Kimya Dawson first came to be known in music as one half of The Mouldy Peaches and has collaborated over the years with artists such as Ben Kweller, They Might Be Giants, The Mountain Goats, Regina Spektor and Third Eye Blind. More recently she crafted and compiled the soundtrack for smash hit film Juno – the gorgeous “Anyone Else But You” that the movie’s young parents sing to each other in the final frames is a Mouldy Peaches recording. In town for the Melbourne Festival with one of her most recent collaborators, hip hop artist and producer Aesop Rock (with whom she will release an album in 2012) Dawson is also celebrating the October release of her latest record Thunder Thighs.
Your new record Thunder Thighs is about to drop soon – are you feeling nervous about how it will be received?
I feel a little nervous, because well…it would be nice for people to know it’s out there. And it means so much to me that I don’t want to hear people shit on it, but I know what it means to me and in the end that is what matters.
In the past you’ve have some pretty unique album art, does Thunder Thighs have any quirky gimmicks included that will make us hit the pavement for the local record store?
The amazing artist Alex Pardee drew the cover and the LP will be on double gold vinyl!
It’s become quite publicised how you have emerged from the postnatal wilderness after having a baby five years ago. Has your more content state of mind changed the tone of your songs?
I don’t know that “content” is a word I would ever use to describe this mind.
Some of your most prolific material from Hidden Vagenda and Remember That I Love You had a darker tone to it – do you think your new material will manage to hold the same audience given we’ve heard it’s a little lighter?
There are a couple of light songs on this one but it also has some of the darkest songs I have ever written. Ever.
You say you’re glad you never learned guitar at a young age like so many of the musicians out there. Do you see the guitar as purely something that can carry your melodies and lyrics, or do you enjoy tinkering with the tuning and different guitar sounds to suit different songs?
No tinkering with tuning here. I can barely tune the fucking thing normally!
Would we ever see you see you attempt to try another instrument, perhaps tinkle the ivories?
My first 3 albums I play all the instruments and on me and Aesop’s album we play all the instruments
Now while we’re talking about starting out – the first time you sang in public was karaoke (yes, there’s hope for all you down-trodden shower-singers out there yet!) – favourite and most shocking karaoke song?
I love singing “Open Arms” by Journey.
You’ve a good few collaborations in your time; you’re playing a show at The Forum on Saturday night with Aesop Rock – how did this pairing come about?
He contacted me and I asked him to produce a beat for me. We hit it off and kept working together.
Without wanting to state that the sky is blue, you and Aesop are coming from different ends of the musical spectrum – are rap and hip hop genres that you enjoy?
Not overall, but I feel the same way about folk. There is stuff within every genre that I don’t like but there is definitely stuff I like a lot.
Could you describe a little to us about the song writing process between you and Aesop? Do you compete to see who can come up with the most abstract lyrics (or hurl dictionaries at each other)?
Haha. Nah, we both just write in our way.
Can we expect an official release from you and Aesop in the future?
Hopefully it will be out in April.
Finally, word of the day today is ‘fustian’ which is pretentious language. Being a wordsmith yourself, what is your favourite (or pretentious) word in the English language?
Shart.
– Dannika Bonser
Kimya Dawson & Aesop Rock play Melbourne’s Forum Theatre Saturday 15th October as part of the Melbourne Festival.
The show features Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz (USA) and will be supported by The Narcicyst and Omar Offendum (Iraq/Syria).
Tickets are available here or by phoning 1300 723 038.
Find out more about the Melbourne Festival music program here.
