Get A Grip

by Nicole Seredszun

            With harmonies bordering on Voice Of The Beehive and beats that resemble X-Ray Spex at their best, the Kirby Grips are forging ahead through the world of indie rock with their own label, Late Bloomers Records. China Tamblyn (guitar) Liz Byrne (bass) and Michele Kappel (drums) make up the three-piece girl band that combines their undyingly cheery music with often times emotionally draining or extremely personal lyrics. Tamblyn’s vocals waiver, holler and thrust their way over the almost frightfully poppy beats of Kappel’s drums and Byrne’s bass rhythms. On their debut EP entitled The Celery Stalks At Night, the Kirby Grips use old movie sound bytes to introduce each song and succeed in creating a campy, almost eerie 1930s murder mystery aura. Fully proving that women do rock no matter what, The Kirby Grips are preparing for a five day tour beginning in Chico, even though Tamblyn, their frontwoman, just happens to be seven months pregnant. Yeah, we’re really the weaker sex. ->

Can you tell me what Kirby Grips means?

Kirby Grips is British slang for bobby pins. We were trying a bunch of names out and our drummer, Michele, works at a bridal salon with a woman from England who kept saying "Pass me the kirby grips! Pass me the kirby grips!" It almost had a girlie sound to it, like "curvy hips." Plus, we’re a three-piece girl band. I’m always finding [bobby pins] in the vacuum cleaner or around the house [laughs].

Do you get a lot of questions about the name?

Yeah, a lot of times people think that it has to do with vacuum cleaners. They think maybe it’s some kind of a housewife term. [laughs]

How did the band meet and get together?

I have known Liz, the bass player, for maybe seven or eight years. I started to play the guitar and Liz started to take bass lessons, and she would call me up and say, "You know, we should do something." And then she met Michele, who played drums a little bit, and all three of us got together and, of course, it was very sloppy at first, but it was so much fun. I started writing music and after about four months of playing we got our first show, and we had such a good response that we just kept doing it.

What kind of music has influenced you as a group?

We all have real variety of music that has influenced us. Our drummer Michele is really into old honky-tonk—Hank Williams, The Collins Kids, stuff like that. Then Liz is more into punky-pop, like Corduroy and the French stuff like Francoise Hardy. I write all the lyrics and then I bring in the song and we all arrange it together. I am influenced mostly by folky-pop like Neil Young and the Pixies and R.E.M. and also a lot of the ‘60s girl groups, and then 70s groups like The Vibrators and Velvet Underground.

Were you playing any instruments before the guitar?

None of us really have a musical background. I had an acoustic guitar and I knew basic stuff, but I had never really tried to learn or play. I never really knew much about the guitar. I still don’t. [laughs]

Do you have a most exciting show or any shows you have done that really stand out in your mind?

I’m actually really excited about our show in Chico, because I really like The Mother Hips. The first time I went to Chico I drove up there just to see The Mother Hips. And then the last time we played in Chico, we played on graduation night at Duffy’s, and that was a lot of fun too. We haven’t really played with any bands that totally excited me. We were excited to play the Gilman in Berkeley, because it’s a historic punk rock club. And I know when we went up to Portland, I was personally excited to play the Satyricon because I knew that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love had met there. [laughs]

Can you tell me about your CD? It is very interesting, with the sound cuts between each song.

The whole [CD concept] kind of came from our drummer Michele. She really wanted a ‘30s feel to the cover, so I had an artist friend of mine design the cover so it looked like a ‘30s movie poster. So we used cuts from thirties movie mystery films.

Can you tell me how you would describe your music?

It seems like it’s a hodgepodge of garage-y, folk-y, sixties girl pop. We play with a lot of surf bands, but we’re not really surf, because I don’t think we’re super guitar oriented. I think we are more focused on the melody and the singing between the three of us. But our guitar style is probably most like surf. I mean, it’s not heavy metal. It’s kind of catchy and bouncy and it’s fun. But the lyrics, they are personal to my own life, and secretive and dark a little bit. But the music is kind of cheery.

Can you tell me about, Late Bloomers Records, the label that you’re on? Did the band start it?

Yeah, that’s our own label.

Is anyone else on your label?

No. We have a 45 [a 7" vinyl record] that is coming out on another label, [called] Rodent Records. That should be out in another month or two.

Did you start the label just for your band?

Yeah, we wanted to produce our own record.

Are you going to be looking for other bands for your label?

No, I don’t think so. We would like to get onto another label; this is a lot of foot work. It would be nice to have someone else getting us shows and checking up on clubs and contacting newspapers.

Is this just for fun? What are the band’s goals?

I think we started out doing it just for fun, but I think we all always took a serious approach to it. From the moment that we started we were working towards getting shows, towards getting together a promo pack and contacting newspapers. It would definitely be great being able to make some kind of living playing music, but we all have day jobs. I could say that we do it just to have fun, but it is a lot of work and a lot of commitment and I am seven months pregnant right now.

Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that.

When I became pregnant that was sort of an issue. It was like, "Well, what does this mean? Does this mean that we’re going to stop playing music?" I was pretty adamant about saying that this was something that I have to do. I love to write music, and I love to play music and I think that I’ll be a much better mom if I continued to do what I love to do, other than if I gave up what I love to do because I am having a child.

What kind of reactions do you get? Because, at seven months I am guessing people can tell that you’re pregnant.

Well, so far not many people have come up to me. It’s not like I’m huge, but I definitely look pregnant. We still plan on playing and touring. I have a lot of family support and when we tour [after the birth] I will just bring along a sixteen year old girl to help me out [laughs].

Has being pregnant brought any changes to your playing or the band’s schedule?

It’s slowly starting to. The main thing is that I really can’t carry my amplifier anymore. It’s not really too hard to play the guitar. I just kind of play it over to the side. I haven’t found that it’s really changed anything; we had a show at The Purple Onion the other night, and it was harder to feel like a sexy rock star. I used to kind of move around, but the other night I couldn’t help thinking, "I just feel kind of big and pregnant tonight."

The Kirby Grips will be playing with The Mother Hips at Harrington’s on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1998. Take a night off from studying and go shake your butt.