Scout Niblett - "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death" - Far From Home #19

Intothewoods.tv

Directed by Jordan Kinley Camera by Tyler Kohlhoff and Thomas Oliver Engineered by Ryan Olson Mixed by Jeff Hylton Simmons Finishing by Matthew Gamlen

"We're all going to die, we're all going to die, we're all going to die, we're all going to die."

It's soundcheck, the room is mostly empty, and Scout Niblett is on the stage by herself, warning us of the inevitable.

For "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death," our crew deployed three cameras on the floor in front of the drum kit, each capturing a different dimension of Scout deep in focus. After the shoot, she was gracious enough to sit down and answer some questions, touching briefly on living in Portland, working with Steve Albini, and dealing with the astrological events that impact her psychological (and artistic) states.

Into the Woods: You've lived in a lot of different places after leaving the UK -- what brought you to Portland?

Scout Niblett: Well, I've lived in about four or five different places in the US. I started off in Indiana, went to Chicago, went to Philly, went to Oakland, and then I ended up here. I basically came here because I couldn't afford to live anywhere else, and I knew I wanted to live by myself, because the way I work is if I don't have a space... Well, if people can hear me, I can't work. So I have be somewhere where no one can hear me.

ITW: Is that a self-conscious thing, or more based on complaints from neighbors?

SN: No it's a self-conscious thing. I've lived alone since I was 16, so that's like over 20 years. And I've only spent maybe three or four years of that time living with people cause of necessity, like lack of money or whatever. So I've spent a lot of my writing time just completely in solitude, and it's really hard to get out of that. So that's why I moved to Portland, really.

ITW: But you don't record here, do you?

SN: No, I've done like my last four or five albums with Steve Albini in Chicago.

ITW: I heard that you're working on a symphony. Will that be your next major project?

SN: That's kind of more of an ongoing thing that I keep talking about but I haven't finished - it's like a slow thing. I'm not really doing that at the pace I normally make records. Its kind of something on the back burner, but I don't think that will be the next thing that's finished. I think the next thing will be like a set of new songs.

ITW: So will the symphony be with Steve Albini also?

SN: Yeah, probably.

ITW: And will it sound anything like the rest of your music?

SN: Well its a lot more of a classical sound, there's no electrical sounds. It'll be like just a full orchestra.

ITW: Everyone likes to talk about how Steve Albini is so good at "capturing a musician's sound" in the studio, and I didn't really get that until today when I saw you playing live, and then it hit me. Your performance has exactly the same sounds of the record, which is great. So Steve Albini is completely hands-off in that sense?

SN: Yeah, he is hands-off. He just really wants to record how you sound, like just naturally, and that's what he does very well.

ITW: So do you think you'll ever work with anyone else?

SN: I just feel really comfortable working like that. To me, its actually kinda like having a restriction, because I feel like the more restrictions I have, at some level, the more inspired I am. And so for me, for my brain to say, "ok you're going to in the studio at this time, and you have to have the songs written, worked out, rehearsed, and really tight, and that's it - there's going to be nothing else going on," to me, that really inspires me. Whereas if someone said to me, "hey here's a computer, you can do what the fuck you want for the next four months," I would find that more overwhelming, and I think I wouldn't be as inspired, because I need to feel like really restricted.

ITW: On the new record (The Calcination of Scout Niblett), the lyrics in the title track make reference to your "self-made sweat box." Is this sort of what you're talking about when you say that those restrictions inspire you?

SN: Yeah, the sweat box is a metaphor. It just refers to the whole idea of the "calcination" thing, which is really about being in a psychological position that's really difficult. Like basically where you're personally dealing with your demons and the shadow side of your personality that you don't really want to look at it. And when that happens, its kinda like...

Continued at Intothewoods.tv