Warpaint have celebrated their 20th anniversary with new one-off single ‘Common Blue’. Check it out below, along with the band telling us about their two “psychedelic” two decades in rock.
It was 20 years ago today (February 14) that the indie quartet first came together on Valentine’s Day on Fairfax Boulevard in Los Angeles. Now to celebrate, they’ve shared new single ‘Common Blue’ along with a nostalgic new music video.
“It feels like an accomplishment,” singer and guitarist Theresa Wayman (aka TT) told NME, reflecting on a career that has seen the Los Angeles band – also featuring singer and guitarist Emily Kokal, bassist and singer Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa – release four celebrated albums straddling art rock, dream pop and psychedelia.
Lindberg added: “I feel like there’s so many lives lived in the last 20 years. Different scenes, every couple of years something changes up. To look back to 2004, it feels like I’ve lived many lives. And it’s also gone by so quick too that it’s a trip, it’s psychedelic.”
‘Common Blue’, their first new material since 2022’s ‘Radiate Like This’ album, finds the band back on their original UK label Rough Trade after a stint with Virgin Records. They spoke about this reunion, their influence on rock equality and the shock of once being labelled “Satanic” by NME…
Hello Warpaint: The band was born in a small studio on LA’s Fairfax Avenue on Valentine’s Day 2004. Was that a sign?
Wayman: “Yeah, of true love. We were all boyfriendless or dateless and had nothing to do. Obviously something works because we’ve been doing it for so long and haven’t stopped and we’ve only gotten closer. It’s definitely been a four-way marriage. It’s love.”
What have been the highs and lows?
W: “Getting on the cover of NME, that was a fun one. We just were like, ‘What is going on? This is so cool’. We didn’t grow up with the NME, so we didn’t really know what we were getting into. And then all of a sudden we were on the cover, [with the coverline] ‘Satanic Majesties’. It was a really special moment although a little alarming. ‘Satanic? What?’ But that was a reference to something…”
The Rolling Stones.
W: “At first we didn’t get that and we thought we were just being pigeon-holed. Because a lot of people like to put ‘siren, witch, Satanic’…”
Lindberg: “It’s four girls, so they must be witches!”
How have you seen attitudes to women in rock bands change over 20 years?
W: “There are more bands, more women. People are so much more conscious about having that equality, I think. But I felt like we were always welcome when we were doing our thing. I don’t think we ever experienced anything overtly sexist or we were never looked down upon. I feel like we were always given a fair chance and we took ourselves seriously in enough ways that…”
L: “That it leant other people [the chance] to do the same, I think.”
You’ve been pioneering in that sense.
L: “Yeah, like next generation pioneers. It’s so normal now, women in music and all-female bands. It’s just like the new normal, it’s just what’s happening and I think that’s amazing.”
The video for the single highlights live performance and travelling as the two elements you’re celebrating the most. What have been your most memorable shows and adventures?
L: “Going to Iceland was pretty amazing and otherworldly, at least to my eyes. We’ve been around the world many times – at this point, sadly, it feels like normal, a little regular. But Iceland stands out in my mind as being a pretty phenomenal trip. My mind was blown.”
W: “Do you remember that Polish festival we played? We had one of our biggest audiences we’ve ever had, out in the backwoods, in the country in Poland. It was the most raging, amazing show we’ve ever played. We were in this tent and it was incredible because it was at this stage in our career where things just kept getting bigger and bigger and we just didn’t expect that. It seemed like a place where no-one would know us and we got there and we were in this tent and it was just an epic show.
“The audience was so into it and it was loud and fun and we were in a good flow with each other, it was just really great. When you’re travelling so much, you’re just in that gruelling, get from one place to another, trains, planes and automobiles [mode]. It’s those moments on the stages that really, really matter, and going all over the world and having that, it’s really special. Mexico and then South America, certain places are really warm and welcoming.”
Is it fitting to be back on your original UK label Rough Trade for this single?
L: “Yeah. Very full circle.”
W: “Everyone’s really excited about it. We separated and dated…”
L: “We opened the relationship.”
W: “Yeah, we were dating for a little while, now we’re back. It just feels like home and we know everybody, it’s like a lot of the same people all still working there. They have such good relationships with each other that it’s just like the same crew there. And we really have known them for so long so it feels really good, like family.”
The message of ‘Common Blue’ seems to be to make the most of life while you can – is it intended as an inspirational anthem?
W: “That’s definitely what it means. I think the chord progression that started it, I felt inspired by that. I took that over to Jen’s and we started playing it and pretty quickly it came together with a few different parts and we structured it. I don’t even know how the ‘maybe baby’s came about but that definitely feels like some inspirational message. I think it’s just inherent in it and it just evolved that way.”
There are also hints of overcoming hardships as well: “pain will come as advertised” for instance?
W: “It starts off needing to burn something down because you just need to have a new perspective, which can’t always be a comfortable thing. But I think sometimes it takes something extreme like that to be able to move on and maybe do something that you need to do for you. You have to do something extreme for your own personal growth sometimes, or in order to get a different perspective.
“It’s really easy to get into a rut sometimes and it’s hard to change habits. But it’s also referencing being a band for as long as we have. How do you change and evolve while you’re in involved in relationships that have known you for so long and maybe you’ve moved on from how you were 20 years ago?”
How would you describe your evolution over the last 20 years?
W: “We’re more mature. We’re able to communicate better and listen and be compassionate to each other and maybe less ego driven.”
L: “I’d say more open and there’s more calm energy. I guess I could just speak for myself but I feel more calm than I did when we started. More grounded and certain of myself. I feel like we’re all going through that – the forties are a new deal, a good new deal.”
Where are Warpaint at in 2024?
L: “We’ve a tour coming up in May, we’re going to release this song and I feel like we’re probably going to take a little bit of a break. We don’t really have anything on the books for the summer. I think Emily’s going to work on some solo endeavours – it’s kind of ambiguous. We know for the foreseeable future we will be taking some time off, but it’s not like ‘oh, we’re taking a year off or two years off or three years’. After May we know that we won’t be doing anything.”
W: “We’re trying to try to see what’s next for us that’s not the same patterns we’ve been in since 2010, when we signed and started doing album cycles. That was amazing but now things need to shift. So maybe just stepping out of that pattern we’ve been in and seeing what else can we do, like writing songs for the TV show that Stella produced. That kind of thing is a new evolution of what we can do, so just opening the door for that kind of stuff.”
‘Common Blue’ backed by b-side ‘Underneath’ on vinyl on Rough Trade on March 22, 2024.
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