Stephen Malkmus and Emmett Kelly On The Hard Quartet
portraits by atiba jefferson.
Emmett Kelly, Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, and Jim White are The Hard Quartet.
You likely recognise all those names, if not at least a few of them from the bands they’ve played in. Jim from The Dirty Three, Emmett from The Cairo Gang, Matt from Chavez and Superwolf and Stephen from Pavement. They’re the line-up that has been called indie rock’s next supergroup. Yet, talking to Stephen and Emmett, you can tell that for them they’re simply a group of friends, who are of each other's work and excited to make music together. The way they speak about the project has a ‘the band is back together’ feeling without them ever being together, as if it was only a matter of time until they were here.
They are excited for what is to come, and I can only imagine the rest of the band is in the same boat. To coincide with the release of their self-titled debut album, I spoke to Emmett Kelly and Stephen Malkmus about The Hard Quartet.
Hey guys!
Stephen Malkmus: What's up fam!
Emmett Kelly: Yeah dog!
SM: Australia. What is going on? What time is it and where are you?
It’s 2am and I am in Melbourne.
SM: 2am, huh. Way to grind it out for us.
I couldn’t not! The media are calling The Hard Quartet an ‘Indie Rock supergroup’. How does that feel for you guys hearing that title be thrown around?
EK: Well, people are going to call you whatever they’re going to call you. We are just a normal group, but it’s cool. I’m not too fussed about it.
SM: It’s a little cheesy but I’ve been called worse [laughs].
[Laughs] What is the worst thing you’ve been called?
SM: I don’t know, ‘washed up’, ‘passed its prime’, ‘ironic’, ‘cynical’, dickwad’ [laughs].
EK: [Laughs]
Do you feel like you embody any of those terms?
SM: I mean in a way… I guess, except for dickwad. But they took the time to write about and think about me. I’m in their head, that’s a victory.
Well, recently, a quote from a 2008 Kim Deal interview resurfaced where she said you were talking shit on The Breeders and their song ‘Cannonball’. She was pretty heated about it. How do you feel about that now?
SM: I saw that came back around again. I’m a fan of Kim, she knows that. I was probably just ripping on her on one party night where we were all fucked up and I really shouldn’t have been talking. She is unbelievable as a person and obviously the best part of The Breeders and I love the album, Pod. She knows I love her; I dig what she does. Much ado about nothing, I say.
Have you spoken to her since that time?
SM: Since she said that, I probably have, that was so long ago. I haven’t seen her around in a while. I’ve gone to see The Amps. I went to her house in Dayton once, that might’ve been before that. I think we are cool [laughs].
I’m glad to hear, I hate to see two of my favourites fight.
SM: Yeah, I know, we never were fighting, she probably regrets it in a way saying that. I mean you have to ask her. There’s no beef on my side!
The news is in guys, no beef on Stephen’s side! In the press packet I got sent, it speaks about how you guys met for the first time at the festival, but do you guys remember the first time you had heard of each other?
SM: I knew Emmett was playing with Will Oldham, and he was around. Then I saw that he was playing a festival and he was playing a twelve-string guitar with Mikal Cronin who plays bass in Ty Segall’s band. He was wearing a Magma belt buckle and I was blown away by that, because I am crazy for Magma. They’re a band from France, they even played a show in Portland, where I live. It was an unbelievable show. There were some old heads there, then there was this weird young couple who were on acid or something and kept walking around us, they didn’t seem like your typical Magma fans. I had to force my friends to come to the show and say ‘You’re going to like this’, because if you don’t know who they are you’re not going to want to shell out $35 for it.
EK: I heard about Steve because of his music when I was younger. I don’t totally remember the first time I consciously heard Pavement, but it was a hilarious experience. I was so hammered in the back of this dude’s car, he was trying to get me home and the final song from Crooked Rain (‘Fillmore Jive’) was blasting and I was like ‘Damn, dude what is this, it is so sick’ and didn’t remember afterwards [laughs]. Then a month went by, and I asked him what song that was. It sounded like it was on the inside of my brain. It was in the early days of being hammered and I didn’t know how to handle it.
Jim [White] was really funny because I had never heard of him before, and I was going to Iceland to record with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and I was talking to my friend Brian and he was like, ‘Jim White is the best drummer ever’, I was like ‘Oh, cool’. I had no idea what I was in for because the first time you encounter that dude is really confusing, he has the most bizarre approach of all time, and I had no idea how to play with him.
SM: If someone says ‘Best drummer’ what does that mean?
EK: Yeah, you think about Christian Vander of Magma or something.
You guys are coming together now with so much experience. The bands you’re both most known for (Pavement and The Cairo Gang) were started while you guys were quite young. How does it feel starting a band when you’re all a bit further into your careers?
EK: It is definitely easier for me to play with a band than it was when I was younger. I wasn’t thinking consciously that we were starting a band, we were just jamming and hanging out.
SM: Yeah, we didn’t come together already with a name or an idea, it became that through the process. It feels like if it wasn’t a band, it would be the same. We committed to touring, made a name, an album and probably want to do another one unless we implode or whatever. So, that makes it a band.
EK: It’s really just us against the world, man [laughs].
SM: [Laughs] That’s what being a band is.
[Laughs] I really like that you guys all kind of do everything in the band, taking turns, some songs, Stephen you’re on lead vocals others you’re playing bass or guitar or even the piano. Emmett you’ll do the same being on lead vocals or guitar or bass. Was it something you guys wanted when coming up with the idea, to all do everything?
SM: It happened that way. I’ve always liked when bands have done that. Sonic Youth would do it in the early days, taking turns in the same song. We haven’t done that yet, where someone takes a whole verse, but we’re singing together with our voices at the same level. I’m glad that it has happened.
EK: We are giving Jim his big vocal debut.
SM: Yeah, he was totally up for it which was great.
“like how Emmett is talking about growing up, there is the experience coming with that. You realise maybe I shouldn’t get shitfaced before the show or go to the bar afterwards, basic things like that”
I’m going to preface this with the impact Stephen and a Pavement show had on me, but both please feel free to answer this. I saw you play with Pavement in Melbourne last year and the whole time I had such a big smile on my face, it was one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, you had such a strong energy on the stage that was infectious. I remember going outside and marveling with all my friends about how amazing it was. You’ve both been playing live for so long, what keeps you going, wanting to play live shows with such a level of excitement?
SM: It’s a similar idea to The Hard Quartet, where everyone is psyched to be there and wouldn’t rather be doing anything else, which wasn’t always the case twenty-five years ago. A bit of it would be just on a hamster wheel of touring. In retrospect you’re grateful you got the opportunity, but when you’re doing it, it gets to be not as fun. The Melbourne show was really cool, Bob Nastanovich took a serious fall off the stage, he couldn’t play the next show and had to go to hospital. That’s a sign that you have to dial it back sometimes when you’re our age [laughs].
EK: Or a sign that the show fucking rules.
SM: That venue was ancient too. It was awesome but ancient.
Yeah, the show ruled. It was up there with one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
SM: Really? That’s so cool. Thank you.
Emmett, how about you, what keeps you playing shows?
EK: For me playing shows is the whole point. I play every day, but the fun part is being in the moment of that weird, chaotic thing that is playing in front of people. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to stop doing that. Recording is cool but it is way more relaxed. I always think of recording as the beginning of an experience with a piece of music, you figure out how the song goes, composing it, figuring it out then we can go play it and see how it really goes. Everyone approaches live performing differently, that might have to do with the age thing too. With the hamster wheel thing Steve was talking about it is even possible that we’ve been doing it for long enough that we’ve figured out how to make it a really enjoyable experience as opposed to feeling like a hamster wheel.
Yeah, Stephen, how did you get out of the hamster wheel?
SM: Your life changes, you’re more settled, like how Emmett is talking about growing up, there is the experience coming with that. You realise maybe I shouldn’t get shitfaced before the show or go to the bar afterwards, basic things like that [laughs]. For me that was something I needed, self-care.
I have always wanted to know Stephen, there is the Pavement song ‘I love Perth’, why do you love Perth?
SM: Well, I didn’t ever really love it. There were some cool fans I think the first time we came on a Pavement tour. They had these amazing public grass tennis courts, there was an old geezer there who was like ‘I keep waiting for them to die, the people just want hardcourts, they don’t like grass.’ There were a lot of older people. I think they were worried they’re going to slip or something. For me, grass courts are like a perfect vintage Fender guitar to some music fetishist, so I thought that was pretty insane that they had these courts you could play on for $20. So, I am in love with Perth. There were also some cool Italian style delis, they looked like something from Stockton, California. That was cool, I loved that about it. Wandering out to Fremantle and stuff. There were things to love. I’m not blowing smoke up Melbourne or Sydney’s ass but those are my favourite spots, no disrespect.
Is that why you wrote the song?
SM: That song to me sounds like Green Day almost and I just like a five second song. Maybe we had just been there, I can’t really remember. There were some very nice indie kids there. It was so isolated there in ’91, it’s still isolated, I guess.
If you guys want the audience to take anything from the band and the new album, what would you want it to be?
SM: I just want them to be psyched. Have a good time and play music if they want to, a ton of our fans are in bands, and I like that. I can’t tell you how many people I meet that tell me they’re in a band, that’s cool. Hopefully they boogie down in the moment when they come to the show too.
EK: Pleasure. Hopefully they get stoked and have a good experience. Actually, I want them to be so bummed when they hear it, you know what I mean? Just have a terrible experience and wish we never come back [laughs].
SM: You’re writing for the magazine; we all know what it’s like to go to a good show that you’re on the fence of going. Then you go and you’re so grateful you went. That’s the sort of thing I want.
EK: We have our collection of weird ethoses within each of us in the band in terms of what we think is cool. If other people think it’s cool, then maybe they can have a similar kind of experience which is rad. I would love to see a band like this because I wouldn’t know what to expect from it. A lot of bands that I see these days I can pretty much call out what I’m going to see. If I get surprised, I’m really stoked. This feels like it has that surprise. I would go see Jim play any show, seeing him play a show of essentially rock songs is like woah. Even though I’ve heard the album a hundred thousand times I still don’t know what it will be like live.