Nathan: So, this album’s title was inspired by an episode of Twin Peaks?
Amanda Palmer: Hell yeah!
Nathan: So, who killed Laura Palmer on Twin Peaks?
Amanda: Who killed Laura Palmer? Did you see it?
Nathan: I haven’t seen an episode of Twin Peaks since I was eleven.
Pause
Amanda: Uh, well… a strange metaphysical force called Bob killed Laura Palmer.
Nathan: Cool! A lot of people stopped by on your album: East Bay Ray, Annie Clark, Estradasphere… and of course Ben Folds, so what are ….
Amanda: Estradasphere didn’t make it onto the record. Our recordings and collaborations didn’t make it onto this one.
Nathan: Oh, what a bummer.
Amanda: Oh no, it wasn’t a bummer. The stuff we recorded was so good. It’s so good, I just got to figure out, the song and material, what to do with it.
Nathan: This album has a lot more piano work, were you pushing this aside from Yes, Virginia?
Amanda: Like… well, what do you mean?
Nathan: The melodic, we hear more of your falsetto voice – things are much more quiet.
Amanda: I think that’s just my song writing maturing. Laughs
Nathan: When was the last time you Googled yourself?
Amanda: When was the last time I Googled myself? It’s gotta be within the last couple of weeks. I Youtube searched myself a couple of days ago.
Nathan: Do you ever blush when you see yourself doing something?
Amanda: Do I blush? Nah, hell no. Why would I do it if I were going to blush?
Nathan: What’s Annie Clark like?
Amanda: Annie is an awesome individual. She is so incredibly talented and smart and very fun to work with. I don’t have a lot of good friends who are musicians, but I’m making more. But I have even fewer musician friends that are women. And it was so much fun to be able to hang out and work with someone who is my age and a woman and a fantastic songwriter and a recording engineer. We talked about stuff that I can’t talk about with the average female who isn’t a musician.
Nathan: And East Bay Ray?
Amanda: He’s like an awesome dad. He’s totally great, unassuming, dorky – maybe really friendly, great kind of guy. Really great to be in the studio. He was so easy to work with it was stupid. We recorded some guitars for “Guitar Hero” (her song, not the game) and that’ll appear on the B-side. Just a really cool dude.
Nathan: Speaking of Guitar Hero. That’s a really fun name for a song, but is that more of a serious look at the music industry?
Amanda: Oh, I don’t know if it’s a message about the music industry as much as message about the cultural weirdness. Laughs It’s a very scary blurred line between one reality and another one.
Nathan: Would you say that the music industry is still male dominant?
Amanda: Well yeah. If you look at the movers it’s mostly male.
Nathan: And you’re making your name.
Amanda: Well, most people don’t know that I’m really a guy.
Nathan: Ah ha! The old switch-a-roo! What is it with this generation’s fascination with very young teenage girls?
Amanda: Uh… You mean the scene in general, where 32-year-olds are dressing up like 10-year-olds?
Nathan: More like the Miley Cyrus and the younger generation that’s putting themselves out there.
Amanda: Well… I mean, if you’re actually really interested, I’m reading this fascinating fucking book that spends about 300 pages addresses just that and it’s called Female Chauvinist Pigs. I don’t remember the author… I have the book in my bag. Her name is Ariel Levy. And there are couple of chapters that deal with the female sexual obsession. But the thing that’s definitely true is that girls are growing up a lot faster and they’re stressing about it. I think they’re missing an important development period. It really, really bums me out to see 12-year-old girls doing drugs, having sex thinking that they have to look like this or this.
Nathan: It is kind of alarming to see it.
Amanda: But there’s this whole double standard with our culture. We’ve got the government pouring billions of dollars into abstinence campaigns over the years and meanwhile females are watching television and are seeing Girls Gone Wild bullshit and they’re abdicating that if you want people to like you look this way. Like a slut. And oh, don’t have sex. Laughs… no, more like a guffaw at the irony of it all. It’s all very confusing for these kids.
Nathan: How’s the tour going?
Amanda: The tour’s going fucking great. Thanks for asking. I just played London last night. It’s really better than I even expected. It’s so unnerving going on a solo tour and being alone. There’s something a little scary about it, because I don’t have my partner on stage with me (drummer Brian Viglione from The Dresden Dolls) All of the audience has been so supportive, so I’m thinking “I can really do this.” So, yeah… it was better than expected.
Nathan: Well, it’s good to hear that you’re keeping sane.
Amanda: Sane?
Nathan: Everyone wants a piece of Amanda Palmer, but you’re still human.
Amanda: It’s not like I haven’t been doing this before, because the attitude might change over time, but you have to roll with the punches in that sense. I am exceedingly glad that I didn’t become successful early on. You tour with bands and you’re much younger and you don’t get it. There was nothing that I wanted more when I was 19 to be a giant rock star. If that would have happened, I don’t think I would have developed into such an interesting person. The fact that I have my maturity and I had turned that into a person who has a lot of experiences and I can relate to all of my fans who have steady jobs and I’ve traveled the world and didn’t have anything to eat – I’ve done a lot of things that made it possible to make me realize those aspects. And when someone does become successful they sort of have to live in that bubble, but because I’ve gone through all of that I know that I’m in a bubble and I don’t have to worry about that.
Nathan: Amanda, the last time I saw you you were wearing a shirt that said “Namaste Motherfucker” and I hope that you’re taking that to heart and I look forward to watching you kick ass and take names.
Amanda: Thank you so much.
By Nathan Solis
