ANDREA ZOLLO, Pretty Girl Make Graves
Oya Festival, Oslo, August 2003


Interview with Andrea Zollo from Pretty Girls make Graves, part II. We are waiting by the press tent at Øyafestivalen, slightly anxious they might not have time for us, their taxi might run out of gas, or that they'd rather get drunk with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Blood Brothers.
It's been roughly a year since last saw them. The backyard at So What! and Andrea who was getting concerned about her voice. The band finally shows up, splitting up between all the journalists. Andrea comes straight t us. All our anxiety is gone and we sit down on the grass to hear about the new album, the new label and news from Seattle…

Bib/Oa: So how has your Summer been so far?
Andrea: Well, not too bad. We hung out in New York for a week.


Bib/Oa: Where you there to play?
Andrea: We played one free show, on a pier there, which was really fun, but it was mostly because the label we're on now (Matador) is based in NY so we had to go and sort some details out. We mainly had to see the finished product for the new record.

Bib/Oa: What made you switch from Look Out! Rec, which seems to me to be more independent, to Matador?
Andrea: Well matador are great. Although they are bigger, they are still an indie label, which is really exciting. Everyone at Look Out! was also great, but they were a bit limited a far as their resources went. I mean Molly (Bratmobile, Peeches) also manages the Donnas and she' gone 8 months out of the year. Her husband, who owns the other half of the label, is touring the rest of the time. It doesn't make things too easy as far as time is concerned. They are amazingly inspiring people, though and we love them, but everything is a bit easier on Matador. And then they have offices in Europe which means you do not have to get it in import anymore.

Bib/Oa: is that the reason why you were in London recently?
Andrea: Well, yes. We went there to meet the people at Matador, but we also recorded a Peel session. That was yesterday, as a matter of fact. It was kind of nerve wrecking, because it's so quick, but it sounds great!

Bib/Oa: So you met John Peel?
Andrea: No, he doesn't have anything to do with recording nor engineering, he just hosts the show. We didn't know that either, so we were asking about him and the engineers were like 'what do you mean, HE doesn't do this.' Which we thought was kind of weird since it's a Peel session... They just said 'John Peel is God, that's what he does. He has an ear for all the new good bands.' We felt sorry for hurting their feelings, especially considering the way these people work. The recording sounds great! We loved they mixed especially two of the songs. I guess that's what they do all week long, they just learn how to mix really quickly without really knowing your songs, but it sounds amazingly great.

Bib/Oa: Isn't this process a bit scary, though?
Andrea: Yeah, a little scary, and besides my throat began to hurt because it is not like usual recordings where we would take a break, and they I'd drink some tea. I had to sing for 3 and a half hours straight and I started losing my voice, so I freaked out a bit since that was the beginning of the tour, but it turned out ok.

Bib/Oa:What song did you record?
Andrea: We did a new version of 'More sweet Soul', which is on Look Out! rec. (Good health LP) and then we did three songs from the last album.

Bib/Oa: which will be released...
Andrea: In the States, on September 8th and in the UK (and the rest of Europe) the new single should be released by the end of August. They do not do singles in the States, for some reason. I do not know, it's all new to me. The new record will be out here in the end of September. It's called The New Romance.

BiB/Oa:So that was the album you were writing when you came to Oslo last year?
Andrea: yes, basically. A couple of the songs we wrote right after we finished recording our last album and then the rest we wrote on the road, and throughout the year. One of them we wrote in the studio. The weird thing is that that's the song they chose as a single, this strange accidental kind of a song. It wasn't even a song, really.

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