Thieves’ Final Show: A Look Back With Jessie Calmes, Meta Gary, Rene Lambert, and Khalilah Karim
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
By Summer Stanley.
Thieves’ final performance and CD release party was at Kavarna Coffee Shop in Oakhurst [editor: area in Atlanta, GA] on Friday, January 15, 2009. The all-girl group, comprised of Jessie Calmes on vocals and guitar, Meta Gary on violin and vocals, Rene Lambert on bass and mandolin, and Khalilah Karim on backup vocals and accordion have come a long way to develop their sound of lilting, poetic folk. Directly after the post-show cigarette break, I gathered the band for some giggle-ridden girl talk, where they recalled their worst show ever, performing with the legendary Desk Ark, as well as a possible comeback.
Summer Stanley: Thieves, I was just ruminating on how it’s rather unusual to have a CD release party in conjunction with your final show, so to begin, is it really the final show?
Rene Lambert: So far.
Jessie Calmes: It was a publicity scam (Laughter). We’re gonna come out of retirement in a month.
Summer: Like Jay-Z?
Jessie: Like Jay-Z.
Summer: Well it did him a lot of good.
Jessie: We’re all gonna marry Beyonce too.
(The girl gaggle giggles)
Khalilah Karim: (Laughing) I think I’m already married to Beyonce. We have little Beyonces running around.
Summer: All right, well, the reason I ask is because I heard a little birdie mention that a French band contacted you through MySpace that wanted to tour with you. Care to comment?
Jessie: It’s possible that after some months we might come out with a bunch of different, new material and maybe a reincarnation.
Summer: OK. OK. So this would be like same people, different name and sound?
Jessie: Maybe.
Summer: Maybe?
Jessie: This is all hypothetical.
Summer: All right I’ll take hypothetical.
Meta Gary: I think we might just sing in French.
Summer: I’d pay to hear an American girl band sing French lyrics. Well kind of in a “looking back” vein, I know it’s pretty immediate, but how did Thieves originate and how long were you together for?
Rene: Originally we were all hanging out being sad and were like, “Hey, let’s make music.”
Jessie: It basically started with a different formation in the beginning, and we all were really bummed out about uh, ladies.
Summer: Mmm hmm.
Jessie: And so we literally just drank a lot of whiskey and wrote lots of songs really, really late at night.
Summer: Some of the best songs have been written that way.
Jessie: And then played them out of tune for the while.
Meta: Much to my dismay. I heard that there existed a group of really, really sad girls, and I was like, “I have got to get in on that.” And so I did. And uh, I brought ‘in tune’ with me.
Jessie: Meta made us tune our instruments.
Rene: She was like, “I can’t do this unless we tune!”
Jessie: And then we became “legit.”
Summer: Wow. When was it that you guys started playing shows regularly?
Jessie: Our first show was for Amy and Matteas’ benefit after their accident (scooter accident) two summers ago.
Summer: Yeah, that’s been a while. Well what bands have you guys been members of previous to Thieves?
Rene: The Bangers, Stanley’s Car – back in Louisiana.
Summer: Cool. What kind of a band was Stanley’s Car?
Rene: Ska.
Summer: So do you foresee yourself continuing as a musician after this?
Rene: Of course! Absolutely.
Summer: Do you have any upcoming projects at all?
Rene: Hopefully. I don’t know just yet.
Summer: But you will.
Rene: Yes. Of course.
Summer: (To Jessie) What about you?
Jessie: I did vocals for Bangers and now I’m in the Gazelles. I play drums.
Summer: Cool. I didn’t know you played drums. Who are The Gazelles? Are you performing around town now?
Jessie: We’ve been playing around Atlanta – I think we’re gonna book a show at Lenny’s soon. It’s kind of, I don’t even know, garage rock, 60’s girl groove. . .
Rene: Think Black Sabbath. It’s like old school metal. It’s awesome.
Jessie: Dirty.
Summer: I can’t wait! (To Khalilah) And what previous bands have you been in?
Khalilah: I was in a small band back in the early nineties, well it was kind of like mid-nineties, called Destiny’s Child.
(Laughter from everyone)
Khalilah: And um, I got kicked out because my dance moves were not up to par, but you know, I made it again with Thieves. So me and Beyonc’ are still close ‘cuz she’s having my babies.
Summer: I think you’re the only one who isn’t ill with her after she left Destiny’s Child to go solo.
Khalilah: (Laughing) You know, I’m OK as long as I get paid. You know they’re still using my lyrics.
Summer: (Laughing) Do your thing girl!
Khalilah: I’m a survivor (laughs). But whatever. But really, no. This is it.
Summer: No future projects?
Khalilah: Unless someone else wants me. Yeah, and if Thieves does a comeback tour…
Summer: Oh well I’ll miss you and I’m glad I got a lot of good pictures to memorialize this properly. (To Meta) And for you?
Meta: I was in one band in college – it was a math rock band.
Summer: A math rock band? What kind of band is that?
Meta: Um…
Jessie: It’s like math-y rock.
Summer: I’m sure it all adds up.
Meta: Good one. It’s like instrumental rock. . .
Summer: That sounds like genius rock!
Meta: I was in a genius rock band called Baracka.
Jessie: (In mock disbelief)It was called Baracka?
Kahlilah: Was it really? Baracka? Like the movie? (Laughs)
Meta: Yes it was. And it’s also a Mortal Combat character.
Summer: You are cool.
Meta: I always played music my whole life and I was in that band and then I kind of stopped for just being busy until I met these guys and I started…
Summer: And how did you guys meet?
Meta: (Gestures to front door of Kavarna) Out front right there.
Jessie: Yeah.
Meta: We were sitting at a table smoking cigarettes. . .
Jessie: And we were like “Oh, you play violin? And you look good?! OK.”
(Everyone laughs.)
Jessie: “Put on that hat!”
Meta: “Are you interested in being sad? Am I?!”
Khalilah: Any excuse to cry.
Summer: I really like that you guys were on the melancholy trip here. This is something that I didn’t know about you guys personally, but your music is very cathartic and haunting so I get it.
Jessie: At one point we actually covered Otis Redding’s “Sad Song.”
Summer: I wish I had heard that one! I also wish I had heard your famous cover of Mariah Carey’s “Shake it Off.”
Khalilah: A lot of people really wish they had heard “Shake it off.”
Rene: If we only knew everyone would chant. If we only had one more chance we could have prepared it.
Summer: Sorry, I kinda started the chanting. I didn’t realize. (To Meta) Well, do you have any musical projects on the horizons?
Meta: Not specifically, but yeah.
Summer: I get it. There will be. OK, well what else? Looking back, do you have a best/worst show moment? I’m gonna go one by one here, because this is gonna overwhelm my microphone, so Rene first.
Rene: Eddie’s attic is the show. (Everyone laughs.)
Summer: The best or the worst?
Rene: Um, the worst.
Summer: Tell me why.
Rene: Because everything was out of tune, and it was incredibly professional and we were not. And it was very embarrassing.
Summer: What was the crowd’s reaction?
Rene: They just sat there.
Jessie: One person said, “You know guys, you don’t have to play all your songs every time you play.”
Summer: Ouch.
Jessie: And I would agree. Horribly out-of-tune. Embarrassing.
Rene: We have a copy. You can hear it. It’s horrible.
Jessie: We like to listen to it for s…t and giggles.
Summer: Well, those days have come and gone and you guys have arrived at this point, but what was your best show moment?
Rene: Actually probably tonight.
Jessie: It was fun.
Summer: Yeah, it was a really fun night. It was great.
Rene: The crowd was really cool.
Summer: A lot of people showed up.
Rene: Yeah, I mean the whole environment was pretty, pretty right on man.
Summer: Yeah.
Jessie: I also think the best practice moment was today when we all sang Lady Gaga a capella to one another. I thought that sounded really, really good.
Summer: That’s pretty cool.
Jessie: Yeah definitely good use of our time before our last show.
Summer: Oh, definitely. And I’m sure there were, rather, I’m assuming, there were drinks.
Jessie: Yeah, well, I think there are anytime we do vocal exercises together too, which, involves Mariah Carey’s emotions.
Summer: Yes.
(The band starts doing their various Mariah Carey impressions.)
Jessie: Yeah, those are all good.
Summer: I love it! Khalilah, best/worst show moment?
Khalilah: I guess other than tonight I would have to say our first show in Athens that I played was a really good night.
Summer: Where did you guys play in Athens?
Khalilah: Little Kings.
Summer: That’s a fun place:
Khalilah: It was a really fun day. Good show, nice crowd, like I don’t actually know if the crowd was nice as in big, but the few people who were there were very nice.
Summer: They were like respectful and clapping at all the right times and everything. . .
Jessie: We played with The Shondas who were like a really big deal for us.
Summer: Oh cool. Tell me about The Shondas.
Jessie: They’re this, like- they were called the next “Sleater Kinney,” but they’re like this Jewish, rrriot girlish music.
Summer: Ooooh. That sounds really good.
Jessie: Queer. Really, really great violinist. And they were on the cover of Curve magazine the month before we booked the show. Louisa… that girl. So we played with them in Athens and in Atlanta. And that was cool
Summer: Cool. Besides The Shondas who were some of the most famous people that you performed with?
Jessie: Des Ark!
Rene: Yes!
Summer: (Enjoying the enthusiasm) Say it again!
Jessie: Desk Ark was my favorite show because I’ve been listening to Desk Ark since I was like 15.
Summer: I was at that show and it was astounding.
Rene: Wow. Yeah, it was incredible to meet Aimee.
(Aimee Argote, frontwoman for Desk Ark)
Jessie: Yeah.
Rene: She was uh, wow. Yeah. That was great.
Jessie: That was good. That had to be the best I think.
Summer: Yeah, yeah. That was at the Eyedrum. Thanks Marissa Overton for organizing that show! (To Meta) Best and worst for you?
Meta: Easily Eddie’s Attic. And a side note on the Eddie’s Attic show, I think I’d been playing with them for like three weeks at that time and uh, I had them, this was, I knew that they were out of tune, but I didn’t one hundred percent know how, how.
Jessie: Bad.
Meta: How bad the situation, how deep-rooted this problem was, and so in order to learn all the songs in time for the show because the shows was booked when I started playing with them, I had them record everything, and then I learned my parts, I made up parts according to recordings, and then uh, we were on stage playing and um, nothing! Nothing! Not a damn thing was in the same key.
(Everyone Laughter)
Summer: None of the instruments were tuned together at all?
Meta: No! So everyone that starts playing, and all these parts that I had, you know, studied …
Summer: Right.
Meta: And learned …
Jessie: (Laughing) In key?
Meta: … were all wrong. And it was absolutely horrible. And I was wearing this same hat, and I kept pulling it lower and lower during the course of the show, and lower past my face because I kept wanting to hide and I wondered multiple times how bad it would be if I just quietly stepped off the stage.
Summer: (Laughing) That’s great to admit that.
Meta: It was horrible. And the other side of that I would say is tonight, which is really ironic, because up until recording our CD, which went very quickly, we haven’t played in at least like a month or two.
Summer: I didn’t realize it had been that long.
Meta: So I wasn’t really foreseeing tonight going well, and I was kind of, I was nervous.
Jessie: I know and after that we stopped playing shows!
Meta: (Laughing) Done!
Meta: But yeah I don’t know what it was but tonight everything just felt like really solid, and the crowd was awesome.
Summer: Yeah.
Meta: Tonight was like a really good night. It was great. A great night to end on.
Summer: Absolutely.
Khalilah: Or to begin again on.
Summer: Don’t tease me!
Khalilah: Or to come back on! (Laughter)
Summer: That’s going to be the vein of my article, I want you to know that I’m going to paint you guys as a phoenix rising from the ash, so I’m editing it the way that I want it to be. (Laughter)
(Jessie starts doing the “Angels in the Outfield” flying motions. Everyone laughs.)
Summer: I just have to ask this one last question, out of personal curiosity, because I’m about to start learning the drums and I wanna know percentage-wise, how much more play I’m gonna get, than I have as a regular person now? And in addition to play specifically, what about perks of being in a band in general?
(Everyone shakes their head, laughs.)
Summer: (In disbelief) No perks! None whatsoever?!
Rene: Well, I mean, the connection you have with people when you play music it’s like family. That’s my favorite perk.
Summer: I feel that.
Rene: The intimacy with friends playing music … it’s pretty rad.
Summer: Totally.
Jessie: I would disagree.
(More laughter.)
Summer: Which part do you disagree with?
Jessie: Well, whenever we play I just crawl back into my anxiety hole, which involves me quickly loading instruments into the car and avoiding eye contact with anyone.
Rene: But we get to hang out with each other!
Jessie: No. But we’re talking about play.
Renee: Oh.
Jessie: No extra play.
Summer: No extra play at all?
Jessie: No.
Khalilah: I think that would only be lame when you’re like, “Yeah I play music and it’s blah blah blah blah.”
Jessie: Yeah, that’s nice, but no, never after a show have I been like “Hey girl how you doin’?” It’s more like (nervously giggles, voice shaking): “Hi- thank you ha ha.”
(We all laugh.)
Summer: Yeah, you’re just like, “OK, get me outta here.”
Jessie: Well Khalilah gets all the honeys.
Khalilah: I mean since I’ve been in this band, guys, oh my god. (Laughs) I can’t count the amount of a.. I’ve got!
Meta: She can’t count the amounts.
Khalilah: Yeah.
Summer: OK, well I’m always curious about the dating life of a musician. Are there any other perks?
Khalilah: Yeah – stage fright.
Summer: I never would’ve thought any of you had stage fright. It’s interesting talking to you about that, because it’s new information to me.
Jessie: I puke either before or after any first performance I’ve had with a band.
Summer: Wow. I would too. I was at a show in New York – I went to go see Atmosphere, and Slug has super-fan karaoke before the show where he serves at the hype man, but the fans have to rap his songs onstage without any lyrics. The participants just have to know it by heart. And when Slug was introducing them, he said “You guys need to be nice to these people because before I go on for every show, I have to sh… . Literally. And I wrote the songs.” Sooooo. . . I get that.
Summer: (To Meta) So perks for you?
Meta: Um, we usually get a tab.
(Everyone): Yeah.
Summer: Well that is a definite perk.
Khalilah: (To Meta) You get to show your artwork! But I think we played because of your artwork.
Meta: I think what that is, is I get to deflect attention away from myself.
Rene: No! From your artwork?
Meta: Yeah. And turn it into a band show instead of an art show which is much more comfortable.
Summer: I had no idea this was a combination art show and band show.
Meta: See? (Gesturing to a flock of bird paintings on the wall).
Summer: Oh!
Jessie: It’s called Flock by Artist Meta Gary.
Summer: I’m so glad I know that now! Do you have a website?
Meta: There’s a MetaGary.com website.
Summer: Great! And what sorts of art do you do?
Meta: I’m a painter. I’m currently in grad school for graphic design.
Summer: Great! Well I’m so glad to know that extra little ditty. Any last words before I shut off my recorder?
Jessie: OK. OK.
Rene: (short un-transcribable).
Jessie: (High-pitched Mariah Carey-esque squeal)
Khalilah: (Imitating Lady Gaga) Pa-pa-razzi!
Meta: I don’t have any last words.
Summer: OK.
Meta: That’s kind of ironic.
Jessie: This was kind of fun.
Summer: Isn’t it fun?
Tags: accordion, Atlanta, band, bands, bass, CD release, folk, indie music, interview, Kavarna Coffee Shop, live music, mandolin, music, music artists, music promotion, Oakhurst, rock band, Summer Stanley, violin, vocals, world music
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