Matteah Baim

Matteah Baim speaks with a quiet, lilting voice and punctuates her sentences with unexpected, thoughtful pauses that make even the most banal sentence seem imbued with profound meaning. Which is to say, Baim is a lot like her music. Recently profiled in Interview Magazine as one of five Brooklyn-based musicians who are “transforming art rock into a powerful art form,” the modest 30-year-old Minnesotan native seems she’d be more at home as part of a community of like-minded souls, rather than out front, spearheading an art movement. Her modesty belies an incredible passion for her craft, and a talent that has been described as “dolorous,” “charming,” “mystical” and “humorous.”

An earlier album produced with her now-defunct soft metal band Metallic Falcons (alongside Sierra Casady of CocoRosie) included collaborations with Devendra Banhart and Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons, whom she befriended at art school in San Francisco. She is currently working on music for several films, and continues to exhibit her visual art. Her latest solo album Laughing Boy involves collaborations with this issue’s curator, Hisham Akira Baroocha , and Robert A. A. Lowe of Lichen and 90 Day Men. Baim, just back from her European tour of Laughing Boy, caught us up on the tour, her vacation plans, and dream hobbies.

How were your european shows?
Really great. I’ve never been to Prague before and the city and show were really amazing. All these really tall, giant men came to the show and they were into it. Some had driven a far distance to see it. It was surprising and exciting.

Audience participation really makes a difference.
Yes, it’s just kind of an energy thing. You can just tell if they’re there or not. And if they’re not — especially if you’re playing quieter music — it’s really hard. The Prague show was great because they were really participating — not singing, but they were vocal and attentive.

Did you bring anyone else to play on tour with you?
I brought Rose Lazar, who’s mostly a visual artist, but she plays music too. She collaborated with me on Laughing Boy. She played the midi-keyboard through a laptop. It was just the two of us.

You collaborated with quite a few people on the album.
Yeah. I did a song with Hisham Bharoocha. I had a feeling one of the songs would be great with him so I flew him out to Chicago where I was recording Laughing Boy and we just worked on it. Everyone I worked with was so naturally right for the part that it wasn’t hard at all. I worked with Robert Lowe on one of the songs as well.

You’ve had a track record for collaborations on the album you made with Metallic Falcons, Desert Doughnut, on which you worked with well-known artists like Antony, and Devendra Banhart. How did you meet them?
Devendra and I were friends from art school and I met Antony through Devendra. Antony contacted him to collaborate on a project, and I got pulled in and we all started to get to know each another. I remember a couple years before I met him, I bought Antony’s first album, and I was like “What is this?” We’d never heard anything like it. And I’ve been touring with him on occasion singing at his performances.

Have you had any bad collaborations?
[Laughs.] Yes, I have had…some. When you’re working so hard with someone and traveling…it brings up everything, like all of your issues. And sometimes, the issues collide…and mostly they work out in the end.

You seem like a very relaxed person.
I try to be.

...which could mean that you’ve got a raging bitch inside ready to burst out!
[Laughs.] Yes! [Shakes her head.] No, not so much.

You started out as a visual artist. Do you find the music and art intersecting at all?
They definitely enhance each other. I find that drawing clears out my head really well for my music in a strange way. And it’ll inform some part of the music. And the music just opens me up in general. And that helps in turn with the drawing. The music just blasts through everything — whereas drawing is more quiet and meditative.

Do you feel like there’s a space where music and visual art can intersect?
Yes, I think so. I think the place where they are made — where really original feelings sometimes come from — are from the same space. It has to come from you — from some sort of quiet place. And they’re both so mysterious as well. Perhaps it’s a mysterious spot where no one really understands. An artist like Bjork is somewhere in there. Somewhere in between.

Do you use your visual art in your musical performances?
Not yet, although in this tour we tried to print some fabrics and try to bring some of our visual world on stage. You know Rob Lowe does that a lot. He brings these really beautiful fabrics with him on stage. I used to do more costuming with my previous band, The Falcons. But right now, not as much as I’d like. I would need more resources for what I really would want to do.

Which is?
I’d like to work with more film, performance, and some visual projection. Costuming would be great.

What kind of costumes would you do?
Right now, I’ve been really into a Coco Chanel sort of idea — you know that “lady” aesthetic? The last idea I had for a costume was this sort of Turkish lady of leisure on some weird plantation, but at work in the fields. It would be like, fancy clothes but very wearable at the same time. Sounds strange.

No, I was thinking Turkish is what made is sound strange.
Yeah, I know. Long tunics with jackets...it’s sort of a weird fantasy. I can’t believe I just said Coco Chanel in an interview, I don’t know why I said that. I guess it was the last collection with these long flowing chiffon skirts with these tight drummer boy jackets…I’m interested in fashion. And the clothes had these beautiful cuffs and collars.

You need a new collaborator — one with sewing skills!
Yes, that would be really great.

Any immediate plans for the future?
Antony was asking what I wanted to do this year, and I said I just want to go swimming like twice in a warm part of the ocean. [Laughs.] That would be cool. And then I can just work. Yeah, two or three times. No, three seems too ambitious — two times. It can keep you going for a long time.

Vacations are underrated.
I think so too. I haven’t had one in like….I can’t remember the last time I had one. I know it’s ridiculous. It would be great. Last time I went to LA to play a show, I did swim. One down, one to go.

When you’re not writing songs or drawing, what do you do?
I like to watch movies and read. Sounds like I’m really boring right now. [Laughs.] My hands are so tired now from doing stuff that they don’t want to do anything.

Though I wish I could say dance. I’ve only gone to a dance class once in my life because Antony asked me to go and it was amazing. It was at the Y, the class was really small, and the teacher was from Jamaica. But it was modern dance. He taught us this crazy routine, and none of us were dancers. We were supposed to do this routine across the floor and I have never been so scared in my life. And the teacher says, “Just as long as you do it with feeling it doesn’t matter.” And then Antony turns around (because he’s going before me) and says “I’m so glad he said that” and he just took off across the floor. It was amazing.

I also wish I was part of some secret club or something. Or just any club. You know those clubs in Brooklyn where the old men go? I’d like to go to one of those. That would be a great hobby. I just want to be part of the club.

But maybe an old ladies club, so you’re not some young thing the old boys have around for looks!
Yeah, that would be better. In San Francisco there’s bar that I used to go to after class; there would always be this group of older ladies drinking brandy at like 5pm, making fun of the bartender, flirting with him and causing trouble. [Laughs.] I would like to be part of that club for sure.