Eugene weekly., March 31, 2011, Page 13, Image 13

PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
IN THE ALLEY WITH WARPAINT — JENNY LINDBERG (LEFT),
EMILY KOKAL, THERESA WAYMAN AND STELLA MOZGAWA
EVOLUTIONARY
GRADUALISM
Being longtime Eugene gadabouts,
Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman ask me
to meet the band at Sweet Life, where I fi nd
them surrounded by a throng of family and
friends. The table is a carnage of coffee mugs
and plates sprinkled with crumbs and hunks
of frosting. I ask Kokal and Wayman how it
feels to be home. “I have so much Oregon
pride,” Kokal says. “I love it here. I love
being from here.”
Hang out with Warpaint for any length
of time and you quickly realize that these
women are tight — as in blood-pact tight,
in like Flynn, sisterly, connected. Often this
sort of kinetic synergy can be off-putting for
outsiders, but not so with Warpaint. They’re
not cliquey or condescending. In person, I
found their collective closeness touching.
They exude a sweet-silly charm that belies
the aural spookiness of Warpaint’s music.
“A word or a look can send any of us into
hysterics,” says drummer Stella Mozgawa.
“It really is a band of goofballs. It’s a nice
contrast to how serious the music is. There
really is too much to laugh at.”
It’s not such a cognitive cramp, really, to
contemplate Warpaint as a band of goofballs.
Laughter, after all, is organic, and I can
think of no better way to describe Warpaint
— organic, as in naturally occurring,
alive and additive free, a single organism
sprung among the various elements of its
surroundings. From the ethereal unity of
their sound, to the arc of their success, to
the dynamic interplay that defi nes the band,
Warpaint is a singularly unifi ed organism,
intrinsically greater than the sum of its parts.
“It was really meant to be,” says Wayman
of the band’s current incarnation. “I don’t
really know what that means, but that’s how
it felt.”
Despite all the heated “look what I found”
hollering of the music press, Warpaint is far
from a new band. They formed in 2004, went
through several incarnations — at one point,
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bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg’s sister, Shannyn
Sossamon, was on board — and self-
released a critically acclaimed EP, Exquisite
Corpse, that was re-issued internationally by
Manimal Vinyl in 2008. When Mozgawa
joined the band in late 2009, everything
fi nally fell into place.
Unlike most bands these days, then,
Warpaint was not stamped, sealed and
shrink-wrapped overnight like some
demographically
targeted
commodity
readymade for the kids. Artistically, they’ve
been patient, allowing their sound and their
songs to germinate over time, and the band’s
popularity has been a slow burn. Their
gradual climb to recognition is something
rare, almost extinct in today’s interwebbed
music industry, where opportunity knocks
once and the door slams shut. Instead,
Warpaint’s success follows the model of
such indie pioneers as R.E.M. and the
Replacements. In the DIY lexicon of punk,
ain’t nobody tellin’ Warpaint what to do. The
game is on their terms.
“It’s old school,” bassist Jenny Lindberg
says of Warpaint’s unhurried development.
“I’m happy it’s gotten to that point.”
“There’s a vulnerability about growing
up in public,” says singer/songwriter
Kokal. “You learn how to use that.”
This sense of gradual artistic germination
extends to every aspect of Warpaint’s music.
Often, their songs evolve from extended
jam sessions, with structures and melodies
repeated and repeated until suddenly clicking
into place. “You can feel the conversation is
happening and we’re all communicating,”
says Kokal of such moments. “I don’t
think we have a process of intentional
songwriting.”
At other times, Kokal or Wayman will
come in with a song more or less ready to
go, only to have it deconstructed, reiterated
and revised several times before it feels
right. Constant change is Warpaint’s musical
currency. Wayman refers to this creative
process as a “braid” of ideas involving
every member’s input. “The songwriting
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EUGENE WEEKLY MARCH 31, 2011 13