By Marcus Maida

After the soundcheck Chan Marshall realizes me in the back of the club, walks over to me, looks right into my face & asks: „& who are you?“. & she takes my both hands at once & says with surprise: „You are SO warm!“, because she is cold, her hands are cold, & she wears a woolen cap. It is midth of november 1998, Cologne, Germany. Backstage the rest of the band is hanging out, it is not Jim & Mick from Dirty Three, with whom she recorded her last album „Moonpix“ in Australia (& who are actually touring with PJ Harvey), but Joe from England, who used to drum for e.g. Stereolab, & her old friend Mark from Atlanta, where she was born. A rather boring modern town, she says, the architecture mostly destroyed by the civil war. Gee, Chan, have you seen Essen, Dortmund & Bochum & some more of these Ruhrarea-towns, bombed to the ground some decades ago, rarely old buildings in them left, these big & ugly industrial cities, build & drenched with the blood of it’s working people? This is something you can really obviously feel & see (sometimes even smell) nowadays, where the mutations of the so-called working-class moreoften seem to behave like their former suppressors. But it’s not about getting whimsical about the loss of consciousness within the working people, when these days a lot of them, who obviously lost their beloved fetish – alienated exploitation –, hang around, admire colorful gameshow-soap-trash produced by the happy few, watch the shipwreck of solidarity-communities via satellite-tv & doing stupid speeches about so called aliens (or migrants), who are to blame for everything in the end.
Tonight there is work on the stage to be done, but how can that look like? There are some kind of strange tensions & energies between Chan & her musicians later in the concert, which aren’t always good for the music & the patience of the audience. Because on stage, she hides nothing. Neither she does in the interview. She lies down on the backstage floor & wraps herself in a sleeping bag, „Is this ok?“, she asks, “Of course”, I say, & we talk.

I let her talk & talk, & when I do a question or a comment, it sparkles even more out of her. She is unbelievable open & tells frankly of herself, in contrast to the concert, where she’s in a nutshell. The woolen cap is taken off, her hairs build an absolutely tight curtain to her face. There are sound problems on stage. During the check, everything seemed to be alright, the club’s mixer, a bearded heavy weight dude, wearing a „Stoppok“-T-shirt (A Ruhrarea-Singer), turns the volume of her „tiny voice“, so he says, to the max & goes: „No problem, everything’s alright“. Then turns to me & says: „They’re professionals, they know what they want, this feels so comfortable. It’s easy.“ Well, Mr. Soundman, it’s not. During the concert Marks guitar is way too loud & Chan can’t hear her vocs on the monitor – a deadly device, a guarantee for a mistuned Mrs. Marshall. After calling up the mixer several times during the concert & still getting no satisfyable result, she hides behind her haircurtain & goes: „Ok, from now on the concert sucks.“ Not angry, but fatefully disappointed. The audience isn’t always able to cope with that, but they are super-sympathical with her. When she’s about to stop the concert, they call: „Please don’t go!“ & „Carry on!“ No, not the latter, but it was me, who thought that. For me, it is totally ok, what’s happening on the stage. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s just like: the concert isn’t that important to me, because I have experienced a little tiny bit of the human being, who makes these songs. & this will do for me today.

M: Friends told me, when you played at the Popkomm-Matador-showcase in Cologne, you were very inconvenient with the sound. Are you a sound-perfectionist?

C: No, it just sounded bad with the monitor. & I can’t sing if I can’t hear my voice, I can’t concentrate, I have no confidence, & the show sucks.

M: So it’s just basics which have to fit.

C: Yeah. But I don’t know how to tell the soundman, how to fix it, if I only know: it sounds bad.

M: Alright. I just had to check that first. When was your new album „Moonpix“ recorded?

C: In January, in Australia. My boyfriend at that time was down there, he was going on tour there & he was gonna go travel there, & I went together with him. & there was my next record for Matador to do, & I was really late, & I didn’t have any money. So I went on this trip, & I recorded it.

M: With Jim White & Mick Turner from the „Dirty Three“. How came that?

C: I knew them before, played like three years ago a couple of shows in New York, & I called them before I left.

M: What about the musicians from your last album? Are Jim & Mick your new band?
C: No, not really. I just wanted to go to Australia, so I wasn’t really thinking … you know, about anything … I just wanted to go there, make the record there & so I called Jim & Mick to make shure that they are there.

M: Was it the first time you went to australia?

C: This is it, yeah. I always wanted to go there. It’s great (laughs), it was so nice.

M: Your record company works with the image of a world-traveler concerning you, is that right?

C: That’s I guess what somebody wrote. I didn’t say that, I mean I travel like anybody else is travelling. You travel, right?

M: Yeah.

C: You know, everybody travels, it’s nothing special, it’s normal. I mean, is it true that I always moved around since I was a little kid, but you know, it’s great, I got to Australia, to Europe, I went around America five million times, only because of the music.

M: Where do you live steadily, in New York?

C: Well, I did, I still got my apartment there, but I just got to a small place in Georgia, near Atlanta. I haven’t actually lived there yet, but I will.

M: Why?

C: Because my best friend lives there, & she’s kinda … she’s sick, so I want to go there & spent some time with her …

M: Take care of her …

C: Yeah, I will! When my tour is over, I’ll have some money so I can just be there & can be near.

M: So you don’t live in New York steadily?

C: Well, even when I live in New York, I’m never there. I’m always going somewhere else.

M: Always sort of moving around.

C: Yeah.

M: But you were born and raised in Georgia?

C: Yes, I was born in Atlanta, but I lived in different cities.

M: What do you think is the most difference or developement from your last album „What would the community think“ to „Moonpix“? Is there a basical change?

C: Not really, it’s just coincidental or consequential, because all the times I recorded backwards, I never was paying attention during the recording, & this time it was just me & the engeneer, so basically I did everything. It was fun for me for the first time.

M: So is there a musical change?

C: Mmmm … maybe, I guess, personally there is. In physical performance … I don’t feel intimidated or … stupid as I used to. And not like the whole „Rock’n Roll, man’s world-thing“, like I was really feeling intimidated by. I mean, in this case, too. Most men are like … I just felt kinda stupid like young and dumb, so I always felt intimidated, especially in the studio with the engeneers & stuff. This time I was working with one person that really cut the … just like …

M: Was it about gathering some self-confidence?

C: Yeah … no distractions, just like „Just noone around, ah well, noone else is gonna do it“. Only cause I had to go back to America in two weeks & I spent all my money on travelling in Australia & New Zealand, & I only had like 1000 $ left, so I had to do the record (laughs). But it was really fun, I had a great time there. It was good.

M: How long did it take to do the production?

C: It took one day to do the first-, well, Jim White & the engeneer & me came up at 10 am, & he was reading magazines while I was doing „American Flag“, & I was doing a hole then, which took like 5 hours, because Mick wasn’t turning up, he kept being late because he have to pick up his girlfriend from America, & this is the only reason why „American Flag“ is the most produced & worked-on song. The thing is for me: musically I had so much fun doing that, cause I spent five fucking hours on it, you know what I mean? So then Mick came, & we stopped „American Flag“, cause it was done, & also „He Turns Down“. & after Mick came in we went straight into „Metal Heart“, „Moonshiner“, „Say“ & „No Sense“. & then he left immeadiately, & then came the flute player right then, & she came in, never heard my music, never heard the songs, „He Turns Down“, she listens to it, goes out there, plays, & she’s not really in it, she holds herself back, & I go „Stopstopstop!“, & she’s like „Is it horrible?“ (laughs), & I like „No, I just think you’re holding back“, so we have to turn up the song really loud on the headphones, & she has to play really loud or whatever to get her sound through, & then she came out, first recording, & that’s the take! She was fucking great, she was so amazing. & then when she left, then the bassplayer came for that song & I worked with him. So the first songs were just basically getting the people through, & in the second, during „Cross Bone Style“, we messed that up pretty bad, we noticed in the songs some messy mistakes, but anyway (laughs), during „Metal Heart“ more like I did some vocal-production, like the rest of the stuff, & then I took a couple of days off & had some fun, & then we did the Mick-thing, & then the last day, we were putting everything on the DAT, making smaller tapes for us & the record label, & I kept going into the piano room, & that’s when I wrote „Colors And The Kids“, so when I wrote that, I just said „I got a new song“, & that was the last thing that was recorded.

M: So you did it kind of spontanuously then?

C: Yeah, totally, a lot of it, like „Say“ was pretty made up there, yeah, it was pretty fun. So, if I had more time in the studio, (quietly:) I bet, I’d have a better record.

M: (laughs)

C: I mean next time maybe you hear a better record.

M: I think the way it is is very good.

C: Thank you.

M: Because it sounds so pure. That’s good. Not over-produced. That’s very good.
Could you give a short comment to each song, please?

C: AMERICAN FLAG is about my first drummer from Atlanta, it’s more about the humor of like the nonexistent drummer with me, & sort of like … whatever …anyway… and then number two is just … some of the songs are written one night after like a really really bad dream, just really bad situations, like HE TURNS DOWN, METAL HEART, CROSS BONE STYLE … YOU MAY KNOW HIM, nightmare situations, but some other ones, BACK OF YOUR HEAD, I was in love with someone from some other … & that was a dream of a … we’re getting a portrait taken of his family, & I might not be enough for his family, cause his family’s sort of political right, knows Jimmy Carter in Atlanta or whatever, & so this is a dream that I’m like in a body-bag for the wedding, & I just wrote that song when I woke up, & then another song would be NO SENSE, it is about me & Mark, the guitar player here, we were playing together one night this club called „Context“, this place in New York, & it is about all the guys that I ever played music with … just like being able to like not be considered as a girl or something … it’s about just playing music, & sex is not really being an objective at all.

M: What about CROSS BONE STYLE?

C: Actually that one was written after the nightmare, but I was in my mind when I was doing that. I mean, I met a lot of kids when I was in South Africa, but these two little boys, I spent a couple of hours with, they were living in a township just outside of Capetown, & they were telling me both of their parents were shot in front of them, cause they were involved with the freedom-fighting-people, so the milicia-men came & killed them in front of them, made them homeless for years, it was 1992, & that song has this sense of being so burned up & being like ten years old, they’re like little adults, & pretty young.

M: They already experienced so much.

C: Yeah. & it just like bashes about them.

M: & COLORS AND THE KIDS, what is that about?

C: That’s just a collection of memories just like different types of memories that make me happy … meowww … make me happy …

M: The sound is different, & the mood is different to the other songs …

C: Yeah …? It’s like I think an anthem for my youth, & all the memories, even for the terrible things that happened in my past, you know, just like everybody when they’re growing up, you know, booze, drugs & things. Everybody experiences those things in some really unforgettable colors & memories & things, experiences it with other friends. Mostly it’s about friends, & my nephew. That „funny bear“-thing is a play on my nephew, it’s like when my family’s fucked up, & he’s like the one … there are some others which are very cool, but he’s like (whispers) the awesome kid, he’s like … we’re in the same team, me & him, it’s really cool, he’s like my friend, that’s very awesome. That song’s about just old memories.

M: & PEKING SAINT?

C: That was written about a medical wonder, it’s just like … I mean, I don’t know what I’m saying, like when I wrote the song … I’m just making it up, when I’m playing guitar, but if I reflect on it, it just means like: the plastic media stuff … (hesitates long & looks for the right words) … people are overlooked because of the … like because the media societies abandon like the good true spirit of like the human nature … instead of that it emerges a superficial aesthetic fake, beauty or whatever, beauty about beauty & stuff … the values are twisted up …

M: What do you mean by „twisted up“?

C: I guess I’m just talking about like, you know, like somebody born in another country that could be like a genius or something, but could be starving to death cause America bombed, you know, bombed … but they would be overlooked, but like if you’re famous, or if you, you know, blonde & blue-eyed & big tits & little waist & big butt & nice looks, you be alright for the rest of your life & be – you know what I mean?

M: Of course. Do you follow a kind of political intention with your music?

C: Intention? I wish! (laughs) I wish I had like all the peers and whatever … cause I know that for everybody Rock’n Roll is just like … everybody loves music so much, & it really does reach the unspeakable language of like being alone … music really touches people to make them not feel alone, it really gives them something to fullfill all the empty aspects of living, cause living can be hard, & I just wish there would be this knowledge of about what we … I don’t know, just like the whole music, just the idea of … better expressed in like indierock or whatever you wanna call it, underground music, those ideas, those radical sort of emotional & open ideas, or whatever they’re called, could be transformed in sort of mutated, not mutated, but transformed into actually like a new direction, maybe not music, maybe something else, I wish that, yeah – do I have political intentions? Yes, me & everybody else like in the music scene, like they’re millions of us.

M: It’s not easy to speak in political terms when you’re making music, that’s my experience, but you should be aware of that always & reflect on that.

C: Yeah … cause me, I have to go to school & study, like economics & law, to be able to speak amongst those types of people.

M: Well, but you don’t have to go to university to gain political consciousness.

C: But I have to learn it from somewhere. I can’t try to hook the world if I don’t know the man … I can’t get into the offices of power if I don’t know the language, you know what I mean? But I know that I can’t do it, cause it’d just kill me, I might be so … I’d just die, I mean, after like 10 years, if I did it, I tried to get killed … heart-attack, stress … if there is a bunch of us … I don’t know … but yeah, I wish it was different.

M: Did you make political experiences in the USA?

C: No … Mmm … (laughs) … no way.

M: No way? I mean it’s always a question how you define „politics“. Because politics is about getting all the oeconomical und structural background of society & all the things you have to know for actions, of course, and also politics is how someone behaves to other people, how someone talks …

C: Yeah, I think it’s more like political textures like enviromental education in schools, you know, stop teaching history for awhile & just teaching like straight-on social modern reality & oeconomical education, whatever, just stuff like that. The new kids grow up with not knowing the realism of war, they should be tought the idealism, no, the reality, that the world needs to be cleaned a little better. Like in Germany there is at least a green party, involved in the governement actually, they do get more done, e.g. it’s standard that you have recycled toiletpaper, as in America they’d faint & scream „They’re trying to make this a communist country!“ – they’re not giving you any choice. Toiletpaper’s gotta be fluffy white, & they’re pulling out all those good ideas from everything. This mentality should be changed.

M: When did you start writing songs?

C: Mmm … my friend gave me a guitar.

M: How old were you then?

C: 19.
M: & was there someone who could teach you?

C: There was, but … I mean, I just started up on the first string like bam bam bam bam bom bom bom bom, you know. My friend put the microphone on me, & I was playing with those 4 guys.

M: & how do you make the arrangements now? Just like playing, like you said?

C: Yeah, that’s how I’ve always done it, but now I wish I could do it more … like better. In the beginning it was actually like: Mmh, I write a song, & I did it. & then I recorded it, it’s called „The girls are alright“. That was kinda cool. But I’d like to do that on command, cause usually I write songs when I’m not feeling so happy … it’s not boring to be unhappy, it’s something else … I think that’s why I used to smoke, too. Not only pot. When you start feeling alone, sometimes you’re bored of the air or space around you & you start cigarette smoke … or cooking, making a sandwich … (laughs) … „I’m here with my sandwich“. Cause the „Moonpix“-songs were mostly written when I was in the country last year, cause I basically quit playing music cause I couldn’t stand like being in front of people, couldn’t stand always like talking about music & stuff …

M: Is this what you say in COLORS AND THE KIDS „Cause the music is boring me to death“?

C: Yeah.

M: When I was in New York this summer I already wanted to meet you, but you were travelling around, in Europe, like they told me. What did you do?

C: I had the press tour, & then I drove around. I got engaged to be married, I didn’t get married, but I got engaged, so I drove around for a long time with him in America. & then I was in Europe for about a month. I’ve been running around since July, I haven’t got a home, I’ve been living out of a suitcase since July. I got engaged & we tried to move to New York, then I looked for a house down in Atlanta, running around with my fiancee, went to Europe for a month, & I just travelled all over the place …

M: Restless …

C: Just really … needing a break. I had a pretty bad breakdown like about … my body & my mind are haven’t had any time to myself yet. When this tour is over I go to Australia & I have three weeks off. Go to the beach & just (snorts) … just relax. I can’t wait, ride horses. There’s this place I went to, it’s in North Queensland, near Brisbane, there’s the beach & then these huge, lush big mountains, you know like tropical, and horses, appaloozas, & I just ride, take a three hours ride through the bush. I taught myself how to canter, & then I didn’t teach myself how to gallop, & the horse just ran straight to the ocean, going galloping, & I never went that fast before, my foot came out of the side, & I was holding on to his hair & had my arm around his neck, & it was just like, I thought I was gonna die. He was trying to kill me, just trying to throw me off & jumping & heading straight for the water, & the water in this one area it goes (phew) deep immeadiately, & the waves are (whoosh) big, & I was screaming, & he was screaming (screetch), & then he stopped … (screams & laughs). I almost pulled his hair out … son of a bitch.

M: But it wasn’t the first time you were riding, hm?

C: It was the seventh time. & the last time. But then I rode again, I rode the next day in Australia, & then I rode in Tucson / Arizona about three weeks ago, fucking so beautiful. Have you ever go to Arizona?

M: No, not to Arizona.

C: But you’ve seen pictures, from the desert, the cactus, the mountains & shit? Oh my god, & the valleys & blablabla & whatever, & the men in the dust, like when you’re riding, there’s just dust, so beautiful, so surrreal, & the landscape, there’s no cars or anything, no electrical … just (whistles like the wind) … it’s just so beautiful.

M: And after relaxing in Australia, you go to Atlanta to your friend?

C: I do one show in Australia, to make money to pay for my flight, & then I take three weeks off, & then I go to a festival in New Zealand, and do a tour with probably eight shows there, & then I fly back & do probably 10 shows in Australia. & then I go to Japan for about maybe six shows, & then I go back to Atlanta, take I guess a week off, & then I go on tour around America again … & then (laughs) I came back to Europe & do Italy, Greece, Sweden, Austria whatever … & then I quit. & then I may come back for festivals. I like to tour Germany again. Maybe Iceland. I’d like to go to Sweden, & Kopenhagen, cause I’ve never been up there.

M: Will you do the tour with Jim & Mick?

C: Well, I’d like to, but … do you know that Jim & Mick aren’t here tonight, that they are on tour with PJ Harvey? Dirty Three are gonna go on Tour in April 99 in Europe, so we might do a tour together.

M: So who are you gonna play tonight with?

C: Well, the drummer Joe I haven’t met before, & he played his first show the last night in Bochum, I know for fact that he’s been around with Stereolab & a couple of other bands, he’s from England & I guess he’s been playing drums for a long time. & Mark, he’s actually the main reason why I make music, because he’s the one in Atlanta that made me start Catpower … (longer pause) so he’s … blabla … yeah. But he is in a band called Moby Grape … I’m lying.

M: Lying?

C: Just say that he’s in Moby Grape, just for fun. But Jim White was in London to do those shows with me, & after Germany I go to Switzerland, France, Belgium & Holland & then, for those shows, my friend from Atlanta from a band called „Rocketeens“, he’s never been to Europe before, he comes to play drums. After Germany. I hope it goes ok.

M: Your music sounds pure – pure means, it concentrates on the basics, what you are. Referring to the songs, there are no fashionable crossover-styles. Are you interested in completely different forms of music like from what you do?

C: I love rap. I’m like a huge rap-fan, but I don’t know enough. Cause you know rap music is improvisational, & it just blows me away with the skills, that drives me insane, I love it so much. When rappers go together they’re just improving together, improving ideas, that go into a positive direction. I really love rap, but I don’t ever buy any records, I don’t have any rap, the last rap record I bought was Foxy Brown, which I actually really liked, and this band from Atlanta, the one I recently bought, it was „Outcasts“, they’re so great, so amazing. Positive Lyrics, it’s no East Coast – West Coast fighting, like you know „We got bigger cars, bigger guns“, it’s no bullshit like that at all, it’s like what Chuck D is doing, but nobody listens to Chuck D anymore, cause everybodys interested in fucking money-bullshit-talk, actually really like Dr. Dre, too, but … it’s always on about that money …

M: Are you interested in Jazz?

C: I love … it’s not the same thing as with rap, I really love Jazz as well, like most of the records that I play at home are like Coltrane … I don’t ever listen to music really like at home, but if I do, I put on a John Coltrane, something that I bought somewhere, some Jazz record. It’s really strange, because I don’t know anything about it, but most of the records that I tend to buy are sort of either Blues or Jazz … which is kinda weird, because I don’t know anything about it … there’s no reason that I, you know … I’m just hoping to hear some good music, but I never remember musicians, I can never remember the names, you know when people talk of Jazz & stuff … yeah, I like Jazz, but I don’t listen to anything, but if I do, I put on like John Coltrane. A lot of Blues & Jazz, basically.

M: What about other songwriters, are there some which touch you, or some which are you even really euphoric about?

C: There’s this band from Atlanta called „Smoke“, but they never toured. They’re really great. Then there’s this band from London who just played London with us, called „Woodbine“, they’re really great. They have a record coming out on ‘Domino’. Other Bands …

M: Or songwriters. I mean, something, which was really important for you.

C: Oh, Otis Redding, Buddy Holly … I don’t really have any records, so just my parents records. Otis Redding more than anything. & then like Black Flag, & that kinda shit, but never really … Sonic Youth I really liked. The „Sister“-Album, the first record I really liked. Hüsker Dü I really loved, that really probably did it for me. „Metal Circus“, my sister gave me that. There are some other things, The Kinks, I love The Kinks, but nothing really, I guess, like Otis Redding.

M: Then Smog: you did a coverversion of „Bathysphere“. Why that?

C: Yeah, I heard of him later, actually. Because, I was in New York, & I didn’t play for a couple of years. A friend of mine, Tony, my old drummer, told me bout „You should go & see this guy Smog“, I was like: So? It was just fucking cold & snow up to my waist & it was like the worst winter in my life, & it was horrible. It was the first year I lived there, my first winter there.

M: When was that?

C: It was in 92. It was the worst, the lowest point I’ve ever been to, & it was just awful. My boyfriend left me, & I had no job, & I was starving, had no money, I was fucked. Had no friends, had nothing, had nowhere to go blablabla. & he said I should go see them, I went with my first roomate from „God is my Co-pilot“ –

M: With whom?

C: „God is my Co-pilot“, Sharon …

M: Yeah, I got to know her in NY –

C: Really?

M: Si, she & Daria, the bassplayer, who tends the ‘Mars Bar’ sometimes, & we saw them play at „Coney Island Height“, it was grand.

C: Oh, yeah, she’s really nice & good. So, we were walking to this concert & I had no idea what it was, I wasn’t interested at all, just basically totally depressed … & then he started playing, he got a band, like four people with him, I was not interested in, & then he started singing & I could hear those lyrics & I just got so happy, I felt just actually like he was my peer or something … cause everybody else that was around that I’ve met, all these old but no-wave-music-New-York-type-older-people just totally intimidated me, I never talked to anybody, I never looked … other bands, other time, you know, Jazz stuff … & then it made me all happy (belch) … he’s got a new record coming out called „Knock Knock“. Isn’t that cool?

M: Alright. I met him last year for an interview –

C: Yeah? Really? How was it?

M: Shall I be honest?

C: Mmh!

M: It was really hard.

C: Oh no.

M: I was kinda mashed up in my mind anyway, & I went there & then I had to do the interview. I had prepared myself good, but that day was different. He was not a man of many words on this day, the conversation was viscous, but it didn’t irritate me, I went on stoical. Sometimes I even like this. & I mean, it was ok, because during the time we would thaw up & after he knew I was making music also, I had the feeling, the conversation would run a lot better. But when the ice was gone, & we got kinda warm, the interviewtime was over. But anyway, he was in his nutshell, very, or his „gentle armour“ that day. Interview day, I guess he had to … it was totally ok with me. Back to you: can you remember a remarkable reaction to a concert of yours, or a special situation?

C: My favorite concert ever was in Cicely, Italy. I went on stage, &, you know how old Cicely is, it was a fucking beautiful city, anyway, it was in this courtyard, in the middle of all these buildings, huge windows, outside big trees, just like these weeping willows, there was a clocktower over here, & all the windows were black, except there was one that had red velvet, & there was a huge sculpture, a womans body, & she was naked. & there were candles burning. & the wind was (blows gently), & while I was playing, the clock stroke midnight, & it was so perfectly with the song, & the sound of the wind was going into the mike, & the leaves were falling like green snow, fluttering around & falling all over the place (laughs) … I was totally amazed, it was like a dream, but it did last for like 30 minutes, & then I just stopped playing.

M: & everybody else asked: how the fuck did she do it?

C: It was so great. The moon was full … it was so amazing … it was the best. That was my favorite show in the world.

M: Sounds good.

C: Yeah. Well, & then after the concert someone came up to me & said, that I sounded like Led Zeppelin –

M: (Laughs) What?!

C: & then that moment was over. After that show I was like numb, completely numb, & everybody started walking out, & there were two guys left, & they came up & said (imitates italian accent) „That was grrreat! You did sound like Led Zeppelin!“ (laughs) – I was by myself & the band, & I was like (gently) „What’s up?“, & they (screams) „Yeaaahsss!“ – my god! (makes sounds like a drowning airplane). But it was not bad at all. & the great thing about italy is just that people run around like maniacs. There’s dogs everywhere, people rolling joints, drinking beer all over the place, & all these people seem to know each other, they just like show up & sit together, talk, smoke, it is so laid back, it’s amazing, I had a great time. People hanging around with their kids. & when a band plays, they go: „There is a band playing! I gonna go out & have the time of my life!“ I don’t know why that is!

M: It’s something special. Probably they’re not that overfed with culture.

C: Yeah. & it’s also the communist places, like Napoli, they’re very poor. In Milano they were pretty close, that’s true. Fashion capital of the world, I guess they’re all kinda fluffy.

We talk about the la-marcha-tradition in Spain, where it’s a must to be out on a saturday night & move from place to place. & Chan tells of her experiences on her interviewtour in Italy, where she was dragged from drinking & smoking people to other drinking & smoking people. And the behaviour of the men there: „They’re so flirty, even in the most normal situations. So awesome. But I wouldn’t trust my daughter with em for a second. But it’s kinda sweet, because especially on this day, myself, I wasn’t feeling very attractive at all, because I’ve been out all day & I got drunk too much, you know, I knew, I was looking like total shit, & they were still treating me like I was a queen.“

Probably because she is one, though she left her crown somewhere in a bar or lost it while riding the dust in Arizona. But who cares as long as you can buy your crown at any Burger King or gas station, &, anyway, the invisible crowns are only to see for those who can love people with a wink of their eye. Don’t press too hard, or you may look like an idiot.
After exchanging shoes – she totally liked my boots so much, but her shoes were absolutely too small for me – I hopefully left her some time to concentrate on the concert. She leaves dots, when she speaks, fill in your thoughts, think about, what she might have to say. She’s grand. That’s all.

(Seven)