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Interview with Meghan Remy | U.S. Girls

(interview made to Meghan Remy AKA U.S. Girls at Primavera Sound 2016, Porto, with Canal180)

It’s your first time here in Porto. What do you think about the city?

It seems nice. It seems much smaller than Lisbon, which is the (Portuguese) city I know the most, but it’s easy to walk around, everyone’s friendly, and it’s beautiful.

And what about the festival?

I’m thinking that these festivals are a bad sign of the world that we live in (laughs). I don’t know, I’m pretty particular about the way I take in shows and stuff like that. To have everyone playing on a similar stage, that’s so big, the sound is so big, and there’s no real vibe. It’s a festival vibe which kind of seems just drinking and drugs, and not a really good sound or the place looking really cool. To me it just feels corporate.

Do you feel it’s too social?

Yeah. I just think the festivals are becoming too corporate, in general. I think that there’s something to be said about a festival like Coachella that doesn’t allow logos, because it helps with the atmosphere. You don’t want to be consuming art while you’re standing to an adidas logo or a super bock logo or whatever. It’s no surprise that money and art are connected, everyone knows, but it’s nice to pretend that it’s not (laughs). To hide the machines and all the logos. I don’t know, festivals are capitalist machines.

But do you think it used to be different years ago?

I’ve no idea. I’ve never been a festival person. I only went to Ozzfest, Ozzy Osbourne’s metal fest, in the 90’s or early 2000’s. And other festivals I had been to before were benefit festivals, like Farm Aid, where they are raising money for farmers and for areas where there’s droughts or stuff like that. So that’s a totally different vibe, it’s feels more like a community and that we’re there for a purpose, one that is not just putting money in the pockets of big bands or big companies. So I don’t know if and how they’ve changed, but what I can see is that they are springing up everywhere. Every city has a festival now, it’s spreading. Because I think it gets people to come to your city, and people like that and want the money.

Ok, so let’s forget about festivals and talk about your music (both laugh). I know in this album you address some issues, such as sexual abuse and general inequalities. As an artist, how important is it for you to address such issues and to be able to put them closer to the audience?

I just have no other choice for me, as an artist. That’s the material that I feel I have to mind for myself, for my own mental sanity, but also I wanna present something real to the audience that they can dissect and think about. I wanna make songs that people can dance to - sure! But it’s nice to have another layer where there’s some meaning there. I just feel like things are so crazy right now in the world, specially for women. The fact that here we are in 2016 and things are not so different from the past - we act like they are, but specially in North America they are really not. I think it’s important to talk about real things. That’s just how I am, I have no other choice. I think that makes me less available. Not as many people are gonna like me, because who wants to be whipped when they’re listening to their music, to be punished with the truth? But that’s ok. I’d rather have less people actually listening than a lot of people that are just spacing out.

Do you think it’s hard being a woman in the music industry nowadays?

Yeah, I think so. There’s just a lot of importance put on the way you look, when men don’t really have that whole image-based thing. Even your label want you to do like a million press photos if you’re a woman, with different make-up looks. And you have to cater to fashion magazines, they really want you to do that, because if you can get it with the fashion magazines, it does a lot of work that the label doesn’t have to do with press and stuff like that. We’re the only women playing on that stage tonight, and we’re playing first. It’s like let’s get them out of the way and then men can come up and do their thing - which I know it’s not what they (festivals’ programmers) are thinking, but they just don’t think. People don’t think about that. I saw an interesting thing last summer: someone took a bunch of festivals’ posters from around the world and took out all of the bands that were just men and left the ones with female acts, and end up with empty posters. If you take all the men out, there’s no women, and we’re 50% of the fucking population! We should have more representation by this time. And for younger women coming to these festivals, when they look up on stage and all they’re seeing is men, men, men, maybe in their mind they are not realising they can do it to.

And are you excited to see any particular women who’s playing in this festival?

Yeah, I feel united with them. It feels good to see them on stage, it’s like “wow, there’s someone like me and not just a big penis again” (laughs).

Now that you’re label is 4AD, do you feel your path has changed?

I just think they really know what they are doing. They sign artists and they ensure you have a career. They just know how to put out a record and the steps to do to get people to hear it. I’m lucky to be with them. I do think that they are a business, but on the other hand I think they care about the stuff they put out, they have a curatorial sense and care about artists having a career and a body of work, not just trying to make money out of you and then throwing you away in one second. I think I’m lucky. If I play my cards right I can have a career that sustains itself, which is all I want.

You also made one of your videos, right?

I make all of them! (laughs)

Oh, all? I didn’t know that. So how important is the visual part for you? Because I’ve heard someone saying your album was Lynchian and I immediately thought about the visual part.

It’s really important to me. Now it’s so much about the internet, it’s where people find out about you, and you kind of have to make videos. So if I have to make videos I want them to be good. It’s an opportunity for me to express a song visually. If people don’t speak the same language or can’t understand what I’m saying, they can maybe get an idea of what I’m trying to express through the images that I’m presenting.

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Interview with Lorely Rodriguez | Empress Of

(interview made to Lorely Rodriguez AKA Empress Of at Primavera Sound 2016, Porto, with Canal180)

You’ve just launched your album Me, which is quite personal. What do you portray in it?

The title says it all. It’s about everything going on in my life, personally, and I feel like there are a lot of things people can relate to: relationships, working too hard and not making enough money, being a 25 years-old woman walking down the street in a busy city. It’s just a lot of things people can relate to.

And being such a personal album, how does it feel to present it to so many people and actually bring it outdoors?

It’s one of the best rewards from making something which literally starts with ideas in my head, you know? There aren’t physical things. I think that’s the coolest thing about being an artist: it’s just making things that start out as not physical things in your head and then they come to this.

I know you started doing music in more indie rock bands, but now you’re more into pop and R&B. How did this change happen?

I’ve always loved pop music, from The Beattles to Britney Spears. As a kid, I listened to all kinds of pop music. I love all kinds of music. What I love the most about pop music, like big pop songs, is that it’s a real challenge. It’s hard to write a song - a good one. That’s a goal for me as an artist: to write a good song. That’s why I listen to people like SIA, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey. Because there’s a lot of work behind those songs, so they can be heard all over the world.

And what about touring? Do you enjoy playing at festivals or do you prefer smaller venues?

It’s really funny and so weird. Being an artist at my level, whatever that means... like I’m not a pop star, I don’t think I am like a huge thing, but two days ago in Paris I played in a basement for 200 people and tonight I played for thousands of people in Portugal. I didn’t even know people in Portugal liked me! I went to the barricade after I played and talked to the girls who were waiting for me - they waited and were saying “come, come!”, so I was like “ok, I’ll go say hi”. They are like teenage kids, saying please come back to Portugal, and I had no idea.

What were your first impressions about the city and the festival?

Being a touring musician, you don’t really get to see the cities you play in that much. I arrived last night at 2 o’clock in the morning, I got only 4 or 5 hours to see the city, but of what’ve saw it was so beautiful. I had a francesinha and a Chaves (pastry). I’ll have to deal with that later, but it’s all worth it because I’m only in Porto for one day - no, half a day. So I gotta get my Chaves while I can.

I was wondering if you hang out much with other artists. Because I saw a picture of you with Kelela and Caroline Polachek a while ago and I was thinking if you get to hang out during festivals.

It’s really funny, I was just talking with Julia Holter about this. No, it wasn’t Julia Holter. It was with Olga Bell, the girl who was opening for me on my european tour. She was saying all the friends she has she just works with! This is work. I play a show, I run into Kelela and, I don’t know, you just become friends. You hang out at work!

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eleven hours on going; another playlist.

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I have a playlist. 

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The Broken Pie is about food and culture. I write the texts and I take the photos.

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A text I wrote about 180 Creative Camp 2017, in Abrantes. An event hosted by Canal180 that gathers many young creatives in a remote city of Portugal. 

Photo: Matilde Viegas

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Shot at NOS Primavera Sound 2016. Made by Canal180. Some interviews made by me.