LOURDS interview in "Metal Maidens" magazine
The following interview is reprinted from issue # 34, December 2003, of "Metal Maidens" (the "Ultimate Magazine Dedicated to Women in Hard Rock & Heavy Metal", "going strong since 1995") with permission from the publishers, Rita & Toine van Poorten, in Leerdam, The Netherlands. Check out their web site at the above link.
The article was written and the interview was conducted by "Metal Maidens" New York corespondent, Kathleen Warnock. The photographs displayed were taken by Barry Koopersmith and were those selected by the publishers for inclusion with the original interview article.
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LOURDS: FROM CLASSICAL PRODIGY TO INDIE QUEEN
Like many children, a little girl named LOURDS took music lessons, sent
there by parents who thought their daughter should have a useful skill,
something she could enjoy in later life, a serious, respectable accomplishment.
As a grownup, LOURDS has parlayed her skill and talent into a vibrant
career, though perhaps not quite the one her parents had in mind.
As the frontwoman of her own band, LOURDS has spent most of the last
eight years possessing stages the world over, with her soaring electric
violin, rock guitar, and space-age costumes. She has declined the advances
of major labels, choosing instead to release her own CDs, booking her
own shows, and steadily building a following for her passionate, vivid
music. She sat down with Metal Maidens to trace the path from classical
prodigy to indie queen.
Interview by: Kathleen Warnock
Pix by: Barry
Koopersmith
When did you start studying music formally?
LOURDS:
"I started playing violin when I was three
years old. I was classically trained; my teachers thought I was a prodigy.
So they were priming me to play Carnegie Hall and to play the big concert
theaters, Lincoln Center, to be the next Itzhac Perlman. I would go to
school, go home and practice for hours."
And at a certain point, obviously, something changed. What drew your
attention from the classical world?
"What happened was, when I was a little girl,
my dad thought it would be a cool thing to take me to a KISS concert.
He had no idea what it was really about. He ain't that hip! He thought
it was some sort of circus show. Look at the guys in makeup. So when we
got to the show, clearly it was a huge, amazing, flamboyant event. And
there were flames and tongues and sex and rock and roll I was like six
years old, at the peak of my violin playing. It changed my world. I went
back to my recital and I did a solo and I jumped off the stage and ended
up playing in the audience. I wanted to be interactive, touch the crowd,
not play to the crowd, but embrace them. I wanted them to feel what I
was feeling. It was making classical music connect with the audience.
The teachers saw me jump off the stage, they said: you're making a mockery
of classical music. Your posture must be this, play this way, hold your
bow this way, and bow like this."
And how did your experience affect the way you viewed your music?
"Well, I still played with a lot of youth orchestras,
traveling around the world, playing violin, but it was no longer about
playing classical music; I wanted to find out, for example, how I could
finish a Bach concerto my own way. Can I press the hairs on my bow onto
the violin so it makes a crunchy and more distorted sound? I became a
classical rebel. My teachers didn't embrace what I was doing. If they
had said: that's great, I probably would have kept going with classical
music. But the more they rejected me, and tried to stick me into a box,
the more I rebelled.
Basically after that, I ended up dropping the violin altogether and doing anything else but violin: piano, French horn, mandolin. It wasn't until years later I discovered the electric violin. I saw one in Sam Ash (music store), and thought: wow, this can make that distorted sound with an amp! I was trying to do it with just my hand and fingers and the bow. And all of a sudden I sold my two electric guitars to get my first electric violin.
It was like then it was okay to jump off the stage and distort: and I began writing my own music, and doing my own thing. I knew that I could do what was coming from my heart. And at the same time, I could go into a studio and produce other bands. I have perfect pitch, and I know exactly where to go melodically because I had music in my system since I was three years old."
You attended college, and kept working in music, but not as a frontwoman
or doing your own music. How did you get back into performing live?
"I was doing a lot of background things, behind
the scenes. I would dance behind techno artists, or dance behind hiphop
artists, and sing on people's tracks, producing, arranging, sequencing
and all these things. And people I was working kept saying: why don't
you do it yourself? Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to try different
things, and realize: I should do it for myself. I should put my own songs
out, and get my band together. I was out there, doing a lot of things,
and people knew me."
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When did you form your own band? How did your first gigs go?
"One of my first gigs, opening for JOAN JETT
in 1995 was an amazing experience. I was backstage and basically all the
band members had one dressing room. And Kenny (Laguna, JETT's manager)
and Joan were just completely sweet and accommodating, and I remember
feeling felt like, wow, I'm in the presence of an icon here and we're
all sharing a dressing room. "I was just a teenager playing my first
big show and I couldn't believe that the crowd cheered me on to play an
encore."
And you've kept performing since, developing your own style and sound.
Where does the heart of it come from?
"My concept always was just to be true to the
music, whatever that meant; there have been label deals that have crossed
my path, whether indie or major that I knew would alter the heart of the
music. So basically I stuck with my guns. If they're looking for some
pretty girl who can fit into this corporate rock mold, I ain't the girl.
What I'm trying to do is just put real passion and heart and so that it's
not just about the ups, it's about the downs, the giggles, the times when
you're a little tongue in cheek. Screaming and crying, everything.
Through the years I've been doing this, I've been getting positivity and affirmation across the country. With emails, and people who approach me at shows, and the fact that on my own, I've sold over 14,000 CDs. It's like, in a way I've made it. I'm the one, who traces out the dotted lines for me to fill in and in the end, it's my box and my rules, not someone else's."
Has the idea of signing with an independent or major label been something
you've considered, or been offered? Is it an eventual goal?
"If I want to jump to a level higher than this,
right now, I've got a unit of people, starting with the band members who
just believe in what I'm doing and want to be a part of it. I've got this
tight-knit unit of people who are so great; I still have to have that
same kind of love. Right now I am a big fish in a small pond, and if I
am jumping to the next level I have to make sure I don't want to get lost
in corporate America. I've got to make sure I'm still getting the support
and still calling the shots, creating my own rules."
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Well, you've increased your involvement with other woman-fronted bands,
by organizing a semi-regular series of shows called the Medusa Festival.
What made you decide to move on from your own band into producing complete
events?
"I wanted a forum for all the amazing kickass
and hard rock New York City rockergirls to get together, to share a stage
support each other first and foremost. These are the bands with the great
underground following, who are doing it all themselves. I only book the
bands that they get the concept that they need to support the other bands:
not like you come in, play your set, and leave. If you're the last band,
come early, if you're the first band, stay late. In New York, it can be
a really cutthroat industry, and there's this myth there's only one spot
for a rocking girl, and the other girls suck. And I've never bought into
that. I've always supported other female artists, and booked really amazing
bands around me. That's the energy that I look for. People who have something
going on, and who can command the stage and make people look at them and
turn to stone! They worship you and fear you. That kind of energy at the
same time, off the stage, they're like the nicest people. They support
each other, everyone cheers for each other.
The strength of the Medusa voice is we sing as one. And hopefully it'll get bigger and bigger. There are so many powerful women that rock out, so HARD and so well. At this point, radio is pretty much inundated with the Britney Spears kind of pretty-girl dance diva pop or corporate chick rock, it's all very put together. We need a vehicle for the people who really live the lives they sing about. It's real New York City grit, real rock and roll: heart & passion, down and dirty. No rules. It could be on the radio, if radio was good.
I don't think major labels give a lot of credit to the listening public. I think people crave to have their eyes open and to be challenged, and to feel things other than happy pop. You can get happy pop sometimes, but an artist who has too many sides scares the labels. You can't have one quirky funny cute thing; then an intense heavy rock song; then an acoustic ballad. I've had a lot of people from A&R departments hear my work, and they all liked different songs. And what they really wanted was for me to go in, make them money, and go out. It's not a matter of being an artist who has a career.
Really what it comes down to, elementally, is the song, and it comes down to being true to the song. And whenever I sing that song, there are people who are moved by it. That's the bottom line. People who say to me: your music has helped me get through this crisis in my life, when I felt sad, when I couldn't handle it; your music made me feel like a queen.
When I play all-ages shows, there are little girls who think I'm a superhero and even they get it. So for whatever reason, it touches all ages across the board, all ages, all sexualities, guys and girls. This is what it's all about. In my own way, I'm touching people and that makes me happy, and that's the bottom line.
This is it for me. I will be doing it until I die. Just like when I was a little girl who couldn't fit into the classical world, if I don't fit into corporate music, I'm still gonna jump off the stage and play in the audience.
And as long as people are still responding, really, that's all I need."
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LOURDS DISCOGRAPHY
*ORANGE EP (3 songs; featuring "Always", "I'm With You" & "Goodbye My Sorrow")
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*LIMITED EDITION BASEMENT TAPE (full length 14 song CD)
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*AND SHE WAS (CD single)
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*BOOTLEG (new CD)
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For more info, visit the LOURDS website at:
http://www.lourdsmusic.com
See more great LOURDS pix by Barry Koopersmith at:
http://www.lourdsconcertphotos.com