Give Me the Safe Word: A Conversation with She Wants Revenge
17 min readThe show, for me at least, is over. But the night is just beginning. She Wants Revenge has just finished their set, and, as Electric Six takes the stage, I make my way downstairs and find a spot on Decatur to sit. I’m approached by a leather-clad Justin Warfeild and a non-descript She Wants Revenger who tells me he’s Adam Bravin, but I know otherwise.
We make our way up Decatur to S Peters and eventually to Cafe Du Monde where we find a table and settle in.
Circle Six: Hey, thanks for taking the time out. I know interviews suck so…
Justin Warfield: Not as a whole. It depends. Sometimes they’re great.
C6M: Well I hope this is a great one.
JW: Even if the interview’s not great, I’m sure the beignets will be.
C6M: I’m sure. You started out in Hip-Hop right? Like, you had a rap album out in ‘93?
JW: Yeah. I put out my first rap single in ‘92 and the album in ‘93.
C6M: So how do you get from hip-hop to…
JW: Actually ‘91 was the first single.
C6M: So you’re a veteran.
JW: Well I’ve been doing different stuff for a long time.
C6M: Easy-E was what got you toge– Hey! Don’t look at my notes. It’ll spoil the magic. So like I was saying, Easy-E got y’all together?
JW: Well, we were at this party and the song was playing. I knew all the other songs that were playing, and that one was the only one I didn’t know. So I ran up and asked him what it was and he told me. I wrote it down, and I was pretty excited to go find it. We kinda shook hands… actually I don’t even think we shook hands. I think he was kinda being Cool Guy. He told me what it was and then like, “Alright, kid. Whatever.” and went back to what he was doing. And then I saw him around for the next 13 or 15 years DJing at all the clubs I’d go to.
We kept in touch. We had a mutual friend who was trying to get us to work together for a long time, but we were both busy doing other things. It wasn’t until many years later we were at another party. We were like the last two guys there besides the person who hosted the part – the same person who’d been trying to get us to work together. He’s like, “Why don’t you guys go work on some music right now.” So we did, and that was it.
C6M: Had you been into Hip-Hop for a while? ‘Cause, like, when Straight Outta Compton came out it, changed my life. I thought I was black forever. And then, when grunge hit it, kinda flipped me back…
JW: Ha Ha Ha!
C6M: …but I was always still into Hip-Hop.
JW: I’d been into it since the first time I heard it.
C6M: Which was?
JW: I can’t remember. I think I was in 5th grade. I liked it. It was different.
At this point the waitress comes over and brings us our coffees, hot chocolates and beignets. I realize I have no cash on me and offer to pay with my card. Justin gives me the ol’ “you’re money’s no good here.” I thank him, and promptly drop my tape recorder in a huge pile of powdered sugar.
C6M: Damnit! Don’t laugh. I’m drunk.
Neither Justin nor the guy who lied and said his name was Adam take my request seriously, and the table erupts in laughter as I snort my recorder clean.
C6M: I thought I had cash on me. I don’t wanna mooch off the band.
JW: It’s okay. We’ll just quietly hate you forever.
C6M: So where was I?
Enter the real Adam Bravin (a.k.a. DJ Adam 12)
JW: Adam, come join the party. He was just asking me about the party you DJ’ed when you played Easy-E. (He’s obviously making fun of me by mocking this line of questioning that they’ve no doubt heard countless times before.)
Adam Bravin: Oh is that where we are?
C6M: (Not taking the hint.) Yeah, so you’re the whole reason you got together. Easy-E at a party?
AB: (nothing)
C6M: If these are questions that you’ve heard before, just slap me and I’ll move on.
JW: You can move on.
AB: I’ve heard that one a million times.
C6M: So you mention this album being a throwback to formative stuff that you…
JW: I never said that.
C6M: Okay, so correct me.
JW: I would have never said “throwback.”
C6M: Okay.
JW: It’s just that our music was never intended to reference other music of the past. It’s going to be that way. It’s going to have shades of your influences because you can’t hide who you are.
C6M: Right. I have a theory that everybody rips somebody off.
JW: Well…
C6M: In so many words. Don’t crucify me for the term “rip off.”
JW: But it is an article that will transcribe to print. So if I nod my head or say, “Yes, everybody rips somebody off” and they’re not sitting here eating beignets with us, then I said, “Everybody rips somebody off.” But I don’t think you have to rip somebody off. I think that you can just be honest about your music and try to do something new. But, no matter what, it’s going to have echoes of the things that influenced and inspired you.
C6M: Are you hoping that your stuff inspires a younger generation like maybe The Cure or Depeche Mode did for you?
JW: I never really thought about it, but I suppose that would be a pretty heavy compliment.
C6M: Would you rather some kid really dig your band or get turned on to Joy Division or whatever because of you?
JW: I don’t really care what they get in to because of us. We didn’t make it to be music teachers. We just made an album for ourselves, and we’re happy that people like it.
C6M: Do you think that your desire to stay above genres will hinder your success at all?
AB: We’re not worried about any of that. We’re not worried about success or genre or any of that. We’ll just continue to do what we do, and make honest music. People can throw us into whatever they’d like to throw us into. People love to create a genre or throw us into some category, but we could give a fuck less about what they say.
C6M: But people don’t believe you. They say you’re ripping stuff off. All the reviews I’ve read say you’re just blatant rip-offs. So how does that make you feel?
JW: Rip-off of who?
C6M: You know, all the usual suspects like Joy Division and shit like that.
AB: I’ll say this. People will say whatever they want. We grew up listening to a lot of different music. Not just the usual suspects, but classical and jazz and funk and soul. So people can say whatever they want. But when we made our record, what came out was what part of us, inherent in us. Part of us comes from the music we grew up listening to. We made an honest record that all those influences came out in. Again, people can say whatever the fuck they want.
Right about now I ask another nonsensical question and Adam attempts to answer. The only problem is there’s a guy on his neato keen motorcycle revving the hell out the engine about 20 yards from where we’re sitting. I’m sure he was compensating for something. I can‘t really make out what Adam says, but I think I heard something about not caring what people think and there was a “fuck” or two in there somewhere.
C6M: I’m glad that guy on the bike’s gone. He was pissing me off.
AB: There’s a lot of interesting sounds in this city.
C6M: Is this your first time? Justin said it was his second.
AB: It’s my third time actually.
C6M: You DJ’ed here before?
AB: I never DJ’ed here, but I’ve been here before.
C6M: What do you spin?
AB: Everything.
C6M: Do you actually DJ, like mixing and stuff? (notice my mastery of the dope lingo, yo)
AB: I’m one of the guys who can actually can DJ.
C6M: So you’re not just spinnin’ records?
AB: You know, when you go out to a club and they say that So-and-So from this band is coming and they’re gonna play music. I’m not one of those guys who just creates a play list on an iPod. I actually have technical skills because I’ve been spinning for over 15 years.
C6M: (with a smirk) Are you better than Carlos D?
AB: Yes.
C6M: Ha Ha Ha! That’s awesome!
AB: But I will say Carlos is a great guy. I had a very interesting conversation with Carlos D not too long ago. We’ve always been very curious about how Interpol felt about us. You know we’re compared to them constantly.
C6M: Yeah.
AB: It wasn’t until recently that I had a chance to sit down with Carlos and actually ask him how he felt about the comparison. And I knew what he was gonna say.
C6M: And that is…
AB: He said – as any musician in the industry who is intelligent and comes from an honest place would say – He said that the comparisons were ridiculous. You guys sound nothing like us. You’re more of an electronic band.
C6M: Well the first thing that grabbed me was the vocals.
AB: I mean if you listen to their records and you listen to ours, they’re completely fucking different. It’s really easy to listen to one song like “Tear You Apart” and say, “Wow, they sound like Interpol.” But that’s very kind of juvenile and lazy. Even for a music critic who comes along and listens to one song and says we sound like Interpol. It’s very lazy. They’re a rock band and we’re an electronic band that incorporates rock into our music. Carlos came across like I expected him to. It was nice hanging out with that kid and hearing what he had to say. We hear that on a fucking daily basis and it’s ridiculous.
C6M: So let me read you some quotes from a few reviews I read.
In case you missed it, that sound just now was someone throwing some shit in the ceiling fan above our table.
JW: Before you do that, let me ask you a question.
C6M: Sure.
JW: What do you hope to achieve in doing that? What response do you want to elicit by reading those quotes?
C6M: Well people have said some things about you and I wanted to hear your response.
JW: Let me illustrate something here. I just got done playing a show. I’m gonna be in town for maybe another hour. I’m giving you my time after the show. And rather than get to know us and learn something about our music, you want to make the interview about something negative. Rather than forging your own opinion of us, you would rather quote another writer.
C6M: You’re right. (um…when the man’s right, he’s right. I’m a hack.)
JW: You want to make this experience maybe controversial or amusing so you’re gonna bring up the words of another writer? That’s like playing a show and doing all covers.
C6M: Adam, he’s turning against me.
JW: So here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna finish my beignets and my coffee. And if you come up with some real questions, I’ll answer them. But until then…
C6M: Adam might talk to me.
JW: Sure, Adam might talk to you. Basically everything you’re about to say, he just answered anyway. So you’re wasting your time.
C6M: Great. Now I pissed him off.
JW: No you didn’t piss me off.
C6M: Okay, so screw those questions. No big deal. Tell us how you turned your Myspace profile into a record deal and career.
JW: Well Adam was responsible for the Myspace stuff, so he could probably more accurately answer that one.
C6M: Adam? Justin hates me.
AB: He doesn’t hate you. Anyway… that’s not really how it is . Myspace was originally for us an avenue to elicit honest opinions about our music. When we were on there weren’t a lot of bands on Myspace.
C6M: Y’all were on it a few years ago, right?
AB: Yeah, it was before there was some intern at some label looking up…
C6M: Looking at your Myspace numbers…
AB: For example, if a label had a band that sounded like AC/DC, they would search AC/DC. And they would have some intern sending messages like, “I see you like this, well you should check out our profile.” Before all that happened, that’s what we did. I would go to people’s profiles and not just look at the music they were in to, but the movies and books and their whole vibe. I’d find people who kind of related to the same vibe that we relate to, and I would ask them to check out our music. And they did.
We got such an amazing response from kids that it motivated us to continue to do what we did. Myspace has been a fucking huge thing for us. And not only that, but in certain cities where we may not have had radio play or people had never heard of us, we’d do shows in certain cities where we had Myspace friends. There weren’t a lot of people at the early shows, but the ones who were there were there because they knew us on Myspace.
C6M: That’s crazy.
AB: The internet is crazy. We grew up having to go to record stores and dig through crates. Now it’s as easy as clicking a couple times to find out about a band.
C6M: Myspace today is kind of a poseur colony of 13 year old girls sending surveys to their friends, but it really is a powerful tool for bands now isn’t it.
AB: It’s become a tool for bands, and you know what, why not?
C6M: Sure.
AB: I mean if you’re some band in some random city that has no access to people, why not promote your band on Myspace? There’s so many people on there. It’s different for everybody. Some people are trying to get laid on there.
C6M: Ha!
AB: Wait, MOST people are trying to get laid on there, but on the other hand, there’s a lot of people on there who are honest about what they do. And they’re just trying to elicit some kind of honest response from kids who aren’t their friends. For us we’d play our music for friends, and we may or may not have gotten
an honest response because they’re our friends. But when you post your music on Myspace and there’s some kid in Indiana who’s never heard of you, who listens to your music and likes it, it motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing.
C6M: (turning toward Justin to test the once stormy waters) You guys played a show at the Troubadour recently and a friend told me that you went on a bit of a rant about not getting proper recognition. How’s the response been different since then?
JW: Do you want to know really what I said?
C6M: Sure. This is total word of mouth, so correct me if I’m wrong.
JW: I was calling out a particular music editor for a magazine…
C6M: Damn music editors.
JW: There was a music editor who was ignoring us because she didn’t like us. I said I don’t care if you write that we suck, but if we play a show you better advertise it because we’re one of the biggest bands in Los Angeles.
C6M: Sure. You had a sold out show that night, right?
JW: Yeah, we went on to have several more. My point was why are you ignoring us? At least write that you hate us. You advertise every show of every band pretty much, but you write nothing about us. So if the journalist’s job is to report the news, and there’s a band that went from playing to 100 people to 300 to 5, 8, 1200… I think that’s newsworthy. You can say that you hate how they’re rising to be the biggest band in L.A., but at least cover it. So I spoke about that, and I spoke out that I was angry at our record company for not releasing the album. We had so many kids asking us why our album hadn’t come out. It wasn’t about recognition.
C6M: Well let’s be honest here. The journalist’s job hasn’t been to straight up report the news in a long time. I mean just watch a major network newscast any night of the week and it’s all editorial.
JW: Right, but if an independent newspaper that’s dedicated to art and culture in Los Angeles doesn’t report a significant growth of a band or something because of personal opinion, then that’s not responsible journalism.
C6M: Well, you guys got good vibes from Harcourt when you did Morning Becomes Eclectic, so that’s got to be worth something in L.A., right?
JW: We’re not looking for attention or approval. Nic is a really cool guy. He supports and champions a lot of great music. We were really thankful when he decided to start playing us on the radio. He was the first one to play us in Los Angeles. He put us on college radio and NPR, and we were very happy about that. But to be honest, what really matters most is people who come to the shows and buy the record. That means more to us than a journalist or a DJ or anyone else really.
C6M: There were a lot of people here tonight just to see y’all. Rock Kills Kid and Electric Six were great, but you guys brought a lot of people down to the show tonight.
JW: We appreciate that. We came here and we played and nobody knew us when we opened for Bloc Party, and now we’re back like 10 months later and there’s a lot of people here to see us. We enjoy playing live, and we enjoy playing for people who appreciate us.
C6M: So do you think you’ve settled in a genre – to use the most filthiest of words?
JW: Are you asking me personally?
C6M: Yeah.
JW: Well the fact that I’ve put out a few different records that have all been different types of music could be easily… um… Well the reason is you know I made one record when I was 19 and another when I was 23.
C6M: Yeah, we were all stupid when we were 19.
JW: Well that’s not what I was going to say.
Adam and Fake Adam start snickering.
C6M: I’m just messing with you.
JW: No no… it’s cool. You make records at different times in your life and they’re gonna sound different.
C6M: Oh yeah.
JW: I don’t make music to make money. Otherwise I would have stopped making music a long time ago. I make music to learn about music and to explore. It’s the journey. It’s not about where you end up. It’s like a process. I loved making every record I’ve ever made at those points in my life. But I think that the older you get, the more settled down you get in to who you are, and your identity musically and just as a human being starts to reveal itself to you as you strip through layers of influence and outside stimuli. You come to know who you are. So I intend to stick with this band in it’s natural life, however long that may be. I’m not gonna be 45 years old and doing revival shows because I don’t feel like that’s the natural life of a band.
C6M: So, you get compared to Interpol…
JW: Really?
C6M: Ha! Is there anybody from today that you like? I mean so much of your focus seems to be…
AB: Blonde Redhead.
C6M: Blonde Redhead?
JW: So much of our focus is what?
C6M: I was gonna say that so much of your focus seems to be in the 70s and 80s, is there anyone from today that really blows you away?
JW: I think there’re really great bands around today. But I think that if anyone really listened to the record they’d see that it’s not only got shades of influence from Bauhaus and Joy Division, The Cure, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Psychodelic Furs, but like early 90s Sonic Youth and Suicide from the late 70s. Yeah we like bands that are around now, but we’re not going to be influenced by them.
C6M: Sure. I’m not asking if you’re influenced by these bands, but is there anyone that you’re into? (See Jacob. See Jacob interview. See Jacob desperately try to repackage the boring ass “what’s in your iPod” question. See Jacob fail miserably. Better luck next time Jacob.)
JW: Sure, I really like Autolux and Blonde Redhead. Bloc Party’s a good group.
C6M: That’s cool. Hey, didn’t Joaquin Phoenix direct the video for…
JW: “Tear You Apart” (which you can see at SheWantsRevenge.com)
C6M: Yeah yeah. How’d you hook up with him?
JW: Friend of a friend.
C6M: Yeah?
JW: He was an acquaintance. He came to us with an idea. We really liked the idea, so we said, “let’s do it.”
C6M: Okay, one more stupid question.
JW: But that’s a blank page.
C6M: Stop looking at my notes. Okay, so what does 2006 hold for you guys?
JW: Locking ourselves in a room and listening to Interpol on repeat.
C6M: Ha ha!
JW: And Joy Division. And hopefully lots of interviews like this.
C6M: Ah there it is.
JW: Actually, you know we have a certain sound, and we’re going to pay attention to Interpol and Joy Division and try to emulate them. We can’t really tell what’s ahead for us until we see what Interpol does next.
C6M: Nice.
AB: But, seriously, the future for us… We’re going to continue to play shows. We’re booked up for the next year. We’ll just continue to try and do the best we can
on stage, and, when we get some time, we’ll try to write some songs for our next record.
JW: That answer sounded like Dirk Diggler accepting a porn award. “We’re just gonna keep on ROCKIN’!”
AB: Well, we’re kind of a big deal.
As I finished my beignets and downed the last of my café o lait, Justin and Fake Adam stood up to leave. We shook hands and everything was hunky dory. The Real Adam Bravin stayed and chilled for a while and the conversation drifted toward Hip-Hop again. We talked about some of the early albums that excited us and the new school albums that make us vomit. He brought up the fact that Kanye West is a great producer but a “wack rapper.” I sipped my water and felt the breeze in my mustache.
It was a great evening. Their set was amazing. The beignets were fresh. The coffee was hot. And the conversation… um… interesting. If they come to your city, I highly recomend catching the show. Have a few drinks with a few good friends and let the beat take over. In fact, go to their Myspace page and befriend them. Leave a comment and tell them the dumbass reporter from New Orleans says hi.
