Interview with Kyle and Cait of Rainer Maria on June 16th 2002
First off I'd just like to say that I was rushed. This interview could've been a million times better if there wasn't a kid waiting to do his interview with a smug look on his face like "oh I am so much better than you." Damn you. I really wish I remembered the URL of your stupid website. I'd tell nobody to go to it.. He did a video interview. So if you see a website with a Rainer Maria video interview. Watch the video by all means.. b/c Kyle is brilliant.. But don't support the site.. Thank you.


Stephanie- ok, so you're Kyle, and you play guitar for Rainer Maria.
Kyle- yes
S- these are kind of joint questions, since we're in a rush, so bear with me. What are your influences? What was the first CD you ever bought? And any bands you've been digging lately that we should look out for?
K- Lately I've been sort of interested in the idea of how music is made up of wavelengths. Like a note has a pitch like a frequency.. which is the number of input per second right.. so middle A is like 440 waves per sec.. and then if you double that.. 440 to 880 .. so AA.. so play those together.. since they're mathematically related.. you get basically a downplay.. like "wongggg".. you just hear like nothing.. so if you tighten the intervals between the two notes. Like if you play A and then something half way up the scale like A and F sharp or a D.. then it'll get smaller. Then you start hearing a difference between the two notes. What I've been trying to do is with the guitar.. make it so that rather than hearing the individual notes when you play you hear is the beats , the intervals.. that's kind of like what has been influencing me. (there was more to this explanation that I couldn't make out on the shitty recording I had.. but you get the point.. brilliant I tell you.)
S- yea that's really good.. that's like the most anyone has ever told me about music.
K- the first CD I ever bought was Joy Division- Closer.. I don't know why.. it had already been out for a little while .. obviously .. but I bought that before I even had a CD player.
S- any new bands that you think we should look out for?
K- yes, there are two.. there's a band from NY, Bobby bird his band. It's usually just him, but he has friends play shows with him. He has a guitar pedal that he uses that records. And he loops it, and then play it back, and then plays something over that, and then plays something over that. And then he sings over it.
S- yea, I have a friend who does something like that. He's got all these little programs on the computer
K- yea something like that, and its really cool. And this guy Fred Thomas he's from Michigan. He has a solo record under the name Fred Thomas, but he also has a band called Saturday looks good to me? And what he does is, he records everything himself on his 4 track, and then he just gets his friends to sing them. It's really amazing.
S- yea that's like exactly what I wanted to hear about. cool
What made you sign to Polyvinyl in the first place.. b/c haven't you done like ever single album on it?
K- they were the first label to ask us to do anything, and it was like right when we started, they basically started their thing.
S- What about the new record, is that in the works?
K- we're going to record that in august.. the EP will be out in November, and the full length should be out in January, the latest. Right now I'm not sure if its gonna be on Polyvinyl or not.
S- what about the Brownies, 3 weeks in a row thing? b/c I know you're not local, is there reason for it?
K- we actually are
S- are you really?
K- yea, we used to live in Wisconsin but now we live here.
S- ahh that makes more sense, I didn't understand why you would stick around for a couple of weeks.
(Cait walks in.. we ask her to join, and she says she doesn't want to bother us.. we of course tell her to join in)
S- ok next question.. Do you guys ever worry about anything? This is kind of an abstract question and you can take it any way you want. Just like music and changing, and what the future holds. In general? Or even personally?
K- sure I mean, we do this right now as a full time job. And that wasn't something that we were striving for as a goal, it just kind of happened. And we know that at some point that will cease happening. Either things will change or ultimately like something outside of our control will rest the band from doing anything. So that's that, but I mean, I don't worry about it.
S- could u ever imagine yourself making a video? Or have you made a video? or being on MTV or something like that?
K- sure
Caitlin- we've been on MTV already
K- yea like little snippets
S- ya know, I think I've heard that on some shows. And I'm like "what".. weird
K- yea so we're probably gonna make a video for the next record.
S- ok so there's a quote that I really like, and I've actually heard this being really popular . It's " and I'm certain if I drive into those trees it'd make less of a mess than you've made of me" so I listen to your music and I think " they take how you feel, and then word it just right." So that being the background of the question. Who writes your songs? And what state of mind are you in when you write it? Like what is your motivation.. does it come from your own experiences or do you write as an outsider?
C-well it depends what songs your talking about. B/c we've written together.. Kyle and I. Or we've written what comes out of our own mouths, and we've edited each-others stuff. It's different every time. That time I think was when we were writing our own stuff. Like you would write what you would sing and I would write what I would sing. And then we would edit each-others stuff.
K- I think you started that line and I finished it. Or something like that. And there was a question of like whether we were going to use it or not.
C- I mean not to reveal like what is a real experience or true and what not.
S- no, I was talking more of on a general level. I mean, obviously you don't have to say "that quote is from my life". So just in general is your writing just from your own experiences.
C- oh yea definitely. I can't write any other way. I could try to make up something but it would just sound so stupid. Like "she did this, and then took a trip."
K- typically I have seen you start with a kernel of something that occurred. And you'll try to fictionalize around it in order to give it narrative, like to make it sound tighter and more clear. Is that what you were trying to say?
C- no but that's ok
S- Do you guys have any worst tour experiences or funny stories?
C- We were on tour with Braid once and we were like throwing whatever food was in our van like out at each-other. Like they were driving behind us. And we were throwing like bananas and water, and whatever. We didn't throw that much food, we weren't like wasting that much food. And all of sudden it sounded like ten thousand bugs were like sloshing on the windshield.. and we were like "ahh what the hell was that" .. they had taken a huge 5 pound bag of rice and thrown it at us. So that was funny.
S- that's insane.
K- also on the first national tour we ever did, there was always a problem with like people fucking up our names for the flyers. And one of the members of braid would get really upset about it, so they were like "don't' tell Chris" we couldn't understand how it could still happen after like the 8th night. And they're name would be spelled like BRADE or something. So we got to the show , and everyone told us ya know don't show Chris, don't tell Chris about the flyer. So then our roadie didn't hear us talking about it. So our roadie was like "yo Chris, did you see the flyer" and it was like a gutterpunk flyer with a mohawk guy on it, and it said BRAVE from San Francisco. And Rainy Marie also from San Francisco… stuff like that.. it was funny.
S- ok these are just like two stupid questions, I'm almost done. (since that fucking kid was eyeing me, I decided to cut it short)
Do any of you have a hidden talent, like I dunno.. make spaghetti with your toes..
And do you have any guilty pleasures?
C- well Kyle speaks fluent German, and he's a wicked editor.
K- naked?
C- WICKED!
We were talking about you at my fathers, fathers day brunch today. And my mom is like "yea Kyle is an amazing editor" I'm like 'yea isn't he isn't he".. and then Johnny comes back from like wherever he was, and we're like John isn't Kyle an amazing editor.. and she said "its fine".. that's Kyle's hidden talent.
S- guilty pleasures?
K- well nothing I can talk about
C- eating
S- oh yea that's horrible, how could u do that.
C- actually I really take a lot of pleasure out of it.. but I guess I would have to feel guilty about it, and I don't.
S- ok any last words , words of wisdom?
K- nah..