SICK OF SARAH – PART 2 Interview

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Some will be surprised to hear that Minneapolis-based band Sick of Sarah has been around for a while – in fact, they formed in 2005. Since then, they have generated a loyal following, pumped out 2 albums and replaced a drummer, namely Brooke Svanes. Welcome to Sick of Sarah, AKA Abisha Uhl (vocals), Jessie Farmer (guitar), Katie Murphy (guitar), Jamie Holm (bass) and Jessica Forsythe (drums).

The band have been working hard to build a Brit fanbase, catapulting themselves towards UK venues. This year, with some dates supporting Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey’s LA band Uh Huh Her, SoS is finally receiving some well-deserved UK attention. They even went on to blow UHH off the stage at the Shepherds Bush Empire London – memorable not only for singer Uhl pulling up her shirt over her head, driving the mostly female crowds wild, but also for SoS’ blistering live performance. In short, these guys deliver high-energy shows with Uhl ruling the stage and loving the direct crowd contact. Oh, and their music happens to rock – big time.

So, to get to know this band a bit better, here’s some interesting trivia: Lead singer Abisha Uhl grew up in Okinawa, Japan, where she lived until she was 18. They recorded their last album 2205 in a Texas studio where Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs left them behind a piece of paper with the number of a therapist and masseuse. The band’s house and rehearsal space 2205 Grand Ave has served both as a rotating home for each member of the band over the last few years and as a central creative hub – this location has become such an important symbol to the band’s identity that every member has a tattoo “2205” on their inner wrist (watch Jamie getting hers here). They’re in the middle of shooting a feature-length documentary about the band.

We caught up with 4 out of 5 of them backstage at the Shepherds Bush Empire London. After speaking to Jessie and Jamie backstage in the cosy confines of their dressing room, we picked up lead singer Abisha and guitarist Katie from the merch desk and headed outside for a very entertaining chat. Here’s Part 2 of our exclusive Sick Of Sarah interview, where Abisha and Katie talk Japanese pop stars, and how to stand tough against sexism in the music industry.

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So, Katie you grew up in Minneapolis…
KATIE: Yeah!

…but Abisha you grew up in Okinawa, Japan?
ABISHA: Yeah, I moved from Japan to the States when I was 18 and I met Katie a few years after that.

It’s cool that you spent time in Japan, because as you know we are SHATTERJAPAN!
ABISHA: Yes! I was super pumped when I heard the word SHATTERJAPAN… I was like, “We HAVE to do this interview – it’s SHATTERJAPAN! Japan! Japan!” I have serious pride…

Serious pride in Japan? That’s cool. I conceived the project in Japan actually because I felt visibility for female artists over there wasn’t good enough…
ABISHA: Yeah, it’s hard…

So did you spend most of your time on military bases? I guess you didn’t spend much time say in Tokyo…
KATIE: You’ve got a military brat over here!

ABISHA: We’d stay round Narita airport area, but I hung out in Yokosuka a bunch of times, then Yokota, Misawa, Osaka… Tokyo is huge – it’s crazy. Okinawa is very villagey – I mean, Naha (capital of Okinawa) is a big area, but where I lived was all military bases. So I was a little sheltered…

And you stayed there until…
ABISHA: …until I was 18 years old.

Wow, Japan must have had a massive influence on you? Moving from Japan to the US must have been like entering another world…
ABISHA: For sure. I mean, my parents are for the most part American so we would go stateside every summer and I would spend a few months in Washington State – so I had the American experience there. And on the base, I had my American experience but also got the Okinawan.

And what about culture – were you also quite shut off from music when you were in Japan?
ABISHA: Absolutely. I was definitely sheltered from a lot of music. But, what I was influenced by was my siblings, for the most part. My brothers were in bands and they played out in Naha, so I would go. From a very young age, my brothers would be playing in shows, they played guitar and sang – and they’re really good, instrumentally-wise…

KATIE: Her brothers are really good!

So, did you jam with them sometimes?
KATIE: Oh they’ve done stuff, I’ve seen it…

ABISHA: Yeah we’ve done some stuff… but I had my own kind of route that I wanted to go down: I was very poppy. I grew up listening to a lot of Utada Hikaru…

Oh wow! Yeah, she’s really poppy…
ABISHA: … and Puffy!

Oh yeah, Puffy! They were so much fun, but also edgy – poppy and edgy…
ABISHA: And Amuro…?

Amuro Namie!!
ABISHA: Yeah, yeah – you got it!! So, I grew up with [sings] “It’s automatic!” [everyone laughs]

KATIE: I’m laughing, just because I like hearing about stuff she did before I knew her, you know?!

Amuro Namie: Body Feels Exit (1995)

PUFFY: Ajia-no-junshin “True Asia” (1996)

We’re talking about the cheesiest of Japanese pop music! But, these women were fierce – I mean, Amuro was a trendsetter and so was Utada Hikaru…
ABISHA: Utada Hikaru was a trendsetter for sure: she was the Britney Spears of Japan! She was awesome – like, her hair was awesome! And her vibe! When “Automatic” came out… yeah, it was kind of cheesy, looking back at it now, but at that point I was influenced – I was like, “Dude, this chick’s cool!” [sings] “It’s automatic!” And that one song by Utada Hikaru “First Love” was a beautiful love song!

Maybe you related to her a bit because she had that Japanese-American vibe… She was born in the States, right?
ABISHA: Yeah. She grew up in the states – she’s bilingual…

Have you made Katie watch Utada Hikaru? Her videos are quite stunning…
ABISHA: I think you might’ve seen a video…

KATIE: A long time ago when we met Abisha showed me some Japanese artists… If she was really into something, I’d have probably heard about it…

Utada Hikaru: Automatic (1998)

Utada Hikaru: First Love (1999)

So, are you seeing a new side of Abisha, Katie?
KATIE: No, this is actually an old side of her I haven’t heard in a while! From when I first met her…

ABISHA: Actually, do you know my friend Olivia Lufkin? I went to school with her – she did Kanebo (= a huge Japanese cosmetics company) and the theme song for the France soccer cup. So, there was Olivia Lufkin, and then I went to school with her sister Caroline Lufkin…

KATIE: Ok, I DID hear about this! She did “Where’s my love?” See, I remember!

ABISHA: Oh god, Caroline Lufkin! So good…! Both of those girls are amazing. So I grew up in a very musically influenced environment for sure with my siblings and my school…

Olivia Lufkin: Kanebo commercial (1999)

Caroline Lufkin: Where’s My Love (2005)

What about you, Katie?
KATIE: Honestly, I’m pretty much the only musician in my family. I didn’t really grow up listening to anything besides what was on the radio…

ABISHA: John Fogerty!

KATIE: When I turned 16, I started listening to Jewel and that’s when I started playing guitar – fingerpicking and stuff like that. I liked the melodic feel of it… I liked the singer-songwriter thing. And then I started listening to classic rock like John Fogerty, The Eagles… We all have completely different influences.

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So how did you guys meet?
KATIE: I met Abisha through a mutual friend… I was in college and I did coffee shop gigs playing cover songs, that kind of thing: Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, anything… I met Abisha, and the day I met her she brought her guitar to a friend’s house. She started playing some of her original songs and that was the first time I’d ever written music to anything – I’d never written anything before besides random stuff on the piano. We sat and we played guitar together for like 3 hours, so I was like, “Wow.” I’d never thought about being in a band – I just liked to play – but then she was like, “Let’s start a band.” I was like, “She’s fun! I want to hang out with her!” So we went to this party and she started saying, “Oh, me and my band are playing at this party…” I was like, “Who’s your band?” and she said “It’s you!” She had 3 songs and I wrote stuff to them, then we played a show. And then Jessie showed up and said, “If you actually want to be a band, I’ll play bass for you” and we just started!

So, with you being an all-female band, do you think that you get treated differently in the music industry?
KATIE: There’s a big difference, for sure. I think just because we’re women, people expect you – for whatever reason it is – not to know how to play your instruments. You’re expected to not exactly know what you’re doing because there’s always a man to rely on in some band, somewhere – you know, a man holding it up with the bass or with the drums or someone who can play some ripping guitar licks. You know what I mean? There’s always one that holds it down and is the strong point. But with us, I think it’s all 5 of us, so I think it’s beneficial in the sense of the whole sex appeal.

You know, I’m not stupid – I know a lot of people are like, “Oh, these girls are cute – let’s see what they can do” and they don’t expect much – a lot of people don’t, I know that. That’s why it feels good when people show up – knowing that, because of what society’s said or whatever it is, their expectations are lower but then they come to the show, we play our stuff and they’re like, “Wow, you’re actually good!” They don’t realise that it’s an underhanded compliment. And I’m not going to call it like, “Well, I’m a woman, it doesn’t matter” – I say “thank you” because I do appreciate it, I appreciate the compliment. But it IS different, because for some odd reason, people have lower expectations of girls with instruments because we’re women, so we have to look sexy, blah, blah… but we very rarely wear skirts, we just like to rock… but at the same time, I can’t disregard the fact that that helps us. I’m okay with the fact that people come to our shows because of how we look…

You’ve played a lot of Prides and recently L-Beach… but do you feel you’ve been pigeonholed as a “queer band?”
KATIE: Honestly, instinctively, I think people assume that if you’re a woman and you play guitar you must be a lesbian – it’s a huge cliché, stereotype…

Kind of like women who play football…
KATIE: Right – like, “you HAVE to be a lesbian, you MUST be.” I mean, if you’ve gone as far as playing professional football or professional basketball “then you MUST be a lesbian…” The thing is, though, I don’t mind being pigeonholed personally, because I’m a very proud lesbian. So I never hid that from the beginning, because I knew that that was going to be involved when I started being in music, and people were going to ask questions because it’s assumed. We’ve had so much support from the LGBT community – we embrace it, we enjoy it, we feel good about it, honest to god, because those are my people. You know what I mean?

Yeah, and I guess it doesn’t hurt to be compared to Tegan and Sara…
ABISHA: No, absolutely, of course not! So many people are like, “Why don’t you tour with Tegan and Sara?” I don’t know! Ask them. That’d be great…

KATIE: That’d be something! Maybe the names are too similar, I don’t know. But being pigeonholed, considered cliché or stereotypical doesn’t bother me, because I believe all of those things kind of exist for a reason. You know, I kind of seem like a lesbian, and I’m not mad that you think so. You know what I mean? I’m not mad when people assume that, because I walk kind of tough and that’s how it goes. And as far as our band goes, we all have different looks, we all have different appeals. Some of us date men, some of us date women, and if a certain group of people want to embrace us, then that’s fine.

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What message do you have for artists out there who are trying to do what you do?
KATIE: Honestly, I didn’t learn what sacrifice was until I did this – and it’s not in a huge, epic sense because there are harder things to do than tour and be in a band – but I’m saying that when you continually sacrifice for your passion, when you want your career and your passion to coincide, the more you fight for it, the more you give to it, the better it feels – the more fulfilling it is. I used to be a hell of a lot more materialistic than I am now, but I’m happier now than I was before the band started. Honestly, record anything you’ve ever written – it doesn’t matter if you think it sounds stupid because you can use it in a different song, you can place it with anything else. And there’s always more you can give, because it’s ultimately worth it. I don’t make a million dollars a year, I don’t make shit, we’re all broke as hell, but we’re all really happy. If you wish on a star, wish for happiness. I used to wish for specific things, then my bass player told me to wish for happiness, and that’s what this is. It’s rough, but it’s totally worth it, you know?

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<< READ PART 1 OF THIS INTERVIEW HERE >>

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SICK OF SARAH – PART 1 Interview

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Some will be surprised to hear that Minneapolis-based band Sick of Sarah has been around for a while – in fact, they formed in 2005. Since then, they have generated a loyal following, pumped out 2 albums and replaced a drummer, namely Brooke Svanes. Welcome to Sick of Sarah, AKA Abisha Uhl (vocals), Jessie Farmer (guitar), Katie Murphy (guitar), Jamie Holm (bass) and Jessica Forsythe (drums).

The band have been working hard to build a Brit fanbase, catapulting themselves towards UK venues. This year, with some dates supporting Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey’s LA band Uh Huh Her, SoS is finally receiving some well-deserved UK attention. They even went on to blow UHH off the stage at the Shepherds Bush Empire London – memorable not only for singer Uhl pulling up her shirt over her head, driving the mostly female crowds wild, but also for SoS’ blistering live performance. In short, these guys deliver high-energy shows with Uhl ruling the stage and loving the direct crowd contact. Oh, and their music happens to rock – big time.

So, to get to know this band a bit better, here’s some interesting trivia: Lead singer Abisha Uhl grew up in Okinawa, Japan, where she lived until she was 18. They recorded their last album 2205 in a Texas studio where Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs left them behind a piece of paper with the number of a therapist and masseuse. The band’s house and rehearsal space 2205 Grand Ave has served both as a rotating home for each member of the band over the last few years and as a central creative hub – this location has become such an important symbol to the band’s identity that every member has a tattoo “2205” on their inner wrist (watch Jamie getting hers here). They’re in the middle of shooting a feature-length documentary about the band.

We caught up with 4 out of 5 of them backstage at the Shepherds Bush Empire London. Up and up the winding stairs we go until we knock on the SoS dressing room door, where we first find guitarist Jessie and bass player Jamie chilling out after their set. Here’s Part 1 of our exclusive Sick Of Sarah interview, where Jessie and Jamie talk music, prejudice faced by girl bands, and Pussy Riot’s detention.

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Hi guys! So, please introduce yourselves…
JESSIE: Hello! I’m Jessie and I play guitar for Sick Of Sarah.
JAMIE: And I’m Jamie and I play bass.

The band is based in Minneapolis, but did you both grow up there?
JESSIE: For the most part… I was born in Illinois and moved to Minnesota when I was 5.
JAMIE: Yeah, I grew up like 5 hours north of Minneapolis and then moved there when I was 18.

So how did you guys get into music?
JESSIE: My older brother played guitar and piano and stuff. My parents bought a piano when I was like 7 so that was my first instrument. Then I played violin, and then I picked up the guitar and drums – my little brother played drums – I was about 10 when that happened. And then I played flute at school as well…

Now you’re focused on guitar, but do you still keep up the other ones?
JESSIE: I still play piano and I can play the drums – I can carry a decent beat, I’ve pretty good rhythm. And bass and guitar of course go hand in hand too…

So, how about you, Jamie?
JAMIE: My dad and older brother played guitar – I have a brother and a sister – and I was a kid who wanted to do the things that my mum did and the things that my dad did, so I wanted to play guitar too. I’d hide in my basement and write stupid love songs, even though I hadn’t dated anyone… My brother actually found one of them and he was like, “Ahhh, I love you…! – Did you write this??” I was like 16 and thinking, “Do I admit it or not…?”

And did you?
JAMIE: Yes, I did!
JESSIE: “Oh, You’re just darn cute!!”

And what would you say were your influences getting into music?
JESSIE: I guess my first major influence was probably Kurt Cobain before he died. I was kind of getting into Nirvana and loved playing all the Nirvana songs, and then he died and I was devastated. He was my first. Joan Jett was definitely an influence of mine… Babes in Toyland, L7 – the girl bands in the 90s were huge influences of mine.

JAMIE: A lot of mine was older stuff. My dad listened to a lot of folky stuff – a lot of Bob Dylan – he loved John Prine, he loved a lot of stuff like that, and he’d play a lot too. So a lot of my influences were stuff that my dad would play and sing to me, like old, old, old stuff that I don’t even know. At night, he would sit there in our bathroom and sing to me and my brother and sister before we’d go to bed – that was kind of a ritual we had.

That’s a pretty cool dad…
JAMIE: Yeah…

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You mentioned girl bands from the 90s. As an all-female band yourselves, how do you feel the music industry has treated you?
JAMIE: It’s a double-edged sword, honestly…
JESSIE: Yeah…
JAMIE: I mean, there are certain aspects where we’re given more attention because we are all female. And then there are a lot of times where we’ll walk into a venue and we’ll be treated like crap where nobody thinks we can do anything because we’re all female, and generally that’s turned around by the time we leave because they enjoy our show. But, I definitely think there’s good and bad taken from that sort of thing.

And do you think this is a very common experience for women in the industry?
JAMIE: Yeah, probably in every aspect of it – whatever position you’re in in the industry.

In terms of your band setup, is there a backstory to your former drummer Brooke’s departure?
JESSIE: She really wanted to move to New York and we kind of weren’t financially in a position for all of us to do that. It was something she really wanted to do, so we were just like “Hey, do it!” And then also, we were in between our first record and starting to write our second one, and she was just like, “Oh well, we can all just file share,” but…
JAMIE: …she was just at a different place than we were at that point. She really wanted to move there and explore some different things too – and she’s done it and she’s involved in some other stuff out there that’s she’s really happy about now. So, she’s happy for us, we’re happy for her… it worked out well.

Yeah, and then you found Jessica – was it important for you to find a female drummer?
JAMIE: We did definitely want to find a female drummer and we were slightly worried about being able to do that, but it came super easy because we’d played with her old band which was from Des Moines, Iowa – we just asked her to come up and try out and we didn’t even try out anybody else. She was it.

She is awesome…
JAMIE: Yeah and she’s been amazing. It’s worked out super well. We realise how lucky we got in finding her that easily.

You have a large queer fanbase and some of you are also queer yourself…
JESSIE: I don’t know WHAT you’re talking about! [everyone laughs]
JAMIE: Jessie’s boyfriend doesn’t like her to talk about it!
JESSIE: Yeah, my boyfriend “Nick” does not like it!
JAMIE: “Nick” hates when this question comes up!

…well, I didn’t want to assume…!
JESSIE: I don’t know WHAT you’re talking about! [everyone laughs again]
JAMIE: No, “Nick” is awesome!

…but the band’s mostly queer?
JAMIE: Definitely more queer than straight.
JESSIE: We are an equal opportunities band!! [laughs]
JAMIE: I guess for us, no matter what your sexuality is, it’s so much not about that – it’s not our focus at all. And it’s not that we’re trying to shy away from those questions, even – it’s just that we want to write music because we love to write music, and we just don’t feel like that’s a thing that we’d focus on as far as what we do.

Do you find that you’re pigeonholed because of that?
JESSIE: Yeah, we do get pigeonholed, but we definitely embrace the community because it’s great and we love it and it loves us, and so we’re not going to deny the fact that there’s this great community that we’re part of. But also, with being any professional musician who wants to not necessarily just appeal to one certain demographic or culture or whatever, we want to be universally diverse and not be gender-specific or gay or straight -specific…
JAMIE: And we’re not an entirely gay band, and that’s not what we’re striving for…
JESSIE: Yeah… I’m straight! So… [room erupts in laughter]

Uh Huh Her seems to have been pigeonholed in a similar way, and I wonder if it frustrates them a bit. But, is this boxing issue getting better in the States?
JESSIE: Well, everybody wants to put everybody else in a box, you know what I mean? Even Tegan and Sara when they were starting out in the States – there’s a large percentage of lesbians that follow them and it’s cool for younger generations that are just coming up. I think pigeonholing is an old-fashioned thing to do, while the younger generations are just like, “Whatever… so they happen to be gay…” And yeah, it’s cool for really young queer kids who are just coming out to have someone to identify with who’s “in the spotlight.”
JAMIE: Tegan and Sara have definitely been an example of a band who has gotten that mainstream – they’ve crossed over. They’ve been given that chance to tour with a lot of mainstream, bigger bands and it hasn’t been necessarily a gay/straight thing or whatever. They’ve definitely paved the way…
JESSIE: Yeah, they make great music…
JAMIE: Is it where it should be? Absolutely not. But is it getting better? I think, gradually, yes. It’s edging towards where we want to be.
JESSIE: It’s funny, speaking of girl bands – even though the Murmurs weren’t an all-girl band – here’s the funny thing: when I was a freshman in high school and that song “You Suck” came out, that was actually when I first heard of – well, discovered – Leisha Hailey. I’ve kind of been following her for years and years and years, and she was in that queer movie All Over Me too. So it was just interesting from an outsider’s perspective to watch her career grow. And all of a sudden, we started playing with them, and it was like, “I remember YOU!”

And it’s not the first time you’ve played with Uh Huh Her…
JAMIE: We played with them at a Pride Fest, in the States – that’s where we first met them.
JESSIE: In Minnesota, yeah.

Talking about Tegan and Sara, they did a brilliant music video with Margaret Cho – we’re dying to see you guys do something with her too…
JESSIE: Oh god I love her! I’ve seen her show 3 times – well worth the money!

JAMIE: Yeah, she’s hilarious.

And what’s the Minnesota queer scene like?
JESSIE: We have the third largest per capita gay population in America. I mean, there are larger cities that have more gay people but in comparison we have the third largest per capita.

So do you think that you guys will be coming over this side of the pond more frequently?
JAMIE: Yes! I do think so, because last year was our first time and now this year even it’s twice and very close together, so I think we probably will. Even the response since last year has been a lot better so I think it’s definitely going to grow a lot faster. Especially doing the L-Beach Festival.
JESSIE: Yeah, that was great.
JAMIE: We had such an amazing time there and we met a lot of people. We hope to do that again and to have the opportunity to do things like that a lot more often too.

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What message of advice would you give to people wanting to be successful in music like you?
JAMIE: For anyone trying to get into any sort of artistic thing, it’s obviously super hard. The thing about it is there’s no definite plan or outline of how to do it – you can only do your research, ask questions, get involved with other people who are also involved in it and learn from them. And just make sure that you’re putting forth so much more effort than you even think you need to attempt to get there, and understand that even people who are at these high levels don’t know what they’re doing. Everyone’s just experimenting with all sorts of things. So the number one thing I would say is: it’s about the effort you’re putting into it, getting to know these people and doing your research. And anyone can do it. If you think you can do it, figure out how to do it.
JESSIE: And believe in yourself, practise and just work really hard.

And what do you think of the fact that members of Russian band Pussy Riot have been locked up for performing protest songs in public and are facing up to 7 years in jail for “hooliganism?” (* the women were later sentenced to 2 years)
JESSIE: I would say: Good for them for believing in the cause so much that they’re willing to go to jail for it, I think that’s fantastic, because clearly there’s something going on that they need to be that radical to make that much of a statement. I mean, how can you get 7 years in jail for “hooliganism”?? I’m pretty sure that people do worse things than that…

>> READ PART 2 HERE >>

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