by Victoria King
The Pack A.D. will be coming through Winnipeg on October 31. That’s right folks. You read it right: Hallo-fucking-ween. So obviously we talked about costumes, weirdos in costumes, and Xena, Warrior Princess.
Stylus: You guys have been very successful in getting airtime on campus/community stations all over the place, but how do you guys look at success?
Becky Black: Hard to say. I mean, how can you say when you’ve made it or when you haven’t made it? Ideally, I wanna make money and so far we haven’t broken even. I mean we’ve broken even but we haven’t made any profit. I guess . . . for me, it might sound silly, but I’d actually like to make money in my career.
Stylus: [Laughs] That’s not necessarily a bad thing I don’t think.
BB: No, I guess not. I mean, it sounds like “all I want is money” but obviously if I just wanted money I would not be a musician, because that’s not very lucrative.
Stylus: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
BB: I don’t know, I’d probably just be working . . . just some other job. I think I would make a pretty good travel agent. I like getting deals . . . Although, I don’t know if there’s much work in that now because of the Internet. People can just look stuff up online, and I don’t know how much more a travel agent would get.
Stylus: Speaking creatively – in your playing and in your songwriting, what have you done to challenge yourself in the last little while?
BB: We’re getting more complicated than we used to be, even though we’re still pretty simple . . . We used to play more blues-based rock and we’ve kind of gotten out of that just because, basically it’s the same every time. We’ve branched out into playing more choruses, whereas before it was more like “here’s a verse” and then we just jam out. We’ve come together in our songwriting.
Stylus: You’ve mentioned before the limitations of only having two people. Has that ever become frustrating to the point where you’ve considered adding other members to the band?
BB: We’ve actually considered, not adding another member to the band but if we really needed it, we could hire someone to come along and play with us on tour. We don’t want to turn into the Black Keys or anything [laughs] I can see why a duo would want to expand though. It really is kind of limiting after a while. For the first few years you think, “this is awesome cuz there’s just the two of us and we can write material really easily,” but now I imagine songs and it’s hard to really do them with just guitar and drums . . .
On the upcoming ‘Halloween in Winnipeg’ show . . .
Stylus: Are you guys going to be wearing costumes?
BB: I think I definitely will, that’s most of the fun of Halloween.
Stylus: What’s the best costume that you’ve had?
BB: I don’t know . . . The best costume that I haven’t had yet and I still have to make is a Xena costume. I really want that, but I need lots of leather and I’m not really that good at sewing so I think it would be really hard to make that costume, but it’s pretty sweet when I think about it. I’ve never had that good of costumes, it’s always a last minute thing like “oh no, it’s Halloween,” and then it’s too late.
Stylus: How do you like to get your costumes? Thrifting, Value Village, or just buying it?
BB: I think a combination of the first two. It’s like, I won’t sew together a costume but I’ll put something together. I don’t like the ones that come in a package that are like “Sexy Pirate” or something, that’s kind of boring. I like to put together my own.
Stylus: The only thing is, I’m sure [a store] would have “Sexy Xena.”
BB: No actually, I don’t think they do! I mean, I found some online but I couldn’t find any in any stores. They were really expensive, and they were really crappily made too. I want like a really legitimate looking costume too. It would have to be real leather.
Stylus: And then at that point it’s really an investment. If you’re going to buy real leather for a costume, you gotta wear that thing for a long time.
BB: No kidding, I gotta wear that thing like everyday and not just Halloween. And then I’ll just be one of those people – every city has a few weirdos who just dress up as something weird all the time. I think Seattle has somebody who dresses up like Link [from Zelda]. Like, he just wears a Link costume everyday . . . Yeah, I might be that person.
Stylus: A reviewer in Vancouver describes you as a “one woman wrecking crew” and “snarling ferociously” during a show . . . Obviously there’s something going through your head that’s more than just the lyrics if there’s that kind of intensity when your singing. What are you thinking of and feeling as you’re doing that?
BB: Ugh, I dunno. Sometimes I have to think of the lyrics because I forget them frequently. And that’s really funny when you’re playing a show and people are watching, and they’re singing along and then I screw up and then they look confused, because they probably had it right in the first place and I didn’t. Anyways, that makes me laugh all the time . . . Actually, I don’t even know what I’m thinking about. Maybe I’m just thinking about lyrics, or just like “the moment” . . . One time I was playing and I was thinking about shopping, but that was unrelated, and I think I wasn’t really into it at the time.
Stylus: Has that [forgetting lyrics] lessened or increased since you guys started?
BB: It has probably always been the same. Maybe it increases because we’re always writing more songs so there’s always more stuff to remember. There’s only so much capacity, at least in my brain, for remembering lyrics. And sometimes its like I know them but they just don’t come, so I just make up gibberish.
Stylus: You make up gibberish?
BB: Yeah, I don’t think I’m the only singer who does that either. Like . . I just make sounds that sound like they could be words. But maybe they’re not, that kind of screwing up.
You can check out the Pack AD w/ Topanga on October 31 at the WECC. Tickets are $17 in advance and $23 at the door. Doors open at 7:15, show starts at 8. Wear a costume.