"American Roots music speaks to me. I can only imagine it must also speak to a lot of other people."

Zoe Boekbinder: Jailhouse Blues

Zoe Boekbinder was born on an early winter morning, in the upstairs bedroom of a brown wooden farmhouse on Regional Route #3, in a small township in Ontario, Canada. Zoe’s brother, Oliver, was disappointed at her arrival because he was hoping for a brother named Zanzibar. Before she discovered music she did theatre. She auditioned for every play and if she didn’t get a part she would sign up for stage crew. She wrote a one woman play based on the life of Billy Holiday. Her last year of school she became friends with one of the star soloists in the school’s jazz choir, Kay Pettigrew. One afternoon after school Zoe sang Kay a song she had written in her diary. Upon hearing this song Kay urged Zoe to become a singer. She decided not to go to theater school though she did attend clown school the summer after graduation.

In the fall of 2004 she went to visit her family who had moved back to California. She became reunited with her previously elusive older sister Kim. The two spent every day of that visit together and instead of returning to Canada, Zoe stayed and had her few belongings shipped to her in two small boxes. The sisters moved into a big old red house on the top of a hill and began to write music together. They formed a band called Vermillion Lies. Over the five years that they played together they released two albums, “Separated by Birth” (2006), and “What’s In the Box?” (2008). Her sister still plays music and tours as Kim Boekbinder.

It was 2009 when Zoe decided to release an album of songs on her own. She recorded with her friend and producer, Cesar Alvarez, in Brooklyn, NY. Thus, “Artichoke Perfume”, was born. Two years later came her second born, "Darling Specimens", produced by Shenandoah Davis in Seattle, WA. She now makes her way around the world, stopping in towns and cities, to play shows. One of her favorite places to play is New Folsom Prison partly because it makes her feel like Johnny Cash. Her next album will be a collaboration with inmates there and benefit arts in prisons.

Interview by Michael Limnios

How do you describe Zoe Boekbinder sound and songbook? What characterize your music philosophy?

I have never liked describing my music. When asked, I usually turn to someone who has heard it and ask them to describe it for whoever has asked. It’s a fun way to find out how other people hear it as well as a way of escaping describing it myself.

Which is the most interesting period in your life? Which memory around the world makes you smile?

My life gets more interesting all the time. Every year I am better at life and finding adventure. Some highlights have been attending clown school when I was 18, living in an attic with members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum in Oakland, CA, singing in a medieval cistern in Portugal, and collaborating musically with people incarcerated at a maximum security prison in California, USA. (Folsom Prison, in fact.)

"I think of my music as constantly evolving and that is what is exciting to me. Nearly every day I decide I’m fed up with the music industry and daydream about starting a goat farm. I could see myself being very happy with that life."

Why did you think that the American Roots music continues to generate such a devoted following?

I am not one to theorize. This kind of music speaks to me. I can only imagine it must also speak to a lot of other people.

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? What is the best advice ever given you?

Working with people in prison has been the most influential on my life and outlook. It is downright inspiring to witness the amount of creativity, strength, and perseverance of some of the folks that I’ve met in prison.

Some of the most valuable musical advice that I’ve ever received was from Amanda Palmer. She didn’t mean it as advice. She was just philosophizing backstage before a show one night. She was talking about why people go to see live music. If they wanted to hear the music, they would play the record. They come for the emotional experience. I played what might still be the best show I’ve ever played that night. That was over five years ago.

Are there any memories from gigs, open acts, festivals and recording time which you’d like to share with us?

That is a very broad topic. Most of my life consists of these experiences. I recently recorded with Ani DiFranco and her husband Mike Napolitano (who has engineered a ton of incredible records by Andrew Bird and The Squirrel Nut Zippers and more). They have access to really incredible vintage equipment. I was singing into two microphones at once and those mics were running through fancy vintage preamps. They joked (though it wasn’t a joke) that I was singing through $50,000.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

Commercialization.

"Social justice work is very important to me. No musical project has ever felt so satisfying. I love working with my collaborators in the prison."

Photo by Myles Boisen

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

My past music or past music in general? I don’t miss my musical past. I think of my music as constantly evolving and that is what is exciting to me. Nearly every day I decide I’m fed up with the music industry and daydream about starting a goat farm. I could see myself being very happy with that life. That said, I can’t seem to give up no matter how I try to convince myself to. Music comes out of me, whether I like it or not. I like to share that music. I will likely continue to do so for the rest of my life, goat farm or none.

Your next album will be collaboration with inmates there and benefit arts in prisons. Would you tell a little bit about that? What is the relation between music and activism?

I’ve always wanted to find a way to join these two aspects of myself. Social justice work is very important to me. No musical project has ever felt so satisfying. I love working with my collaborators in the prison. I love hearing their stories and sharing them through their lyrics. I hope this album can serve as an education to people who have the privilege of freedom that prisons are inhumane and we must find another solution.

What has made you laugh lately and what touched (emotionally) you from the world news?

The state of California, where Folsom Prison is located, has reinstated Arts in Corrections. This is a government funded arts program for all California State Prisons. California has one of the highest prison populations in the USA so this is a really big victory. No where near my goals of overhauling the justice system, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go for a whole day..?

Maybe 1980 to help educate people about safe sex and clean needles so that the AIDS epidemic would be less catastrophic.

"Working with people in prison has been the most influential on my life and outlook. It is downright inspiring to witness the amount of creativity, strength, and perseverance of some of the folks that I’ve met in prison."

How you would spend a day with Muddy Waters? What would you say to Johnny Cash? What would you like to ask Tom Waits?

A day with Muddy Waters would be spent recording duets in the studio. I can’t think of anything to say to Johnny Cash that would make any impact. I would like to ask Tom Waits to please sing a song with me on the album I’m working on with the people in prison. In fact, I plan to do just that.

Zoe Boekbinder - Official website