by Kevin Sparrow

Xiu Xiu

The range of queer artists in music has been burgeoning long since the days of Elton John and Michael Stipe coming out, but the turn of the century has brought a current wave of music with overt queer ideas. An influential part of this movement has been the band Xiu Xiu, formed in 2000 by Jamie Stewart and Ches Smith. Jamie Stewart sat down with us for an interview during their current tour, following the release of Xiu Xiu’s sixth full-length album Women As Lovers.

Cul de sac Magazine: First of all, since you’re in Chicago, what’s the music scene like… for you?

Jamie Stewart: It’s nice. It tends to go well. I mean, obviously there’s a lot of history of hard rock in this town, so people have been really supportive, which is nice.

CM: What are you currently listening to—other bands, other music?

JS: Let’s see… The Swans, Birthday Party, Health, Crystal Castles, Prurient—this band we’re on tour with right now—and a lot of Korean folk music.

CM: I was noticing throughout your songs, there’s a lot of physicality. There’s a lot about touching rather than talking about people’s words. Do you find that what you’re exploring is how it’s hard to express things in words versus communicating through physical [actions]?

JS: I’d never really thought about it that way. I mean, I’m not denying that that seems to be an overriding theme. When I said that I hadn’t thought about it that way, I’m not saying that I don’t think that’s an astute observation. I think I make every attempt not to be analytical about what we’re trying to do. I think it can occasionally run into second-guessing yourself, which I do already. [Laughs]

CM: In that same vein, I was reading a Pitchfork interview; I was wondering, you said something to the effect of there’s nothing fictional in your music. Because currently there’s a wave of people writing from another person’s perspective, [do you think] you’re writing from your own perspective?

JS: Well, I’m coming from my own perspective, and then occasionally, from other people’s perspectives, but it’s never a fictionalized perspective. It’s always describing events that have occurred, either to myself or to someone else, but occasionally, I will sing about it from their position. Not in a fictionalized way.

CM: This was in the same interview. It was about “grown-up music,” so do you think people miss out on the playfulness of your music, or do you think a lot of people get it?

JS: Oh, I think some people get it. Well, I can only presume, but people bring it up on occasion, so I think so.

CM: How much influence do you have over your videos? I was just watching “Master of the Bump” today, so I didn’t know how much you have influence over your videos or if that’s out there?

JS: It depends on the video. That one, the people who did it made completely of their own accord. And some of them I’ve been really involved in. I kind of like on occasion being completely surprised by it in the end. The people who made it, one of them is an old friend of mine, so I knew he would do a good job on it. He would be coming from an interesting place with it, so it was easy to completely surrender control.

CM: Do you feel you make statements in your music to a queer community, or do you feel that queer people respond to the personal statements that you’re making?

JS: Maybe both. We’re just trying to be a band that is about a certain set of actual people’s lives, and some of those people are queer. I think in a both direct and indirect way it addresses the queer community, insofar as being completely open about it directly, but indirectly, the stories are just about particular lives that happen to be queer. We’re not overtly trying to be a queer band but because it’s about actual people, we’re not trying to avoid that… either.

CM: Have you been able to be more open or less open lyrically as your music [output] has increased?

JS: Interestingly, it’s gotten to be a little more complicated to be more open as we’ve gotten to be slightly better known. I didn’t think anybody I knew was paying any attention, so I could write specific people’s names. Now, I have to be a little bit more careful about it.

CM: How has gender influenced your music? There seem to be a lot of themes of sexual identity or gender identity throughout.

JS: Gender identity is something that I’ve really struggled with most of my adult life, so it certainly comes up in a lot of the songs. The idea of gender fluidity is really interesting to me, along with a lot of people who end up as topics in the songs. It influences things—in some instances I would say—fundamentally.

CM: Finally, do you think there’s a range of queer ideas explored in your music?

JS: [Laughs] No. I mean, only because it’s not really about queer identity in a theoretical or general way. It’s about particular queer identities of specific people. The songs are probably about five or six different queer people, not really the entire breadth of the queer community, so I guess it’s not really broad. [Laughs]. I’m not trying to be broad… we’re pointedly trying to be specific about who we write about. It’s about their experiences and some of my own.