Bigamy Sisters: Neither Bigamists, Nor Sisters. Discuss.
By Russell Bartholomee

Since 1996, Bigamy Sisters have been one of Austin, Texas’ best-kept indie rock secrets.  Of course, being a well-kept secret in Austin isn’t hard.  The city is widely considered to be the music capital of the Southwest.  It’s a very large pond, teeming with talented fish of all sizes; not being noticed is normal.  Yet, for the past eight years, Bigamy Sisters have been independently creating and releasing glorious modern rock records that deserve to be noticed inside and outside the Austin city limits.  And fortunately for fans of aesthetically pleasing and eclectic smart-rock, the band is preparing to release their third full-length CD, Tigris Embassy.  This well-kept secret might just be out of the bag. 

The music of Bigamy Sisters is hard to describe.  Not that it’s completely disconnected from modern music, but that it’s just so hard to pigeonhole.  And I mean that as a compliment.  In “How Will I Die?” (from 2002’s Movies About Gladiators) there’s a sort of Berlin-era David Bowie feel.  But even so, it’s clearly not a Bowie song.  Most of the songs are even harder to peg.  You hear a little of the Who, maybe some early Kinks.  There are moments that bring Radiohead or Polyphonic Spree (minus the choir) to mind, but not so much as to seem derivative.  Song after song defies categorization.  Is it psychedelic jazz-rock?  Is it sophisticated garage rock?  No.  It’s Bigamy Sisters.

One thing you should know before we get any further, though:  Bigamy Sisters are not actually proponents of multiple marriages.  Nor are they technically sisters.  Actually, in the current line-up, they’re all men.  Originally composed of Robert Pierson, Britta Thompson, Matt Parente, and Jeff Linton, the band has made several roster changes over the years.  The only continuous member has been singer/guitarist Pierson, though drummer Robert Fisher has been part of the group since 1997.  Currently, Pierson and Fisher are joined by guitarist Alex Thompson (Britta’s brother) and bassist Darson Vidorim.  I caught up with both of the Roberts to talk about the new album, the current political landscape, and the Austin music and theater scene.

Being There: Tell me about how this all got started.

Robert Pierson: I had for quite a few years been playing music in Austin under many different band names and incarnations with people. But I never really had a group of people that wanted to consistently play out and basically get out of the living room.  So I started working with Britta, who did want to.  I had some material from over the years and Britta was writing songs pretty prolifically then, and it just took off from there.  We went through various incarnations, for various reasons.  And now it’s where it is.

BT: At one point, when Britta was in the band, you had Allison Land on bass.  You had two men and two women.  And now it’s four guys.  Is it really any different working as a male four-piece?

RP:  Yeah, I mean, there’s certain ways that are going to be different.  But not so much.  Allison was a great bass player.  And I really miss having female backing vocals or having female lead vocals on stuff.  Or having someone else sing songs.  I guess the main way it’s different is that you have two more bits of testosterone versus estrogen.  I guess that’s the difference that I’m seeing.

BT:  Is it harder to get stuff done?

RP:  No, no, no.  It’s just a different energy.

Robert Fisher: Britta was originally our lead guitar player and a lead vocalist.  That girl was amazing.  She’s like the Pete Townsend or the Ray Davies of the female world.  When she moved to Paris and Allison had her baby, we kind of took a year off.  But then Pierson called me up and had this whole new batch of songs.  And he said, “Alex Thompson is in town.”  Alex is Britta’s brother, and I don’t know if it’s their upbringing or what, but their musical influences are very similar.

BT: Does Pierson handle all the vocals now?

RP:  I did, until Darson came in.  He’s a great singer, so we’re splitting some of the vocal duties and it’s nice because it opens up the vocal end of things in regard to harmonies… Darson has…I’ve long been a fan of his back since, like, the late 80s when he used to do solo acoustic stuff.  He’s opened for John Cale and Billy Bragg way back then and did kind of a singer-songwriter thing.  And then the situation happened that we needed a bass player, and he was available. 

RF: We call him our secret weapon.  He’s had a really major influence on the new material.  As a lead vocalist, a songwriter, a collaborator.  It’s really affected the way we sound. 

RP:  He’s a really strong songwriting force.  Since Britta departed, I’ve written most of the songs, like on Movies about Gladiators.  And on this album,everyone has some songs.

RF:  The songwriting is very collaborative now.  The songs on the new record came about from things like Alex bringing in a lick that he really liked or a chord progression and us fleshing it out.  I did the same thing, and someone would throw a melody on it.  Everybody’s worked on the lyrics.  Prior to that, everyone brought their own songs.  It was a round table; everyone could always bring what they had written.  But the new batch of songs is probably the most collaborative I’ve ever worked in any kind of band.  For this record, we’ve pretty much done everything ourselves.  Everyone hops in on engineering, songwriting, lyric writing, playing different instruments.  We all play multiple instruments.  I play some guitar and some keyboards on this one. 

BT:  You both also work in the Austin theater community.  Is that where you met?

RP: Yeah, actually I met Robert doing the Tom Stoppard play Arcadia, and right about that time was the time that Jeff and Matt made their departure.  I was talking to Fisher about it, and he said, “I’m available,” and he came on and he’s fantastic.  He’s the best there is.  And then a few months after that, Britta met Allison through a record store contact.

BT: How many members of the band currently have some sort of background in theater. 

RP: Mainly Fisher and I.  Although Darson was in a production I did of Harold Pinter’s The Dwarves back in ‘89, I believe.  I used to do a little more producing and directing in the theater than I do now.  Now I pretty much just have the time and energies to do acting. 

BT: You and Fisher put together the music for 300 Plays about Vladimir Putin.

RP: Exactly, yeah.

RF:  Pierson and I both belong to a company called Rude Mechanicals.  We had talked about doing a project.  When that play got put in our hands, it worked out to be Pierson and me piecing this thing together.  I directed.  We did the script together, we rolled through ideas together. And out of that, with the type of score he wanted to put into it, it became very natural to put together a band to perform it.  It’s him and the other two members of Bigamy Sisters, a guy named Steve Bernal on cello, Sarah Norris on vibes.  He got them together, and they performed it.  I didn’t actually have a direct hand in composing that music, even though it’s credited to Bigamy Sisters.  And there’s no bass playing on the song “Season of Liars.”  All the low tones are done by a cello.  A lot of that song came from Darson; all the drums on there are played by him.  I love that song. 

BT:  I really like that track.  It’s got a beautiful atmosphere.

RP:  I like it a lot.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot today on Inauguration Day. 

BT:  It has a sort of spacey atmosphere, but it doesn’t sound like typical space-rock.  I mean, it’s not like you’re just doing a Radiohead song.

RP:  Actually, I set out to write an Elvis Costello song.  I said, “This song needs a kind of torch-esque, kind of blue quality to the song.”  And I didn’t outright rip anything off, but just that kind of feeling of a singer with a strong voice.

BT:  I see what you mean.  It doesn’t sound like you’ve aped his style, but there’s a Costello mood to the lyrics and feel.

RP:  It was more of an inspiration.

BT: You’ve also written plays.  [Pierson did a play called HEMOPHILIACs in December, for which Fisher composed and performed the score.] Do you find that your desire to create music and to work in theater feed each other?

RP:  That’s what…I think Robert and I really like that a lot.  I don’t know if that’s just because we have too much time on our hands.  But one informs the other, and that’s always nice.  I love music, and I love theater.  And I’ll be doing it forever.  But, you know, after a while you get burned on one if you’re doing it so heavily for a while, uh, you know, gigging or making a record, or whatever.  After a while you just say, “I want to do something else.”  And so theater is a nice kind of alternate artistic outlet for me and for Fisher.

BT:  And then you get sick of that one and you want to go write songs…

RP: Exactly.  Actually in the past year, I’ve been doing both.  So, sometimes they collide.

RF: Aside from being and actor, I’m also a sound designer.  The idea of doing both things…The whole time I was going through college at the University of Southern Mississippi, I was playing in these prog rock and punk bands.  I was going there for acting, and I hadn’t ever thought of doing anything like sound design, or composing music, until I got into these bands and we started recording.  We started doing home recordings, and I became very interested in that aspect of things.  So, yeah, they definitely feed off each other.  If I hadn’t been an active musician for the last several years, I would have composed scores for four different plays by this point.

BT: Does the size of your audience matter?  Do you make art with the audience in mind, or is it for personal satisfaction?

RF:  As an artist, a lot of it is personal.  However, it is a form of entertainment.  For me, it’s almost exclusively personal. So, I don’t worry about that aspect too much.  I think about what an audience might like, especially in theater.  But more than anything, I think if I like it, if I enjoy it, if it’s a good endeavor, someone will like it.  Artistically, it’s still very personal for me, so the audience is not the chief concern.

BT: Have you guys had much luck with getting radio play?

RP: We’ve had some radio play through KTRU at Rice and some with KO-OP, and some with the UT student radio station, KVRX.



BT:  But nothing corporate?

RP:  No.  I think sometimes the name is a little off-putting to people. 

BT:  Where did you come up with the name?

RP: It’s… have you ever seen The Rutles?  The album that came with The Rutles, the inner sleeve has all these mock recordings by all these mock bands on Rutlecorps Records.  And one of the bands on there is The Bigamy Sisters.

BT: Are you guys big Rutles fans?

RP: We think Neil Innes is pretty great.  It’s not something that we’re overwhelmed by.  It’s just the name now.

BT: On “Don’t Shoot,” there are several clips of voices speaking over a steel-drum driven jazz pop groove.  Whose voices are those?

RF: Different people.  Some of the clips are from Peter Sellers’ last film, Being There, and the intro is our friend Jason Liebrecht, who in some way or another has appeared on our last two records, with his interesting phone messages. 

BT:  Good choice of film.  For obvious reasons, that film has some sentimental attachment for the staff of Being There.  How do you guys fit into the Austin music scene?  Is your stuff typical of the music that comes out of Austin?

RP:  I don’t know.  It probably should be a concern, or just something we think about.  But it’s really not.  I think we don’t take it into account much when we write our stuff. 

BT: When you play in Austin, what are your favorite venues? And what kind of following are you enjoying right now?

RF: We love to play at the Hole in the Wall.  And I don’t know if I’m speaking for everyone, but I love playing at the Red Eye Fly.  It’s such a great place to play.  It’s a big room, and the sound is great.  We haven’t played out much recently.  We’ve been recording the new album for a long time.  There’s just so much music in this town, it’s hard to build a following.  And when we do play, we try to pair ourselves with a few other bands that we think will complement what we do.  But it’s hard.  There’s just not a lot of people here in town doing the kind of music that we play. 

BT: Do you like recording or performing better?

RP:  I would say I like performing the most, but I’m getting to enjoy recording more and more, just because after a time you get better at it and learn how to do more things.  On the other hand, on this new record, we’re keeping things really simple.

BT: Did you do that on purpose, so that the material will be easier to translate to a live setting?

RP:  A little bit.  And also, a lot of the songs, maybe three or four, are under two minutes.  It has more of a rock and roll feel.  Not that the last one didn’t, but…

BT:  The new record is called Tigris Embassy.  I don’t want to assume, but is that a reference to the current situation in Iraq?

RP: Well, surprisingly enough it is.  But, it’s also coincidental.  It’s the only two-word anagram for “bigamy sisters,” at least in English.

BT:  How did you guys figure that out?

RP:  From an anagram-generating web site that Darson found.  We all tried our names and were pretty amused.  And then we said, “Let’s put in ‘Bigamy Sisters,’ and it was the only two-word phrase to come up.  We all looked at each other and said, “Well, that’s the title.”

BT: What does the new record sound like?

RP:  That’s a hard one.  It really runs the gamut.  There are some songs that sort of approach the “Season of Liars” feel, mainly the ones that Darson sings.  We’ve kind of taken some different directions.  It’s hard to say, exactly.

BT:  From what I’ve heard of your previous records, that’s not surprising.  You’ve done a pretty wide range of things before.  They all sound like you, but they don’t all sound alike.

RP: Thank you.  That’s a nice thing.

BT:  I’m going to mention some names; I hope you won’t be offended.  There are snippets here and there that sound like they were inspired by Bowie, Radiohead, the Kinks, or the Clash.  Nothing overwhelming so that it sounded like a Clash song or a Bowie song, just…

RP:  Great.  I like those names.

BT:  But what it really sounds like is people who grew up listening to all of this different music, but it still has its own Texas psychedelic sound.  Is the new record in that same ballpark, or are you going a new direction?

RP:  There are some new directions with regard to some melodies or harmonies, and a lot of that has opened up with the introduction of Darson.  We call him the Professor.  We come across some spot and he goes, “Well, if you play a G 5^th flatted 9^th, it’ll be perfect.”  And he’s right.  One thing that I’ve concentrated to do in my songs, and I think the others have too…It’s like what they say about a short story.  Not a single word is wasted in a short story.  We’re trying to make it so that we can pack everything into two minutes and thirty seconds.

BT:  Do you find that it’s much harder to write a good 2 ½ minute song than a 5 minute song?

RP:  That’s true.  And it’s unbelievably more satisfying.    Everyone’s favorite song right now on the new record runs, I think, a minute and 39 seconds.  And it has everything in it.

BT:  If it stretched on any longer, it would lose all its energy.

RP: Right.

BT:  The South by Southwest festival (SXSW) will be steamrolling through Austin in a month or so.  It’s become this juggernaut event.  It gets international coverage.  It’s not a regional thing anymore, even though that’s what it started as.  I was looking at some of the headliners who are supposed to be there this year; it’s an impressive list.  Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Son Volt.  These are the bands they’re selling the festival with.  None of these guys are from Texas.  Most of the showcases seem to be for extra-regional artists.  I’m a big fan of those guys, and getting to see them all in one place is great from that standpoint.  But is it frustrating as a musician in Austin that local music is sidestepped somewhat for the event?  Does that bother you?

RP:  Yes and no.  The local music is what built the festival.  It’s nice to go with the horse that brought you.  And yet because it’s become such a big festival, it draws a certain spotlight to Austin, which is good.  Maybe 3 or 4 years ago, not getting into the festival might have produced a sour grapes feeling.  But it hasn’t impeded our making music at all.  And when it comes down to it, we just really care about writing songs.  It all works out all right.  We’re putting out a record in a month.  I think the festival helps local artists in the long run.  It brings other types of festivals, and it turns Austin into a festival city like New York, Toronto, or Vancouver - places that are known for hosting great arts festivals.

RF: As an Austinite, from an economic standpoint, it’s very good for the city.  It’s good that we have a festival.  Every year, there are quite a few Austin bands and Texas bands that are in there.  I would say, more than any singular place you could name.  In that respect, it’s good.  I don’t worry about [Bigamy Sisters] getting into SXSW.  In some ways it’s kind of a big party for the press.  I don’t think of it as a way for an unknown band to become known.  It’s so big, and there’s already so much, that unless you already have a buzz of some sort, no one’s going to see you.  Part of me wants to dismiss it as a big corporate juggernaut, but it’s good that we have these festivals all over the country.  And every time I go, I see something new that I really like.  So it serves its purpose.  And if it weren’t for SXSW, I never would have seen Tom Waits live.  I love him; he’s one of my faves.

BT:  Anything you’d like to offer our readers about your musical or artistic philosophy?

RP:  Not really.  Other than to encourage them to go see theater.  Go see theater and live music.

BT:  Why is it important for people to support local theater and live music?

RP:  Oh boy.  Because it’s good for you.  At the risk of sounding corny, it’s good for your soul and good for everyone involved.

BT:  Fisher mentioned Tom Waits.  Who are your favorite musical artists these days?  Who are you drawing inspiration from?

RP:  I’m trying right now not to draw any.  Just because I don’t want anything to color it, the recording.  I’m a big fan of the bands you mentioned earlier.  Alex, the guitar player, really lends a big sound.  He’s a huge fan of the Who, Kinks, Nuggets, that kind of thing.  Fisher pretty much likes everything…Flaming Lips.  Darson Vidorim is a huge Bowie fan, among other things.  I think we’re all pretty pan-musical, with the exception of formulaic crap.  We’re all pretty much open.  And we’re always turning each other on to different kinds of music.

BT: Any comment on the current political landscape?

RP:  Not really.  A lot of times the lyrics I write are pretty elliptical and abstract.  But a good majority of the stuff on Movies about Gladiators comes from anger about the political landscape.  There are a lot of songs on there that are just angry songs.  Not just angry songs.

BT: A lot of artists in the last year have taken strong stands either for or against the current administration.  Do you think it’s important for an artist to express their political views right now?

RF: I feel that whether you choose to or you don’t choose to is fine.  That’s everyone’s prerogative.  But I appreciate and…personally I’ll prick up an ear when someone does.  Whatever your political views are, that’s always somewhat of a risk.  You can risk your…I mean, look at Bruce Springsteen, You can risk alienating some of your audience from you.  But I think it’s important.  If you feel like that’s a part of you and what you do, and if your art is an extension of what you believe, and you feel the inclination to express that, then I think that’s great.  I truly believe in the old adage that art is a reflection of its culture.  The voice of dissent and the voice of…anti-dissent…Either of those, where they hold a place is reflective of our culture.  I think it’s healthy. 

BT:  Is any of the new record political besides the title?

RP:  Probably a little.  It varies.   

RF: Some of that comes from Darson, leading us to be a little less esoteric on this one.

BT:  When will people be able to hear the new record?

RP:  I’m hoping to be finished in mid-April.

BT:  Are you still shopping for a label?

RP:  Oh yes.  Part of the problem is we’re just bad businessmen, but it more has to do with people being busy.  We’re enjoying it as it is, but if something bigger comes out way, then that would be wonderful.

BT:  Don’t tell me you’re making art for art’s sake.

RP:  Oh, a little bit.  Why else would we be doing theater for nothing?  I say that in one respect.  But I work with a theater company that pays better than anyone else in town.  And I’m all for people being able to make a living at what they enjoy.  But I also understand that art has to be the thing that drives it.



For updated news about the release of Tigris Embassy and Bigamy Sisters visit their official website at www.bigamysisters.com

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