Interview with Noise Magazine/1.06

Interview with Kate Ledogar for The Noise Magazine, January 2006

KL: What is your musical background?

LV: I’ve been playing and singing and writing songs since getting my first guitar at age 12. I took guitar lessons early on, and played the coffee houses in my hippie youth. I’ve been performing in “rock bands” since graduating from art school and discovering punk rock. My first band was Children of Paradise; artsy punk, then went on to lead hard roots rockers, Witch Doctor, sang cabaret with collaborator Catherine Coleman in Les Chanteuse Sorcieres, and formed the notorious funk orchestra Crown Electric Company with my husband Wayne Viens in the mid-nineties. I got to do musical theater with Boston Rock Opera in the 90’s and 00’s including Sgt. Pepper, Jesus Christ Superstar, Abbey Road, Preservation, and Billion Dollar Babies vs. Aqualung and learned a lot about singing harmony and acting and performance from that amazing crew. I’ve been lucky enough to sing on a bunch of records with other artists too.

KL: What music do you listen to most often?

LV: I listen to a huge range, discovering new stuff all the time. The Bad Saints trade music constantly, turning each other on to great stuff. New and old tried and true faves include Alabama 3, Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Morphine, Chrissie Hynde, PJ Harvey, Dylan, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Jayhawks, Guns n’ Roses, White Stripes; newer faves are: Drive By Truckers, Gorillaz, Sufyan Stevens, Shuggie Otis, Cat Power, Flaming Lips, Low, Otis Taylor, Blackalicious, Portishead and a bunch of trip hop that my bandmates Dave Grogan and Ted Corrigan have turned me on to.

KL: Are you in other bands currently? If so, which ones - and do you consider any one of them your primary musical project?

LV: I consider Bad Saints my primary musical project, the one i devote the most time to and write for the most, but I also love the sweet and rocking side project I do with Emily Grogan, Asa Brebner, Billy Beard, and Cheryl Etu, called Angeline. Ted and I also want to do a side thing that’s more dance, groove, trance oriented, ‘cuz we got a lot of ideas. If I could sleep even less than I already do, I could get a lot more writing done.

KL: If you were in bands in the past, were there any that created for you a lifestyle (fame, freedom, drugs, debauchery, travel, etc.) that you particularly enjoyed? And if so, was this related more to the band, or that time of your life?

LV: All the rock and roll I’ve ever listened to, and all the music and singers I’ve ever listened to, from Mozart to Mick Jagger changed me forever and created the archetype of a life of passion and extreme, mind-opening experiences that I am still living today. I knew what I wanted to do the first time I ever heard a Rolling Stones song and watched my babysitter smoking pot and lounging with her cute boyfriend in the living room from the top of the stairs in my flannel nightie.

KL: How would you describe the style of music that you play with your specific instrument in Bad Saints?

LV: I like to think I add solid rhythm, and sometimes muscle and sometimes grace with my acoustic guitar playing in the band. And I try to deliver the songs I sing and their meanings with the most fierce and honest authenticity I can feel and convey on any given night. To me, it’s as important to get inside the songs and truly feel them around the kitchen table playing acoustic, as it is live. My job is to disappear and let the songs emerge from someplace more ancient and timeless than myself.

KL: How does your current lifestyle (marriage, children, home ownership, career, non-musical callings, etc.) effect your participation in this or other bands?

LV: It’s awesome to be a full on adult with all of the satisfactions and pleasures and responsibilities of parenting, partnerships, owning nice stuff etc. but it also can be a mind-fuck when inside you’re still that 20 year old wanting to play music seven nights a week, stay up all night, and have crazy adventures. But, that’s why I try to keep in mind my heros, who seem to be aging without compramising who they truly are, like Iggy Pop for example. Have a great time when playing, give it your all, and then go to bed early on the off nights, play with my kid, hike with my husband, see friends, and take a lot of vitamins.

KL: What space do you want music; making, composing or performing music, specifically, to occupy in your life in general?

LV: I would love to make music, and write (songs, essays, screenplays, all kinds of stuff), full time, and not have the classic day job syndrome, but whatever happens with the art/making money paradigm doesn’t change the real job i gotta do, which is to be the most authentic artist I can be, and to be of service on the planet in some infinitesimal way. And just as there has always been, there are thousands of poets and artists just like me plugging along in an office somewhere, but still dedicated to their creative life. “Writing on scraps of paper in between doing loads of wash” as Patti Smith has described.

KL: What are your hopes for Bad Saints?

LV: Make some good, original music. Make some people feel good, and hopeful about life. Make a few people feel like they can do anything, maybe even change the world.

KL: How long have you lived in Boston?

LV: I’ve lived in Boston since 1978.

KL: If you have a day job, what is it and does it satisfy you?

LV: Yes, an office job in the non-profit health industry, and it’s totally mellow and pays the bills.

KL: Do you have any significant callings or interests, other than music? If so, what are they and what role do they play in your life? Also, do they influence your music and if so how?

LV: I have a deep and abiding love for philosophy, spiritual inquiry, and the examination of life. I like to study everything from shamanism, chaos magick, quantum physics, social history etc, and connect the dots with contemporary culture, art, media, and politics. And it all comes out in the music for sure: in the lyrics, in the grooves, in the way that music is just another conversation we are having with each other about the meaning of life. As Terrance McKenna says, “asking questions without the consolation of answers”. That’s what’s interesting to me.