Skip to main content

Interview with Turkey Vulture


Turkey Vulture is a Connecticut folk rock duo consisting of Jessie May and Jim Clegg. Earlier this year, they released an EP entitled Boxer, along with a hilariously DIY music video for its title track. Now, the vultures are circling once again, this time to a rendition of the classic American folk tune "In The Pines." (Nirvana also covered this song as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?")

 It's a quirky choice. Jessie May and Jim Clegg recently married. Yet their cover song plays on the themes of distrust and infidelity. Jessie May's voice delivers the lyrics in a call and response style, trading barbs as the boyfriend and girlfriend in a relationship that's clearly hit the rocks.

Below is an interview with newlywed rockers, Jessie and Jim from Turkey Vulture.



What made you decide to cover "In The Pines?" Jessi: I’ve been trying to cover this song with a band for 15 years. This is the first time it’s actually been recorded or performed. I know some people see it as a cliche cover, but the song has so much history and there are so many different versions of the lyrics and even the music. I guess that’s what intrigues me about it -- that, and I like to play up the conflict between the two characters when we perform it. The “maniacal boyfriend” parts have very rough, black-metalish vocals when we play the song live (like, with a drum set and distorted guitar, not cello and bongos). In the recording, we did two separate vocal tracks. One for the guy, one for the girl, and panned them to the left and right to emphasize the back-and-forth of the lyrics. What's your favorite scary movie? Jim: Evil Dead Jessie: Uhhhhhhh…..Jim is trying to get me to watch more horror movies.  We saw The Gift a couple weeks ago and that was really cool. I’m more of a Forensic Files girl, though. What's your favorite music for going on spooky walks in the woods? Jim: Devin Townsend’s “Casualty of Cool” is good walk music. Jessie: I’m loving The Misfits lately.  As usual, late to the party. What's the scariest place you ever visited Jim: Years ago, I was making a short film and we got the permission to film in the basement of a church. It was probably 9 or 10 at night and we were the only ones there...until we heard children laughing upstairs. When we went to check it out, the doors were locked from the inside, the lights were off and no one was there… Jessie: A year or two ago, I attempted to hike by myself to this place called Dudleytown in Cornwall, Connecticut.  It’s supposedly a haunted colonial village.  I googled where it was supposed to be, drove up there…  The road to the trail was lined with NO PARKING ANYTIME signs literally every six feet.  So I park my car, start hiking, the trail has NO TRESPASSING PRIVATE PROPERTY signs everywhere…. The sky got really dark and it started to thunder and drizzle.  Then I needed to, uh, “use the facilities” very badly. I figured that the universe was telling me I didn’t need to go to Dudleytown…. Who is your blue collar hero? Jim: Ash Williams Jessie: My parents and stepparents and our good friend Chris Baldwin.  And anyone else who’s fighting the man. A working class hero is something to be.   What else is on the horizon for Turkey Vulture that you're excited about? Jim: Hopefully more recording and finishing up a new live video. I really dug your DIY-style music video for "Boxer". What was your inspiration for a lawn-mowing music video?  Jim: There’s a lot of ins and outs when shooting a video. We didn’t want to film something on a huge scale where we needed to depend on a list of people, the easier and simpler we could keep it, I thought was best and it worked out pretty good. Maybe future outings will call for larger scales but “Boxer” didn’t call for it. Jessie: I just think Jim wanted to spray grass on me with the lawnmower.
Jessie May also writes the Alternative Control music blog, and has gleaned her wisdom on topics like how to support the scene when you're old and don't care anymore on this very blog. Check out her music in Turkey Vulture here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interview with Pan-Amerikan Native Front

War is coming! Pan-Amerikan Native Front is among the fierce bands who lead the charge of in digenous black metal in the Americas. This group is fronted by its enigmatic chief, Kurator of War. Their 2016 full length Tecumseh's War  beats like a war club through the life and conflict of its namesake. Earlier this year, Pan-Amerikan Native Front released the Native Amerikan Black Metal split w ith the Ifernach, which is already sold out of of vinyls their bandcamp . Behold this interview I conducted with Kurator Of War.  Tecumseh's War was inspired by the life of Tecumseh, and it's a blistering musical journey. What was your inspiration for the Native Amerikan Black Metal split, lyrically, thematically and musically? The split album continued to retain a conceptual and storytelling approach, much like Tecumseh's War, and with a similar range of songwriting styles I implemented with the previous album. When Ifernach and I began focusing on themes we naturally landed on ...
Post a Comment
Read more

215 OR DIE: An interview with Sonja's Melissa Moore

Melissa Moore is a Philadelphia-based guitarist who currently leads the classic metal band Sonja. Previously, she's shredded on ax duty in bands like Rumplestiltskin Grinder and Absu. Moore also runs Toxic Femme, a clothing and apparel company that brings light to trans, non-binary and LGBT+ people via heavy metal fashion. On the musical front, Sonja released a promising two-song digital album  Nylon Nights/Wanting Me Dead  last year, which will win over fans of Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I present to you, a dark transmission with the voice of Sonja, Melissa Moore.  Hell-O Melissa (in my best King Diamond voice). How the hell are YOU? Not bad. Thank you for realizing the Mercyful Fate reference in my name. How do you describe the musical experience that is Sonja, in your own words? What can someone expect at a Sonja concert?   Trans femme fronted dark heavy metal that wishes it was death rock. If Lana Del Rey was the singer of Manowar, I ...
2 comments
Read more

OG Blasphemy: An interview with Profanatica's Paul Ledney

Profanatica is widely recognized as the first United States black metal band. Building on the foundation set forth by Venom and Hellhammer, Profanatica has spewed a rambunctious attack on all that is holy since 1990. Their antics on and off stage gained the same notoriety as their hellish music. While their European counterparts posed for photographs with candelabras and swords, Profanatica did photos with blood dripping from their limp dicks. Grainy VHS from the early 90s interviews show them giggling as they rip pages out of a bible and eat them. In many ways, Profanatica is one of the metal bands to become a meme. The recordings of what was to become their first album was destroyed by spiteful band mates before it was ever released in 1990 - read on to find out more about that fateful event. It was nearly two decades later that Profanatica birthed their first full length  Profanatitas De Domanatias in 2007. Rotting Incarnation Of God  is Profanatica's upcoming full len...
Post a Comment
Read more