Artist Interview: Niagara Detroit

Niagara Detroit is an iconic figure in both lowbrow art and punk music. Her gritty style captures the essence of the Motor City. She was featured in an art show at Hibbleton earlier this year, alongside other Detroit artists William Zdan, Matt Gordon, and SLAW. Here is an exclusive interview with Niagara, which will be featured in this years’ issue of Hibbleton Independent magazine, which hits the shelves in May.

HI: What does “punk” mean to you?

Niagara: Real men like punk. It’s funny how that term has survived. It’s a hard-core, rough, ragged version of rock and roll, from uneducated musicians.

HI: I started a punk band about eight months ago. The drummer had never played drums. The bass player had never played bass.

Niagara: That sounds familiar. When we started the band (Destroy All Monsters), it fell into the category of “noise music.” Everybody in the band was winging it, except our guitarist, who was brought up on flamenco. I started playing violin, and I had never played before. I just thought it sounded great.

HI: I think it lends to a more unique sound. Like, our drummer is not trained as a drummer, but she comes up with some pretty weird, interesting beats.

Niagara: Yeah, there are two ways of looking at it. If you have the training, it might turn out good. Or, if you don’t have the training, you get that more intuitive sound. Or, if you have a trained voice, it might actually ruin the music. So, it’s a choice. For musicians, it can be very important to learn even classical music. It gives you more in your pocket to draw from. Like, the early rock bands were educated with jazz and blues and classical. They can go so many places, like The Rolling Stones. It’s crazy that they have lasted so long.

HI: What was it like being a female lead singer in a pretty male-dominated genre (punk rock)?

Niagara: It was totally normal for me. But, when I first started, there were not many girls in rock and roll. Like nobody. There were a few people I had heard of from New York, like Patti Smith. But there was no prejudice. It was fun, and I was one of the “guys” anyway.

HI: So, what drew you into independent/underground music, and the punk scene?

Niagara: When I was growing up, I was listening to bands like The Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart. I was delving into stranger types of music. If there was a hit that came out that was real popular, I didn’t think it was worthwhile. And then when The Stooges came out, and MC5, it was mind-blowing at the time. And they were from Detroit.

HI: How did the city of Detroit influence the music?

Niagara: On one hand, it was a very snazzy town for a long time because of the cars and the industry. It was called the “Paris of the Midwest.” And then, since the Depression, it slowly went downhill, and has kept doing downhill. The people are, I don’t know, sincere here. They have this good, sarcastic, black wit. It’s a really interesting attitude here.

HI: I was recently watching a documentary about the Manchester music scene in the late 70s. It was an industrial town, and then it hit hard times, and then bands like Joy Division came out of that. Do you think the economic downturn in Detroit affected the music?

Niagara: Absolutely. That’s totally correct. I have talked to people who have compared Detroit to Manchester. It’s like artistic vision in the face of adversity.

HI: So, how did your band, Destroy All Monsters, get started?

Niagara: When I went to the University of Michigan, the first person I met at orientation was Mike Kelly, who ended up becoming a big-time artist. My boyfriend was a flamenco guitarist. So we just decided to put a band together. We practiced the next day, and the next day we had a show! It was New Years Eve. So we just walked into this party and started setting up and played. They asked us what the name of our band was, and we didn’t know what to say. But Jim Shaw, who was in the band, was a comic book collector, thought of the name. It was the name of an old comic book.

HI: I like that. The spontaneity of the name fits the music too.

Niagara: Yeah, I like it because it starts with a verb. Most bands have noun names.

HI: Destroy All Monsters eventually had Ron and Scott Ashton from The Stooges. What do you think about Iggy Pop?

Niagara: He’s amazing. He has so much energy. They came out with a new album not too long ago, the original members. When they first started, they had this raw sound that was perfect. And the new album didn’t exactly recreate that. They wanted to sound better, which is a bad way to look at it. No one wants them to sound better. But they have been doing well.

HI: It’s funny you should say that. I used to live with some guys in a band called Cold War Kids. What I liked about them when they first started was that they sounded super raw. And their new album just came out, and it sounds like Kings of Leon, like very produced and slick.

Niagara: That happens to so many bands, especially when they have a hit. They’re basically slaves to their record company, who wants them to reproduce that sound over and over, and to fancy it up in the studio. That’s happened for decades, and it’s sad to see. Because MONEY RULES EVERYTHING, NOT ART! At least in most people’s minds.

HI: As an art gallery owner, I know that. I can tell you, I’m not in it for the money. I don’t make money from it.

Niagara: The people who get all the press and success are the people who sort of entertain to the lowest common denominator. You don’t hear about the underground.

HI: Well, I think the underground is more local now. In the town I live in, there’s this awesome record label called Burger Records, and they are putting out really cool, really raw bands.

Niagara: That’s great, that it’s happening locally. But you probably wouldn’t read about those bands if you’re from another town. Maybe on the internet, but that’s like a black hole.

HI: I wanted to talk about your visual art too. It seems like it’s influenced by pulp/comic art.

Niagara: I was never a comic book fanatic. But, growing up, I liked Warhol and Lichtenstein. Plus, I loved movies from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Those movies seemed so different from all other decades. They had a kind of glamorous look. And I realized when I was doing these paintings that they had to say something, otherwise it was just like a still life. But if you give them a cool line to say, then you get an idea of where they’re coming from. So I started putting words on the paintings.

HI: You come up with some funny juxtapositions of the words and the images. Like, there’s the painting of Rosie the Riveter and she’s saying, “Fuck off outta here!”

Niagara: Well, I was thinking of when Rosie the Riveter was happening in the 40s. When the men were gone (during WWII), more women started working. But then, as soon as the men came back, the women were all fired and kicked out on their ass. So, that’s what Rosie was thinking when she thought it over, “Fuck of outta here.”

HI: Your paintings incorporate a lot of slang and profanity.

Niagara: I guess that comes from the Detroit culture, and crime culture, and film noir culture, and punk rock culture, kind of all mixed up in a blender. I love Raymond Chandler. He was a beautiful writer and wrote almost poetically, and yet it was very gritty also.

HI: You have become a pretty major figure in “lowbrow” art. What does “lowbrow” mean to you?

Niagara: Well, it started with Robert Williams. He did art that was inspired by car culture, and comic book culture, and he’s done very well. He started Juxtapoz magazine, and it all stems from that. He had a really negative view of formal schooling and museum culture, and he wanted to separate himself from that scene that was so formal and stiff and snobby. So he called the art “lowbrow.” And it caught on like crazy. Juxtapoz is like the biggest art magazine now. But it’s funny because a lot of those artists now are sort of rebelling against the term “lowbrow.” They don’t want to be thought of as that any more, the more snobby they get. They think they’re “highbrow” now. So that term, “lowbrow” is kind of disappearing from the vocabulary. They try to call it all kinds of other things now.

HI: I’ve heard the term “pop surrealism” used sometimes to describe the art of Juxtapoz.

Niagara: Yeah, that term is used sometimes. But there have been so many different styles, and now it’s moving toward graffiti. I don’t know what the hell that is.

HI: What’s wrong with graffiti?

Niagara: I’m underwhelmed with graffiti because, lately, artists have been coming to Detroit, like to “help our poor souls”, to “show us the way”. They come to Detroit and see all these beautiful old decrepit buildings. Some magazine sent these artists to come and help fix up these old houses for people to live in, but that wasn’t what they did. They just tore them apart and graffitied them. And that was their “art.” If they did it in their own city, they’d probably get thrown in jail. But they come here and put their names on stuff, and then go home. If they did a gallery show, that would be one thing, but they’re sort of ruining Detroit culture with their so-called art. It’s like a weird form of rape.

HI: One final question. This might be a little cheesy. What advice would you give to an artist who is just starting out?

Niagara: Go with your gut reaction. If you try to fake it, people will see through that. A lot of artists try to copy someone else, and that never works. It’s okay to be influenced by other people, but not to copy. If you copy, you will go to hell and burn.

See more of Niagara’s work at www.niagaradetroit.com