Check out Windhand and Christian Mistress at the Relapse Records X CVLT Nation SXSW 2014 Showcase, March 12th at Dirty Dog Bar! More info here…
Windhand interviews Christian Mistress
So, we’re going to meet up at the Dirty Dog Bar in Austin, TX. We’re all dog people, what domestic animal does Christian Mistress prefer?
Cats.
Are any of you fans of country music?
Is ZZ Top considered country? I like a lot of Mississippi Delta blues in general too.
What’s the most insane load-in you’ve ever had to deal with?
SXSW 2011, Kemado showcase at Valhalla. Trying to drive our van through hordes of drunken chickens. Expectations were low in general for ease of operations during the fest though, so we had a great time. I think whiskey helped. Also that was the night we met Rennie from Relapse, so that ruled.
Do you guys ever do covers?
We do one every year, or so it seems. Not really that much. We did “Teen Archer B.O.C.” once for an outdoor show in the parking lot of the pizzeria we all worked at at the time. “Possession” is a Faith cover.
Were you all born and raised in Washington? What brought the band together?
Christine is from Portland. Everyone else is from the Olympia/Seattle area for most of their lives. We met originally in Olympia, Washington, which is a small enough town to know everyone, so it’s impossible as a musician to not know exactly who you should be playing music with. However, we do have two new members as of last year. Eric Wallace we met while playing multiple shows with his other band, Black Breath, and his bud Aaron O’Neil is our new drummer. It’s killer.
Any beer snobs in the band? Do you have a favorite beer?
NO! But Christine’s favorite beers are:
Geuze Fontenein
Caracole Troublette
Pannepot 2008
Petrus Aged Pale
Westmalle Tripel
Well, rock and roll could never feel like work hopefully. We all have worked in bars, and pizza pro is a part of most of our resumes. I love to be out in the woods so I tend to look for jobs where I get to be hiking most of the time.
Either as a band or as individuals, have you ever been to SXSW?
We played there in 2011, mentioned before as most hellish load in, but now thinking back, I think there was a time in London where we absolutely couldn’t find a parking spot so had to load in amongst left lane traffic. Digressing…
You’re flying into Austin or something like that. Do you have any crazy flight stories?
Not so much, just taking care of the airline’s free stock of Heineken generally.
Yes, I think we all take time to walk around and check out where we are. I am thinking of a particular time that Oscar and I got to run around in Vienna. We were playing a huge compound on the outskirts of town and had a couple hours to spare, so we jumped on the train to downtown and found ourselves in awe of all the mythological statuary and streets Mozart probably walked down. It was a magnificent city. The show was killer too – we were at the time on tour with Black Breath (Seattle) and Tormented (Sweden).
We appreciate any venue that will have us and I’m sure you guys feel the same way. That being said: Are there any venues or cities that never cease to disappoint? (Pretend like nobody there knows how to read.)
Well, as far as never ceases to amaze…Total sweet spot for the youth center we played in Chemnitz, Germany. They showed us the most killer hospitality and it didn’t hurt that a whole bottle of Jagermister was only 12 Euros and they let us crash there for an extra night. Our crowd in Seattle this past December (2013) was probably one of the best ever at the Black Lodge all ages venue. I was totally blown away by the response of the folks there and the balls out party mode everyone was in. Good times.
