There’s a hard balance to be struck when you start a band. To these ears, the happy medium falls somewhere within taking the music as seriously as you can without taking yourselves seriously at all. Kellies, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, are the rare band that manages to hit the nail on the head. While their musical influences of ESG, The Raincoats, and the first wave of Rough Trade post-punk are clear, these girls rise above the pack by giving any sense of pretension the boot and letting their friendships and love of a good party rise to the fore.
I talked to Betty Kelly, Kellies’ bassist, about this whole rigmarole and a bunch of other stuff. She also does time in the Cumbia group Betty Confetti y Su Conjunto Tropical.
Whose Fault Is That: Could you describe the origin of Las Kellies? How did your early shows go over?
Betty Kelly: Kellies started 5 years ago when Ceci Kelly met Sil Costa at a friend’s gig, through mutual friend, and then first Kellies bassist, Titi. Their boyfriends and male friends all had bands, and they decided it was their turn, so they borrowed instruments and amps, took them to Ceci’s garage and within days had written 3 classic Kellies hits, that we still play today.
Later Titi left, Jose took on the bass. And they played gigs for a couple of years, the three of them. I went to their first gig and was astounded. At first they were totally shameless in their naivety, forgetting cables and asking each other how to play the songs on stage, knocking back whiskey, and egging the audience on. But from the outset it was clear that they had some great songs, were really fun, and that they had some kind of crazy drive to make it all work. They finished the first gig, surrounded by fairy lights, Sil wrenching out a cover of Devo’s “Mongoloid” on the bass, and I leaped with laughter and pride.
Then Jose left to explore Berlin for a year, in which time I grabbed the bass. There was still a certain insecurity in playing live, but it was brilliant. We were constantly at the point of falling, but somehow the songs kept us perky. Now Jose’s back, and we’re a cuartet. Ceci on guitar, Sil on drums, Jose plays percussion, and I play bass. We all sing.
WFIT: You mentioned the band being ‘perky’ and having ‘crazy drive’ – One of the most infectious and endearing things about your music is the sense that you’re all good friends, with the band as a natural extension of your friendship. That’s a difficult thing to pull off. How do you preserve the sense of fun for yourselves?
BK: I guess we’ve never taken ourselves too seriously. The music we make is about having fun, even when everything that surrounds it gets heavy. That attitude is kind of implanted everything we do, and it makes it easier to have a giggle together at the end of the day.
WFIT: What were some early experiences that made you think playing and being active in DIY music were things you wanted to do?
BK: Ooooo. My granny and her brother were musicians, I guess they were classically trained, but there was nothing they’d enjoy more than a “Knees up Mother Brown” kind of get-together. Granny Molly played Scottish traditional anthems on our old Pianola, and my Great Uncle Harry would get the accordion out at big family gatherings to play Morris dances when we played pass the parcel and musical hats. I think that’s why I bought my first guitar at 15 and started learning sea shanties. I didn’t really get involved in music till I moved to Buenos Aires, other than playing gigs. Here it just happened naturally and I didn’t think about whether it was a good idea or not.
But at first I played noise and was into more experimental and conceptual music. Eventually I enjoyed it more when people interacted with the music, and dancing is an obvious way to interact, but it’s the best feeling, when something really moves you to shake your hips.
WFIT: Would you say that the interaction and sort of natural-ness came from the Argentinian scene itself, compared to things you had encountered before?
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BK: I don’t think the Argentinians are more interactive than the Europeans, but they’ve got a motivation and positivity, and a kind of humility that I hadn’t encountered before. They don’t say, well this and this has been done before, or, there’s so much of this that it’s not worth it. They just play and get on with it with enthusiasm. And there’s a “!QUE BUENO!¨ culture that gives you instant feedback. If nobody likes the music, you know about it because no one says ¨Que bueno.¨
WFIT: That’s awesome.
BK: (Laughs)
WFIT: If you were somehow given an infinite amount of time and resources, what form do you think the band’s music would take?
BK: Right now if we had money we would buy a drum machine and get some dirty beats going, a keyboard. There´d still be a bass and guitar. We´d employ someone to come up with some costumes that look really cheap but are actually made entirely of diamonds…
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The music itself is separating off into 2 directions, punk rock, and soul-infused postpunk. With time and resources we´d end up making a kind of austere dance punk. Well, just like now really.
WFIT: What would you say has caused the separation between the two styles?
BK: Listening to more and more music.
WFIT: Who are some artists you’ve been getting into lately?
BK: As a band this last year has been about ESG, B-52s, Tom Tom Club, Humpe Humpe, New York No-Wave stuff, Grandmaster Flash… There´s also been a heavy Dub and Dancehall infiltration, Althea and Donna, Sister Nancy.
This last year or so has been all about Cumbia for me, Gilda, Los Angeles Azules, Pibes Chorros, Juaneco y Su Combo.
WFIT: Do you see any common threads between Cumbia and the post-punk stuff you mentioned before?
BK: This last year has been about getting back to some idea of roots, music of African origin, I guess that´s the connection, because Cumbia is really a Caribbean beat, and those important bass and drum sounds in the No Wave stuff have more to do with ¨black¨music than overconceptualized rock and indie music.
But we´re trying to reach the point where all of those things meet. Like in the Peruvian Chicha where you have a species of Surf rock, prohibited by the dictatorship, which then evolves into a really fun hybrid of Amazonic sounds, ¨negro¨ beats and rock´n´roll.
Hmm, I keep adding more and more bands into the post punk basket that it all starts getting a bit blurry.
WFIT: That name’s gotten to be sort of a mess. I’ve heard that NYC stuff referred to as ‘mutant disco’, which seems as good a distinction as any.
BK: Oh yeah, I like that a lot more. “Mutant” is a great suffix to put onto anything instead of “post-” or “neo-” or “prog-”. Think I´ll steal that.
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WFIT: Absolutely. Add “proto-” and “-core” to that list, too. What, if any, would you say are the long-term goals of Kellies?
BK: We really just want to be able to play and travel. The big dream is to play in Japan, it just feels so far away and exotic. We also want to be able to tour South America, and go back and tour Europe all over again. But basically anywhere that will have us and help us along in our travels. We won´t rest until we´ve got a couple of vinyls out. Play more instruments, get more people dancing, and keep making music for the whole worrrrld, heehee.
Joe Bernardi interviewed Betty Kelly in September 2010. Kellies have a Bandcamp profile here and a Myspace profile here. As far as mailordering their music goes, they don’t have an international distribution setup per se, but if our experience is any indication, if you contact them they will be extremely nice about working something out.