Tune-Yards, stylized tUnE-yArDs, is a project that started with Merrill Garbus, who is joined by her collaborator Nate Brenner on recent records.
Garbus, who started writing poetry in earnest when she was working at a summer camp in 2005, attributes her success to a combination of privilege, luck and talent. Tune-Yards’ nuanced lyrics about social issues combined with their indie pop stylings create a one-two punch that has earned them a loyal fanbase. Garbus answered several questions about her work and process ahead of her group's headlining spot at the 11th annual Norman Music Festival.
I saw that you had done a couple things before music, including puppetry. What sparked you to make the transition to music?
That was a really long time ago, now. Really, it was that I wrote a puppet opera and that was a project I worked on during my time at a puppet theater. So, I wrote a solo puppet opera and friends of mine said, "You should use the ukulele (because) ukuleles sound creepy." So, I bought my first soprano ukulele, for whatever it was, $20 or something. I started composing on it and I guess I had this — eventually — this thought, "I like this part better than the puppet part."
I was very depressed in my mid 20s and decided to move on from my job at the puppet theater and work at an arts camp over the summer. That’s where I started writing a lot of poems and eventually formed a band with one of those people I met at that camp.
I know a lot of your work is influenced by discussions of racism and sexism. Do you view your role as an educational role, as you’re writing these songs to educate people on these issues or to inform people that these issues are out there?
I would never say that, in terms of being educational, because I feel like I don’t know anything. Of course, I know some things, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to get through this time on earth. I don’t know how we’re supposed to live with each other. I really like to think that I pose questions with the music. But, I think what you say is interesting because I think sometimes even the words used in the question are an education.
For instance, like "white centrality," people are like, "Oh you used the phrase ‘white centrality’ or the sixth extinction," these concepts that I am just learning about. So posing them as questions in songs is kind of adding them to people’s vocabulary for the first time.
But certainly, I don’t start out to be didactic. I don’t listen to music for that. I listen to music to help me express really complicated and complex and confusing states of being.
How do you keep yourself aware of these issues?
It’s funny because I feel so unaware of things most of the time. I try — I think it’s a real balance because there’s such an onslaught of news and media that, I guess — particularly because my creative brain needs some space to create — in order to create, I need a lot of clarity. So that’s where meditation comes in, and exercise and making sure I can get clear. But I read a ton. I’m reading all the time. And I’m also reading specifically, and podcasts and trying to keep up with the news as much as I can without my soul dying.
Also having clarity around whiteness, (having clarity) around that part of white privilege that’s like not really needing to be aware of some of things that are threatening the lives of people of color. There’s a lot of, "I can stay really concerned about whatever," Trump and the economy, and going to war with North Korea. There are certain things that feel more important, but I might just be like, "Oh that doesn’t really have to do with me."
So part of my plan of action around really trying to work around white supremacy in my life, how it manifests in my life, is an awareness of how whiteness blinds me to what’s going on in the world with people who are not white. And there certainly is a lot affecting people of color these days.
Is it different working with a partner to create the music, as opposed to working independently?
(Brenner) and I have been working together, so I think this definitely has been — we’ve evolved into a real team, (and we) have been for the last couple albums anyway, but this really feels like the most sharing that we’ve done in terms of writing the music. For one thing, we like certain things that we hear in the exact opposite ways.
So, a song like “Home” — I wrote it in a certain key and then (Brenner) wrote a bassline that made it in a different key. It took me 24 hours to be like, "No," and really miss the song that I thought I was writing, and then to realize how much deeper — he gave it so much depth harmonically, which I think gave it more depth in its meaning, too. It’s like any relationship, I think, where there’s these real challenges and real tension and moments of disagreement that hopefully will create way more depth.
What should fans expect from your Norman Music Fest set?
We’re so excited to come to Oklahoma. I expect a lot of joy. It feels like it’s springtime, the summer is around the corner. I don’t know what the weather’s been like there, but it’s been cold here, and now the sun is finally coming out. We just want to bring dance and a moment to come together. It feels like a time in the world where the more opportunities (there are) to come together in joy and in dance and in music, the better, so we’re excited.
Tune-Yards will perform at 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 23 at the Fowler Automotive Main Stage.
