After catching Rebecca Gates and The Consortium at The Sunset, I got a chance to interview her:
artofthemix: Great to see you back playing and touring. Tell us about your latest work.
rebeccagates: thank you. the album has been in slow motion on back and side burners for a couple years. it's in the mixing stage. there's some info about it here:http://parcematone.wordpress.com/the-new-album. in a sense it's a mix of the spinanes albums and ruby series. worked towards silence and some balls out rock n roll. will see how it finishes.
artofthemix: Who exactly is The Consortium? And how did you end up playing with them?
rebeccagates: the consortium is wide ranging and includes anyone playing with me. the group you saw the other evening is ji tanzer (blue cranes), rebecca cole (hungry holler, minders) and joanna bolme (jicks, quasi). i really enjoy playing solo, but have been craving a band experience. hit it in spades.
artofthemix: The drummer is amazing! What is his story?
rebeccagates: ji is amazing. he is a time traveler who graces many forms of music and conquers continental divides. he names bands and also plays in blue cranes, a great 5 piece from portland.
artofthemix: What are the plans for the new record? Where will it be recorded? Who is producing it? Sense of when it will be out?
rebeccagates: the record is tracked (see above). it was engineered/production assisted by howard bilerman (vic chestnutt, silver mt zion), stuart sikes (catpower, loretta lynn), mcentire, kendra lynn, mark greenberg. i've produced or co-produced all my records and this is the same. joanna is amazing to have around in a studio, super talented. regarding getting it out into the world i'm still figuring the best way to release it. it's looking like a self issue, but we'd like to do it proper and tour. might be time for a kickstart.
artofthemix: You seem to be embracing the internet -- Twitter, your Tumblr blog, etc. What are your thoughts on the internet here in 2010?
rebeccagates: recalcitrant, reluctant & slightly embracing. i find the internet amazing but not the cure-all/savior/answer it's heralded as. always loved
telegrams and whispers. thus i love twitter. i think if i spent as much time playing music as i have to spend on the computer re: music and all the web facets, i might be today's jimi hendrix.......
artofthemix: The Jimi Hendrix cover was cool. Why that cover? Do you do many covers?
rebeccagates: not too many. i love that song and think his vocal is incredible. we wanted to make it about the lyric and vocal and give the bassist and drummer some.
artofthemix: How big a basketball fan are you? Celtics would have won if they have had Perkins in Game 7, methinks.
rebeccagates: i'm a doc rivers fan. don't follow basketball too much. i am, however, a complete cycling nerd.