We caught up with Michigan’s Stef Chura as she kicked off her North American tour July 5th at Chicago’s Empty Bottle (check out a full review of the show in Chicago Crowdsurfer #67). They played tunes from her sophomore album, Midnight. Seeing her live really showed off the raw grunge rock appeal of Chura’s music, her signature somersaulting vocals, and her kick-ass-take-charge attitude. She handled obnoxious drunk dudes with decisive cool–I was embarrassed for Chicago and hope she will have no more of that on tour!
If you didn’t catch it, you have another chance, hopefully without the drunk-dudeness. She will be rocking out at Lincoln Hall on September 7 with Evanston, Illinois native Ezra Furman.
TM: What do you think the biggest shift was between your first and second album?
SC: The biggest change was working with a producer and the arranging. Working with more people on it. Like, we had a separate person track it, so there was more help. I mean there weren’t a ton of people working on it by any means, but there were a couple other hats worn. I think a huge one was arranging the songs differently because I really felt like Will [Toledo] and I clicked in that department.
TM: Was there any music you were listening to when you were working on the album that you may have drawn inspiration from? I know you were wanting to dig deeper into the rock part of your soul.
SC: Yeah. I knew there was rock that was in there that needed to be let out. I sent Will about 25 demos, and he picked the rock. So, we did a lot of upbeat stuff, and it’s cool ’cause it fit and has higher energy than any other set than we’ve ever done. I actually get tired in the middle of the set, which is kinda like “holy shit.”
There was, like, one thing I was into where I was like, “I want this song to sound like this other song.” It’s this one part of “Sincerely Yours” that’s from this one Courtney Love song on the album American Sweetheart. I love that album. There’s this one song I like, “Almost Golden”–well, I love a lot of the songs–but there’s this one part where the music synchronized in a certain way. But, I can’t really remember what we were listening to in the studio though. I think we mostly just went at it.
TM: Was there ever a time when you questioned your voice or your decisions?
SC: Like everyday. Do you mean vocal training or what?
TM: I mean both in the broad sense of just the fact that you are putting yourself out there. But of course, you do have unique sound. I think one of the reasons that people are drawn to you is the fact that when one of your songs comes on, you instantly know that’s a Stef Chura song.
SC: Oh, cool, thank you.
TM: Yeah, so you are standing out from the crowd, and I wondered if you ever doubted yourself in that.
SC: I’ve always wrote the way that I wrote and sang the way that I sang. I’ve tried to hone it in a bit, and I’ve definitely grown, but oddly enough I’ve felt like this is me. When I chose to use my name, as opposed to a band name, you’re opening yourself up to a different kind of criticism. Like, they will look at you with a magnifying glass. Bands can get away with more, everything doesn’t have to be from their perspective. It’s not a direct thing attached to their name. I’ve just been doing what I’ve doing for a long time.
In terms of how it sounds, there’s just something very organic about it. Really how it sounds is what I like.
TM: If your sound is very authentic and personal, do you write and conceive the lyrics from a personal experience? What is your process for song concepts and lyrics?
SC: It’s pretty personal. Sometimes I’m using word play. I usually just kind of write in a stream of consciousness. When I try to be more concerted it doesn’t come as easily. Even though on this album, the songs I worked on lyrically with Will; we tried some really different methods for song writing, but I still tend to write in a “stream of consciousness”-thing and then kind of put parts together, not necessarily thinking about the storyline. More like different ideas and utilizing how they sound, as opposed to thinking about the words as I’m writing them.
TM: Have you ever written something good, but that was too personal so you decided not to share it with anyone?
SC: I don’t think that my lyrics are super direct. It’s not like “You Outta Know” by Alanis Morrisette or something. I’ve lied to people about who or what the songs about. I was playing in a band with a friend, a girl, a long time ago, who I wrote a song about, and I was like, “Oh, this is a song about an old boyfriend,” but it was totally about her. Yeah, I like to tell people a song is about them a good 3-5 years after they’re out of the picture.
TM: Yeah, like writing the song might be enough to help you resolve your feelings, and you don’t necessarily need to throw down with them.
SC: You know, you make that sound really healthy, but really I’m just vaguely passive aggressive. This is just how I let myself voice things I feel silenced about, and I’m a stealthy motherfucker. I don’t know. Yeah–I write the song and I feel better, and I never brought it up, and we stop hanging out slowly over the course of the year.
TM: Bringing the truth! Speaking of, your song, “All I Do is Lie.” It took me forever to realize that “I don’t care, if you do it to me, I can do it to you” was part of that song.
SC: Yeah, it occurred to me afterwards that it could have been its own song. We did sort of push stuff together, like it was a part of the demo with that “if you do it to me” part, but we did kind of take it out, make it a bigger thing, and put it on the end of “All I Do is Lie.” The lyrics are just very direct.
TM: Another song you have this kind separate parts thing is in “Method Man.” Like you had a completely different idea of how to arrange the song and decided to do both instead of choosing. It almost reminds me of movements in classical music. We don’t hear a lot of that in rock music, so I was kind of curious who’s idea was that?
SC: Will. Cause we only had the first half of the song when it came time for arranging stuff. It’s why I think the arranging was such an improvement for this album, because as a songwriter it’s not really something I ever paid attention to. Everybody has a way they think the song should go. It’s so amazing how people are and how their personalities are. You know how organized or unorganized they are about doing that. You’re just thinking about, “Oh, I’m writing the verse and now I’m writing the chorus.” But Will, he’s like–well–he just did that Car Seat Headrest record, and he’s like, “I was doing this song and we work on this part and then this part and then the song is 16 minutes long.” But you weren’t even, like, planning on that. So, that’s something that he really excelled in.
And seeing that process, it really strengthened the song. Actually there’s an old demo on my bandcamp that I did a long time ago.
TM: The biggest tonal shift on the album has to be “Trumbull.” Where the heck did that piano come from? What is that?
SC: [laughs] That was actually not one of the demos. It was something that came about when we were working together. It was something that I had in my brain, I don’t think I had ever written it down. I’ve just been thinking about it for a few years. I’ve always figured it would have a piano part, oh, you know like in Daniel Johnston’s “Grievances,” do you know that song?
TM: No, I don’t, I’ll have to look it up.
SC: It has this jazzy little piano part. I mean I say it sounds jazzy, but I feel like whenever you saw it, it never actually sounds like that. It sounds a little tiny like that, but that is the idea, just the vocal, and the piano, but yeah, you should listen to that, cause that’s where that came from. We were in the studios and both of the places we were had pianos, and the room we recorded in had a grand piano. So we recorded “Trumbull” on that, and also Midnight has a little bit of piano. It’s just really subtle, like a few notes. And then Will playing the inside of the piano, we kind of both did that actually. Like you play the strings. You can hear it. I can’t even mimic the sound, but it’s a weird textural thing. You can hear it and once you won’t be able to unhear it.
TM: Tell me about “3D Girl”–is the girl supposed to be you or someone else? Where did it come from?
SC: It’s about women being real people, but also its’ kind of about the perspective of being blacked out drunk. That feeling of helplessness or drowning. Not really about me, but about this other person and pressure you feel as a woman. I don’t know how drinking actually plays into the song, but it’s, like, almost the experience of chaos that you have when you’re in a state like that.
TM: Now that you’re hitting the road for this tour, is there any song from the album that you feel like has morphed significantly for the live performance?
SC: I don’t think anything has changed dramatically. The couple that had a little bit more of a production value on the record are “3D Girl” and “Sweet Sweet Midnight.” There are just some elements that are a little different. I think its nice to have it sound a little varied, as opposed to sounding just like the record. But I wouldn’t say there’s that much a of difference. There’s some synths in “3D Girl” that we aren’t doing live.
TM: Do you have a favorite song to play live?
SC: Actually “3D Girl” is fun. And actually last night was the first time we played “Sincerely Yours” live. I forgot to say that. Actually I said it was the second time, and they were like, “No, you’re wrong.” That one, it feels like it went over really well. I really love playing loud. A lot of the new ones are just fun to play.
TM: What’s next for Stef Chura?
SC: We’re [touring] other parts of the U.S. and little bits of Canada. Poor Canada, they only get a little bit of shows in general. We will be back in Chicago, playing with Ezra Furman, in September. We are touring Europe in October.