Bone up on the fastest rising band in town.
By Brandon Voss
Grinding strippers, spraying champagne, and heaving bosoms: New Year’s Eve in pre-Giuliani Times Square? Hells no, suckas — it’s a typical one-night stand with Morningwood, the Brooklyn-based foursome whose libidinous onstage antics have already made their live shows legendary.
Produced by Gil Norton (Pixies, Echo and the Bunnymen), their self-titled debut album is a high-energy, hipsterific blend of bubblegum stadium rock and acidic electro-pop with raunchy hooks, garage guitar riffs, and enough sing-and-spell-along choruses to make Gwen Stefani pee her pants.
We chatted with curvaceous, charismatic 23-year-old frontwoman Chantal Claret (the band also boasts former members of Spacehog, Cibo Matto, and the Wallflowers) to find out what makes Morningwood a wet dream come true.
HX: Isn’t this a little early for you, Chantal? Because I imagine you’re out partying like a rock star every night.
Chantal Claret: I’m gonna let you think that, even though that’s not the truth. I was up till about six in the morning last night, but I was actually watching a really bad movie. I don’t know what it fuckin’ was — Must Love Dogs? But what’s even worse is that when I went to return it, I thought I’d lost it, and I was just like, I refuse to pay for that piece of shit.
In many of your songs, your voice vacillates between coquettish coo and ferocious growl. Are these dual personalities constantly duking it out?
I’ve always been a walking oxymoron. It’s like Morningwood, the name of our band: It sounds really sweet but it’s also really dirty, which pretty much epitomizes us — and me specifically.
It really is one of the best band names ever. How did you come up with it?
Yeah, I figured HX readers would appreciate it. It was the first phone conversation that [bassist] Pedro [Yanowitz] and I ever had. We had met at a birthday party, he had given me the music that he was making at the time and he called me a couple of days later. He was like, “Hey, you wanna help me come up with a name?” We spent about three hours on the phone and it just popped up. [Giggles] And it stuck!
What were the choices that didn’t make the cut? Mushroomhead? Trousersnake? The Noctural Emissons? Stiff Competition? Hot Beef Injection? Seriously, I could go on for hours — feel free to stop me anytime.
No, things like ’69 Bronco, because Pedro actually has a ’69 Bronco. None of them were even worth considering.
As the female frontwoman to a bunch of boys, do you have to play Mom?
It evens out because I’m also the baby. And they all sort of have girlfriends, so they live vicariously through me and my exploits.
No boyfriend for you?
Well, I got one in every city! Name a city and I’ll tell you if I got one.
You’re my idol. Do homos flock to you?
We always have a really large gay following, which I’m not surprised about — we’re hot and sexy! And I’ve been told that this Halloween I had boys dress up as me, which was one of my goals in life. I’ve always loved the gay men and they’ve always loved me. Honestly, I consider myself a 60-year-old gay man in a 23-year-old girl’s body. I just happen to get young straight boys to do my bidding.
I can’t wait to see you live. I hear some fans actually get naked when you sing “Take Off Your Clothes.”
Hells yeah! And if you want to, you’re welcome to. We fully applaud it. People feel very liberated by that song, so they often take it literally.
Your self-referencing first single “Nth Degree” repeats the lyric “M-O-R-N-I-N-G-W-O-O-D!” What’s it like to hear audiences chanting your name?
It’s good! I just recently realized that they knew the words to the songs and started putting the microphone out to the audience. It blows my mind, but it weirded me out before our record came out. I was like, The record isn’t fucking out! How are these people singing along? But they’d be buying the advanced copies. So I’d half be really angry and half be so happy that they took the time to learn the words. So torn! Then we’d play a song that wasn’t on the record and I’d be like, Try to sing along with this, fuckers!
You wind down your album with the up-with-people anthem “Everybody Rules.” That’s awfully diplomatic, but let’s be honest: Who doesn’t rule?
A lot of people don’t rule, but I’m not a name-namer! Hitler — I’ll give you that one. I mean, he ruled the SS, but he doesn’t rule in a good way. Stalin? Totally blows.
HX, February 2006.