Jordan Reyne Interview.

Helen Chang talks to Jordan Reyne about her new album "Passenger".

Its one of those cold clear days where you know that winter is coming. Reyne drinks her coffee fast and tries to hold on to the warmth in the cup. Having just listened to the un mastered version of Passenger it is already safe to say that this album is dark, cold and beautiful in its bleakness. The sounds of trains persist throughout, giving you a sense of being constantly on the move and somehow ungrounded. This is a travel album of an immensely unusual sort.

Helen Chang: Why Passenger as a title? You know there's a Karly Binding CD with the same name!

Jordan Reyne: Passenger is a kind of passive title. The whole album is some kind of attempt at a story. about being buffeted around by life. I was in a strange kind of mental space where it felt like I just responded blindly to things. i just let life take me where it would which ended up being Germany. I wanted a title which reflected that. I wasn't out there hunting down my destiny or anything. I wasn't in that much of a strong position. it was a real period of chaos.
As for Karly. well. its an Iggy Pop song too. but I don't imagine it will cause much confusion.

Helen Chang: What about that cliche that people go overseas to "find themselves". Is there an element of that in the CD?

Jordan Reyne: Actually just the opposite. I went overseas to lose myself. I had run into the problem of thinking that life is more bad than good. I didn't believe I could go on being a musician so I had no goals at all that gave me anything to look forward too. I guess Id given up. Leaving was a last ditch maneuver. I wanted some kind of thing bigger than me to pick me up and sweep me along with it. Like being filled with something that has an energy of its own - coz I had none.

Helen Chang: What sort of thing would that be?

Jordan Reyne: I wasn't sure when I left. Actually I did but I don't want to talk about it! It was some intense combination of love, history, war and hedonism. all those big topics and idealized things. Something other than doing a job I'm no good at and studying subjects I didn't care about.

Helen Chang: So how did you write the CD, wandering from one side of the planet to the other?

Jordan Reyne: I took my computer with me - in bits. I got stopped at every single customs check. They would ask me: "what's that in your bag?". When I said "a hard drive and a motherboard" they looked at me so strangely. It was very tempting to say "no wait a minute, girls don't know about electronic shift. it must be that I'm smuggling the makings of a bomb for some terrorist". Certainly none in the states would have found that funny at the time, and I am not overly keen on experiencing the wrath of humorless people in positions of power. But yeah it was difficult. I had to constantly take the thing apart and put it back together. and buy different power supplies.

Helen Chang: I sit here and wonder if a laptop wouldn't have been easier, but when asked Reyne gives the response that needs no further justification: not enough money.

Helen Chang: How did you earn money there?

Jordan Reyne: I busked on the streets. This was really hard at first because although it was unseasonably warm in february when I arrived, it was stull only 0 degrees during the day. My fingers froze and wouldn't move after 5 minutes. I had to do "Mercedes Benz" coz its acapella, but it was embarrassing. In March it got easier. There was this one lady who always brought me fruit coz I busked near a fruit shop. Other people bought me Big Macs. I must have looked fairly desperate.

Helen Chang: Where was this?

Jordan Reyne: First in Stuttgart and then in Karlsruhe.

Helen Chang: Who were you staying with?

Jordan Reyne: Friends for the first 2 weeks in Stuttgart. The Siegels. They were so great. But after that I squatted in a flat that was being sold. I knew about the place coz I was friends with the people moving out. It sounds bad, but really it was a quite comfortable adventure. There was me and another woman called Beate who also had nowhere to live at that time. We lit a fire one night in one of the empty bedrooms and just read and played guitar. I had to pile up stinky car seat covers over my sleeping bag at night coz it was cold. But they cant cut off power over there so we always had light and hot water - though the heater had run out of oil!. Eventually we got flatmate's in and started paying rent.

Helen Chang: There are a number of tracks with no vocals on the CD - the first one is called "The Nothing". What is it about?

Jordan Reyne: The Nothing is probably one of the most important sonic themes on the album in terms of meaning. For me anyway. I first came across it in the never ending story by Micheal Ende. After I wrote the CD I found it in Heiddegger as well. For me it is the emptiness which always there - under any meaning you may construct for yourself. It is a void. To put it cheezily, I suppose I am preoccupied with the problem of Nihilism. The idea that life is not worth living. There are convincing arguments for Nihilism and I am searching always for how to accept it but move ahead. About 5 years ago my own frameworks for how to live my life fell to bits. I went through this phase I called "sitting with the nothing". It was highly unpleasant. I reached a point where I had to get up and run for the nearest thing that looked like it could convince me it was worthwhile. the nearest thing that could fill me with a conviction I wasn't able to make for myself. Passenger is about this running for something. The Loneliest of Creatures was about sitting with the nothing. But through all the running towards some thing that would fill me up and give me purpose I knew there was something wrong. That the nothing was waiting for me always and that I would have to solve it in the end. like I said. I was trying to lose myself. Which is just like shutting your eyes and hoping something will cease to exist coz you cant see it.

Helen Chang: How long have you been back from Germany?

Jordan Reyne: Since last June [2003].

Helen Chang: A lot of artists say they can only write when they are depressed. What do you think of this?

Jordan Reyne: When I'm depressed I cant do anything! I lie in bed all day. But there is some point where if I am just melancholic that it is comfortable enough to write. Actually yeah - melancholic is probably my best writing state. but that doesn't mean I want to be like that all the time!!

Helen Chang: But was the whole Germany experience worth it for the album you made?

Jordan Reyne: God. Id have to say no. I am glad I wrote this CD and I really love how it turned out. But given the choice I would rather not have gone through the experience it took to write it. There's this idea Nietsche talks about called "eternal recurrence".. and I like Nietsche because he offers the best antidote to Nihilism I have found. anyway, overly simplified, he says that if you have a life affirming attitude you would say "yes" to reruns of all the choices you ever made weather they caused pain or not. the whole thing. life with all the good and bad in it - because that's what makes it worthwhile. I like this idea a lot, but I have to say, once was enough.

Helen Chang: This is actually Reyne's 4th album, and it being New zealand one cant help but wonder how she gets the money to continue.

Jordan Reyne: Creative New zealand!! They rock my world. I love them to bits and if they didn't exist I would not be here today. They have funded me on several occasions and I think they play a crucial role in keeping the arts in NZ experimental. There are other funding bodies out there but the main ones for musicians get funded as per what radio say they like. Which to me seems to procure increasingly vanilla music.

Helen Chang: Ok - And here's the section I have called "cliched Germany questions". Did you go to the beerfest?

Jordan Reyne: Laughs - No. And apparently it is mostly kiwis and aussie's trying to prove to the Germans that they can drink the most beer. But the germans probably already know this!

Helen Chang: Was the beer over there better than it is here?

Jordan Reyne: Umm.. I am so not the best person to ask! I have no taste. I drank wine with vodka the whole time I was there. but I guess yes. coz I cant drink beer at all in NZ, whereas in Germany it was tolerable. I guess that's insulting to both nations!