Amanda Palmer

Strikes a Different Pose

By Leo McGovern

11.17.08

At a young age, Amanda Palmer started writing music as a way to find some friends. Now, that time might be looked upon like an experienced novelist looks back upon their first idea for a story—Palmer has parlayed her musical talents into performances in front of enormous crowds both as a member of the “Brechtian punk cabaret” duo the Dresden Dolls and now as a solo artist. She hasn’t forgotten the reasons she joined a band, though, as Palmer goes out of her way to keep the connection with her fans strong. “I’m confused by performers who don’t want to meet their fans,” Palmer told Antics during a recent interview. “That seems so weird and foreign to me.”

Weird too could be the absence of fellow Doll Brian Vigilone on Palmer’s solo release, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, but what fans may lose in familiarity may be regained in the pure excitement of Palmer’s solo work. “I’m going in all sorts of bizarre directions,” Palmer said of her solo work, and with that in mind we asked her about her new career, being fan-friendly and being one of the “hottest” women in rock.

How are you finding your solo career different than your career with the Dresden Dolls?

It’s not as loud. [Laughs] I’m really just getting a sense of what it feels like. While I never felt constrained by being in the Dresden Dolls, I’m beginning to realize that I shut off a lot of my impulses to serve the band. The Dresden Dolls had a very specific goal of being stripped down and simple and not adding any complications—it’s piano and drums on stage, we’ll beat our instruments, play the songs well and stay connected. Now that I can do whatever I want and add whatever I want and walk around wherever I want and experiment with all sorts of things, I’m sort of punch drunk with the freedom. I’m just sort of running around, like a four-year old, realizing the possibilities I didn’t even miss when I was in the Dresden Dolls.

I imagine you have a unique relationship with your fans. What’s that like?

Well, one of the most important parts of this job for me—not just important but the most rewarding and exciting part—is the people and connecting with them. Brian and I, in the years of the Dresden Dolls, basically hung out after every single show to meet the fans, even if we were playing huge places and it took a couple hours to meet everybody. I still do that, most of the time. It’s really important to make yourself available to the people who are supporting you and your music, otherwise you’re going to be this anonymous force that isn’t connected with them. It gets harder as you get bigger and there are more people who want to connect with you; you have to find creative ways to do it. That’s why I love my blog so much. I can make it as long, as short or as intimate as I want and everyone can directly connect back with me by commenting. I can take the time to do it whenever I can find the time, it’s not crazy like at a show where everyone’s being hustled along.

Have you ever met a fan that’s become a personal friend?

Absolutely. A number of them. Especially in the early days of the band, there wasn’t any distinguishing between friends and fans because our friends were the ones coming to our shows. [Laughs] Because of what we were doing and because we were taking it upon ourselves to include the artistic communities of whatever city we were in, we met a lot of really cool people. It was nice, and I like to think that the people I work with and the ones who get involved with my show are on the same level with me, so there’s generally no weirdness or power dynamic because I’m the famous one on stage and they’re the “lowly one” down in the pit. It’s more like we’re a group of artistic equals trying to make a show together.

How do you feel about some of the non-music accolades that you’ve been given, like being one of Blender’s “hottest women in rock” or one of the Boston Globe’s “most stylish women?” What do you think of that kind of attention?

I don’t mind it a bit. [Laughs] People are always putting together lists and they need people for them and I’m perfectly happy to oblige. I’d be more excited if the likes of Teen Vogue and Playboy were places where a woman of my shape, size and demeanor would actually be considered acceptable—that would be fantastic.

Would you like to do Playboy’s twenty questions?

I’ve been considering lately if Playboy came calling for me to do a spread, whether I would do it. I’m kind of torn because I’m sort of one foot in new school feminism and one foot in old school, and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out these very blurry postmodern times we’re living in. If they would let me pose as I am, belly and hairy armpits and all, I’d be on it in a hot second. But something tells me they’d ask me to shave and the deal would be off. [Laughs]

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