iNTERViEWED
BY BRiAN LUSH
If you listen to TRIBELLA’s debut LP THIRTEEN and try to peg
their sound, you will do so in vain. The
Austin
-based trio’s 10-song release runs the gamut of eighties new wave,
progressive
rock and indie sounds that are reminiscent of the likes of LIZ PHAIR or
the
BREEDERS. The band’s story is a simple one. The members SARAH GLYNN
(vocals and
guitars) RAE GOLDRING (bass) and DENA GERBRECHT (drums) were young
women with
superb musical pedigrees who happened to bump into each other in the
live music
capital of the world. After a couple of rehearsals, these lovely ladies
realized that they had something – a chemistry that could not be
denied. That
very chemistry has brought TRIBELLA a very long way in a very short
amount of
time having firmly established themselves as notable fixtures in the
Austin music scene and having
toured the better part of
the
United
States.
ROCKWIRED
spoke with SARAH GLYNN of TRIBELLA over the phone regarding
their latest release. Here is how it went.
Now
that THIRTEEN is
out there for everybody to hear and all of the work is behind you, how
do you
feel about the finished work?
I’m really happy with it. It was a long, grueling process to
get it made and finished but now that I’ve had some distance from it,
I’m very
proud of it. We’re all very happy with it.
Two years ago, you
guys released an EP. Other than the length what do you think is
different this
time around with this album?
I think that in the interim of the two albums we definitely
developed more of an original and cohesive kind of sound. I think this
album
demonstrates that a lot better than the previous album. The songs are
more
representative of how we sound live.
How did music begin
for you as an individual?
My dad’s mother was a really good pianist. On that side of
the family, there was always music. Some of his brothers played guitar
and
drums. I was inspired by that. I started piano lessons when I was
really young
but I picked up violin in the fourth grade and I started playing the
guitar in
the seventh grade. As the years went on and I started playing in bands
and
stuff, I picked up bass and drums to a certain extent. Neither one of
my
parents is musical at all which is kind of interesting but my dad’s
side of the
family was very musical and you could always here that at family
get-togethers.
Music is kind of in my blood.
In settling on your
current musical identity were there ever any artists that you looked to
at all.
With TRIBELLA’s musical identity?
Yes.
I grew up in the eighties so I think that there are a lot of
influences from a lot of New Wave bands like DURAN DURAN, DEPECHE MODE
and I
was also into THE SMITHS, JESUS AND MARY CHAIN and THROWING MUSES. Even
stuff
like METALLICA influenced me. I think I’ve got a wide range of musical
influences. All of the members of TRIBELLA have very different musical
influences and as a band, we’ve never really set out to try and sound
like any
one band or sound in particular. Speaking as a guitar player, THE EDGE
from U2
was always an inspiration to me.
How did the band
begin?
The bass player RAE and I have been in Austin for
many, many years. I’ve been here
for ten, she’s been here for about fourteen. We’ve known each other
through
playing in different projects for many years and being in the music
community
down here. I became the permanent lead guitarist in a band called ECHO
SET that
she was in for many, many years. DENA moved here from San Francisco
four years ago and all of these
mutual friends of ours were going ‘hey,
there is this great new drummer in town and you’ve got to meet her’.
It was
just perfect timing for all of us. We didn’t know necessarily if there
would be
chemistry or how it would work but after a couple rehearsals it was
obvious
that we played very well together and that it was easy and it felt
really good.
We had our first gig two or three weeks after we first got together. We
were
scrambling to get enough material ready for a show. Everything took off
really
quickly. We recorded that first EP in the summer and had it out in
January and
got some decent press around town. We started playing regionally and
then we
went on a really big tour that following June. It feels like time has
really
flown.
Before Austin, where
did you
live?
I lived in Boston.
I went to college out there and was in a band. I stayed out in Boston
for a year after college to see how
the band would go. Eventually, I moved down here to Austin
in ’99.
Was it music that
brought you there?
Yes. I was just looking for a change of scenery and a few
people told me some great things about Austin
and I knew about its reputation as a live music capital. I committed to
the
idea of moving here before I had ever set foot here.
Talk about your two
band mates and what you think each of them brings to the table mot just
musically but personality-wise that makes this thing work.
That a good question!
We definitely get along really, really well. There
is a very nice
dynamic between all of us. I think we all have different talents that
make us
as a band and as a business. Everyone is on time and everyone shows up.
DENA is
very sociable and fun-loving. She is always our top seller of
merchandise at
shows because she has this really bubbly personality. People really
love
watching her play. I never get to see her play because my back is to
her. She
is a lot of fun to watch play. She also grew up in a very musical
family. She’s
been playing drums since she was a little kid and is very comfortable
on stage.
RAE is an incredibly good business person. She is very organized and
incredibly
reliable and dependable. In some ways she is your quintessential
bassist. She’s
really solid and makes sure that we don’t forget things. She and I have
worked
really well at booking tours and keeping on top of doing our own PR.
She makes
sure that the posters are made for the shows are on time and that
things go
out. She’s incredibly organized and really even keeled. There isn’t
much drama
in the band.
How do
songs get
written within this band?
It can vary. I might already have a well thought out song
that I’ll bring in for the band to practice on and depending on how RAE
and
DENA feel about it, we will start playing it and we try different
things with
the arrangement. There are other times where we’ll just start with
something
very simple and on the spot and let the song grow from there. We
experiment
with out sound constantly and we record everything which is very
helpful.
What songs off of
THIRTEEN resonate for you the most and why?
DEAL BREAKER resonates for me a lot. The ideas behind that
song come from different places but it was inspired by this childhood
nightmare
that I used to have. The music and the lyrics are personal and a
meaningful to
me. Every time we play that song, I am really inspired and very in the
moment.
It is the perfect marriage between the music and the lyrics. I also
feel moved
and in the moment whenever I play the song THIRTEEN. It’s a little bit
different form the other songs. It’s slower and the second half of it
really
picks up and turns into something else. It’s very lush and the beat of
it is
very unusual but I get locked into it.
You guys sound like
you are very comfortable on the road.
We are pretty comfortable on the road. I know that DENA is
more of a homebody but RAE and I really love to be on tour. We have it
down so
that there is minimal suffering. When you live in a place like Austin,
there are so many bands and so many
venues and every night of the week there are a hundred different shows
that you
can go and see. It’s been really important for us and inspiring for us
to get
way out of town and play our music to different audiences all over the
country.
It’s been really, really good for us. If we could sustain it, I would
be happy
on the road for at least half a year.
What would you like
someone to come away with after they’ve listened the album THIRTEEN?
Hopefully they will enjoy it while they’ve heard it but I
would also like them to be affected on a slightly deeper level. I would
like
people to be moved by our music rather just tapping their foot to it. I
want
them to go back and listen again and again and again and hopefully they
will
hear things that they didn’t hear the last time that they listened to
it. Hopefully
to other women out there or other aspiring musicians, I like the idea
of
inspiring younger women who are into music and let them know that you
can have
an all-girl band and not fall into one stereotypical category. That is
something
about TRIBELLA that I really love. I don’t think that we fit very well
into any
one particular genre and we’ve been called everything from prog rock to
power
pop to indie pop. I’d like for people to listen to us and not be able
to
explain it.
BRiAN
LUSH (FOUNDER,
EDiTOR-iN-CHiEF)
