Interviewed autumn 1995 in the streets of Amsterdam

Paula Frazer. Raised with music. First the gospel in her father’s choir. Later the jazz bands at highschool. During the eighties the postpunk bands Frightwig, Trial and Pleasant Day in San Fransisco. And now her own band, Tarnation. A band belonging to the new generation of 4AD bands. Thanks to 4AD she does her first promotional tour around Europe. In a murderous tempo all the beautiful cities of Europe get visited. An experience most Americans might find very appealing were it not that Paula has to enjoy those cities from dark stuffy hotel rooms, doing mostly boring interviews. It’s rainy outside and sometimes the sun comes stabbing through the dark clouds, other than that just the right weather to do an interview walking down the streets seeing the sites.

Tarnation is just the right name for a band playing melancholic country in the tradition of Palace, Freakwater and Scud Mountain Boys. Still cheerful Paula seems everything but melancholic, “I’m not, but I just like to write sad songs about certain people and stories. History inspires me, like for instance the gold rush in the 18th century.” Not only lyricwise Paula reflects on the past, but musically Tarnation looks back on American music from the last fifty years. “I listen to a lot of old music, like Roy Orbison, Patsy Kline and old country music. I detest a lot of the so-called ‘new country’, that’s why I’d rather like to call my music western. I don’t want to be compared to the Las Vegas showy stuff like Garth Brooks and that’s what a lot of people think that country is.”

Being a preacher’s daughter, Paula was raised very religiously. But compared to most country music, it’s a subject she doesn’t use a lot in her lyrics. “No, I do not believe anymore. The older I became, the more holes I discovered in faith. The way people think that you should follow your faith blindly seems so wrong to me. I agree, there are a lot of things very useful in believing. But why live your life by a book that has some many translations and interpretations.”

You might think it’s weird that 4AD would pick up a band like this. “First only Warner was interested in us, but they gave a tape to 4AD’s label owner Ivo Watts. When he finally listened he contracted us. He likes female voices a lot.” After that Ivo tried to give Tarnation a direction. “He wanted me to make a solo record. But I wanted to do an album with the band.” There’s still a lot of solo work on Gentle Creatures, a record produced by His Name Is Alive wizard Warren Defever, among others. “That was Ivo’s idea. A good idea, but it didn’t work out as I liked. Warren wanted to keep everything bare and clear, while I like a bit of reverb. And he didn’t have the right kind of mics. My favorite moments aren’t the sessions with Warren. We were in his house for a week and it give a lot of tension in the band.” The band split right after the sessions. “But I’ve found three new bandmembers. We’re still using the name Tarnation, but it sounds a lot more dynamic. A bit louder, but still reserved. A lot of contrast, I think it sounds better than the last Tarnation.”

One of the things Paula is very content about is the artwork 4AD did for the album. “I think Paul of 4AD has done a wonderful job. The pictures were made by a guy from Portland and seem very old and weird, the pale colours give just the right effect. I’m glad 4AD has taken care of that, we couldn’t have done it any better.” She says, while she points her camera at the monumental Rijksmuseum that’s glittering in the sun which comes stabbing through the dark clouds.