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Words: Mia Lily Clarke
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Let’s set it straight. Marnie Stern is one of the most
interesting, inventive guitarists around. The first
time I heard her debut album, In Advance Of The
Broken Arm, I wanted to punch the sky with joy and
bellow her name from every rooftop in town. Pick
up the guitar and play until my fingers were numb,
bury headfirst into the music and fall between the
bracing pace of the notes.
Plenty of guitarists can shred like hell, fingers
blazing across the frets, while backed up by enough
technical mumbo-jumbo to make your head spin.
That’s all well and good, but an overly methodical
attitude towards playing can all too often leave
a trail of stale-sounding mathematical riffs bolstered
by predictable, strict composition rule-play. The
style that hits me hardest is that which is free and
intuitive, unafraid of shaking things up; that makes
mistakes, shifts structures, plays from the heart as
opposed to the head.
Of course, the best guitar playing utilises
elements of both approaches. That’s where
New York-based Marnie Stern comes in, wearing
the crown. Stern’s a step aside from the regular
tech-head pack because she plays with complete
creativity and abandon. Her distinctive, self-taught
style and mind-boggling dexterity – the result of
practising for “at least” three hours every day – is
used to create powerful, concise pop songs that
bristle with tight, angular, hyper-speed lead riffs
and unusual, beautiful vocal melodies.
As guitarist Spencer Seim is one of Stern’s
biggest influences, it’s of little surprise that her
music bears an uncanny resemblance to that of
Hella. A huge fan of the band, Stern says she was
surprised when drummer Zach Hill got in touch after
her label, kill rock stars, passed on her demo tape to
him (incidentally, she is one of the very few artists
signed to krs after sending in a demo). Excited
by his offer of collaboration, Stern headed out to
California to record.
“But we had such short time constraints, he
ended up adding drums to my previous tracks
before I even got there,” she reveals. “Then, when
I was there, I added the guitar and vocals. I’ve always
written my songs alone and worked with a drum
machine or played the drum tracks on a kit in my
house. Zach’s live drums, compared to my drum
machine, changed the dynamic of the songs
completely. He played off different rhythms
than I would have, which opened up the songs
completely. A lot of the record is conceptual, and
Zach was really on board with the direction I was
moving towards.”
Before Hella, Stern was initially turned onto
music via Sleater-Kinney, who opened up a whole
new world of possibility.
“I had been really sheltered as far as music was
concerned,” says Stern, “so when I heard Sleater-
Kinney for the first time, I was actually confused.
I was pulled to the music because of their raw
intensity, but it took a bunch of listens before I could
appreciate their musicianship. I was mainly attracted
to the movement of the guitar lines weaving in
and out and the guttural intensity of the vocals. It
seemed to me they were a very honest band. They
didn’t seem to be holding back or hiding, and I am
a real fan of putting yourself out there.”
Stern cites Sleater-Kinney guitarists Corin Tucker
and Carrie Brownstein as huge inspirations, along
with Erase Errata’s Jenny Hoyston and ex-member
Sara Jaffe, Eddie Van Halen, Lightning Bolt bass
player Brian Gibson, and excellent Atlanta guitarist
Kaki King. She began experimenting with her now
fast and furious fret-tapping technique after
watching a Don Caballero video a few years back.
“I taught myself everything,” Stern says, “and
I think that has helped me have a really different
style. I was never interested in learning other
people’s songs. When I saw the tapping on a Don
Cab video, a lightbulb went off. Since then I’ve
been pretty tap-happy and tried to incorporate
my own style into it.”
This ‘different’ style and wide scope of influences
is what makes In Advance Of The Broken Arm
such a mesmerising record, not to mention the
rhythmic dynamic between the guitar and drums.
Hill works brilliantly with solo guitarists (evident
on last year’s Shred Earthship with Orthrelm
guitarist Mick Barr), and his coupling with Stern
produces an exciting array of manic song structures
and an energy indicative of two wildfire musicians
creatively challenging each other to the extreme.
“I’ve been off the radar way too long,”Stern cries
out on ‘Logical Volume’. “Just watch me come on
along!” Better late than never, Stern’s musical
unveiling is the best of ways to begin the year.
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