Saturday afternoon I got the chance to meet up with Arleigh Kincheloe, a.k.a. Sister Sparrow of Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds. The rambling, rock-and-soul nine-piece outfit came a long way from Brooklyn to New Orleans for their Voodoo set, but they sounded right at home.
TDR: So you’re back in New Orleans. You were here for Jazz Fest last year, right?
Kincheloe: Yeah, we did a late night set with Soul Rebels Brass Band at the Blue Nile. We were sort of part of the Frenchmen scene. We hope to make it back every year. It’s one of my favorite festivals, I have to say, but Voodoo is climbing the charts. This is my first time here for Voodoo.
TDR: How do you feel about New Orleans and the whole vibe here?
Kincheloe: New Orleans is a huge influence for me, personally. The first time I ever came here was maybe five years ago, and it completely inspired me. I feel like it changed a lot of the way I feel and see music and write music. It’s really a magical place. I’ve come every year for Jazz Fest since then. I can’t say enough good things about it.
TDR: When I was listening to your set, I was thinking that your sound totally fits in with New Orleans.
Kincheloe: Thanks!
TDR: So you think that’s been a huge influence on the way that you guys are?
Kincheloe: Yeah, I do. And I think, I mean, obviously with the horn section, I think it can be easy to draw those lines and those parallels, and I like that. I always knew I wanted horns, and there’s something so clearly positive about New Orleans music and the scene and the history here. It’s so rich, and if I could just ride on the coattails of that, even a slight bit. [laughs] No, but, I mean, I have a lot of influences, but obviously New Orleans is a huge one.
TDR: So how do you feel about your set? How do you think it went?
Kincheloe: I feel really good about it. It was one of my favorite sets on this tour. We’ve been out for like two months, and something about this city and the people in it and the crowd today really made me feel like I was in my element. Sometimes I don’t always feel like that. If it’s a different sort of atmosphere it can be harder to perform in the true way that you want to be able to perform, and today I felt like I was sort of in the zone. So I feel good about it.
TDR: I feel like your music is really well-suited for a live show like that.
Kincheloe: Yeah, we definitely take pride in that, but also, that’s where we’re having the most fun. So that’s, you know, it comes from that. People watching us get up there and get sweaty and just watching us pour our hearts out, you know? I mean, it’s really what we love to do. We’ve made two albums, but really like, the reason we tour 200 days a year is because we love it.
TDR: It looks like you’re having a great time up there. You’re mostly family and friends, right?
Kincheloe: Yes! The harmonica player is my brother. I’m really proud of him. I’m his little sister, though, but anyway. And then the drummer is our cousin, and then the other guys are, yeah, a lot of old family friends from my cousin. He grew up with a few of the guys in the Bay Area. And then other guys that we met through the New York scene but we’re really good friends with. So we’ve all known each other for about four and a half years now, and obviously touring brings you closer together. But we’re great friends, and it started that way.
TDR: Do you think that connection and that sense of being a family has contributed to the way that you perform?
Kincheloe: Absolutely. I think there’s a certain level of intimacy there because you know each other so well that you can really start to read one another’s thoughts onstage. And the anticipation of what the other person’s gonna do musically, it makes the whole thing special.
TDR: Other than touring, what are you working on right now?
Kincheloe: I’ve been trying to write while on the road which is going to be really challenging for me, because I write my songs on the piano which I don’t have in the van, so I try to write when we’re off the road, which is almost never. But we’re about to take two months off. Not off-off, but pretty easy. So we have three weeks off coming up, and I’m just planning to write the next album. So that’s our immediate plan. And then next year we’re gonna hit the road, but we’re also gonna start trying to think about the third album. We’re not trying to rush into it, obviously, like, I still need to write the songs, so… [laughs] So that’s a big step, but, yeah.
TDR: How involved is everybody in the creative process of writing the songs?
Kincheloe: Well, everybody’s involved in the arranging process. So I’ll bring the song pretty much finished except for the horn parts and then what everybody decides to do for their own piece. So we arrange them all together in a huge group, the nine of us in a small room because we only ever rehearse in small rooms it seems. It happens all so quickly, like I said, having that intimacy with each other makes it really easy to bounce ideas off, and there’s no judgement, and we definitely all put our two cents in. So in that way, the songs are collaborative, in that the finished product is really a mixture of everybody’s ideas and thoughts about it.
TDR: Are there any kind of pre-show rituals that you all do since you all know each other so well?
Kincheloe: We like to get in a group and do a little huddle, you know, like a pre-show, “Let’s kill it, boys!” We don’t always have the time to do that, but yeah, I would say that. We don’t have a special dance yet but I think it’ll come. There’ll be something we do that’ll be distinctly Dirty Bird. Although, we do have this thing called the “crotch pheasant,” which is, let me just show you, because it’s like this. [Kincheloe stands and does a flapping bird gesture with her hands from her thighs to above her head] So it’s a bird that comes from your crotch.
TDR: That’s beautiful.
Kincheloe: And we like to spread that around and share it with other bands while we’re on the road. It’s like the ultimate salute. [laughs]
TDR: That is fabulous. So, you mentioned the boys. It’s just you and eight guys.
Kincheloe: Yeah.
TDR: What is that like?
Kincheloe: It’s really stinky. [laughs] The boys, I mean, obviously I’m not going to say that I don’t have B.O. like everybody does, but you know how it is with eight dudes in a van.
TDR: Yeah, I can imagine.
Kincheloe: It can be intense. But, you know, at this point, I feel like sometimes I am just one of the guys. Sometimes I need to just take five minutes and paint my nails and be like, “I am a lady, dammit!” But it’s really fun. It is.
TDR: Awesome. Bringing it back to the music: your voice is so dynamic and interesting, I was just wondering what some of your biggest vocal influences have been.
Kincheloe: Well, I grew up listening to a lot of Bonnie Raitt, and my mom listened to Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris. And actually, for me, I look into the male singers as well for inspiration, so like, Levon Helm and The Band, and like, Little Feat and Lowell George’s voice. That sort of thing I grew up listening to, and that was my education in music, so definitely that. And then on my own I got into the soul thing. So I got into Etta James, and Nina Simone is huge for me, and Aretha Franklin, for that other side to it. So I have sort of like the blues-country-rock and then straight-up soul.
TDR: That’s one thing that I think is interesting about you guys, because I feel like you don’t really fit a genre. You’re kind of a bunch of different things at the same time. So if you could define your sound, how would you describe it?
Kincheloe: I’ve recently been hearing the word “gritty” a lot in my head. You know, like, gritty soul rock, I guess. For a while we were saying “a modern spin on classic soul,” but for me it’s more than that. And you could say like five different genres but really for me it’s just that down-low, dirty, filthy, gritty feeling. That’s what I feel when I’m up there, and that’s what I want to project.
TDR: Dirty’s in the name.
Kincheloe: [laughs] Yes, coincidentally!
TDR: To just kind of wrap it up, are you guys going to hang out and see some bands while you’re here?
Kincheloe: Yeah, for sure!
TDR: What are you going to go see?
Kincheloe: I’m really excited to see Anders Osborne. He’s one of my favorites. And I’ve never seen Metallica, so I gotta check that out. And I got our passes and we actually came in early and saw Neil Young’s set, and then Bootsy Collins. He’s amazing. And a fellow Brooklyn band, the Pimps of Joytime, we caught their set last night and they’re amazing too. So yeah, so far I’m already having the time of my life, so I’m so excited to be able to hang out.
