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INTERVIEWS
Pop
Zine Online w/ Aimee Echo
Source: Pop
Zine Online
Interviewer: Pop Zine Online
PZO: Whose idea was it to have your dog, Eno, howling at the end of the
album?
Aimee: You know, it was just something that happened. How it happened
was we were in the studio and we were watching Night at the Roxbury. And...was
that how it first happened that he sang like that?
Scott: Yeah.
Aimee: We were watching Night at the Roxbury and uncontrollably whenever
he hears Will Farrell in this one part he does that. So we had made him do it
like 9 different times for, “Watch this, it’s so funny!” You
know, people would come in the studio and the movie would be on and we’d
cue it up to that part and he just starts howling. So we actually recorded him
the first time we did the record. And then when we went into mastering somehow
his track got lost, it was on the computer and it didn’t end up on the
record. But when we went in again and re-did it, we added the 2 songs last year
and we made him do it again. <laughs> And he does it, like, on cue. It’s
the most bizarre thing. And it’s so funny looking. It’s funnier looking
than it is sounding. He’ll just do that... <howls> It’s just
his little face. It’s amazing. That’s how that happened.
PZO: Just by listening to some of the songs on the album it’s obviously
different from a lot of bands that are out there. What kind of musical influences
do you have that account for your unique sound?
Aimee: I think when we were writing we went right back to everything
that we grew up on when we were little. And a lot of that was like The Cure
and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Jamie is a huge U2 freak. Um, even, and this
is so out of left field, but even a little bit of like early Madonna. I know
that sounds crazy. A lot of like late 70s punk rock, like Buzzcocks and stuff
like that; English punk rock. That’s pretty much where it came from.
PZO: What’s it been like these last couple of months that you’ve
been touring with Sugar Ray and Weezer?
Aimee: It’s been interesting because all the tours are so different
from one another. You know, we have Sugar Ray and then Weezer and now Incubus,
and all the crowds are completely different from each other. The bands are completely
different from each other. It’s kind of really cool to actually get exposure
to that many different types of people. It’s been great. We’ve had
a lot of fun; crowds have been really receptive. We haven’t had too many
nights where we were like, “Wow, what was that about?” And we’ve
had a lot of nights where we were like, “Oh my god, kids are dancing.”
And it’s really fun...it’s great. And, you know, on Weezer we got
to do our first arena tour. We’ve never done that before. <laughs>
Our last show of Weezer was 14,000 people. It’s like...crazy. And we played
at this venue that I’ve always wanted to play since I was really little,
in New York, Jonesbeach. Cause when I was younger I saw Lollapalooza there and
it was just amazing to be on that same stage that people that were like my heroes
were on. I mean, Weezer were kind of our heroes too, you know. It’s pretty
cool to be on tour with your heroes! <laughs>
PZO: I’m sure you’ve seen your share of crazy things going
on in the audience. Is there any one in particular that stands out the most?
Aimee: There isn’t. You know, it’s really pretty much...there’s
not...it’s pretty much the same in the crowd. Well, on Sugar Ray there
was some odd stuff that happened. Girls really dig Mark McGrath...
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: And there were some girls that I’m just gonna be presumptuous
and say that they pretty much would have done anything, you know. There was
lots of panties flying on the stage and bras and whatnot. I actually one night
saw a bra fly onstage during Weezer, which is really funny because they don’t
seem like that kind of band. But there were girls holding up signs for Mark
in particular that were pretty mind blowing. Like something that I would never,
like I don’t even know if I can repeat some of the stuff that it said.
But hey, whatever floats your boat I guess. It was really weird, so...but as
far as our crowds, you know, the kids who end up liking us; they’re usually
not that kind of people. I don’t know, maybe they are.
PZO: On your website there’s a section that’s labeled ACT.
What moved you to have this on your site?
Aimee: I think it’s really important that...our public school system
is structured to teach children exactly what...like the curriculum is pretty
much the same across the board for the nation. It’s structured in a very
safe way, and it’s also designed to make workers, not thinkers. People
who respond to bells and show up on time, do the work, and get in and get out.
Actually, in my opinion thinking is something that is looked down upon, like
being a free thinker. So for me, I was raised in a kind of different way. My
mom was a product of the 60s and taught me that whenever you can, you should
try to make a change in the world for the better. And I though that our public
forum where we can reach more people, I guess, it’s a solid, static place
where you can go and find information. So I thought it would be nice to provide
some information about stuff that people, you know...I guess it’s pretty
much my thing more than the other guys. But the other guys have 100%...they
back it. There are things up there just to make you think: question things that
maybe you’re told on a daily basis that aren’t necessarily going to
be in mainstream. You wouldn’t come across it everyday. I always thought
it was interesting when I was raised and we were taught about the 4 food groups,
this is a really basic example. We were taught about the 4 food groups and how
much you’re supposed to eat of each thing, and then you look at the bottom
and it was sponsored by the Beef Council. Which, you know, they don’t tell
you to read the fine print. But on the thing that says eat 4 servings of beef
a day it says brought to you by the Beef Council of America. We live in a capitalist
country and when advertising is getting into your schools in that manner, in
your basic education, I think it’s important to provide an alternative.
I mean, we do that in such a small way, it’s so minor to what I would hope
and dream to do later. But then also we’re a rock band and we’re here
to have fun and celebrate and we’re not...as much as I’d like to be
of help and make some kind of headway in a positive way, be a positive influence
on people, we are a rock band and that’s why that’s just a little
bit. We’re not gonna be out there spouting off about politics every 5 minutes.
Cause if I did that, that would just take up so much time now, wouldn’t
it? But you never know, that might change too.
PZO: Are you currently working on new songs for your next album?
Aimee: Yeah, actually we have a little studio in the back and we’re
writing. Jamie is writing all the time. I think we almost finished one yesterday.
Which is pretty interesting when you’re out here and when you’re at
home and you have time to focus it’s a lot easier than when you’re
trying to just eat and live and work and do the show. To get a couple of seconds
back there in the back is a little different. But it’s also good because
you’re getting a lot of outside influences as far as creativity. The answer
to that was yes! <laughs>
PZO: How did you come up with the name for the band?
Aimee: My mom named the band! How about that? We had a different name
in the beginning and that name was taken. Our attorney came to the studio while
we were making the record and said you can’t call yourselves that name
anymore ‘cause there’s about 15 other bands that are already called
that, that you’ve never heard of. And I thought I was really thorough in
my search for a name ‘cause there are so many bands out there right now
and in America the law is first use. So even if there’s a band in, let’s
say Texas, who has a CD out of their own, not on a major label, but they work
in the area and they do shows in the area and they sell their CD’s regionally
they have first use in that area. So we would have had to go to each one of
the 15 bands and say, “Can we have permission to use your name?” The
scope of that was far too grand for me to get my head around. So we gave it
up and I searched and searched and searched and searched and searched and searched
for a name that wasn’t taken. You would not believe how many...any word
you can think of, there’s a band called that.
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: So it was a miracle actually that there wasn’t a band called
theSTART. My mom was just...we wanted it to be really simple because I think
that’s, you know, it’s impactive. And we wanted it to be, not have
a negative connotation. My old band was called Human Waste Project, I always
just liked that name personally but I had no control over that. I tried to change
it a bunch of times but I couldn’t find a name to change it to. But I thought
that was negative, so we kind of had bad luck with that too. Then I had friends
that were in a band, Failure, so it was kind of like what you put out there
manifests. So we wanted to be really careful not to manifest anything that was
gonna be negative. And also since we have such a great love of bands from the
70s, and that’s just like the classic thing of a band having “the”
in front of it. I was in love with that idea and my mom just called and said,
“I was on the freeway and this name popped into my head: theSTART!”
And at first I was like, “No! It’s probably taken! Screw everything!”
I was literally up 7 hours a night online searching the copyright database,
like, out of my mind, searching everything. It was driving me crazy. And all
the really clever names are gone, of course, ‘cause they’re great.
Unbelievably, there was one band who used the name start in the 80s, but they
broke up before their first record came out and I don’t know if they owned
the copyright, but it had expired and nobody had bought the copyright yet. So
we got it. Everybody else, step off! <laughs>
PZO: What do you enjoy most about being a singer?
Aimee: Ooh, I think I’d have to say the show, the live show. Playing
in front of people. Getting to dance and sing. Just the rush of when you’re
putting something out and people take it and give it back to you. That is probably
when there’s give and take onstage from the audience and myself, or and
the guys. It’s the most incredible feeling ever. It’s better than
anything, I think. It’s unbelievable to...I guess the first time I heard
an audience of a lot of people I got the chills all over my body and I knew
that bringing people together...‘cause that’s what it is. When you
get a lot of people in the same frame of mind at once it makes like a magical
experience. And I think that’s the high of it. Writing is really cool too,
but as far as what gets me most here, <points to heart> is the show.
PZO: How do you manage to balance your personal relationships being as busy
as you are?
Aimee: I don’t! It’s really difficult, especially on tour.
Just for example, yesterday we had a day off, finally, and I got calls from
home and I really love my friends and my family. But I’m surrounded by
people all the time and I’m always talking to people and I live with all
these people on this bus and then, getting solace...there’s no Aimee time,
ever. It just doesn’t exist. See yesterday I was just walking down the
street and my mom called and I was like, “I love you so much, but I’m
just gonna walk around Austin right now and be me for a minute.” Not have
any external forces driving me. So it’s difficult. It’s probably one
of the biggest challenges that there is out here, balancing my personal relationships
and work. It gets really lonely being surrounded by people all the time. It’s
funny ‘cause once you’re out here for a long time you kind of build
your own wall around yourself, you cruise around in your space all day. You
can’t open up and be 100% on, whereas if you live a regular home life where
you can be at home and have your home time and when you go out and see your
friends, you’re like woo!! And you get to be exciting and wonderful and
glamorous. You just have to find a way to be exciting, wonderful, and glamorous
every moment of every day and it just can’t happen. That is, I think, the
toughest part. That and finding food! <laughs>
PZO: <laughs> Food that tastes good!
Aimee: That tastes good... ‘Cause you can find food anywhere, but
food that tastes good is hard.
PZO: What places did you visit while you were going about Austin?
Aimee: Um, yesterday was a little weird. We went and walked up and down
6th Street, but I’ve never been here and I didn’t have anybody to
really tell me where I was supposed to go or what was good to do. So I didn’t
really have much luck. It was cool to see Emo’s ‘cause I’ve heard
about it for years and years and years, and we ate some good food yesterday.
But I think we stopped short of seeing anything. Like I really wanted to go
shopping. I thought that would be fun. But yeah, we just walked up to a restaurant
and ate.
PZO: Are there any bands out there you’d like to tour with in the future?
Aimee: Oh, there’s tons of bands I’d like to tour with. Um...I
don’t know, there’s a band called The Faint that’s playing right
now. They just put out their third record. They’re really incredible, I
think I would love to tour with them. I’d love to tour with Garbage; I
think that would be an awesome thing. I think a lot of times people are afraid
to put 2 girls in the same room together. I think it’d be great. I think
it’s more intelligent of a choice. You know, I think people are afraid
of the competition, not per se, the actual bands are afraid of the competition,
but the business people are like, “Well, we can’t have 2 girls.”
It’s the same headspace that radio people are in. “Well, we can’t
play 2 girls in one hour. We can’t have more than one female artist on
the radio.” Or one female artist on the radio at all, depending on the
radio station we are looking at. It’s just funny ‘cause it doesn’t
happen as boys. Bands go out as boys, there’s 4 boys on. But if it’s
a girl-fronted band you can’t have 2 of them together. Oh my god, what
is that gonna do? It’s gonna... maybe it’ll cause some kind of revolution.
<laughs> An uprising, I don’t know.
PZO: A feminist movement! <laughs>
Aimee: You know, you never know what could happen.
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: But Garbage would be great. That would be fun. Plus, I really
admire and respect Shirley Manson. I would love to meet her. I think she’s
a really great woman. We would love to tour with U2, just as this big dream.
That would be great. The Cure. Oh my god, I would probably keel over. Jane’s
Addiction would be awesome. I know they’re touring right now, but who knows
‘cause they’re so sporadic. Every 10 years we get back together, and
then maybe next year we’ll play and maybe we won’t. I don’t know.
Lots of bands that we probably wouldn’t fit well with, but I’d still
like to tour with. Or maybe we would, ‘cause I never know really what people’s
tastes are. I’d love to tour with Radiohead just so that I could watch
them every night. I could go on for days. PJ Harvey, I would love to tour with,
even though we wouldn’t...See, that’s the thing. I think in my head,
I’m like, “Wow, that’s really cool and interesting and diverse
and maybe that would be a great bill.” And business people are like, “Well
that doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.” So ok, what do I do? I’ll
just, you know...sit here and make my music.
PZO: What’s it like being the only female in this band?
Aimee: In the band it’s pretty easy. I mean, I’ve been the
only female in any band I’ve ever been in. Most of the time I’m the
only one on every tour that I’m on. Sometimes there’s not even a girl
working on the staff. The problems that I encounter are I forget that I’m
a girl. I have to make a really pointed effort to do “girl” things.
‘Cause it is important. I take a hot bath and paint my toenails and remember
to wear a skirt and remember to put lipstick on. I mean, that sounds really
superficial and lame but those are the little things that make you different
than them. <laughs> But I guess that’s it. I’m an only child,
so I didn’t really have a lot. I’ve always had more guy friends than
I had girl friends, just ‘cause I guess I’ve always been into music.
Obviously the musician ratio of females and males is low...aww, he’s just
passing out on you, that is so cute! <laughs> [her dog, Eno, was jumping
on our laps and licking our hands in the tour bus during the interview]
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: He’s like, don’t laugh at me.
PZO: He’s so cute!
Aimee: But, yeah, other than that...Somebody asked the other day do you
think the boys are more polite because you’re around and I think maybe,
yeah. ‘Cause they’re all really incredible, incredible gentlemen and
wonderful guys and they don’t do anything weird or creepy! <laughs>
I’d hope to say that that’s just the type of guys that they are, but
I can’t say ‘cause when I’m around, I’m around. So I don’t
have a little video camera to be around to see what happens when I’m not
around. But it’s good, they’re well mannered.
PZO: What plans does the band have after you’re done touring with Incubus?
Aimee: I’m not sure, actually, quite yet. We’ve been kind of
flying by the seat of our pants from the get-go. When we were on Sugar Ray we
didn’t have any other tours booked after that. And then we got Incubus
and then right on the last day of Sugar Ray we added Weezer in the middle. I
know that Weezer is going out again and I know we’d love to go out with
them again, I don’t know if that is gonna be an option of ours. When bands
get together there’s so many people involved in why certain bands tour
together. Like there are lots of people involved in why we’re touring with
Incubus, regardless of the fact that Incubus and us are friends. There are so
many other people with their hands in the pot that there’s all kinds of
political decisions.
PZO: Did you ever think you’d be where you are today?
Aimee: God, I thought I’d be here...<laughs> No, I’m
just kidding!
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: <laughs> Um, that’s a weird one. I really haven’t
thought about it.
PZO: You never thought that, you know, maybe you’d be famous one day?
Aimee: I guess I’ve always had a path in mind, but I haven’t
really ever thought about where I am on that path. If we drew a line, like this
is the ultimate goal in my life, I haven’t figured out, I haven’t
stopped to figure out where I’m at on it yet. <laughs> I think it
always feels like you’re at the beginning of it. ‘Cause you get a
little bit further and you feel like you’re back at the start...
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: No pun intended. <laughs> But, do you know what I mean?
I guess I’m kind of a day to day kind of person. I have an ultimate goal
in my life, which is to be happy and how I get there...I guess I’m happy
for a lot of moments out of everyday, so...I don’t think I’ve really
thought about it. I don’t know, it’s bizarre because I think from
an external point of view things probably seem different than they are in reality,
living out here everyday. People are like, “Whoa! You played in front of
14,000 people and blah blah blah, and you got to tour with Weezer!” And
I’m like, yeah, I woke up everyday and I ate some food and I did sound
check and I drank coffee and I played a show and then I went to bed. You know,
it’s what I do. But yeah, there are moments where I go, whoa! I hit a milestone
in my life...but hopefully those milestones will get bigger...hopefully, hopefully,
hopefully!
PZO: What do you do when you get nervous, if you get nervous, before a show?
Aimee: I’m always nervous.
PZO: Really?
Aimee: Yeah, I’m always nervous. But there are different kinds of
nervous I guess. I think it’s more nerve-racking to play a small club in
front of less people than it is to play like a huge venue with a lot of people
because the reality is that when we play a small club the person that’s
in front of me is as close as you are to me. When we play these bigger places
so that there’s a barricade between me and the people and the lights are
blinding my face and I can’t really get a contact with....I can’t
even see people half the time! Whereas when we play a little club with 200 kids
I feel like I can feel every single person in the room. So I get more nervous
for a smaller show ‘cause I think the bigger shows I do more for myself,
‘cause that’s the only contact I really have. I guess...you know what
I mean? It’s difficult to connect with an audience who’s that large
and that far away and that out of my field of vision. Plus, I use in-ear monitors
so I can’t hear the crowd very well. So I kind of have to be intuitive
as to whether or not they’re having a good time! <laughs> Like, I
can see moving bodies. I think that’s good! And I can hear, you know, at
the end if they’re clapping. But it’s not really a one-on-one kind
of experience like it is in a club. So I think I get a different kind of nervousness.
And it’s so weird, too, ‘cause every night you have to be really adaptable.
Our set time changes a lot. We had a set time of 45 minutes on Weezer, and then
we thought we were gonna get 45 minutes for Incubus. The first night we had
35 and now we have 30, just because of union labor laws, the way they have to
run the stage time. It’s like, everything changes every night. So I’m
kind of in the constant state of nervousness, like how is it gonna flow? How
is it gonna work out? And I guess I’m just a nervous person by nature.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten completely over the stage fright thing,
I guess that might be one of the things that causes the adrenaline that gives
me the high that I get when I’m up there, so I guess it’s a good thing.
But sometimes I’m nervous to the point that it shuts me down, which is
scary. I get so scared that I forget the words! <laughs> I’m working
through that....
PZO: Have you ever had anything really embarrassing happen while you
were performing?
Aimee: Nah, not really. I’m trying to think of anything...I’ve
always had the fear that my fly would be open. I’m sure that every single
person that I’ve ever met in my life right before you go onstage, no matter
what, no matter if you’ve already gone to the bathroom. You still have
to go to the bathroom and it never goes away. So when I first started I was
sure I was gonna pee my pants onstage. But it never happened! Thank you God!
<laughs> But I thought, “What if I get up there and I just can’t
control it?!”
PZO: <laughs>
Aimee: Wow, that was really honest and open of me. <laughs>
PZO: Do you pick out the clothes that you’re gonna wear ahead of
time, or do you just throw on whatever’s around?
Aimee: I’m kind of flexible, but I have a few guidelines. I have
to be able to move in it; I move around a lot onstage. And just be comfortable.
I can’t wear high heels onstage ‘cause I’ll fall on my face.
I have 5 staple items of bottom things that I wear, like pants and skirts. Then
I have 5 shirts that I wear, and I’ll kind of just mix and match them.
It’s like they’re animals. I mix and match them. I made sure that
most of it was black so that most of it would match. <laughs>
PZO: You can’t go wrong with black! <laughs>
Aimee: You can’t. But like, I don’t know what I’m gonna
wear tonight. It’s just one of those 5 tops and 5 bottoms that are gonna
mix and match, so...
PZO: That was actually the last question. Thanks for doing the interview!
Aimee: Thanks for your time. Thank you for coming and talking to me.
<laughs>