"Bionic Finger" Picasso's Crayon, Issue no. 3, interview by Kevin Healey
KEVIN: How would you describe your music?
ALINA: I always tell everyone that's its like an alt-pop thing with
various influences like Liz Phair and Sleater Kinney, Jill Sobule, PJ
Harvey.
NAN: I have this feeling that Christine's writing emerges from this
deep, mysterious place in the same way that PJ's does.
PAM: My percussive influences are mostly hard-rock 80s bands
like Journey. It must have seeped into my subconscious because I
didn't realize that they'd been an influence on me but I'm listening
to the drum parts - really listening for the first time - and it was like
"Oh my god, I play kind of like that!" It was interesting.
NAN: (to Pam) I think you're really able to look at a lot of bands
technically that I wouldn't necessarily look at, like Pam likes the
drummer from Rush...
PAM: Yeah, Rush is a big influence on me. I'm also very
folk-influenced though, especially as far as my songwriting goes,
my biggest influence is definitely folk. I'm a big Joni buff. Love
Court and Spark.
NAN: I would say that I would describe our music as "poppy rock
with punk and folk edges." Quirky, deep, sexy, angry... We cover
the whole gamut of emotions. I think we're a very complex band
because we have four very individual people. There's a lot goin on
in each particular song.
KEVIN: How central would you say your sense of humor is to the
band? I mean you wouldn't say that you're primarily a funny band...
NAN: We write whatever we write. It just so happens that a lot of
it.
PAM: ...is funny.
NAN: Yeah, and also I think humor is important to us. I think it gets
us through hard times.
PAM: Well, I think we are funny on the stage. Without even
speaking a lot of people think we're funny.
ALINA: Without meaning to be, really.
PAM: Yeah, yeah, it just kind of comes out that way.
ALINA: I don't know if they're laughing at us, or... (laughs)
PAM: I don't care. They're laughing, that's all I care about.
KEVIN: Do you remember any feedback you've gotten, either
good or bad?
NAN: I remember one girl said that we reminded her of Sleater
Kinney and other people have said "You're totally yourselves. You
have a very unique sound. There's nobody that you remind me of."
ALINA: A female version of The Knack was one.
NAN & PAM: (in unison) The Raincoats...
ALINA: Somebody just said we sounded like Luscious Jackson.
KEVIN: Who came up with the name Bionic Finger? you want to
explain that?
ALINA: Bionic Finger. I was just thinking: if you could have any
bionic part of your body, which part would it be? It would have to
be the finger... for obvious reasons. Then I thought that would be a
great name for a band 'cos it has certain connotations but it could
mean other things, too. Sex is a driving force in my life...
PAM: Let's talk sex toys...
NAN: That's one thing that Bionic Finger can talk about. We go
shopping together sometimes. Toys in Babeland. We like that
place. We don't have sex with each other, but we talk about it a lot.
ALINA: We need to market...
ALINA & NAN: (in unison) The Bionic Finger vibrator...
KEVIN: Do you consider yourselves a "grrl" band in the popular
sense of the term?
NAN: What does that mean, though?
PAM: That doesn't really mean anything anymore I don't think.
ALINA: Yeah, we're not really like a "Riot Grrl" band.
NAN: That term has been so exploited. What the fuck is a "Riot Grrl"
anymore? Like we're all...
ALINA: Yeah, Kevin!
NAN: What the hell is "Riot Grrl"? It seems like it was about women
supporting each other and networking and creating change together both
for themselves individually and in a larger community. How can this not
be a great thing? But the term "Riot Grrl" has been so chewed up and
exploited by the media who saw it, and still see it, mainly as a fashion
trend for young women. I was totally inspired by bands that had the
"Riot Grrl" tag---like Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Linus, Skinned Teen,
and Huggy Bear--some English, and some American bands. None of those
bands were ashamed to construct their own models for what a "musician"
should be. I felt so encouraged by those bands to play guitar and sing
even though I had never done it before! I felt supported within that
umbrella of women getting together doing things (fanzines, bands, art,)
--enough to get up on stage and believe that I had something to say. I'm
really glad there were girls out there fucking shit up 'cause all of that
eventually brought me to Bionic Finger. But it's not like it's over with
the decline of the phrase "Riot Grrl." There's still great pro-active stuff
happening in female and queer communities around the country and
there's still networking and support and it's awesome."
KEVIN: Do you have an unspoken commitment to being an
all-female band?
PAM: Yeah, I do.
NAN: I do.
PAM: I do, definitely, I mean I'm not saying I would never play
with a guy. We have a side project with a friend, we've played out
once with him. But as far as Bionic Finger goes, it's strictly all
women.
KEVIN: And my follow-up question was going to be that as a
band who was an unspoken commitment to being an all-female
band, do you feel a responsibility to women in your audience in any
way?
PAM: No, I don't. It's nice to think that I might inspire some young
girl to go out there and learn how to play drums, you know, that's
kind of a cool thought. But it's not something I think about really. I
don't think about any sort of responsibility to a female audience. It's
not about that. It's about music. It's not about the fact that we're
women.
NAN: It just so happens that some of the songs
that we have and a couple that I've written are often
interpreted as "angry women" songs. Such as "Asshole"
and "Big Dick." But I have to tell you that they weren't
written out of a place of like "I'm a woman and I'm
being victimized." They're written out of
experiences or feelings that I had as a human being,
and yes, I happen to be a woman. My experience is different than
a man's experience. I use gender in "Big Dick" as a metaphor. It's a
song about personal and cultural boundaries. It's all about
fighting what's allotted to me in terms of physical, emotional,
and cultural space.
PAM: I think a lot of people pigeon-hole us as angry women up
there doing rock. But the fact is that all those men out there doing
rock are doing angry male songs.
NAN: Yeah, like look what happened at Woodstock.
PAM: Exactly. Look what happened at Woodstock.
ALINA: Riots.
NAN: In terms of feedback, I've actually had some feedback that
was upsetting at first. A couple of guys came up to me and said
"You must really hate men." I was really shocked and hurt. I just
thought, "You're missing the whole point."
PAM: You weren't really listening if that's what you got.
NAN: Alina has really sex-positive songs. She has like
love-sweet-sex-positive songs... and it's great to have that mixture.
KEVIN: How about the song "Texas"? What's the story behind
that?
CHRISTINE: Well, when Nan and I moved to Seattle after she
graduated, we drove through Texas. It just seemed to go on for
miles and miles and was really really hot because it was the end of
summer. So we would just sing "It's hotter than hell..."
NAN: (sings) Hotter than hell...
CHRISTINE: And then when we got to Seattle, we just sort of
wrote it...
NAN: ...based on that.
CHRISTINE: Based on...
NAN: ...on that one little thing.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
NAN: Which isn't even part of the song!
CHRISTINE: No.
NAN: It's really weird. I just remember I was just
scribbling down thoughts about Texas. I'm like
"Uh, okay I m just gonna use these chords" and
I'm like "Christine, write something." She just
scribbled down something and it's just amazing.
What started as just like kind of a fluke just totally
formed. Especially with Alina and Pam.
ALINA: I tend to be more of a control freak with my songs.
KEVIN: When you play live, you switch off instruments alot. How
does that work?
PAM: Usually whoever wrote the song sings lead and plays
rhythm guitar, and then bass and lead duties get split up. I'm usually
on drums unless I wrote the song.
ALINA: When we switch instruments during a set, people either
love it or hate it. Either they think "Wow, that's so cool... You all
play these instruments!" Or they think "That is really fucking
annoying..."
PAM: I'm the strongest drummer, I've had a lot of training - but as
far as guiter and bass goes I don't think anyone is stronger than
anyone else, everyone just has a different style, and I think those
different styles lend themselves to the songs instead of taking away.
NAN: We've always been about experimenting with anything and
trying anything out. And because we all learned how to play music
together, it just seems right to switch off...