West Indian Girl
11.08.05
Profile
words: Stephen Weber
photos: Marc Goldstein

Like so many bands embarking on a sophomoric effort, West Indian Girl, stands on the precipice of the creative and responsive unknown. For many young bands, the second album embellishes the “make it or break it” cliché. Thoughts invoked on the subject of the dreaded second release would include such notorious acts as The Strokes and Interpol. Following their 2005 self-titled debut, West Indian Girl sought to obtain something they had not yet accomplished - a concert identity. Prior to the release of their debut, they had existed only as a studio band, not having followed the traditional, gig-first, ritual. Having won over audiences and established a, ‘live,’ personae, the band turns again to the studio, where we presently find them half-way through their second album.

I caught up with bassist and founding member, Francis Ten, via telephone, while he walked his boxer, Tony, through the West Hollywood hills, into Beverly Hills. Instead of finding an apprehensive musician caught up in the stress and turbulence of the recording process, the trepidation of tour dates, I found a relaxed, charismatic artist, at ease with his symphonic destiny.

Ten and his founding collaborator, Robert James are now in the process of writing and rehearsing with West Indian Girl, comprised of Christ Carter, Mark Lewis and Mariqueen Maandig.

The group writes and records in their loft space, in the heart of L.A.’s skid row. Ten admits, “it’s kind of depressing, going down there at night, because you have homeless people sleeping everywhere you look. I mean, it’s the heart of skid row.” The band splits their work week, where four nights a week they are writing a new batch of songs for the record that is estimated to be released in the Spring; and, on the days that they are not recording, they are rehearsing as a band and working on incorporating their newer material with their established back catalogue. Ten explains that they are currently working on a core of five songs that they revisit constantly in the quest for immortality in recording. “The songs start out as demos and we keep going back to them and refining and refining them, changing parts and changing vocals,” says Ten. He elaborates, “I’ll primarily stick with the bass guitar, but it’s a grab bag, where sometime three or four people are all playing some of the keyboard tracks. Chris plays most of the keyboard tracks, but we’ll all touch them up with added spices and textures.” With the last album, West Indian Girl found a notable, yet rewarding difference between the foundation of the recordings and the life the songs took on, with new parts and extended instrumentals, once they are performed in front of an audience. In a similar manner, they are finding the dual lives of their newer songs. “There are definitely two worlds – there is the song that you are writing, specifically for the album, and then there’s what you are going to play live. If you come to see a West Indian Girl show, you’ll recognize the songs, for sure, but nine out of ten times, you are not going to hear the exact version that you heard on the record. Rob will take a lot of liberty, live, with the guitar. We also add sections. In the song ‘Hollywood,’ a song from the last album, we have added a new middle.” With so much precision and improvisation running parallel to the recording process, the band has to be able to decipher between studio and live discrepancies.

Halfway through the writing process, the band sees minute, yet articulate differences between this upcoming record and their previous one. “Three of these songs have a little bit more of, almost, an ‘Islandy’ feel to them. There will be certain elements that make it sound like a West Indian Girl record, but there aren’t going to be as many slower, songs, acoustic ballads. Although, maybe. Maybe there will be. Again, we’re only halfway through.”

The band knows they need to have their material ready, since they plan on a tentative tour in early December, prior to the next release. “The tour will go to Colorado, Utah and then goes back up and hits a lot of cities in the west coast that we’ve done, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, all the way down. I’m just hoping that the tour goes through, because it would be a lot of fun.” The bands’ reticence in making a live impact appears crucial at this moment in their career. Ten is the first to admit that the band has yet to see its live potential. “I feel that we have a lot work to do to get better, to make our live show better. That’s ultimately, where we want to take this.” The band is looking to make their live show everything and more than what their records promise. The root of West Indian Girl lies in a group that spent its formative years recording and song writing. It’s presence as a performing group was only after the fact, where it sees its potential, working backwards as a band that started as a concept. “This project started as a studio project. Then it just kind of developed into the idea, ‘well, let’s put this band together.’ We have a great group of players. Mariqueen is an awesome vocalist to have up on stage, she brings it. Carter is great. Mark Lewis really holds it down on the drums.” While Ten notes the potential arsenal that he has to tour with, he also admits that the band needs to make up for lost time, “we haven’t toured enough. For the past record, we played a total of forty-six shows. That’s nothing. That’s absolutely a drop in the bucket to what we should have played and to what we want to play. I’m hoping to play a total of two hundred shows next year. This band cannot wait to get out there and play.” As is evident, despite Ten’s musical desires, the bands future touring is utterly dependent on its ability to financially bring the touring together, which their label, Astralwerks, has been essential in accomplishing. Despite their pseudo-rookie status as a live band, they have won over audiences throughout the country. Ten admits that their strongest supporters and favorite cities have been Philadelphia, Seattle, San Diego and San Francisco. “These are music lover cities. The reaction has been totally heartfelt.”

Along with theorizing and fantasizing about potential tour-mates and hunger for larger audiences, the band has also been contending with their past and what they want to be in the future. The media, concerning their name and its origins and implications, has placed a major stigma on them. The name, West Indian Girl, comes from a strain of LSD that was popular in the sixties, (having read this in almost every review/interview of the band, I almost hesitate to mention it here). While Ten does not regret their choice of band names, it phonetic resonance and loose association; he does wish that the band can be seen beyond its psychedelic symbolism. “The media will take one idea and run with it. Those words roll off the tongue with a nice sound. The word association created something in my mind that was fitting in its beauty and ambiguity. We don’t want to be labeled as a ‘stoner band.’ Not that we have anything against drug experimentation, but we believe we are about so much more. It has become a way for people to generalize about or judge the band. Sure we have elements of our music that is psychedelic, but we don’t want to be stifled by that. To me, it’s such a non-issue, that it’s funny.”

Poised before their next epic endeavor, West Indian Girl has been able to assess their successes. Personified within the fraction of the over-all band, Francis Ten exudes the humble presence of a man who has enjoyed the ride thus far. While like many, I anticipate the upcoming album and tours, I get the impression that Fran would be content with whatever trail beckons him. When I asked him whether he would like to add anything else to this article, he added, “we have the best fans ever. I liked to say, to any fans that might read this, that we have a phenomenal, grass roots fan base, those fans that drive hours to see us, I can’t thank you enough. You help us keep the shit real. It means a lot.”

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