Comedienne Margaret Cho

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Margaret Cho. She is at least as well-known for being outspoken in her opinion of societal standards of beauty, gender and sexuality as for her comedy, but her outspokenness would have gone unnoticed were her acts not worthy of notice in the first place. Here the comedienne and I speak about various topics; enjoy the interview!

Hi, it’s great to meet you. How are you?
Pretty good. How are you?

I’m good. So… this isn’t directly related to your show, but it occurred to me as I was reading your interview in Bust magazine, which is my favorite magazine, by the way.
Ah, yeah, I love that magazine.

Are you a reader of Bitch magazine?
Uh-huh! Yeah, I did a foreword for their anthology.

Oh, really! It definitely seems like something that would be up your alley.
Mhm!

Okay, now let’s talk about your show. You’ve put together a new show called Fingerbang. Want to tell me a little bit about that?
It’s a show wherein I’m doing some music stuff, so it’s very much about getting together with whoever are these different musicians I’m working with and putting on a show at Largo, which is a court that I really love to play, and they’ve moved so now it’s this really big place, and it’s just our playground in which to do a lot of different stuff, and it’s a lot of fun because, you know, the music thing is very excited for me. I don’t know, I just love doing it; it’s very, very cool.

Are you not as invested in incorporating music into your shows usually?
Well, I’ve been doing music in comedy stuff since… 2003? So now I’m just doing more of a push and putting more music in. And I’m also playing for myself; before I would use recorded tracks and sing to the tracks but now I’m using all of my friends who are great musicians and having them give me lessons and help me and teach me and I’m playing it by myself, so that’s a big change.

Oh, cool! Do you know a bunch of different instruments, or—?
Well, right now I’m playin’ the guitar, and also the craviola and the banjo.

What on earth is the craviola?
It’s a special kind of guitar.

I see—and my dad plays the banjo! Okay, you recently finished your Beautiful tour, didn’t you?
Yeah, I finished that tour, and I filmed it in Long Beach for the DVD and it’ll probably be out in June or something like that.

What did that tour consist of? Less music than Fingerbang?
Yeah, yeah. I was doing a lot of different stuff. That was some music, but it was mostly comedy, so that was really fun. I mean, I really enjoyed doing that; it was cool. It was like a big stand-up show, and I hadn’t done a stand-up show for a couple of years because I was doing… I did my dance show, which was The Sensuous Woman, which was a big music-comedy-dancing extravaganza, and so it was great to return to stand-up doing the Beautiful show.

Is stand-up kind of home base for you?
Yeah, yeah, it’s where I come back down to and always knew. It’s what I love.

You participate in other people’s routines as well. I just recently saw a clip from Amanda Palmer’s show in which you were with a [fake] “Katy Perry”.
Oh, yeah, that was fun. She’s a very, very good friend of mine. Yeah, I try to work with other people and just to kind of connect with other people. I think it’s a lot of fun.

What inspired—well, obviously, hearing her song on the radio all the time, but what made you decide to do that skit?
Oh, I don’t know! [laughs] It was Amanda’s idea! I didn’t really care. It was just to be funny.

Yeah, well, it was funny! And you’re in an upcoming show on VH1, aren’t you?
Well, I was. I had my own show on VH1 last year, and now I have a new show on Lifetime Television called Drop Dead Diva, which will start airing in June. So that’s like a comedy-drama kind of show. It’s very… I’m not used to doing the scripted stuff, so this is like a totally new thing for me.

What happened to the VH1 show?
I don’t know. It’s going to be hard to do while I’m doing this other show, so I’m going to have to figure out a way to do—it’s a little tough.

That one was partially reality-based, wasn’t it?
Yeah, and it was also semi-scripted. I would love to find a way to do it. We’ll probably do it in another capacity; it probably won’t be on VH1 but either we’ll do it online or it’ll be some other kind of show.

It’s almost like you’ve been easing into doing more scripted stuff.
Yeah, which is cool. It’ll be fun.

Anything you can tell me ahead of time? Story lines?
I actually don’t know any yet. We haven’t started shooting; I’m moving to Atlanta, which is where it shoots, so that’s sort of my new life, so I’ll have to figure out how that’s going to be.

Where are you based now?
Los Angeles.

How is it there?
It’s great. It’s raining really hard, which is really weird because that never happens here.

Here in New York it’s not stopped snowing and all of a sudden tomorrow it’s going to jump up to fifty.
Oh, wow!

Not that I’m complaining. A winter in New York…
Yeah, but it’s still New York.

Of course! Have you been to New York a lot?
Uh-huh. I did my last show off-Broadway for many months, so I was there this time of year and it was pretty hard to do burlesque when it was, like, twenty degrees. [laughs] It was pretty hard!

Speaking of which, I’ve read that you’ve taken up belly dancing.
Yes. I have sort of taken a break from it, but I do love it. It’s a beautiful art form. It’s hard to do with my schedule now, I can’t really dance so much as I used to, but I do love it. It’s a great thing to do for yourself because it’s such a beautiful thing to move that way, and it’s very good for your body… I really love it.

It seems like the kind of thing that would help improve one's own body image.
I think it does. I think it’s a very healthy thing for anyone, you know? For men and women to do. I think it’s a really great thing especially for women, but, yes, it’s something I did study for a very long time and I spent a lot of time traveling all over the world trying to take lessons and get people to teach me. It was a very cool thing to do.

I think that sort of activity, it’s especially great that it’s out there when, especially now, societal views of people’s bodies and especially women’s bodies are so bizarre and unrealistic.
Yeah. Yeah, so it’s wonderful to have that to sort of save you from all that shit.

Do you think the situation’s improving or getting worse?
I think it’s getting worse, actually, from the way that women’s bodies are scrutinized on the internet and the way people talk about women’s bodies nowadays in relation to how people should look or with the idea that there’s a right way to look. Especially with celebrities, like this whole big story about how Jessica Simpson’s fat when she’s not fat! She’s just a woman! And it’s a horrible thing to say that there’s something wrong with her just because she’s bigger, or whatever. She looks great! She looks better, probably, than most of the people who are talking about how fat she is. [laughs]

And it’s especially hard on teenagers, I think.
Yeah, it’s horrible. And it doesn’t make any sense, because what they’re calling “fat” is not. Anything that’s not skeletal is considered fat, or whatever. It’s ridiculous.

This concludes our interview! For more information about her current comedy show, her upcoming Lifetime TV show, or the plethora of other things we did not get around to covering, like her upcoming presence at South by Southwest, visit her website.
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British musician Jose Vanders

London-based, fresh out of high school, and appreciated even by Perez Hilton, Jose Vanders is a brilliant musician... but one is often at a loss as to what to call her. Is acousticky a genre? Whatever the case, although she writes her own songs, do not describe her as a singer-songwriter, since she hates the term; nevertheless, her songs are her own, and they are some of the most beautifully-written (and criminally underplayed) songs around. We discuss herein high heels, the lost physicality of CDs and EPs, and Laura Marling... enjoy and please listen to this breath of fresh air.

Hi, Jose, this is Keely. It’s nice to meet you. Oh, hello! You alright?

I’m good, how are you? I’m not bad, thank you! Oh, I completely forgot you were ringing, but obviously it’s a quarter to two. Is it morning over there?

Oh, yeah, it’s 8:45. How’s the weather? Over here it’s really sunny.

Well, I’m in New York, so it’s pretty chilly but— Oh, you’re in New York! I’d literally give my leg to be in New York right now. [laughs] Oh, man, I’m really jealous.

Where are you now? I’m in London, just at home. I just got a pair of heels, so I’m walking around in my room trying to practice walking in them, because they’re literally about three inches high and I can’t walk in them.

Three inches? Psh. I have a pair that’s four inches. I wear ‘em every day. Really! How big is an inch? Wait, one, two, three—do you measure from the end of the heel to where your heel goes?

Yeah. If you use the middle joint in your pinky finger that’s about an inch. Oh, okay, they are about three inches, then. Oh my god, and you wear four inches every day?

Well, okay, not every day, and in all fairness my mom yells at me whenever I ask if I can wear them. But I’ve always liked heels. [laughs] Right. This is my first proper pair, so I’m trying to get some good use out of them. I just need to walk in them. I had them out the other day and I actually fell over in the street on top of a man in the middle of everybody, which was pretty embarrassing.

Oh, goodness! Time to practice, I guess. Mm, exactly. Which is why I’m walking around my room and acting like a twat in heels. Anyway!

O-kay. So, you just finished high school, right? Yeah. Just finished [in 2008], yeah.

So you’re on your gap year. Indeed. I am applying to university, and—well, I applied already. So, yes, I’m on my gap year trying to do the music thing, but it’s sort of ended up being me working full time. [laughs] And then trying to apply to uni, and planning to go traveling, which is just completely not the plan, but there you go.

Wait, you’ve not been working on your music, or—? No, no, no, well, I’ve kind of put that aside. I put that aside in like September, but now I’m back on the road! Doing lots of gigs, I’m still rehearsing, and now I’m back in the studio with some really good producers and writers and stuff. So, no, I am working on it this year, yeah.

That’s exciting! Yeah! Very exciting. It’s pretty cool, yeah, it is.

You had an EP out… recently, I guess? Transactional Language. Ah, yeah. That one was… last summer, I guess. That was the first one, and then I’ve just done another one this summer, Red Black Blue and the Tortoise, and we toured around in the UK and played all the songs on that.

Okay, tell me more about that EP. Well, the first one was just me and a piano. It was recorded literally in a few hours in a living room, just me singing and playing, and then for some reason people really loved it so I thought, “Okay, on the next one” —this previous one— “I’m going to spend a bit more time on it, put some more thought into it,” and I sort of recorded it in a few weeks in a proper studio with a big band and stuff. And then some people were like, “Oh, I prefer the other one!” [laughs] It just goes to show that you can try and do something else that doesn’t often work. But, no, some people liked it. I need to find a balance between the two, I guess.

You’ve got space and time to experiment and figure out your music, I guess. Exactly. That’s what this year is for. I’ve got this management company, and they’ve really got nice people and they’re really good at what they do but they’re just like, “You need to sit at home and find a sound, and once you’ve got the sound then we can work with you!” [laughs] So, okay, how do I find a sound? So this whole year is for, just as you said, experimenting and trying stuff out and seeing what works, I guess.

And your EPs have been self-released, right? Yeah, both of them, although there’s this record label, and they’ve got two—maybe one, just one. They’ve got this independent little record shop in London, and they’ve also got a little label running and they released it on that, so they’ve been doing another thousand or so copies on that and they’ve put it in their shop, which is quite cool. Very exciting. But, yes, they’re definitely self-released.

They sold out! Yeah, the first one did. I made, like, 500 copies and they sort of went really quickly, which is really bizarre. [laughs] I don’t know. I suppose that Perez Hilton guy helped them out and shifted a couple hundred, and then I sort of printed more, and more of the new one, and it’s really exciting, I guess. I’m just really lucky that people are still buying CDs. [laughs]

Oh, yeah, the CDs are kind of dying out now. It’s so sad! It’s so, so sad. I just got a job in Rough Trade, which is another shop—you might know this one. It’s a label as well. They’ve got two independent record shops in London, and I work in the one on Brick Lane, and it’s, it’s… augh! And just now, since I’ve been working there, I’m so… what’s the word? Not passionate, because that sounds a bit corny, but do you know what I mean? People should buy CDs and support people. Even if they’re massive, they’ve still taken the time to think about it and produce a really good record and they should, you know, deserve recognition through paying for CDs! It disturbs me so much when people illegally download stuff. But that’s the world, isn’t it?

Well, it’s also a bit of a shame that so much music is going digital. What happened to having actual hard copies of CDs and going to actual record stores instead of, you know, buying everything off of iTunes? Exactly. I mean, one of my friends is releasing an EP on iTunes, just on iTunes, and though we’re all supporting him, and I’ll probably download it anyway, I’d love more than anything to have a physical copy of the CD. All my friends that are in bands hand-make their EPs and send them out with little badges and purses and stickers and pictures and notes, and it’s just so lovely, you know, to have something physical in your hand. Oh, I love artwork, though. I’m a sucker for a bit of artwork on a CD. But, yeah, I suppose everyone’s moving toward downloads, so what can you do?

Personally, I just think it’s more enjoyable to have a hard copy and to have the booklet and to be able to play it in an actual CD player. Those are still around! [laughs] I know! They’re dying out as well. And I think it’s important some records are made to be listened to as records: proper 12 tracks in a row. They’re put in that order for a reason; you shouldn’t pick and choose which songs to listen to. And I just think it’s a shame that people illegally download. But I understand why people do. It’s tough when you haven’t got much money and you’re sort of tied up for a new dress for a night out but you don’t want to pay £12 for somebody’s CD; I can understand it, and I suppose… I don’t know. My boyfriend says, “I don’t care if I lose money so long as people are listening to my music,” and I can kind of see why; I suppose at the end of the day I’d rather be broke but have people that really like my music and listen to it than completely rolling it and, you know, not, I suppose. [laughs]

Speaking of which, I actually have a friend who lives in the same area as you and went into the Rough Trade you work at and met you! Aw, bless her! I know her. She’s really cool. I’ve seen her quite a few times.

Yeah, and she mentioned that you recommended Angus and Julia Stone. Oh, I love Angus and Julia Stone. Yeah, definitely.

I haven’t heard any of their music yet. Oh, they’re really cool. They’re not one of my favorite, favorite bands, but I saw them live quite a few years ago. I think they’re brother and sister, or something, and they’re fantastic. You should check them out.

I will! What are some other groups you like? Ah, right, okay. I love this question. [laughter] My all-time favorite is Fionn Regan. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He’s a singer-songwriter—I hate that term—from Dublin with a very acousticky, folky, stunning, beautiful sound. He’s amazing live. And my other favorite of all time is Polly Paulusma. Both those names are on my MySpace and I preach about them constantly. She’s a woman, I think she’s in her thirties now, she’s got kids, but she’s absolutely phenomenal. She’s an unknown treasure, you know? She’s one of those people that writes the most amazing lyrics. She went to Cambridge University, so she actually knows what she’s talking about, and she’s absolutely phenomenal, and she’s really unknown, which is quite sad. I went to see her live last year at the Brixton Windmill, and funnily enough I’ve got a gig tonight there so I’m sort of really excited just because she’s played there! You probably know Regina Spektor, as well.

Yeah, she’s great. Yeah, I think she’s cool. I don’t know, really recently I’ve just listened to anything with guitars in that’s badly recorded.

[laughs] I love Joni Mitchell. You know, the classics. Anything folky that’s nice to listen to.

You know who else I also really like, in keeping with the theme of guitar-based music? Laura Marling. Oh, she’s brilliant! She’s absolutely fantastic.

Isn’t she!? She’s phenomenal. I’ve seen her live quite a few times and she’s absolutely breathtaking. And she did this whole song box, which is sort of this massive box—see, that’s appreciating the physical side of music, you know? And have you heard of Mumford and Sons, her backing band?

Not yet, I haven’t listened to them yet. Mm! Please do, just for me! They’re sort of this four-piece, accordion, banjo, drums, guitar, all really nice instruments, and they just play this stunning closed harmony, proper, real, good live music, and they’re her backing group, and they recorded it all on her CD as well. So you should go check them out, definitely.

They sound fantastic! Mmm! Really good.

Earlier you mentioned that you hate the term “singer-songwriter”. How come? [laughs] I don’t know, I just think mainly because music is such a thing that people get pigeonholed really easily, and lumping lots of people into the term “singer-songwriter”… how do I explain it? Yes, I am a singer-songwriter because I write songs and I sing, but at the same time there’s a whole group of people I consider to be singer-songwriters and their music is so different, so personal to them, that I don’t feel it’s fair to lump people into such a—d’you know what I mean with the pigeonholing?

Yeah, yeah, it’s a descriptor but it’s treated as a genre. Mm-mm-mm, exactly, and over here, I don’t know about over in the US, the connotation is guys putting on really bad indie accents and strumming really bad guitar chords in dirty little grimy gimlet pubs. That’s the connotation I get, anyway.

I don’t know, I feel like the term over here is almost more associated with women. Like, the big grouping right now being English females who write their own songs. Really! Who’s really popular at the moment, then?

Uh… I don’t know if I— [laughs] I’m sorry. That’s like coming into a record store and saying, “What’s really popular at the moment? Can I buy the CD of it?”

[laughter] Well, there’s this one musician who’s been called a singer-songwriter a lot, and… well, I guess she is. She’s called Taylor Swift. Okay. Never heard of her.

She’s, like, this country-pop star. She’s been getting airtime on Disney, and I don’t know if you know the Jonas Brothers but she dated but she dated one of those for a while, so she’s a celebrity now and everybody’s all, “She’s a singer-songwriter!” and I’m, like, “Yeah, but…so?” [laughs] All right, I guess I’ll check her out. Country’s massive over there, isn’t it? Or it always has been.

Yeah, somewhat. My dad used to go on business trips to the States and he would come back and spend 50-quid loads on country music. Oh, it was so funny. We just took the piss out of him.

Jose is truly brilliant, and I heartily advise that time be spent on her website or her MySpace.
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Musician Lenka

Most of you would recognize Lenka's music if you heard it: "The Show" has been aired everywhere, including in countless TV shows, as have "Don't Let Me Fall", "Live Like You're Dying" and just about every other song on her self-titled debut album. I am often skeptical when I hear about new pop musicians, but Lenka has truly got the goods. It can be easy to forget that in the most-maligned existing genre of music there also exists some truly quality stuff, a topic we actually discuss over the course of our conversation. The singer is awfully insightful and terrifically warm and accessible, as it happens, just like her music; here's hoping you enjoy this piece as much as her songs... or vice versa. I think she's earned the appreciation.

Hey, it’s nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too, on the phone!

Yeah, well, one kind of meeting.
Yeah. [laughs]

Are you in LA right now?
No, I’m in a car driving from Oakland Airport to San Francisco.

Oh, nice. Yeah, you have a concert there, when, tonight?
Yeah, I’m doing a concert here tonight.

That’s great. San Francisco’s an incredible city.
Yeah, it’s so fun. I know, I love coming here.

But you’re based in LA, right?
Yeah. I live in LA in theory, but I’m not there that often, lately. [laughs]

Yeah, with your current tour! You’re not coming as far as New York, but you’re—where’s the farthest east?
Um, maybe Chicago, or something, but I will get to New York sooner or later. It won’t be too far off, I just haven’t talked about it yet, but I’m sure you’ll see something popping up any day now.

I hope so! When did you move to LA from Australia?
It kind of happened gradually over the last few years, but I usually choose the milestone of signing a release—and that happened in March—as the point when I was more centered over here, because I was staying with friends and minding people’s houses and whatever I could find for the past on-and-off years since late 2006. So it’s been like a few years, but one year of more permanence.

Then how did you start the gradual process? What made you decide to come to LA?
Well, I came over to South by Southwest in 2006 with Decoder Ring, the band that I played with in Australia, and we also did a few shows in LA and New York, and I’d never been to the States before, and I’d actually had no desire to go to LA. I was an actor in Australia and I had so many friends that would come over to LA to give the acting a go, and, you know, it’s a really popular thing for an actor to do, move to La-La Land. And I was like, “I’m never doing that. I don’t ever want to do that.” But when I got there I was really pleasantly surprised, and I thought it was really cool. I wasn’t expecting that. So, anyway, I played a few of my solo demos to someone who suggested that I come back over and write with some people and do some shows and give it a go, so I did that for two weeks and it went quite well; the songs came back really well, and people’s responses to what I was doing was quite good, so I came back again for a couple of months and then I came back again for a couple of months, and one thing just lead to another, really, and I ended up signing a deal. So, yeah, that’s the way it happened. It was kind of a happy accident, just sort of trying to follow—I mean, I was into the idea of having an adventure, but I didn’t necessarily plan to land where I landed. It just sort of happened.

Right. Well, life’s full of happy adventures.
It is. [laughs]

So now that you’re in LA for the singing, are you still acting?
I’m not right now, no. First of all, I don’t have any time at all, and energetically I just want to focus on my music for a while. I’d like to give that a chance to be its own thing before complicating everything with having too many strings to my bones. You know there’s that whole stigma attached to people who do two things? I’d like to avoid that for as long as possible. [laughs] But that said, I love the craft of acting and if the perfect role came up I’d definitely try and do it. But I’m not, like, trying to find work right now.

Yeah, a lot of the time when actors try to cross into music or musicians try to cross into acting it doesn’t end well. Although sometimes it does. I mean, look at Zooey Deschanel.
I know, absolutely, she’s been doing just fine. She gets away with it. But she has a very strong sense of herself. She’s not trying to be something that she’s not and I think that’s key if you want to do that. But often people are much more critical of actresses in music or musicians in acting. But we’ll see. I mean, I love being creative, and I want to do all sorts of things so I’m constantly making art in any kind of medium, and to keep doing that, if it happened to be a film or a play, I’d definitely do it.

Well, probably the biggest problem with crossing over from one to the other is that people generally try to cross over into the poppiest of the pop instead of actually trying to learn what they’re doing first, which is unfortunate.
Yeah, I think that a lot of people don’t actually take it seriously and learn the craft. They just go, “I’m famous; I can do what I want.” [laughs] I don’t know. I personally respect the craft a lot because I studied it and continued to do it for a long time, so if I were to do that I would take it pretty seriously and make sure I was putting a little bit of effort into doing a good job instead of just, like, whatever.

Yeah, it’s the same sort of the exchange, “I can do what I want because I’m famous,” that gets so many big stars here in New York on Broadway when a lot of them can’t act!
I know. Yeah, it’s a shame for all the people that are not famous that are not in the role, but it’s the way the world works and everyone wants that big name in their production so I understand that.

Yeah, the producers do have to make money, otherwise the thing wouldn’t exist in the first place.
Yeah, exactly.

So how did you transition from being a part of Decoder Ring to having a solo career?
I just wanted to do my own thing, really. I loved singing in Decoder Ring and we had a great time together and it was very inspiring for me, but it was quite a different genre from what I wanted to be doing. They’re quite an experimental, mostly instrumental group. I wasn’t getting to do that much singing or anything, so I wasn’t really one hundred percent satisfied. So I just kept writing stuff for myself that didn’t fit with the band and started demoing it up. I always intended to do something solo; I fell into Decoder Ring and decided that I loved it, and it was sort of a wonderful distraction for a few years but then I realized that I had to…! [laughs]

Yeah, your album is very much vocally driven, so if you didn’t get to do a lot of that in Decoder Ring I’d understand what might have motivated you.
Yeah, [with the band] it was mostly just textures and stuff like that.

What was a lot of your inspiration for the songs specifically on the album?
I was going for something that was poppy and accessible and upbeat but not cheesy or trite. You know, I wanted it to have a soulful throwback sound, a bit Beatlesy, somewhere between it sounding organic and slick, a little bit of electronic—but I don’t know, you make choices all along the way, like which instruments you want to use. I decided from the get-go that I wanted to use as many unusual instruments as possible or euphonic instruments. There’s a lot of horn and percussion. With each producer I met with along the way I was like, “I don’t want it to just be piano and guitar. I want it to have as many interesting sounds as possible.” It was actually really fun, especially if you’re working with someone who’s got a sack of instruments, and I just played around and found sounds! [laughs] It was definitely an experimental process and you find your way there in the end, but I did have an idea that I wanted to make something that would have a soothing cheerful sound, you know?

Right.
Right? [laughs] Something that would make people happy. That was my intention.

When you’re going for pop sometimes it’s easy to forget that there’s such a thing as “good pop” because there’s so much stuff that’s just sent through the studio so many times that it doesn’t even sound human. Sometimes you forget that in the same genre there’s stuff that actually uses instruments and real people singing. [laughs]
Absolutely. I don’t think pop is a dirty word. It means popular music, you know? Like, Bjork was doing pop music and she was an early influence of mine, and she called her music pure pop. This is early Bjork, of course, not the really, really crazy stuff that she does now—

Miss Swan Lady. I think now she’s most known for that swan she wore on the red carpet once, right?
Yeah, but it’s gotten weirder since then. I mean, that outfit would feel quite lovely now. I still buy all her records and put myself through the torture of listening through some of those tracks, but—but early on it was very weird instrumentation but still melody and songs that made you feel good, or made you feel something, and were very accessible and catchy. And that’s pop music, even if it’s kind of weird, you know? I don’t think pop music has to be urban or American Idol-sounding; it can be a lot of different things.

No, that’s exactly what I was saying: the fact that pop music doesn’t have to be—
Terrible. [laughs]

The sort of over-plasticky stuff that you get on MTV sometimes.
It doesn’t have to be overproduced. It doesn’t have to be unoriginal. I love it. It’s my favorite genre, really, although most of my favorite types of music are a little more left-of-center. But I wanted to make music that was really accessible. I would really like teenagers to relate to my music, so I think about the music that I liked when I was a teenager and usually it’s not too weird. Not really that weird or out there.

Also, if you start in a more accessible place, that gives you the freedom to experiment more later on.
That’s true, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. But I’ve done my time doing experimental music and I’ve realized that it’s hard enough being a musician anyway, and if you’re doing music that not that many people want to listen to it’s even harder. You don’t know if you’re going to make a living and all that.

I just meant that you’d have more freedom later to incorporate more far-fetched influences. Really heavy jazz, South African music, etcetera, later on because you’re starting from such an accessible place.
True, true. You can add a few spices. [laughs]

For more on the excellent Lenka, visit her website or MySpace.

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'The Pink Panther 2' premiere coverage

In 1963, a film called The Pink Panther, starring Peter Sellers, launched a franchise. In 2006, another film, also titled The Pink Panther, this time starring Steve Martin, revived that franchise; now, in 2009, said franchise sees the arrival of The Pink Panther 2, sequel to the 2006 film. At the premiere of the film I had the opportunity to speak with several people who contributed to the making of this movie: actor Yuki Matsuzaki; director Harald Zwart; co-star Emily Mortimer, who reprises her role from the 2006 film; and actor Andy Garcia. Enjoy.

Yuki Matsuzaki
Hi, I’m Keely Weiss; it’s nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

How did you get involved with the film? Well, I auditioned and sent in my videotape, and they loved it, and they called me back in three days and I got cast right there.

[laughs] Nice. Are you a fan of the originals? Oh, yeah! I was really excited because I love the scene with Clouseau and Cato—I thought I was going to play Cato! But I wasn’t. [laughs] But even without Cato, the film is really funny. I haven’t seen it, but I can feel it. It’s gonna be really great. Have you seen it?

Not yet. Ah, okay. [laughs]

How was it working with everybody in the cast? Everybody was really nice. It was really fun working with everybody. On lunchtimes we’d all get together and talk about a lot of stuff, and once I got the opportunity to talk with Steve [Martin] and John Cleese about comedy—and they’re comedy gods, so it was a really precious moment because I love doing comedy.

Thank you so much; it was great to meet you! Thank you very much!

Harald Zwart
Hi there! Hi, how are you?

You weren’t involved in the first movie; how’d you get involved with this one? They sent me the script and asked me if I wanted to do it. I have a whole career of making commercials that are kind of similar to this in ability, so…

What drew you to the idea of doing an updated—I take it you’re a fan of the originals. Yes, I am, yes.

What inspired you about updating it for today? Well, I was actually trying to take it back a little bit more to the style that they used to have in the old movies, so I tried to enhance the art nouveau of old Paris and stuck a lot of old citrons in there to make it really French, because I thought that was something we needed in the movie.

How’d you feel about Aishwarya Rai? I feel very good about her. She’s a great actress, yes.

You’re also doing a remake of The Karate Kid. What can you tell us about that? It’s gonna be a great movie! [laughs]

Have you started filming yet? No, we’re weeks away.

Thanks so much! Thank you!

Emily Mortimer
Nice to meet you! It’s nice to meet you.

Tell us about what you’re wearing. I’m wearing Chloe. I sort of dressed like a snowflake! What’s embarrassing is my little sister, who’s 24, she just knows so much more than me about everything, so I have to ring her up and ask her when I’m filming in London where the cool clubs are to go to. I sort of have to square my outfit with her before I leave the house. She’s my fashion icon.

What attracted you to doing an update of the Pink Panther movies? I take it you’re a fan of the originals.
I loved the originals, yes, but really it’s Steve Martin, I think. He’s the reason that everybody got together to do the first one and everybody came together to do the second one, and I love him. I love working with him. I love him as a person and I’m thrilled to have been able to do it again.

So was it him who convinced you to do it? I didn’t need convinc—well, yeah, the fact that he was playing the part! I auditioned with him the first time round, you know, for the first movie.

So can you tell us about Steve? Steve? You want some dirt on Steve? What can I tell you? Steve plays the banjo, and he’s very good with a pack of cards!

Do you think Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke will win the Oscar for best actor? God, I don’t know. Maybe Mickey Rourke will win. They both deserve to win.

How come Mickey Rourke? Well, he’s the sort of underdog, you know, and has been for a while, and the movie is about that as well. I don’t know, if you had to make me guess, but they’re both brilliant and Sean Penn is the most incredible actor.

You’ve gone from—your most recent film prior to this is Redbelt, which you were fantastic in, by the way. Thank you!

Well, like many of your other films, that’s serious, and this is a comedy, so was it nice to lighten up a bit? Yes, although it’s actually not sort of—no, no, it’s really fun to do different things. I do things to stop myself from getting bored of myself or other people getting bored of seeing me, so you just do the thing that keeps you from, I don’t know, getting bored of yourself.

How do you like New York? I love New York, especially when it’s fucking freezing! [laughter]

Andy Garcia What attracted you to doing this Pink Panther film? As a kid I was a big fan of the originals, so I had a lot of nostalgia for it. When they called to participate, it brought a smile to my face.

You don’t usually do these slapstick roles; is this something you’d like to do more of? Sure. Yeah, I enjoy comedies, I’ve done them before, and starting out in theatre early on I did a lot of comedy. They’re something I enjoy. It’s not easy to find good comedic material, so I guess I was lucky that they called. But, yeah, I’m up for it!

How do you fight a cold? It’s chilly here. How do you fight a cold? Rum, Bacardi 8, and lime. [laughter]

The Pink Panther 2 is now in theatres.
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