From: dfong@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.music.alternative
Subject: Queen Meanie Puss (NZ) interview
Date: 19 Nov 92 19:19:45 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

   taken from Rip It Up, issue 177, April 1992.


   reprinted without permission, but I don't give a toss, I'm outta
   here or good in a few days ;-)

   Some other NZ news, Straw People (yes I keep mentioning all the
   time, I wonder why ?) have released their second single from
   their forthcoming second album.
   Unfortunately I can't recall the name, (just bought it on the
   fly). The Cd single contains 2 songs from the previous album
   which has yet to see its way onto CD and two new tracks from the
   new album. One of these tracks being 'The Slide' with vocals from
   Fiona 'headless chook' McDonald.

     While typing this in I was reminded of the limited edition tape
   by Flying Nun called 'Roger Sings the Hits'. This was a
   compilation of current Flying Nun Artists singing other label
   artists songs. e.g. The Bats covered a LBGP song (or vice versa?)
   Anyway, I don't have it...but I thought I'd just mention it, so
   that if anyone ever comes across a copy -  BUY IT !!
     All the artists were indistinguishable on the sleeve because
   they were all called Roger, (e.g. The Rogers). Anyway, the tape
   was only available at the FN anniversary gigs some time ago !

   And now, what you've been waiting for.

   --------------------------------------------------------------


                              NEW MEANIES


     The best that gave birth to Queen Meanie Puss first raised its
   ugly head five years ago in the deep southern seaside town of
   Port Chalmers.

     Rachel Shearer, Stella Corkery, and Michael (Dead C) Morley
   banged around on broken equipment and called themselves
   Angelhead. Then they moved to Auckland. Debbie Hindin started
   playing bass, Michael moved back to the Port and guitarist
   Dieneke Jansen joined to complete the line-up that, for the last
   three years, has called itself Queen Meanie Puss.
     Starting out with the simple aim of making music to please
   themselves, they've ended up impressing some of the best
   independent labels here and in America. Flying Nun has just
   released their debut 7" EP The Beauty of Dogs (an ironic take on
   the derogatory term men use for women they don't find sexually
   attractive). Last year, Queen Meanie Puss appeared on the
   Xpressway/Drag City 7" compilation of 12 one-minute songs 'I Hear
   the Devil Calling'. Now the group is working on songs to be
   released by hep Philidelphia label Stilbreeze while 60 copies of
   their FN EP are already winging their way to a San Francisco
   record shop. The 7" format is designed to appeal to the tiny, but
   fanatical american collector market, people whose aural apparatus
   is tuned to pick up on the strange, challenging frequencies of a
   band like Queen Meanie Puss.
     Not that their music is all that inaccessible. It's just that
   the playing style is low-tech and deceptively low-key: guitar,
   bass, drums prowl around the vocals of Rachel and Dieneke. The
   effect is menacing, ominous, dark, disturbing, the words are hard
   to decipher until a bloody phrase jolts us up out of the miasma
   (Stella and Rachel are horror movie fans). The record sleeve
   hints at what's in store - "sinister" is one word Stella used to
   describe the effect of their sexual imagery. So what sort of
   music are they trying to make ?

   STELLA: "Something beautiful and horrifying."
   RACHEL: "Beauty on the edge of terror, something that makes you
   feel, moves you in one way or another. That's the ideal, that's
   what we're working towards. It's not always realised but at our
   best that's what we do."
   DIENEKE: "It's fairly intuitive."

     The band writes collectively, someone will start playing on a
   riff that the others will expand on. Rachel writes most of the
   lyrics and Dieneke writes some too. About what ?

   RACHEL: "In the last year or two, one of the issues I've been
   looking at is sexuality. I was doing some work with that group
   the Strokettes, just looking at different aspects of sexuality,
   fear of issues of sexuality."

     What kind of issues ?

   "Tension, desire, anger, archetypes and sexual stereotypes. Some
   of its just really subconscious. If you took it word for word it
   doesn't make a helluva lot of sense, but the words evoke feelings
   or a mood. Perhaps more of the dark, menacing aspect of
   sexuality. But I find at the moment I'm sort of going off that
   subject because that's something creatively I've been stuck on
   for the last couple of years and I'm moving into a new stage of
   life and the focus of the lyrics is changing."

     Dieneke's songs are more straight-up political. As in the song
   'Contracts' in which she takes the perspective of an anti-
   unionist in order to express her disgust at the way people stand
   by and let hard-won worker's rights get legislated against. I am
   gently rebuked for comparing her singing style to Patti Smith's
   monotone recitation on the song 'Land', when I could have just as
   easily nominated any number of male singers as an influence.
   Point taken. Dieneke also wrote the words to 'Ego' on the
   upcoming Freak The Sheep Vol II which the rest of the band
   describe enthusiastically as "a real doozy!" What's that about ?

   DIENEKE: "The desirability for a particular artistic temperament
   that gives you credibility in the art world, Basically being an
   arrogant arsehole and you're not allowed to care or be
   sensitive."

     Except about yourself.

     "And it's something that seems to pertain to the male gender. I
   think that's why to a large degree women have been excluded from
   artistic circles this century, it's because by nature and so-
   called tradition we're more caring and nurturing."

     Although living up to your gender's reputation for being caring
   and nurturing can be a burden.

   DIENEKE: "I'm not saying all women are caring, but arrogance is a
   quality people often admire in artistic males."
   RACHEL: "Whereas often if a woman acts likes that she's a
   'superbitch'."

     I guess Queen Meanie Puss haven't got time to let their
   artistic temperaments get the better of them. Debbie and Dieneke
   are mothers and all of them are involved in other creative
   endeavours. Rachel in film and video, Debbie and Stella make
   clothes. When I ask them if they're ever tempted to rock out,
   Stella says they haven't got time to get lost in a jam for an
   hour. If Debbie's booked one hour of child care they've got to do
   three songs intensively and then everyone splits.
     Are you trying to consciously steer away from rock cliches in
   your music ?

   DIENEKE: "you might put something into a formula and you think
   no, that's just so boring. It's perhaps due to that you might
   find something sightly different. It's to do with a personal
   satisfaction. We don't have a real desire to create the newest
   thing or anything."
   RACHEL: "What sounds good to us we follow through."

     Your press release calls your music heavy, but I'd say it was
   more scary - with a spare touch - it's not like full-on drumming
   or Black Sabbath guitar riffs.

   STELLA: "that's to do with ability, really."
   DIENEKE: "The less you know, the better you are probably. I think
   that part of our uniqueness is possibly a lack of having learnt
   all the cliches and formulas, it's to our advantage."

     How important is the concept of originality in your music ?

   DIENEKE: "It's something to do with a personal expression rather
   than a desire to stand out from the rest. Originality to me has
   an implication that you want to set yourself apart from everybody
   else. I don't think that's my drive anyway. I think my drive is
   to express myself and that everybody has something to express."

     As four women on stage you must be aware that it's ot just your
   music that's going to get scrutinised. Do you consciously play
   down your image in live performance ?

   DIENEKE: "I never wear a dress on stage and also I would make
   sure no-one can see my tits either."
   DEBBIE: "Yes, I looked very provocative six months pregnant!"

     Queen Meanie Puss will be using slides and films in their up-
   coming EP release party gig, of what, they won't say, but Rachel
   says they want to take the focus away from themselves. But let's
   face it, one of the primary motivations for people forming rock
   bands is to get looked at.

   DEBBIE: "Especially men."
   RACHEL: "We're not young rockers."
   DIENEKE: "I think there's a certain amount of ego going on in
   terms of wanting people to perhaps pay attention in some way, but
   perhaps 'look at you' is not quite the right word. Listen, for
   sure, a desire to have someone really listen to me playing...I
   damn well want people's attention, but I don't want them
   scrutinising the way I look, it's got nothing to do with
   creativity."

     So do you feel pressure being on a high-profile label like
   Flying Nun to become as well known as some of your peers ?

   STELLA: "It's different for us because of the 7" format that was
   chosen, it's quite hard to sell that format and they're actually
   angling at the overseas market. I think Festival are having a bit
   of a problem distributing 7-inches in this country so FN are
   having some special sleeves made up to put in record shops. I
   think we're a completely different side of Flying Nun."
   DIENEKE: "I think it's introductory. Roger's tried to hold onto
   the ideals of FN and he does this by having the bigger bands
   paying for new ideas and I guess the new ideas that come out are
   limited, but we just happen to be one of the ones at the moment."

     So, listen out for Queen Meanie Puss: quietly powerful, evoking
   moods with pieces of words, using their music to create and
   resolve tensions - political, personal, sexual. Definitely
   destined for their own shelf in a brash world.

                                Donna Yuzwalk