Martina Sorbara – Singer/Songwriter
Dan Kurtz – Bassist/Producer
Chris Hugget – Guitarist
Joel Stouffer – Drummer
dragonette.com/

Described by others as an electropop band, singer/songwriter Martina Sorbara adds that Dragonette’s sound can be dubbed as electro basement pop. Married to her band mate, bassist / producer Dan Kurtz, the couple started the band off as a duo named “The Fuzz” until 2005 when Dragonette was formed. Originally from Toronto, Dragonette now lives in the UK, where they’ve recorded their last 2 albums, Galore and their 2009 release, Fixin’ to Thrill. mym's Max, writer of Max’s “Thank Me Later” Playlist, caught up with Martina at the London, Ontario show at Call The Office...

mym Max: So Martina, you and your husband Dan met at a music festival, you got married and made a demo in your basement just for fun.

Martina: Exactly!

mym Max: Then you decided to form a band. Did you think it would become as successful as it is?

Martina: Um, I don’t know, well it was just kind of a side project when it started, then I don’t, think I guess where we are now is a pretty...it feels pretty awesome where we’ve gotten to now.

mym Max: That’s a good way to describe it. So, what’s it like being in a band with your spouse?

Martina: Um well it’s mostly pretty good [laughs]. It’s really easy for the politeness to break down and just go into a full out battle because that’s what married people do. But it’s mostly really nice to have someone you love on the road with you. Otherwise you just get in your vehicle and you leave your husband or wife at home, and you come back two months later and you have to try and pick up where you left off, and that’s hard so it’s lucky for us. We get to do this and share all the excitement together.

mym Max: It would be very disconnecting if you were separate.

Martina: Yeah! And we were for a while, separate bands. And then he would leave, and I would leave. And it’s just kind of crappy...

mym Max: So if you had to explain your sound to someone who had never heard you before in only three words what would it be?

Martina: Um...[thinking] I’d call it electro basement pop.

mym Max: That’s pretty good! Is there a reason for that?

Martina: Well I think it’s like pop music but it’s not kind of big budget, big label pop music. It’s just made by Dan and I and Joel in the basement. It’s just kind of, the format, the songs are pop songs, but a lot of people tend to associate the word pop with a boardroom of men deciding what someone is going to sound like, and it has to follow these guidelines. I don’t think we are actually like, I don’t think our music is, mass-marketable as most pop music has to be. I think what’s happened to pop music lately is that a lot of people have taken it upon themselves to write pop music in this other format, which is your home studio, with your laptop and a keyboard and it’s really a fun thing to do. To not have the constraints of what a label is telling you to sound like.

mym Max: Embrace the underground format...okay, so how is your latest album Fixin’ To Thrill different from your previous release of Galore?

Martina: I don’t know, I think it’s just a natural progression away from Galore. We didn't really have a mandate to be different in this way or that way but with, the way that Dan and I write songs, it kind of like every single time is kind of a surprise. We never really know what it’s going to sound like anyways, so um, with this album we kind of used more natural acoustic sounds, matched up with synthy electric sounds and that’s given it a little bit of a different vibe. But I wouldn’t really know how to describe it...

mym Max: Where was Fixin To Thrill recorded?

Martina: Mostly in our “basement” which is not really our basement.

mym Max: In Canada?

Martina: In the UK mostly.

mym Max: Okay that’s where the first one was recorded.

Martina: Yeah, well actually, both were recorded in both places. There were elements of both albums that were recorded...some in Canada, some in the UK. Some of the writing was done in Spain. Just kind of all over the place.

mym Max: If your music was the soundtrack to a movie what would it be?

Martina: I don’t know, I just want to say, but I don’t think they would put my music in their films [laughs]. If you change the question to, “If you could make the soundtrack for any film”, I would make the soundtrack to a Wes Anderson film, or a Coen brothers film.

mym Max: So, how do you deal with the stresses of being on the road?

Martina: I knit, and I make things. I focus on, I take my mind away from everything else and focus on something small.

mym Max: Artists always creating.

Martina: [laughs] Well I find it very meditative and like, you’re not, you don’t necessarily have to be aware of everything that’s going on around you. You can pull yourself out, and calm your mind down.

mym Max: Um, how would you say your music speaks to someone that might be going through a rough time?

Martina: I don’t know, maybe if I was going to take anything out of our music, it’s unique, and it doesn’t conform, and it would maybe give somebody security in themselves. That you don’t have to be like everyone else, you don’t have to be like happy all the time. You can be confused, and I don’t know, I think if I can imagine somebody getting something out of our music emotionally or whatever, that the messages in the songs aren’t as...what’s the word? I think a lot of the music you hear on the radio is very singular, and it makes you feel like you have to be beautiful. What I try to do is change the standards...

mym Max: If you could be responsible for any one hit wonder in history, which would it be?

Martina: Maybe “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison. It’s an awesome song, and I think it’s his only hit. I don’t know if I’d be able to re work it, but if I could I would feel pretty awesome about that.

mym Max: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

Martina: I don’t know, I think everything is changing very rapidly as it is right now, so it’s hard to...it doesn’t feel like anything’s going to...not be changing right now. Um, I guess, I think if labels could start thinking progressively and creatively about the state of things, I think it would make everybody, if they were moving with the times.

mym Max: What can fans expect from your live show?

Martina: Fun and noise.

mym Max: Good combination, and is there anything else you’d like to say for the readers at mindyourmind?

Martina: [laughs] Sorry my mind just totally went blank. It’s all that traveling in a van, and getting hypnotized by the road.

mym Max: Don’t stop believing, hold on to that feeling.

Martina: [laughs] Exactly! That’s what I wanted to say, I can’t believe you took the words right out of my mouth.

mym Max: Thank you very much.

Martina: It’s all in the words of Journey.

mym Max: Exactly...So this has been Max with mindyourmind and...

Martina: Martina from Dragonette