Pirate Jenny's Red Hot ambitions:
Aimee, Amy and Jon are having it their way.
(Ella; The Valley's Journal of Women in Music:
March/April '97: p. 2: by Helen Harrison)
Since hitting the scene in 1994, Pirate Jenny has become something of an institution among Valley indie bands. And that's indie the old-fashioned way, folks -- meaning, keeping your eyes on artistic integrity rather than on shifting commercial winds, building a grass-roots following of fans you know by name, and doing everything -- from the most unglamorous grunt-work to making the most important decisions -- yourself. If there's anyone capable of juggling the many demands involved in such an endeavor, it's undoubtedly Aimee Swift and Amy Greene, founders of Pirate Jenny and the community-oriented local label Red Hot Records. To witness the pair in action is a lesson in organization, clarity of purpose, and unflagging diligence. For instance, recording twelve local bands in two-hour sessions over the course of one weekend may sound like a logistical nightmare, but with this team in charge it went off without a hitch. The result: "Live in the Living Room," a compilation recorded direct-to-DAT (yes, actually in their living room), released in early 1996. Their multi-band tape release parties for this and their most recent product, Diana Davies' "Twelve O'Clock Girl in a Nine O 'Clock Town" came off with the same grace, and were very well-attended. And their Red Hot Records office and practice space (above-mentioned living room) -- located in their Northampton duplex -- radiate a sense of order quite unlike the archetypal rock-band slobarama. Which is not to say they don't rock. Their songs, often based on catchy, crunchy chord riffs, topped with forceful lead vocals and seamless harmonies, recall classic first-wave punk, while incorporating nuances that are uniquely their own. With lyrics based on personal experiences, observations of pop culture, and sketches of people they've met, the music has a steady insistence fueled by the passion that drives every aspect of their work. On a recent February evening, Ella writer Helen Harrison spoke to Aimee, Amy, and drummer Jon Carisi about their music, the state of indie rock, and their do-it-yourself philosophy.
Helen: Are you satisfied with the opportunities for indie bands to play and reach an audience?
Amy: (singing) I'm so unsatisfied.
Jon: Sing it, sister.
Amy: Oh, no, no, no.
Aimee: I don't know what to say to make it better though.
Amy: I'm so tired of people bitching about it.
Aimee: Ultimately, you have to sit down and work and people will take notice eventually
Amy: You can't rely on the scene to give you something you don't already have.
Aimee: We're coming out of a period where there were way too many bands, and a lot of them sounded much too much alike. People just got sick of it.
Amy: On a local and on a national level.
Jon: It's a problem when "indie," and even worse, "alternative," becomes a generic, homogenized sound.
Amy: I think it's interesting that the local scene is going through this crisis of identity at the same time that the national scene is going through a crisis.
Aimee: Everything is about hype when it comes right down to it. That's what I'm going to write my dissertation on -- The Myth of Fame. It's really interesting how you can just create it. I learned about that with Flower- Thief. [Aimee managed the all-female group Flower-Thief which quickly became a Valley phenomenon in the early '90 s.]
Amy: Northampton was really blessed a couple of years back. It got national attention and we had six months of hype. And if there's nothing to substantiate that, it's not going to go on forever.
Aimee: You need to know when to do the hype. We're not ready yet to do our hype.
Amy: You're revealing all our secrets. (laughs)
Helen: I'm curious as to what you mean by hype, because it seems like you've done a better job than almost any band in the area of publicizing yourself.
Aimee: Well, we flyer a lot. You need to work for it. People play and they're like, "No one comes to our shows!" And it's not like all our shows are packed -- but you have to try.
Amy: I don't think that's so much hype as, we're trying to inform the community of our presence. Hype is more like when we blitz all the media.
Aimee: We've done a bit of that for the label. The label is really meant to be a community project anyway -- to encourage and support the Northampton music scene. I think "Live in the Living Room" was good for more than just the twelve bands that were on it. When people outside Northampton get the tape, they'll think "Oh wow -- I think there's something going on in Northampton." And that will be good for any band from this area.
Helen: What were your intentions when you started the label?
Aimee: The base intention was that we had our seven-inch coming out, and it seemed awfully sad not to have it on a label. (laughs)
Amy: We were already essentially doing the work of a label ourselves. Red Hot formalized that work we'd already done. And it gave us motivation to extend it and to do the community project, with the compilation.
Helen: What do you feel is important about supporting local music? Because you really have done that.
Aimee: Having an audience that's not the music scene. It can't just be the writers of the music scene, the musicians, the promoters.
Amy: We need music listeners.
Aimee: And they need to know about it. That it's accessible...
Amy: That it's an important part of the community.
Aimee: That it's not just a bunch of sucky local bands.
Amy: That it's cool to go see live music.
Helen: Why did you decide to go the do-it-yourself route? Did you consciously decide, "we're not going to seek out a label?" Maybe you have an ethic --?
Aimee: As a small band trying to deal with a big label, you have no chance.
Amy: No power.
Aimee: It's not safe for your music....
Amy: And if it doesn't work out in the first two years, you're kissing goodbye to your future music career, too. Because if they drop you, you're untouchable by other record labels. Our approach has been to build our following, make ourselves as big as we can by ourselves. Then if labels become interested, we're in the position of power.
Aimee: If you want to make a living off music, you obviously have to have major distribution, but you need to have a solid grassroots base before you get into that, because otherwise you'll probably get screwed.
Jon: On a deep level, it seems like with the major labels, it's the same thing that's happening with corporate America, where there's no job security anymore.... The corporate mentality is to come in, find the sound of the moment, make a killing off of it, and then move on, and leave the people [musicians] hanging.
Aimee: Another reason we're doing it ourselves is that we're so particular -- I don't know when we'll be able to let somebody else do it. I don't think we ever will. (laughter)
Jon: We're going to a 12-step program for it.
Amy: We also really enjoy all of the different steps it takes to do this project -- the graphics, the media relations -- everything that's involved in promoting a band.
Aimee: Being in a band is really well-rounded. You get to write, play music, you're an artist, you have to be social...
Amy: You're a businessperson, an accountant. Some musicians hand over the control and let someone else do that. But it's fun to do everything.
Aimee: We just wish we had more time. We both work full-time.
Helen: Why did you decide to do cassette-only releases?
Aimee: Money, I think, was the real reason.
Amy: We have total control. We dupe [duplicate] them ourselves, we can make a small run of something. It's cheap. And it's more accessible than any other format for listeners.
Helen: There must be some disadvantages to just doing cassettes.
Aimee: No airplay.
Amy: At shows people love to pick up cassettes. It's just so easy.
Helen: At this point, are you more focused on live performance, or recording?
Amy: Recording.
Aimee: We're trying to four-track everything.
Helen: Has there been a learning curve to getting the results you want on four-track?
Amy: It's been so weird, because some nights, it sounds gorgeous, then we'll try to do the exact same thing the next night, and it doesn't sound the same at all.
Aimee: ...The stuff that we're doing now is a live room-mix onto two tracks.
Jon: Amy and Aimee have the advantage of being blessed with a good room.... A while ago we did some basic drum tracks, and they put three vocal mics in a halo around the [drum] kit and it's almost a studio sound, it's clear and dry.... We're also by nature a live, first-take band. We don't like too much finagling or technical wizardry.
Amy: Our sense of time is enhanced when we play together... Our songs really do breathe.
Helen: What have you learned about managing a band that you wish you'd known before you started -- pitfalls to avoid, things that help?
Amy: Be really careful what you say to other people and how you portray yourself in social situations. Because potentially anybody could help you, and anyone could hinder you. You never know who you're talking to.
Aimee: It's really easy to slam people -- "Oh this band sucks" -- because you're trying to build yourself up. It's important to realize that everybody wants that one good show at Pearl Street, that everybody's going through the same steps you are, and to try to be supportive. And be very careful what you invest your money in. Like, to do a full-length recording, think of the studio equipment you could buy for that money. Then all of the recordings after that would be free.
Jon: On that note, if you do go into the studio, your mantra is, it's going to sound the way you want it to sound.
Aimee: Which brings us back to wanting to do it ourselves. If someone is turning a knob, I want to know why and what it's doing.
Amy: We also bought a lot of unnecessary equipment we later realized we didn't like.... Also realize, if you're playing a local show, and you're playing again two weeks later, don' t expect everyone to show up two weeks later.... We have a much better time when there's more people there. Everyone does.
Helen: What are your goals for the future?
Amy and Aimee: To conquer the world!
Jon: Ahoy, mates!
