Email interview with former Verlaines bassist Jane Dodd, February 25, 2005

1. What are you doing these days? Are you still making music/performing?

Working as a self-employed jeweller. Not so much making music at the moment but my whole life is quite a performance.
 
2. When did you start designing jewellery?

Started studying it in 1992 and have been doing full-time since about 1995
 
3. When did you first start to play bass? Was gender ever an issue?

I started playing early 1980 when Martin Phillipps asked me if I would take over the bass from Gaynor in The Same. At first practice I had never played a bass before but had strummed a bit of guitar in my bedroom. Gender never seemed an issue for me or the people I played with, but maybe was a bit for our audiences who, at that time, were unused to seeing a woman actually playing an instrument in a rock band (as opposed to singing). They would gawk (but would also excuse some pretty loose playing).
 
4. Who are your musical influences? Favourite bass player?

My oldest brother John is a bass player and had a huge record collection that he left in my hands when he went to Australia for a couple of years. I was about 13 and this gave me a whole different musical upbringing than many of my school buddies. They were listening to top 40 American stuff and a bit of English stuff -- Roxy Music, Bowie, Elton John. Meantime at home I was listening to Emmylou, Neil Young, Aretha, Al Green, The Band, Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power, Dylan, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell, Miles D, and of course Beatles, Rolling Stones etc... Graeme Downes and I would spend hours together trying to work out the chord progressions of favourite songs. Slightly later Velvet Underground and Nuggets kinda stuff was the intersection set I had with some other "music" buddies (like Martin, Shane P. Carter, Peter Gutteridge, Lesley Paris) and they introduced me to the punk influences (Buzzcocks, Elvis Costello, Devo) that were very important to actually picking up an instrument and playing. Probably the pivotal moment was seeing the Clean play when I was about 16. It was a really exciting time and, as the floodgates opened and other bands started forming (Verlaines, Chills, Sneaky Feelings, Bored Games, Stones), we were all influencing each other. I'm not really a bass player who watches bass players but Larry Graham, Noel Redding and Rick Danko always got under my skin. My big bro probably had as much impact on both scores as anyone.
 
5. Do you play any other instruments?

Not really. Learned piano as a kid but it never stuck -- loved guitar but got sidetracked by bass.
 
6. Which musical artists or genres do you enjoy most?

If the music on my stereo is sung in English then its probably country; Wilco, Will & Wills (Oldham and Bob respectively), Gillian Welch and Dolly. Otherwise its probably some Latin American freaky stuff -- 70s Brazilian Tropicalia (Caetano Veloso, Os Mutantes, Tom Ze, Gilberto Gil) -- early Cuban Son (not big band salsa! -- trovas and septets, & I love Los Zaphiros). And always the old faves -- Beach Boys, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendricks, Gram Parsons. I don't actually hear much of that "modern" music that really gets me going but there always are exceptions.
 
7. How do you compare the Verlaines experience to being in the Able Tasmans and The Chills?

Well it's like comparing your teens, twenties and thirties and the emotional landscapes that they sit in. Nothing actually compares to the great times that I had with the AT's (in my 30s). We really are still a band in that we still drink together regularly which is mainly what we did (eventually at a practice someone would suggest that we should really play a song or two). Now we just don't bother with the instruments. Ables was much more of a group and the songs, although written by one person (Graeme Humphreys, Peter Keen or Leslie Jonkers) were usually arranged and shaped as a band. I reckon our output has its patchy bits but there are lots of great, great songs, we played a mean live set and we had a commitment to fun and misbehaving. Graeme and Pete have just finished a new album -- yet to be released. It's a pearler. I've got to say that Downes' music is quite simply superb and sits head and shoulders above 95% of the music in the world and it was such a privilege to play. I know I never did it justice. It was a pretty intense adventure full of 20's angst and new experiences and these fucking great songs. I love the three-piece format -- the clarity and space and hardness. Graeme had much more of a complete vision of his songs compared to the ATs, and directed us totally in arrangements. I never minded that but it meant things were tighter and more structured. Not to say that we didn't have plenty of good times too -- Oh yes we did!
 
The Chills was so long ago and so brief -- I was still an adolescent -- I think I've blocked my teens out.
 
8. Which musicians from the early Dunedin days do you feel most lived up to their promise?

Promise is such a funny word -- Downes, Kilgour, Carter, Bannister/Pine achieved so much early on that they had fulfilled all promises by their mid-twenties. If you mean who is still doing it now, Shane's new Dimmer stuff is great -- especially the first album "I believe you are a star". I haven't heard much else recently that has really got me. George Henderson of the Puddle never promised anything but delivered pure magic -- he is a neglected genius.
 
9. What is your favourite Verlaines memory?

Afternoon tea and rugby with the Grubb Family...whiskey out of soup bowls in bed... fire hose fights with Romans in university toilets...mean anything to you? I loved the tour we did in 1984 with Marie and the Atom -- and all the recording sessions -- every one.
 
10. Why did you leave the band?

Graeme asked me to leave. I had moved to Auckland and I can see that was unworkable.
 
11. Do you keep in touch with any other former Verlaines members?

Robbie Yeats and I try to see each other reasonably regularly despite living at opposite ends of the country. He's a very special laddie. I sometimes see others around when I'm in Dunedin (quite regularly, Ma and Pa are still there) but couldn't say keep in touch.
 
12. What is your favourite Verlaines recording? (song/album)

Can't say. Favourite songs: Heavy 33, War in my Head, Ready to Fly -- but earlier ones take the biscuit because the fun of playing them is still with me. Crikey! Where to start -- Baud to tears, Burlesque, Makes No Difference, For the Love of Ash Grey, It was Raining -- I could go on and on until I had named them all. I love the live version from the Windsor Castle of Phil Too on Juvenilia -- maybe that's my all time favourite because when it was released on CD it was such a surprise -- it rocks.
 
13. Do you recall any songs the Verlaines played live that were never recorded, including cover songs?

"Free burning love"? Or was it "Free booting love"? Hmmm. "Getting Older" by the Clean I'm sure we played once or twice and of course Carly Simon's "You're So Vain".
 
14. By special request: Who is your favourite American ex-Chills member? :)

Oh Oh Oh that cute Mexican one!
 

A great big "THANK YOU!" to Jane for the wonderfully detailed responses. Thanks also to ex-Chills guitarist Steven "Paco" Schayer for arranging the interview. ;)