Spork: An audience with Marnie Stern

An audience with Marnie Stern

I called Marnie Stern last week just as she was walking into a chocolate shop in New York City. She told me, "I would care for masses to conceive of me as a songwriter instead of just a guitar player because it becomes like a circus act." It`s light to see how she might seen as a novelty: a chick wields a double-neck axe and rips out firm and nasty licks.

For her new album, though, she focused more on the songwriting as opposed to "hiding behind tricks" like she had on previous releases. "My inclination is to put a lot of material in there," she told me, explaining her earlier releases densely layered sounds. "These songs feature a simpler structure. This album is more square and direct." It`s also more personal. "For Ash," a song that she made available on the Net before the self-titled album`s release is almost an ex-boyfriend who killed himself last year. She`s reluctant to speak about the stories behind these songs. All I could get out of her was "I put a lot of myself into them" and "it was cathartic to save them" and "it`s merely personal stuff." She recently told the Village Voice: "I let it all in, I mean, on the thing, as opposed to being abstract. And I know it's OK, but I feel embarrassed, a little." Even the album`s cover, which was painted by her dear friend, Brooklyn artist Bella Foster, is steeped in personal narrative. "It`s a picture of my bedroom," Stern told me. "Not really my bedroom. It`s idealized. Lots of small things we`ve talked about together. My dog. Guitars. Stuff like that."

She told the Voice writer that "she worries that all the recording, writing, interviewing, and touring is simply vanity." I got a sensation of that when I talked with her last week. It seemed as though she was loath to say anything because she couldn`t quite see what the stage would be if she did. I might get caught her near bedtime. It was some one in the afternoon; All the articles I scan near her said she stays up all dark and crashes somewhere about the midday hour. Plus she was with her band. "They`re sick of hearing me talking about this stuff," she said. Which might be a passive-aggressive way of expression the album speaks for itself.