Screaming Females’ unique sound and accompanying artwork and visuals come directly from the voice, guitar prowess and visual creativity of frontwoman Marissa Paternoster. Recently listed in SPIN’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, the cult shredder has developed a style and approach to the instrument rarely seen in punk or indie rock. On the topic of influence and sourcing creativity, Paternoster explains, “I’ve been drawing ever since I was a kid. My mum was an art teacher, she’d let me sit in on her classes and teach me a lot of things. We always had art books around the house that I would look at for hours. I didn’t really understand a lot of the art language but I loved looking at the pictures. My mum always supported my interest in art and knew I’d always end up at a good art school.” Connecting her love of visual art and her emerging interest in playing music at 14, Paternoster naturally turned to the left-of-centre aspects. “I got really into comic books and Mad Magazine around the same time which is what got me into punk. Watching Ren and Stimpy and enjoying weirdo stuff has always been what I’ve been into and what has influenced me. I’ve been drawing and sketching my whole life and I ended up going to art school, doing a BFA in drawing and painting. I had the ambition of becoming a full-time illustrator or visual artist but playing punk music took over.”
On stage the band is known for often extending songs, jamming on new riffs or taking old songs down new and unexpected avenues. “We definitely have songs that have changed a lot live over the years, but then again we have other songs that we try to play as close to the recordings as possible,” explains drummer Jarrett Dougherty. “It comes down to trying to play the best possible show every night. For us that means having a little bit of the unexpected involved. At any moment one of us could try and change the song slightly and sometimes that derails but most often we’re good at knowing what parts are good to expand and change. Some of our best shows were when we played identically to the album and some of our best were when we deviated and played our songs completely differently. Occasionally it crashes and burns but that’s no big deal. If that happens you can just start bashing everything and pretend you’re Sonic Youth.”
Complex songwriting and technical musicianship has been a staple of the band’s sound on all of their albums, with sonic experimentation and ambition pushing their sound forward. 2012’s Ugly saw the band work with legendary producer Steve Albini, pushing their sound and performances to the limit. Despite these hallmarks, 2015’s Rose Mountain took a stripped back approach to the songwriting and composition. “Marissa’s guitar playing gets a lot of credit and attention for obvious reasons,” Dougherty says. “On Rose Mountain we really tried to strip everything away that was extraneous and build the songs back up from there. Most often we’d write an instrumental track first and then add vocals on top of that. For years that meant Marissa would be playing a lead line, Mike would be playing a lead line on the bass, I’d be playing a melodic line on the toms and Marissa would try and fit a lead vocal line on top of it. It worked for us and became our style, but writing and recording often became so difficult because of how complex we were making it.
“Since then we’ve become really focused on managing the whole project a lot better and simplifying some things. We did a tour with Garbage around the time that we were working on those songs and we were playing some of them to Butch Vig, trying to pick his brain. He said something that I thought was very insightful: ‘It sounds really cool what you guys are working on here and it’s a great way to go as a band, but remember the best thing about your band is that it sounds like three people all going nuts at the same time and it somehow works.’ I thought that was a cool thing to come from someone who’s worked on so many radio friendly records, reminding you that it’s ok to be crazy.” Taking such risks on an ultimate reversal of the band’s trademarks may read as an experimentation destined for failure, however bassist King Mike’s outlook on the album is just to keep the approach simple, honest and manageable. “We always try and put out something that makes us happy and I think we were all really proud of that album. We spent a long time writing those songs and rehearsing them until they were second nature to us. It was the first time we made an album where we didn’t have some sort of emotional breakdown during the recording,” he says.
The state of the music industry in 2016 is a confusing mess at best, with no clear direction or sensical method of capitalising or having a safe career. In terms of self-determination and control over their art and direction, Dougherty believes their approach is one of the only ways a band can have longevity and freedom in the industry. “Doing things DIY and independently is the only way we’ve ever known, and whenever we’d try to talk to people in the music industry who are more important or have more money, they look at us like we’re crazy when we talk about what we think is important about being a band. What we say misses their ears and what they say misses our ears. But somehow it’s worked for us. I’ve noticed that a lot of bands these days don’t even get an opportunity to do a lot of things for themselves and I don’t see how that lack of control from the very beginning can end well for anyone, especially bands who want to retain any degree of creative control over their music or career.”
For the many modern bands that quickly get snapped up by large labels and are either worked to death or never even achieve lift-off, Dougherty’s outlook remains cautious. “Very quickly people swoop in and promise them lots of money for their new record or management offers. To me it seems like a detriment because bands never learn how to manage these things for themselves and if you don’t have the knowledge to handle these things you’re going to get screwed in the end. There’s been a very small minority of people in this industry who have been able to be financially successful in music. It’s a historical fact and I think it will always be that way,” he says.
“We’ve always wanted to avoid those pitfalls in the industry. If you go into it with the intent of capitalising on the monetary side of it you’re destined to fail. We’re happy doing what we do, not because of the fact it’s all we really know, but seeing everything else that goes on in the industry as something that would just be incompatible with our band.”
BY JOE HANSEN
