Guitar Virtuoso Marnie Stern gets candid about her personal and artistic life. She talks to OME about everything from: her self-critical creative process to crazy fans shoving her guitar pick up unmentionable places.
Q: You’ve said in interviews that you don’t consider yourself an exceptional guitarist. Did you ever have a moment where you give yourself credit like, “Hey, I guess I am pretty damn good” and pat yourself on the back?
No. there are parts and songs that I like and when that happens, I try to think of myself as a peer. But then I listen to something I think is awesome, and I change my mind about my stuff being good.
Q: What brought up that moment of self-reflection?
I get asked that a lot in interviews, and so I have to be honest and tell them how I feel about my playing.
Q: Did you really drink the egg shake from your music video for “Ruler” (Homage to Rocky)?
No! It was orange juice!
Q: One of your crazy fan moments was when someone in the audience put your pick up their…tushie. Has there been a crazier fan moment since?
NEVER. That was the craziest. I couldn’t look, but it was fun!
Q: You seem very close to your mom and call her often after something interesting happens. What was the strangest phone call you ever had to make to her?
The strangest things seem to happen when I’m with her, but I guess telling her about this kissing booth was pretty strange! The guy who put the pick up his tushie was a weird one too!
Q: You say in an interview that you have never been asked out on a date. Could you elaborate on why that might be? Has that changed (we noticed the YouTube comments, did you act on them? That could be a pretty sweet love story)?
Where were the YouTube comments? Ha! Usually very brazen young men make sexual comments, but no one ever asks me out in earnest. To be truthful, the people that I do end up dating have an idea of who I am when we start dating. I think they become somewhat disappointed to know that I’m not the person that I appear to be. By that I mean, I have contrasting personality traits, as we all do. I’m not all smiles, jokes, and guitar playing.
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3oxU9-zeiA’]
Q: You have a guitar collection, how many do you have? Which is your favorite and why?
I don’t have a guitar collection anymore, unfortunately. I had a guitar loaned to me by Scott French, but that was on loan, so I don’t have that anymore. My other two guitars are broken at the moment so I WISH I had a heap of money to buy a new guitar or two!
Q: You mentioned in an interview (a few years ago) that you noticed you didn’t use Jangly guitar with longer riffs (or keyboard) and wanted to change that. Did you experiment with those elements in this new album? You’ve worked hard to make this album sound different from the last, how has your sound, or your process, evolved?
Yes, actually I incorporated all of that into the new record. The songs are more stripped down, the drums are a bit less frenetic, and the vocals have a cleaner, sweeter vibe to them.
Q: When is this new album out and how can we get a hold of it (Any other projects we should know about)?
March 19! You can pre-order right now from killrockstars and get a four-CD-r song compilation of some of my unreleased tracks.
Q: What advice do you give to aspiring guitarists, especially those that look up to you for your prowess?
To be yourself, and try to find your own voice. to embarrass yourself, take risks, and have fun, and work hard, and never quit!
Hear the lady critics are hailing as a “guitar goddess” at GZF II . Just promise not to put weird stuff in awkward places.
I want to ask Marnie Stern out on a date but i don’t know how to get a hold of her.
her facebook maybe? She lives in New York at the moment though. You could always find her at her next concert too. Show up with flowers and stuff. That’d be cute.