Patience Hodgson of The Grates: The MusicSnobbery.com Interview

As many of you who have read this site, I've made the observation that there are a group of music makers on the scene who make pop music with a childlike sensibility for adults. New Zealand's The Brunettes, Britain's The Go! Team and The Boy Least Likely To make seriously fun music that could have come from a school playground.

From Australia, we have The Grates, three college friends who've made a crackling debut album, The Gravity Won't Get You High. High-energy, infectious hooks and a little naughtiness can be found in The Grates music in songs such as "19 20 20," "Trampoline" and "Science is Golden". You can consider them Australia's No. 1 party band. Lead singer Patience Hodgson is the good time girl you wish you had in your circle of friends, Alana Skyring hits up the drums and John Patterson provides the guitars.

While I couldn't meet up with my old flame Patience while they were last in New York, I called to get caught up her while she was in Los Angeles. In between that, we did this interview, which she said after I post, she would put me in her top 8 on myspace. With that in mind, I would like to welcome her to this space.

So why did we break-up?

Things just happen, you know? When we recorded the song ("Lies Are Much More Fun"), we had in our minds "Grease" crossed with a Dido song. It's about when people are going out with somebody and they are confused by it and they just want to have fun. They don't know if you like them, or they like you.

You know that thing that happens when you start dating somebody when you like them, but they are a bit distant from you, but then they start liking you. Then all of a sudden, they start liking you and you're like, "Uh, whatever. I don't like them that much in the first place." It's sort of like a pendulum of feelings. I read this book called The Passion Trap that just changed my life and it talks all about that feeling.

Then I kind of imagined the song would be sung in a bedroom by Sandra Dee while she's brushing her hair. At the end of the song, I sing "No i can't, No i won't."  So it's kind of like how it would go in a movie like that. It's like, "Done, end of story."

So I don't know why the reason we broke up. It could be because of The Passion Trap and I recommend you go read it.

So this book will explain why I cry myself to sleep at night.

It will. You just have to deal with it. It will be really insightful for you.

Let's face it. Being in a band and being out of the road will do horrible things to relationships. I got this book and everyone in the band read it. It helped everyone. They understood things a lot better.

You see, now I gotta get this book. It could be the first day of the rest of my life after I read it.

There you go. You'll see things in a new way and it will be exciting for you.

It will open doors for me.

Relief will be coming soon, my dear.

I hope you feel the same way.

[Laughs]

I was hoping you can retell the story of how the three of you became friends.

The three of us took a drama course together and we pretended to win the lottery. We did it week in and week out which was very dodgy. We attempted to do things to avoid having to do sports like rocket building, aquarium building and computer building. Of course, I can't remember how to do those things anymore. I guess I can build an aquarium if I had to, but I couldn't tell you anything about it.

So John and Alana came from a really strict school. When they took the drama course, they felt a sense of freedom and they could pretend to win the lottery each week. That's how we became friends.

There was this one time we all went to a movie marathon. There was this bloke sitting right in front of us and he was the biggest asshole from their school. They were really scared of him. I didn't know that he was the scariest guy from their school, which was good. He was being an asshole so I said to him, "Hey, dude. Stop doing that and shut the fuck up." He turned around and said something to me. John and Alana thought I was so cool. The fact that I stood up to him really impressed them.

Then we became pen pals for a bit, then Alana and I moved in together. Then we stopped living together because I went to England. Then the funny thing is that we lived together again while we were making the album and we were doing the same things that used to piss each other off.

You're from Brisbane. What's it like there and is there a community of musicians there?

There is a real tiny community of musicians there, so there is a support group there and sometimes there's not. Let me tell you something about Australians, especially people in Brisbane -- they love a bit of gossip. So they are very gossipy.

Brisbane can be fun, but it only has like 30 bands around. Everyone goes out and basically just sees their friend's band play. It is a really close, tight knit community of bands. Sometimes the bands argue with each other. It's pretty much like the third grade, but I don't really care. I like everyone. You just have to take a step back sometimes and don't get so super involved.

Like in primary school, when you're best friends with somebody and then you are not friends with Sarah Stockey, you're friends with Jessica Hammond. Then Jessica Hammond bitches about you behind your back and you find out about it. So you go run off and cry and find a new best friend. That's pretty much what the Brisbane music scene in like.

At least it's not dull.

That's true. We so far removed from it since we've been touring. I get the tail end of some gossip and I'm like, "Noooooo waaaaaaaayyyy."

How did you come about forming your sound?

We didn't have anything in mind. We just played in a shed and wrote some songs. For us, it's a bit of luck and chance. You just have to be open to being comfortable playing and writing songs in front of each other.

What's funny is that we didn't know dick about sound recording when we made the album ... Oh, wow. Someone just brought us lunch. Thank you. Woo hoo! Awesome. [we pause for a bit so that she get chow down]

When we had to talk Brian Deck, our producer, about sound, it was really hard. Brian would ask, "Well, what do you want your drums to sound like?" We didn't realize how just a little change could make a huge difference in recording.

While we were recording, we had a bunch of movies in mind like Grease, 10 Things I Hate About You, Snow White or Wild Things. Then we thought of the football match in Shrek or the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in Back to the Future. We just thought of movies. It worked out very well for us. It gave us an holistic feeling. Those movies are visual to us and it gave us a sort of guide.

How did you hook up with Brian?

We spoke to quite a bit of producers. When we got to Brian, It just clicked. We enjoyed his sense of humor which was important to us. We wanted to find somebody we could get along with. We loved his work with Ugly Casanova, Modest Mouse and Iron & Wine. You can hear different layers to the music, but it would still be dirty and rough.

What kind of guidance did he give you?

The good thing with him is that we could do anything we wanted to and he was exactly that, a guide. We just did our own thing. If we did something that was shocking, he would say, "Um mm, guys. You might not want to do that." He was there if you needed him and if you didn't, he would be fine with that.

There's a song called "Feels Like Pain" where your voice cracks and sounds imperfect, but I'm sure that was intentional. In the end, it fits the song.

For sure. We all thought that to. It was also the best I could sing that song. It wasn't going to get any better than that.

You don't have any formal training, do you?

No. I've gotten lessons recently in how to keep it so I don't loose it from partying or singing too loud. That's what I'm working on the most, "Don't ... loose .... your voice."

There's a few of songs on the album that have double meanings. Like "Trampoline," which sounds like a kid's song, but it actually has some double entendres. Did they start normal and then you added the hidden meanings or were they always naughty?

It was better than that 50 Cent song "Candy Shop." Right? [Laughs]

Or "Magic Stick."

Exactly. Yeah, "Trampoline" was always meant to be a fun song.

It kind of leads into my idea that it's kid's music for older people.

Yeah, kids like that song as well as do the parents. It's weird because my friend's children, whenever they are on the swings, they sing, "Use your bed like a trampoline, higher!" And then they make their moms push them higher.

Were you jumping around in the studio while making the record, similar to what you do on stage?

Oh yeah. Sometimes it would be bad. In the studio, I had a stationary mic and sometimes it would not capture the vocals. Most of the time it was pretty good. The funny thing is that if we recorded the album now, I would do a heap of a better job singing. My voice has gotten so much better and I'm familiar with recording now.

Did the recording process turn out how you expected?

Pretty much. We recorded and mixed the album, then we went on tour with The Go! Team. When we were mixing, they were telling us that we would not be doing any re-recording or mixing when we came back from touring. Then I remember reading a Strokes interview where they said, "Record, mix, go out on tour, come back and mix it again for two weeks." I asked them if we could do that and they said, "No way, uh uh. It costs to much money."

When we got back from touring, we listened to the album with fresh ears and we wanted to change some things. So we actually got someone to remix it for us.

When did you realize that you had something special going on and that you could actually make a living being in a rock band?

A few weeks ago we were in England and all of sudden, we all looked at each other and said, "Shit, we have a career." Even if we don't have a career in the U.S. or the U.K., we still have a career in Australia. It all dawned on us at the same time .

Tell me the story again about the Go! Team tour where you would create different beverages with the girls in Smoosh.

Oh, yeah. Asya and Chloe are very mature for their age, but at times they would be like any other kid. We would mix like Coke and lemonade to see how it would taste. One would go, "No, this would needs more lemonade" or "No, more Coke." We would argue endlessly on whether a drink would need more soda or milk or ice tea.

We also had this thing called dough creations. For some reason, we always had a lot of baguettes out on tour. People would just give us baguettes. So we would rip the insides out and make dough creations. Then we would get people to vote on which one they liked best.

Since you put a lot of energy into your live performance, do you get the feeling that you're not up to the task of being Patience night after night?

I definitely go through times when I feel that, but it doesn't end up being a problem. Once I get to the venue, have a drink, blow up the balloons, put up the tinsel and put on my stockings in the dressing room, I'm ready to go.

The Gravity Won't Get You High will be out August 29th. A U.S. tour is being planned for the fall.

Comments

[agabopolis,]

chewie.

[Hunta]

Great interview. I saw The Grates and WaS in December and she told me that I was her special boy! I've got the pictures to prove it. But I don't mind sharing. If she likes, she can have a boy in every port (so to speak).

[ej]

jyv 30/3 Grates great
fresh sound , alive, no holding back, much better than YYY (from NY)
Patience? (how did her Mum and Dad know an oxymoron for a name so early on?)
Alana = think Lindy from Go Between only better

[Dave]

I want to marry this woman! :P

[anaheehee]

NOOOO EFF OFF YEAH YEAH YEAHS ARE BETTER, hahaha. i dont think the grates are similar than YYY i mean, ther not art rock and the chik never rolls on the floor, the music is very different, im a HUGE fan of YYY and nothin similar, ther more similar to MGMT the videos the music, like MGMT congratulations album, thats the Grates, the song "Brian Eno" by MGMT is infact similar noise as "Burn Bridges" not "I GOTTA DATE WITH THE NIGHT, ill set u. ill set off OFF OFF" but ther cool