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Interview With Kaki King

Out musician Kaki King has written a breakup album with a perfect title: Dreaming of Revenge. Among her fans is Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara, who told AfterEllen.com that King writes “the saddest melodies you’ve ever heard. The kind of songs you like to fall asleep to, but also have to absorb alone, in case you’re moved to tears.”

King, 28, has admitted to this, claiming that the best kinds of songs are the sad ones – which must be why Dreaming of Revenge rings so true.

She has also lent her mastery of the guitar to other projects in the past year, including Tegan and Sara’s album The Con, the Foo Fighters’ Grammy-winning album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and the score for the film Into the Wild. She also played the role of the lead character’s guitar-playing hands in August Rush.

With so much of her time dedicated to making others sound and look good in 2007, 2008 is certainly King’s own year. She recently spoke with AfterEllen.com about writing sad songs, why she’s the least serious person ever, and working with Tegan and Sara.

AfterEllen.com: Was adding the lyrics and singing on Until We Felt Red and on the new album something you did to become more accessible? It seems like even if it’s something you didn’t intend to do, it’s become that way.

Kaki King: I feel like my other albums are accessible, too, but maybe they’re just accessible to me. [laughs] I don’t care if I’m accessible or not, but … I haven’t been able to really choose what I write or in a certain direction; it just seems to come out a certain way. I mean, I’ve been writing songs and lyrics to songs since I was a kid, it just kind of happened that I was a solo guitar player.

It wasn’t that I was making a conscious decision, like I don’t think about fans and things like that when I’m crying and writing a song. It was kind of like, we’ll just see how this goes, and it’s kind of funny because I actually sing on fewer songs in this new record than I did on the last record. It just seemed like the songs that sound good with lyrics, with vocals.

AE: How did you get involved with working on Into the Wild score?

KK: They brought me in at the last minute with about 10 scenes they had written music for, and they used a couple of songs from my second album in the soundtrack as well.

AE: Have you done film scoring before?

KK: Not on that scale, nothing on that level. It was really great because my contribution to the score wasn’t really gigantic, but I was able to come in when they had most of it done, and listening to what they had already done, [I] was able to provide things with Eddie Vedder’s aesthetic and at the same time do what I do.

It was a long process, but it was cool to work under that kind of pressure, to say, “We have an hour before we move to the next scene.” It’s endless pondering and thinking and seeing what works and this and that.

AE: How did you become involved with being the hands of the little boy in August Rush?

KK: The reason why they found me specifically is because I’m a female guitar player, I could redo the part to make it sound better, and I could also fit in the little boy’s costume and be the hand double. That’s why I think they hired me.

AE: Did you have to do anything to make your hands more boyish or do you just generally have boyish hands?

KK: I don’t think I have boyish hands, but a female would have more little boyish hands – that makes sense. But he’s supposed to be a street urchin, so they made my fingers filthy. You can’t really tell … but my fingers were covered in this fake dirt they have.

AE: With the new album, you seem to be doing a lot of viral marketing or a lot of videos of you in the studio.

KK: I just said we should document the process. It was actually my producer’s video camera. I just went and bought a bunch of DV tapes, and every so often we’d put the camera on. Every so often I’d do some video diary entries. …

I certainly think you document these things for your own reasons, as this is what we do, kind of making a miniature making-of. I thought we’d get it down to two minutes – I never thought we’d end up with such great material. Having the video camera there was just totally genius, and we ended up with five- and six-minute pieces. It wasn’t for specifically any campaign or anything.

AE: It seems like in the studio, half of the time is you laughing and having fun, and the other half is you being intensely serious. Is that how you’ve always been while recording?

KK: Yeah, I think so.

AE: Are there any breakdowns you haven’t released yet?

KK: Like total nervous breakdowns, like I’m crying and a complete emotional wreck! No, I’m not going to put those out. Those will never be seen by the public.

AE: It seems like you come off as very serious – I don’t know what it is, maybe your press photos or something – but you seem very serious, while talking to you, you don’t seem like you take yourself too seriously.

KK: I am like the least serious person ever. I feel like I have dark eyebrows and high cheekbones or something, so maybe that’s it, I don’t know. I remember my manager’s wife after I had the first photos taken of me, and she looked at them because she’s an actress and she said, “Kaki, you look satanic.” I was like, “Oh God, awful!” But I am really not a super serious person.

I make pretty dark music, so that could add to that. But I find most serious musicians to be not so serious.

AE: You’re an out lesbian, yet you seem like one of the rare people whose music has always been recognized above your sexuality. Most other gay musicians probably dream of that. Why do you think you’re the exception to that rule?

KK: It feels funny because I never really say I’m proud to be gay; I am proud because I’m honest. I think that’s why our generation and younger don’t want to be labeled, and don’t want to talk about that – like talking about how different we are and that we’re not going to walk the same path that everyone else is. What if I want to walk the same path everyone else is?

AE: I asked Sara of Tegan and Sara for a quote about working with you. She said: “Kaki likes to ‘jam’ but doesn’t like to call it jamming. When she came to Portland to perform on The Con, she insisted on broadening our cultural experiences by enforcing a ‘must participate in geocaching’ clause in her contract. Most musicians are introverted and insecure, but Kaki inspired me to publicly challenge everyone in Portland to a Nintendo Wii boxing competition, a pool competition, a grilled cheese eating competition, and a hangman competition.”

KK: I’m going to f—ing kick her ass – I talk to those girls everyday. Go to geocaching.com. It’s just total nerd thing — forget it, she’s just trying to bust my balls.

First of all, I couldn’t care about the damn Nintendo Wii. Sara is a great Nintendo Wii boxer, and she’s just showing off. She could beat anyone’s ass in the house. No one was even in competition with her. I didn’t even touch the box. Grilled cheese I have no recollection of. There was no competition — this is Sara! Sara’s life, she’s a twin. She’s competitive. The world is her Nintendo Wii.

AE: She also said that touring Australia with you was also really amazing, and it’s “incredible to watch the audience have their minds blown.”

KK: She’s told me that before. It’s nice.

AE: How do you feel about people thinking your songs are sad or melancholy?

KK: I think Aristotle said a great thing about what catharsis is: Even if something has a tragic ending, you should be moved by it; it feels good. It’s a good feeling. I think that’s why I like sad music, because so much of a catharsis happens, and it makes you emotionally cleansed and feels better.

AE: Is it easier to write a sad song?

KK: Yeah, what’s the last happy song you heard?

AE: Oh God, I don’t listen to anything happy – I’ve been listening to you for the past couple of days.

KK: Exactly!

For more on Kaki King, including her new album and tour dates, visit her MySpace or official site.

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