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April 3, 2000
Mary Timony
By Gerry Belsha
Sometimes stark, sometimes ornate, lyrically and musically Mary Timony always seems to be searching for a path out of the sadness and darkness. Lyrically, Timony has a uncanny ability of using otherworldly imagery to convey emotions, yet always seems to be able to keep a foundation that is rooted in the reality of getting through another day. Musically, her songs can be as sparse and as cavernous as a Sly and Robbie Dub or as multi-layered and intricate as a Brian Wilson pop song.
Her new solo album, Mountains (Matador), showcases the those many talents, talents that in the past may have been tied down when she recorded albums with her band Helium. Timony spoke with Check This Out! about Mountains, her songwriting, music communities, fans, Helium and doing commercials with William Shatner.
Check This Out!: What type of feedback have you received on the album?
Mary Timony: I guess people seem to like it. No one has thrown up on me yet, so I guess that is a good sign.
CTO: Tell me about the process of making the music. How long did it take and how did you get people involved?
MT: Well, I started thinking about it all the way back, like two years ago, started writing songs for it. Then about a year ago I started playing with this drummer Christina Files. She lives in this loft and we would practice at her house in Boston. We jammed a lot and it helped me think a lot about what I wanted to do. We ended up recording in her loft last summer and it was really mellow - recorded all over the loft. Then I also did some of the recording in a studio. It is pretty much a collection from the past two years.
CTO: How was it working with Christina Files and how did you meet?
MT: She is a band from Boston called Victory at Sea and she has done sound for Helium, actually. And I just knew her through friends. Whenever I saw her I really admired how she played. So I just called her up.
CTO: How do you usually go about your songwriting?
MT: Mostly I am just messing around on a keyboard or guitar, and I come up with some sort of idea. I put down the instrument, walk around, do something else or I just don't even think of it. Then I start getting more of an idea in my head of what I want it to sound like. Subconsciously it just happens without trying, or I go like, "it is really bad, I hate that."
CTO: One thing I find interesting about your lyrics is your ability to use unearthly images and then spin things around and all of a sudden you're talking about concrete and real ideas. Do you get frustrated when people describe your music and lyrics as being escapist, using escapist with negative connotations? To me they don't seem that way at all. They seem really attached to concrete things and emotions.
MT: Yeah, I feel that way. I think the last Helium record had songs on it that maybe were slightly escapist but I don't think this record does. That's cool to hear you say that. I feel that they are attached to reality.
CTO: I think your whole philosophy and the main lyrical idea that you seem to be conveying a lot is summed up in "I Fire Myself" where you sing "can you see love through a telescope? The end of fear and beginning of hope." Is that basically what you are searching for in your music?
MT: I think a lot of the songs are about that. I think a huge theme that seems to happen in almost every song, is the character of the song will either go up in the sky or underground or some place removed from everyday life and look back at themselves. It happens in like every song.
CTO: And then instead of trying to sit down and look at what you are saying, because it might not be right there out in the open, critics take the easy way out and attack them as escapist.
MT: They're not nonsense. That's what the real deal is for me. They are talking about emotions and stuff.
CTO: I also like how you don't dwell in the black holes and it seems you actually use your writing as a type of catharsis. There always seems to a way out of the darkness in your writing. I find it very positive because you don't dwell in the black holes. There is darkness but it always seems like there is always some way out. Do you find that important?
MT: Yes! I can't stand music that is completely dark and neurotic and doesn't offer anything positive. I mean some people like that about my music because they might be the type of people that don't or haven't had the same type of emotional experience in life or whatever. But, I guess I am just hoping that people that have had that same type of sadness can relate to it.
CTO: Tell me about the song "The Bell." What do you mean when you sing, "there will always be strong and always be weak?"
MT: I don't know what it means. I mean that doesn't mean anything, it just sounds reassuring. It's about loneliness and making fun of myself for pretending I am going insane and all that stuff. It has this sound of being reassuring but it's really not because it doesn't really mean anything. That chorus doesn't mean anything.
CTO: What emotion inspires you lyrically?
MT: A lot of the songs on this record are about sadness and trying to get through that sadness, which sounds depressing.
CTO: Do they coincide with what is going on in your life?
MT: The imagery is not biographical but the feelings are. The imagery is dream imagery coming from my brain, but not really things that actually happen to me. Basically the situations in the songs describe some sort of emotion or feeling.
CTO: Your music is very layered. Do you think that way when you are writing?
MT: I think of parts intertwining. A perfect song to me sort of looks like the inside of a clock. Wheels turning, little mechanisms all working together perfectly. Usually I write the chord structure and melody and then later on I'll go "ok this could be like a counter melody that could fit with that."
CTO: You are so unique in your style and songwriting. What do you think when the media tries to lump all female singers and songwriters together?
MT: I just feel above that. If I read anything like that, it is so idiotic to me I don't even care about it. I don't feel as effected or angered by people and their idiot viewpoints anymore. I just know it doesn't represent me. Sometimes people are stupid, and sometimes they're not. I just try not to think about it.
CTO: Did your songs change much from when you first wrote them to when they are recorded?
MT: Not a lot. The ones that I do on four-track usually stay. The parts are all written that way. The sounds may change but the actual musical parts remain the same.
CTO: In the CD artwork there is a photo of a keyboard that looks like it has a bunch of numbers taped to the separate keys. What is that all about?
MT: That was my method for this one song that didn't even make the record. It didn't make the final cut or whatever. There was this ending part and I couldn't remember it
CTO: Like painting by numbers?
MT: Yeah, it was this ascending thing. I had to play a scale in actually almost every single key. It started like on C and then it would go three notes up and stay in the same scale but in a different key. And I am not really good on piano, and it was really hard, so that was like "Mary's marker of where to go next." Then I was like, "that looks cool" and I took a picture.
CTO: What have you learned since you first started recording and writing. Where have you grown?
MT: I think I have been going through a phase that I allow myself to make anything I want and then I edit it afterward. Before I was really censoring myself too much. I know that I am happier with stuff that I have written recently.
CTO: Do you get to have much one on one contact when fans of your music?
MT: Not really, it is kind of an awkward relationship. I just don't really get to know people. They think that you are something your are not or they think they know you. It is really bizarre. I like to meet people and you do meet people but it's hard to meet people. It's so nice to see that people have heard my music. When they say they have heard my music, it is awesome, but it really doesn't effect me that much either way. It feels a bit awkward to me that people have heard my stuff.
CTO: What is in store for you over the rest of the year?
MT: Touring in May and then I don't know. I'm not sure if Helium is putting out another. I really want to get into doing stuff for movies actually. Doing music for movies.
CTO: Yes, your music does have a cinematic feel to it.
MT: I think I could do it well and I could also really enjoy it. I would really like to get into that. That is my goal in the future. Until then I am going to keep doing my music.
CTO: What are some of the other things you have been doing?
MT: I did a project (The Spells) with my friend Carrie (Brownstein of Sleater Kinney) out in Olympia. An EP. I went out to visit her and we recorded that. I am probably going to record this summer some more. I also have this band, Green 4. We play mostly instrumentals. I play drums and keyboard and sing. And we also use a drum machine. It's pretty cool. It's really crazy.CTO: You said you spent some time out in Olympia recording with Carrie. How would you compare Boston with Olympia?
MT: There definitely is a music community in Boston, but it is not analogous to Olympia. I kind of like that or I have in the past. There is community but it's not so close knit. There are a lot of art schools and crazy art kids and really creative people and there's a lot of really talented people that are doing things that I find inspiring, but a lot of them are separate from each other. It is a place where there is a lot of interesting things happening. It's just not like a little music scene. In a way that is kind of cool, because I think there is a lot shitty art in Boston too, but I also think that in a place like Olympia there a lot of stuff that you can't stand.
CTO: Do you like touring, performing?
MT: I like it 50/50. I like the idea of going to new cities and meeting new people but the stress of traveling is really hard and having to stay up late every night is really, really hard. And not knowing where you are going to eat and sleep and stuff. I like performing. I don't know, it's (touring) all right.
CTO: What do you think the last thing you ever record will be like?
MT: It would be really creepy if it was a requiem or something. But it probably isn't going to be like that. That is a question like "do I believe in meaning or nothingness?" I think I believe in nothingness, so it will probably be random. It will probably be a jingle.
CTO: Tell me about the Priceland.com commercials you were in with William Shatner and Carrie.
MT: I have a friend who directs commercials and he offered it to me. It was pretty fun, mostly because I got to hang out with Carrie.
CTO: Did you get much flack from the Indie fanatics who are always looking to put people up on the pedestal and then knock them down when they do something that is perceived as selling out?
MT: I don't consider that selling out because I am really poor and I need money and it had nothing to do with me. It was a job, acting in a commercial. It had absolutely nothing to do with me. I would definitely think about it if someone was like "if you record this album of commercial songs we will give you a lot of money." I would feel like an idiot and I would hate it and it would torture me, so I wouldn't do anything like that. But it wasn't anything like that that. It was just me acting in a commercial and it gave me more money than I ever made doing music before. So it was worth it.
CTO: What have you been listening too lately?
MT: I've been listening to 70s punk, actually, like the Adverts and the Slits. Some Joy Division, Alice Coltrane.
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