For the entire 21st Century, Xiu Xiu - Jamie Stewart and an often dramatically revolving cast - have been enthralling and repulsing listeners in equal measure with their jarring experiments in goth-techno, noise-rock and post-Morrissey melodrama. The end of February sees the release of Always, the band's eighth album proper, succinct as its title, a squalling collision of the dank and desperate and the pink and fluffy. Below lies a volatile yet cerebral catch-up with JS.
How would you describe the project of Xiu Xiu in a paragraph?
Dear! That is your job isn't it! I will give you some key words and phrases: black hole, cats, distortion, suicide, experimental crossed wires, gongs, pop, punching your self in the face, bird watching, Al Jazeera, dissonant vs. consonant.
You're named after a 1998 Joan Chen film? Why did that film resonate with you to such an extent?
Everything the character did to try and improve her life made it worse. It was the same for me at the time.
What is it that compels you to write/perform so intensely/personally? Is there an element of catharsis or coping, or is it something else?
Music that has always been meaningful to me has been music that was personal and intense. It is a way to try and emulate an approach that has touched me. It is a way to attempt to turn something overwhelmingly bad into something other than just a destructive weight.
Reviews have sometimes claimed there is something "comical" about the theatrical delivery of your emotionally charged, often unhinged, vocals. How do you feel about this?
I can only be myself.
How do you feel about Always? How would you compare it to rest of your discography?
We did the best we could and put our whole selves into it, as we will always try to do. I don't compare our records to each other (again your job! Darling!). They are part of a continuum in my mind. Not they should be for anyone else, but I don't compartmentalize them.
A number of guests appeared on the album, how much input did they have? Any compositional influence, or purely performance?
Greg, John, Carla, Ches and Devin are all the most amazing musicians in the world. It would be be nuts to direct them!
There was a brief period where some of the album's guest contributors (Zac Pennington, Sam Mickens) were included in the "official" Xiu Xiu line-up. How did that expansion come and go?
I will just say that it was a bit of a disaster and leave it at that.
How did the dynamic compare to working with Cory in the very beginning?
Cory has and had a true and committed heart in music. I miss working with him very much.
How do you go about writing a song in the first stages, then how does it develop into the sonically eclectic final piece, and has the nature of this process changed over the years?
It has always been an amorphous feeling or tick that goes off in my head that a particular subject or riff should be developed. Then it goes down any number of routes. Sitting in front of the computer for days editing like mad, just guitar, being a room with several musicians, working with a drum machine or Game Boy and headphones for days. For me, not having a routine is inspiring. The only routine may be that I am slow, so persistence is required. It has been like this since the start. Now I carry a note book with me, classic technique, for lyric ideas, or write in the margins of books - also pretty standard. I did not start off doing that.
How come it took so long for Angela to pen a song?
While not new to music, she is new to bands. It was the first song she ever wrote. Some people write their whole lives and some people warm to it over time.
Are literary sources of inspiration as prominent as ever? Any noteworthy inspirations or references on Always? What are you reading right now?
Yes they are. For Always, lots of haikus mainly. There are probably fewer direct cribs on Always that on previous records. For better or worse. Right now, a biography on V.S. Naipaul, Mimic Men by V.S. Naipaul, a book called The Gun about the history of the AK-47 rifle, a book called Death and The Idea of Mexico.
Which artists first got in you into making music? And what do you listen to most nowadays?
Prince and Bauhaus; an unlikely pair. The first band I was in I think did like ten Bauhaus covers. Now mostly I have been deep into Morton Feldman.
The original edition of Knife Play came with a sticker listing the album's musical sources of inspiration. How many of those original influences are still prevalent today? And were you to do a similar list for Always, who would come to mind?
All those people and bands are still as deep if not deeper in my heart than ever. For Always, perhaps:
Morton Feldman
Francoise hardy
Morrissey
Neubauten
Neu!
La Dusseldorf
Cluster
Marc Ribot
Kraftwerk
Penderecki
You provided fans with a short video tour of the studio during your recording process of Dear God, illuminating some idiosyncratic, often novel, methods of noise-making (e.g. the struck tuning fork pressed against a snare skin). Any particular techniques or toys you were excited to discover and use this time around?
This is really not that novel in the world, but for me it was novel - I got really into analogue synths. I had never played with them before but became totally enchanted and exhilarated by them.
Any words of wisdom for people striving to write music and play in a band full-time?
Do not give up.
Any more Xiu Xiu stuff, or related projects you'd like to plug?
Lots of stuff coming up. Book of haikus called A Neo-Tropical Companion. Collaboration with Eugene Robinson from Oxbow called Sal Mineo. New Xiu Xiu Larsen record. Three new 7", and a 12" fortune-telling record (literally that). Some field recordings from Guyana. And tours tours tours!