Get out of my dreams, get into my Bratmobile, December, 2d 2002, Seattle



The day was dec 2nd, 2000, the place: Sit and Spin, which is a bar-venue-laundrette (hence the name) in Seattle. The sign on the launderette room is clear: "you have to wear your clothes in the bar". I always found this mark on the wall amusing since I noticed more people wearing less (or no) clothes in bars than I ever did in launderettes-except on tv commercials. Maybe they should remind this on every bar door, it would prevent us from some sad sights. And I am not talking about strip bars here. Anyway, that said, the Sit and Spin is where we meet Bratmobile, fully dressed. The riot grrlz had just reunited after some years apart, each playing in other bands, producing other people or working in record labels (Look Out! rec). Together again at last, for the greatest delight of all of those who had missed "Kiss and Ride", "Girl Germs" and other riot punk candies live in the eary 90s.
It was a grey Saturday afternoon (all-ages show) in Seattle and it was good to get a sun-gold beer and a nice talk with Allison, also sunny-shiny in her Rolling Stones tongue patterned dress. We did the interwiew right after the show, this burst of energy, wit and laugther. I will add to and for the story that Bratmobile was supported by the then still obscure duo dressed in red, the White Stripes (no interview from them, though, he was sleeping on a table and she went shopping...) sometimes I could eat my mini-disc!

BiB/Oa: Did you go back into musi because you thought riot grrlz needed to be rejuvenated?
Allison: Yes, I think that was part of it. I feel like in the early 90s there was a great riot grrls scene, many grrlz band and a lot of really good music from the northwest and basically all over the place. But it feels like once all that stuff kind of blew over, when it got really digested by the mainstream and turned into this kind of commodity, whether it would be grunge, or gilr power, or whatever, then there was this flood of awful bands that were just trying to imitate each other or something. There was not much that was speaking to me anymore, and I felt, especially in mainstream music, but also in what was considered to be alternative, a lot of mysogyny. Mysogyny on stage, in the media, rapes and violence against women in concerts... I mean remember this Woodstock anniversary festival not long ago, it is just groas. I felt it was just really disgusting. So instead of just complaining about it, I felt like I had to do something about it and the first thing we could do was making mus ic again that speaks to us. I think people are responsible for their own entertainment and their own culture. I did not want to sit back and try to make somebody else responsible for that. I guess that was the main reason, besides the fact that I think it is important for everybody to see girls being political (not that Bratmobile is really political, it is a lot of joking around), on stage, making their own music and stuff, rather than "look how sexy I am" and that kind of stuff.


BiB/Oa: What do you think about these girls bands who refuse to be called feminist then, who even appear to be scared of it. Some of them pretend there is no use for feminism anymore, that rock is an open, equal world, free of sexism, a society…
Allison: I do not believe in post-feminist stuff. I know there are a lot of articles getting written about music that call them "post-feminist band" or "post-riot grrl", and I am like "post", why? You know, things do not really change that much, I mean we still live in a very aggressive society. It is also still very sexist, women get put down, harassed, raped, murdered... No much has changed. I am a bit unwary of people who shy away from the term of feminism, or who shy away from being labelled as a gir band, or who shy away from riot grrls terminology. I understand that Riot grrlz is associated to an era, in the beginning of the 90s but still, I feel like when people are ashamed of saying that they are feminist, they are afraid of hurting someone by saying so, that they are going to offend someone's poor little boyfriend, or something. I thinking there is a lot to be said about male validation, because people really want to be validated, for whatever reason, but yo u know...it is powerful and I think it is hard to struggle against that.

BiB/Oa: Let us go back to the band, more specifically... You are on your first tour after reunion right now...
Allison: yes, this is the end of our first US tour following this new album (Ladies, Women and Girls). We have had a lot of fun, touring on the east coast, and the midwest with this band from Olympia called Jean Dot com, they have a single out on LookOut! and an album on K, they were great. Then on the west coast, we have been playing with the Aislers Set. We have had a lot of fun, and pretty good response

BiB/Oa: Did not you play with Sleater-Kinney on this tour?
Allison: no, not on this tour, but we played with them like half a year ago, and it is always fun to play with them, you know.

Bib/Oa: A lot of articles I have read about you say that you are making music more political...
Allison: I do not know, never really set out to try to do any one thing. I just do whatever I feel strongly about at the moment and I try to relate it to society in a more general view. You kno, a lot of people think that my songs are very specific about specific people, bitching about so and so whom I do not like. It always has some elements of that, it comes from an argument, maybe that I have with someone, or a conversation, things tha hurt me. But I am also trying to talk about behaviours, like how do we treat each other, and I think the personal is political, and the way that we treat each other peronnally and in private comes from our socialized, you know, fucked-upness, or something. So, I try to point that out, and to me all of this is kind of broader as well. So, in that way, Bratmobile is political, but I do not start a song by a political speech.

BiB/OA: Do you write all the lyrics?
Alison: yes, and each person (Molly on drums and Erin on guitar) writes their own part. We all contribute a litte bit to the organization of the songs. That is how we have been working a lot, especialy since we do not all live the same town.

BiB/Oa: And come you switched label from Kill Rock Stars to Look Out! records?
Allison: Well, we were not an Olympia band anymore. None of us lived in Olympia and we do not go there that often, but we wanted to be on a local label. I think it is important to stay original with your music. Molly is the manager of Look OUt! records, she has been working there for quite a while now, and Erin works there too. We felt that if we were on our own label, we would have more say and control over our material. Also both Erin and Molly live in California now so we wanted to be on a label where you can visit and see what is happening to your album and to your band.

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