Tamar-kali Breaks Out of Brooklyn with “Black Bottom”

MIDWOOD, BROOKLYN: Aggression, experimentation, elevation – need more of that? How about emotion and the thrill of creation – as in the completion of Brooklyn rock strongwoman Tamar-kali’s long overdue full length debut, Black Bottom.

Tamar-kali will sear you now.

A Catholic school survivor who found herself drawn to the notorious noir of the Brooklyn club  L’amour in her formative years, Tamar-kali eventually rose out of the audience and onto the stage with underground NYC punk acts like FunkFace and Song of Seven. She’s also on an elite short list of performers, including Bad Brains, Cipher and Ten Grand in the award-winning James Spooner documentary “Afro-punk”, which explores race identity in the punk scene.

But Tamar-kali is tired of trying to make her point in someone’s band, and of being tucked neatly into a category (“I believe that the ‘Black Rock’ label is another obstacle for artists like myself,” she says). Instead, her music is doing all the talking with the just-released Black Bottom, and it’s a mondo statement: Tamar-kali’s uniquely powerful and versatile voice drives an ambitious new adventure into metal, classical, and progressive styles. Ferocious grooves, string experiments, and daring vocal explorations propel Black Bottom into a most welcome realm of uncharted territory.

You evade quick definition — what molded you?
I came up in the hardcore local punk rock scene. It was a blend with ska, hardcore…at the time in the mid-90’s it was all fringe. I grew up in a two-parent home, in an apartment in Midwood, Brooklyn, very close-knit and tight, and I didn’t get to start going to shows until I was older.

In high school L’amour in Brooklyn had national metal, punk, and goth acts coming through. I’d heard about the shows from my friends, and when I did finally get to go out, I became someone who witnessed the scene, as well as expressing myself by playing in bands like FunkFace and Song of Seven.

How did you go from being stuck on the sidelines to coming into your own within this extremely alternative musical dimension?
Part of it was because of the frustrations of being a girl in the scene. I had known those guys from Song of Seven forever, and when their frontperson Israel left to do the album Rise with Bad Brains, I said I wanted to do it. ME! ME!

Sounds like a bold move – like Henry Rollins becoming the singer for Black Flag after he had previously been a fan. How did it turn out?
Every band you hear of has issues with the frontperson. The frontperson speaks for the band. If the band is writing the riffs, and the front person is writing the lyrics, the band has to stand behind the lyrics. And for them, having to stand behind my words as a woman – they were difficult for them to stand behind at the time. So we ended up breaking up.

I tried to develop myself as much as I could after that. I had a four-track, and I was writing anything, stuff I would do for me or maybe another artist. I had funk or soul in mind, but when I sang my voice was very dark and intense. So I started playing out, and identifying slowly but surely.

So flash forward, and your new record Black Bottom is your debut full-length album as your own artist. What are you expressing with this record?
A journey. I have definitely gone through some highs and lows, like anybody. But I really got to a place where I kind of was second guessing myself, doubting myself, and I had to find my way out of it. I think what happens to a lot of people is when you come to a place where you make a transition from just doing music because it’s fun, to doing it as a means of supporting yourself. That can be a difficult transition.

Maybe it was an issue to me, coming out of a punk rock, DIY, anti-establishment mindset. When you come up from the subculture, the underdog, you get addicted to fighting. It’s the only thing you know how to do.

I have to stay honest, staying underground and staying true, but if something is really good, why don’t we want t to have as big a platform as possible? I started realizing that in a certain, way, this was another level of the same mentality, keeping yourself in the box. There’s a punk rock uniform, just like a corporate one. Often when trying to be an individual, you don’t realize you’ve swallowed the pill yourself.

I wanted to break out and be authentic, and I realized I had broken out of thinking I only wanted certain people to hear my music. I decided that everyone who would benefit from hearing me should hear me.

On this record, you hear my rage and frustration of being in a band in NYC, which is the most difficult place in the world to have a band. My space for rehearsal used to be in NoLita, which is where Blonde Redhead came up, and now it’s gone to condos and all that bullshit. The song “Pearl” starts the album going from a place of rage and depression into determination and resolve – to dig myself out of the black bottom that I’m in.

You recorded and mixed the album upstate a ways, in Syracuse at at More Sound Studios. What were you trying to achieve sonically?
I got in touch with a friend working in John Brown’s Body, a thrasher named Jason “Jocko” Randall, and basically he has a studio in Syracuse that he built with his own hands. It’s an amazing studio with a floating live room. He’s an attention-to-detail sound nut, and an amazing human being. We tracked the band in four days, and then I stayed to do my vocals.

In terms of the direction for the album, I had three references in mind. The Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium, the Deftones sound, and Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf. I wanted the seeming abandon of the Mars Volta, the starkness and thickness of the Deftones, with the starkness and clarity of the QOTSA recordings. I wanted a marriage, and for my voice to be the nucleus within this womb of the music.

You described earlier vocal recording experiences as “traumatic”, but you sure sound comfortable on the mic now. Did doing vocals get easier on this record?
I’m still learning. You have to just get over it, and do it anyway. I have a classical music background – I grew up in Catholic school, learning chorals in Latin and Italian. At a certain age I was concerned my singing wouldn’t be soulful. I have a bigger range now, and I’m looking for soulful vocals in aggressive rock and roll music. I want to make sure I’m singing in the voice that the song requires, really representing the spirit of the song and not going too clean, or pushing too hard. But I can go a little OCD with it.

Now that it’s out there, what are your objectives with Black Bottom?
It would lift a huge weight to at least be a part of new sounds and new voices in aggressive rock. We’re comfortable with a woman being a pop princess, but the instances of women in rock are few and far between. Hopefully my voice is one people will get used to hearing and want to hear more of.

You’ve been NYC through and through. Is it still a priority for you to stay based out of here?
Not so much! The city is changing in a way that I can’t necessarily relate to. I won’t tuck my tail and run or anything, but in terms of fighting the good fight just to fight — I’ll keep myself open to other opportunities and other ways of living. You know? When you get a little older you realize: It’s not where, it’s what.

— David Weiss

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