Lisa Marr interview from August 1995

My gf at the time interviewed Lisa Marr in August 1995 at Lee's Palace in Toronto on the final night of the Cub/Muffs tour. I can't remember if it's been published on this site before, so here it is, as transcribed on the old-old-old Cub fan page that very year.

Ren: What've you been listening to lately?

Photo taken at this very interview!

Lisa: Oooo, well we always bring a whole lot of tapes in the van, so a lot of them are sort of mix tapes. But we've been listening to the new Zumpano record, "What the Rookie Did" - have you heard that one? It's great, they're a band from Vancouver, they just got signed to Sub Pop, they're very poppy, kind of 60's kind of influenced stuff. And Neko brought a bunch of Louie Prima and Louie Jordan and all these great old...stuff. What else. We've been listening to The Muffs' new record a lot, and we were touring with the Queers and The Muffs, so we're into the Queers now as well. Anything, actually.

Ren: What's your favorite part of touring, cuz you guys tour a LOT.

Lisa: I love everything about touring, there's nothing about it I don't like, except sometimes I get a little tired. That's not so good when you're on the road. But we get to meet people, we get to see new places, we get to find out what's going on in other cities, we get to play with bands we love. It couldn't be better. It's the best vacation you could have.

Ren: Where have you been so far?

Lisa: This tour started August 1, in San Francisco, so it was along the west coast of California, then across...played Albuquerque, in Phoenix, a bunch of shows in Texas, New Orleans, all through the south, up the east coast, Providence, New Haven, Philadelphia, New York...everywhere. It's been crazy. This our last day with The Muffs, then we're just touring a little bit in Ohio.

Neko: (walking by) Uh, we should go and eat pretty soon, so we don't die. We're gonna go eat cow.

Lisa: Okay, go ahead. I'm fine. I don't need to. Nope. See you in a while. (Scott ran into Lisa a short while later when we were at Taco Bell...)

Ren: So what are American fans like, compared to the Canadian ones?

Lisa: Oh, I don't know. No, they're the same. Sure there's regional differences, like different people have different accents or maybe they buy their shoes at a different chain store, but, I mean...people are people, they like the music, and they're into it, audiences are pretty cool everywhere.

Ren: What's the very first thing you put on tape? Anything, recorded.

Lisa: Oh, ummm. I guess... My family took a trip to Mexico - we drove to Mexico from Vancouver when I was 14. And we all took turns tape recording what had happened that day on the trip. So there was a lot of like really, we're all hot, crabby, and me and my sister hated it, we thought it was a stupid idea, that we were travelling around in a Ford without any air conditioning in some crappy trailer, and we were mad cuz we would've rather been at home. It was really hot but it was, looking back on it it was quite a little adventure. But we had to tape record what happened, and that was probably it.

Ren: What band would you love to tour with?

Lisa: I don't know, we've got to tour with just about everybody that we love. We've toured with Sebadoh, toured with the Smugglers, toured with Huevos Rancheros, toured with Sloan, we've played with Mary Lou Lord, Guided By Voices, the (?), Yo La Tengo, and this tour, it's been, I mean, this is my dream tour, this one that we're just finishing up with the Muffs and the Queers. It was just amazing, I could watch both those bands like every night, until I died, and I did it for a whole month. That was great, so .. I don't know. I guess the Velvet Underground if they were still around. That would be my dream. Watch Moe Tucker pound those skins every night.

Ren: You seem kind of well known for being a 'cute' band. What's your take on that?

Lisa: Well I don't feel very cute today, that's for sure. I got three hours sleep and I was drinkin' too much last night. So, I, no, I dunno. It's a media thing. It's like, I can understand how the media needs to pigeonhole bands and call them girl bands, or cute band, or riot girl band, but it's really limiting. It infers that we're always, like, running around with big smiles on our faces, and we're not, obviously. We're just norrrmal people.

Ren: In a band.

Lisa: In a band. Normal people in a band.

Ren: What's the strangest gift you've ever gotten from a fan?

Lisa: Oo! Once, we were playing in .. where was that .. uh .. Minneapolis, I think? And some boys took off their underwear in the bathroom and threw them to us on stage. That was pretty weird.

Scott: Do people mail you a lot of stuff?

Lisa: Yeah, we get a lot of stuff, but we get good stuff in the mail. People are really cool, they send us candy, toys, and their zines and tshirts, band tshirts and blow-up stuff. People send me the prizes from Kinder eggs a lot, cuz I love Kinder eggs, so that's cool. We get a lot of good stuff.

Scott: My sister says she sent you a Where's Waldo book.

Lisa: She did! She didn't send it, she gave it to us. Yeah, in person! On the last tour, yeah! We got it. We love it. Cool. It's in the band room. Yeah, everything we get, we keep in our practise space, all displayed, so we can play with it or look at it or whatever. Yeah, we got it, I remember that. It was the best score from the last tour. It was amazing.

Ren: Okay, any last words or parting thoughts?

Lisa: I don't know, I don't know.

Scott: What's gonna be in the next video?

Lisa: Um, I don't know, we just had this thing come out on the 24th (of August 1995), a new record, it's a split 7" CD/EP with the Potatomen. So, we may do a video for that, but we're going to try to record a new album early next year, so we may wait. I dunno, we may be going out to New York to play a show for New Years' eve. (Drummer in sound check gets really loud). ... For New Years' eve. And if we do, we may shoot another video out there, but I don't know for what song yet.

Ren: (Shouting) I'm getting used to the drums, y'know...

Lisa: Exactly. Touring life. Sound checks. Yeah. So, I dunno, good luck with the zines, that's my only parting thing. Keep it up, I know it's a struggle but it's worth it and these look excellent. Thank you very much for giving them to us.