Interview with MEN

Fronted by two thirds of Le Tigre, Brooklyn-based performance collective MEN aren’t like your usual indie/art band. The project of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, they focus on the radical potential of dance and make booty-shaking tunes that speak of issues as diverse as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties.

I caught up with JD and bandmates Ginger and Michael in Brighton to hear more about their musical endeavours, their love for Dizzee Rascal and the pitfalls of political dance.

Can you explain how MEN came about after Le Tigre’s hiatus in 2006?

JD: Le Tigre finished and we each individually had our own projects. Johanna and I had been DJing a lot and we decided to turn our duo into a collective, bringing in Michael and Ginger. We’ve completed around seven or eight songs and we have a couple more to record, then hopefully we’ll have our record finished in about a month.

Le Tigre’s music was notoriously politically charged. How is it different writing as MEN and what issues are the new songs covering?

JD: We’re artists and activists and that’s who we are as people. All of us are separate from the band and all of us are queer – that’s a big part of our lives. We spend a lot of time paying attention to our politics so I think our music naturally ends up being politically charged. It’s less something that we feel forced to do, it’s just natural to us.

Do you think that as long as you’re making music and art that the subject matter is always going to be about your political stances?

JD: I think working with Kathleen and Jo [Le Tigre] has taught me about writing in this way. Most people’s songs are about love but I was schooled in this way that music is about life, not just about love, so it can be about anything.

Ginger: I don’t think it’s that the topics are that pre-determined.  It’s not like we set out to write an album that’s a queer activist project – it’s just the way we live our lives, the way we think, the people around us, the things that we’re doing. 
 
The production and sound of the new tracks is a lot slicker than the recognisably lo-fi sounds of Le Tigre. Was that a conscious decision?

JD: It’s come from all different things. One thing is that I’ve learnt a lot. Being with Le Tigre until ‘This Island’, we all became better musicians. DJing helped me to analyse music. Working with Ginger and Michael, both instrumentalists, has helped to understand the music better. Le Tigre was such an experiment – pushing buttons and making some amazing things happen but it really was so experimental.

Who are you listening to these days?

JD: We’re really into Dizzee Rascal’s new album. The production is incredible!
Do you not find the song ‘Freaky Freaky’ [in which Dizzee reels off a list of girls’ names and various sexual encounters with them in detail] degrading and offensive to women?

JD: It’s a bit like that other song..

Michael: [Sings] A little bit of Monica..!

JD: Yeah! The Mambo Number 5! In the states Dizzee is really underground. His music is innovative; it refers to so many different periods of music.

Ginger: I feel like you could listen to this and be offended from a really essentialist feminist standpoint.

You’ve recently been working with Christina Aguilera on her new album. What other female artists would you like to work with?

JD: I have so much respect for the artists that are at that popstar level. The amount of work that they put in is pretty crazy. I really respect Lady Gaga – she’s an incredible performance artist which is cool. I don’t know? Joan Armatrading?

What would your ultimate milestone be as MEN?

Ginger: If we could open for Joan Armatrading! [Cheers] Or record a song with her.

Michael: I think something interesting that’s happening is that not all of our audience is queer. I think it’s interesting because we’re obviously totally gay, yet we have really straight dudes feeling this. It’s nice to appeal to not just a queer audience.

Ginger: Another grand vision is to do a major touring act, like a festival model with a bunch of queer bands that would tour and there would be this following of people that would come and travel with us until we ended up with this ridiculously huge queer festival somewhere!

Their EP, ‘Physical’, featuring 3 of their finished tracks is available online via their MySpace.