Mainstream to me equals boring, so I don't want to be doing that.
— Marnie Stern
I don't want to be seen as this math-rock geek.
I had been wanting to give guitar lessons to girls because I feel like women tend to use their voice as the starting point for a song and learn a few chords, and then it ends there because then they just use their voice to flesh out a song.
I was listening to a lot of math rock-y type bands do lots of complex stuff and I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. Then I realized that sometimes they were finger tapping, so I started messing around doing it.
Music is entirely subjective. I was thinking that for myself, for songwriting and what I like to listen to, to help motivate me as a songwriter, as a musician, there are certain things I lean towards and certain things I don't.
People assume I sell a lot more records than I actually do. I really don't sell any.
Most of my playing style is very on point - the tapping, just by nature of being rhythmic, is tight - so I'd like to explore something looser and less precise.
For stage I try to dress down, because I want people to take me seriously.
I know of dude-bands who've brought big, crazy dogs on tour. Everybody loves their animal.
Lightning Bolt and Hella are two bands I listen to, and there's a lot of finger tapping going on there.
