To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Californian female rock group Warpaint is releasing two new tracks: Normal blue And below. A chance to look back on our meeting with musicians released in 2022 on Luminous Radiate like this. They then talked to us about desert trips, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, pop music and social media fatigue.
Warpaint – Normal Blue (2024).
In their early days, an all-female indie rock band from Los Angeles warpaint, Composed in 2004 on Valentine’s Day, the music has been the subject of interesting, but reductive, qualifiers from critics. The group consisting of Emily Cockle (vocals, guitar), Theresa Wayman (vocals, guitar), Jenny Lee Lindberg (bassist) and Stella Mozgawa (drums) was nicknamed “.Emo rock witches and “Pythias of California“
Or we’ve seen them as the mischievous and dark little sisters of the Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. Reputedly difficult to interview, they embodied a kind of mystical art-rock aristocrat who happily flirted with Hollywood. Actress Shanin Sossamon (holiday, Laws of Attraction) was part of the group. Several members of Warpaint have starred in films and had famous romantic relationships. Controversial actor Vincent Gallo, musical prodigy John Frusciante, a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and cult clipper Chris Cunningham (who has worked for Bjork, Aphex Twin, and Madonna) are among the musicians’ former flames.
An interview with the group Warpaint on the Radiate Like This album And His 20 year career
This very hip and ultra cool mythology (photos of the quartet look like a lookbook from Urban Outfitters stores) sometimes eclipses the group’s musical power. In three albums, the musicians never stopped pushing the boundaries of rock. Their complex melodies borrow as much from new wave as from post-rock, synthpop and spectral folk. The four artists manage to weave captivating melodies with a certain magic based on multiple layers of sensuous vocal harmonies and layers of hypnotic guitars.
The Americans also proved that they had clear hits (their pop hits new song, Which has millions of views on YouTube. “Alternative” stars, to spoil nothing, included Depeche Mode, The xx, Harry Styles and MGMT.
While their fourth album was released in 2022, bright and atmospheric Radiate like thisWe met the group’s two lead singers, Emilie Cockle and Theresa Wayman, in a Parisian bar, who were friendlier, sunnier and more talkative than the legends surrounding them would lead us to believe.
Warpaint – Disco//Very – Keep It Healthy (2014).
“The song Sand Nudes is perfectly clear…(laughs). We’re begging anyone to send us their nude pictures.” Warpaint
Number: Album title Radiate like this And its cover, which features a colorful sky, suggests you’re in a brighter mood than usual…
Emily Cockle : The title of the album comes from one of the songs on the album, to melt. that May resonate in different ways but to me it conveys something quite open, warm and hopeful. The cover is an airplane photo taken by the father of my daughter, who is two years old and was born on the first day of her incarceration in Los Angeles (she stands calmly on her mother’s lap during the interview). We were on our way to Mexico when he shot her. It’s reminiscent of the sky we saw in the Joshua Tree desert in southeastern California, where we met with the other girls to record this new album. The energy of the record comes largely from these landscapes that surrounded us there. Space and nature helped me focus and overcome my attention deficit. It was a more conducive environment for me to create than the city.
Theresa Wayman : This trip to the desert allowed us to put more space and clarity into our music. It helps incorporate more atmospheric elements, certain sonic vibrations. For the cover photo, which suggests a certain distance and perspective, it invites us to see everyday objects from another perspective. This is the main theme of the songs of our new album. If we zoom out a bit from the situation we find ourselves in, we realize that many details can change later. Everything shines brighter with a wider view. And we shine more together than alone.
One of your songs is called Send nudes. someone else, Champion, talks about empowerment and wanting to surpass oneself. You said about it: “It’s about being a champion for yourself and others. We are all in this together, life is too short not to strive for excellence in what we do“Your writings seem clearer than before…
Emily Cockle: Yes Send nudes Totally obvious…(laughs). We request anyone to send us their nude pictures. We really tried to be a bit more understandable and direct in our new songs than our previous albums.
In recent years, you’ve multiplied your solo adventures and great escapes. Theresa, you’re in LA and have released a solo album and launched a lingerie line. Emily, you split your time between LA, Oregon and Joshua Tree, embracing new spirituality and sobriety and collaborating with artists like rapper Saul Williams. Jenny Lee moved to Utah, working on personal music and paintings. Stella, who has moved to Australia, is a drummer in demand by musicians such as Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett. I read that you almost went broke after the release of your album Heads up (2016)…
Emily Cockle: I don’t know if it has something to do with feminine energy that can change. Personally, it takes watching a great movie to make me want to go to the city where the action takes place. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to commit to a project. Especially since the group has existed for eighteen years. We always wanted to control our personal storytelling, which we managed to do. Today we’re back together and we’ve got our chemistry back, which feels good. A lot of our magic is playing together in one room. Especially during the pandemic, we had to start or end different songs because we lived in different cities.
Warpaint – New Song (2016).
“It’s not easy to write pop songs like Taylor Swift. Not everybody can do it.” Warpaint
You have already written pieces for the series (eg Made for or made or made for love on HBO Max and Canal+) and movies (Hypnotic on Netflix). And some of you have acted in films. Do you work on your songs as if they were soundtracks to movies that don’t exist?
Emily Cockle: Yes totally. I often look at images when I write a song. Sometimes I contemplate a landscape and it inspires a text or a voice. For me, sound often comes with a more or less abstract image of an exterior or interior setting. It could be a specific moment of the day, captured in a specific light, and I photograph it in my mind. Imagery allows me to tell a better story. I want to have the gift of synesthesia, the neurological phenomenon of combining multiple senses.
Theresa Wayman: We’ve played soundtracks live in San Francisco that weren’t recorded before. We also want to convey a message to filmmakers. If you want us to compose an entire film soundtrack, we are ready for that.
You’ve shot Depeche Mode and Harry Styles. What did you learn from them?
Emily Cockle: Professionalism can pay off (laughs). It takes a lot of effort, sacrifice and hard work to appear on stage, put on a show and project a good self-image. To always look in good shape. And you really want him to succeed at this level. Dave Gahan has to listen to feedback in his headphones, very loud, for example, for hours, to make sure the music sounds good.
Noel Gallagher recently said that what Harry Styles sang had nothing to do with the music and the songwriter’s work in the studio. This reminds me of Damon Albarn’s recent line that Taylor Swift doesn’t write her songs. What do you think, what do you think?
Theresa Wayman : We love Noel Gallagher, but we don’t quite agree with his vision of things. Especially since Harry Styles’ first solo album, there are not only obvious pop hits but also very different, deeper pieces. And then there’s room for everyone. Noel Gallagher doesn’t recognize himself in Harry Styles’ music but thousands of teenagers feel connected to what he says. As for Taylor Swift, she has been writing her songs for a long time. Besides, writing pop songs is not easy. Not everyone is capable of that. We should not underestimate pop singers because it is a professional genre.
Warpaint – Elephants (2010).
You are not much on social networks. Isn’t that something that interests you?
Theresa Wayman: I think you have to be there and participate to sell more records (a track from Warpaint, new song, still ranked in their country’s top 50, editor’s note). But we are not interested in showing ourselves on networks and posting lots of photos of ourselves. We come from another world, from another generation, which experienced the absence of social networks and then their childhood. I’m over 40, maybe that’s why I’m having trouble getting into it. I still remember when Emily and I sent each other emails to communicate. The most important thing to me is “Look at me!” Instead of saying, make music whenever you can and as much as possible.
You don’t seem to have ever corrupted yourself into a very mainstream project that wasn’t your…
Theresa Wayman: It’s great that you see things that way. Maybe we’re not offered anything too “corrupt” or too different from our morals because people don’t dare get angry with four women. They see us and they probably say to themselves: “We are not going to bother them or fight with them.” But we have nothing against the idea of being a little more challenging…
Normal blue (2024) from Warpaint, available on all platforms.
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