Noveller: The 13th Floor Interview

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Noveller is the solo electric guitar project of American musician Sarah Lipstate. As is evidence on her new album, A Pink Sunset For No One, Noveller creates stunning soundscapes that are both cinematic and emotionally bracing.

Noveller spent much of last year touring as the opening act with none other than Iggy Pop, who, it turns out, is a big fan. This gave Lipstate an opportunity to expose her music to a brand new audience.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Sarah Lipstate recently and discussed her experience touring with Iggy. But first, he asks about her recent move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

Click here to listen to the interview with Noveller:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Why the move? Was it musically motivated, or otherwise?

SL: No, it wasn’t musically motivated. I had been in New York for almost ten years, and I was looking for a change. I spent a good amount of time thinking about where I wanted to go, and Los Angeles was the place I decided on; and I think it was a very good decision, on my part.

MD: Why has it turned out to be so good?

SL: The things that frustrated me about living in New York were… it’s a city of many obstacles, just in terms of day to day life: I had a car there, and driving in New York was a nightmare. It’s the worst place I’ve ever driven. And I’m a musician: I like to have my studio in my home, and every time I tried to do that in an apartment, there’s always some issues: you’re living, basically, on top of other people; you’re always going to have neighbours. Unless you live way far out in Queens, you’re not going to have your own house. When I started looking at LA, I saw that for less than I was spending on an apartment in Brooklyn, I could get my own little house and not have to have roommates, and just get that privacy that I wanted; and aside from that, just a sense of more open space. I grew up in Louisiana – and I just know that this is not something that I enjoy – and I had been through enough winters in New York.

MD: Sounds like you made the right choice for yourself. Does your environment influence that you make? Will there be a change from what we hear from you, because of the move?

SL: I want to say “Absolutely”. I’m very much affected by my environment, and I know that once I start writing here, that everything’s going to play a big part in my creative process. It’s such a drastic change. Where I’m living, currently – I’m in the Mt Washington neighbourhood in LA – and there’s a lot of nature, there’s a lot of wildlife, and it’s just so different. I was walking my dog last night, and we ran into a skunk; which could have been unpleasant, but it was pretty cool; it was very novel. I thought the skunk was really cute, and it left us alone; so, it was fine…. There are just all kinds of critters – I see coyotes all the time, and they’re kind of dangerous – but it’s refreshing, coming from Brooklyn, where the only wildlife you would see were pigeons and rats.

MD: And they can be kind of dangerous as well.

SL: Oh yeah! Not fun.

MD: Well, congratulations on the new album. What goes through your head, and what kind of emotions are running when you release a new record?

SL: I was very excited. I decided I needed to celebrate. The record release show that I have set up – is actually happening next month, March 11th, in Brooklyn. I wasn’t planning a show the day that the record came out; so, I decided to celebrate – invite all my friends here, and go out to a bar, have some drinks, and celebrate – and that felt really good, because I think that it is such an important moment. I started the first recordings for this album at the end of 2015; and so, you work on the music, and you work on getting the artwork together, and mastering, and the liner notes and everything. It just takes a lot of time, and I think it’s important just to reflect on that, and to be grateful, and acknowledge the release date, because it often feels like, “Wow! This has been a long time coming, and now it’s finally out there, and people can hear it….” It feels good. It’s really nice to hear people’s thoughts about it…. I’m in the process, right now, of figuring out some live arrangements for some of the new songs. I’ve been playing some of them already, like Deep Shelter: I used that song to open my set when I was a support act for the Iggy Pop tour; so, I’ve been playing that for a while…. That’s… transitioning from the recording to live arrangements and figuring out the best way to do that. That’s what I’m doing right now.

MD: You mentioned the tour with Iggy: that seems like an interesting combination – you and Iggy Pop – and not one that necessarily would come to mind immediately. Tell me a little bit about what it was like to open for Iggy. Were his fans aware of what you do? Were they open to listening to you?

SL: I am sure most of the people that came to the show were not familiar with my music, and I’m happy to say that they – for the most part – were just completely respectful. I made myself available after the show – whenever I could, I go out and sell my own merch; and so, I get to interact with lot of people – and it was just really cool for me to hear that the people that were into it, that dug it, definitely came up and told me it was a nice surprise. When you’re in that position, you always want to win over as much of the people as you can; so, I definitely think I made an impact. I knew that people were there to see Iggy, but it was so much fun for me. Early on in the tour, we had a dinner after one of the shows with Iggy and Josh (Homme) and the whole band, and I was able to ask him how he discovered my music. That was just really satisfying to get that back story, because I knew that he had played some of my music on his radio programme that he does on BBC 6; so, I had known, before I got asked to do this tour, that he was familiar with my music, and he had played a few tracks off my last album, Fantastic Planet, and talked about how he really liked my music, and how he had watched some videos on YouTube – like live performance clips – and he was talking about how he thought I was a great performer! When I listened to that, that made me incredibly happy. I never thought that would translate to him asking me to go on tour with him. So, I just got a little more of that story, and he said – regarding it being an odd pairing – “Look, my audience trusts me, and I think you’re a top notch act. And if I choose to have you on my bill, the audience: they’re going to be down with it: they’re going to love you too, because they trust me,” and so, I was like, “Sure! I’m not going to argue with you.” Basically, I was like, “If Iggy wants me to be here, then I’m not going to question it;” that’s all I needed to hear. It was very validating. It put me at ease, and I just focussed on trying to give the best performance that I could; and if people were into it, that was a complete bonus. Every chance that he got, after a show, Iggy would say, “You did a great job tonight,” or just say something really positive; that’s all I really needed; I just want to make him happy.

MD: Were you tempted to throw in a couple of Stooges riffs in some of your things?

SL: Not at all….

MD: I was watching… I think it was a clip at Royal Albert Hall, on the last night of the tour – it’s on YouTube – and your performance seems to be a combination of… there’s a lot of technical things going on… it’s somewhat physical, and also, the music is emotional. I was wondering where you are, mentally, when you’re doing all that stuff at the same time?

SL: Royal Albert Hall is an interesting example, because there is so much information that I have to keep in my head… if you saw the video, or know anything about me, I use so many guitar pedals to make my sound – the guitar is the only instrument I’m using – so, I rely on all these effects pedals; so, a lot of this stuff that I keep in my head is the settings for the pedals, and when to turn on and turn off a certain pedal. Then the main thing is – since I’m a solo performer – I rely on my looper pedal to build the layers, and build these songs; so, a lot of it is this choreography with my feet, of building the loops, and turning the pedals on and off, and all that; and then also, of course, the guitar parts that I’m playing on the guitar; so, I have to keep all that stuff in my head. When I walked out onto the stage at Royal Albert Hall, I just got so overwhelmed by the beauty and how massive that stage is; and there’s also so much to take in: it’s so ornate; and the lighting on the ceiling: I remember it was very captivating. It was a very mesmerising stage. And I remember it being thoroughly lit: I felt like I could see everyone in the audience; it wasn’t dark. Some stages you walk out on, and it looks like an abyss: you can’t see anything; but this was the exact opposite; so, I was very much not in my head for the first two songs. I was panicking a bit, because… it was hard to really focus, for me. But luckily, this was the seventeenth show that I’d done on that tour; so, I was rehearsed enough to where I was able to perform. But for me, a really successful performance is when I’m able to let go of all the details – everything I need to be focussed on – and just let myself become really immersed in the music. Luckily, I was able to pull back in, be really present, and let that take over around my third song; so, by the end of the set, I was able to really enjoy the performance. A lot of that is being able to let loose, and be a little more physical with my movements. That’s a way that I’m able to get lost a little bit more in the music. But it’s a lot. It definitely helps being on tour and performing night after night: you get a little more practice with everything. It’s never boring, performing live.

MD: Speaking of performances: I think I saw that you’re doing something quite a bit different than opening for Iggy: now you’re doing something called Blake & The Apocalypse, along with a poet. What is that all about?

SL: So, Nick Flynn is a friend of mine – he’s an author, he’s done several memoirs, and he’s also a poet…. He’s a fan of my music, and we did some shows in the US, where he was doing readings from his new book of poetry; and so, he would have me perform before he would do his reading. But we decided to do a little collaborative thing, where he was reading some William Blake, and I was just accompanying him, scoring the poem. Well, a friend of his in London caught wind of this, and suggested that we would be great additions to this poetry festival called Poet in the City; so, they invited us to come to London. Now they’ve added a second performance in Manchester, and we’re going to be doing that. It’s about an hour long performance and it’s very dark, apocalyptic imagery. It’s very beautiful, though. And it’s really fun, for me, to come up with the score, essentially, for this poetic imagery. We rehearsed it a few times via Skype, but we thought it would just be really cool to let it be very organic, and improvise, in terms of the sound. I’m just going to try and really respond to the poem and the words. It’s definitely something different for me, but it’s going to be, I think, really exciting, and really refreshing, and cathartic, maybe.

MD: Now, before we wrap up: I was wondering, for folks who are new to you, and want to check out the new album: how do you recommend that they approach your music, and what’s the best environment for listening to what you do, as far as a recorded mode…?

SL: … My preferred method, of course…I have my stereo set up with my turntable here; so, I recommend listening to it on your turntable; buy the vinyl. But if you’re just checking me out: I personally love listening to music in the car, driving around at night. That’s always how I listen to the masters of my recordings: if it sounds good in the car, then it’s ready to go! That’s how I learned to love music when I was a teenager, driving around – after I got my driver’s licence – listening to my favourite music; so, I recommend that. I think my last two albums, Fantastic Planet, and the new one, A Pink Sunset For No One, are really good introductions to my music; and I feel like those are good entry points. But, of course, the new album: that’s what I’m most excited about right now; so, dive right into A Pink Sunset For No One! See what you think.

MD: Any chance of you coming to New Zealand to perform?

SL: That would be incredible! My European booking agent: he’s working on dates right now. I’m completely in the dark: I don’t know what he’s picking out for me. It would be amazing, but I have no idea what he has in store for me. I know I’ll visit there eventually, and I look forward to that. It’s going to be special.

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