Braving Los Angeles traffic is a stressful feat at the best of times, so attempting to navigate the city’s metal matrix around the holiday season would put a dampener on most people’s spirits.
But not Mish Barber-Way – the frontwoman for Canadian experimental punk outfit White Lung is a firecracker of energy and enthusiasm, busy navigating her adopted metropolis as she chats with the BRAG at the tail end of 2016.
“This year’s been a great year for us,” she says. “Touring all year, travelling. We played our last show of the year in LA a week ago – I’m happy to have a break but I’m happy to have had a chance to not play the States too. I love playing the US because it’s not Europe. I hate Europe. OK, I don’t hate it, it’s just annoying.
“You know what I hate? I hate being a tourist. Going somewhere, not speaking the language, I feel like I’m a burden on the country, I feel helpless, and I lived in the Netherlands! I can’t speak a word of the language and it makes me feel dumb, then I self-project and say I hate it. I get fat when I’m there too, because it’s all meat and bread and cheese – not the diet for a lady like me!”
Touring in support of their fourth album Paradise, White Lung have indeed embarked on an extensive stretch of work in the past 12 months. Set to play the 2017 Laneway Festival, Barber-Way expresses her excitement with an adhering hint of dottiness.
“Oh yeah, we had a blast last time we were there – we’ve always had so much fun, you guys are animals,” she laughs. “You love to have a good time, and I can speak English so we’ve got no problem. I just don’t know all your weird little slangs but that’s half the fun.”
Barber-Way’s wonderfully peculiar character comes across in Paradise, with the instrumentation avoiding traditional sounds, manipulated as they are to create something unique.
“This is how our band works: Kenneth [William] and Anne-Marie [Vassiliou] paint a picture. This is how [William] described it once: creating a musical stage for me to perform on. I write melody and lyrics and Kenneth turns his guitar into three other instruments – synth, keys, none of that is on the record. “He created a MIDI board where he put samples into it and played a secondary guitar with his feet. He wanted to use tech every possible way to transform punk rock guitar into something completely different.
“Our producer and Kenny clicked right away and experimented with all that nerdy pedal stuff and were real nerds. Folks ask him what he uses and he’s a cheapo and uses the shit, but he’s stepped up his game and now it’s showing.”
The eclectic blend of sounds in Paradise sits well with Barber-Way’s equally eclectic and sometimes controversial opinions, also reflected in her lyrics. Addressing topics of sex and feminism through music, Barber-Way has a profound yet relaxed way of explaining the place from where she writes these songs.
“I had a friend of mine who’s a poet, who said to me, ‘Every writer explores the same topics their entire lives,’ and that could not be more true. Look at any writer. Burroughs, one of my favourites, explored love and dope his entire life and finally figured it out before he passed away. I’m interested in human relationships; the carnal, primal, reptilian parts of our brain that help us survive.”
There’s no trace of irony in Barber-Way’ rather philosophical statement, and those concerns surrounding human relationships are particularly present in the standout Paradise track ‘Hungry’, which explores life in the music industry.
“I’ve been in LA now for almost four years in an industry that merges art and commerce and self-promotion,” says Barber-Way. “I love playing music, but promoting myself makes me feel stupid. I feel stupid competing, and worrying about my career beyond the monetary. It’s a song about wanting to be something, famous and adored, and feeling desperate doing so. It’s partly inspired by my friend Amber Tamblyn’s book Dark Sparkler. There’s a lot happening in that song. I think I re-wrote the lyrics about 25 times.”
Barber-Way is evidently a smart cookie, with a good head on her shoulders and a strong voice with which she has much to say. She’s been described in the past as a “good/bad feminist”, a label about which she offers another thoughtful observation.
“A bad feminist believes in equality, yet demands special treatment. She victimizes and scorns and is unwilling to be critical of her own ideology. A good feminist is realistic about the relationships between human beings, is open-minded, practical not ideological and reads the theories of those she assumes she may not agree with.
“She is willing to be wrong sometimes. She will listen and debate. That’s just my opinion as someone who went from ‘good’ to ‘bad’, which is really just an act of growing the fuck up.”
[White Lung phpoto by Rick Rodney]
White Lung play Newtown Social Club on Thursday February 2 thenLaneway Festival 2017 onSaturday February 4 at Sydney College of the Arts.Paradiseis out now through Domino.
