, but it seemed to me to be about working through or overcoming sadness. On Mountains, the songs came out of natural, everyday life. What I was thinking about at the time was what I was going through. I wrote that record in a time in my life that was a lot harder than where I’m at now. The new record is not as much about struggling. Mountains was a lot about struggling. I called it tkital Mountains because I was imagining life being a long pilgrimage over mountains. Life sometimes felt like that to me.

Ah, I remember around that time, in 2000, seeing a photo of you wearing a T-shirt that said "Pilgrim."

Yes, it’s about the song "Poison Moon" -- for that, I was imagining a group of pilgrims traveling a really difficult landscape. There was a lot of imagery -- I dream about stuff like that. Maybe that’s where my songs come from.

What is a songwriting process like for you?

It’s not really a big deal. I think of an idea randomly. Usually, I’ll be walking around my house. I think of something, nothing big, but if I remember the idea later, maybe that’s something that I like. I start focusing on it more, make it fleshed out, think of more things, more details.

Will there ever be another Helium record?

We never made the decision to break up. We always talked about making a new record. Ash [Bowie] lives in San Francisco, and I live in Boston, so the likelihood is small. It could happen, but it seems like it won’t.

Will there be another Spells record with Carrie Brownstein?

Eventually. We’ve recorded a few songs for a new record, but since we don’t live on the same coast, it’s hard for us to get together. Hopefully it will happen soon.

I hear that you are interested in making music for movies?

A little bit. I’ve had music in movies -- like Stealing Beauty, which came out four or five years ago. And, in my friend Brett Vapnek’s 15-minute film, called Dream Machine, I acted and did the music. I really liked how that came out; there are plans to get it distributed, but I’m not sure. I played this girl who has just moved to New York and wants to act and she goes to an audition and she gets horribly rejected. Then she goes to a karaoke bar (laughs) … I did karaoke … it was fun; the music is poppy, and it will hopefully be added on to some Helium videos that we’ll put out. … The character can only express herself through music.

It was really fun to do acting, but I’m not actively pursuing it – I’m not going out to auditions or anything. [Sarcastically] I’m going to be a Shakespearean actress, I decided (laughs). Enough of this music bullshit. Where it’s at is Shakespeare. … Last year, my friend and I did the music for a television show on the Warner Brothers station. It was called Dead Last, and it lasted four or five episodes. We’d watch the episode and then come up with the music. It was an intense project and really fun to do.

This is the first half of the interview, which was originally published in the Spring 2002 issue of Venus (Venus Zine no. 12). To read the second half, order the issue online at venuszine.com.