Fresh off their third album, the major-label debut "This Island," feminist dance-rock outfit Le Tigre is currently wrapping up a tour of several swing states.
With the release of the band's first major single, "New Kicks," which features samples of a protest recorded on minidisc, Le Tigre, made up of former Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, are attempting to reach a wider audience with their unique brand of danceable protest rock.
Johanna Fateman recently spoke with The Eagle over the phone about "This Island" and Le Tigre's influence.
The Eagle: What role do bands like Le Tigre and Sleater Kinney serve in terms of promoting activism in the young feminist community?
Johanna Fateman: It's really hard for us to have a larger perspective on what real impact we have, but I do know that we've certainly gotten a lot of letters and fan mail, so just responses from things we've said at shows or content that's on our records or content that's on our Web site, people saying thanks. [Things like], "There's an activist scene and a feminism history that I didn't know too much about before I knew about your band," and so to us that's super inspiring and it really keeps us going. It's not just about learning about our band, but it's like our band as sort of a stepping stone to this other kind of knowledge.
Eagle: Is "This Island" a conscious attempt for Le Tigre to be a household name?
Fateman: [Laughs]. Well, it's a conscious attempt for us to reach a larger audience. We feel like with the political climate being what it is, there's very few radical voices and very few even women's voices in alternative rock. It's amazing that a radical feminist band is getting some attention.
Eagle: Is that the thinking behind signing with Universal, to reach a wider audience?
Fateman: Yeah, absolutely. Having the resources of a major label has been pretty awesomely significant so far. We were able to release "New Kicks" as our first single and get that out there in time for the Presidential election and that was really important to us.
Eagle: Do you think the current political climate is similar to how it was during the Reagan era in the 1980s?
Fateman: There are definitely some similarities. I actually think that the current Bush administration is a more ambitious and war mongering administration, you know? It's hard to say because I was so young during Reagan's years.
Eagle: Everyone in the band has a part in the writing process - can you elaborate?
Fateman: Everybody contributes to every track, whether it's working on the beats or adding guitar parts or keyboard parts or helping to write lyrics or back-up vocals. With this last record we collaborated really closely. Through transferring files to one another's houses we're able to bring up the song that another bandmember had been working on the night before and have it in our own apartment just as she left it. That was really powerful just in terms of using technology that was new to us.
Eagle: How important is it for your music to be danceable?
Fateman: It's the most important thing that we consider. The biggest measure of our success is whether people are out on the dance floor or not. That was something that we were really striving for with ["This Island."] Having hard production value wasn't so much about having like a slicker package that would be more acceptable, it was more like we wanted people to feel it in their bodies and have a really sonically gratifying experience.
Eagle: Do you feel as if non-partisan voting initiatives are effective?
Fateman: Well, I don't want people to go out and vote for Bush you know. I think it matters who you vote for. Other musicians, Outkast for example, want to get people out to vote and it's supposedly non-partisan, but I think that people that are young and certainly hip-hop and rap fans that get out to the polls are [going to be] votes for Kerry, and I think that's what they're counting on when they act as non-partisan. I think more mainstream artists have a lot more to lose than we do. We don't have anything to lose by taking [our] position.
