Possessed by a world-busting manic punk yowl and fiercely pounding guitar arm, whether solo or in her new formation, Night Nurses – ”We haven’t been able to get as much into the performance parts yet, because basically we played our first show and went on tour while we were still writing the songs, which is typical of my approach to things “- self-made rock n roll superhero-slash-next level feminist Sara Century is also the host of two important local events (including Ladybug in Ft. Collins, which is coming right up) and author of a self published graphic novel series called New Girl Friend. Sara Century took time away from promoting local bands or shows or films or zines to answer some questions for RockRevolt’s agent last week.
Interview with Sara Century:
Zack/RR: Who is Sara Century compared to L.L. Thomas? What powers abilities tendencies does she possess?
Sara: I think Sara Century is basically my outer life and Leya is my inner life. My original name was actually “Starring Leya Lynette as Sara Century” with the implied joke being that I had a double identity. People aren’t always sharp enough to get a joke, though, so I just ended up being Sara to everyone because she was the more gregarious side of me, I guess. I get the feeling that Leya likes to stay inside and draw a lot, while Sara is everywhere at once.
Zack/RR: As a dedicated curator of underground greatness, who are some other independents in Denver worth supporting?
Sara: The interesting thing about Denver is that it’s amazing, and nobody knows it. The stuff that gets big around here is really no-brainer, lowest common denominator stuff, but the art subculture is extremely interesting, and very pure. In the grand scheme of things, Denver is basically an island between Kansas City and Los Angeles. There’s very little posing or pretense in Denver, because very few people expect to ever be noticed playing these dingy little DIY warehouses in the art district. There is less subdividing between different scenes, and it becomes true that there are 2 scenes: people who go to shows, and people who don’t. It’s a small town, and we all kind of know each other. Proportionately to many other cities of this same size, there is an incredible amount of women actively participating in art and music, but, to the greater whole of Denver, they have no idea what kind of things we’re getting away with while they’re not looking.
Sara: I have a huge list of local influences that are across the board in medium, but I’ll stick to “music that I’ve seen performed recently” and say Night of Joy, Kitty Crimes, Pythian Whispers, Kid Mask, Crablab, Wheel Chair Sports Camp, Echo Beds and the myriad projects its members are involved in, Red Vs. Black, Mariposa, Holophrase, Adai, and nervesandgel are the people who have really blown me away this year. That stuff is completely across the board in genres, but every single one of the people listed have that exceptional DIY spirit that makes them the same in a way that is more important than sharing a style of playing music. Also, in Denver, you’ll find these bands that have nothing in common musically other than attitude coming together and playing shows together. That’s what’s special about Denver.
Zack/RR: You often perform for audiences barely familiar with your sound, maintaining excellent spirits despite any hardships encountered. You tend to play on tour vs. bars. Why is that?
Sara: I have a slightly different idea of life as an artist than many others do. I chose it without any illusions of getting rich or even being able to afford to go to the dentist in my 20’s and 30’s. To me, art is worth my teeth, it’s worth my health and my life, and that is reflected in my nearly psychotic commitment to performing 100 days a year, or 200 days a year, usually in warehouses, art galleries, coffee shops, or people’s living rooms and basements. I intentionally book tours not at bars because I hate the way they profit off of bands. I hate that the youth is excluded. I hate the lack of appreciation for music and art in those environments, and I hate the way the audience responds. To me, there is no upside to playing in a bar, except that they might at some point pay you. The hassle isn’t worth it. I would rather play to ten people in their living room and collect donations to stay on tour. The downside of that is that you are playing for underground and punk kids, and they have no money, therefore it’s harder to stay on the road. Anytime I start to feel troubled by the fiscal tightrope my life has become as a result of choosing to live as an artist, I just have to accept that this is who I am, and I can make it work, or not. I choose “make it work” everyday. That said, I approach it all with a good attitude, because if I let bitterness or ego seep in, it would destroy me and the integrity of what I want to communicate.
Zack/RR: Please share an interesting story from your last tour with our readers.
Sara: Many, many things have happened to me on tour this year, but one instance that stands out as a “WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE” moment was when the person driving me on a 40 day tour that I was doing completely solo this last April – June ditched out on the tour the very first day by also stealing everything I owned, including my amp, my guitar, my keyboard, my cds and t-shirts I had made to sell to people at shows, my clothes, and a box of cassette tapes with very obscure bands that I had been collecting for ten years of going to shows. Most of those tapes are completely lost to the annals of history, because they were from bands that played and stayed at my house, and they’d have maybe 50 copies of that tape made, sell out on tour, then never re-release them again. It was a brutal moment, and I was stranded outside of Albuquerque, and I just thought, well, I’m not going to go home. I have 40 shows booked and I’m just not going to cancel them. So, I spent the rest of the tour ridesharing, catching greyhounds, playing for change so I could eat, making the shows I had planned, meeting up with friends that helped me so greatly. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I did all that. I made it all the way up the West Coast with no back-up and nothing to sell, based on the strength of my global community. Losing the tapes still hurts though. They were like a photo album made out of sounds that I’ll never hear again.
Zack/RR: How does Ladybug, the upcoming three-day music and art extravaganza you helped develop and organize, differ from Titwrench?
Sara: Well, I didn’t create Titwrench. While I do volunteer at it and play it, I have very little to do with choosing the line-up or really running the fest. It’s different because it’s different people. Ladybug is my first festival that I’ve arranged. Also, Ladybug was proposed to me by G.N.U. Gallery as something I might like to do, so I took them up on it, but it wasn’t particularly my idea. There are many woman-centric festivals in this general region, including Albuquerque’s Gatas y Vatas,Tempe’s Fox-Vag Fest, Denver’s Titwrench, and now, Ladybug in Fort Collins. The ladies involved in one are often involved in all, and I’ve played all of these festivals at one time or another. Ladybug is also only happening once, while the others are annual. If people really want a woman-centric festival in Colorado, then they already have Titwrench. I’m doing this for people that might not know about Titwrench, who might not know what’s happening sixty miles away. Finally, the festival focuses on Colorado-based acts, while all the other festivals tend to rely greatly on touring acts. The aim of something like this is to equal out gender ratios at shows, it has nothing to do with either alienating men. To me, we’re all striving towards a world where we don’t have to be like, “Hey. Yeah. Women still play music, and it’s not a novelty. It’s been going on a while.” For a variety of reasons that typically reflect a deeply rooted mysogeny that exists in our over-all culture, women are the less represented gender in art and music. I do this because I want more women in the audience, more women onstage, more women painting, owning businesses, ruling the world, because I honestly don’t think we’ve seen enough of that.
Zack/RR: What’s going on with the Night Nurses?
Sara: I’m working with my dearest friend, Valerie from Night of Joy, on this project. There’s 2 bass players and drums, while I switch from playing guitar to keys to sometimes just singing. I tend to wearing evening gowns when I perform, but I think we’re all still looking for the perfect nurse outfits. I have some vague ideas of incorporating more lights and film projections. It’s up in the air, though, we haven’t even recorded yet. More to come on that front.
~Zack Kopp, Contributing Writer with RockRevolt™ Magazine
If you would like more information about Sara Century, please visit the following sites:
https://www.facebook.com/sara.century
