A Quasi Interview

When do two people equal half of something which is really a whole? No, it's not an extra-credit math question. The answer is simply: Quasi.

Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss are the roxichord (you can call it a keyboard, mister) and guitar-playin',singin' and drummin' duo known as Quasi. (They're only 2 people, hence a quasi-band - get it?) Perhaps you remember Sam from Heatmiser. Perhaps you are familiar with Janet from the fabulous, amazing band Sleater-Kinney. Anyway, Quasi manage to sound happy even though the lyrics are actually bitter and scathing and perhaps a bit depressing. And they manage to do this without sounding stupid. The abrasive lyrics go down with that huge spoonful of sugar that is the catchy sound of Quasi.

You can run right out and purchase Featuring "Birds", the third Quasi album, which is available from the fine folks at Up records who never let me down. A semi-interview with half of Quasi (that would be Sam) was arranged and here's what transpired.

Janine: I saw you guys play last week at Under Acme, it was really good. And I was going to go see you play the other day with Elliott Smith and Beck, but I missed it because you went on too early. Did you see the Beck show? What did you think of it?
Sam: Well, in all honesty, I didn't like Beck's show at all. I really like Beck's music and he's a great musician but I'm not really interested in the big showbiz kind of extravaganza that he puts on. But I understand, if you're going to play in a big place like that... but it's not really my thing.
Janine: How did you end up playing with Elliott Smith?
Sam: Well,Janet and I have both known him for a long time, you know, from playing music in Portland. For a while I played bass in that band Elliott was in (Heatmiser.) We did a short tour with him last year, where Quasi opened up the show and then Elliott came on and we backed him up for songs. I think we're going to do that again later on this year, too.
Janine: So what happened to Heatmiser?
Sam: Well, that band was already on the rocks when I joined. The bass player left for whatever reason and I played bass with them, and it seemed like they broke up at least three times while I was in the band. I think Elliott was moving - if you could do your own thing as good as Elliott, what's the point of being in a band, really? I think it reached the point where it wasn't really worthwhile for him.
Janine: With Quasi, there's just two of you. What's the story behind that?
Sam: Janet and I have been playing music together for a long time also. And it's the same thing, if you can get asway with only two people, it's good to do it. Because it's hard, every other person in the eqation adds issues. It's great to play if you can get a lot of people together and get them all on the same wavelength and get a band together on that level, it's great, but it's hard to do that. If you can hone it down... When Quasi first started, Janet and I were always playing in the band, but sometimes we played with other people and we switched the lineup around, messed around with it, eventually just kind of left it the two of us.
Janine: You were married, right? You and Janet?
Sam: Yeah, that's true.
Janine: Were you in a band first or were you married first?
Sam: We met in San Francisco and we started playing music, so we were not really, I don't know, I can't remember exact dates and times, it was all around the same time. We played music together after we were sort of... already hanging out together.
Janine: I was surprised about how much noise you guys made on stage for just two people. There were no guitars on stage, right? I was standing behind all these tall people so I couldn't really see...
Sam: Yeah, I actually play guitar for a few songs, you know, just depending on what the set is, usually like three or four songs. Most of the time it's just the keyboard.
Janine: The weird thing is, for whatever reason, I usually don't like piano-based music, especially rock music with piano. I just find it really annoying for some reason. But Quasi doesn't annoy me one bit. It's just great. What do you think is factor that makes it - sort of pop without being annoying?
Sam: Yeah, that makes sense, I'd rather not be annoying, and you know, it's pop music, basically. But I don't really know how to play the piano, maybe that's a helpful thing. We just - you know, Ben Folds was playing -
Janine: Yeah, I hate them, I have to say.
Sam: Yeah, you know, because I've met them and they're the nicest people that you could ever imagine, I'm not going to make any pronouncements but he's an amazing piano player. I'm not a huge fan of their sound, it's just not my thing. Even though it seems like we're sort of doing the same thing, I don't know how to play piano at all, I never had piano lessons or anything. So that stops me from doing the things that bug people who don't like piano music, I think. I mean, I don't know how to do that and I don't want to do it either. I'm basically a guitar player. When there's only two people, it's nice to have a keyboard because the two hands can play two separate parts - bass on one side and treble on the other part, so it's almost like the equivalent of three things going on with the drums and the two hands on the keyboard.
Janine: Is that why you decided to play keyboard in Quasi rather than guitar?
Sam: That was part of it. Part of it was it's just different. Sometimes you have ideas for songs that are better served - I mean, I've been playing guitar for a long time, I'm not bored with it or anything, but it's nice to mix it up, change things around.
Janine: So, T.O.S. is all about how I love bees and hate Sting. Got any good Sting stories?
Sam: No. I don't really know anything about Sting, besides that he makes records and stuff like that.
Janine: He's evil and he secretly controls the universe.
Sam: Yeah, that's possible. I mean, I remember the first Police album, I used to like that. I haven't heard it in years. But I don't know about the rest of his activities. But bees... yesterday I went to Veselka for breakfast and I sat next to this old Ukranian woman and she wanted to talk. She talked about pierogies for like an hour. She was giving me recipies, telling me the places that make them good and don't. She was talking about her health, and a friend of hers who sold honey out of a store and bee products. And I said, you know, royal jelly and bee pollen and stuff, it's good for you. And she said, "Yes, I take my B-vitamins every day." So that's a bee story for you.
Janine: What's the animal that's on the inside cover of your new album?
Sam: It's a martin.
Janine: Really? I was like, is that a lemming? what the hell is it? Tell me about martins.
Sam: I don't know too much about them. I've never seen one. They're native to North America, and they're probably more common in Canada. Up in the wildernessy mountainy areas of the country... they're probably in the same ecological niche as racoons. They inhabit trees and jump around through them, apparently.
Janine: Do you feel a special martin connection?
Sam: Well, it's a good picture.
Janine: Well, yeah.
Sam: I had several ideas for album covers, months and months in advance. And when it came down to doing it, they weren't working and we didn't want to go with it for whatever reason, and then it's like "We have to have it. Now. Tomorrow." So then, alright, fuck, you just frantically search for images that will work without thinking about it too much and just go with it and send it off. And that probably turned out better than the ideas I had in the first place for so long. So that's an example of "We need some kind of image" Searching through books lying around and saying "Oh look at that picture, that's great." That's my affinity with martins.
Janine: The martin was just there.
Sam: Much like almost everything else, it was just there.
Janine: And what about the birds?
Sam: Well, I had that little track that's on there - in the original version it's really long, like 4 or 5 minutes of birds like, coming in and getting louder and softer, but I though that was a little bit too brutal so I chopped it down to just a few seconds. So, I had that sitting around, this "Birds" thing, for a long time. The original title of the album was just the caption of the picture and we decided that was too unwieldy. So we just used the birds, again, there was no master plan there. I'm not good at master planning. It just jumped out and became what it is.
Janine: I thought maybe it was some ploy to fool people, like people at radio stations. Like, tell them the single is "Birds" and then see if they play it and if they even listen or notice anything.
Sam: I think that possibly happened. Bird sounds have gotten on to the radio because of that, at least in one case that I heard of. I mean, for the most part, it's only being played on small radio stations anyway. So it wouldn't upset the normal member of those types of radio stations, I don't think.
Janine: I've given up on listening to the radio, completely.
Sam: I haven't listened to it for years and years.
Janine: So what have you been listening to on this trip?
Sam: We've just been buying and buying and buying CDs to keep ourselves entertained. One of my missions on this tour was to get myself records from the Tropicalia scene, like the Brazilian psychedelic stuff. So, I've been listening to a lot of that. I found a bunch of stuff in various cities. I was looking for a recod by this band Matching Mole. I don't get the collectible rare vinyl, cause it's ridiculous, it's all reissued on cd. I like to buy vinyl when you can find a good record for a few bucks.

Note: Sam took royal jelly before playing that night and told me that he takes royal jelly before every show. So... perhaps we have the bees to thank, at least partially, for Quasi.