An interview by Sonia Pereira that appeared in the Winter 2001 issue of Charm, a zine out of Northampton, MA. I’m not sure of the exact date the issue came out, but the interview itself happened over the phone on 10/5/01.

Chillin’ With Edith Frost

I’ve had this Edith Frost song in my head all day. It’s called "Cars and Parties" and it goes something like this: "Everyone around here reminds me of someone down in Texas and every strip-mall on the highway reminds me of my home…" In her classically Frost-like nonchalance, Edith’s voice rolls through the tune like she’s rolling smoothly down a hill only to fly off a sharp dip throughout her course (hey, she’s gotta let you know just how uncool or mal-adjusted she really is). Edith Frost is the kind of singer you can relax in the tub to while sipping hot cider and rum, eating Godiva’s, closing your eyes, and remembering how sucky and wonderful love can be while fighting back the tingling tears in your gut. Her voice is deep and gentle like a little kid’s sincerest belly laugh. Her lyrics are deceptively simple, endearing, and extremely catchy.

When I listen to her sing, "I wonder, wonder what I should do… I don’t know what to do about you…" in the clanky tune "Wonder Wonder" off her new album of the same title (on Drag City Records and engineered by the highly-acclaimed Steve Albini), I just can’t help but smile at the sheer buck nakedness of Frost’s twangy turmoil. On the phone Frost is nervous and charming, fast ("I’m pacing the floor," she says in her almost little-girl voice) and jumping from topic to topic with remarkable ease. Right away I can sense her inclination for self-deprecation which can also be noted on her website (edithfrost.com) where there’s hardly a picture of the girl alongside the info on her Wonder Wonder tour.1 Frost is definitely not in the music biz because she likes the limelight and glittery facades that sweep along such divas as Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love. No, she’s just a girl with a guitar who has to write music because it’s her bliss and after listening to her sing "Don’t blow out the candle little girl" in "Further" it’s easy to see that Edith Frost is a girl who has no problem following it. - Sonia Pereira

First, I wanted to ask you about your new album, Wonder Wonder. I noticed that virtually every song on it is about unrequited love. Is this essentially a breaking up album?

I didn’t have any concept. The songs were written over a long period of time, some were new, some weren’t, so I can’t really say that. We just picked the best songs. And you know, a lot of them are oriented around relationships… and that’s always the case… (laughs)

In "Cars and Parties," one of the tracks on Wonder Wonder, you sing, "And though I want to open up my heart there’s too many parties." I think that’s a great line and it’s always stuck with me. I was wondering what it means…

I was just making the line rhyme with the last one… I don’t know… I had written that song in pieces where the verses came out on one piece of paper and then when I was working on it I was kind of babbling and making words that went together metrically. It came out to have a topic and everything, but, (laughs) I don’t know.

Well, it’s a good line.

I guess it rhymes kind of with heart, you know, parties… I don’t know… (laughter)

In "The Fear" are you referring to fear in general or fear in relation to matters of the heart like breaking down inhibitions to create intimacy?

Well that tune is kind of like a children’s song, like a nursery rhyme. It’s really simplistic. Actually, it’s about panic attacks and the dread that you feel a lot… all of the time (laughs).

What do you mean when you say, "love is the engineer?"

Well, it has a way of working things out. And I thought it was a cool image, the old engineer…

I like the image of "love is the carpenter" that you use too…

Yeah…

At the back of the album you thank God and I also noticed that in the song "Wonder Wonder" there is a reference to the bible. Is religion important to you and your work?

Well, it is in that I am a deep thinker in general and I think about these things and I don’t know what the deal really is. Or what the truth really is… and I’d like to find out. I can’t call myself a really super-religious person. I’m more curious and spiritual. For me, I’m curious about spirituality. And when my record was being recorded my dad was in the hospital and came really close to dying like three times and at that time I got religion for awhile (laughs) and I was really praying for him to get better and he did and he’s doing pretty well now. And I thank God on there because I thought if that was the reason why then I wanted to say, "thanks." But I don’t make a big point of that, everybody’s gotta figure out…

What they need.

Yeah.

What’s the weather like over there, by the way?

It’s getting colder and chillier out, it was raining all day yesterday…

It’s so hot here…

I’m all in like, sweat pants and sweatshirt… socks…

I just got my hair cut so I’ve got lots of little pieces of hair all over my face…

I hate that!

Agh, I know! Ok, I once read that you’re kind of obsessed with love and are always thinking about it.

Yeah, yeah… you gotta have a hobby.

Are you interested in other arts that reflect love stories like literature or movies… any favorites?

Um… like romance books?

Oh God, no, no…

‘Cause I was thinking about that the other day. I had read a couple when I was a little kid and they’re so terrible. I was thinking about, you know how they have conventions with all the writers? I wonder if they read each other’s shit…

That sounds crazy…

I wonder if they find it a valid art form. I guess they… I digress… I don’t know… I don’t so much go for the love thing in movies, crappy love stories, as much as I go for science fiction.

You’re into sci-fi books?

Or just like real fantastic…

Like Philip K. Dick?

Yeah… I collect him, in the 80’s I was really into him and reading him all the time. I have all the books, I haven’t read them in a really long time. I don’t call myself an expert anymore… I do have about 55 of his…

I didn’t realize he had that many.

Yeah, well he had a lot, a lot, lotta paperbacks and trashy books he’d written in 10 minutes or something… (laughs). Some of them are a lot better than others…

Ok, um… do you have any direct influences by other musicians?

Direct?

Well, you’ve been compared to Liz Phair and Chan Marshall. How do you feel about the comparisons?

Well, the Liz Phair thing, if it didn’t happen every time… it kind of annoys me because I see my name next to hers and also Patsy Cline, it always says, "Liz Phair crossed with Patsy Cline." It’s just… I don’t know… I love Liz Phair, I love Patsy Cline, I collect both of their music along with a million others and I think it’s like the voice might be too similar to some people or… I don’t think people think I sing as well as Patsy Cline… maybe I’m somewhere between the two. I wonder who they compare Liz Phair to… nobody.

Do you feel like you’re really into the Indie scene, do you feel connected to it?

In a way I know a lot of people and I get along with a lot of people but in other ways I’m kind of an ostrich because I’m not really buying all this stuff and I don’t really know my Indie rock as well as some other people. Mostly what I look for is weird shit…

Like what?

I really love kooky shit.

Like… Devo?

I love Devo!

Me too!

That was one of the first groups I was totally nuts over but, weirder than that… like really annoying music like Mrs. Miller, she’s a really bad singer. And Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. They did like this crazy bad music. And tons of rockabilly…

Most of this stuff is on vinyl…

Yeah, yeah, yeah… I’m trying to find it in a digital form or burn it onto cds. I have so much of that stuff. I went through this project where I was finding MP3s of stuff that I have and putting it on cds for the tour that I just did and I have like 7 cds with 200 different songs on each cd.2 And then the World Trade Center thing happened and we were listening to the radio all the time.

What was that like, being on tour in America while the calamities surrounding the tragedies were taking the country by storm?

Well, it sucked. New York was the last place I lived before Chicago. It was really awful, I had to wake up the band and tell them. Of course, the first thing everybody thought when I said something awful had happened was that the van had gotten stolen and I was like, no, it’s worse. Um, and we didn’t know what to do, for half the day… we just watched TV and ate breakfast… we didn’t have a show that night. It was a driving day. We had a three-week tour and that was the only driving day by coincidence, so that was good. We didn’t have to play that night. But the next show was in Denton so we had to decide whether to keep going or not while thinking is the world at war? Can we even go on the highway? Everybody lives in Chicago except for Amy who lives in Arlington, she was like, "I need to go home." But we all decided to keep going and we were in a way we didn’t have to go straight through New York, we were going south then east. And that show, we didn’t know if it was going to happen and it did and it was a great show.

Did you notice a change in the audience at all?

That’s all everyone was talking about… the first week or so was bad for attendance but the people who did show up were really cool… it’s really wild to be a traveler in the middle of all that. We were getting along really great, the band… it was like the Fourth of July outside, all the flags… I never thought I’d experience that… I want to go back out again really soon which I never say. I gotta go west.

Do you have any rituals before writing like some writers do?

I’m really not disciplined…

You work randomly?

Yeah… (laughs), when I work.

Okay, I noticed that the voice coming through your songs kind of borders on shyly or anxiously confident as if these two parts of yourself are struggling with each other. Do you see yourself as shy or extroverted?

I’m a loner a lot. I stay home and do my own projects, am in my own world. I love being with my friends but I don’t go out that often… I don’t go to see shows. Probably, I’m more introverted. Shy? I’m not shy around people I know at all. In a crowd I’m totally, uhhhhh…

You like the Cocteau Twins…

Yeah!

Did they influence you at all?

Sure, a lot when I was first writing. They were one of my favorite bands ever in the 80’s.

What’s your favorite album of theirs?

Oh, I guess Victorialand. And Blue Bell Knoll.

You got your first guitar when you were 14.

Yeeeeeeeah!

Did your parents get that for you?

I guess so, I can’t remember.

Did they encourage you?

Yeah, my mom always had a piano… and she was always into music, into orchestra type musicians, so she was always encouraging me to take lessons. I took cello for awhile, piano…

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?

God, I was always into music and obsessed with it and I got a record player and that’s when I was sure that’s what I really wanted to do when I was 10 years old. That was my heart’s desire but I didn’t think it was possible to do ’cause nobody in my family is a musician.3

Did you worship rock stars?

Well, the first group I worshiped was The Carpenters. I lived in Mexico when I was in fourth grade to ninth and I was collecting records and in the early teens got more album oriented. But what you can get in Mexico is really limited. And it was really pop like Andy Gibb. When I moved back to the states my taste in music shot up to a much higher quality (laughs). I’ve always gobbled music…

When you were in high school did you go through a punk or new wave phase?

Yeah!

Madonna?

Yeah! I saw her first tour and I didn’t think she was the greatest singer on earth but I liked "Borderline."

What about her stuff now?

It’s something I’d throw on a mix tape, a guilty pleasure (laughs).

Yeah, good to dance to… well, we’re devoting a part of this issue to menstruation. And I was wondering if you had anything to say about it. Do you hate it or love it or don’t care…

I think it’s a pain in the ass. I’d rather not have it. I got my period when I was 12 and it was like this big milestone like, you’re a woman now. But my personality is more tomboyish and it’s — to me — a bit of an inconvenience. But, I guess I’d rather have it than not, ’cause I don’t want to go through the change. I’m 37 and it’s like, tick, tick…

What do you think of feminism?

I’m not politically minded and I know my life has been affected by my gender. And I know that there are many ways, especially financially that I’ve been dicked over. Respect you don’t get… or even the other way around, reverse discrimination… I have a problem with segregating women…

Like marginalizing?

Yeah. And like, I don’t…

You don’t want people to listen to you just because you’re a woman.

Yeah. Or like, say that I’m more or less of anything because of my gender. And I do get a chip on my shoulder about those festivals, Ladyfest. I did one in France and I just think ultimately it’s not good karma. I’ve said it before and then someone will say, well, look at Punkapalooza or whatever, where there’s no women… I don’t know. I know guys discriminate. But I don’t want to discriminate because I’m discriminated against.

So, do you think women have finally arrived in music?

When have they not been in music? They’ve always been. Ever since women have been there, they have been. Always.

Corrections/additions from Edith:

1 Hardly a picture?!? Look for the "Photos" link where I’ve stored practically every picture that’s ever been taken of me.

2 My MP3 collection has swelled greatly since then. I would rather not say how many MP3-CDs I have now!

3 Well… I forgot about my dad’s cousin Tom who’s a musician. He had a local hit in San Antonio in the Eighties that went… "Dos tacos con chorizo por favor… I had too much to drink, and my head ees so sore!!" I don’t think fans of my music would appreciate his talent, so much…