gURL.com Interview

Mary Timony, guitarist and chanteuse of indie pop veterans Helium, has just put out her first solo album, Mountains. It's brimming with modern, mythic minstrel's songs. 

She spoke with gURL from her home in Boston, MA: 
gURL: When did you start making music? 
Mary: I played piano when I was little. My brother taught me some guitar chords when I was in ninth grade. He was writing songs and I would sing them, and then I started writing songs. I had a really bad band in high school--just a bunch of girlfriends would come over to my basement [to practice]. We played a party, I think. 

gURL: How does your solo record, Mountains, differ from Helium? 
Mary: When Helium does stuff--Helium is not broken up by the way--it's louder and distorted. I just felt like writing a mellower record because I hadn't done that before. 

gURL: People say the album's got a mediaeval, fairy tale sensibility. Do you agree? 
Mary: I don't see where people get that from. There's really not that much intention with musical sounds at all on the record. I could see lyrically how people say that it sounds mediaeval because there are all these images--I guess I have these imaginary scenarios in my head. I like to write things that are fables. 

gURL: Tell us about your song "Poison Moon." 
Mary: It's got a guitar that's tuned to a weird tuning: it's a low D, A, E, E, A, A [as opposed to the standard E, A, D, G, B, E] There's also an autoharp and a drum machine. And it's kind of about, well...I just imagine people traveling in this dark underworld, and they are trying to find their way by the light of the moon. 

gURL: What comes first usually: the music or the lyrics? 
Mary: Usually it's the music, and then I kind of think of what the music reminds me of-- maybe the music sounds sad and then I write the lyrics from that. 

gURL: How did you decide which instruments go where? Were you like, "Hmm, well, this sounds good, but it could really use a euphonium?" 
Mary: If you are arranging a room in your house, it's like, "Hmm, what does that corner need?" and it's like, "Hmm, it needs a plant." On that euphonium song, I had an idea for a horn part and I remembered that my friend Pete played the euphonium. So you just get ideas for stuff and figure out how you can make them happen.

taken from gURL.com. Mary was the featured artist for September. Thanks to Steph for the info.