Thao With The Get Down Stay Down
So expressive and personal is Thao Nguyen’s album We Brave Bee Stings And All that it could have been a coming-of-age story. But despite all the handclaps and talk of ice cream and cannonballs, she doesn’t paint herself as a folksy wide-eyed naïf with a guitar. The Northern Virginia native turned West Coaster is full of deceptive sophistication with a satisfying dark streak. Backed up by her band, The Get Down Stay Down, she’s at work on a sophomore release set for October. In advance of her show Wednesday at the Hi-Dive, Thao spoke with Decider about her upcoming record and stealing from children.
Decider: Your stage style can be ferocious and loose. Is this part of a philosophy about stage performance or just something that happens?
Thao Nguyen: I keep it loose, like a date. [Laughs.] I think the strength of our band is the live show. We’ve played a lot together—eight or nine months last year—so the actual content of our performance is pretty steady. I think it’s really important for the audience to feel connected, and when it’s good it’s this amazing, symbiotic relationship. I try to give as much as they can give. We’re not avant garde and we make no claim to be revolutionary, but I think we are sincere.
D: How do you feel, then, about bands who mostly rely on stage theatrics?
TN: I wonder, when they did open mic nights, did they do that then? It’s a very fine line to negotiate how to be over the top and convincing and commit to it. People can tell when it’s forced. It takes a certain kind of person to pull it off, and I’m not that person.
D: You primarily play the archtop guitar onstage—is that the instrument you started with?
TN: I started on classical guitar. Up until spring of last year, I played only acoustic live and electric recording. When we become a trio, I thought it was important to fill out the sound more. It actually freed me up as a player and I prefer it now.
D: You also have fairly strong opinions about female guitarists?
TN: If you’re a woman musician, that is your qualifier. I’ve had people come up to me and say, “You’re good for a girl.” My only issue is, when that stereotype and stigma already exists, sometimes it’s perpetuated by people who may not really play guitar. You somehow need to transcend that division of gender. I mean, do whatever you have to do, you know? Sometimes I say things in interviews and then I see them in print and I think, "What an asshole."
D: You’re in the middle of recording the new album?
TN: I don’t know what it’s like to pass a kidney stone, but I’ve heard it’s painful. And that’s the thing that came to my mind. It’s been a lot more involved and intense. Our live show is better represented because on the last album, we had no live show. We were barely a band. This record is more of a response to things. Basically, it’s a heartbreak record—clichéd, but you can’t help it if that’s what you’re doing.
D: Does it have the same “small kid at the big kid table” vibe that Bee Stings has?
TN: There’s a sense of youthful optimism in Bee Stings, even though it’s a melancholy record. This is more youthful "what the fuck am I doing." I’ve always felt for little children because I love the way they fashion sentences—their vocabulary is limited. They have to navigate around to get to the meaning. It’s a shame we bypass that when we gain more words. In a way, it’s less honest and less direct. It’s something that I appreciate about kids, and I will steal from them at will.
