Who are you and what do you do:
Amber: My name is Amber and I make music pretty much exclusively with Cobra & Vulture and hold down a day job as Music Coordinator at CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal. I’m into long-unfolding relationships like the one I have with my husband and the one I have with Erin, my songwriting partner for the last ten-plus years.
Erin: I am Erin, a 30 year old part-time/longtime diner waitress, wife and dog lover, guitar-playing + singing music maker. Not in that order.
Current obsessions:
Amber: I’ve been working on perfecting my kimchi recipe and hairdo – maximum volume is the ultimate goal, for both.
Erin: Watching back-seasons of Breaking Bad for hours on end, for the third time around, + can’t ever turn down an episode of the Sopranos.
A song or a record that will always put you in a good mood, without fail:
Amber: Just What I Needed by The Cars
Erin: Don McLean – Everybody Loves Me, Baby. Really, that whole American Pie record is a happy place for me. And Nick Cave’s Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is road trip singalong heaven.
Tell us about an album or artist you think is really under-appreciated, and why they are deserving of more praise:
Amber: Lately and locally: Sick Friend, for sure. Also excited about Mozart’s Sister, Each Other, Uncle Bad Touch and a a whole lot of non-pop music peeps including Jen Reimer.
Historically: female musicians in general, especially non-singers. I don’t want to shy away from mentioning that especially when people seem to forget so easily about the sexism that still exists just outside of their immediate communities, if not within them.
Erin: Sick Friend, for the creative songwriting, smooth vox, guitar licks and good coordination.
Most played track on your iTunes:
Amber: Exuma, The Obeah Man by Exuma
Erin: Rolling Stones – Moonlight Mile
Most cherished musical object:
Amber: My voice box, baby! But if that doesn’t count, I would say my upright piano which was given to me by my father on my twelfth birthday. He wrote many of his own songs on there and I’ll keep it in the family for always.
Erin: About ten years ago, a group of close friends pooled their funds and bought me a ridiculous and awesome Dimebag Darrell Dean guitar for my birthday. It came in a giant triangular box, which I used as its case for many years until tape could no longer hold it together. Don’t think I’ll ever sell it.
Proudest moment:
Amber: Getting my degree. I was the first one on either side of my family to go to university and it felt really special to celebrate that with them on my graduation day.
Erin: Overcoming my fear of answering questionnaires.
Most vulnerable moment:
Amber: Touring. Being away from home crowbars me open and I become way more volatile and overcome by incredible highs and lows, especially when I’m exhausted. But maybe it’s more like not being ‘at home’ because I feel the same way when my partner travels too.
Erin: Watching Malick’s The Tree of Life.
If you could score a film for anyone, who would it be and why:
Amber: I’m not so into auteurs and like lots of films by many different filmmakers, but if I had to choose one I think it would be Terrence Malick, because it would be incredible to be part of one of his visions – the man takes his time getting it right, has clarity of vision and explores beauty and grace. So Malick or Wes Anderson, because his films are hilarious and fun!
Erin: I’d be all over scoring any sort of campy, terrible but great horror flick, from foley to soundtrack. And I’ll do it for less if I get to be killed in the movie.
Your favourite use of a song in a film:
Amber: That scene in Pretty in Pink when Ducky sings Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ to the ladies in the record store. Or when The Breakfast Club parts ways at the end of the movie to the tune Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds, I’ve sung that many a time with buds while the sun comes up and we’re parting our drunk ways in the streets of Montreal! Not that I’m a big fan of John Hughes or anything, really I’m not.
Erin: I love Air’s Playground Love in Virgin Suicides, and Trip Fontaine being introduced to the tune of Heart’s Magic Man is perfection. Also can’t get enough of Jack Black dancing to Katrina and the Waves’ Walking on Sunshine as song 1 off his Monday morning mixtape in High Fidelity.
Favourite venue to play in and why:
Amber: I’m partial to playing venues with low or no stages like L’Esco and The Plant here in Montreal but I love Call the Office in London with its high stage- I guess I’m all about atmosphere and good times when it comes to performance.
Erin: Still figuring that out. I can think of some contenders but mostly because I associate them with great past experiences not because they have the best sound or atmosphere.
Dream venue to play in and why:
Amber: An imaginary, small-scale, independent outdoor music festival or weekend complete with tents, BBQs, good vibes and no advertising or corporate sponsorship.
Erin: I don’t think I’ve yet been there to know. But my dream tour is a long, slow one through the US. The great American road trip with shows every night.
First band t-shirt you ever purchased from a merch table:
Amber: A Parlovr tee back in 2008 or 2009, drunkenly acquired after a show in Quebec City, though I kind of just borrowed it and paid them back for it later. I’ve only started wearing band t-shirts in the last few years.
Erin: I think it was Garbage. And I went to school the next day with my hair done up like Shirley’s.
Band you’d leave your bandmates for:
Amber: Maybe I’ll have a musical fling with Beck. It would be fun to have him write music for me like he did for Charlotte Gainsbourg. I would also spend time with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but really I’m all about C&V4EVA.
Erin: I wouldn’t be able to turn down Billy Corgan ever. And I think the Pumpkins could benefit from having someone like me in the band. They could get a dude on bass (’cause there’s really only room for one female), and I think I could tone down the guitars in a tasteful way. And, of course, I could learn a thing or two in the process! But really, I hope Amber and I continue on our long musical journey together for another 15 years and more.
Album you want to expose your kin to whilst in the womb:
Amber: Horses by Patti Smith
Erin: Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me. Beautiful, patient & soothing.
If for some reason you lost the ability to make and play music, what would fill that gap:
Amber: Writing, I would hope. Children. Filmmaking.
Erin: I think about that when I’m slicing tomatoes at work sometimes. I don’t think I’d be any good at it, but I would have loved to have been a dancer.
What was your last dream about:
Amber: A lightly attended conference for modern automatons and slightly boxier, old school automatons who felt they were being made irrelevant.
Erin: I don’t remember, so I’ll leave this one up to Amber. Hers are always radical and sometimes even become songs or entire records.
