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Corrina, Corrina, by David Also
Ever since her last release, I Take On Your Days in 2001, Corrina Repp (just remember: 2 r’s, 1 n, and two p’s) had all but given up on playing music for people. A poetic songwriter of the highest caliber, her interest in self-promotion never surfaced after the breakup of her rock and roll band back in ninety-eight. She kept playing and recording music for herself, but withdrew from the spotlight and thought her years in public performance were possibly over. So when Keith Schreiner of Suckapunch [MLP V2:I4], Dahlia and independent film-score fame began trying to track her down, he had a hell of a time. He had seen her play a show and noticed that her melodies are both minimalist and complex, with amazingly simple but compelling guitar playing. He noticed her deep, knowing voice. And he noticed that she captured the attention of everyone in the room. She captivates a crowd with her strength and confidence more than with her vulnerability. Her show is like a whisper in a dark and quiet room. Recognizing her talent, Schreiner decided immediately that he would work with her, and set to the task of doing so. The story of their coming together is cute and silly, like a romantic comedy. He would see her around town but be too afraid to go up and talk to her. She had his phone number for months before finally calling him. But eventually, and somewhat tentatively went into the studio and began finding out the truth of their combined talents. It’s Only the Future, Repp’s newest and 2nd studio album is her best yet. Her songwriting has matured and Schreiner displays an impressive amount of restrain, completely contrasting what he’s done in his most recent projects. He’s said that this is the kind of music he’s been dying to make, because he doesn’t want to be known as just a drum-and-bass guy. With his electronic sensibility, and Repp’s mastery of subtlety, the two artists have created an album that is as striking and peaceful as a Pacific Coast sunset. Then The Decemberists asked her to go on tour with them. She didn’t give it much thought before answering, “Fuck, yes!” And suddenly she found herself finishing an album and going on tour. Here we are talking about the business of music, and Corrina is telling me about working with Keith: MLP: It must have been a relief for you. What do you mean? MLP: Well I've always had a sense that the business of music wasn't your favorite part of making music. No, not at all. But that's actually why he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to drag me into it, and I didn't want to be dragged into it. Honestly, there are points where I would sooner walk away than be dragged into it. That’s why I think he’s kept it really on the level and not made me worry about money, or how much I’m going to owe him. He didn’t want to ever have to make me worry about that. I don’t like the business part of it. Really, who does? There are people that are lucky enough to be creative and be artists and still be capable of handling themselves in a business manner. I can’t do that. I’m too honest and way too humble to be like, “Hey man, this is me. Check out my product. Here I am.” I can’t do that. MLP: Hanging posters can be fun on the right day. When I played with a band that was cool. We’d get our staple gun and go out at 11 o’clock at night and hang posters. It’s just me? It’s just my name. I’m stapling posters with my name on them? It’s kinda dumb. I’ve never wanted to use photographs. I just wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
I thought about it for a couple of months and one of my favorite painters in town, who just moved away, I have like four of his paintings at home and I ran into him one night. I was like, “That’s it. I need you to do it, I want you do to it, will you do it?” MLP: Did you have any ideas in mind for the painting?
MLP: You get some serious interest in your performance. That doesn’t happen very often where someone is up there all alone with a guitar. What do you think about that? I don’t know. I’ve been lucky though, it happens to me. I did this tour in January with The Decemberists and we did 10 days on the West Coast and it was their crowd. The first two shows that we went to were sold out, and I hadn’t played a show in months.
My first show was fuckin' sold out in San Francisco. MLP: Were you terrified? I was a little terrified. But I am also a very strong-willed person. I can step up if I have to. But I was definitely really, really nervous. Those first two shows were sold out and they were in a bar. Loud, loud shows. I could see that there were people in the immediate front who were quiet and really listening. But you play places like Berbati’s and you get that roar of people who are just there to see the band or drink or socialize. Those first two shows were probably the hardest. Then after that we played a bunch of all-ages shows. Unbelievable. I would walk on-stage and think, “Okay, what’s going to happen? Are people going to stop talking? Are people going to listen?” I never knew what to expect. But there’s something so scary and amazing when I walk on-stage and people stop talking. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know why they would, but when they do it’s so humbling. I think the second to last show on the tour, we played at Nocturnal and it was packed. And it was so quiet. All these people and it’s so quiet. And I kept saying “thank you” over and over again because I was so grateful that people were listening. At the end of the show people were like, “I loved it, but you said thank you way too much.” Because I really did, I was so overwhelmed and so gracious and humbled that people were actually listening like that—I don’t know I’ve been lucky to have that happen. It makes me feel happy, humbled and thankful. But I’ve also had my fair share of fighting the crowd. MLP: I was going to ask you about that. Oh yeah. You have to expect it. I’ve been playing for a long time. I know what to do when I get in front of people. I know what to expect—to train myself to not get hurt. You have to have a certain wall up when you get up there, but when you start playing, you’ve got to let it down. You have to train yourself on what to expect and not to let it crush you to death. I’ve played too many shows where people would just not stop talking. MLP: The offer to play with The Decemberists, did you see that coming? No, not at all. I thought it was awesome. I mean I know Colin [Meloy], I’ve played shows with him in the past, and I know Rachel [Blumburg], the drummer, and I kind of knew Chris [Funk]. MLP: But you hadn’t been playing music that much. I hadn’t been playing music. I don’t know why they asked me. Did they just like me? God, I don’t know. I think they wanted to do the old school thing of bringing local pals on the road with them. But when they asked me, I was like, “Fuck yeah, yeah I’ll go.” I was kind of disappointed that the new record wasn’t going to be done. But it was cool to go out and play all the new songs and to go on tour with them was so awesome. I had an amazing time. And it was also really fascinating to see how far they have come as a band, because when you’re in this town I don’t think you realize which bands are having success outside of Portland. People don’t realize what’s going on. You get in the Portland bubble, and you don’t really know what’s happening. The first few shows I was like, “Oh my God, there’s so many people here. This is so crazy, these guys are superstars.” But each member of that band has been playing music for a really long time. I think it’s great when friends of yours who have been playing music for a really long time finally reach a certain level of success with it. There’s no one that I can think of that deserves it more than them. MLP: So it surprises me that you were so excited to go. Well I'll always go on tour if someone invites me. I love to travel and I love to play music for people I have never met. But I'll never book my own tour. I've only gone on two tours. I don't want to book my own tour. I don't want to be on the phone. MLP: Now no one likes to indulge in thought, I understand, but having just opened for The Decemberists, and working with Keith Schreiner, who has such a vast network available to him; there’s a good possibility that you could sell a lot of records when this comes out. [Corrina starts shaking her head] You don’t think so? No. MLP: Really? What do you know that I don’t? Because I don’t think about that at all. MLP: But, I mean, what would that do, if it did? We are going to press a thousand and I just want to sell the thousand. That’s all I want. MLP: But if you sell through the thousand in a couple of days then we will talk again. Yeah. MLP: Cause I want to know what you think about it at that point. I don't want to think about it. MLP: I think you would be fine. I can’t think about that. If I think about that it will change what I do. I don’t want to think about that. MLP: I won’t ask you anymore about it. I hope people like it, want to buy it and listen to it. But that’s all. I don’t want to think about it. I think one of the reasons I didn’t play music for a while is just because I wanted to make sure that I was doing it for all the right reasons—to keep it as honest as possible. I didn’t want it to change. I didn’t want it to be the basis for anything I did—in regards to money or popularity… I’m just too honest of a person. Everything that I do and everything that I say I have to be as honest as possible. It’s just the way I am. I just want to make good music that I like and that’s honest for me, and that what I ‘m saying I believe, what I’m saying I feel, what I sing I feel. MLP: What does being a Portland musician mean to you? What do you mean by that? MLP: Well, I felt that you kind of covered it by talking about your friends’ music and how people in Portland don’t know about the success of other bands in Portland… I know that you’ve talked about the different aspects of playing music and living in Portland, but if you step back and look at it… You’ve said that you felt that you didn’t fit in the scene. What does the scene look like to you? It looks like something I don’t know. I feel really outside of it, but the people I know that I’m friends with that are all musicians have stepped back, in some ways, too. There’s a whole new generation of musicians that have come into town that are playing right now. In the last three or four years that I haven’t been playing music—I mean I don’t know any of those bands. When I was in my early-mid twenties I would see shows every night. Any band I’d heard anything about I would go out and see, and I think that changes as you get older. I think you start to get burned out. I felt that if I was going to get anywhere in music that I had to be really social and be out there all the time networking and connecting with people, and I didn’t think that I had the strength at that time. And being thirty—I just turned thirty and I feel so different and I feel so much better and so good. I’ve been feeling so wide open and different then ever. I don’t know. I’m excited about it. MLP: What do you mean that you feel wide open?
Yeah. But I think people appreciate it as well. Just making observations, telling people in an instant. But when John was standing there and I was looking at his hand and I was like "Hey he has really cool hands" and I said "You have really cool hands." No skin off my back in telling you how I feel. Most people would be like "He has a cool hands, but I'm not going to tell him that." I just feel the need to do it. MLP: Is it new for you? It's not that new for me. It's the way I've always been, but it's even more so now. I don't know why, I've just been feeling in such a good way. And maybe it's because the records going to be done. I think that’s a big part of it, I feel like it's been a year of me doing this and now I can hold it and give to people. And it's moving on, moving on to the next level of myself or music or my life in a way. Maybe it's more liberating then I ever thought. MLP: I love that question, but I haven’t figured out the right way to ask it yet. I could tell that. MLP: To me the Portland scene is a lot more than just everyone who plays in Portland. You’re a big part of the Portland scene, The Decemberists are a big part of the Portland scene and they don’t really play here very often. The scene is more than just being seen. It’s more than what some may try to consider a Portland sound because that doesn’t work either. But there’s a certain level of artistic energy that happens in this town that’s fascinating to watch. And be around. MLP: So maybe I need to ask that question over and over again. And you saw how I had a hard time answering it. Because it’s so many different things. And all the people that I know that play music in this town, that I have known for years… it’s just different. I can’t really describe it. But I honestly feel that there’s a whole new wave of people that I don’t know that are young, that are full of energy and excitement and that aren’t jaded or bitter about the music scene. “Come see my show, check out my band.” But there’s so much going on in this town. I love it. So many people I know, and myself included, are all doing amazing things and if they aren’t doing amazing things they’re thinking about it or they’re on their way. They’re about to do great things. I think when you’re around that and there are so many people doing it that we all inspire each other. That’s what I hope. Inspire each other to keep going and keep doing and keep creating and having that community of, not a competition, but being supportive. Even when I think I don’t need it, it just keeps pulling me back. I don’t know if it’s what I’m supposed to do or meant to do… MLP: It’s totally what you’re supposed to do, I mean Jesus Christ. But I don’t know that. MLP: You have that thing, this thing that’s so amazing and you don’t need to know that. Why even bother telling you? Yeah. I’m a lost cause. MLP: Do you do a lot of arrangement in your songs or do they all just kind of come out and that’s it? I say that eighty percent of my songs just come out and they’re there and that it. But that’s also why a lot of my songs don’t have a lot of changes. I feel that it’s easier for a song just to come out and to be there like it’s supposed to be and I say what I need to say and I don’t force myself to add more, usually. I’ll do a little tweaking, a little arranging, but I like to keep it as it comes out.
I record just to remember them, more like an audio journal, so that I can go back and relearn songs if I have to. MLP: So when you’re sitting down and writing songs, you just hit record? Oh yeah always record them. Otherwise I won’t remember them. And now I’ve started having a song notebook so that I write the lyrics down so that I won’t forget them. MLP: So you have a lot of these songs? Oh yeah. A ton, but I’m so hard on myself that I get bored of them really quick. MLP: So how do you go about picking which songs you are going to record? The ones that I still like to sing. Some songs have a shelf life. If you can only play a song live two or three times and you can’t stand to play it anymore, it’s probably a bad idea to put it on the record. And that’s the thing about the new record, every song that’s on there I want to listen to. I don’t want to skip through it. If you get your record all done and there’s a song you keep wanting to skip over, probably not a good idea to have it on the record. So if I’m writing a song and I don’t really want to play it, it’s probably best just to move on and not have it be there. So there are a lot of songs that fill up boxes of four track tapes. But I think it’s good that way. The more you have to go through, the better the songs, hopefully. MLP: I’ve always written by memory. I’ll sit down and be playing around and I’ll come up with something and I construct. Everything I do is construct, so construct a piece here and another one here and build an arrangement. I like to do that too, try to build up a song, but the ones that mean the most to me are the ones that come pretty quickly. I like to work on songs and I will. I just don’t…. I like to have that instant gratification of a song. If I think that the song’s worth it I’ll work on it. I’ll spend a couple of hours trying different parts and trying different things. And some times it’s worth it and other times it just doesn’t work. It’s not meant to happen. Again it’s that whole honesty thing. If it comes out there in the matter of ten minutes, that’s what it’s supposed to be there. It’s how you expressed your thoughts at that moment and you didn’t have to spend three days hammering it out. MLP: But I think that there’s different types of thoughts that one might want to express though. The difference between. Dvorak’s From the New World and uh…say the Brandenburg Concertos. I mean there are just really, really different way of expressing art. Like what you do would be considered more acrylic instead of oil. Yeah, I don’t really write fiction. MLP: You mentioned that earlier. What do you mean by that? You don’t write stories in your songs? No. Not usually, I guess maybe in the early days I was into that challenge of being very descript and very poetic—finding the best way to describe something in a fictional way, in a colorful way, and I liked that challenge, but the longer I did it the less genuine it seemed to me. A lot of my songs are visual for me, because I write about the scene that I have in my head, this picture I have in my head. But whatever you do, you go through different phases and I think that’s just what you do, you try different things and you see what works for you and the longer you stick to something the more you find yourself in it. And luckily for me, I’ve stuck with it and I think that I’m finally just beginning to find what works best for me. MLP: Then there’s Colin [of Decemberists]. Something for everyone. And he’s a fucking fantastic fiction writer. He’s awesome. That’s what he does. And there’s a lot to be said for that, but we are definitely different songwriters. MLP: I think it’s just beautiful that you guys are friends, because your art is polar opposite. He’s sassy though. He graduated from college and he’s very academic. He’s a writer. That’s what he does. Much in the same way as Robyn Hitchcock, they’re fiction writers and they write songs. They are writing and singing short stories. He writes great fiction. Really, really good fiction. I’m sure there’s a lot of truth in there too, of course there’s truth in everything even when you’re writing fiction. There’s still always truth in it. In reality and experience and personal experience. MLP: And I believe, you may disagree with this, but there’s also an element of fiction in the truth. There’s always some underlying lie for every truth. Does that make sense? Yeah I can see how it would make sense. I don’t know if I agree with it though, this whole conversation has been based on telling the truth. Continuing on with that….[laughs] MLP: Yeah you really can’t agree. [laughs] No, I really couldn’t.
In retrospect I wish I had made my point clearer. What I wanted to say was that life is full of contradictions and paradoxes, depending on what’s there, what light is available, and what frame of mind we’re in. On one level, I love my job, on another I’d like to pack it all in and hop trains. Life is too big with too many options to do them all, so when I say that I want this one thing, I’m usually choosing to want it over something else I want. But, eh…maybe that’s just me. Or maybe, if I were to speculate a bit…Corrina has always struck me as being very clear on what’s right for herself. Over the past 4 years through the coarse of putting together a show with her, and keeping in touch since then, she’s always been very forthright about what she’s willing to do, and what she’s not. Perhaps she chooses her truth quickly, and perhaps once she’s done so, there’s no point for her in holding on to the other truth any longer. Maybe there’s some wisdom in that.
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MLP: Which you’ve done with your album design. What are you doing for this one? 
MLP: Good for you. 
MLP: Do you record as your writing?