Spring Break
Blonde Redhead keeps its tunes 'all in the family'
Group rose above tension to produce '23'
MATTHEW GRAYSON
Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: Variety
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Every bathroom stop, every meal choice and every pointless detour could have struck a nerve, sparking a day of silence, sulking and simmering frustration.
Only when the band set foot on another stage in another town on another night - ready to rock beautifully, relentlessly and without abandon - was everything sure to cool down.
Like everyone's favorite Mom and Pop store, Blonde Redhead has, for almost 15 years, kept its business all in the family.
"We're really not that different from other bands," said Kyoto-born singer-guitarist Kazu Makino. "Anyone who's ever been in a band knows what it's like to be in band. We don't have it bad, really."
Still, Makino has a peculiar balancing act on her hands. She has to referee between her two bandmates, Italian-born twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, yet somehow manage to always play favorites.
After all, she hasn't yet told Amadeo "I do" (despite numerous sources listing them as married), but the couple's "long-term relationship," in the words of publicist Catherine Herrick, outdates even the band, which formed in New York City in 1993.
"The two are always arguing and getting really cross with each other," Makino said. "I suppose when it's good, it's good."
But when it's bad? That's the tough part, she said, but once the trio takes the stage, the brothers' chemistry is undeniable.
With Simone pounding the drums and Amadeo shredding the guitar and crooning blissfully alongside Makino, well, that's when the family really shines.
"[The brothers] are very different to me," she said. "A lot of people confuse them and can't tell them apart, but I always can. They even look different to me."
On Blonde Redhead's latest, the cryptically titled "23," the group forewent a producer for the first time, instead opting to keep the process a family affair.
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