230: Janet Weiss (Quasi, Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag, Elliott Smith, etc.)
The Trap Set with Joe Wong
Joe Wong
4.8 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2019
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Janet Fucking Weiss! 2019 has been an eventful year for Janet Weiss. She left Sleater-Kinney after a twenty-four year run and soon after suffered a major car accident. Janet tells Joe about growing up in LA; discovering drumming in San Francisco; finding an artistic community in Portland; the creative dynamic of Quasi; the emotional vulnerability required to be a great collaborator; what she loved about playing in Sleater-Kinney; why she left Sleater-Kinney; and her hopes and dreams. It’s Janet Fucking Weiss, folks. Do it up!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The best thing about living the life of a musician is that there's always possibility ahead of you. |
| 0:07.0 | This is Joe Wong. Welcome to the Trap Set. I want to play something for you. |
| 0:27.6 | ... I'm not I'm gonnae |
| 0:39.3 | I'm |
| 0:40.3 | A A-naweree You're hearing the Rhino by Quasi, featuring my guest Janet Weiss on drones. |
| 1:10.0 | For nearly 30 years, Janet's powerful swinging groove has made |
| 1:15.0 | an indelible impact on rock music, both as a band member of Quasi, Slater Kinney, and Wild |
| 1:22.1 | Flag, and as a drummer for hire with top-tier songwriters such as Elliot Smith, Stephen Malcolmis, and Connor Oberst. |
| 1:30.3 | Janet also went toe-to-toe with Zach Hill and Matt Cameron on the experimental percussion album, Drumgazard. |
| 1:38.3 | 2019 has been an unusually eventful year for Janet. |
| 1:42.3 | She left Slater Kinney after over 20 years in the band, |
| 1:46.1 | and soon after suffered a major car accident. I spoke to her at her home in Portland, where |
| 1:52.8 | she expects to make a full recovery. And now my conversation with an artist of immense |
| 1:58.4 | creative integrity and one of the all-time great drummers, Janet Weiss. |
| 2:07.6 | Well, I wasn't really into local music as like a teenager. As a teenager, I just, or as a young teenager and maybe |
| 2:21.4 | like a 10-year-old, I would just listen to the radio. We had the station KHJ AM Gold, you know, |
| 2:29.9 | and that was my, that was my musical education. Sly in the Family Stone, then you hear a Bob Dylan song, then you hear Joni Mitchell, then you hear Kiss, you know, like very diverse compared to now, as far as radio. You know, now people stream and they have that diversity, which I think is awesome to hear things next to each other that don't always make total sense. |
| 2:58.7 | I don't know, I felt like I had a well-rounded education in music just from that one station. |
| 3:05.0 | I used to have a studio in Hollywood over on Argyle and Selma, |
| 3:09.5 | and Joe Plummer came over once, and he's pointed to a building on Hollywood Boulevard, |
| 3:14.6 | and he's like, Janet's dad used to work there, right by the pantages. Yeah, that's awesome. What did your |
| 3:20.1 | dad do? My dad became a lawyer late in life. He worked for Union Oil for many years, |
... |
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