The writer, guitarist, vocalist and actress takes some time to explain where she’s at with two of the more prominent bands that she’s been associated with.
In an excellent interview by Stereogum, Brownstein touched upon numerous subjects including Portlandia, her upcoming memoir and the dangers of nostalgia. Funny and engaging throughout, she sounded pretty open to future endeavors when asked about Sleater-Kinney (who performed song together last month).
This is something I was actually talking about with Tavi Gevinson who does Rookie Mag. I’m such a fan of hers and her writing, and we were having coffee in Portland and we were just talking about how when something is very tied to a certain time in your life — it’s sometimes hard to reenter that at a different age or with a different perspective. So, it’s like finding a way into the container that is Sleater-Kinney, finding a way of entering that with something that isn’t necessarily as urgent as it was for me when I was 22. What I appreciate about Sleater-Kinney is that we did six records and they all felt different. It was a band that was able to encapsulate different sensibilities because we were focusing on it as music and art and not as a statement. That was something other people ascribed to it more than we did. So I would be curious. I think we have more to say. I think we ended at a time when it wasn’t tapering off, actually. I would be curious to know what the rest of the story is with that band.
On the topic of Wild Flag she was likewise reluctant to say that things were over, but direct with the point that they will not be working on anything in the immediate future.
I think a lot of people want stories or lives to have very distinct beginnings, middles, and endings. Generally I think things are a little more fluid than that. So I’m not really sure. It makes sense to me right now that Wild Flag isn’t going to do anything in the near future, and I’m pretty happy with the record we put out. But I never really thought of it as something that was going to have a really monolithic identity or one that is very fixed. We did it and it was fun and it was good for me to do something that was different from Sleater-Kinney and to play with Mary Timony, she’s such a great guitar player.
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