On October 3, Xiu Xiu will once again give Tampa Bay the slap in the face they so desperately need.  They will be supporting their new album, The Air Force, which is already gaining incredible praise internationally.  Their performances are legendary. I have never seen a band that commands everyone’s absolute attention quite like they do.  Jamie and Caralee wanted to talk with REAX Magazine on a break preparing for their tour to let our readers know what was in store for them this time around.

REAX:  You play around here pretty regularly and have developed quite a fan base, mostly from word of mouth.  The buzz from the crowd at your last show in Tampa (Transitions Art Gallery) lasted for months afterwards.  Rarely does that happen to one person at a concert and you conquered the whole crowd at a venue attached to a skate park.  How are you able to completely take over any room you play on a consistent basis?
Jamie Stewart:  Ha!!! I wish. That was a really memorable show for us. The staff was so nice to us and the audience was amazing. Later that night we accidentally checked into a motel where we had to be escorted by a security guard to the room.  There were bloodstains on the wall and a huge hole in the bathtub.  We ran away and heard a woman screaming in the distance. Florida is kind of a dark place.
Caralee McElroy: I’m not really sure why this happens sometimes. I think that we work really hard for our live performances and always play the best we can. I think people maybe pick up on that and want to give us respect for that or... we have secret mind control.

REAX:  Does the constant touring get tiring?
JS:  Physically yes, but after we are home for a couple of weeks we just feel like we are waiting to go out again.
CM: Whenever I’m not touring I miss it terribly. It’s become a very important part of my life.

REAX:  What is your process of taking a multi-layered produced song and translating that into something that can be played live?
CM:  We basically try to do the song as close as possible to recording. Sometimes we can’t do it exactly the same so we do a completely different arrangement. We also like to keep the songs fresh for the audience and us. Since we tour so much, we try to change arrangements on songs we've played a lot.
JS:  It depends on the song, and for this upcoming tour as we are adding the maestro Ches Smith on drums and percussion it will change even more. Thankfully, it is interesting for us to change the arrangements when it seems impossible to replicate the recording.

REAX:  Who is going to be on stage with you this tour?
CM:  This tour Jamie and I are being joined by our very wonderful friend and musician Ches Smith. He will be playing a drum set and various percussion amongst other things. He is fun and I like him a lot.

REAX:  What inspires you to continually push what you are doing with your music?
JS:  Why else be alive? Melodramatic, but true.
CM:  I think that we are so incredibly fortunate to be in the position we are in musically. We have wonderful fans and support by the perfect label. If we didn’t keep going and working hard I think we would be assholes for not taking advantage of this opportunity. Oh and we love what we do!

REAX:  Has anything you have been listening to lately influenced you?
JS:  A couple a recordings of bird calls, a recording of mammals from the African savannah, Carla Bouzlichs Record Evangelista, Ches Smith's Congs For Brums, OMD, recordings of dragon flies, Ben Goldberg, Badgerlore, The Cure, Korean court music and a couple of grime comps.
CM:  I recently went and saw Final Fantasy play and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen! I can’t get his songs out of my head and not in an annoying way.

REAX:  What effect did Greg Saunier have on the songwriting on The Air Force?
CM: Greg was so amazing to work with! He had a way of filling in the blanks that worked really well. He’s so talented and creative and easy to work with. I know the record wouldn’t have turned out as well or interesting without his input.
JS:  Well hmmm… if the songs were lumps of coal in so far as they existed, but were not as good as they could be, Greg took them in his gorilla muscles and squeezed them until they became proverbial diamonds.  It was such a pleasure to work with him so intently. He is remarkably creative and driven.

REAX:  How did you choose and find the more obscure instruments and samples you used on the new album?  Do you have an idea beforehand of exactly what a song will sound like, or do the sounds find you?
JS:  Sometimes the song begins as an idea of a combination of instruments as basic as: lets try something with a minimal synth sequence that is really fast and then add slow harmonium chords having no idea what it will sound like. Then the notes will come from the initial interaction of distinct timbres. Sometimes it comes from having a huge pile of instruments in my living room and having a skeleton song on guitar and trying anything, hopefully something we haven’t tried before. We will take acoustic sounds and melt them in the computer or try miking them in different spaces and at different distances. Sounds for us can inspire harmonics. (PRETENTIOUSVILLE!!!!!!!!!…but true)

REAX:  I heard something about a DVD project you are involved with. What’s going on with that and what other projects are you working on?
JS:  There are 3. Devin Hoff and I did the music for a Russian stop-motion animation film done with insects from 1913. That will be put out by McSweeneys. We are putting together a DVD of all the Xiu Xiu videos, then a tour movie. We are doing the music for a soundtrack for a documentary about African American, lesbian strippers in LA. We are working on a new record and we all play in several other bands. Caralee and I are in XXL and Ches and I are in 7 Year Rabbit Cycle. Ches also plays in Good For Cows, Marc Ribots Ceramic Dog and Secret Chiefs.

REAX:  How did you get involved with the Prison Literature Project?
JS:  I just saw a flyer for it and began to volunteer when we were not on tour. It is a project that sends books directly to prisoners. Libraries in most prisons have been converted into bed space giving the incarcerated nothing to do but languish and die intellectually. The United States has more people in prison than any nation on earth. China, with 4 times the population, has fewer people in jail. It is an incredible abuse and the PLP is doing something small but unequivocally good.

REAX:  What’s your favorite video game?
JS:  Advance Wars for Gameboy DS
CM: Zelda II: Link to the Past. Best video game ever!!!!

REAX:  Are the Pussycat Dolls fans of yours?  Do you know if they heard your cover of “Don’t Cha”?
JS:  We met totally by chance in Vienna and had what can only be described as a night of debauchment.  They are anything but lazy in the committing sins department.  They have heard the cover and say it helps recall of Austrian early mornings of EVIL.