Interview with Sissy Spacek's John Wiese

Ten days ago I posted a review of the excellent Sissy Spacek new record called Lead their exit (Here is my review), and I am pleased that one of them, John Wiese, answered to a few questions I sent them by mail. read it just below (and if you havent done it yet, check Lead their exit, as well as the rest of their discography, it's really worth it. original, intense and exiting stuff, really) :

-What was the project at the start of Sissy Spacek and how would you summarize its evolution up to now?
The band started as blur/grind, using bass, drum machine, and voice. It was more project-oriented, we played about once a year for the first five years, and mainly the output was recyclings of rehearsal and live recordings due to the geographical separation of the band members. So it never functioned as a traditional band until recently. Between then I think Sissy Spacek has been many different things at different times, depending on what was possible—grind band, noisecore, pure electronics, free improvisation, conceptual experiments, maybe even theater a few times... Currently, and for the last years, we've been operating strictly as a grindcore band live, playing song-based material, but recorded we still like to be free to try anything we're curious about.


-Do you play or have played in other bands?

Myself, not really. Charlie has a long history of bands that he's played in. Knelt Rote was his last main band before he left Portland. In the early 2000's he was in a band called Sleetmute Nightmute that I would encourage people to seek out. They made one LP.


-Do you think noisegrind is a relevant label for Sissy Spacek's music (as far as label can be relevant I mean..)?
I don't argue about genre labels with anyone—requires too much of the kind of social interaction I don't care about.


-With which kind of bands are you usually playing with? do you see the band as being part of a scene and which one would it be (grind? punk? noise? something else?)?

I can't say that I see any identifiable scene that we're apart of. I'm unaware of any bands with similar interests. I happen to like diversity at an event, so we often play with all kinds of different types. Or sometimes no one—the last show we played at Dem Passwords in Los Angeles we set up a two-channel video of a piece we made, a monitor showing 13 Sissy Spacek videos (conceptual and documentation), and also a 5-channel sound piece that played all evening and through our live set.


-What about Lead Their Exit? Isn't it a bit more "normal" grind than some of your other records?

This record is more representative of our live set. We're writing much more material now and will be releasing these records along side all of our others. I think it creates a much broader picture for the listener. But we've released many grind records over the years as well.


-What is the writing process in Sissy Spacek? Do you have a specific idea of how the next record will be before you write it or is it more writing some  songs and gathering it on a record when you have the occasion to release it?
We just write one song at a time and record at a studio when we get a chance. To me, our goals are usually just 7-inches. I like the format a lot, and I think it's the most appropriate for this kind of music. LPs are too long and represent an aspiration we don't really have.


-What about your live shows, what do you try to transmit to the listeners? Do you see it as some kind of art / conceptual happenings?

Like I said above, I think that there's a much more interesting shape possible at a show than seeing 5 bands that abide by the same genre-codes. I'm happy to have different types of things come together and add up to a unique experience.


-Which bands from your area(s) would you recommend?
From Los Angeles: Airway, Damion Romero, The Haters, Constrain, Surplus Killing, Joseph Hammer, Unica, Hive Mind, Fenian, Extended Organ, Experimental Half Hour, Allegory Chapel Ltd, Lucky Dragons, Telecaves, Leather Bath, Anti-Civilization Mask, Unexamine, Liars, No Age, etc.


-Which evolution would you like to see for underground music in the future?

Less genre-oriented/aspirational.


-What is planned for Sissy Spacek in the coming months? Do you already have ideas or songs for your next release?
We're recording our next record in about a week. The end of 2014 is also the 15 year anniversary of the band—our first show was xmas day, 1999. So we should have some kind of special release probably the beginning of next year.