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 EVELYN HENDRICKSEN grabs nine minutes with singer-songwriter and all round anti-folk ‘mom’ KIMYA DAWSON. Just don’t interrupt her Panda time.
“Yeah – can you hold on a second?” As Kimya Dawson gently passes her young daughter Panda to a friend, it’s clear from the outset that like all mothers old or new, Dawson is completely devoted. What also becomes clear is that when young Panda wants her mom, she gets her attention – undividedly. Something this journalist learns all too quickly.
Before Dawson became Momma Bear to her young cub Panda, she was perhaps best known for her place in New York’s anti-folk scene as one-half of the Moldy Peaches alongside Adam Green. Where the community surrounding the anti-folk movement was largely grass-roots based and strictly DIY, it was also hilarious and at times wincingly observant or downright crazy … songs performed with tongue firmly planted in cheek (after all Moldy Peaches wrote a song about downloading porn, while contemporaries penned ditties about having Will Oldham molest them on the L Train – thank you Jeffrey Lewis).
At this time Dawson and her accomplice played shows in peoples’ living rooms (where she’d later sleep the night), driving from town-to-town. Now with an infant, Dawson and her French husband Angelo Spencer appreciate the importance of time out when traveling – especially after the success of a certain film called Juno.
You’d have to be living under a rock not to realise that it was Dawson and Greens’ songs that, for the most part, sound-tracked one of this years surprise hits – after all, who knew a film about teen pregnancy could warm so many hearts?
The ‘hubbub’ as Dawson describes her current cult of indie popularity has had benefits and detractions – like any type of fame – but it has taken Dawson from playing in small halls to playing on American television shows like The View (something middle American moms watch religiously). She’ll still play in someone’s backyard if time permits, though now she can travel abroad with her music, seeing her very inventive and simply-spun tunes finally receiving an airing in Australia.
After completing their most recent American road trip, Kimya is enjoying being back home in Olympia, Washington, having done most of the driving on this tour (Angelo’s American licence is currently on hiatus). Reflecting on the experiences this most recent sojourn has afforrded her, we start with how touring with an infant and the ‘hubub’ of Juno has affected her usual accessibility to fans.
“It was just timing you know? I get to have more people check out what I am doing, but at the same time I have a baby and I am not so accessible.” Kimya sums up quite simply.
A recent entry on her bog relating one interaction with an overexcited fan backstage practically screaming in her face while on tour at Charleston, South Carolina alluded to Momma Bear showing her usually well-retracted claws.
“You know I always meant to go back to that and explain more,” she qualifies, aware of how the media can misconstrue the blogosphere. “It’s not that I want the people who are listening to my music for the first time to decide they don’t want to listen to it anymore, it’s like anyone who gets into it and is truly liking it and has the capacity in their soul to treat me like a normal human being – I love them and I appreciate all of them, but it’s just like … there’s a bunch of people … they see celebrity as this ‘thing’ and they don’t even care about the music, and they maybe don’t care about me as a person and they just show up at the show, and just talk through the show and are really pushy and want autographs – and they want to walk away with a souvenir so they can say ‘I met her’. But they don’t actually connect – you know?”
Not wanting to sound hokey, Kimya laughs at herself down the line, but there is a tone in here voice that underscores her sincerity, and wish to be able to ‘connect with her fans’, however new age-ridiculous that may read.
“There’s a bunch of people coming out of curiosity and they’re like [adopts sinister voice] ‘she’s right here! I want my picture taken with her’ but they don’t look me in the eye or introduce themselves to me, you know? And then I am like an object to them – something they can show off [on their mobile phone wallpaper].
“So that’s what I’d like to disappear. Those people that see me as an object.”
I guess then that it prevents people, that have been fans for an extended time, to come up and say hi, thanking you for your music that has potentially meant so much to them…
“And that’s always amazing, when people come up and say ‘hi, I’m so-and-so – thanks!’. It’s not often, but it’s totally different when someone comes up and is like ‘argh!’, they’re just nervous, but it’s bizarre when people scream in my face like ‘gaaaah!’.” [laughs]
That would probably freak anyone out. But with this current cult of hipster celebrity, does she feel this environment may impact on future recordings? Following the birth of Panda there’s already a foray into children’s songs (an LP entitled Alphabutt being issued in August).
“Uhm, no!’ she laughs, “I am gonna keep doing stuff the way that I have always done it. I’ve never made stuff with ‘who’s paying attention to it’ in mind. Maybe a lot of people will keep being into it, or maybe they won’t, but you know, who cares?”
Kimya’s consistent ‘who cares’ attitude has held her in good stead so far, and has (from an outsider’s perspective) aided and somewhat abetted her on-the-road sanity. You’d be hard pressed to find many musicians who find touring with their infant an ‘easy and enjoyable’ experience.
“It’s amazing actually. And it’s the most fun I’ve had on the road!”
Really?
“I mean it’s just fantastic that what I do allows my family to be together all day, every day! It’s different … well I used to just crash on couches, but now we’ll stay in hotels because I hate having to nag her all the time. And she’s little and she really needs the freedom to explore her environment, and in the clubs you just can’t do it – [adopts mother tone] ‘no you can’t just run and fall off the end of the stage!’ There are precautions that you have to take.
“We play the shows, and then we go back and then I go to sleep with her. And it’s not like I am staying up all-night and drinking with people whose houses I am staying at. And it’s not like I mind that – I love that – I love hanging out with people and sitting up all night and talking to them…but I’d never get any sleep. And that’s when touring was more tiring for me, and now it’s like: ‘Great! Show’s over at 11? Let’s go crash!’ I am more well rested traveling with her than I ever was before.”
Rest and travel are another two words not usually verbalised from a touring act – but then again, Kimya Dawson isn’t exactly your average performer. She gets to go on Sesame Street [jealous! – Ed], take her family on the road and be – for the moment at least – caught up in weird type of indie-cult celebrity (something she finds all a little curious).
“Oh – I got a sad little munchkin who jus’ came over to where I am at on the phone.”
With Panda grumbling in the background I take that as my cue to leave … but not before I sneak in one last questions.
What was it being on The View – Adam Green thought it a scary experience…
“It wasn’t scary! I just wanted to meet Whoopi Goldberg!”
KIMYA DAWSON plays The Brisbane Powerhouse Saturday Jun 21 with Angelo Spencer and Jane Woody, ALL AGES & SOLD OUT. REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU is out now though Popfrenzy. Kimya’s blog is located at www.kimyadawson.com
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