On their new album, Sleater-Kinneys Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker recommit.
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Its the summer that we deserve.
(Brownstein said at the time that this came as a surprise.)
The pop-oriented songwriting of the last album with Weiss,The Center Wont Hold,produced bySt.
Vincents Annie Clark, looked to some fans like a curveball.
But it was also something that was joyful.
Does creating music during rapidly changing times throw a wrench into the process?
Otherwise, it doesnt really have relevance or longevity strictly as a political act.
I mean, were happy with working together and being collaborators.
Its how we started the band a long, long time ago.
It was based on our ideas and our guitar playing.
Weve had the great privilege of working with a lot of different people over the years.
I think that all came into play when we were putting this record together.
CB:That duo terminology … Whatever were doing as Sleater-Kinney is Sleater-Kinney.
Im aware that people need these linguistic markers to help them understand.
Path of Wellnessis also the first record produced solely by the band.
:As we were writing and demoing songs, we were adding so many elements.
When we had the demos done, they already had keyboard lines and bass lines.
I thought,Well, what is a producer going to do at this point?
There is nothing mediating this experience.
Theres no other entity through which you could filter what this is.
This is what we made.
I do think news of the lineup changing castThe Center Wont Holdin a certain light.
That can be hard sometimes.
It can be difficult.
It can make you uncomfortable.
Wed never really written with keyboards.
We tried a lot of different things.
Im not saying they were all successful, but it was different.
We were able to take those new skills and put them to use on this new album.
Im not saying thats what we did on the last record.
We learned a lot from her.
I also didnt mind tearing the Band-Aid off and breaking up with some white male critics.
When I was growing up, women were usually just sex objects in the rock world.
The guitar still signifies maleness.
Youre allowed to borrow this, but dont forget.
Those moments are a reminder: Lets not just be asking to get in the door.
Lets build a new structure.
CB:Thank you, Corin.
Carrie is just a natural lead-guitar player.
CB:There has been a series of happy accidents in the history of Sleater-Kinney.
Thats how we play.
Path of Wellnesstouches on themes that I think are central to 2021.
You have songs about making yourself available for love again and yearning for freedom and coping with political upheaval.
Thats when Im usually trying to write a song.
I think those themes were more about living in that moment than a conscious decision.
They felt expansive because we were imagining these outdoor spaces.
Then, all of a sudden, it was like all of that air was sucked out.
The mode was insular and claustrophobic.
I do think a lot of the songs are grasping at lifelines.
Youre holding this person close, but they also feel far away.
Or youre trying to hold your city close, but its in the process of dismantling.
Even your own sense of being is recalibrated.
I can feel the tension of constriction and expansion in the lyrics.
It felt like the biggest privilege in the world to have that.
It was a really difficult time.
There were stages where I participated and I was part of the protests, as was Carrie.
You dont have to compartmentalize those things.
They can be quotidian.
They are constant, evolving.
But I also saw the process of making a record as an act of resistance and perseverance.
Each of us takes on a different aspect of protest.
I think showing up in the streets is one way.
It all felt like parts of the same conversation.
Under Democratic presidents, there is just this false sense of security.
Bidens not a panacea.
We exist in a time where there are these trends of protest.
We have to make it a lifetime of work.
Thats exhausting, but its also what it means to be human right now.
I lived a pretty good life.
Ive been all over the world.
I could rest on my memories.
Watching that being stripped away was the hardest part for me.
Remember there were all these articles about how Shakespeare wrote during a pandemic?
We were all supposed to be making amazing art.
Im not comparing myself to Shakespeare.
It just felt like, Well, lets just sit back and wait.
All this great literature and film will come out of this.
I thought,But I cant get out of bed right now.
I dont know what Ill be making.
I started worrying that I no longer had a sense of what was happening in the world.
I came out on the other side with some lightness, but it definitely felt dark for a while.
Carrie, last fall it was announced that you were writing and directing a biopic about the bandHeart.
Ive actually been approved to direct.
WhenAnn Wilson, from Heart, mentioned that I was directing last year, it wasnt official yet.
I love Ann for that.
She speaks her mind, which is one of the reasons that shes an amazing human.
I will direct it if it happens.
CB:We have gotten used to that feeling of being exposed in front of the other person.
I mean, that is not something you would even do with a romantic partner, necessarily.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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