november S, 2004 » J u
MUSIC
out
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s t UUt 33
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Magnetic personality
Stephin Merritt chooses his words carefully
BY C O R l TARATOOT
I
PHOTO BY CHRIS BUCK
t’s the summer of 2004, and I can’t shake
the Magnetic Fields’ new record, i.
Hopefully his Portland audience will receive
a warmer welcome than this. Maybe M erritt’s
ukulele will break the tension.
I dive into the heart of the awkwardness.
I want to. 1 want to sneer at the narcis
“You’ve given some interviews,” I ask, “that
sism of the lowercase first-person album
have made you seem grumpier than maybe you
title, or berate Stephin Merritt (the hand’s pri
are. Do you think th at’s true?” His response:
mary songwriter and singer) for his incessant
“I’ve given some interviews with really difficult
indulgence in ironic, deep-throated romanti
journalists.” I wait out the awkward pause.
cism. 1 beg my girlfriend to take i out of the
“Not all music journalists are awful and stupid.
C D player, hut she loves it.
They’re not stupid. Well, obviously some of
Loves it.
them are. Um. But they live with their own
W ouldn’t you think that a musician who
agendas. I’ve l>cen a music journalist.”
titled his last record 69 Love Stmgs— and meant
Progress! Six sentences. Spider sense says
it— would he wrung dry? For god’s sake,
Merritt is a prolific musician (y’know, with
69 Love Songs. A literate, theatrical, three-disc
the, uh, 69 and all). In addition to the Mag
dissertation on one m an’s queer heart (via
netic Fields, he’s performed and recorded
Morrissey, New Order and Irving Berlin). Deli
as/with the 6ths, the G othic Archies and
cious masochism for broken lovers. A nd i— the
Future Bible Heroes. But rock
band’s seventh record— is more where that
journalism? (A quick Google
search finds M erritt’s byline
inside The Neic York Times.
Underachiever.)
So Merritt begins to detail
how his writing life extends
beyond the realm of Magnetic
Fields records. He talks about
his film scores. There’s Eban
and Charley, a gay intergenera-
tional film directed by PDX
resident James Bolton. The
soundtrack to Pieces of April,
an indie shot digitally by Peter
Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert
Grape), consists of Magnetic
Fields outtakes, plus one Mer
ritt original.
Then there’s the sting-
writer’s experimental produc
tion of the Ming Dynasty
opera Peach Blossom Fan, the
commissioned opera on Hans
Christian Andersen, the film
score for children’s author
Lemony Snicket and a new
6ths album (rumored to be
tracks for 1960s Andy Warhol
screen tests).
Stephin M erritt (second from left) also composes film music,
So, yeah, Stephin Merritt
including the score for 2 0 0 0 ’s Eban and Charley, which was
is busy. But listening to him, it
shot in Oregon
becomes clear that his impa
came from: 14 indie-rock show tunes about
tience with extraneous information (like, say,
love gone wrong, 14 more cuts from Merritt’s /
most questions from music journalists) is really
evidence of a single-minded focus on the
sharpened knife, 14 more recordings of his
things h e loves. I ask Merritt my last question,
tobacco-stained baritone.
one th a t’s been nagging at me during the inter
Maybe I’m just hitter because I write one
song every five years, and Stephin Merritt
view: W hat do you enjoy, Stephin? A nd for the
first rime in the course of our conversation,
seems to write one every five minutes. Plus?
Merritt seems happy to answer the question.
H e’s a fantastic writer. T he kind of writer who
makes other writers despise him.
“I enjoy hazel cognac and cigarettes,” says
Merritt. “I enjoy drinking and smoking. I enjoy
And besides, it’s not hard to dislike Merritt.
songwriting. Most of the time I enjoy record
H e’s an infamous pain in the ass— pretentious,
impatient, perhaps unsuited for life in the pub
ing. . .and I’ve been really enjoying doing music
lic eye. (Think of the sullen young Boh Dylan
for plays.”
toying with and eluding the press in the D.A.
So for those of you in attendance Nov. 11
Pennebaker documentary D m t Look Back.)
at the Aladdin, bring Stephin Merritt a snifter
of cognac and a smoke, enjoy the songs, and
Evidence. Catching up with Merritt via
igno^| the rest of it— that extraneous stuff that
phone, he is, initially, the brick wall writers
and publicists whisper about. I ask him how
doesn’t really matter anyway. J H
the tour is going. “It’s just going from airport to
T he M a g n e t ic F ields play 8 p.m. Nov. 11 at
hotel to venue to hotel,” Merritt responds
Aladdin Theater, 3017 S.E. MiIwaukie Ave. Tickets
abruptly. “We don’t get to see anything or do
are $20-$22 from the box office or Ticketmaster.
anything interesting.” (Insert awkward silence.)
A nd do you like the European audiences, 1 ask?
CORI T aratcxtt is a record collector, a PDX-FOP
“Same.” (Insert awkward silence.) Would you
abandon touring altogether if you could? “I’m
Now! organizer, a Wilco stalker and a music writer.
not all that happy to tour." (Silence.)
She can be reached at ctaratnot@comcast.net.
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