Making Shapes With Mary Timony

By: Raymond Cummings

Sunday July 15, 2007

"I'm pretty much a full-time guitar teacher, and I really love it."
For indie-rock acolytes of a certain age, Mary Timony's name carries a lot of weight, even today. Over a siren-like string of EPs and albums, the pixie-sized, prism-voiced former Helium front woman led that trio through myriad stylistic permutations - sweetened art-rock skronk, prog expansiveness, medieval-minded merriment - before launching a solo career that found her, at first, dialing down the bombastic witchery before toning her tunes back up into tough, almost on-offense rock. Timony took a little time out from touring to promote her new The Shapes We Make to discuss the new record, her guitar teaching career, and William Shatner.

Static Multimedia: What inspired you to title the new record The Shapes We Make, and why'd you go with "The Mary Timony Band" instead of "Mary Timony" this time around? Did you entertain adopting a new band name?

Mary Timony: We did think about using a new band name. We all talked about it, and finally decided to use "The Mary Timony Band." It was much more collaborative in terms of arranging and writing the songs. We really function as more of a band now, with all members playing a very important role [Timony sings and plays guitar and keyboards, while Chad Molter handles bass and Devin Ocampo drums].

What instruments do you tend to write on? Do you find that you simply sit down and write songs, or do they sort of arrive in pieces?

MT: I usually start with either a guitar melody, or chords, or a piano melody and chords. Then I add a vocal melody. Usually, I write one part of the song first, then a few days later I'll add more parts.

Autoclave, Helium, Green 4, your solo career - you've been a touring/recording artist for well over a decade now. Does the writing-release-tour-interviews cycle get easier as the years pass? Do you ever think 'I'd totally rather be doing something else musically all the time'? I think I read somewhere that you'd done some scoring or composing work recently in addition to giving guitar lessons.

MT: I'm pretty much a full-time guitar teacher, and I really love it. I teach mostly kids from ages 5 to 14. They are all wonderful people, and I get a lot out of teaching them. It's been a really great thing for me to do. The recording records/tour cycle has gotten easier for me, I think. I feel a lot less pressure than I used to.

Which series of books/films do you prefer, and why: Harry Potter vs. The Lord of the Rings?

MT: I read some of the Harry Potter books a long time ago, and I only read The Hobbit, not The Lord of the Rings [books]. I can't say I have a preference for either/or.

Your songwriting seems to be turning more distinctly political and less fantastic, not to mention post-Golden Dove - more muscular; was this a conscious decision, or a byproduct of re-settling in the D.C. area?

MT: I think it was a natural progression, and also had to do with moving back to D.C. Also, the people who are in the band now are big influences.

Select the lesser-of-two-evils "Supreme Court Minister": Justice Alito or Justice Roberts?

MT: God, I'm sorry...I don't like either, I guess.

Do you ever listen to your old Helium songs, or keep in touch with your former band mates? What're they up to these days?

MT: Ash lives on a farm in North Carolina and has a lot of animals - chickens and ducks and goats. Shawn is still in Boston. I think they are doing well.

What was it like filming that commercial with William Shatner? He's got a weird sort of ubiquity where he seems to be everywhere in films and ads and on TV, yet he remains under the radar in a sense because he's almost part of the scenery. Is it strange to see his face and think "I met that guy once"?

MT: It was a riot to do that commercial! I don't think I talked to him that day; he was kind of surrounded my his assistants, and not around very much. I don't feel much of a connection to him, other than "there's that dude who I saw on that commercial shoot that day."

The last time I interviewed you, in 2002, Circulatory System's epymonous debut was your favorite CD. What act(s) do you find yourself gravitating towards these days, live or on record?

MT: Wow, that's right. I haven't been listening to much music these days, but I do really like the new Battles record, the new Marnie Stern record, and I've been getting into classical guitar more.