Tamra Spivey Activist. Singer. Goddess. These are just a few words to describe Lucid Nation's frontwoman Tamra Spivey. I had the pleasure of talking with this rockin grrrl, and this is what she had to say about music, MTV, and her experiences as a woman trying to make a difference in the world. Jenny: I know Lucid Nation was formed as a result of the Riot Grrrl movement...as sort of an offshoot of the zine Revolution Rising, but how did you come to be interested in music in the first place? Tamra: Like a lot of kids there's a picture of me at eight years old holding a guitar. I used to pretend the steps in the living room were a stage and I'd be a lead vocalist. When you see those divas on TV they seem so powerful and glittering it's irresistible to a kid, especially one growing up in a bleak dangerous environment like the barrio where I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. I was one of those kids who thought underground music was like what would normally be called a religion. I thought the musicians were tribal leaders with secret spiritual wisdom, and in a way they were. Once I got past the popular crap that's like a surface of sea scum always at the top of the charts, I found poets that inspired me. Patti Smith's work turned me on to Wilhelm Reich, Rumi and Rimbaud. Jim Morrison got me into Freud, Neitzsche, Kerouac. Bowie was into the Tibetan Book of the Dead. And then bands like NWA, Kid Frost, Nirvana confirmed how hypocritical and fake the media-job-school-family complex is for most of us. Those people were more family to me than my relatives. And what provoked you to join the Riot Grrrl movement? In middle school I wanted to play bass, took a few lessons, but a violent crime and general derision from my family and all my male friends, plus getting threatened and called a whore at school every day made pot and downers more appealing than taking the bus to where a bored horny guy would teach me shit I didn’t want to know. I hung with musicians instead of being one. When I met Ronnie, now guitarist in Lucid Nation, I watched him go through a parade of lost souls and assholes trying to put a band together and one day I got so pissed I told him to give me a few months to learn bass. We had just seen an amazing all girl hard-core band called Girl Jesus and I was inspired. Girl Jesus were friends of the post riot grrrl art collective Revolution Rising, and RR invited us to their shows where I saw Spitboy, Heavens to Betsy, Los Crudos, and it was a total revelation. I got into zines for the first time, read Hillary Carlip and then Faludi and it was like the heavens opened. I thought it was about time for women, including myself, to really express the truth of our experiences in great art. And great art didn't have to be technically stunning, it just had to be true. It wasn't long before we were opening for Bikini Kill and then Team Dresch, two examples of it. Who are some of your musical influences? Kerouac, the bands I already mentioned, Stooges, Pere Ubu, Rocket from the Tombs, Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Lou Reed, Death Row rap, I devoured the whole history of rock and back into jazz and blues where I found inspiration in people like Ornette Coleman, Muddy Waters, I even found distant family: Victoria Spivey, a true blues legend. How do those musical influences affect the material you put out? Even better, who are some non-music-connected people that have been important in bringing you to where you are today? I pillage everything! I like to mix bits of songs together like a punk "Fortunate Son" blended with Nirvana’s "Opinion". Or I’ll quip Lennon. My love of improvising off the top of my head is pure Kerouac. The Surrealists said that art that comes from dreams and the unconscious has a special light, and my favorite artists have all been exploring the unconscious. Kerouac called it "First thought, best thought." It's zen. Would you be willing to speak a little about TVi and how it almost got you a job with MTVonline? And also speak about how you were able to turn down a career opportunity for the sake of keeping your artistic integrity? TVi was a zine one of the founders of Revolution Rising Tye Smith, Ronnie and I put together. Half was our dialogue as we watched MTV. Tye was a grad student in media studies and she was so good at exposing the subtext, the obvious but ignored messages of videos. Ronnie and I mostly picked on them with sarcasm or dismay at sexism or plain stupidity. The other half of TVi was a debate about indie vs. major label ethics, and the plight of women in the music business, which Drama of Switchblade Kittens recently described as "How old, how fat?" Danny Goldberg then president of Atlantic Records and Slim Moon of Kill Rock Stars ran away with the indie vs. majors part debate. Courtney Love was involved in the debate, too. TVi wound up selling thousands of copies. It reached everywhere from the desks of executives at Geffen to Poland and Portugal. One day I got email from MTVOnline, where a honcho having read TVi complimented the section where we were critiquing videos, because it was smart and funny. He offered me a job. I didn’t take it because I was on this grail quest to get to musical zen. Patti Smith talked about saving rock and roll, and I wanted to save my little bit of it, not write humorous bits for mass consumption. Afterwards I would get letters saying, "Omigod they ripped you off for Beavis and Butthead, the way they sit and pick apart videos is TVi!" (Is that a compliment???) Or, "Omigod that show with comics ripping videos, or omigod that show with kids ripping videos..." Whatever. But I like the idea that TVi is enshrined in a locked desk drawer at Viacom headquarters. Speaking of integrity, what's it like being a part of Lucid Nation, a band that's clearly not mainstream, in a music industry that's dominated by image and production value (i.e.: Brittney and the boy bands)? Where do you feel Lucid Nation fits into the grander scheme of things? It's strange because some very powerful people in the music business love the band but hardly anybody really knows about us. Neil Perry, who mixed "1979" for Smashing Pumpkins, told me I'm another Jim Morrison. ASCAP compares me to Patti Smith. Nitebob says our "Nonpoetic Rain" CD is as good as The Stooges "Funhouse" (and he should know). Danny Goldberg's a longtime fan. Compliments that mean a lot to me, but we don't sell much or get much press coverage. Of course since we're not really into the corporate work your ass off and get paid pennies trip those people can't do much for us. I used to get frustrated and depressed, wanting to be heard, but now my focus is simple: to leave a body of work, a record in music and other arts of my corner of coming out of the dark into the light, not enough women do. What was it like to completely improvise Suburban Legends? What was the creative process? Did you have an idea of what each song was before you jammed, or was the album improvised in the truest sense of the word? Suburban Legends was made up on the spot with absolutely no planning. That was the dare. We were so pissed at ourselves and each other! I remember trooping out in single file bickering and glum after recording seven jams, we couldn't hear each other, and no one (including me) could hear me, so we were all convinced it was total bullshit. But the engineer was really excited, he couldn't wait to hear it back. We found telepathy had occurred, music illustrated words, and we were together painting soundscapes that sounded orchestrated. How does the process of improvising differ from making music that's been pre-written and composed? There's an attention, the only thing I can compare it to is when you're practicing a martial art, you are right here in the present paying attention to everything. You're listening to that inner direction, but there is no time to think, no hesitation, everything you've ever learned is right there for potential use. And even though you seem in control you've really surrendered it because you're allowing the flow of what's going on in that moment to move you. See, I believe songs are out there waiting for musicians to get their mental calisthenics and libidos out of the way long enough to (I guess you could call it) channel them. If you were forced to define Lucid Nation's music, as well as their mission, what would you say? I don't allow myself to be forced to do anything. My mission is to share that skill with others. What are Lucid Nation's short and long-term goals? My short-term goal is to get up north soon to record with Patty Schemel at Uptone in Tacoma. A long-term goal is to record with Kenny of Candiria at Purple Light in Brooklyn with Nitebob and Mike Barile. What are some of your other interests when you're not rocking out or being politically active? Parakeets, cats, fish. Subversive TV cartoons. The Lakers, out of towners don't understand that us natives have heard Chick Hearn, the Lakers announcer, since we were in the womb, so it's not just a sports thing really. Pontiac GTO. Martial arts: after having nearly been murdered, learning how to disable and kill provides a sense of security nothing else can. If you had never gotten involved with the band, what path might you have taken? My mother thought I should be a waitress. I always wanted to train horses. Sometimes Tamra the painter suddenly takes over. During the ensuing art avalanche, Tamra the musician is nowhere to be found. Finally, what advice do you have for would-be riot grrrls, or any girl musicians for that matter? Failure is impossible--Susan B. Anthony Tamra, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insightful words and witticisms. For more info, or to buy Suburban Legends (or any other Lucid Nation albums for that matter), check out www.brainfloss.com So there you have it. Tamra Spivey is a woman who knows what she wants and won’t compromise anything she believes in her pursuit of greatness. A true cool grrrl du jour if I do say so myself. And I do. --Jenny Seay Special CG Correspondent