Pin Me Down

Named after a text message from Russell to Milena, Pin Me Down is compromised of Russell Lissack & Milena Mépris. Based out of New York and London, they mix in a variety of influences to get their futuristic mesh of electronica-crashing-into-pop sounds. Here, Milena gives us a little taste of Pin Me Down.


1. How did the band come about and was there an instant direction you both knew you wanted the sound to be headed?

Milena Mépris: I met Russell when my former band Black Moustache opened up for Bloc Party in New York. He shared my amp for the show, so we met as a result and hit it off immediately. He saw my band’s set and liked my playing and pink Gibson SG guitar, so we became friends from there. We started sending songs we liked back and forth, and then some of our own music, so the next natural step was to collaborate on something… Initally we just played Weezer songs, but the first 2 songs we ever wrote actually made it on to our record. It was pretty amazing! Russell liked my voice and exposed me to a lot the 80s stuff he’d grown up with, like Cyndi Lauper and New Order. I already liked artists like Madonna and Prince, but we went in a naturally more pop direction, I guess because both of our main bands were heavier.


2. Being based in different cities, how do you work on the songs and does that method have its advantages?

Initially it was difficult because we’d record everything on my digital 8-track which was hard to do since Russell was rarely in NYC, but then we both got laptops and learned how to use ProTools and that allowed Russell to record tracks wherever in the world he was and he’d email his ideas to me to write to. It was a long process but also quite exciting to receive new songs in your email inbox each morning… it was almost like we were communicating in a language that we only had access too. As the songs progressed and matured, we decide we wanted to record them properly and share them with our friends.


3. Coming from different bands, how do you approach this project differently, if at all?

For me, I see Pin Me Down in part as routed in fantasy. I can be completely over the top with this band and chose not to take myself seriously. One of our main objectives was to make sure that we had fun and that people had a blast listening to the songs. I think we can naturally mesh a lot of genres because of different influences Russell and I individually have, and then we bounce off of ideas/references we have in common. I think we can incorporate unreal images into our sound. My stage get-up will reflect this…. I feel bad for the boys, they have to wear jeans and t-shirts…boring.


4. What have been some influences for this band and influences that you had before the band started?

For PMD, the influences are Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush, Madonna, Prince, New Order, Depeche Mode, Weezer. Individually we like different things. Russell loves the Smiths, Radiohead and Suede, whereas I am coming from the 60s and the 90s, so anything by the Beatles, the Zombies, or Nirvana floats my boat.


5. Can you describe the band in a sentence?

Ummmm how about this… I’m being creative Imagine the girliest rock warrior ever throwing herself off a cliff but instead of crashing, she lands on a cloud made of glitter….and levitates.


6. I heard that Milena was one of the two female guitarists used as the basis for the girl guitar player character in the Rock Band video game...how was it being involved with that?

Yeah, Rock Band was a fun experience, and a big work out too. I had to audition for the part and thrash around with a guitar. When we actually taped it, they put me in this black, super tight body suit that had silver sensors all over it. They put sensors everywhere from my face, to my hair, to my shoes, to my guitar, and these sensors were how they captured my movements. The game is interesting because the movements we did corresponded to set timings – a metronome at several different speeds that work for all the songs, surprisingly not the specific songs in the game. You’d be surprised how much energy is required. They’d let me rock out for a minute or two and throw myself on to gymnastic mats and jump around with a guitar and after a little bit later I’d be out of breath and covered with sweat. All the really girly movements are mine. It was pretty funny to see the footage of my rocking sessions back because they’re really quite feminine.


8. The first single will be out in May as well as some European tour dates; will there be an album released shortly after and any additional dates to follow?

We’re taking it one step at a time, releasing the first single “Cryptic” and its remixes in June, launching the PMD live show, playing our first UK dates in May and during all of this we’re in the midst of making plans for our next single and album.


9. Besides anything music related, what do you look forward to doing when you get the chance/time for it?

I am sort of a workaholic. I recently realized that there is very little time when I’m not doing music-related things, but then again, that comes with being a “musician,” and it’s the life I chose to pursue. That said, I love to stay in and watch foreign films and go to art galleries, enjoy nice weather, drink frozen margaritas with my friends in the summer, play with animals, travel, cook, rummage through thrift store bargain bins for my newest, craziest stage costume, try to take a day off every week.


10. What are some bands you are currently listening to?

Umm.. I am into Queens of the Stoneage, Spoon, Tegan and Sara, Mew, The Duke Spirit, Emily Haines (solo) and her work with Metric, Kings of Leon, anything Jack White does.

Some old favourites/favourite records? Russell and I love Prince Purple Rain, 1999, Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream and Gish, Radiohead Kid A. I am a huge Nirvana and Hole fan. I love David Bowie, Patti Smith, Dylan Bringing It All Back Home, Rolling Stones, the first two Pretenders records.

Anything you're looking forward to being released? I am a huge Secret Machines fan, so I am looking forward to hearing their new record also record #4 by Kings of Leon and the new My Morning Jacket too. THE NEW WEEZER ALBUM too.

Last cd/vinyl/digital purchased? The new Breeders record

Last movie and/or show you saw? Movie: Lust, Caution by Ang Lee – absolutely amazing!



myspace.com/pinmedown

The Stills

The Stills, made up of Tim Fletcher - vocals/guitar, Dave Hamelin - vocals/guitar, Liam O'Neil - keys, Olivier Corbeil - bass, and Julien Blais - drums; are a band from Montreal, who are set to release their third lp very soon (august 19th). Tim took some time out in the midst of mixing and mastering of the album to share some info. on some topics revolving around Montreal and The Stills.


1. What is the meaning behind the band name; was it something that sounded timeless, and does the meaning change for you from time to time? Were there any other names considered? Are all the band members from Montreal?

The name The Stills was chosen for us by a friend who was a small star of the New Ethiopian Cinema in the late 1980s. He got into a pretty heavy scene though, in New York City, and died pretty young. But he loved movies, especially American Film Noir of the 50's, maybe more than we loved him. And so I suppose the meaning is constantly shifting in accordance to what every frozen moment that is significant to us feels like. But then, we are all from here, except for Julien who was born in the far north of the province of Quebec, the son of a lighthouse owner on a small island in the St. Lawrence River, where the water is brackish and filled with royal blue ice.


2. Having recorded a couple tracks in French, do you prefer to record in English or French? Would you consider doing a whole album in French? Is there a difference when it comes to actually playing in either language?

There is no difference in playing songs in French. The only one we perform at this time is Retour Á Vega. It is a song composed by our very close friends Pierre-Alain Faucon and Felix Trenton Trenton, de Chinatown. We might consider an album in French - but it's irrelevant because it will never happen. So, no. And a moving song is just that in any language.


3. In between the first and second records, there was the lineup shift; with the original guitarist leaving and Dave switching from drums to guitar, what was the decision for Dave to do so instead of finding a new guitar player?

It was always meant to happen, we simply had no man or woman to bash drums mad in the beginning, and now we have a hot-blooded son-of-a lighthouse-owner who acts likes he was born and raised in the jungle by banshee cannibals, and smashes like he was in Hell.


4. Comparing the first two records, they do seem different, but after a few listens, they sound relatively similar in a good way; as Dave had mentioned -playing the songs live from the 2nd record, they sounded as if they could have been on the first... Was there something(s) in particular from the first record that you tried to consciously stray from and avoid? And is there a song you don't like performing?

We never try to avoid or stray from our path. No artist ever does. You go with what comes to move you, with what presents itself to you. We place flagpoles where we were meant to, and you never know where that will be. Now we will have three, and they will only begin to delineate our territory. The world is getting too small, you have to mark it beyond your share and further.


5. How has being on a tight knit label such as Arts & Crafts, differed from your previous label?

It hasn't differed greatly at all. Arts&Crafts is composed of people so close to us as to have been already considered family before the signing. Vice Records is also family to us, and we will always love them and be thankful for the opportunities and support they provided us. We've been excessively lucky with both through times of light and times of darkness.


6. Did you take a new or different approach going in to record the third record, or even before actually going into the studio? Has the writing process been different for this record as well?

Again, you can't do anything else than take a different approach, since everything changes. It will always be that way. This album came during travels separately and then fully crafted together wherever we were given instruments and the room to do it. Wherever we happened to be, whatever substances were native.


7. Were you guys listening to certain bands/sounds/etc. for inspiration? And who has been a steady inspiration?

It's always shifting, it's always moving, always melodies and moods here and there, in your head, people bring us back tapes of Malaysian radio stations, Singapore, etc.. full of crazy kids making weird songs and sounds, rich, poor, seriously. Everything at the end is hard to make out through static but think about how much is actually in there.


8. What is the biggest difference to you on the upcoming record? And how do you see it being perceived, or is that important at all, to some extent?

Certain angers and weird drives to it that have become more+more prominent. What you go through always shows up in what you create, can't really help it, even if you try to run the record sounds like what you run from. It doesn't matter what you do, it will always shift. So then we make this for ourselves, but to show others.


9. What's your favourite city or venue to play in? Do you have suggestions on where to check out while visiting Montreal?

You can find something amazing anywhere. Seriously anywhere. I bet some people love playing to their people in Baghdad Hell, and I bet those people love hearing them back, in bombed out nothing-fucked backyards. That's hope, and that is good. Istanbul, very amazing. Mount Fuji, Jyukai woods, magnetic poles reversed, lots of sun-blocking-sheet cults, suicides, lost Mastercards, old girlfriends in there. In Montreal, find some friends and go do mushrooms in Parc Lafontaine and tell me that wasn't Jean Leloup you saw drunk on the little island there in the middle. Singing songs asleep.


10. What are some bands you are currently listening to? Some old favourites/favourite records? Anything you're looking forward to being released? Last cd/vinyl/digital purchased? Last movie and/or show you saw?

Current hearings: Ethiopiques. Dice The Boss. The Eternals. Lola Vs. Powerman. Looking forward to new Sam Roberts album yes.
Last album purchased = GZA The Genius, Liquid Swords.
Last movie seen: Chungking Express, fucking genius beautiful, and Apocalypse Now Redux, again, best movie ever. But Chungking Express, go watch it!



myspace.com/thestills