Written by:
Jennifer Corday
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this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 15#5
CURVE writer Jennifer Corday got the scoop on New York-based lesbian Mimi Ferraro, the feisty lead singer of indie pop-rock band Audio Fiction. Their self-released album, Songs in the Key of Orange Alert, is available now at www.audiofictionband.com.
Q&A:
The band is composed of five very extreme personalities but you seem to have created a unique sound because of your differences.
All five of us have different influences and ideas about what kind of music we want to make. We joke that Ferg, the lead guitarist, likes to write happy songs, while Mark, the drummer, and I like to write depressing songs. But we play off of each other and balance each other out.
The result is a sound people compare to 4 Non Blondes, and sometimes Blondie and No Doubt. Most of our music is pop-rock with ’80s new-wave undertones. But we also have a ska song, and some jazzy and bluesy stuff, and some songs that are very ’70s-rock-esque. We hold nothing back in terms of telling each other what we think, and our music is a product of everyone’s input.
You have received rave reviews about your live show. How would you describe it and why do the fans love it?
There’s nothing too fancy about our performance, but we do aspire to give consistent, energetic shows. Of course we want to sound good, but we also try to be visually engaging as well. We want the fans to show up and get their money’s worth.
Describe your fans.
At first our first fans were just our friends, but now we have a broader fan base of various types of people. There are a lot of women, and some of them get crazy at the shows. I’ve had women’s underwear thrown at me a few times!
That is exciting! Depending on the underwear I guess… Describe the making and the meaning of your latest record, Songs in the Key of Orange Alert. There seem to be some political undertones.
We had a pre-release party last August before the Republican National Convention hit New York. The first track on the CD, “Tick-Tock,” is an indictment of the Bush administration, specifically of Bush’s war-mongering ways, and we felt it was important to make the CD available before his nomination. Right before we released the album, New York was under an orange alert, so that’s where we came up with the title. We recorded the CD in a studio in Manhattan. It was a long process but we all learned a lot, about recording, about our music, and about each other.
Were you always openly gay with your band-mates?
Apparently I was always out to my band, but I didn’t know it. They looked me up on the internet before they decided they wanted me to be the lead singer, and they found out I was a lesbian by reading about some work I’d done in college. We didn’t discuss it for a long time, and when I finally brought it up I felt like an idiot when I realized they’d known all along.
What about your fans?
Some of our fans know I’m a lesbian, but I’m sure many of them don’t. I don’t really worry about whether or not I’m out to them. It’s not a secret, but it’s not the focus of my work either.
Do you think it helps or hurts your appeal to the fans that you are a lesbian?
It probably hurts my appeal to some extent, as far as the true mainstream is concerned. But I think in terms of the alternative rock world it really won’t be an issue.
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