Looney Tunes

“It’s funny,” begins Merrill Garbus, when I congratulate her on her critically-adored second LP w h o k i l l. “When we’re doing an album, I feel like I’ve been sucked into a black hole. I can’t really think about what other people are going to think about it. But at the same time, there’s this fear that it will be completely off-base and completely something that no-one will be interested in, so I feel like I lucked out!

I’m afraid luck has very little to do with it. Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs project has been stealing hearts since 2009, when her debut BiRd-BrAiNs – a grainy, fuzzy 11-tracker she recorded on a handheld dictaphone – first hit the shelves.
The new record, while every bit as urgent and frenetic as the first, has been given a much-needed production spit-shine.
“I believed in the way that I did the first album,” she says, “and I believe that it’s possible to make really great music in that lo-fi aesthetic. But I think, for these songs in particular, I felt frustrated with my own skill. The songs wanted something that I couldn’t perform myself, so it was a battle with myself the whole time.”
With the help of engineer Eli Crews, Garbus was finally able to give her fiery yelps the pop polish they so long deserved.
“It’s interesting to love pop music but also at the same time to rebel against it a bit,” she laughs. “I find myself in between those places a lot.”
As well as tUnE-yArDs’ signature Afro-Caribbean rhythms, w h o k i l l retains the peculiar background rumbles and mumbles that gave Garbus’ previous release such a distinctive sound.
“With BiRd-BrAiNs there were so many happy coincidences that I wanted to keep in,” she remembers. “I loved that feeling of music being in the same realm as the rest of life, instead of relegated to the studio.”
Elsewhere, the triumphant ‘Powa’ sees Garbus scraping the peak of her vocal range, as she briefly trades in her androgynous baritone for some full-on Mariah-style whistle notes.
“I definitely have been trying to explore the possibilities of my voice and the voice in general. That’s something that’s become very important to me, finding moments of impossibility. I was in a long-distance relationship and I think I was into writing love songs a bit at that point. With all my songs, their source can be something very personal and then I take a look at it from the outside and think, ‘What is this song about?’ And if ‘Powa’ was going to be about sex, it was going to have to be complicated, because I find sex complicated.”
Not only does Garbus count Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon among her fans, but the 32-year-old has been invited to perform with them several times, including a show at this year’s SXSW festival.
“For people that are so extremely well-known throughout the world, they’re very good at making us feel just a part of their family,” she beams. “When people ask us about it, I think, ‘Oh yeah, that is pretty crazy that we played right before Yoko Ono,’ but knowing her, it doesn’t actually feel that weird. I just feel very lucky to have been introduced to her and Sean. Beyond their fame, they are stepped in this musical history and that kind of musicianship has been really amazing for us to be around.”
Back on her own tour, I suggest that it must feel particularly liberating to holler out lines like “I’m a victim!” in front of a couple of hundred people every night.
“What’s amazing is that I’ve given myself permission and freedom to sing these things on stage,” she reflects, “and how that seems to give permission to other people, and particularly women, to open their mouths. A friend of mine wrote me today actually, saying, ‘I really regret that as a teenage girl I spent most of my time worrying about what boys thought about me, when the guys I know spent time playing their guitars!’ I forget that that’s where I come from sometimes, but it means the world to me that I can offer a different perspective for other women.”

w h o k i l l is out now on 4AD. Tune-Yards play Whelan’s, Dublin on June 17. You can listen to 'Bizness' on hotpress.com.