Photo: Brian Liu
Mary Timony has been a force in music’s underground for over 15 years. In fact, she’s one of the few artists that can claim she’s been signed to four of the most prominent independent record labels. A Washington D.C. native, she started out on her hometown’s most famous hardcore institution, Dischord Records, in the all-girl band Autoclave. By 1992, she was in Boston fronting one of the premier indie rock acts of the 90s, Helium. The band released 3 EPs and 2 LPs on indie powerhouse Matador Records, including The Magic City, a glorious mix of medieval fantasies, vintage prog rock instruments and futuristic electronics that remains one of the most original and invigorating releases of the decade. When the band dissolved, Timony stayed with Matador to release her first two solo albums. In 2005, she moved to legendary punk label Lookout! Records for the release of Ex Hex. Now, she’s joined the illustrious and feminist Kill Rock Stars roster and is ready to release The Shapes We Make on May 8th. The album is credited to Mary Timony Band, which signifies a more collaborative and Helium-sounding effort than her first three solo albums. You can download or stream a track from it, “Sharpshooter,” right here:

Download/Stream “Sharpshooter” MP3

I caught up with Mary on the phone, and we discussed The Shapes We Make, DC vs. Boston and the proliferation of kid-friendly rock music.

New Music Nation: Your first three post-Helium albums were credited to Mary Timony. The Shapes We Make is credited to Mary Timony Band. There have been core musicians and additional players on all of these albums. What makes this more of a band project?

Mary Timony: Ever since I started playing with Devin [Ocampo, drummer on her last two albums], I just sort of felt like it’s a new band. It’s a little more collaborative. So I didn’t feel right naming it my name, because it definitely feels more like a band now. And now that Chad [Molter, bassist] has joined, it’s even more so that way. It’s really collaborative in how we write the stuff and arrange it, and they’re really equal parts in it.

NMN: It’s been ten years since The Magic City, Helium’s last album (which is one of my favorite albums of all time).

MT: Ohhh

NMN: Were you missing the idea of being part of a band?

MT: Yeah, definitely. I just really wanted to collaborate and find people that were super-solid musicians to play with. And I feel like I definitely found that in working with Chad and Devin.

NMN: In the liner notes of The Shapes We Make, you’re credited as playing guitar, which seems a little modest. Not only do you sing and write every song, but you also play a variety of other instruments that go uncredited in the liner notes, right?

MT: Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know [laughs]. I guess I didn’t want to deal with whatever. I just put down what people played on the basic tracks. But all the overdubs and stuff, I played most of those on keyboard. We used a lot of Reason software and sampled sounds and stuff like that.

NMN: But you played several other instruments, too, right?

MT: Yeah, I played a bunch of stuff. Lots of keyboards, a little bit of viola. Most of the sounds on there are actually keyboards with sampled sounds. Whatever sounds you hear are pretty much me messing around with stuff, so I don’t know [laughs].

NMN: There are certain bits and pieces on The Shapes We Make that feel like they were inspired by The Magic City. Was there any of that going on? Were you thinking about that album at all when you were writing or recording The Shapes We Make?

MT: I think that I was in a similar headspace when we were recording it…in that I just had time to do everything I wanted to do, and it’s really more about that. I tend to really lean towards orchestrating things. I think that’s something I really like to do…arranging different sounds and stuff when I’m recording. So if I have enough time, that’s what I end up doing. So I think that’s why it sounds that way.

NMN: You did some of the recording of the album in the home studio in your attic, right?

MT: Yeah.

NMN: How long have you had that attic studio, and what kind of affect do you think it’s had on your recordings?

MT: We just set it up, really, to make this record. And right now, Devin actually has all the equipment and they’re going to do the next Medications record on it over at his place. But having the studio in the house basically was awesome, because it allowed us all the time we needed to really make sure things were sounding right…and to realize all the ideas more fully than when you’re limited by not having enough time in the studio. So, yeah, I spent a lot of time up there just fiddling around with stuff and doing overdub after overdub and just like hundreds of different tracks. It took a long time. I think it took like six months or something. A lot of work went into it.

NMN: That didn’t drive you crazy? Or was the end result worth it, so who cares?

MT: Yeah, the end result was totally worth it. Yeah, it was definitely getting to a point after awhile when it felt like it was never gonna get finished [laughs]. And it was a little frustrating, but it was totally worth it. I think the next time we record, we’ll do it exactly the same way.

NMN: Speaking of your home studio, it’s here in DC, you’re hometown. You’re back here after living in Boston for awhile. Have you found that one town is better than the other from a musician’s standpoint?

MT: Yeah, I actually think DC is way better. The people living here are good musicians and really supportive of each other. I think just growing out of the whole hardcore thing in the 80s, people have stayed around. I don’t know…Boston I just always felt like…there’s a lot of musicians, but the scene wasn’t quite as supportive…I mean it was in certain ways. But there was also a lot of music I didn’t like going on up there…a lot of music I did like. DC’s just a really nice, really small, but nice network of people. I think it‘s a really good place to be.

NMN: It does sound like a cohesive network of musicians that get along.

MT: Yeah.

NMN: Another thing you recorded recently was the song “Clap Your Hands” for the Play compilation [which features a lot of indie rockers making kid- friendly music. It’s set for a May 22nd release.]. Was it fun to be a part of that and do you plan to record more music targeted at kids and families?

MT: It was fun. Kim [Coletta, of DeSoto Records, the label releasing the compilation] just asked us if we wanted to do a song and we wrote it pretty fast and recorded it pretty fast, too. We didn’t put like a super lot of thought into it or anything. Yeah, it was definitely a fun project. I enjoyed it. And [laughs] I don’t know what my plans are with that. We’ll see [laughs]. I teach guitar to kids, too, so I’m always around kids these days [laughs]. I don’t know, I’d like to do more stuff with kids.

NMN: It seems that there’s a movement lately amongst musicians (particularly indie musicians) to make family-friendly music. Have you noticed that?

MT: Yeah, I know. There is kinda that trend. I don’t know why. Trends happen [laughs]. Maybe a lot of those people are having their own kids.

NMN: I agree. And indie rock musicians seem more family-oriented than the rock stars of the past. It seems that 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, rock musicians didn’t have as many kids…or have families?

MT: Right. I don’t know. I think rock and roll’s just getting to the point now where it’s like a really accepted art form or something. I see with the kids that I teach, like they’re second graders and they’re forming their own bands…not that they can actually really play anything, but they’re all like really into rock bands and guitars and drums. I think it’s just more of an accepted part of culture or something. There are also a lot of rock camps for little kids that are like this cool activity for kids now.

NMN: Back to The Shapes We Make. There’s a video for the song “Sharpshooter” in the works, and it’s being done by an art collective called Paperrad. Do you have any idea what it’s gonna look like?

MT: Yeah, they sent me a few stills. It’s animated and it has robots in it. It’s about a robot going into the woods or something [laughs].

NMN: You’re not in it? Or is there an animated Mary?

MT: I don’t think so. I think we were going to, but then we kinda ran out of time.

NMN: You’re touring the US at the end of May and into June. How many musicians will be on stage for the shows?

MT: It’s gonna be three of us and this guy named Joe Wong is gonna be filling in for Devin on the drums. So it will be Chad Molter, Joe Wong and me. And it will sound a little bit different live, a little more raw. But yeah, I think it works.

NMN: Are you gonna try to recreate some of the orchestration on the album?

MT: Uh…I don’t know [laughs]. We’ll see. I’m not sure yet.