Festival: The Hex Ed. Interview

FESTIVAL - Valentine from Language of Stone on Vimeo.

The Sisters Powell, Lindsay and Alexis recently released the album Come Arrow, Come! (Language of Stone. Again!)
It is sometimes playful, other moments it is incredibly sad, but most of the time you find yourself wishing you were one of their siblings. They possibly take one of the most interesting approaches to folk music since Joanna Newsom put out The Milk-Eyed Mender a few years back.
Recently the sisters could be seen starring in the video for the song "Valentine" (shown above) off the album staring as (among other things) a couple of Jersey housewives.
The evening as they started their tour with Sharron Van Etten, the Powell's were kind enough to answer a few questions for us.




Hex Ed. Journal::: Did you have a specific festival in mind when you took on the name?

Alexis::: No. Well, maybe the Italian festival that happens in Little Italy every year... I dunno, Lindsay thought of it.

Lindsay::: It came to me in a dream. And Smoosh was already taken.



Hex Ed. Journal::: What's your favorite festival?

Alexis::: Oh, any Festival that serves funnel cake.

Lindsay::: The Pushkar Camel Fair. Pushkar is a city in Rajasthan - probably the most colorful state in India. Thousands of camels and their vendors travel across deserts to Pushkar to sell, buy, trade their livestock and also to have a roarin' good time. There were lots of groaning camels. Local music, dancing and art. Dancing camels and monkeys. Moustache competitions. And the food was delicious (duh!).
One day while Karl and Lex were watching the camel races (that nearly trampled hundreds of people) my friend Jeff and I wandered into the desert with a little girl who swore she would sing for us if we just came to meet her family. We had no idea where we were going and when we finally got to her tent, we realized she had about 9 brothers and sisters! They were all very cute. We sat with her while her and her uncle played us traditional Rajashtani songs. Her mother made us chai that tasted just like fruity pebbles. Just another day in India.

Alexis::: Every day in India feels like a Festival. What a celebratory country!



Hex Ed. Journal::: Last year the both of you were living in Brooklyn right?

Lindsay::: I moved to Brooklyn after trying to live in Chicago for about 4 months. I had been going to school there (Chicago), but I just wasn't ready to focus on academics completely. Before moving to Chicago, I lived in Nashville for about 8 months. I spent a lot of time with my friend Jeremy Ferguson, who runs a studio out of his home called Battle Tapes Recording. It was there that I recorded the Cake Bake Betty album 'To the Dark Tower', the Skyblazer album with Jake and Jamin of Jeff: The Brotherhood (to be released on Infinity Cat), and finally, the Festival album with Lex. The Festival album got a really positive response, so leaving the band to focus on school felt kind of forced.
I moved to Brooklyn to be with Lex. I bounced around for a little while and then we moved into a very small Bushwick apartment. I lived in a tent in the living room. It was more of a fort, I guess. It was in Brooklyn that we found our long-lost brother Mike Powell and Youri Choe. We played a few shows, but to be honest, the 'scene' is so hard to penetrate.
We also met Greg Weeks during that time. He invited us to play a show in Philly, and after that, we sealed the deal with Language of Stone.


Hex Ed. Journal:::Now Lindsay has moved to Chicago. As collaborators, let alone a pair of sisters who write songs together how hard does that make things for you?


Lindsay::: I found that after bouncing around cities, Chicago is the one that feels the most like home. I've met some really amazing musicians and artists there. Everyone is making stuff all of the time, playing shows together, collaborating. i didn't give it much of a chance the first time I lived there, but now that I feel a little more confident in my artistic pursuits, I've found that the people there are more supportive than competitive. I don't want to say I love Chicago more than Brooklyn because they are really different places, but I definitely feel more comfortable there.

That being said, Lex and I discovered while living with one another that we actually work best in smaller, energetic spurts over short periods of time.

Alexis::: We've both got so much going on that it really helps to have designated moments to concentrate on FESTIVAL stuff. When we were living in Brooklyn, we were just always so caught up in surviving there that it became difficult to feel relaxed enough to get creative.

Lindsay::: We often write halves of songs to bring to the table when we see each other, or through improvisation . It's hard because we can't just play a show whenever we want.

Alexis::: And we're not really sticking around any one place long enough as a band to get a distinct following.

Lindsay::: But we do what we need to do to feel inspired, and though we are sisters it often means being in different places at different times. Our separate experiences ignite our creativity!

Alexis::: And the telepathy of genetics allows us to get at the core more quickly. Seriously. And that leaves time for our millions of other projects.

Lindsay::: That is not an exaggeration, by the way.



Hex Ed. Journal::: Do you feel a comrade with other musical groups comprised of siblings?

Lindsay::: WE LOVE HEART!!! AND SPARKS!!!!

Alexis::: We'd love to play a Festival that was only sibling bands. Can you set that up for us? Then that would be our new favorite Festival!
And, yes, we definitely feel camaraderie with other siblings. Coen Brothers, the Cusacks are awesome. The Sedaris' are inspiring. We have a special fondness for sisters, though. Especially sisters who make stuff together. The Gish sisters.
What if Kate Bush had a sister?!?

Hex Ed. Journal:: I don't think the world could handle that (ed. imagine this X's 2)

Lindsay::: Half Japanese.


Hex Ed. Journal::: Have you met or played with any other groups with siblings?

Alexis::: Yeah, Jake and Jamin Orrall from JEFF: The Brotherhood are good friends and played on the record and play with Lindsay in Skyblazer. We toured with them in 2006 on the Syblyng Symmetry Tour. We had big plans to make Syblyng Symmetry its own band with rhinestone jumpsuits, but I think we all need to mature as artists first.


Hex Ed. Journal::: Lindsay, I know you also play under Cake Bake Betty, are there any other projects either of you are working on right now?



Lindsay::: Infinity Cat just released 'To the Dark Tower,' the new CBB album. I am pretty excited about it. It took a while to come out because I had a lot on my plate over the last year and a half that didn't have to do with Cake Bake Betty or music in general! I'm still planning on doing some touring with Cake Bake Betty, and have recently put a band together for the purpose of playing more shows. I've been playing under the name Sewn Groan for a little while now, and though that stuff is also solo it's pretty different. Lots of organs and hand clapping and heavy beats. I play keyboards and sing with a band called State Champion and am currently playing drums in a band called Manglord. I am really excited about that project because drumming is something I've always wanted to do more of. Skyblazer plays everyone once in a while, but it's hard to coordinate our schedules since Jake and Jamin are touring with Jeff: The Brotherhood all the time. We are releasing our album soon and will probably tour come January on the West Coast.

Alexis::: I'm part of a film collective called Meerkat Media and I've been making various little video projects with those folks for about 3 years now. I'm getting really excited about music videos, though. Lindsay and I just made one for 'Valentine' and Greg Weeks and I worked on one for Noa Babayof.
My beautiful friends Autumn and Sam are having a baby any day now, and I just put together a compilation of baby songs and lullabyes with our musician friends. That was probably one of the most loving projects I've ever worked on.
And I am about to head back to Nashville after our tour to record some songs with Willim Tyler (Lambchop, Silver Jews) which will probably be a simmering project over time, since we also don't live in the same city and we're both touring this Fall. I'm also patiently waiting the release of a live action science fiction space alien movie I was in called GIngerbreed. I play a Russian Space Stewardess.


Hex Ed. Journal:::Favorite current music?

Lindsay::: Now that we are both pretty busy with our little projects, we listen to a lot of our friends' music. I really love MEEMAW, this new band out on Infinity Cat right now! Jeff: The Brotherhood is one of my favorite bands of all time; I think everything they put out is brilliant.

Alexis::: I love dancing to JEFF more than any band ever.

Lindsay::: My two favorite (favorite!) Chicago bands are Mayor Daley and Cave. They are the most fun to see live.
I have a really hard time keeping up with new music (outside of Chicago) in general. Lately, I've been really into Connie Francis, Patti Smith, Kitty Wells, Aretha Franklin, Ann Pebbles - lots of female vocalists with really empowered and distinct styles. I work for the Numero Group as an intern, so I get really into anything they release. Their most recent that I've been really into is called Recording Tap - it's one of the best dance part mixes available.

Alexis::: Yeah, I've been loving records released by folks I know or have played with, too. Mariee Sioux and Sharon Van Etten have amazing voices and I love listening to them sing. Astronaut Graveyard is a new project by my friend Chris Jackson and I can't really get enough of it. Other things...The latest Bonnie Prince Billy is pretty immaculate. I loved Bowerbirds' Hymn for a Dark Horse. Man, but mostly I've been listening to these amazing mixes that William Tyler makes. Its not that recent but I have an intense relationship to Animal Collective's Feels.


Alexis: As children our folks were in a rock band who were recently reunited so we were raised on all that good 80's pop.

Hex Ed. Journal:: What were they called?

Lindsay: Lixx!



Watch::: Lixx "Eye Machine"