Interview conducted in 2004
Zora Burden: I have such an affinity for you and your tastes due to the fact I come from a family that was very immersed in Vaudeville and I surround myself with everything I can from that era. My grandfather's band played Hawaiian tunes and blue grass then. What is your family history like in regards to this genre? Did you come from a family of performers or was this just something you felt passionately about after discovering it on your own?
Janet Klein: My family is pretty sparky and creative. My father, who sadly passed away in 1988, was a big influence. He was a painter and animator and had a tremendous musical curiosity. He built analog synthesizers in his studio for fun, as well as videotaped movies, animation and art documentaries when they were televised (that is reel to reel at that time, before it became an average thing to do). He had a wonderful record collection, music ranging from pre-Renaissance to Stravinsky to Zappa, Ventures, Judy Garland, African, Brazilian, etc., except for opera, country music and the things I am so crazy for now. I wish that he could have lived to share my musical adventures with me. He never would have guessed that I'd ever be singing and have a band. I was a music buff and an art kid with a highly developed sense of discontent. I was always fascinated by the older people in my family, wanted to know about the world of their youth. My grandfather, Marty Klein was a professional magician, that is prestidigitator, all sleight of hand illusions with cards, cigarettes, needles & thread. He looked like a Jewish Clark Gable. I never met him, but had photos, brochures, drawings & a promo film and also stories from my grandmother who was his magic assistant. She and her sisters could describe every detail of the outfits that they made for themselves to wear for the act. My grandmother's family were weavers in the Polish ghetto and all the daughters became wonderful seamstresses and knitters. So to answer your question, a little bit genes, symbiosis, and curiosity lead me to my own musical niche.
ZB: When did you first start singing? Did you ever have any voice lessons?
JK: I had a couple of very strange voice lessons when I was about 12. I remember describing the exercises to my mother, who never let me quit anything, and she pulled me out. I think the teacher may have been senile. Anyway, I always loved to sing, mostly to myself. I sang in chorus but was never asked to sing solo, so I just figured that, okay, I can carry a tune, but oh well, I must not be very good really.
ZB: I remember the first time I saw you perform, it was so exciting to see someone impeccably capture the feel and spirit of this era. You are visually stunning in your wardrobe, your gestures are so true to the lyrics and melody. How do you create such a stage presence?
JK: My big, big discovery came when I started learning songs and many of them took me out of my range. Well, fortunately I figured out how to transpose songs to keys that fit me, then I found different parts of my voice I never knew I had. And often I'll choose to do a comic song in a lower range, just because it comes across less sweet and more funny. I am completely immersed in old music, movies, images, call it research or poetic fortress, whatever, I just poke my head out to see contemporary things to pay a little attention to the present. I think that I listen to old music in a way that a person would have in the 1930s. Just being in the zeitgeist and then picking good songs of the day and doing it. I don't have any interest in mimicking a particular performer or being camp, that sort of thing.
ZB: When and how did your band first form? How did you choose the members of the Parlor Boys?
JK: Things started in 1998 or so. I started to meet musicians that played this music because they were crazy for it. I like to describe it as being like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, just meeting characters along the way. This area of music is so rarefied that as soon as I meet someone who plays this material exceptionally, it means that they've done the offbeat research to do it, and often that leads to playing together. Like finding a member of your lost tribe, we recognize it and then things happen.
ZB: How long have you been obsessed with this particular era? What kinds of social gatherings and activities do you participate in that inspire and enrich your music and performances?
JK: As I described, my sense of discontent lead me to focus on older people in my family who befriended me and shared their stories, possessions, photos, clothes, etc. This lead me back to New York 1930s. One of my favorite social pastimes would be listening to old 78 rpm records with friends and collectors, viewing silent and early sound films, time-travelling any way I can. Going to places not terribly touched by time, hanging out in old restaurants, hotels, bars, theaters, homes. The Art Deco Society in Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as the LA Conservancy have wonderful events in historic places that I find very worthwhile.
ZB: What are some of your favorite films from that era?
JK: Dance of Life with Nancy Carroll, The Kid Brother and Grandma's Boy with Harold Lloyd, Prix de Beaute; Louise Brooks, Picadilly; Anna Mae Wong, City Lights, Modem Times; Chaplin, Bronze Venus with a very young Lena Home, Hollywood Revue of 1929, Broadway Melody and King Of Jazz, etc..
ZB: I had noticed you collect sheet music, and admitted some you collect for the cover art, which I've done many times. So to see your flyers capturing that aesthetic of sheet music and old poster ads is wonderful. Who designs these? Who designs your album covers?
JK: My first two CD packages were designed by Stephen Walker, who works for Warner Brothers and is a sensitive person who likes old goodies. My most recent 2 packages were designed by Rick Whitmore. I am pretty involved in the process. From helping with photography and choosing vintage images from my collection. I have a strong sense of a visual concept and usually have some old piece of ephemera or an old tin box or something that I'd like to "get at." Also I stare at the patina of things so much I know what kind of textures I like, want something to look like an old fashioned photo tinting,
or to render misregistration that would be on an old cheap poster etc. Then the magic of working with someone who can weave all that kind of thing, enter their ideas, and render it. That's amazing. Rick is a wonderful artist, great caricaturist, and can illustrate in many different styles and do old style typography by hand. He's one of the few people I've ever known to have the talent to render those old styles convincingly. That is not an easy task. Often we work on these projects and realize, right, this is why people don't design this way any more, because it is so time consuming and difficult!
ZB: What drew you to playing the ukulele? Was there one particular song or musician that inspired you to do so?
JK: I have always drawn and painted and I have done a little performance art. I knew that I enjoyed performing, but I never would have imagined that anyone would ever listen to me sing. So I decided that I would try to write poetry that reminded me of the old tunes and recite my poems in a way that would make me feel like a chanteuse. I corresponded with people to collect recordings and was a music buff all along. I started to try playing a triangle with some of my poems, as I wanted to weave in something musical. I remember seeing Andy Kaufman lip syncing to some cowboy record. I considered working in a record player then, a ukulele. Once I got the thing, I started to learn some of the 1920s tunes on it, and I sang a couple for friends and they seemed to sincerely enjoy them. Then little by little, it dawned on me that with this little instrument, I could not only share my favorite songs with people but also, make them my own. As far as inspiration, I think my earliest inspirations were Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill. None of them played ukulele but I loved their way of expressing lyrics in song. It was later that I discovered Cliff Edwards, Gracie Allen's musical bits, Annette Hanshaw, George Formby, Ruth Etting, who have all been staples in my chest of inspirations.
ZVB: You got to design your own ukulele, what was that process like for you?
JK: I started playing uke in January 1996 and that spring I met Tony Graziano, a luthier in Santa Cruz, among other uke players and enthusiasts. I spotted a black lacquer ukulele in his studio and my eyes popped out. I went home and started drawing. I still am surprised by people who have instruments custom made but don't put their own stamp into the design. What a wonderful and rare experience to have something hand made just for you. I was set with ideas to make one unlike any I'd seen. I had been to a musical instrument museum in Vienna and wanted to emulate the fancy work I'd seen on the face of lutes and mandolins from the Baroque period. Also the lacquer and abalone seemed Japanesque, so my motifs include a bird and cherry blossoms and something with my initials and fret markers shaped like birdseed.
ZB: Where do you get your amazing ensembles for your shows? Do you put them together yourself and had you modeled your look after any particular performers or actresses?
JK: Anywhere I can find a nice frock; hand-me-downs, antique shops, vintage clothing dealers. 1930s are my favorite. I collect trims, ribbons, silk flowers and make my accessories. As far as emulation, I collect old photos from the 1910s, 20s & 30s and I simply relate to them. I can look at thousands of modern images from the 1940s and on and I feel like I could never fit into these aesthetics, so I veer toward what feels right instead of contorting myself to understand and fit into what I don't like. The more I am out in public, the more I feel that it is an encouraging model, I know I am not alone in these sensations. Lets see, as far as actresses I'd love to look like; Ruby Keeler, Claudette Colbert, Louise Brooks, Bessie Love, Carol Lombard, Clara Bow, Molly Picon, Fannie Brice, Gracie Allen. Thank goodness I have a sense of humor, because a regular girl could go nuts with models like Gene Harlow or Greta Garbo in mind.
ZB: Do you dress in period outside of performing? I spent years attempting to dress in this period, finding the right clothing can be a challenge and finger waving my hair alone can take hours. Do you find it's hard work to keep up this style?
JK: Yes, I do dress in old clothes most of the time. It's all about mending. I get to know these garments intimately, mending away, and the detail and quality of the fabrics is so wonderful. I do dream of how nice it would be to get to wear these things when they were brand new, must have been delicious. The thing I especially love about a good dress is that you hardly have to wear another thing, slip on that fancy frock and stockings and shoes and you're done. I wish that the culture would rediscover the soundness of pretty dresses. I do not wear tennis shoes or jeans and have one favorite pair of 1930s pants. I love a good homey dress as much as a fancy gown. They made wonderful everyday dresses in the 1930s, I think it was a peak for flattering women in clothing.
ZB: Who do you find your audience consists of? It seems like a large portion of enthusiasts are really taken with this time of a gentler, more sentimental lifestyle.
JK: I know of Bliss Blood from the Moonlighters back East, and I have met some swing dance kids with a lot of tattoos that have mentioned that they had crossed that terrain. I have had only a periphery contact with punk culture but I find it inspiring in that artistic expression based on anger, nihilism, protest can take a person only so far before they fry themselves in a way. The thing about any "retro" interests is that it inevitably leads a person on a historical path and information gathering. Maybe learning a dance step from some old gent who can tell you about his career in movies, or finding out about your own relatives and what they did, or becoming a buff on tattooed ladies of the circus or vaudeville, or snake oil cures from the 1890s, or silent film directors, old cars, or World Expositions from the early part of the 20th century, or the first and second World Wars, whatever. It's all pretty rich. Isn't there a saying that one can curse the darkness or light a candle?
ZB: What type of audience do you find come to your shows generally? Is this the type of crowd you've hoped for?
JK: Our audiences are all over the map, from film buffs, music historians, filmmakers, regular folk, little kids, grandmas, goths, punk and swing kids, as well as nice fans at our shows in Japan who are quite knowledgeable of American string band and jug band music. I am delighted.
ZB: What other types of memorabilia do you collect? Can you give a brief description of what your home looks like?
JK: I live in a 1908 craftsman bungalow, tallest house on a broad block with palm trees, fuzzy garden, sunny old fashioned kitchen with a service porch. I've been here a year and it's the house of my dreams. I am crazy for this old place. I love to collect band and vaudeville promotion photos, as well as photos from the 1910s that give evidence to the fact that girls have always have had attitude. Also wallpaper and drygoods catalogs, movie and music magazines pre-40s, and views of early California, and sheet music.
ZB: If you could go back in time and play with any band, on any circuit, with who and what would that be?
JK: Charlie Johnson's band, Bennie Moten band. Kansas City, Chicago, New York, nightclubs, summer resorts, dancehalls, vaudeville theatre. What the heck, I have the urge to time-travel into a series of recordings made in Atlanta Georgia in 1927, in a tobacco warehouse with several bands, the Ross Deluxe Syncopators, Jacksonville Harmony Trio, Sugar Underwood, Blue Steele Orchestra.
ZB: What is your favorite song to perform? Have you ever done a duet with anyone? If so which do you prefer more, solo work or singing duets?
JK: I love patter songs like; Smile Your Bluesies Away, Do you Believe Me?, Baby 0 Mine. Meaning that they have little odd spoken choruses, which are so foreign these days. Yiddish Hula Boy, Living in Sin, Biscuit Medley. Oh I could go on and on with the reasons. Regarding duets, on my last two records I have happily tried this out. One with Miles Kreuger, a local legend, music historian. We recorded a Burns and Allen number called Do You Believe Me? We call it Lambchops. Also with Ian Whitcomb; How Could Red Riding Hood?, Ballin the Jack, True Blue Lou and with pianist Brad Kay on a tune I adore called Jacksonville Blues. It is a rewarding challenge to work out an old harmony tune like that.
ZB: What's the most romantic melody you have ever heard from this era of 1900-1920s?
JK: I recently discovered tunes called Here We Are, Wooden Wedding by Kurt Weill. And What A Night for Spooning, All My Life, sorry I can never name one.
ZB: Do you have a favorite venue to play in? If you could currently perform in any theatre and haven't yet, where would that be?
JK: We have enjoyed the down-home coziness of McCabes, I love being on the bill with a silent movie, as we do at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax, or to be in a sweet, quirky place like the Old Town Music Hall with their mighty Wurlitzer and lantern slides, a great old theatre like the Palace or the Alex, or a grand old resort like the
Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. We have never played the Orpheum in Los Angeles which is one of the most beautifully restored theatres in town. We like putting the old music back in the old rooms.
ZB: Do you ever write your own music? Or take old tunes and re-write them or the lyrics?
JK: I do make small adjustments of lyrics to suit myself sometimes, but mostly I am a treasure hunter. I have such respect for the high level of craftsmanship of these tunes, as well as the advantage of hindsight in that I can pick and choose from genres with diverse flavors. Whether I pluck a movie tune, a vaudeville number, a ragtime ditty, a speakeasy tune, something sophisticated, something lowdown etc. It would seem practically impossible even for the best composer to write in all these styles authentically. It was quite common in the old days pre-50s to sing well-made tunes written by people who specialized in that. So for me it's a grand treat to draw from such a great array of material and share things that have sadly been languishing in obscurity.
ZB: One of the wonderful things about this particular era is that within its innocence it made any naughty lyrics so much more sinfully fun. What are your favorite naughtier songs? Can you quote any particular lyrics that come to mind?
JK: Hurry On Down To My House Honey; "Please come down just as soon as you can, if you can't I'll have to call Sam, he'll hurry on down to my house honey, there ain't nobody home but me." Real Estate Papa You Ain't Gonna Subdivide Me, If I Can't Sell It I'll Keep Sitting On It, Banana In Your Fruit Basket.
ZB: Who was your favorite song writer during the Vaudeville era? What are some of the more humorous songs you enjoy?
JK: Kalmar and Ruby were exceedingly clever. They wrote a lot of the material for the Marx Brothers. I love Yiddish Dialect songs, like the few records that Fannie Brice recorded in the 20s, If Only you Could Believe Their Word or Mrs. Cohen at the Beach. Or the small musical bits that I've seen of Burns and Allen from the late 29 or so.
ZB: What was one of the most unusual or odd acts you've ever come across that ran the Vaudeville circuit?
JK: I think the fellow's name is Chas Chase, he was kind of a human goat. He would eat anything, lit matches, paper, glass, his clothing etc. I have a photo of a man who played doorbells. The Keaton Family had an act where they threw Buster around and billed him as the boy who could not be damaged. He described how his father attached a suitcase handle to the back of his jacket so he could be hurled into the audience; he said that he learned to use his head as a rudder.
ZB: Where would a person usually find you rehearsing? What gets you and your band mates in the mood when doing so? Does your environment affect your musical efforts?
JK: We are most often found in my parlor having tea and/or beer, sometimes we listen to a couple of old records.
ZB: Who else do you feel are your contemporaries?
JK: I love the recordings of the Beau Hunks from Holland, as well as R. Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders, Bo Grumpus, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. These are my favorite recorded artists.
ZB: What other bands have you performed with?
JK: The Cheap Suits, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks; an outfit put together by Terry Waldo from NYC, Bo Grumpus. In Japan we played with some interesting bands. Bliki Circus was a favorite.
ZB: Have you recorded anything outside of your band Janet Klein and her Parlor boys, solo?
JK: My first record called "Come Into My Parlor" was almost a solos record. I had some light accompaniment on guitar by John Reynolds and Robert Loveless on harmonica, and a little mandolin. This was recorded in 1997 before I had any idea that I'd ever have a band.
ZB: Do you feel you've been received as you'd like by audiences and critics? Have you got the recognition you've deserved?
JK: I have been surprised and propelled by the responses all along the way. I get lots of great letters, people sending me compliments, gifts of films, music etc. We've never been barraged with press but a light consistent stream of reviews and project offers of one sort or another, all pretty organic. One thing has lead to another. I still hope to find a distributor in Europe. In the US, well there doesn't seem to be a genre tag in the record shops for what we do. I'd love to see a VINTAGE 1910s-20s-30s bin at a music store. Darn it. For instance, there is a distributor called WORLDS RECORDS, and they mix a variety of vintage recordings with a selection of contemporary bands performing music from the same eras.
ZB: Have you ever done any soundtrack work for stage or screen?
JK: No movie scores, although a couple of my Parlor Boys do some of this kind of thing on their own. We've had some nibbles for having tunes used in movies. So far I've been in a documentary called "Rock That Uke" and we did a little musical vignette, in the style of a 1920s Vitaphone Music short, in a documentary about the Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe.
ZB: What about this era of the early 1900s first made you fall in love with it?
JK: The rawness and variety of music coming from regular folks with crazy ideas, mixes of immigrant cultures, acts that came from singing or dancing on street corners, family acts, singers that haven't taken elocution lessons. The amazing leap from John Phillip Sousa music to ragtime to jazz, the humor, sweetness, charm and school of hard knock wit that comes through it all.
ZB: Do you have a secret passion for other eras?
JK: No.
ZB: How did you meet your husband? Does he share the same interests in lifestyle?
JK: We met just as we were starting school at UCLA. We've known each other 24 years but only married one month ago. Long story. In a way, we grew up together, I think our tastes rubbed off on each other over the years. We both came up drawing and painting and came to music in a natural rough and ready way, rather than through a lot of training. Robert had been making records long before me with the bands Savage Republic, 17 Pygmies and Scenic, definitely not 1920s music, but beautiful stuff that I have always admired. We both love to look at and collect old things and our aesthetics blend really well. We love the same kind of books and read poetry and are now are nutty gardeners together too.
ZB: What would be the ultimate show you could put on in regards to sets, costume and music?
JK: I am crazy for catching glimpses of nightclub scenes in movies from the 1930s and would love to find myself in a glamorous supper club, with a floorshow of tap dancing cuties. Sometimes we get pretty close to doing this. We've done some amazing shows with the burlesque troupe The Cherry Tartes and sometimes a stray tap dancer has arisen spontaneously from the crowd and some truly cinematic moments have happened. I think that I find myself dreaming about putting some things down on film that reference some favorite tidbits from photo stills or novels. For instance, there is a scene in an English book I have from the 20s called Ukelele Girl in which there is a party going on and guests are putting on little skits and a shy girl is handed a firefly costume, which she dons and suddenly she finds herself in a pool of blue light delivering a ditty on the ukulele. She disarms a whole room of snobbish party hounds with her little song. Things like that.
ZB: Will you talk about what you've done since the Paradise Wobble album and what kind of charms can be found on them?
JK: Well, I have put out two more records since the release of Paradise Wobble. Put A Flavor To Love and our newest Janet Klein's Scandals aka Living in Sin. Our newest cd is our most polished production-wise and has a lot of hotsy totsy material on it, a lower ratio of sweet songs and several songs from movies such as Hollywood Party which is from a Jimmy Durante movie by that name, My Bluebird is Singing the Blues from International House, Everyone Says I Love You from Marx Brother Horsefeathers, True Blue Lou from Dance of Life etc. Also some nifty dance related tunes like Ballin, The Jack with a rare and extremely naughty extra verse, Don't Take That Black Bottom Away and quirky tunes such as Sheik of Avenue B, a Yiddish dialect song featuring Bob Mitchell on the mighty Wurlitzer organ. And a cautionary ragtime number as timely today as it was in 1915; Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You; "drinking water's just as risky as that so-called deadly whisky, and it's often a mistake to breathe, the air."
Zora Burden: I have such an affinity for you and your tastes due to the fact I come from a family that was very immersed in Vaudeville and I surround myself with everything I can from that era. My grandfather's band played Hawaiian tunes and blue grass then. What is your family history like in regards to this genre? Did you come from a family of performers or was this just something you felt passionately about after discovering it on your own?
Janet Klein: My family is pretty sparky and creative. My father, who sadly passed away in 1988, was a big influence. He was a painter and animator and had a tremendous musical curiosity. He built analog synthesizers in his studio for fun, as well as videotaped movies, animation and art documentaries when they were televised (that is reel to reel at that time, before it became an average thing to do). He had a wonderful record collection, music ranging from pre-Renaissance to Stravinsky to Zappa, Ventures, Judy Garland, African, Brazilian, etc., except for opera, country music and the things I am so crazy for now. I wish that he could have lived to share my musical adventures with me. He never would have guessed that I'd ever be singing and have a band. I was a music buff and an art kid with a highly developed sense of discontent. I was always fascinated by the older people in my family, wanted to know about the world of their youth. My grandfather, Marty Klein was a professional magician, that is prestidigitator, all sleight of hand illusions with cards, cigarettes, needles & thread. He looked like a Jewish Clark Gable. I never met him, but had photos, brochures, drawings & a promo film and also stories from my grandmother who was his magic assistant. She and her sisters could describe every detail of the outfits that they made for themselves to wear for the act. My grandmother's family were weavers in the Polish ghetto and all the daughters became wonderful seamstresses and knitters. So to answer your question, a little bit genes, symbiosis, and curiosity lead me to my own musical niche.
ZB: When did you first start singing? Did you ever have any voice lessons?
JK: I had a couple of very strange voice lessons when I was about 12. I remember describing the exercises to my mother, who never let me quit anything, and she pulled me out. I think the teacher may have been senile. Anyway, I always loved to sing, mostly to myself. I sang in chorus but was never asked to sing solo, so I just figured that, okay, I can carry a tune, but oh well, I must not be very good really.
ZB: I remember the first time I saw you perform, it was so exciting to see someone impeccably capture the feel and spirit of this era. You are visually stunning in your wardrobe, your gestures are so true to the lyrics and melody. How do you create such a stage presence?
JK: My big, big discovery came when I started learning songs and many of them took me out of my range. Well, fortunately I figured out how to transpose songs to keys that fit me, then I found different parts of my voice I never knew I had. And often I'll choose to do a comic song in a lower range, just because it comes across less sweet and more funny. I am completely immersed in old music, movies, images, call it research or poetic fortress, whatever, I just poke my head out to see contemporary things to pay a little attention to the present. I think that I listen to old music in a way that a person would have in the 1930s. Just being in the zeitgeist and then picking good songs of the day and doing it. I don't have any interest in mimicking a particular performer or being camp, that sort of thing.
ZB: When and how did your band first form? How did you choose the members of the Parlor Boys?
JK: Things started in 1998 or so. I started to meet musicians that played this music because they were crazy for it. I like to describe it as being like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, just meeting characters along the way. This area of music is so rarefied that as soon as I meet someone who plays this material exceptionally, it means that they've done the offbeat research to do it, and often that leads to playing together. Like finding a member of your lost tribe, we recognize it and then things happen.
ZB: How long have you been obsessed with this particular era? What kinds of social gatherings and activities do you participate in that inspire and enrich your music and performances?
JK: As I described, my sense of discontent lead me to focus on older people in my family who befriended me and shared their stories, possessions, photos, clothes, etc. This lead me back to New York 1930s. One of my favorite social pastimes would be listening to old 78 rpm records with friends and collectors, viewing silent and early sound films, time-travelling any way I can. Going to places not terribly touched by time, hanging out in old restaurants, hotels, bars, theaters, homes. The Art Deco Society in Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as the LA Conservancy have wonderful events in historic places that I find very worthwhile.
ZB: What are some of your favorite films from that era?
JK: Dance of Life with Nancy Carroll, The Kid Brother and Grandma's Boy with Harold Lloyd, Prix de Beaute; Louise Brooks, Picadilly; Anna Mae Wong, City Lights, Modem Times; Chaplin, Bronze Venus with a very young Lena Home, Hollywood Revue of 1929, Broadway Melody and King Of Jazz, etc..
ZB: I had noticed you collect sheet music, and admitted some you collect for the cover art, which I've done many times. So to see your flyers capturing that aesthetic of sheet music and old poster ads is wonderful. Who designs these? Who designs your album covers?
JK: My first two CD packages were designed by Stephen Walker, who works for Warner Brothers and is a sensitive person who likes old goodies. My most recent 2 packages were designed by Rick Whitmore. I am pretty involved in the process. From helping with photography and choosing vintage images from my collection. I have a strong sense of a visual concept and usually have some old piece of ephemera or an old tin box or something that I'd like to "get at." Also I stare at the patina of things so much I know what kind of textures I like, want something to look like an old fashioned photo tinting,
or to render misregistration that would be on an old cheap poster etc. Then the magic of working with someone who can weave all that kind of thing, enter their ideas, and render it. That's amazing. Rick is a wonderful artist, great caricaturist, and can illustrate in many different styles and do old style typography by hand. He's one of the few people I've ever known to have the talent to render those old styles convincingly. That is not an easy task. Often we work on these projects and realize, right, this is why people don't design this way any more, because it is so time consuming and difficult!
ZB: What drew you to playing the ukulele? Was there one particular song or musician that inspired you to do so?
JK: I have always drawn and painted and I have done a little performance art. I knew that I enjoyed performing, but I never would have imagined that anyone would ever listen to me sing. So I decided that I would try to write poetry that reminded me of the old tunes and recite my poems in a way that would make me feel like a chanteuse. I corresponded with people to collect recordings and was a music buff all along. I started to try playing a triangle with some of my poems, as I wanted to weave in something musical. I remember seeing Andy Kaufman lip syncing to some cowboy record. I considered working in a record player then, a ukulele. Once I got the thing, I started to learn some of the 1920s tunes on it, and I sang a couple for friends and they seemed to sincerely enjoy them. Then little by little, it dawned on me that with this little instrument, I could not only share my favorite songs with people but also, make them my own. As far as inspiration, I think my earliest inspirations were Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill. None of them played ukulele but I loved their way of expressing lyrics in song. It was later that I discovered Cliff Edwards, Gracie Allen's musical bits, Annette Hanshaw, George Formby, Ruth Etting, who have all been staples in my chest of inspirations.
ZVB: You got to design your own ukulele, what was that process like for you?
JK: I started playing uke in January 1996 and that spring I met Tony Graziano, a luthier in Santa Cruz, among other uke players and enthusiasts. I spotted a black lacquer ukulele in his studio and my eyes popped out. I went home and started drawing. I still am surprised by people who have instruments custom made but don't put their own stamp into the design. What a wonderful and rare experience to have something hand made just for you. I was set with ideas to make one unlike any I'd seen. I had been to a musical instrument museum in Vienna and wanted to emulate the fancy work I'd seen on the face of lutes and mandolins from the Baroque period. Also the lacquer and abalone seemed Japanesque, so my motifs include a bird and cherry blossoms and something with my initials and fret markers shaped like birdseed.
ZB: Where do you get your amazing ensembles for your shows? Do you put them together yourself and had you modeled your look after any particular performers or actresses?
JK: Anywhere I can find a nice frock; hand-me-downs, antique shops, vintage clothing dealers. 1930s are my favorite. I collect trims, ribbons, silk flowers and make my accessories. As far as emulation, I collect old photos from the 1910s, 20s & 30s and I simply relate to them. I can look at thousands of modern images from the 1940s and on and I feel like I could never fit into these aesthetics, so I veer toward what feels right instead of contorting myself to understand and fit into what I don't like. The more I am out in public, the more I feel that it is an encouraging model, I know I am not alone in these sensations. Lets see, as far as actresses I'd love to look like; Ruby Keeler, Claudette Colbert, Louise Brooks, Bessie Love, Carol Lombard, Clara Bow, Molly Picon, Fannie Brice, Gracie Allen. Thank goodness I have a sense of humor, because a regular girl could go nuts with models like Gene Harlow or Greta Garbo in mind.
ZB: Do you dress in period outside of performing? I spent years attempting to dress in this period, finding the right clothing can be a challenge and finger waving my hair alone can take hours. Do you find it's hard work to keep up this style?
JK: Yes, I do dress in old clothes most of the time. It's all about mending. I get to know these garments intimately, mending away, and the detail and quality of the fabrics is so wonderful. I do dream of how nice it would be to get to wear these things when they were brand new, must have been delicious. The thing I especially love about a good dress is that you hardly have to wear another thing, slip on that fancy frock and stockings and shoes and you're done. I wish that the culture would rediscover the soundness of pretty dresses. I do not wear tennis shoes or jeans and have one favorite pair of 1930s pants. I love a good homey dress as much as a fancy gown. They made wonderful everyday dresses in the 1930s, I think it was a peak for flattering women in clothing.
ZB: Who do you find your audience consists of? It seems like a large portion of enthusiasts are really taken with this time of a gentler, more sentimental lifestyle.
JK: I know of Bliss Blood from the Moonlighters back East, and I have met some swing dance kids with a lot of tattoos that have mentioned that they had crossed that terrain. I have had only a periphery contact with punk culture but I find it inspiring in that artistic expression based on anger, nihilism, protest can take a person only so far before they fry themselves in a way. The thing about any "retro" interests is that it inevitably leads a person on a historical path and information gathering. Maybe learning a dance step from some old gent who can tell you about his career in movies, or finding out about your own relatives and what they did, or becoming a buff on tattooed ladies of the circus or vaudeville, or snake oil cures from the 1890s, or silent film directors, old cars, or World Expositions from the early part of the 20th century, or the first and second World Wars, whatever. It's all pretty rich. Isn't there a saying that one can curse the darkness or light a candle?
ZB: What type of audience do you find come to your shows generally? Is this the type of crowd you've hoped for?
JK: Our audiences are all over the map, from film buffs, music historians, filmmakers, regular folk, little kids, grandmas, goths, punk and swing kids, as well as nice fans at our shows in Japan who are quite knowledgeable of American string band and jug band music. I am delighted.
ZB: What other types of memorabilia do you collect? Can you give a brief description of what your home looks like?
JK: I live in a 1908 craftsman bungalow, tallest house on a broad block with palm trees, fuzzy garden, sunny old fashioned kitchen with a service porch. I've been here a year and it's the house of my dreams. I am crazy for this old place. I love to collect band and vaudeville promotion photos, as well as photos from the 1910s that give evidence to the fact that girls have always have had attitude. Also wallpaper and drygoods catalogs, movie and music magazines pre-40s, and views of early California, and sheet music.
ZB: If you could go back in time and play with any band, on any circuit, with who and what would that be?
JK: Charlie Johnson's band, Bennie Moten band. Kansas City, Chicago, New York, nightclubs, summer resorts, dancehalls, vaudeville theatre. What the heck, I have the urge to time-travel into a series of recordings made in Atlanta Georgia in 1927, in a tobacco warehouse with several bands, the Ross Deluxe Syncopators, Jacksonville Harmony Trio, Sugar Underwood, Blue Steele Orchestra.
ZB: What is your favorite song to perform? Have you ever done a duet with anyone? If so which do you prefer more, solo work or singing duets?
JK: I love patter songs like; Smile Your Bluesies Away, Do you Believe Me?, Baby 0 Mine. Meaning that they have little odd spoken choruses, which are so foreign these days. Yiddish Hula Boy, Living in Sin, Biscuit Medley. Oh I could go on and on with the reasons. Regarding duets, on my last two records I have happily tried this out. One with Miles Kreuger, a local legend, music historian. We recorded a Burns and Allen number called Do You Believe Me? We call it Lambchops. Also with Ian Whitcomb; How Could Red Riding Hood?, Ballin the Jack, True Blue Lou and with pianist Brad Kay on a tune I adore called Jacksonville Blues. It is a rewarding challenge to work out an old harmony tune like that.
ZB: What's the most romantic melody you have ever heard from this era of 1900-1920s?
JK: I recently discovered tunes called Here We Are, Wooden Wedding by Kurt Weill. And What A Night for Spooning, All My Life, sorry I can never name one.
ZB: Do you have a favorite venue to play in? If you could currently perform in any theatre and haven't yet, where would that be?
JK: We have enjoyed the down-home coziness of McCabes, I love being on the bill with a silent movie, as we do at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax, or to be in a sweet, quirky place like the Old Town Music Hall with their mighty Wurlitzer and lantern slides, a great old theatre like the Palace or the Alex, or a grand old resort like the
Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. We have never played the Orpheum in Los Angeles which is one of the most beautifully restored theatres in town. We like putting the old music back in the old rooms.
ZB: Do you ever write your own music? Or take old tunes and re-write them or the lyrics?
JK: I do make small adjustments of lyrics to suit myself sometimes, but mostly I am a treasure hunter. I have such respect for the high level of craftsmanship of these tunes, as well as the advantage of hindsight in that I can pick and choose from genres with diverse flavors. Whether I pluck a movie tune, a vaudeville number, a ragtime ditty, a speakeasy tune, something sophisticated, something lowdown etc. It would seem practically impossible even for the best composer to write in all these styles authentically. It was quite common in the old days pre-50s to sing well-made tunes written by people who specialized in that. So for me it's a grand treat to draw from such a great array of material and share things that have sadly been languishing in obscurity.
ZB: One of the wonderful things about this particular era is that within its innocence it made any naughty lyrics so much more sinfully fun. What are your favorite naughtier songs? Can you quote any particular lyrics that come to mind?
JK: Hurry On Down To My House Honey; "Please come down just as soon as you can, if you can't I'll have to call Sam, he'll hurry on down to my house honey, there ain't nobody home but me." Real Estate Papa You Ain't Gonna Subdivide Me, If I Can't Sell It I'll Keep Sitting On It, Banana In Your Fruit Basket.
ZB: Who was your favorite song writer during the Vaudeville era? What are some of the more humorous songs you enjoy?
JK: Kalmar and Ruby were exceedingly clever. They wrote a lot of the material for the Marx Brothers. I love Yiddish Dialect songs, like the few records that Fannie Brice recorded in the 20s, If Only you Could Believe Their Word or Mrs. Cohen at the Beach. Or the small musical bits that I've seen of Burns and Allen from the late 29 or so.
ZB: What was one of the most unusual or odd acts you've ever come across that ran the Vaudeville circuit?
JK: I think the fellow's name is Chas Chase, he was kind of a human goat. He would eat anything, lit matches, paper, glass, his clothing etc. I have a photo of a man who played doorbells. The Keaton Family had an act where they threw Buster around and billed him as the boy who could not be damaged. He described how his father attached a suitcase handle to the back of his jacket so he could be hurled into the audience; he said that he learned to use his head as a rudder.
ZB: Where would a person usually find you rehearsing? What gets you and your band mates in the mood when doing so? Does your environment affect your musical efforts?
JK: We are most often found in my parlor having tea and/or beer, sometimes we listen to a couple of old records.
ZB: Who else do you feel are your contemporaries?
JK: I love the recordings of the Beau Hunks from Holland, as well as R. Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders, Bo Grumpus, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. These are my favorite recorded artists.
ZB: What other bands have you performed with?
JK: The Cheap Suits, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks; an outfit put together by Terry Waldo from NYC, Bo Grumpus. In Japan we played with some interesting bands. Bliki Circus was a favorite.
ZB: Have you recorded anything outside of your band Janet Klein and her Parlor boys, solo?
JK: My first record called "Come Into My Parlor" was almost a solos record. I had some light accompaniment on guitar by John Reynolds and Robert Loveless on harmonica, and a little mandolin. This was recorded in 1997 before I had any idea that I'd ever have a band.
ZB: Do you feel you've been received as you'd like by audiences and critics? Have you got the recognition you've deserved?
JK: I have been surprised and propelled by the responses all along the way. I get lots of great letters, people sending me compliments, gifts of films, music etc. We've never been barraged with press but a light consistent stream of reviews and project offers of one sort or another, all pretty organic. One thing has lead to another. I still hope to find a distributor in Europe. In the US, well there doesn't seem to be a genre tag in the record shops for what we do. I'd love to see a VINTAGE 1910s-20s-30s bin at a music store. Darn it. For instance, there is a distributor called WORLDS RECORDS, and they mix a variety of vintage recordings with a selection of contemporary bands performing music from the same eras.
ZB: Have you ever done any soundtrack work for stage or screen?
JK: No movie scores, although a couple of my Parlor Boys do some of this kind of thing on their own. We've had some nibbles for having tunes used in movies. So far I've been in a documentary called "Rock That Uke" and we did a little musical vignette, in the style of a 1920s Vitaphone Music short, in a documentary about the Velvet Hammer burlesque troupe.
ZB: What about this era of the early 1900s first made you fall in love with it?
JK: The rawness and variety of music coming from regular folks with crazy ideas, mixes of immigrant cultures, acts that came from singing or dancing on street corners, family acts, singers that haven't taken elocution lessons. The amazing leap from John Phillip Sousa music to ragtime to jazz, the humor, sweetness, charm and school of hard knock wit that comes through it all.
ZB: Do you have a secret passion for other eras?
JK: No.
ZB: How did you meet your husband? Does he share the same interests in lifestyle?
JK: We met just as we were starting school at UCLA. We've known each other 24 years but only married one month ago. Long story. In a way, we grew up together, I think our tastes rubbed off on each other over the years. We both came up drawing and painting and came to music in a natural rough and ready way, rather than through a lot of training. Robert had been making records long before me with the bands Savage Republic, 17 Pygmies and Scenic, definitely not 1920s music, but beautiful stuff that I have always admired. We both love to look at and collect old things and our aesthetics blend really well. We love the same kind of books and read poetry and are now are nutty gardeners together too.
ZB: What would be the ultimate show you could put on in regards to sets, costume and music?
JK: I am crazy for catching glimpses of nightclub scenes in movies from the 1930s and would love to find myself in a glamorous supper club, with a floorshow of tap dancing cuties. Sometimes we get pretty close to doing this. We've done some amazing shows with the burlesque troupe The Cherry Tartes and sometimes a stray tap dancer has arisen spontaneously from the crowd and some truly cinematic moments have happened. I think that I find myself dreaming about putting some things down on film that reference some favorite tidbits from photo stills or novels. For instance, there is a scene in an English book I have from the 20s called Ukelele Girl in which there is a party going on and guests are putting on little skits and a shy girl is handed a firefly costume, which she dons and suddenly she finds herself in a pool of blue light delivering a ditty on the ukulele. She disarms a whole room of snobbish party hounds with her little song. Things like that.
ZB: Will you talk about what you've done since the Paradise Wobble album and what kind of charms can be found on them?
JK: Well, I have put out two more records since the release of Paradise Wobble. Put A Flavor To Love and our newest Janet Klein's Scandals aka Living in Sin. Our newest cd is our most polished production-wise and has a lot of hotsy totsy material on it, a lower ratio of sweet songs and several songs from movies such as Hollywood Party which is from a Jimmy Durante movie by that name, My Bluebird is Singing the Blues from International House, Everyone Says I Love You from Marx Brother Horsefeathers, True Blue Lou from Dance of Life etc. Also some nifty dance related tunes like Ballin, The Jack with a rare and extremely naughty extra verse, Don't Take That Black Bottom Away and quirky tunes such as Sheik of Avenue B, a Yiddish dialect song featuring Bob Mitchell on the mighty Wurlitzer organ. And a cautionary ragtime number as timely today as it was in 1915; Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You; "drinking water's just as risky as that so-called deadly whisky, and it's often a mistake to breathe, the air."