When I arrived at Vancouver’s Brickyard for the scheduled doors of 9pm, there was little sign of activity. I met up with Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy from the band Xiu Xiu, as well as ‘dungeonmaster’ Simon, as they are unloading their tour bus in front of the venue. Tour minivan, rather. The sound person is late, so I sit down for a chat with the band in the empty club.

(Cord Magazine's questions are in blue. Artist responses are in grey.)


Do you feel at all concerned that a lot of people have no idea how to make sense of Xiu Xiu?

JAMIE STEWART – No. I mean, I don’t think it’s our responsibility to clarify, and I don’t think anyone who listens has a responsibility to clarify either.

Do you have an audience in mind when writing your lyrics?

J – I’m certainly concerned with writing things that I think will be relevant to people listening, but I’m not thinking of appealing to any particular sect. But, we are making music hoping that people will listen to it, and hoping that it will affect those people.

Would you say your lyrics represent you as a person?

J – Well, they’re always about something real that is happening or has happened to me or somebody else in the band, or family, or people who are close to us. Sometimes they represent me directly, but just as often if not more often represent someone else.

Do you feel put off that most of the focus gets put on James and his lyrics?

CARALEE MCELROY – Absolutely. (laughing) No, I only joined the band less than a year ago, and we’ve just begun recording, so I’m not on [newest album] Fabulous Muscles at all. So I don’t really think I deserve any limelight yet. I think it’s great, I don’t like having the attention on me anyway.

Is Xiu Xiu more a group effort then?

J – It’s both. Fabulous Muscles I did mostly by myself, but this new record we’re doing is very much a group effort. The other two records were half and half, somewhere in the middle.

Are you worried that the confrontational or shock value of your music might become dated?

J – I can understand how somebody might perceive it that way, but I don’t really care if somebody were to perceive it that way. I know that we are always trying to write as honestly as we can, and can only do the best we can at the moment we are working on it. We can’t be too concerned about how it will be perceived later on. I hope that it wouldn’t [become dated] but it would be completely anti-ethical to what were trying to do to be second guessing ourselves.

What do you hope to bring to people with your glitchy, slightly random instrument parts? Is it complementary to the lyrics, or maybe something else entirely?

J – Well they’re certainly related. We try to put as much feeling into the playing as there is in the lyrics. All of the songs reflect what our influences are, and we’re trying to put as much of ourselves into the music as we can.

With your live shows, do you try to create and enhance the recorded work, or does a live performance take on its own special meanings?

C – I think we just try to play the best we can; we have been called stone faced, because we’re not about having a ‘thing’ or a stage presence. Again, it’s just about playing our best.

What do you think of the label emo, as people sometimes apply it to the group?

J – I don’t really think that A) it matters, and B) it’s relevant to Caralee’s music history, or mine at all. It’s never been the kind of music I listened to; it’s just not where we’re coming from.

I’ve heard that you consider your more recent work to be more ‘pop’, whereas in the world of indie pop has a rather bad name. What’s your response to that?

J – I feel like such an asshole, because I don’t really care about that sort of thing. Pop music has been around since the 20’s; there’s a very long history of pop that goes beyond what’s currently trendy.

Are you trying to expand on what pop has to offer?

J – Not consciously… with bands that have been important to us, pop music is among those. I don’t think we’re trying to do anything specific with the future of music.

I read a review of Fabulous Muscles comparing your work with homo-erotic DMX lyrics. Are you big DMX fans?

J – (laughing) That was in Village Voice I think. Why don’t you answer that Caralee?

C – I’m not a particularly big fan of DMX…

J – (laughs)

C – It’s kind of flattering, to get compared to DMX rather than those same four bands they always compare us to.

After this chat, I sit back and relax in the Brickyard, located in one of the seedier areas one can visit in Vancouver. Death metal is coming softly in throught the house speakers as the opening act does it’s soundcheck, already well after the doors have opened. McElroy is milling about the club, while Stewart sits in a corner looking serious and reading a thick paperback.

“So, where does the name come from?” asks a visitor to the merch table.

I’m a bit surprised that the soft spoken members of Xiu Xiu are soon going to pour their hearts out onstage, but the setting gives some hints as to the artistic mayhem to come. The guy beside me is reading a French novel, and band members and early fans are playing pool, dressed in the most diverse outfits possible. This is where real music takes place, not the rows upon rows of preteen girls packed into a stadium to hear the latest pop idols.

By the time the first band of the night, Basement Sweets, has cleared the stage, the venue is sweltering. Fans read the zines scattered about, and then fan themselves with them. The crowd is packed into the club, and pours out onto the street to cool down. It’s an interesting crowd, the type of indie group where every person in the room is the coolest person there.

The music of the first two opening acts is far removed from Xiu Xiu, verging on punk rock, so I am interested to see what the crowd reaction will be. Alas, I am forced to leave early to catch the last bus back to the suburbs. Apparently, because the club closes at 3am, the music had been pushed back to fill the whole night, and I had to miss out.

Elsewhere

By Ryan Ince
Photos : xiuxiu.tomstyle.com
Published : August 8, 2004.