From: owner-bklist-digest@smoe.org (bklist-digest) To: bklist-digest@smoe.org Subject: bklist-digest V1 #49 Reply-To: bklist@smoe.org Sender: owner-bklist-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-bklist-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "bklist-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. bklist-digest Monday, June 2 1997 Volume 01 : Number 049 Today's Subjects: ----------------- BK INTERVIEW: Buzz Magazine (Dec 1992) [Gordon Wong ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 18:23:29 -0700 From: Gordon Wong Subject: BK INTERVIEW: Buzz Magazine (Dec 1992) Here's an interview Brenda Kahn did for Buzz Magazine (December 1992): BRENDA'S WORLD by David Malachowski "Souls hold together the tiles, in the bathroom of life, we are all grout." B.K. Songwriter Brenda Kahn's "Epiphany In Brooklyn" (Chaos/SONY) is her latest release. The wanderlust of her restless soul has brought to fruition a brilliant shopping cart full of driver's window images and bored characters. Since acquiring her first K-Mart guitar she's traveled widely, scaled the pyramids and sank into Motel 6's, her personal geography lesson provides the landscape of her songs "Epiphany In Brooklyn" was produced in New York City by David Kahne; with the exception of two songs, "I Don't Sleep, I Drink Coffee Instead" and "Mint Juleps and Needles" which Brenda herself produced in Minneapolis, originally issued as part of the EP, "Life In The Drug War Trenches". A recent phone conversation found Brenda talking about her life and music, music in life. BUZZ: Travel seems to play a large role in your songwriting. BRENDA: I grew up in New Jersey and then lived in New York City for a long time. I spent a year in London, traveling a lot in Europe and then I came back to New York. I had a lot of problems with America, but I felt unqualified to bitch about America because I'd never been outside NY. I really wanted to travel the states, so I moved to Minneapolis, quit everything and went on tour. It opened my eyes to a lot of things in America, it actually made me love America. What I really learned is that there are cool people everywhere in this country, usually a minority wherever they are, but really aware, involved, interested people that care a lot. Beyond that I'm fascinated with contradiction and irony, and a lot of that comes through the details. It was cool for me when I toured last year, I had a record on an indie label, "Goldfish Don't Talk Back" (Comm 3), I toured behind that, I didn't have any money so I'd book the tour myself, I got to know all the club owners, and then stayed on people's floors. I never stayed in hotels, I would just show up in town, I didn't know where I was going to stay, would sorta ask around ... it was really intense, I'm not really sure, I've always been that way, I like doing things myself. It gave me a special view into people's lives in this country. You'd go to one person's house and they're makin' dinner for you, and say "sleep in my bed, here is the soap and toothpaste, towel and washcloth" and then you'd go to somebody else's house and they're like "ahh, well, I guess you can sleep on this floor ... or the couch, there's beer in the fridge ...". People really create their own reality. BUZZ: So what are your plans now? Continue to sleep on floors? BRENDA: Nooo! Now that I have a big record deal I plan to sleep in Motel 6's all the time! The plan right now is to go to Japan, in January to do some solo dates and in February go out with the band for 6 weeks. I'm kinda excited about the next one (record), I've written a lot of songs, the band songs are like Velvet Underground heavy. BUZZ: "Sleepwalking?" That Mood? BRENDA: Yeah, I learned a lot when we did that song, there is a groove about that song... BUZZ: Any comments on the election and proceedings? BRENDA: I'm glad the devil's out of there... he is evil, I'm really glad he's (Bush) gone. I did a personal poll of everyone at my gigs, almost every single person said they'd vote for Clinton, I wonder if that's just it's my show... It's really hard to say what's gonna happen, things could go a million different ways, it'll be very interesting to watch it all unfold, it's a pretty exciting time in the world, it's coming apart, the dynamics... here's America, an economic dying giant with a huge fucking military and nothing to do with it. I don't think it could be worse than the Reagan years were, a really weird holding pattern. BUZZ: Why do you do what you're doing? BRENDA: I have to. Nobody doubts I've worked hard, but it's always been a sort of a passion for me. It wasn't like I really had an option to do anything else. What are you supposed to do? I don't really understand how the whole thing (record promotion) works, I just what I do, I don't know if people are buying the record, but it's a good record. BUZZ: That it is. ------------------------------ End of bklist-digest V1 #49 ***************************