Interview with Kira from the brilliant duo, Muscle and Marrow

The Fleeting Nature of Forms:  Tell me a little bit about the origins of Muscle and Marrow. How did the two of you meet and decide to start a band?

Kira: Basically we were dating and I forced him into it. I was writing all of these sad, simple acoustic songs on the guitar and the more they evolved the more I became convinced I needed a drummer. He had reservations about being in a band with his partner and also about being in a serious band in general, as it’s not a conventional lifestyle, but now I don’t think either of us would know what else to do with ourselves if the band broke up.

TFNOF:  The way I've described your music to others is a Jeff Buckley-esque vocal style fronting Swans. Is that a fair description? How would you describe your sound to the uninitiated?

KIRA: I love that description and I want to take a second to acknowledge the thoughtfulness that it contains. I was just complaining a minute ago about being compared to blues rock bands or conventional doom metal bands just because there is a woman in the band, as though my gender creates a genre (though I do believe women should stick together in this scene). Some of the comparisons we get deeply confuse me, but I know everyone just views the world through the prism with which they already have in place. I’ve never really known how to describe our music so I’m going to steal your description if that’s ok, maybe with a little Bjork and Courtney Love thrown in (I am suddenly so conscious of how self aggrandizing all of this sounds and want to apologize).

TFNOF: This may be digging here, but personal relationships interest me. Call it the American tabloid machine coursing through my veins. You are currently in a personal relationship with the other Muscle and Marrow member. How does that dynamic play out in a band setting? How do you keep from strangling each other spending exorbitant amounts of time together? Is there a special synergy that happens while on stage? 

KIRA: I think you’re already hinting at my answer, which is that it is both really terrible and really wonderful. Our intimate relationship allows for my emotional instability to come out in full force, and so we fight very intensely sometimes, but we also get to explore this creative world together as well as the literal world. Neither of us can imagine being this vulnerable with anyone else. On stage there is this incredible feeling of unity, both when shows go terribly and when we somehow transcend the audience and ourselves. When we somehow have this sort of pure moment of emotion on stage, we get to have it together.

TFNOF:How do you keep busy on the road? What books are you reading? Favorite authors? What music are you currently listening to? What else aside from music inspires Muscle and Marrow?

KIRA: We listen to a lot of records and podcasts. We daydream about how to be better artists, about the kind of artists we want to be. Currently we’re actually listening to a bunch of what might be called art pop like Bjork, Lykee Li, Bat for Lashes, Kate Bush, FKA Twigs. We’re also trying to make our way through Michael Gira’s other projects besides Swans. Also Fleetwood Mac. Always Fleetwood Mac.

I am hugely inspired by literature, by feminist writing, by poetry, by visual art. I read an essay by Anne Carson called Gender of Sound that I would recommend to every single female musician who is trying to be subversive in some way. I love when language surprises me. I am so overwhelmed by all the incredible art there is in the world that I never want to die (on my good days). There is far too much to take in.

TFNOF: How has it been performing in a male dominated scene? Have the audiences been receptive? (the youtube performances I have seen have been very impressive, but it's never an accurate representation of the band) 

KIRA: What a question. I spend so much time thinking about my gender in this scene. I feel very specifically female and I try to use that. I try to use my insecurity and my desperation and my feelings of invisibleness and fuck with them, create something far more grotesque and hysterical and disturbing than the men in this scene are creating, simply because I feel such an otherness that they don’t necessarily feel in the same way.

Every time we show up to a venue I feel an anxiety that I have to assert my right to be there. I’ve been directly questioned several times because door people/bartenders/sound guys etc do not believe I’m actually in the band. These experiences are traumatic and they bury themselves inside me and despite how supportive and kind most men are at shows, I feel nevertheless very conscious of my isolation in the scene. I don’t typically experience these things on the West Coast. It’s when we’re on tour and we’re playing a metal show in a small city we’ve never been to before. And then I cry. And then I write a song where I get to scream.

TFNOF:  You had said that the two-piece sound may be limiting. Being a two-piece band, how do you compensate for that when trying to create a more full sound, both live and in the studio? Do you ever plan on adding additional members or expanding the current sound? 

KIRA: Luckily Keith is an incredible composer so he makes all of these sounds via the computer and we utilize those to (hopefully) create a fullness of sound. It will be even more evident on our next record. I’ve also, for the new songs, started to layer my voice over and over again. We want to somehow create a dense wall of sound, while still somehow remaining porous (which I think comes from the simplicity of the guitar and drum arrangements). Playing these songs live is a challenge. Right now we’re playing to backing tracks. We’re pretty opposed to the idea of adding new members in any kind of permanent way, but I could see us in the future briefly collaborating with people. Maybe.

TFNOF: Are you comfortable with the digital age where music and access to information is so readily available? Is it a bit of a double edged sword?

KIRA: I’ve never been in a band that wasn’t in the digital age so this is what I know. It is odd that people who like our band will friend request me because sometimes on the internet I just want to say something crazy or rant about how awful it is to be in a band or say something really divisive.

Speaking about the internet more generally, I am grateful that I so easily have access to information about so many artists, that I can discover people I might never have, but I have a lot of reservations about the internet and its impact on my attention span, my ability to stay engaged with the present moment, and my need for a constant audience.

TFNOF: What are the future plans for Muscle and Marrow?

KIRA: We’re recording a new record at the end of October. We’re going to make pink t shirts. We’re going to take some weird photos. We’re hopefully going to Europe next year and tour the US again with the release of our record. For our third record we’re going to make the most fucked up pop record we can.

 TFNOF: Courtney Love was/is one of the most polarizing figures in rock music today. I read that you have a bit of a fascination with her. I think she was overlooked because of her husband, but she really had some talent (I thought Live Through This was better than anything Nirvana produced even if Kurt did write it). She had a wild energy that was undeniable, and she was one of those characters that made the 90s interesting. What was your favorite Courtney Love moment (she has many) and what is it about her that you like?

KIRA: There’s a moment on Jools Holland in the 90s right before Hole plays “Violet” where she says “This is a song about a jerk. I hexed him so now he’s loosing his hair.” I think she’s talking about Billy Corgan. Who says that on live TV? We recently saw her in this sort of cheesy musical she’s doing in Boston and I was within ten feet of her and I just started crying (quietly to myself, don’t worry) when she came out. It surprised me. I’m currently on tour and so I’m feeling probably a little tired and sensitive, but she’s just so important to me as a woman. She gives me permission to be angry. I think she’s this brilliant merging of femininity while also totally subverting that idea. She is never who anyone wants her to be. She has unwavering ambition and intellect. She is someone I will never be, (I’m far too sensitive and scared) but I can pretend to be her on stage for 30 minutes, her essence at least. Every time I have anxiety before a show I just picture her total insanity and how feral and fierce she is and I then am able to go on stage. 

 Check out their terrific album, The Human Cry. 
MUSCLE AND MARROW