| WARPAINT may be live-debuting 'Lissie's Heart Murmur' at Auckland Laneway! |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Wednesday, 26 January 2011 08:55 |
 Heart-on-her-sleeve wearer THERESA WAYMAN is one of four like-minded Los Angeles natives that together, make up the enchanting collective known as WARPAINT. And if all the band's hard work at perfecting their live show is anything to go by, then New Zealand is in for a real treat next week when the four-piece make a tour-stop in Auckland while on the St. Jeromes Laneway Festival circuit. Wayman admits that her current knowledge of our country is limited to "just that it's really beautiful and that's pretty much it!" But within her next breath tumbles out a jumble of anticipation: "I'm really excited to know more! I like to know pretty much anything about anything..." And likewise, prior to my call I was hardly a Warpaint aficionado, but now after my brief chat with Wayman, I am also excited to know more! The thirty-year-old guitarist and singer giggles while recounting her morning spent colouring in with her son Sirius B, yes, "like the star - it's a star!" Forget triple-threats, Wayman is a true triple-talent with her son being the thing that she is most proud of in her life. So, doting Mother, brilliant musician, and occasional actress? "Music is my main focus but I love acting and I would love to do it more, if I ever got the time or the chance, or opportunity to do so."  COUP DE MAIN: Warpaint are coming to New Zealand for the very first time ever to play Laneway Festival! Are you excited? THERESA WAYMAN - WARPAINT: Yes! So excited. Can't wait!! I feel so lucky because I've always loved traveling so much and now I get to do it all the time. So I feel really, really lucky. CDM: Even though Warpaint have been kicking around since 2004, it's still pretty cool that you're the only international band playing the Auckland Laneway date that's touring their debut album... THERESA: Yeah, that is amazing! I didn't really think of it like that at all - I didn't know that. But yeah I'm really excited and I feel really honoured to be playing with all the bands that we're [going to be] playing with. It should be really fun! CDM: Are you a fan of any of the other 2011 Laneway bands? THERESA: Yeah PVT! I like some Deerhunter stuff for sure and Blonde Redhead has been around in my scope and an influence for a while, so that's really really exciting. And Yeasayer are amazing and we're friends with them. We've played a couple of shows with them and seen them around the world in various places - like we saw them in Berlin because they happened to be playing a show there too and we all hung out, they're becoming friends of ours so it's cool. CDM: Since Warpaint formed on Valentine's Day, have you ever had a band-date on the day to celebrate? THERESA: We actually haven't, which is kind of ridiculous. But we should... and we're going to! CDM: Maybe an ice-cream date in Australia if you're still there then? THERESA: Yeahhh! Definitely. Good idea. Actually, I think that's the day I'm leaving. That's sad! I think that's the day that I'm leaving Australia and going to Europe. I think we're done on the 12th. CDM: Although Warpaint released the 'Exquisite Corpse' EP back in 2008, you only just released your debut album 'The Fool' in October of last year [2010] - why the long wait? THERESA: I think that we just take our time with everything. We don't feel that there's a rush to become something that we're not yet. We like to really feel things out and know what we're doing. We hadn't ever really played a lot of shows live after we released our EP, and that's when we started doing it - we started playing out live consistently right after we released our EP and we got a new drummer because Shannyn [Sossamon] had quit. We definitely needed to spend a good solid year just finding ourselves before anyone would even notice us. We had our fan-base growing around here in Los Angeles, but I wouldn't even have wanted anyone to come out to see us that was from a record label or something like that at that time, because we really needed to feel ourselves out as a live band. So, it just seemed like it happened naturally. We nailed our live show to some extent in a year or about a year and a half, maybe just a year of playing songs pretty much around L.A. then we went and scheduled a mini-tour up-state on the West Coast and that's when the whole Rough Trade [Records] thing started happening and from there, things just happened so quick. It changed really quickly. CDM: The recording experience for 'The Fool' album sounded like it was quite an intricate process... THERESA: It was - I think the most note-worthy part is that Stella [Mozgawa] had joined the band two weeks before we started recording, so that really influenced the way that the album was recorded. It was really important for Stella and Jen[ny Lee Lindberg] to lay down the drums and bass first for most songs, because they were determining how they needed to lock in together, and Stella was still kind of learning and figuring out her parts. So, it wasn't recorded as a live album, which... really, it's great... and I stand by this album, but I feel like that for the next album, we're going to know what we're doing for each song even more than what we did for this one, just because we'll have really fleshed them out as a band before recording. CDM: Have you started thinking about the next Warpaint album yet? Or is that way off in the distance? THERESA: It's a little bit away, but we keep it in our minds. We are probably the most frustrating band to soundcheck because we always go off on jams and our sound-man is sitting there going: "oh god, I don't want to interrupt this, but... we've got to get things moving along..." We're just easily distracted because we want to be writing all the time!  CDM: Of all the songs on 'The Fool', which song(s) mean the most to you and why? THERESA: It's kind of a toss-up between... well! That's very hard because there's three of them that mean a LOT to me equally. 'Lissie's Heart Murmur' was one of the first songs that we ever wrote - it was one of the first songs, at the very very very beginning of our band and I've always wanted to see and hear that song recorded and turned into something and it finally was and is! We haven't started playing it live yet but we're going to. And then 'Warpaint' is a song that's really, really close to me because it's actually - we've had that song for many years now and it's changed so many times, it's been through every reincarnation of our band with every drummer, with sometimes with me playing drums, it was when we were a three-piece, every incarnation of the band that we've had we have played that song. So basically, it just really represents our band and we didn't even think about that when we decided to call it 'Warpaint'. And then through getting asked questions about "why is that song called 'Warpaint'?" - then we realised, "oh my god! THAT'S why!" And we didn't even know why... but that's why! And then 'Shadows' is just... I love that song and it's personal to me. I love how it turned out!! CDM: Will you be playing 'Lissie's Heart Murmur' at Laneway? THERESA: Hopefully! I'm hoping so. We don't have a lot of time to practice, but yeah, we need to find a keyboard over there, or else I need to bring one. We're intending to do so. I don't want to let you down and say that we 100% are, but yes, we're intending to do so. CDM: I love that Emily [Kokal] has said that although Warpaint's lyrics are often part of a personal dialogue, they address a collective 'you'... is that uniting of author and audience something that's important to you as well? THERESA: I think the best thing about music is that someone could be writing a song that's so personal, and it tells so many other people's story at the same time. It kind of exemplifies that we are all kind of on the same wave[length] - it's amazing how comforting somebody else's story can be, because we have experienced their story in some way or another, and I can totally relate, and I get to feel that feeling and the expression of that emotion. I get to feel like as a listener, that somebody understands me, which is pretty incredible. CDM: I guess that at the heart of every good song is just pure emotion... THERESA: Yeah, exactly. I think so. Like, a song could be really tricky and intricate and be really intellectually stimulating, but I don't think that's the song that that I'm going to throw on 80% of the time. The songs that I really want to listen to are the ones that I can really feel.  CDM: Warpaint have been through a few different drummer line-up changes - do you feel like the current Warpaint line-up is complete now? THERESA: Yes - the line-up is complete and that is official. CDM: What was it like working with former drummers Shannyn Sossamon and Josh Klinghoffer [of the Red Hot Chili Peppers]? THERESA: Shannon and all of us started the band so it just felt really natural, and then she quit, and then she came back, and then she quit again. I love working with her and would do it again, but that's just not in the cards. And Josh is a great person to play with - he can play any instrument. He's really inspiring and positive. It was great. It was meant to be temporary... Shannon was just - I guess it kind of sounded like I downplayed it because I said she just feels like one of us, but that's actually like the best thing ever. I feel so lucky to have found two other, now three other musicians, that I can absolutely communicate with musically and believe in what they're doing almost 100% of the time. I've talked to a few [other] people in bands and that just isn't always the case. CDM: What do you think is Warpaint's main point of difference to other bands? THERESA: All I can say is our point of reference - and I think that does make us different from some bands and similar to other bands too. But it's just that spirit - it's sort of like a punk spirit - but it's not punk meaning or as in like "I'm here and I'm going to get thrashy and bloody on-stage" - but, we're not going to listen to the rules and the roles already set in place. We just want to make music that is heartfelt and feels good and sounds good to our ears, and hopefully to many other's ears as well. |
