Interview with Carrie Neumayer

Partial Transcript: I was born in Louisville, in 1980

Keywords: Louisville

Partial Transcript: I went to high school here. I went to college at both the Kansas City Art Institute and then I transferred and finished up at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Keywords: influenced

Partial Transcript: I went to high school here. I went to college at both the Kansas City Art Institute and then I transferred and finished up at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Partial Transcript: burnt orange

Keywords: Louisville; music

Partial Transcript: I got involved in the music scene when I was around 13, which would have been around 1993. There were some kids at my school who had a band and who were playing shows. They were kind of weird and I thought I was kind of a weird person too and I didn’t quite fit in with a lot of the kids my age, which I think many preteens feel, but I wasn’t very good at being a traditional girl. I felt like I just didn’t belong and when I was part of the music scene there was a part of me that connected to the energy and sort of the rebelliousness of what I was seeing and that was it.

Keywords: band; music; shows

Partial Transcript: Oh yeah, Ear Ecstasy was the place where everyone went. It wasn’t just like going to buy something. It was like going to the town square for weirdos. So you would go there and you were friends with all the people who worked there and you would see all your friends. You would bother them and ask questions, buy records, find flyers for shows. And so Ear Ecstasy and later Ground Zero was another one. Again we would go after school and hang out with the people who worked there and bother them for hours. So it wasn’t like going to a record store now. It was different, you just camped out there all afternoon.

Keywords: music; shows

Partial Transcript: Going to the music store, getting recommendations from the people who worked there. Going to shows and seeing bands that would pass through town and buying directly from the artist. Sometimes mail order.

Keywords: artist; bands; music; shows; venues

Partial Transcript: When I was like 13 or 14, the venue at the time where…they offered all ages shows…was this place called Tulligans which became Cahoots and is now I think a club called Nervona I think. It’s on Bardstown Road. It has a very storied past. When I was young it was kind of nothing special. It was sort of run down. It was dark but it was special. I remember that the air conditioning didn’t work very well and there would be like hundreds of kids who would be at shows. And one memory I have is that there were just these big coolers of water and everyone would pass them around and we would just dump them on our heads because it was just packed with kids in this space with not a lot of air flowing through but it felt very exciting… oh ..and you could smoke in bars then, so it was just like you were chocked with cigarette smoke. So that was a positive change that you don’t have to deal with the smoke. That was then, you were saying and now….

Keywords: club; shows

Partial Transcript: Where do I go now as an adult? The best venues we have right now are Zanzibar, Headliners, KiJu. I still prefer…. I go to big shows, I went to see Janet Jackson at the Yum Center and that was awesome, but that’s kind of different scale from what I grew up with and what I generally go to now. Everything’s kind of cleaner and nicer. I don’t know….

Keywords: influences; Louisville; music; shows; venues

Partial Transcript: Well, probably the person who had the most profound impact on my life is someone who has passed away, his name was Jason Noble and he was a really incredible musician, artist. Kind of leader in the community. He really brought people together, made really beautiful music that was experimental, and unique. He was a lot older than I was but made me feel like I had something to give and I always looked up to him as kind of like a mentor as well as his bandmates and then there were a couple of women in the music scene who I looked up to a lot. One of his bandmates was Tara Jan O’Neil who now has a really successful solo career and she lives in Los Angeles. She was the first woman I ever saw play music and I saw her and I said/thought… well I want to do that. Yeah…. We’ll just leave it at that, there are a lot, there’s tons of people who influenced me.

Partial Transcript: It was my whole world. I mean, it was. It was where I felt like I developed and started playing music. I developed confidence for the first time because I played in a band. I made flyers, booked shows, promoted shows. It was my whole world and at the same time there were things about the music scene where it was difficult being a girl. It was pretty male dominated and sort of harder to totally connect with people who were like you I guess. I don’t know.

Keywords: band; music; shows

Partial Transcript: Well, I mean it’s been like the majority of my life, so it’s kind of hard to just pick one thing. I mean there are so many different moments. I guess one that stands out actually was like earlier this year. One of my bands was playing with a band called Girl Wood. It was what my band Julie of the Wolves, it was one of the last shows we were playing and it was a free show at Za’s pizza pub and it was packed and was full of majority women and queer people and it just all of the sudden felt like this was the community that I had always wanted as a kid and it was there and I got to play a show and it was just this beautiful energy and it felt supportive and it felt alive. It felt like… it was beautiful. I remember it was a free show but we’d asked for donations at the door that were donated to Help with families who were separated at the border and I think we raised like… I can’t remember what it was…. It was like maybe $400 or something…. It was just what people gave, they didn’t have to, but they did. That was pretty memorable. It was sort of like, oh yeah…. This is what I’ve always wanted, and here it happened.

Keywords: band; show; women

Partial Transcript: Well, I mean like lots of close friendships. I don’t know if there’s a kind of person, there’s just like a lot of different people who are coming from all different kinds of perspectives and levels of musical interest and … but I think they all share creativity and a desire to be … I don’t know…a part of a community.

Keywords: Louisville

Partial Transcript: CN- Everything was regional then. You know there were like bands that would pass through, or when I went on tour there were bands that sort of had a similar sound. Like in Chapel Hill or in Boston, or various other communities. What did I think was different about Louisville?... Louisville had always a sort of… which I think… maybe this is different now, but an inferiority complex. I think that we were always kind of the small town that was trying to prove that we had something to give and so I think Louisville had a little bit of a chip on its’ shoulder and a lot of pride in its’ own music scene and not wanting to look outward as much and so while that can be seen as a kind of negative thing, it also, I think, helped define the sound here because everyone here was influenced by each other. And so I think you saw a lot of people that were sort of interested in experimenting with time signatures, with dynamics…. Like really loud and really quiet parts within a song. Kind of experimenting with the jux de position of pretty with loud and harsh and abrasive within the same song.

Keywords: band; influence; loud; Louisville; music

Partial Transcript: CN- I think like everything else the arts are more global. I think that things are less regional. They’re less specific to certain communities and everyone is getting influences from everywhere because you find music on the internet. So we lose a little bit of a regional sound, but at the same time people can pick and choose from a whole world of ideas that they might be influenced by.

Keywords: influence; music

Partial Transcript: CN- Well, I have a tattoo on my arm. It’s the first tattoo I ever got. It says GRL on it and it stands for Girl’s Rock Louisville which is the organization that I co-founded and currently run. It’s an organization that’s all about empowering girls and gender non-conforming youth through music. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done with my life.

Keywords: empowering; gender; Louisville; music; Rock

Partial Transcript: CN- For four years, so we’re going into our 5th year.

Partial Transcript: CN- We’re part of a network of Girl’s Rock Camps. The Girls Rock Camp alliance. It like a network of like nearly 200 camps around the world and we all share resources and connect with each other so it’s not like this was my own unique idea, but it was something I really wanted to see here and we built it our own way and you know had help along the way from people who had done it before.

Keywords: Louisville; Rock

Partial Transcript: CN- Yes and it’s turned into a full non-profit and it’s learning how to run a business and being a principle and being like all…. Learning how to do everything from scratch.

Partial Transcript: CN- Well, this year we had around 50 kids who were participating in our summer camp and we had over 70 volunteers working with the camp and it was just… it’s hard to sort of sum it all up concisely, but it was just our best camp yet. Just seeing the way the kids have grown because we had a lot of returning campers and sort of seeing the initiative they’re taking and the confidence they have and the seriousness which they approach their own creations and the way that they treat each other with kindness and generosity and love. It’s really powerful just to see what they’ve done with this and how they’ve run with it. How eventually I hope they will take it over and keep it going. We did have a concert that sold out Zanzibar and a line wrapped around the block. Yeah, there’ve been a lot of really cool things with that.

Keywords: louisville; rock

Partial Transcript: CN- I think what’s most important to me is that it stays true to its’ mission. I don’t necessarily think that getting bigger as an organization is necessarily getting bigger. I think that as long as we are serving our mission which is building self-esteem and making genuine connections and relationships with the community and being very intentional about everything we do then I think that’s the best thing that can happen if we don’t sell our souls because we are trying to support ourselves by like chasing funds for things that don’t actually serve the organization’s mission. I think as long as we stay true to who we are, I will consider that a success. That said, I want it to be able to serve as many youth as we can. Right now, we have more demand for our programs than we are able to meet. They sell out and we don’t have the capacity yet to offer multiple programs and so I would just like to see us be careful with how we grow and make sure we keep the quality.

Keywords: louisville; rock

Partial Transcript: CN- 10 to 18 and then we actually offer an adult program which we are doing next week and that’s for 21 and up.

Partial Transcript: CN- Well, we’ve got a lot of campers who have become volunteers who have started their own bands that have performed outside of camp. I think what I’m most proud of is the friendships that have formed across differences. In times when we are very polarized culturally, I think we build bridges through the arts and I count friendship and genuine respect for each other and seeing each other as human beings. You know, looking for ways to like love each other better across differences. I think we do that well and I think that the thing I’m most proud of.

Keywords: Rock

Partial Transcript: CN- I would say that you have to figure out why you’re doing it. Hopefully any sort of art form helps you… OK… let me start over. So like making art and music to me is kind of like a spiritual thing. It is something that gives me a sense of purpose, of freedom. I feel like I am totally immersed and happy when I am creating something and I hope that a young musician or artist can tap into that within themselves because that is the absolute most important thing that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. That is the source of endless discovery and joy and collaboration is also a source of joy and if you can focus on that part and focus less on any sort of success or trying to turn whatever you are doing into an income revenue or a means of gaining popularity or fame or likes on the internet. If you can focus on the joy part and tap into that within yourself, then that will be something that you can carry with you forever and that is more important than any of the other stuff.

Keywords: artist; music

Partial Transcript: CN- I think it depends on my mood and the day. I think that it’s a …. Like there are lots of wonderful things about it. You can find other artists and musicians who you connect with and be inspired by…. That part’s great. It’s so easy to share what you’re doing with others but I think that sometimes in a haste to share, we focus on that part of it rather than the developing the work itself. So, I think there are ups and downs to it and it just all depends on your own relationship with that.

Keywords: artist; music; show

Partial Transcript: CN- Sure, it’s a lot easier to find out about things. On one hand it is, if you already know about specifically who your audience is you can find them and they can find you easier. But also there is a sort of oversaturation of everyone sharing their things all the time and so it feels less special when there’s an event or something like that.

Keywords: audience

Partial Transcript: CN- I think that some of the advice that I would give to someone younger is the advice that I would give to myself because I spent a good part of my 20s really feeling frustrated or comparing myself to other people that I maybe wasn’t achieving the same level of success as someone else. You know my band started at the same time as My Morning Jacket and I was friends with those guys and so you see people in your peer group, their popularity, you know…. People who make it I guess and you compare yourself to that and you feel like… well I suck and I guess I should just quit and I think that’s just such a mistake because if you really love what you’re making and what you’re doing then you realize that popularity and success with music is something that’s fleeting for most people. If it happens, then it happens quickly and then it’s over. It’s better to have a longer career and I say career as like that you just keep making, no matter what it is because it’s really, it’s the journey that is the reward. You don’t just “make it” and then you’re done, your life is happy. Making music or art is all about the process.

Keywords: artistry; band; music

Partial Transcript: CN- I am currently in a band called Second Story Man that I've been playing in since I was 18 years old so we've been together for 20 years and there's be a couple of line-up changes but my bandmates Evan and Jeremy and I have been together for 20 years and I think that's pretty special. I also played in a band recently called Julie of the Wolves that recently had to end because one of our badmates moved, but we were around for 6 years and we would have stayed together if she hadn't moved so I'm into long term band relationships I guess.

Keywords: band; Louisville; music

Partial Transcript: CN- Definitely it was. I think that you’re always, I’m still trying to prove myself. On some level there’s always someone who is sort of questioning your ability or your right to be in the space. Like I was just playing a show recently and someone assumed I was the girlfriend and not there to perform. You’re always trying to prove yourself. It’s gotten a lot better, but as a kid the girls who were there were the girlfriends or they were just like someone who was irrelevant. So it was hard at first, but it wasn’t hard for me to find bandmates though because I played with other girls who didn’t have experience at the beginning and so we learned together and then when we played our first show, when I was 16, people were kind of interested because it was something different so in that way we sort of stood out a little bit and I felt like I was respected because I was part of this band that was a little different.

Keywords: band; show

Partial Transcript: CN- Yeah, definitely. I mean it definitely is the kind of thing that…. Like I said you have to keep proving yourself to people you meet, but I think of the people who are my peers…. Men, women, whatever…after a while you’ve just seen each other forever and you have all this history together and a shared history of the music community and I don’t know, you just…. I’m not being very articulate there…

Keywords: gender; music

Partial Transcript: CN- I think the… what I used to hear when I was going to shows when I was younger from mostly people my age who were younger than a lot of the bands who were onstage were comments about the way women looked about their bodies. I didn’t hear the people describe the musicians who were women onstage as like great musicians…. They were hot… you know or whatever and that’s definitely changed, or at least people won’t say that around me. So I don’t know, maybe people still say stuff like that. I think that women are seen as more equal contributors in music. There’s just also more of us out there now than there were before and the scene has become…. The underground music scene has become much more queer and trans inclusive. I mean, I think it always was to a degree but it wasn’t quite as front and center as it is now which I think is awesome, so that’s been a big change. It think bands like Girl Wood who I just saw in the Leo reader’s choice poll just this week was the number one band with like the top number, top song, top band and that was pretty exciting to see…. Like that wouldn’t have happened in the 90s. We’ve evolved.

Keywords: band; music; show; underground

Partial Transcript: CN- Yeah, I taught art in JCPS for 8 years and then I left and started doing frellance illustration. I love to draw, I like collaborating. Illustration, you collaborate with the art director and the writer. It’s kind of a back and forth of coming up with a concept and then bringing it to finish so I really enjoy doing that kind of work and so I pick up freelance stuff. I have an ongoing assignment with Louisville Magazine, I’ve done things with KY Center for Investigative Reporting and I don’t know…. Whoever shows up and wants to do something, I’m usually game for it. I do a lot of art on my own that’s just sort of, kind of for me and I work. Lately I’ve been working like 4 hours a night just on paintings so…

Keywords: illustration; louisville; show

Partial Transcript: CN- Illustration is different because it’s a lot more controlled. The stuff I do on my own is a little more …. A lot less controlled, more free and more abstract and more intuitive. The illustration stuff is just more commercial and it has subjects that’s expressing whereas the other stuff is about feeling or intuition.

Partial Transcript: I don’t think so

Keywords: club; Louisville

Partial Transcript: CN- Well, you all listened to some stuff. Not yet, that’s a project for down the road
TS- when you have a free moment
(32:10)CN- That’s for retirement
TS- Alright, well thank you for meeting with us and for the interview.