Tell us a bit about your family history. Where do your families hail from and how did they get there?
Brett’s from a long line of horse thieves who had to leave North Carolina in the middle of the night and ended up in the Texas Panhandle as roughnecks, drunks, and roustabouts. His mom and her sister were orphans who were separated on the highway when they tried to hitchhike to Kansas. My family line is about a thousand years of Jewish tailors who fled from Russia to New York in the late 1800s.

What about your upbringing? You grew up on Long Island and I read that your mother told you that Santa Claus started WW2…
My parents were brought up as faithful jews who then saw kids their age thrown into ovens all over Europe and it sort of dampened their enthusiasm for religion in general. They told me if anyone asked me in school what my religion was I should say, “I am a pilgrim who came over on the Mayflower.” I fooled no one and ended up in the “dreidel club” every December. Still, everytime we saw that man in the red suit my mother told me he was a bad, bad man.

What about Brett - did his life on the oil rigs of Texas mirror Bobby Dupree’s in ‘Five Easy Pieces’?
There’s a similarity. Brett spent most of his childhood hidden in his bedroom listening to opera while the Texas dust storms raged outside. He was in the football marching band for awhile in order to avoid getting beat up. Didn’t work.

The music of the Handsome Family draws on rich, deep rooted traditions – what do you feel you’re adding?
I hope we are painting a picture of American life as it is today. Full of a deep fear and longing for history and yet a terror of remembering anything.

Can you imagine people singing your songs in 100 years?
That would be lovely. Though I suppose Stephen Foster still died a miserable drunk even though all the Casio keyboards come with “Beautiful Dreamer” preprogrammed on them.

What are you better at – writing for male or female characters?
There’s a certain liberty in writing from a male point of view that I enjoy. When I’m writing lyrics I tend to write for Brett to sing so it ends up being pretty male.

Which do you get more joy out of?
I get joy out of writing anything that seems mysterious to me. I hate writing things that just sound like my own whining. A good lyric should be smarter and deeper than its writer.

What’s the best line or subject matter that Brett’s baulked at singing?
I wrote the lyrics to the song, “I Know you are there,” many years ago and he hated them. I just put them away for two years and gave them back to him and then he loved them and now that song is on Twilight.

What’s the murder count on your albums?
I don’t know. I never set out to write a murder ballad. Sometimes the characters just ask for death. I think of murder in songs like murders that take place in dreams. Just cause you dream you’re an axe murderer doesn’t necessarily mean you want to be an axe murderer. It’s a language of symbols that can’t be deconstructed that easily.

Have you ever scared yourself with what you’ve written?
If it doesn’t scare me then I usually throw it away.

Are women in your songs more vulnerable than the men?
The words in songs are a language of dreams and so the women tend to be symbols of beauty, frailty, rebirth, etc. that’s why they need to die so much. All beauty must fade.

Have you ever had a dream that featured a character from one of your songs?

I usually have pretty juvenile dreams about saving the world or standing on a diving board with no clothes on. I think I have to write because my dreams are so pathetic. Lots of subconscious junk that needs clearing out somehow.

Is a happy life an uninteresting life?
Of course not. But, it is hard to make a happy song interesting. There needs to be some kind of tension I think. At the very least, a recognition that happiness, just like all life’s moments, is a state in flux.

Do you enjoy sadness?
Definitely not, but sad songs are different then real sadness. Sad songs remind us of why we should appreciate all the good in life. Darkness in painting is the way to show light.

I get the idea that in the UK your shows are reverent affairs and in the US the audience is a bit wilder – is that a fair summation?
I think people in the UK just generally have longer attention spans. They can stand to listen to the lyrics to all the songs. Americans get fidgety and drunk and can’t keep quiet. Someone in the US once said to us after a show, “I know you’re making fun of something, but I don’t know what it is.” He didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t figure us out immediately.

It’s well documented that the Handsome Family attracts some intense fans – have you ever been an excitable fan?
I used to be an evil fan. I threw a chair at Lou Reed once and knocked him on his ass. That wasn’t very nice.

When do you feel out of place?
At Christmas movies.

When was the last time your world was turned upside down?
Every time we finish a song we like. It feels like a complete miracle.

Have you always got your antenna up for stories? What’s the best story you’ve heard in the last day or so?
The woman in Ohio who had a 66 lb tumor removed. She said she felt great.

You’re finally making it to Australia…what are you expecting?
Really looking forward to seeing some different animals and plants.

What are you planning on reading on the plane?
Right now I’m reading, “The Secret Life of Plants.” It’s very beautiful.

When were you last proud to be an American?
I was proud of Jimmy Carter, but sad too, cause I could see that running this evil empire was killing him. Still, I have to admit that I am American and feel a great connection to this place. I don’t want to live anywhere else. I just want us to grow up and start trying to see things from other people’s point of view. When the twin towers fell everyone here said it was because people were jealous of us. No one has a clue why the rest of the world is angry. Hopefully we’ll get a clue one of these days soon.

¡Tarantula!
the Sand Pebbles' fanzine
'another ghost transmission...'
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©2004 Christopher Hollow