- Photo by Shervin Lainez
Sara Landeau is a multi-instrumentalist and music instructor from New York City. She shreds the gnar in The Julie Ruin alongside Kathleen Hanna, healing Kathi Wilcox, Kenny Mellman, and Carmine Covelli. We discussed her career as a music teacher, The Julie Ruin, touring, and burritos among other important topics.
Allston Pudding: The Julie Ruin initially began as a Kathleen Hanna solo project. How did she bring you on board and what was the process like with that?
Sara Landeau: I believe she started her solo album in ’98 or ’99, which is just called Julie Ruin. We’ve been friends for quite a while. We were both band coaches together for Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls here in New York. We talked about playing. Finally she called, and she said I want to play some of these songs live from that album. She emailed out a few other people. She put together who she wanted to play with. We met up, and we were like, “okay let’s start with ‘V.G.I.’” [off Julie Ruin]. It was so much fun. There’s not a lot of guitar. There’s some cool distortion guitar on there, but there’s a lot of samples and drumbeats that are drum machines, so we tried to make it sound like a drum machine. That kind of worked, so we’re all pretty excited about that. You don’t really know until you try.
We started to meet often enough and we’d start just playing and writing that way. We would record us just playing [on iPhones]. We’d put it on a Dropbox, and Kathleen would come back the next time and write lyrics over it.
AP: It’s a really great record. I play it all the time on repeat. It’s fine. The recording process sounds like it was pretty collaborative. You didn’t have a finished demo before you were brought on. It seems like everyone worked together to write the songs pretty much.
SL: Pretty much yeah… unlike her first album which was just her. The lyrics on everything except for the one song that Kenny [Mellman, keyboards and vocals] sings: he brought in those lyrics in just one take.
AP: How pumped are you to be touring with Screaming Females? They’re pretty great.
SL: Oh my god yeah. I’ve been a fan of Marissa for… I’ve seen them probably play ten times already. I was bartending in New York for a long time, and they would play a lot in the clubs I was bartending at. It’s perfect. I suggested them a while ago, and I think that kind of got filtered in. I’m not taking credit for that [laughs]; I’m just really happy. YES! They’re so nice.
AP: I saw them with Waxahatchee last year. I didn’t know what I was in for, but it was insane.
SL: We also toured with Swearin’ who is [Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee]’s sister [Allison]’s band.
AP: I haven’t actually had the chance to see Swearin’ yet but I will next month, which I’m really excited about. I’m also a huge fan of both.
SL: I think that there are a lot of great bands out right now. I think it’s an exciting time to see live music.
AP: You’re also a guitar teacher, which I thought was pretty cool. Does your teaching affect how you play? Have you always played similar music to the style of The Julie Ruin or is it kind of all over?
SL: My old band in the late ‘90s/early 2000’s was just garage, called The Chiclets. Then I really got into music theory, so I started studying at Juilliard, classical guitar, and I think some of the hybrid finger picking/picking combinations come out from learning classical and playing classical with a pick. That got into it. Stuff I actually love to dance to is what I want to play, and then classical is a whole ‘nother heavy thing.
AP: Julie Ruin is definitely dancey.
SL: Yeah so is a lot of garage music… to me.
AP: I actually work at a local record store, and we play the record sometimes. My store manager is obsessed with it.
SL: Do people bop their heads when they hear it?
AP: Yeah a lot of people are like, “Is this Kathleen Hanna?” A lot of people don’t realize she has a new project. They hear her voice, and they think it’s awesome.
SL: They think it’s some sort of remix or something. [laughs]
AP: I’ve been thinking of maybe trying to learn guitar. I have a guitar, and I never play it. I think it would be so much fun to do that, but where do I start?
SL: I think everyone should start an instrument. I started one when I was 18, and I wish I had started when I was younger. Not that that’s old, but a lot of my students are in their 30s and 40s and some in their 50s, and they’re just starting now. They’re writing their own songs. They’re putting their own music out. It’s great. They’re all women and girls.
Sometimes they come in and they’re all over place. I say what’s your dream sound like, and they say something safe. I say what do you REALLY want to sound like? That’s what we’re going to learn. I started teaching guitar, because I had sort of bad teachers. I wanted a place that I would want to go to, so I started my whole mission with that. That was a little over 10 years ago now.
AP: It’s your own teaching business or is it through a girl’s rock camp kind of program?
SL: I work with them once a year in the summer, but I have my own business that I teach year round every day. I also studied drums 20 years ago, so I do a lot of drum lessons as well and bass. Then I hire women teachers to come in for piano lessons, because I don’t know how to play piano. And for singing lessons. It’s really fun.
AP: I was watching the “Oh Come On” video again recently. How fun was it to shoot that? It just looks like everyone was having so much fun.
SL: That was great. Actually the director is Erin Greenwell, and she was a drum student of mine. She was coming in for drum lessons, and she told me after a month that she was a pretty well known director. I looked her up, and there was a picture of her at Sundance, arm-in-arm with Robert Redford. This chick’s good. I saw her movie in the theater, and it was so awesome. We needed a director, and she was immediately who I wanted. She set it up. Kathleen did the decorations, because she loves decorating. [laughs] We did it all in the drummer’s house. He had to move around his living room.
AP: What’s your favorite thing to do with time off on tour?
SL: We go to thrift stores a lot. I think that’s the thing we all have in common. The second you leave New York, the thrift stores are really good. We take a lot of photos of stuff. I guess we’re all kind of arty. We’re all foodies. We go to record stores a lot too, so make sure you tell me what record store you work at.
AP: I work at Newbury Comics. It’s a small New England-based chain. There’s one in Harvard Square too, which is the one I work at. You should totally come in and say hi. If you see Peter, he’s the one who loves your album.
SL: Awesome. We’re kind of dangerous going to record stores, because we always buy more than we can carry.
AP: Do you guys listen to a lot of music driving city to city? What kind of stuff do you listen to?
SL: I guess the new way of touring is “nocializing,” which is a word I heard recently. You listen to your own music on your phone. We do some dorky books on tape. We have a lot of new music and some old. On the last trip down to DC, Kathleen’s husband [Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys] made a mix disc with rap and hardcore that was great. We try to listen to radio, but we’re all so sensitive about music. Our brains are going to explode. It’s almost like we need to have silence a lot of the time. [laughs]
AP: Favorite Boston band of all-time and favorite Boston band right now?
SL: Is Mr. Airplane Man from Boston? It was two women: guitar and drums.
AP: I will have to check it out.
SL: I have their CD that inspired me a lot 10 years ago. Who else is from Boston? Who’s from Boston now?
AP: You’ve probably heard of Speedy Ortiz and Potty Mouth. They’re both from Northampton, but they’re fucking great!
SL: Oh yeah! We played with Priests, but Potty Mouth came up as a possibility.
AP: Priests are so good. I saw them at a Pitchfork CMJ thing last year. They threw Chipotle burritos at the audience. Some people got free food particles that probably didn’t land in their mouth.
SL: We played at Fun Fun Fun Fest last year, and they had a burrito cannon. It came out right after our set. I was so excited. I stood on stage and filmed it. You can see the top of a burrito shooting out into the audience. It was great.
The Julie Ruin plays The Sinclair on April 3rd with Screaming Females. It’s sold out, so if you don’t have a ticket, 🙁. Watch their video for “Oh Come On” below.