TLOBF Interview :: Sarabeth Tucek

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Photograph by Anna Hrnjak

At the time of writing, Sarabeth Tucek has just finished her first headline UK tour in support of her eponymous debut. The now LA based, but originally New York rooted, lady is slowly but surely building up steam since the last time we spoke to her. Before an intimate show at Birmingham’s Glee Club, TLOBF managed to catch up with Miss Tucek face-to-face, to discuss her come back down to reality, the luxuries of touring with Ray La Montagne and the danger of bears in the woods.

First things first: How have the first few nights of the tour gone? Jitters or excitement?

Well we’ve had Brighton and then London; kind of Zigzagging. Last night was really good, we had a bottle of Maker’s Mark in the dressing room. But I’m feeling it now. I’ve been sleeping for most of the day, so not too many jitters!

Have you toured England much before?

We toured with Ray La Montagne, which was awesome! It was very fancy, he travels with a caterer and we played beautiful theatres. We played at the Royal Albert Hall with him so it’s strange going from big theatres, back to reality.

Your love of England and possible move to our soil is known to TLOBF. On the current tour or from your previous travels, have any cities grabbed you or would it be wellies and a farmhouse?

I think it would be London, if we do, in June. Two of the guys live there and I really love it. I don’t really miss home, the two others in LA would be happy to leave to. I think maybe one day I would move back to New York (where Sarabeth was originally from) or maybe Woodstock, it’s cute.

Last time you spoke to TLOBF you said you didn’t touch an instrument for around 15 years thanks to a piano recital in the fourth grade. What drove the resurrection of such talent you possess?

It wasn’t like a piano virtuoso! It was more that I was lazy and didn’t want to do anything bar sleeping. Childhood, for me, was exhausting. I didn’t have the easiest of childhoods, but I also didn’t occur to me I could do anything with it.

I started hanging out with a lot of musicians and there was a boy who I liked and I heard him say, this one time, that he’d only go out with girls who played musical instruments, so I picked up the guitar. I never got him, but he’s still a big supporter of mine.

Any names?

NO!

Was the playing of instruments just like riding a bike?

Well I got someone to teach me three cords and then just started writing songs. Most of my songs are based around those three cords! ‘ Something For You’ is based around D, A, G. I think if I messed around too much and knew too much guitar, I think it would limit me in the way I write now, it’s the song writing part I enjoy most. I might move on or even go back to piano. I’m not good with too many options.

Your own music, is musically quite light, but we’ve heard you say before that your own taste is much darker (Black Angels) and leans back to the old days, working with The Brian Jonestown Massacre?

I like rock and I like dark. I don’t listen to my own stuff too much but it does something for me. It’s obviously something that’s come from my subconscious or from something meaningful to me. But I don’t listen to women really; I used to listen to Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell but not so much anymore.

Would you prefer to be a man then?

Yeah, I think so! Again it would mean a lot less options!

If the music hadn’t of happened, what would Sarabeth be doing with herself?

I was a nanny for a woman with cancer. It was quite inspiring for the music in a way. I tend to complain about a lot of things and I existed next to someone who only wanted to live.

Have you had a ‘life before your eyes moments’ that have had the same effect?

I got lost in the woods not that long ago, in Santa Fay, New Mexico, with an ex-boyfriend. I thought I was going to die! We went on this hike, it was already late in the day and he was like ‘we’re not going to take the trail everyone else does, we’ll take the Deer path’. He started looking around and I could tell he was lost. I was getting all panicky, going ‘oh my god, oh my god’ and so he told me to sit down and wait while he figured it out. I swear I could hear bears or something. I sat there, I sat there, I sat there so I started screaming and screaming his name! Nothing came back.

So I just started running, like in a horror movie, like Blair Witch, and I threw my sunglasses as the branches were hitting me, and I was screaming ‘HELPPPPP!!!!’. I got down to the bottom eventually and there were some old guys sitting there who looked at me and said ‘were you screaming up there not so long back?’ and I was like, ‘thanks for the help!’

Did you ever hear from the ex again?
No. There still looking! (Laughter)

So you only have five minutes left on the planet before the bear’s of Santa Fay catch up with you. What’s your leaving song?

Help. The Beatles (Laughter)

Now you have met Dylan who’s the next musical scalp to claim or play with, that could match it or at least come close?

Who is there? I don’t know, Neil Young? My Bloody Valentine? I hear their getting back together. However, if I were dead from the bears, I would see if The Beatles were available upstairs!

The album shows so much promise, are you hoping for the big sales or an under current of avid fans?

I’m not selling millions of records, but I don’t know how many, I don’t ask for my own mental wellbeing. I think the fact I don’t have to work nine to five and I can support myself in any form of art is good enough. I ask them if their happy and they are, so…

Support, Luther Russell strolls in to the interview and pitches his own question to Sarabeth-

Ask her what she would like to do with the next record and who’s producing it, coz I sure want to know?! Elaborate! Pontificate! (Laughter)
I’d like to experiment with sound, but whoever produces the record has to have a beard, ‘Daddy had a beard!’ (Laughter). Maybe that’s the title of the next record.

Links
Sarabeth Tucek [myspace] [album review] [interview jan ‘08]