INTERVIEWS/Articles (46) (Vintage), Mazzy Star 1988 to 1997

[Hermesacat]

Hi Mike: There's a Topic thread entitled "INTERVIEWS 2021 - a new one from Hope" where I posted Hope's new interview the day it was published, on her birthday June 24. Imo, there was some useful new info in that interview, including the good news she intends to work with The Warm Inventions again (if not immediately). Also, I was glad to read an update on how she's coped during the pandemic, etc. I have some "new" old vintage interviews I will share at this site soon. Two MS ones, one from 1994, and one from 1990 where David is surprisingly talkative. Plus a rare article from 1987 about Going Home, Hope's early duo.

[Hermesacat]

Two "new" old interviews added today to the collection (see above), placed in chronological order. They are:

-1990, NOVEMBER, UNHINGED mag Issue 7, Interv. w. David & Hope, found reprinted in the 2005 book "Tell Me When It's Over, Notes From The Paisley Underground," edited by Clive Jones

-1994, THE BOB mag, Winter Edition, issue 47, Interv. w. David & Hope

The most interesting and informative section to me in the 1990 article is a section about how songs are written in the band. It may surprise many listeners that David Roback says he wrote a lot of lyrics, at least in the early phase of the band from the time of the first album. There is also a 1996 interview where David admits to writing some lyrics. He mentions he contributed some lyrics to the song Rhymes of an Hour.

Someone knowledgeable has confirmed to me it's true David wrote a lot of lyrics, especially on the first album. And though he contributed some lyrics on the subsequent albums, Hope became primary, though not exclusive, lyrics writer after the first album. QUOTE:

INTERVIEWER: Are the bulk of the songs here reasonably recent? "Ghost Highway" you
played here in 1988.

DR: Most of them date from after that.

INTERVIEWER: Are they jointly written?

DR: Almost all of them are jointly written. Almost.

INTERVIEWER: Do you sit down together to write a song?

DR: Sometimes we sit down together and do it on the spot. Hope will have an idea. We
don't have a specific formula; we'll have an idea and build on it.

INTERVIEWER: Are there any songs that you could say lyrically are one person?

DR: Yeah. "She Hangs Brightly", Hope wrote the lyrics. "Ghost Highway", I wrote the
lyrics. A lot of them we wrote the lyrics together like "Ride It On". Hope is the singer
and I'm the guitar player. We both focus on what we're doing. She focuses more on
singing and lyrics and I'm more on guitar, but it's not black and white. We both write
lyrics and Hope plays guitar when we write, though not in the live band. It's a real 50/50
collaboration."

[Hermesacat]

Added today, December, 1994 Ray Gun HUH mag INTERVIEW with Hope & David, by Mark Blackwell. [Thanks go to a helpful FB fan Group member for sharing copies of articles he's collected. He sent me photos of pages from his hard copy of the Huh mag. I made a text version, from those]. The interview is posted in chronological order among the other interviews above.

Something Hope says in the HUh interview that surprised me is if she hadn't joined Mazzy Star she says "I wanted to be a school teacher." Surprising, as Hope has said she disliked school and skipped school regularly to stay home and listen to records! Plus she dropped out of high school.

She explains though she was inspired by her friend and duo-mate in Going Home, Sylvia Gomez, who became a dedicated teacher. Hope also suggests that if Sylvia had not opted for a teaching career, she too might have ended up as a member of Mazzy Star. Mazzy Star did record Sylvia's song "Give You My Lovin'", and I believe Sylvia played guitar on that Mazzy Star track.

[Hermesacat]

Today I added a 1990 Mazzy Star interview with David Roback I came across recently.
It's from the N.M.E. June 16, 1990. It appears chronologically near the beginning of the interviews thread above.
It's second article from the top.
A Twitter user posted his photo of the original NME page, here:
https://twitter.com/nothingelseon/statu ... 6615907328
which is where I found the article.

[Hermesacat]

JUNE 9, 1990 MELODY MAKER article/INTERVIEW with Hope & David added today. The text is pasted in chronological order in the thread above. It's currently the second one from the top.

Two photos accompany the original article, one of Hope by Laura Levine, plus one of Hope & David by Merlyn Rosenberg.

Thanks go to Twitter user @nothingelseon who tweeted a photo of the Melody Maker page with the Mazzy Star article on it. I'll post his photo in comments section below.

[GordonHobs]

Mazzy Star - 1993-11-01 - Mean Fiddler, Harlesden, London, UK - Review MOJO mag Jan. 1994

https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/ ... ler-london

[GordonHobs]

Mazzy Star - 1994-10-29 - Walker Field House, Poughkeepsie, NY - review

https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a ... IN--------

[GordonHobs]

Mazzy Star - 1993-10-19 - Edwards No. 8, Birmingham, UK - review NME
remark: Under 'Photos' I've uploaded a ticket from this show

https://eyesore.no/html/interview/RedHo ... e.NME.html
https://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/pa ... oncert.htm

The article is obviously referencing the following Read House Painters show (4 days after the Mazzy Star show in Birmingham)
Red House Painters: 1993-10-23 - Duchess of York, Leeds, UK
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/red-hous ... e9944.html


The NME Mazzy Star/Red House Painters review
Red House Painters (Leeds Duchess Of York)

SO WHAT *have* they got in common, Hope Sandoval and Mark Kozelek? Apart from the doom-child eyes, the shredded psyche and a fondness for letting us in on their sleepless travels through life?

Answer: the quest for reverence. Both strive, unwittingly or not, for a gravity that would bring world leaders out in a crimson blush. Not for them the frivolous pursuit of pop stardom (best quality, remember; transience) that clutters up the minds of our pop aspirants.

Nope, for them success is, a la Cobain, something that to be constructed as yet another of life's endless bad spells.

wisely attempts a hushed anticipation for the arrival of Mazzy Star. At last night's Birmingham show, the first of the tour, Hope fell foul of a heckler and promptly walked off the stage after 45 minutes, leaving the crowd confused and irritated. Accordingly, record company personnel wring their hands and fret over whether the Univeristy can attain the degree of decorum required.

psychedelicos The Rain Parade, seems unable to contain himself. In the places where subtlety would normally wallow, he provides a barrage of crunching bonanzas that seem horribly out of place next to Hope's soft-wristed maraca shaking. Thus, 'Mary Of Silence' and 'Ghost' become exercises in strong-armed Doorsarama that kill any sense of other-worldliness stone dead.

people are hangin on her every sigh rankles. Eventually 'She Hangs Brightly' reduces the crowd noise to a low murmur, but it's only with a wonderful 'Into Dust' that the long-sought-after awestruck vibe develops and Hope's sulky delivery elicits a complete, and stunning, silence. They flop back on for a final 'So Tonight That I Might See' bathed in organ and purple lights, and, unaware of what decorum demands next, the University applauds frantically. As she exits, Hope even offers a glimmer of a smile. Budding hecklers find their hearts in pieces.

For Mark Kozelek things can never be this easy. The latest example of an ancient tradition of singer-songrwiterdom, his gloom-laden laments of smalltown neuroses offer all the desolation of Mazzy Star with none of the mystery. Saturday in Leeds is not a light-hearted experience. An opening solo slope through 'Michael' suggests an evening of raw nerves and class A soul- bearing may be in store but, aside from a genuinely touching acoustic strum through 'Mistress', his songs find themselves surrounded by a swamp of musicians who do nothing but turn them into bar-room dirges.

impression of having lived through a million hells. He even explains that he's been "bruised internally, eternally". The Duchess Of York, staffed for the night by an alarming amount of thirtysomethings, nods its approval and mulls over the private dreams that have ended up falling through life's floorboards. He returns for a guitar-laden 'Uncle Joe' ("I'd give anything a try once!" he wails) and then, thankfully unencumbered by the band,he leaves a final time with a stirring 'New Jersey'.

It's the first night of the tour, and the combined effects of travelling and nerves have conspired to make him physically ill before and after the show. In the light of this, then, perhaps it's better to hold fire on the ins and outs of any long-term career prospects, let alone the man's lifespan potential. Even depressives can have an off-day.

Paul Moody

eyesore

[GordonHobs]

Mazzy Star - 1996-07-14 - Féile Festival, Point Depot Theatre, Dublin, Ireland - review

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/alanis- ... ar-1.67206

Ireland
Alanis Morissette, Frank Black, Mazzy Star
THE Feile weekend marathon wound up last night with a classy show from headliner Alanis Morissette.
By TONY CLAYTON LEA
Mon Jul 15 1996 - 01:00

THE Feile weekend marathon wound up last night with a classy show from headliner Alanis Morissette.

The capacity audience seemed to care little for the various splendours of the now all but forgotten open air event of the same name, and were probably glad to be home within a couple of hours, free of the rigours of a cold, wet night in a tent with someone you don't really like.

Main support acts Mazzy Star and Frank Black play the type of music that is perfect for indoors anyway. Mazzy Star sound like a torpid cross between a Neil Young Bob Dylan hybrid and The Jesus And Mary Chain.
A little bit too subdued and confusing for those who wanted to rock (i.e. the `kids').
Mazzy Star's excellent slomo, elegantly wasted pop was nevertheless well appreciated by the over 15s.

Frank Black's sturdy and frantic surfin' safari guitar rock was, however, somewhat ground down by audience lethargy.

There was none of that for Alanis Morissette, a genuine and literate role model for both the post grunge crowd and the weary Joni Mitchell fan.
Yet she is more than just a fixated mixture of slacker mentality, scorned woman incarnate, and hippie indulgence.
She has so far fashioned several very listenable anthems for the emotionally bruised, based on bitterness and revenge maybe, but revelling in a distinct form of cathartic healing.
True, songs such as Hand In Pocket and Ironic might not actually mean that much, but on the other hand You Oughta Know and See Right Through You highlight a hard earned wisdom that is beyond criticism.
And the audience absolutely adored her.

[GordonHobs]

1988 March - SPEX - Musik zur Zeit 03-88 - page 13