It’s a beautiful day in Berkeley and I am in my studio apartment preparing for a Q & A with members of the chic Toronto/London band, Dragonette. I have a general list of questions prepared but minutes before the interview I am informed that lead-singer, Martina Sorbara, has lost her voice and that Dan Kurtz will be fielding the questions.

I jump on the computer and frantically sift through Wiki articles to make sure I’m certain that at the very least Dan is, in fact, the bassist for the band (which he is), when my Inbox lights up. I get the message that Dan is ready to chat, as in NOW! I call immediately and the hotel concierge connects me to his room. I skim through my list of questions one last time, feeling okay as I’ve been listening to their latest album Fixin to Thrill for the last hour and after a few attempts I’m finally connected; I hear a very soft woman’s voice come through.

A bit surprised and uncertain if I have the right room number, I introduce myself.

“Hi, I’m Milana with GreenShoelace.com and I’m trying to reach Dan for an interview.”

The woman, who I’m thinking is the band’s publicist at this point, replies “Dan just stepped out to get his hair done. He’s at the salon.” Grrrreat. Go figure–Rockstars and their hair!

“But is this an interview for Dragonette, or just for Dan?” The woman asks.

“It’s for Dragonette.” I say, disappointed that I had missed my interview.

“Oh, well maybe I can do the interview. I’m Martina, the lead singer for the band,” Dragonette’s femme fatale announces. And I will say that she sounded rather creamsicle-like, not like someone who has lost their voice.

So with as much professionalism I can muster, I rapidly switch gears, collect my thoughts and play it off, as smooth as 120-grade sand paper.

Here’s the exclusive GSL convo:

GSL: There are two songs that really stand out on [Fixin to Thrill] as different from the rest: “You’re a Disaster” and “Don’t Be Funny.” In fact, they kind of sound like their off a whole other album altogether.

Martina: On both albums….I feel like each song takes a completely different direction. It’s what happens when we write songs, just because historically and musically we’re from all over the place. And I think it leads to writing songs that come out however they decide to come out. And for that reason, the album goes all over the place.

GSL: I heard you grew up listening to folk/country music. How does that affect your own songwriting?

Martina: It’s made me into a stickler for lyrics. I can’t abide to throw-away lyrics that don’t mean anything. But yeah, my passion is for filling in lyrics that say something in a way that you haven’t heard it said before. [I've learned a lot from] country music and jazz as well…both of those formats are really good for telling stories in different ways, with different approaches and different angles.

GSL: I was listening to “Stupid Grin” and it sounds like a very girly song, something that almost brings you back to that very childish innocence. It’s a fun peppy song for me. How is it performing that song live and what does that song mean to you as the artist?

Martina: That song is an example of having a hard line on your significant other. Like saying, ‘You’re gonna get it! This is it!’–But then just melting back into them after the decision to punish them or something. (laughs) We have a lot of fun playing that song. It always turns into an audience sing-along. (pauses) But then again, I think it’s a sentiment; I’ve tried to say it in a different way, but it’s probably a story that’s been told before.

GSL: And I like the kid vocals that come in at the end. Did you actually bring kids into the studio?

Martina: Those are my nieces, her friends, and some of my friends. It’s not just kids, but I think the kids ended up overpowering the rest of them. I just wanted it to sound like a room full of people singing along.

GSL: Track 11, “You’re a Disaster,” it sounds like you bring in an acoustic…

Martina: That’s a unique song on the album because it was written with Dan and I. I kind of mapped out the song in my head while I was walking home one day… then Dan and I kind of wrote the song on an acoustic guitar, which is a unique way of writing for us because generally it’s done with synths–you know, we start off with a synth line in the studio; but that song was written the old fashion way.

GSL: What’s interesting is that the song is very simple, but along the way it evolves into something else. It sounds like Dragonette is taking the audience into a carnival or circus atmosphere.

Martina: The song is about a friend of mine who is very self-destructive and I, kind of at the end, travel inside the mayhem that is inside her mind or inside her life. So it kind of just gets chaotic and out of control. It starts off as just a simple sentiment and then it gets really hazy and confused, which is how I imagine her life to be.

GSL: What’s the story behind the band name Dragonette?

Martina: It’s pretty much a non-story. It’s a word that…ummm…I’m sure I didn’t think of it while I was sitting on the toilet but I remember walking out of the bathroom (laughs) and thinking of that word (laughs). I just have the image of my bathroom in my old house, which was also kind of a corridor so I might not have been on the can; I might have just been walking to the bathroom, but I remember thinking of that word…And I thought I made it up, but I didn’t because apparently it’s a fish. I typed it on my computer and then I called my iPod Dragonette. I like the contradiction of the big monster side of the word and the dainty, girly part in the end. Maybe this is post-rationalization, but I feel that…maybe in my temperament and personality, I feel a bit like a dainty monster sometimes. (laughs)

GSL: Was music something you’ve always dreamt of doing or was there another childhood dream you once had?

Martina: Music has always been the direction I’ve taken since the beginning of taking a direction in life. There’s never really been anything else.

GSL: What is the most challenging aspect about being an artist?

Martina: I think a lot of artists suffer from feeling like impostors and that everybody else’s music is real. I feel like sometimes I’m pretending…not pretending, that’s the wrong word! But I think artists suffer from a lot of self-doubt, which…I think that happens to make you push yourself and challenge yourself more in the areas that don’t come as easily. If you were just sure of yourself all the time, you wouldn’t have the need to challenge yourself. I’ve had this conversation with a lot of other artists and being a musician, you just have to go through the ups and downs of feeling like “I’m totally on it and I’m worth it, and I deserve this job.” And then you go down into the depths of like, “what the hell am I.”

GSL: If you could play at any venue in the world, real or imagined, describe your dream concert setting.

Martina: (pauses) I don’t know. I’m sure people’s dreams change as they become more accomplished. Right now, the apex would be just playing full rooms to 1,000 people, with everybody singing along with me. That could be on a beach or in a basement. We don’t have the luxury yet of knowing that every night of the week is going to be a packed house, that we have nothing to worry about. So my dream is to never worry about that…every show, having fans in it that sing with me.

GSL: What direction will you lead the band for the next album?

Martina: Where we come from musically, we rely on being able to jump drastically from one sound to another even for just our own entertainment. We’ve never steered in one direction or another intentionally, it just kind of goes there. I wouldn’t be able to say where we would take our music with any kind of certainty. We have so much fun just kind of having the songs expose themselves as we go. We’re not disciplined enough as writers to have that much control over it. We just kind of look around and whatever happens happens. So I imagine our next record will be as much of a surprise to us as it will be to you.

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