I have been listening to Sondre Lerche’s music for over ten years, which is a very long time for me. Since 2001, Sondre has released eight diverse, genre-spanning albums, including the jazz-inspired Duper Sessions, and two film soundtracks, including a haunting score for The Sleepwalker, a 2014 film directed by his recent ex-wife Mona Fastvold and starring Christopher Abbott (Charlie on Girls). I have seen him perform at The Fillmore, Swedish American Hall (RIP), Great American Music Hall, Bimbo’s, and a handful of places in Austin, Texas. I have seen him perform solo, with a full band, and everything in between; whatever the configuration, he always impresses with his distinct voice and shredding guitar.

Sondre’s latest album, Please, dropped a few weeks ago. Please was written in the aftermath of his divorce with Fastvold, and with it, he reinvents himself again. The album’s first single, “Bad Law,” was one of my top summer jams, combining a super charismatic dance riff with chunks of distorted guitar.

This Thursday, Sondre Lerche is playing at The Independent. I had the pleasure of chatting with Sondre about his record, upcoming tour, the color of his music, the idea of guilty pleasures, and why San Francisco is his favorite city in America.

MM: Tell us a little bit about your newest record, Please. I read that it was heavily inspired by your recent divorce. What was your process like? How was it conceived?

SL: I started out wanting to free myself from the regular recording cycle. I just wanted to do one song at a time, to be able to record instantaneously and enter into collaborations without having to carry the weight of the whole record. I just wanted to open up a bit. I usually write really thorough songs that limit what you can do in the studio, so I tried to open myself up to surprise, to surprising myself. There was a lot of music I was listening to that I realized comes out of a completely different process, and I was curious about what that is. So that’s how it started, and as I wrote more and more songs, I thought I knew what the record was about. And then all this stuff happened in my private life, that just forced me to reevaluate a lot of things. One of them was what this record was about; all of these other songs just started coming. I realized that certain things were more urgent than others, and the album just changed. I think it came out of the necessity of ventilating and trying to find reason in what is happening to you. And the studio is just the perfect place to figure out stuff, to get it out. I guess it’s a cliché, but it turns out it’s real.

MM: The first song on the record, “Bad Law,” is such a great dance song, despite being quite dark lyrically. What is that song about?

SL: It’s a song that took a lot of time to write. It started with that riff, and then I recorded the bass and drums, which was new – I usually start out with guitar. I had this idea of the sort of paranoia you feel when you pass through customs. As a Norwegian flying into the States, even though I now have a green card and have nothing to hide, I always feel a certain paranoia. So I wanted to play around with that ritual, where you feel so watched and pressured, that in the end you started doubting yourself, and maybe you do have something to hide. Maybe that’s how the police get people to confess things that they didn’t do. In the end, you’re just so worn down. It felt like a reasonable metaphor in the context of the record and everything else.

MM: And what happened to the protagonist in that song? I couldn’t tell if he had murdered his lover or if it was an accident.

SL: That’s a good question! I’m not sure how that guy is doing. In the first verse, it’s like he’s passing through a checkpoint, but in the second verse, I feel we’ve entered into a courtroom-type situation, and I’m not sure what’s happened in between. I think he ends up confessing to these things, and maybe he did do some of them, but for some of them, it was just easier to confess. It’s like in an argument, where you can’t really win, and it’s so bad and dark and the subtext is so heavy, and you end up saying, okay, you’re right, I guess I am that way. In the end, it’s easier to give up. But maybe it was all a bad dream.

MM: Do you think there’s a fundamental difference in the sound of this record, in contrast to your past work?

SL: It’s more stylistically and rhythmically concise. Instead of starting with chords or melodies, I started with rhythms and built the songs from there. There’s more collaboration, a wider spectrum of sound. And I didn’t want subtlety, I wanted things to be clear. The songs have a distinctive, important color.

MM: If this album was a color, what do you think it would be?

SL: To me it feels multicolored, like all of the colors of the rainbow. My last album felt more like earth tones, dark greens and browns, and Two Way Monologue is sort of beige.

MM: Yeah, “Bad Law” especially sounds like an explosion of colors to me! You’ve experimented with so many musical genres throughout your career. Duper Sessions comes to mind with its jazz influence, and Phantom Punch was a heavier rock album, and the score you composed for The Sleepwalker was something else entirely. Do you usually have a concept in mind for how you want something to sound? How does that usually come about?

SL: It’s usually informed by what I’m into or curious about at the time. It feels more compelling to explore things that are new to me. This album represents a curiosity with a more physical, rhythmic pattern that you can dance to. It ended up being half that you should dance to, half that you should cry yourself to sleep with. It was very inspiring to do The Sleepwalker soundtrack, because it was so freeing to come up with music for the kind of atmosphere that the film demanded. It was something I had done before [Sondre also composed the score to Dan in Real Life], but something that really compelled me. I learned a lot of from that, and a lot of that stuff is parallel to the recording of this album.

MM: What’s the plan for your tour? Are you playing solo or with a band? Will you be playing with the Faces Down?

SL: I have a new band. I’m going to tour with my drummer Dave, who is on most of the record, and a bass player who plays on a lot of the record; they’re both incredible musicians. The Faces Down don’t tour anymore. Kato, the guitar player in the Faces Down, produced a bunch of the songs on this record, and we’ve worked a lot together. But the Faces Down are ten years older than me, so they’ve reached a time in their lives where they don’t want to travel so much, but they’re in the studio a lot. But it feels good to have a new band. I’ve lived in New York for awhile, so I have a crew here too.

MM: Do you have any guilty pleasure listens this year?

SL: I guess I don’t like that term, guilty pleasure. I feel that in music, above all, if something gives you pleasure, you should not feel bad about it. But of course I understand the association, but it implies that you should feel bad for your taste and it classifies something as less worthy. I like to think that any music that gives you pleasure is good for you and that you should be proud of it. Just the last week, I had a friend visit, and he was really into techno. And that’s something I hadn’t really explored before, so I went with him to a lot of techno clubs. And it was so much fun, I was just completely hypnotized. But I wouldn’t call it a guilty pleasure, a lot of people are very serious about their techno.

MM: I was just thinking in terms of, you’ve covered Beyonce before, and while I don’t personally think of her as a guilty pleasure…

SL: Yeah, and I guess a guilty pleasure is also associated with… obviously I’m a music snob, I’m so particular about things I care about, so I know my taste can be pretty judgmental, although I try to remain open. I guess the term guilty pleasure is also often associated with extremely popular, commercial, accessible music, and I think there’s nothing better than the times when mainstream music intersects with my own taste. It happens rarely, but when it does, in the case of Beyonce and Rihanna, people who are really brilliant pop stars who have really wonderful songs, when that intersects with even a snob like me, I am really gracious. It makes me feel part of the musical common space of the world.

MM: Is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing or doing while you’re in San Francisco?

SL: San Francisco is my favorite city in America, I gotta say. It’s a place that I’d like to live. But it’s so far away from Europe, and it’s pretty expensive, so I don’t know, but I hope someday to live there for awhile. I’m forever fascinated with San Francisco because of the association with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and also The Birds; one time I went to Bodega Bay just to see where The Birds was filmed. So I have a fascination with San Francisco that’s very physical and magical. I look forward to being in San Francisco again, I hope I have some time to walk around and enjoy myself. And I hope people will want to come out to the show. I think we’re gonna make people dance this time. And then we’re gonna break them down and make them cry, and then we’re gonna make them dance again.

See him live this Thursday:

Sondre Lerche, TEEN
The Independent
October 9, 2014
8pm, $15 (21+)

When Brittany and I saw the announcement for PianoFight’s production of Roughin’ It III: Theater. On. The. Rocks that is being performed in a “forest setting where audiences, who are encouraged to pack a picnic and BYO-Libations, will enjoy fresh BBQ, cold beer and award-winning theater, comedy, music and dance while being taken on a journey into the woods and beyond” we were more than intrigued. Since it’s one night only we wanted to get the DL from the show’s producer Emma Rose Shelton before we attended to get a feel for what we are getting ourselves into.

Katie: So this show is made up of many pieces, how was that process?

Emma: We reached out beyond the San Francisco community and got a ton of submissions, close to 100 submissions from all over the US. It was crazy. Way more than we had anticipated. We read a bunch of scripts. We gave everyone specifications of what the property had – there’s a well, a swimming pool, and a chicken coop – these are things you can use to your advantage and please do. And so writers were able to tailor pieces to that.

K: Can you sum up the experience for us?

E: This year we have 8 pieces in the show. We take you around the property where we have all these short plays in site specific locations. Its a really, really good time and a very different experience than being in a black box in San Francisco. It has had its challenges and its benefits but its one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had at this theatre company thus far. One of my favorites.

Brittany: Are most of the plays comedies or is it a mixed bag?

E: Definitely a mixed bag. This year happens to have 3 movement based pieces and some dance which we’ve had a little bit in years past but not as much as this year. In general PianoFight is known for our sketch comedy since we have the two groups Mission Control and Chardonnay that produce shows on a regular basis. We have a piece in the show by Chardonnay, so there are some strong comedic pieces but definitely a mixed bag.

K: How long is the show?

E: It will be about 2 hours and sometimes it runs a bit over. Each piece ranges from 3-15 minutes, there’s a pretty wide range.

B: Anything special people need to know?

E: Definitely wear layers and shoes you can walk in. And be prepared to move around a little bit more than years past, but other than that we aren’t asking people to take a serious hike into the wilderness but we will have people walk around the property a little bit and up a little hill, experiencing different terrains.

K: How many people will you be expecting?

E: 200 people is our cap, any more than that and it’s challenging to hear [the actors], but when you are outdoors it really doesn’t feel like that many people. It’s an adventure. The shuttle to the venue is also part of the adventure. We can fit 49 and it gives people a time to connect and bond and have a whole added experience.

B: Do the pieces kind of lead into each other, or is it more like a piece ends and we move on to another?

E: There will be guides this year and there may be some transitions that lead into each other but it mostly it will be that a piece will end and a guide will show you to the next piece. There isn’t a storyline for the whole show, each piece is different.

B: When should people arrive?

E: We encourage everyone to come early and picnic. The doors open at 5pm. We will have a solid BBQ option so if you wanted to eat a full dinner you will be able to.

B: Why should people go? What makes this unique?

E: I think PianoFight in general tends not to attract your typical theater going audience and this show is very much an extension of that. It takes you out of San Francisco and into an environment that is completely different from what you are used to and you can still see work that is timely and relevant. The majority of the pieces were written by people under 30 about current, relatable topics.

K: Why only one night?

E: It makes it that much more more special.

Interested? You can check out Roughin’ It III: Theater. On. The. Rocks. Saturday, September 6th, 2014 at the Paradise Healing Center, located at 9 Alamo Way, Lagunitas, CA 94938.

Shuttles for PianoFight’s Roughin’ It III depart 4pm at 54 Mint Plaza in downtown San Francisco for the 6:00pm show time. There are half price tickets available on Goldstar which will surely go quickly. Once they do, you can purchase tickets at pianofight.com that start at $50 GA and $70 GA w/ Shuttle Ride. (NOTE: Shuttle Rides are 21-and-over with valid ID).

Riding along with an ambulance for the night. Great night shots, and nice profiles of the EMTs:

Kind of has a perfect opening line:

A concert in a backyard on Capp Street:

Interview with the founder of the Bicycle Film Festival.

Handy Muni tips:

Pondering some of the many facets of the current states of art and culture in SF:

Lastly, an interview I did with my friend Antonio Elmo Mims, on 31 years in Bayview Hunters Point and why he’s running for Mayor of San Francisco:

A few days after Brittany attended a Jazzy-Hip-Hop dance class at City Dance, a review request came across the DT&D desk (aka email) for a new musical, Mr. Irresistible, by D’Arcy Drollinger & Christopher Winslow. Still sore from all the booty-popping, Brittany recognized D’Arcy’s name as her fabulous dance instructor. We decided this would be the perfect opportunity to do a pre-show chat and get our groove on. So we donned our spandex and leg warmers, and went to D’Arcy’s Sunday Skool Sexitude dance class. After an hour and a half of sexitudeiness, we sat down with D’Arcy to get the scoop on his new show Mr. Irresistible that opens tonight!

Brittany: How did Mr. Irresistible come to be?

D’Arcy Drollinger: When I first moved to New York, I had a dare going with my friend. She was going to write a novel in 45 days, and I was going to write a full musical in 45 days, and so that’s actually when I started writing Mr. Irresistible, early in ’98. Flash forward to about a year ago, I had been talking with the artistic director at ODC, and I told her about this show I had never completed, and she liked the idea, so I began an artist residency at ODC. At the time I was also working on a different piece with Christopher Winslow, the composer of this show, a musical parody of Flowers in the Attic. So I asked him if he wanted to take a break from that and work on Mr. Irresistible. We spent six months tearing apart the old show, rewriting the songs and putting it back together. After readings at ODC, La Mama offered us a two week workshop in New York, which sold out, then we got a letter from SFAC that we got a seed grant to produce the show here and add in a lot more of the video elements, so we started looking for a theater.

Katie: Tell us a little about the show.

D’Arcy: This show starts as a real traditional musical, and then about ⅓ the way through it, it turns into a horror musical, when Mr. Irresistible starts killing everyone because he doesn’t understand metaphor. At the end, it turns into The Terminator, an action thriller with laser fights. It gets a little dark and heavy, but it’s still a happy ending.

K: I hate to be the person who asks this, but are there “concessions”?

D’Arcy: There are drinks, people can can buy booze before the show, and during intermission. Unfortunately it can’t come into the theater.

B: You’ve worked and lived in NY and SF, but made SF your homebase, how’s it working out for you?  Is this a viable place to make a career as an actor or artist?

D’Arcy: I was born in San Francisco, and then in junior high we moved to Nevada City, so I grew up there. I came back to SF for college at SF State, then a few years after college I was transferred to New York for work. New York is such an industry. I was missing the lifestyle here. The food, the mellow pace. I love New York, especially for the theater and the dance, but it has been better for me to be a Bay Area local artist. I have a community here that rallies around what I do. I think that’s the great thing about San Francisco audiences, they really rally around things. I’ve been making a decent living here making theater, which is CRAZY. If I didn’t know anybody here, I don’t think this would be the first place I would come to do theater. As I’m sure you know, in the last couple years this place has become so expensive and so many small venues have had to close. But there’s a lot of community support that’s hard to get like somewhere in New York.

K: What do you think about the future of theater and arts in San Francisco?

D’Arcy: I wish places like Google and Twitter would invest in more nightlife experiences for people that work for them that aren’t just bars. To keep this as a first class city we can’t destroy the downtown underground arts scene, and only have the big touring shows and a bunch of bars and nothing in between. People want hip stuff to do. I did a lot to make Rebel into a cabaret space, because there wasn’t anything like that, and now someone bought the building and is turning it into condos. I’m working very hard with some partners to create a cabaret space within a bar, where we can have a little more security knowing the building won’t be sold out from under us. But we need more viable nightlife, and a place for smaller productions.

B: What is your hope for Mr. Irresistible next?

D’Arcy: I’ve done nine musicals, and in a way this feels like my most commercial venture. It’s wacky, it has the love story, the thriller aspect, you’ve got your gay characters, you’ve got your drag queens, you’ve got Joey the Exterminator who the straight guys can identify with, it’s got the Sci-Fi aspect so all the Sci-Fi nerds can geek out on that. I could see this being a fun regional show. Start with a bigger production here, and then tour it, but with San Francisco roots. I can’t wait to show it to everyone. I feel so fortunate.

Mr. Irresistible runs June 4 – 8, 2014, Wednesday – Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 7:00 pm at the Alcazar Theatre (650 Geary St. in SF). Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased on the Mr. Irresistible eventbrite page. There are also half priced tickets available on Goldstar. Even if you can’t make it out to this show, make sure to check out one of D’Arcy’s incredibly fun sex-positive dance classes, or another one of his many upcoming shows.

Show love for your Bay Area actors, and do your part to keep SF a first-class arts city.

The touring show now playing at The Orpheum stars Scott Willis as Bernadette, the Terrance Stamp character. Read their interview from El Rio after the jump, and their review of the show next week.

[Scott as Scott, by Katie]

[Scott, center, as Bernadette via SHN]

We love talking theatre over drinks, so when the folks at SHN offered us the opportunity to sit down with Scott Willis who plays Bernadette, one of the trio of fabulous friends in the upcoming tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert opening at the Orpheum, we of course jumped at the opportunity. Priscilla is a show about drag, so we headed to El Rio, home to one of our favorite Burlesque shows, and Hard French, one of the best queer friendly dance parties in SF, for some pre-show Drama Talk and Drinks.

Scott met us in the back patio in plaid slacks and a black zip up Priscilla: Queen of the Desert track jacket and freshly manicured pink nails. He was extremely friendly and began diving into it without even needing to be prompted – gotta love actors for that. Before we could even ask: What do you think of San Francisco? As he sat he began:

Scott Willis: I absolutely love San Francisco. Almost every tour I’ve done has played here, and I haven’t been in this neighborhood as often as I should have been. I love coming back here. I really thought this is where I wanted to live but I didn’t know any actors that could make a living just doing acting. They all have to have some other kinda job, doing print work on the side or be a waiter or something, and that just wasn’t for me.

[He went on to talk about growing up in the South and living in New York for the past 30 years...we couldn’t fit the entire hour and a half interview here, but it was good]

B: Is there anything that makes you particularly excited about performing Priscilla here?

SW: This is maybe my 5th or 6th tour, and this will be my first time at the Orpheum so that’s exciting. The thing that excites me most about coming back here, is that this city is special. The people are very special. There’s a warmth and there’s an acceptance of one another that’s very rare. Because of that mutual respect you all have for one another, it’s just a beautiful city…San Francisco wasn’t on our schedule for a long time and when it finally came on everyone was like “Oh My God! We’re going to SAN FRANCISCO!”

[Unfortunately, however, his company couldn’t find a hotel to house all the actors in the show so they’re staying in Oakland and commuting in every night to perform. Great timing for a bridge closure. Scott, however, is staying with a friend in Pacific Heights]

K: How’s Priscilla being received across the country? Are there regional differences?

SW: I’ve done a lot of really big, really wonderful shows…But Priscilla, we get a lot of LGBT groups who come to us and are so excited “You’re coming to our town and you’re telling our story.” and we are, and I think it’s wonderful. But for me it’s such a universal story because it’s about three friendships…I’ll start crying…I will…it’s about friendships and taking responsibility…Don’t all of us have two friends who you’d just love to leave everything behind, your husband and your kids, or your work and just go off with them somewhere, anywhere and have a blast.

[Scott did cry, it was sweet]

K: Heck Yes!

SW: The other thing about our show is, unless you’re a white-male, you’re in a minority. Even white males are a minority, they are just the ones to make the rules. Anyway, everybody really just wants to be the same. Women want to get paid the same, gay people want to get married like everyone else. But within our own minorities we look down on each other. Even within the gay community, it’s like “No you have to be wearing leather chaps or you don’t get in here”, and it’s like “Really? But I’m one of you?” Because of the things the three friends go through with one another in the play, and the gradual acceptance of our differences, we all come out in a better place at the end and love each other. That’s a universal thing too.

[At this point the El Rio happy hour was getting happier. A group arrived and sat at the table next to us making themselves heard by their noise level and THC levels - Scott was completely unfazed...gotta love actors for that]

B: What’s made this tour successful?

SW: The first day of rehearsal they told us that we’re not going to shy away from what it’s about…we’re publicizing it for what it is, a big gay show. They were excited about getting the tour and it shows.

[This show takes 9 tour buses to house all the 500+ costumes and the set. The costumes are supposedly amazing, which won the show the 2011 Tony Award for Best Costume Design]

K: What is the typical audience?

SW: Everybody’s there. People with walkers, young people. It’s really surprising. I mean everyone knows the music, you know it, but it’s not really your generation, it’s more my generation. So I knew that would appeal to people. But of course my generation has more hang ups than your generation, so why would they be there in the first place? If you know it’s about drag queens why would many people want to come? Unless you’ve seen the movie. But there are lots of different people, and it’s great.

B: What has surprised you about your experience with Priscilla?

SW: Priscilla has helped me give myself permission to do things I maybe wouldn’t have done. The night before my first audition, I had done all this work. I was going to have to go to a drag call because all the other auditions were over. I’d been working on my arrangement so no pianist could possibly mess me up – If I was going to be in a dress I was going to be in control as much as I possibly could be.

The night before, I shut my computer down and I thought, you can not go to this tomorrow and be bad. If you’re bad you’re gonna look like a guy who just wants to wear a dress, and that’s not what I wanted, I wanted a good job. So I almost backed out, and I thought you know what, you are afraid of being in drag. I knew I couldn’t leave my building in drag because my doorman and my concierge – they love me, but it would change our relationship. So I got a hotel room two blocks away from where I was going to audition. I had scoped out where to walk so I would see the least number of people being midday in a dress in manhattan near Penn Station.

I realized I really was just afraid and I thought “Oh my god, you are 52 years old and you’re afraid of something?” When does that stop? Then I said to myself “Scott, you don’t have to audition tomorrow but you do have to be in a dress.” So I did it! And it was a very positive experience, all the callbacks and everything couldn’t have gone better.

K: Has it changed you in other ways?

SW: I have such a new appreciation for what women have to go through because I have to do it every night…There is so much to do, getting into panty hoes alone is harder than going to the gym. At least for me it is. Then if you have to go to the bathroom, forget about it!
I look a lot like my mom when I’m made up, and back when I had that first audition I finished my makeup and I looked in the mirror and it was like I saw my mother looking back at me. I’ve always had a great appreciation for my mom, but I have even more now I see what women have to go through. And then there’s the heels!

The Verdict: Scott is wonderful! We will see the show tonight and let you know next week if the show is too!

The Drama Talk: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert runs August 21-31 at the SHN Orpheum Theatre. At the moment there are tickets available on Gold Star for $55, Once those are gone, for tickets go to SHN’s site or call 888-746-1799.

The Drinks: Scott, appropriately, had a cosmo. Brittany and Katie defaulted to their usuals: gin and tonic for Brittany, rum and coke for Katie.

I figure if I can still unironically enjoy Biggie’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems,” I can link to a 5-year-old interview with my new favorite sticker artist (via Wooster Collective):

What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: art or sex, but even though I don’t have a job right now, I still don’t seem to do either as much as I’d like.
What is your favorite color?: green or purple or something.
Who (or what) do you love?: idiot art, copyright infringement, music, efficient public transportation, soul sistas, Mary Hopkin, vandalism, my friends, etc. I don’t actually love: fascism, racial profiling, police brutality, prison labor.
What other talent would most like to have? I’d like to be able to interact normally with other people and/or play the piano hella good.

Read on…

(Photo by Rick Audet | Thanks for the tip Gwen!)

(photo by jeffgage)