Elizabeth Ziman of the talented Elizabeth & the Catapult was kind enough to answer some questions for WTBU last week! We touched on the upcoming album, "selling out," and what other awesome artists Elizabeth's been listening to as of late. Below is an excerpt; the full interview can be found on the Girl Powa! facebook group page here.
You can check out E + the C on Myspace and at their official site, elizabethandthecatapult.com. Enjoy!
- Jessy Bartlett
J: How are you and how are things with E + the C? I hear you were recording in Texas last week - how did that go?
E: Really well! we were in Austin recording for a couple of days with jim eno from spoon. Danny Molad(our drummer) is pretty tight with him already from his experiences recording the Via Audio record--so it was super comfortable coming into. We're not really used to recording in studios, since we done everything by ourselves in the past---so it was really a luxury for us. There were so many instruments! We're used to hiking around the city looking for pianos to record, but this studio had a wurlitzer, a helpenschitll, piano and rhodes---all at our fingertips(literally)---I felt like a kid in a candy shop. Also we're used to having Danny engineer everything for us---but Jim gets some pretty amazing sounds, so I'm sure Danny was more than happy just to concentrate on playing the drums for once! We were only in Austin for four days but we knocked a couple out.
J: You guys are not signed to any label right now, which must allow you a lot of freedom, but it must also be a lot of work. Has going it on your own been what you expected?
E: Yeah, for a long time we were completely autonomous, no manager, no lawyer, no booking agent, no producer, no label. And of course we took some pride it in, because every little bit of success tasted that much sweeter. But all that has been changing in the last couple of months. We're slowly building a team together- and it actually feels right. We have a lot of new stuff recorded and we'll probably be choosing which label to put the new album out on in the next month. That's just not the kind of decision you want to rush into.
J: I got this next question from Under the Radar magazine - they asked a bunch of indie artists this question and got some varied responses:
A lot of indie artists have had songs in TV commercials in the last year. What are your thoughts on this? Do you regard these artists as sell-outs or is that an outdated notion?
E: I heard some people making fun of "Of Montreal's" spot in an "Outback Steakhouse" commercial recently---I couldn't understand why. Especially now, when most of the money artists are making are from touring and licensing opportunities, you'd have to have a great deal of "spirit" to say no to a lifetime of residuals from outback steakhouse.
J: So, if Apple called you tomorrow and said, we are coming out with this new iPod and we want Elizabeth and the Catapult singing "Momma's Boy" in the commercial, do you say yes?
E: HELLS YES. We were interviewed on a Berklee radioshow a couple months ago, right after the Boston show---and they asked if there was any specific tv spots we wouldn't be comfortable submitting for--I'd be a bit uncomfortable submitting for a playtex commercial, or a 'hollywood tans' spot, but we recently gave a bunch of mtv reality shows the right to play our songs so I don't think we're that choosy. At a certain point it's just pretentious.
Read the complete interview here.
1 comment:
woooo awesome interview
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