JD Samson and MEN

JD Samson may have once been best known for being part of seminal riot grrrl band Le Tigre, but these days Samson stands alone as a much sought after DJ and also for her new musical project, MEN. About to hit our shores yet again, the eternal collaborator, artist, musician and DJ, spoke to Rachel Cook about MEN, feminism and why Australia is her ‘second home’.

Your background was in filmmaking, so how did music start for you?
In college I was making films in the feminist art world in New York and I met a bunch of artists and somehow ended up hanging out with Le Tigre. It was how I got to working with them as a collaborator. I was also promoting bands, so I guess I was in the culture in that way. When I was a teenager I wanted to play the guitar and my parents bought me a classical guitar. So I learned the basics of classical guitar when I was 14. I guess I had some knowledge of how to make music, but not so much. I’m glad I didn’t have that much because it was easier for me to get into a DIY punk scene where I ended up teaching myself.

How did your band MEN form?
It’s complicated, because it’s kind of the meshing of two projects. One of them was a DJ production original music team with Joanna Fateman who was also in Le Tigre. We were starting a new project after Le Tigre. And then she got pregnant and she said she couldn’t be in a full time band and she couldn’t tour. At the same time I was in a project with Michael O’Neill, Emily Roysdon and Ginger Brooks Takahashi. That was a fun thing and kind of like a jam session art project. I decided to bring the two together and then slowly but surely, people decided they weren’t into the touring lifestyle and so the core became me and Michael and we have different people joining us on tour.

How does that work, how do people get to join the band, what’s the criteria?
I don’t know. Basically Ginger left to pursue her visual arts career and then we auditioned people and we had different ideas about what we wanted from them because we weren’t really sure whether we wanted a guitar player or a drummer or whatever. We’re really lucky that our music can be adapted in a number of different ways so we can bring different combinations of people to different places. We ended up bringing Tammi Hart with us and she played bass and guitar and then she didn’t want to tour anymore, [laughs] it’s a hard life touring.

Can you tell me about why you called the group ‘MEN’?
Well, Jo and I had been DJ-ing a lot and our agent said you need a title for your DJ group because it’s weird to say Jo and JD from Le Tigre. We happened to be travelling at the time and we were at an airport and Jo told me about this new philosophy she had of being a feminist and trying this thing of pretending to be a man when you’re in a situation with a man who’s making you feel lesser. So we were laughing at that and thinking of situations, such as if someone cuts in front of you in line and you think, what would a man do in this situation. We had this running joke with it, and so when they asked us what we wanted to be called we said, MEN.

You played at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which in a way is pretty funny given your name. Was that a point of discussion there?
Yeah, I’ve been going to that festival since I was 17 so it’s been a big part of my life and it’s interesting that they do want us to play there even though our name is MEN. When we first applied I thought they would never accept us, but lo and behold they don’t mind at all. In fact, we have this crazy star status there with the kids.

Your album Talk About Body I guess says it pretty plainly, you talk about gender and sex. You’ve created this dialogue about these issues via your songs and videos that’s really welcomed of course by the queer community, but what feedback or discussion have you had with straight fans about it?
It’s interesting I think we have pigeonholed ourselves to be part of this gay ghetto of musicians and part of that is because we are so self-referential with our lyrics. We wanted to be the band for the queers, but at the same time we want to reach as many people as we can. We have a lot of straight fans who say, you know I’m not even gay but I loved it. It’s great that people are enjoying our show and it’s not about being queer.

Normally music with a message has been aligned with acoustic music, while dance music can be seen as trivial. But you make dance/pop music with a message and it works, why do you think that particular mix goes together so well?
I would consider myself an artist before I would consider myself a musician and any kind of adaptation and juxtaposition of genres or elements or mediums is something that I’m really interested in. So for me, using a commercial medium like pop or dance music and putting a message to it that’s more subversive or alternative is just ten times more interesting to me.  I think in Le Tigre we did it because we didn’t want feminist music to be angry all the time and I learned from that.

How do you think your politics have changed over the years, if at all?
I don’t think my politics have changed, I think that the world has changed around my politics. I’m still a huge feminist, but all the changes that have been going on in the world has made me feel as if I need to reinstate certain parts of my feminism and politics at certain times.

And in regards to initiatives such as It Gets Better and other programs, do you think these initiatives work? What do you think needs to happen to combat homophobia and transphobia?
You know, when The L Word first came out, people were asking me what do you think, and my feeling was of course it’s a generalization of lesbians, but the truth is that it’s visibility for queers and I appreciate that. And I think it’s the same for the It Gets Better. There’s problems with it, but there’s problems with anything and it really did bring a lot of people joy and help and that’s what’s important. Right now I’m in this place where I’m more worried about what people think about women. There seems to be some kind of backlash especially over the internet with these skits like Shit Girls Say. It’s all to do with labelling and boundaries and lines and it’s just so very juvenile to me. It makes me very sad that 40-year-old people are posting these videos.

You’ve talked about when you first joined Le Tigre and you brought this presence of female masculinity which people had to look at. Was that confronting for you?
I think for a time I thought I just have to accept this and I knew that I had to take that role and I hope that I did it right. I just kept doing it because people said that they needed it and it was really great for me, too.

You wrote a piece for the Huffington Post recently that talked about the stresses of being a musician or artist in regards to income. You said you’re ready to get a job, go to work in the morning and get a paycheck once a week. How serious are you about getting a ‘normal’ job?
I’m very interested in it! I’ve been touring since 2001 pretty much non-stop. I’m home for a couple of months at a time during the year, but really for the rest of the time I’m travelling. My schedule is gruelling and not to mention the impact it has on my relationships with friends and family. I’m 33 and I want to make sure that I’m able to fulfil all the things that I want to do in life and one of them is to be able to feel secure with myself and financially be able to have a family if I want one. It’s scary, I won’t be able to do this forever and I don’t really have a backup plan. I would like to have security and whether that comes from our next record or from getting up and going to a job every day I almost don’t care. I’ve had a great time and I will always make art. Who knows maybe I could make soundtracks for movies and that still within the arts.

Talking about stresses placed on relationships – Sia and you were the iconic queer couple who were really out and open about your relationship which was affirming for a lot of people, but with all of that and then touring on top of that, how much of a stress did that have on the relationship?
It’s always hard. I’ve had a lot of relationships and I’m kind of like one of those people who’s with someone until as long as they can handle me going away all the time, and once they get upset about that I’m like, well what am I going to do, change my whole life? After a certain amount of time I have to look at myself and say what am I doing? Sometimes going out with other musicians is easier because they do it too.

You’ve been to Australia many times now, what keeps you coming back?
When I was a kid I had this book that was about ‘Where do you want to live when you grow up?’ and I always said Australia. I’ve always thought of it as my second home even before I went there. Then Le Tigre went there for a Big Day Out and I felt at home. I’ve gone there for about a month for the last three years and I really do feel at home. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the weather… maybe it’s just that it’s so beautiful.

MEN National Tour
Brisbane February 24  Brisbane Powerhouse
Perth February 25 Perth Arts Festival
Hobart February 29 Brisbane Hotel
Melbourne March 1 Phoenix Public House
Sydney March 3 Mardi Gras
Adelaide March 4 Adelaide Festival
www.myspace.com/men