Punk Planet Interview
By Jessica Hopper
Mary Timony has always been one of my heroes, starting back in her days with Autoclave, through her second bands, Helium and now with her solo work. Mary exuded a classy-lady confidence and was making music that transcended the narrow parameters of the independent scene, evolving from stark feminist angel-angst to fantasy tone poems laced up tight with wonderfully elusive guitar lines. Recently, I had a chance to talk with Mary about her history and future.
When did you first start playing music? What was your motivation?
I started viola lessons when I was in third grade, but I never practiced, and I really didn’t like playing it. When I was about 14, I picked up the guitar that my brother had gotten for Christmas, and tried to plunk out some notes on it. It totally didn’t make sense to me at all, so I asked my brother to show me some chords, and I would sit around for hours playing them, and practicing finger picking with my right hand. At school, I had a friend who wrote really depressing poetry. She and I got together and I would put the music to her really depressing lyrics, which was kind of a magical experience.
You grew up going to DC punk shows. Do you feel that you’ve been informed or influenced more musically or on a personal level by growing up admist that?
I think I was very lucky to grow up around that scene in DC during the 80s. I realize now that it was a very special and rare that there were so many kids making music there and were totally excited about punk rock. Although I was around at the shows, I didn’t ever really consider being in a band, because I came to music in a totally different way. It was something I did in my room, and something I studied in school, plus there were hardly any girls in bands there at that time, which seems strange now. It’s hard to think that anyone is going to want to hear you play if you write really soft music and every one you know is hanging out thrashing around to hardcore.
How old were you when you joined Autoclave? How did that happen?
I think I was 19 or 20. I knew Christina from going to shows in DC, and having mutual friends. She was the one who really got us going. Someone had given her a fretless bass, which she learned how to play. She somehow found Melissa who really is one of the most incredible drummers, and Nicky who had just learned how to play, but was really creative. We would practice a lot in the summer and then I would go back to school in Boston.
Was it a conscious decision to play in an all-lady band?
I don’t think it was a conscious "political" decision. It just felt right and made sense.
Autoclave had a brief but prolific existence, one which I think because of your peripheral existence during the riot girl period, a lot of people knew about. I read in some of your interviews that you felt like you weren’t punk enough for riot girl. Did you feel a kinship to it? Was it something you wanted to be a part of?
Autoclave started in 1990. That was the same time riot girl was growing, I think. When we began to play, there weren’t any meetings or anyone really affiliated with it in DC. We were just doing our own thing. Then I remember I came home one Christmas from school, and Bikini Kill had moved to DC, and there was just this overwhelming presence of them there. I noticed that some girls win DC had started dressing differently, and I thought that was kind of funny. Soon enough, there were riot girl meetings happening. I think Christina was involved in it to a certain extent. I never went to a meeting, because I didn’t really live in DC at that point. I just remember a lot of people being excited, and weirdly competitive with each other, but also feeling kind of inspired.
After Autoclave was over, was there anything in between, or did Helium start immediately? did you hook up with Matador immediately?
Helium started about nine months afterwards, and the Matador thing happened about a year after that.
Your earlier records seemed more direct lyrically and musically. Was this just sort of where you were as a musician, or was it intentional? What were some of the things influencing you?
I guess that was just where I was at that point. I really wanted to make angry music.
In the press, your work has been totally disproportionately sexualized and you’ve been portrayed as a temptress or something. Then on Magic City it seemed that at least lyrically., things were shrouded in this sense of fantasy.Was that a conscious change or a reaction to having your work misinterpreted or speculated on? That it went from being from a more angsty, tangibly feminist point of view to what seemed like "character" point of view. Was there something that spurred that shift?
I did get annoyed that a lot people who wrote about us took my feminist ideas the wrong way, so I think the whole fantasy thing, was in a way just an abrupt turn from anything that could be "sexualized". I felt like if it wasn’t going to be understood, then there was absolutely no point in doing it at all. Plus, since I was used to being around other ladies who were friends who were all about the feminist thing. It was a huge hit in the face that there were so many people out there who were threatened by it, and who thought of me as threatening because I talked about it—so much so that they would try to make me look weird in interviews. It was so gross. I try not to read anything that’s written about the band, because it always makes me feel weird, but that was really, really weird. That’s part of it, but the real deeper reason, is just because totally angry music didn’t appeal to me as much as that point as pleasing music. It was less about the performance and more about the actual sound. Plus the band’s lineup changed, and Ash brought so many incredible ideas to it.
Did Helium end so that you could begin solo, or was it just a natural progression? You said Helium was pretty much your songs and your show so to speak.
I really just felt like doing a solo record, something more mellow and low key than the Helium record. That’s why I made this last record. Helium has not really ended at all. I did want to change my sound, to have it be a little rawer.
You are also in the Spells. What’s that about?
That’s all about my friend Carrie Brownstein and me writing songs together really fast. Actually I am about to go to Olympia in a couple of days to work on Spells stuff.
What is your biggest hindrance or frustration in terms of making music?
Probably it would have something to do with not being able to totally replicate what I think I want to hear, or what I imagine musically in my head, because of a lack of instruments, of lack of money, or lack off a 5,000 piece zither, piccolo, and tabla orchestra. The other frustration would have something to do with feeling like there are more interesting things I could be creating with my friends, musically. There is something so amazing to me about songs that come out of peoples’ energy together, if that energy is good.
Taken from the September/October 2000 #39 issue of www.punkplanet.com.
Thanks to Jessica Hopper and Punk Planet for permission to replicate.