I had the opportunity to interview Caithlin from Rainer Maria on December 8 when they play The Call in Providence. The club didn't have a quiet room for us, so the interview went down in my car with the heat turned up high, until it got too hot and we shut the heat off.

PL: Just introduce yourself.

RM: Okay, I'm Caithlin from Rainer Maria.

PL: Do you find writing poetry different from writing song lyrics?

RM: Yeah, definitely because you can do soemthing that is more plainly spoken. So many songs say singing "I love you," or whatever and if you wrote in a poem...its not crafting the language very well. But, there's so many different feelings behind what you're saying so you might get away more with song lyrics. Sometimes the best songs have the simplest lyrics.

PL: Do you find yourself critical of other bands' lyrics?

RM: I would never be critical of lyrics as long as they're being sung with real feeling. When I say real I just mean something that moves you despite the simplicity of the lyrics or that you can't understand what they're singing about, but you can still get something out of that. Am I critical? Not really. There's some bands I wish would-who had-uh nobody.

PL: Has there ever been a problem with you guys naming yourselves after a poet? Lately, tons of bands have had to change their names.

RM: No. Well, I think the pronounciation is one thing. When I say Rainer Maria, some people think I say "Rhino Maria." I'm glad we stuck with it.

PL: What was your favorite childhood movie?

RM: The one that popped into my head was Candleshoe, which was made in the 70s. It has a really young Jodi Foster, before Taxi Driver. I saw it in a drive in, which people don't go to anymore. I saw it in Cape Cod (We were talking about Cape Cod earlier), and it left a big impression on me. It was this fun live action movie. I think, if you let me think about it for ages, I'd come up with so many different movies because I love them so much.

PL: I've been watching a lot of kids movies lately to play them for the kids I work with.

RM: What have you been watching that you've been into?

PL: I bought An American Tail yesterday and I watched that. I watched Snow White, which wasn't good.

RM: The Disney one?

PL: Yeah.

RM: Third graders, they can handle some-you should check out some live action movies from the 50s like Parent Trap and Candleshoe. But, that stuff's fun.

PL: I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

RM: Do you know that they're remaking that?

PL: Yeah, with Johnny Depp.

RM: I watch a movie a day; like stuff I've never heard of before. I try to find stuff that I've never heard of before.

PL: Whats the worst part about touring?

RM: I think feeling lonely. There's so much downtime and you want to be with-if you have somebody that you care about in your life, you want to be with them. Its weeks away from them. You just have so much time on your hands. All bands say that its 23 hours of shitting around and one hour of really great stuff and thats why you do it, of course. Just being lonely, I think.

PL: Can you guys go places, or do you have to be-are there times when you can't go anywhere?

RM: We have to be at the venue sometimes, but there is some freedom. After soundcheck-it depends on how much time you have and how long the drives were. Sometimes you have days off; thats nice.

PL: Name one thing that you'd like for Christmas.

RM: I'm trying to think of something really special. I'd like to go visit my boyfriend's parents, but I don't think we're going to. They live in England and I haven't seen them in a year, so it'd be nice to see them again. It'd be a nice Christmas present, but I think its gonna have to wait another month.

PL: Name one album, besides your own, that you think all kids should own.

RM: Oh God, there's so many. I don't know what one to say. How about the Stone Roses first album. Thats just pure joy and everyone should give that a listen if you haven't already.

PL: Just say whatever comes to your mind: 2005

RM: Help. Laughter Will we all be alive then? I don't know. I hope its a good year.

PL: I don't think we'll need that "help" until 2006 at least.

RM: I don't know; I feel so helpless, but also concerned about-my life is comfortable, but I can feel the despair that so many other people are feeling in the world. They just have nothing, and worse than that, they're being hurt-its just so depressing and I try not to think about it. In a way thats going to be depressing. Its better to give as much love and care to the people around you in your own community. I think thats the best way to effect it; to effect change.

PL: Do you have any final comments?

RM: Thank you for nice questions. Laughter I don't mean easy, I mean well thought out questions.

PL: Thank you.

Interviewed by RF

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