Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 23:47:44 +0200 
      From: Emiel Efdee (efdee@LUNA.NL) 
      Subject: The Muse interview with Lisa Germano (long)

The Muse interview with Lisa Germano

Do you remember what your first record was?

Yeah, well, I''m pretty embarrassed about it... "Sugar,Sugar." I
remember buying that and dancing to it. And then I liked that "Venus"
one.

"I''m Your Venus?"

Yes. My friends and I made up a dance to that. So I can definitely
remember those. That was in junior high or before, like ten years old.

What were you listening to by the time you got to high school?

Well, in high school I was still in the beauty-mushy stage. Which I
loved.  I loved James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg. I liked the
Beatles. My brother would bring stuff like Janis Joplin or Steppenwolf
home and we thought that was really cool but I would never go play
that by myself.

You play so many instruments, do you consider one to be your main
instrument= ?

Well, the only one that I ever had lessons on was the
violin. Everything else I don''t consider myself to be very good at,
but I play them if I need to. Like if I need a sparkly sound, I''ll
get a zither or a mandolin, but if somebody wanted to jam, you know,
I''d be bored out of my mind because I can''t think of anything to
play! It''s just got to be if it fits the song.

How did you get the gig with John Mellencamp?

I was just very lucky. I was playing violin at a country bar and I
knew John''s drummer, Kenny.  John wanted to put some violin on a
song, and I was the only violin player that Kenny knew, so they called
me to come and do it. John really liked what I did I guess, so the
next week he asked me to go on tour with him. It was pretty amazing.

It''s like a fantasy.

It was. It was really difficult because of that. Like someone handing
you your dream that you had already given up. It''s just like, ""I''m
not ready for that.""

It must have taken some courage to do it.

It did. It took courage and therapy (laughs).

When you created the ""Happiness"" album for Capitol records, did you
feel confident about going into the studio and asserting yourself?

On the "Happiness" album, yeah, I felt fine. I was really excited to
try to make an album with other people. Because the first record, the
"Moonpalace" album, I had just done on my own. So it was exciting to
go to a studio with other people. But it was kind of frustrating at
first too, 'because I wasn''t used to having other people working on
my songs. If I didn''t like something, I had to learn to tell people,
and to try to bring something out from them that I felt fit the
songs. Because for me, if you put some slick stuff on my music it
doesn''t work. It''s all gotta be pretty simple. It could be layers of
simple things that makes it sound bigger, but pretty much anything on
that record could be something that I might come up with. And so, I
just feel like it has to be like that or it gets too far from the
connection of the person with the audience.

Your music is so immediate, I think that to add too much to it would
detract from the potency of it.

Yeah, me too. Exactly. That''s the whole thing. Too much stuff in
between you and them is... I don''t know what to do with it.

It''s very unique how you have two versions of the ""Happiness""
album, and = they sound pretty different. Is that a result of the mood
that you were in while you were working on each of them?

No, I had lots of problems on the first record with fighting with the
record company. This whole idea that we were talking about with too
many people between you and the audience... it was so difficult, and
we had lots of problems. But when I got on 4AD and I owned my masters,
it was really cool to be able to make it more the way that I wanted
it, so that''s all. Some people think we remixed the whole record. We
only changed like four things really. But it''s the sequence and those
little things in between the songs that makes it really different.

You did the "Geek The Girl" album basically by yourself at home, but I
wonder if you feel happier or more comfortable when you''re working by
yourself rather than in the studio with a producer and other musicians
to work with.

I like both, but after all that shit... you know, sorry, but after
this problem of people not letting me do what I want, and fighting so
hard to try to get it to be what I want, I decided to just record
stuff at home. I wasn''t even thinking of making a record. That''s
just what I do. In between the label changes, I was just staying home
because 4AD didn''t want to promo Capitol''s record, and we wanted to
wait until they were gone. So I just recorded stuff and I really
enjoyed the fun of not having someone telling me that I can''t put
mandolin on that song or anything. I was excited that 4AD wanted to
put it out. I enjoyed doing it by myself, but I also think it''s
exciting to see what other people come up with.

Did you play all the instruments on the new album?

I played everything originally, and then when we decided to press it,
I wanted to remix four songs.  We put my friend Kenny on drums, and
Malcolm who produced the first album mixed those four also. Malcolm
had recorded a few things that I wrote songs on top of: "Sexy Little
Girl Princess" and "Just Geek."  Everything else is just me.

I was curious about where you found what I call the ""Geek Music""
that punctuates the album.

It''s a Sicilian folk tune. I just love it, it''s so quirky. It''s so
silly, I think of these little Italian gangsters going (putting on a
diminutive Edward G. Robinson voice), ""We''re gonna go get 'em, see?
Let's go!"" I''ve had it on my answering machine off and on for years
and I always come back to that little piece. I thought that it fit
this really well be'cause some of it is so serious and I thought we
really needed some comic relief in there.

Much more seriously, I was wondering where you got the 911 call that
you= used in "Psychopath."

Well, it was something my friend had. He runs a public access TV
station and he had just seen it on a documentary. It was a documentary
on violence. I was writing that song, and it was so scary to me. The
reason I wanted to put [the 911 call] on it was because a lot of
people, when you''re being stalked or you''re being harrassed by a
man, they don''t take it seriously. You know, they say, ""Oh, you''re
just being paranoid"." It''s like they don''t know what it feels like
to try to go to sleep every night with that fear, and the 911 call is
the exact fear that you have when you''re going to sleep. You''re not
scared that he''s just going to hang around your house; you''re afraid
that he''s going to get in your house and you''re going to get raped,
like she got raped at the end of that call. In this 911 documentary,
it stops and they go to the narrator and he says, ""Karen did get
raped that night, the police didn''t get there quite in time"." Her
voice is so hysterical, and I want people to know: that''s what the
fear is.

It''s really chilling.

Yeah. It''s from a rape center originally, but we got permission to
use it.

When you were recording the album, I guess you were doing it alone a
lot of the time.  Did you ever kinda spook yourself?

Oh, on that song in particular. The night I mixed that, I couldn''t
sleep at home. I did a mix of it, and it was so scary to me. It upset
me a lot. I almost didn''t put that on the record. But I think it says
something that I wanted to say, so...

There''s an instrumental track on the album after "Psychopath" that''s
very eerie and spooky.

"Phantom Love." I actually recorded that four years ago on a four
track, and I always wanted to use it for something because I thought
it was just kinda funky with the organ in there.

I imagined you playing that music all alone and just thinking, "Ooh,
this is spooky".

Boo! Yeah.

Sometimes your music has such a cool quality to it, like a Tom Waits
sort of character.

That''s cool. I would like to do things more like he does someday. He
gets it really deep. Not just his voice, but the emotion that''s
coming through it is so dark. Like that "Bone Machine." There is one
song on there that is so depressing... I mean it''s almost too
depressing. I think even with my depressing songs, I think that people
can get that I''m trying to see the light of the day. Whereas...  I
don't remember the name... something about "we''re all just dirt in
the grave" or "dust in the ground"... it''s like, ""Oh, great, why
don''t I fucking go die right now!"" But, I put that song on and it
makes me cry, so it has a value, you know?

Do you think it takes more courage to be a woman in rock music and to
put yourself out there?

I don''t know if it takes more courage, but it takes a lot of patience
to deal with a lot of shit. And it takes a lot of trying to be aware
of when you feel that people are judging you from that point. I
didn''t used to think that until recently, but I did a video for
"Puppet," a song on my last record, and it''s a real eerie video, but
it doesn''t even remotely touch what Nine Inch Nails'' videos are
like. MTV was like, ""Oh, no, that''s too disturbing for 120
Minutes.""  They don''t like women to be frightening, you know? And
some people have said that about this record. They''ll like it but
they''ll say, ""Oh, I don''t think we want to do a feature on that,
it''s a little too upsetting."" I''m like, ""Give me a break, this has
to be because I'm a woman."" Because it''s nothing. It doesn''t touch
so many really scary, emotional, aggressive male bands. It doesn''t
even touch it. It''s like milktoast compared to that.

Milktoast? I wouldn''t say that.

Well, it is to me! But I think sometimes as a woman, and connecting,
it''s a really intimate connection. It makes some people
uncomfortable.

Are some of the songs on the album more special to you than others?

It depends what mood I''m in. Actually, "Geek the Girl" speaks to
me. And I really like "Of Love and Colors."

I''m the same way with your music. Your songs a're so catchy, I''ll be
singing one to myself or I''ll wake up with one in my head.

Oh, that''s great! Do you have one that speaks to you in particular?

I think the first song, "Secret Reason." I like the way you express
the idea, that beyond all the psychoanalysis and rationalizing, when
something is evil, it''s evil= .

Yeah, that''s what I felt. The Gulf War was going on when I wrote that
song and it made me think that at the end of the day you know that
what we''re reading is all controlled anyway, so you don''t really
know what''s going on. All you know is something bad is going on.

Some of the songs on your albums almost sound like the songs a kid
will make up to sing to themselves.

Yeah, I try to catch moments of when that childlike thing is coming
out.  Even if it''s a lyric.  "Cancer of Everything" I came up with
when I was raking leaves. That line was going through my head when I
was outside, so I went and recorded it.

So your songwriting process is just spontaneous?

Yeah, well that''s how it starts. But you have to have discipline then
to finish. You know, you might have a song that''s almost done, but if
you just let it sit there and wait for inspiration, it''ll probably
just sit there be'cause your inspiring moment is already over on that
song.

In reading a lot of the other interviews that you''ve done, I was
really impressed by your openness and honesty about talking about a
lot of things. Is that a quality that you come by naturally?

Yeah, I think a little too naturally. My sister is always saying,
""You don''t have to tell people everything, Lisa!"" But it just seems
to come out. I figure what''s the point of being alive if you can''t
share your feelings with people, you know? You''re trying to connect
with people, right? So you might as well let them know you. I did a
panel on songwriting the other day and somebody asked me, ""Why do you
always explain your songs before you sing ''em.""  And I thought,
"Maybe that''s not a good thing. Maybe I should just play them." You
know what I mean?

I think you should just be yourself!

(laughing) Just be yourself. Well that''s the whole point of "Geek the
Girl." My self is just still pretty fucked up, so it''s real hard
to. I know that you should really have confidence in yourself, and
that you have all these problems when you don''t. But, it''s still
pretty hard.

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