The B-52’s Kate Pierson Sees the Beauty of it All

For the better part of 50 years, Kate Pierson has carved out a career bringing wonderful art-pop to the world with the B-52s, NiNa and two stellar solo records. With 2015’s Guitars and Microphones, and 2024’s Radios and Rainbows, Pierson has been able to find a new lease on creativity and stretch her indelible, powerhouse vocals even further. Following her recent run with the B-52s’ tour with Devo, it also appears her “mothership” band isn’t saying goodbye anytime soon, either. On the heels of a few more creative projects, Pierson talked to us about how her solo career almost started much earlier, the fun of Whammy, maintaining your voice and her many professional hats (including motelier and journalist)!

Ottawa Life Magazine: Just before we get into the music, I saw you’re calling from the state of New York, you’ve recently sold off a chain of stylish motels that you worked on there with your wife, right?

Kate Pierson: Yeah, actually, my wife Monica was really actively running them, but we have sold almost all of them. We’re in the process of selling the last one. We do have a rental property on Cape Cod that we bought. We bought a vacation home there a few years ago after we sold Lazy Meadow. Lazy Meadow was sort of the capstone property that we had. But there was one mid-century motel, we really glammed it up, and it was fabulous. It lasted quite a while, from 2003 till two years ago. But we decided we didn’t want it. Especially, Monica just didn’t want that burden anymore. She’s an artist, so she’s focusing on her sculpting, pottery, and jewellery making. It’s just that that era is over. It was fun while it lasted.

OLM: And it’s not the type of headline you expect to read about a musician’s side hobby, which I think made it so fascinating to read about over the years!

KP: I think it’s a lot of people’s fantasy, you know, to get a slump renovated. And that part was glorious. You know, getting all the materials, outfitting it, decorating it and all, and then actually running it. People loved it. I mean, people always mention it to me when they see me. Oh, I stayed there. It was just fabulous. But after a while, you just move on to new adventures.

OLM: And speaking of new adventures, I wanted to talk about your new solo album: Radios and Rainbows. I know you were writing songs back in the 90s for some solo material, but never released them due to management. Did you try bringing those songs onto the solo material when you started writing again over the past two albums?

KP: So, in the late 90s, I had done a project in Japan, called NiNa, and it was a big success! So I really started writing solo material, collaborating with some people, and I was so excited about it. And it really was our manager who just didn’t want anything other than the B-52s. You know, he told me the record label wouldn’t permit me to put out solo material, which was not true. And he just really, you know, strung me along! “Well, the B-52s are doing another tour.” So, I was just sort of strung along. But I had written a bunch of songs, and I had enough for an album. None of those songs ended up on Guitars and Microphones, really, or Radios and Rainbows. Some of the ideas may be floating around in my head! But since putting out both those albums, I’m revisiting some of those songs. I feel that a couple of them really were strong, and I want to put them on a record. I have a whole other album more or less written. And not only that, but I have a Christmas album that I have pretty much…Well, I’ve written most of the songs, let’s just say.

I’m experiencing a renaissance or surge of creativity. I’ve just done the cover of Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power,” collaborating with Uniting Voices of Chicago Choir. I just feel like that’s such a powerful song for our time, and I rarely do any cover songs, but I just felt like that song just needed to be out there more and more in different voices, singing it and introducing it. Maybe to some younger people, just to keep it going, because it’s such a powerful anthem. We need as many protest songs as we can get right now.

OLM: And speaking of collaborating and different voices, you’ve worked with R.E.M., Sia, and Jack White, as well as your project NiNa, to name a few! Has there been a collaboration over the years that’s been particularly enlightening to you or brought out something you didn’t expect?

KP: Well, I recently sang on a song by Mike Campbell, who was a Tom Petty collaborator. He wrote songs with Tom Petty, and then he was his guitarist. I sang on a song that he wrote. I didn’t co-write it, but it’s called “Bongo Mania.” And I sang on a song with Pylon, with Vanessa [Briscoe Hay]—they’re sort of an iconic Athens, Georgia group! And I sang on a song on Jane Wiedlin’s new album, which she hasn’t put out yet!

But other than that, I’m just focusing on writing new material. One of my collaborators, Bleu McAuley, has been great. He really brought out this thing in me when I wrote “Evil Love”! Around Guitars and Microphones, we wrote “Better Not Sting the Bee,” and he brought out this voice in me that I felt was different. So, it’s just more of a strong voice. Also, the collaboration with Jack White on the song “Venus,” I think more of these certain collaborations bring out this stronger voice. I knew I had it, but they brought out a different kind of style. So, when I’m writing new songs now, I’m trying to explore different styles, you know, different ways of singing and still learning! I feel like I’m always learning from different vocalists that I’m listening to. I watch the Grammys, which is kind of a shit show. But, you know, it’s just always interesting to see new artists and try to see if there’s anything different. There’s so many people that latch onto a certain singing style. I feel I have my own style, yet I’d like to explore different ways of singing, different ways of exploring my voice.

OLM: And looking at touring this material has got to have been a different experience for you. Coming off doing Vegas residencies, festivals and mostly stadium-sized tours for the last era of your career with the B-52s, how has the intimacy of the smaller venues been to play this new material? 

KP: It’s funny, you get to a point where it feels like, how can I say this, you’re in deep water or something. It’s not something that I’ve done before. And the expectations are none. You know, I don’t have any expectations. I just want to let it flow. So that way you feel like you’re, “Oh, what am I doing? Is this good or not?” It’s no use even exploring that kind of perspective. You just have to, you know, come out with songs no matter how weird or different they are. So, I feel like performing live, doing solo stuff was so much fun because I worked with two people I’ve worked with already. Well, Tracy Wormworth is my bass player and worked with me in the B-52s since Cosmic Thing. And then, Ken Maiuri has been working with the band for maybe seven years, and I just love the way he plays keyboard—and he plays guitar, and he sings. I didn’t even know Tracy could sing that much. So, they’re both singing backup. And it was just fun, so much fun to talk to the audience and see the audience playing like City Winery, or places where people are listening intently. I didn’t feel nervous. I just felt like, wow, I can connect with the audience more. So, yeah, it’s been a fun experience, and I hope to do a lot more solo shows. It was different, and you know, it really gave me this feeling, so that when I am back with the B-52s, it kind of fed my soul doing these solo shows because I could connect back with the mothership when I wanted to and do the B-52s-Devo Tour, and feel like I had something else, another way to express myself.

OLM: Staying on the touring life, recently the B-52s did what was called a kind of Farewell Tour, and have since been doing residencies or one-off shows. So, what made the new Cosmic De-Evolution tour with Devo possible when it seemed out of the cards for a few years?

KP: I think those Vegas shows are what have sustained us. When we did the Farewell tour, I always called it the CherWell tour, because I said, “This is not it, there’s always something after you say farewell.” And we debated whether to even call it farewell. It seemed like maybe that was the end of our BIG touring days. But now, we just couldn’t refuse playing with Devo. It seemed like, “Wow! We grew up with them in a way. We played the clubs together in New York City. We came up at the same time, we’re both really visual, unusual bands.” And we’ve done shows together here and there, some one-off things, maybe festivals, but we never toured together. When we did the Saturday Night Live show last year, we shared a dressing room with them. We started discussing it, and they were starting a tour, and so the opportunity came up. It seemed like it had to be! Farewell tour or not! Some people were mad, “You said Farewell tour!” Okay, but…you can never, never believe a band that says farewell. I mean, everyone knows that.

OLM: And who’s really complaining if you get to see one of your favourite bands again?

KP: And we do plan to do some more shows. We have been doing those Vegas residencies; I don’t know how much longer we’ll do them! But we’ve done six or seven, and that’s been really fun. So, we’ll see what comes up. We’re doing a festival in Freehold, New Jersey. We’re doing very exciting shows in London, Manchester, and France, and a couple in between. Those are still to be determined, maybe in Germany or Italy. They’re trying to firm those up now. So, we’re doing a very limited European tour, but that’s super exciting because we haven’t been there in quite a while.

OLM: Having seen you live twice now over a decade apart, it was shocking how tight the vocals are. So many bands from the 70s, 80s, and even 90s can struggle to keep their voices strong the whole time. At the recent Toronto show, your voice struck me as record-accurate even! I know Cindy Wilson was doing more wails, but there’s a lot of weird noises, high pitches and screams you have to do within the B-52s! So, I wanted to hear how you’ve kept your voice in shape over the decades!

KP: I can still hit the very high note at the end of “Rock Lobster.” And we have never lowered the key, I mean, so many bands will lower the key of their songs, and we have never lowered the keys of any of the songs. And that’s something pretty phenomenal that we all really have our pipes still. Personally, I worked with a voice teacher who passed away a while ago, but this was in the Cosmic era and beyond. I worked with her for maybe ten years, and I really learned to relax my muscles, you know, just singing and letting the air buoy my voice up and not strain. And no matter how strange the sound may be, if it’s supported by the air, then, you know, it can’t be strained. And my vocal teacher used to say, a baby can cry for hours and never get a rough voice. And they keep crying because they’re not straining really, they’re just letting it flow. So, with that being said, I always warm up. I always do a lot of warm-ups. That’s very important. And that’s just how I’ve maintained my voice. And we’ve still all got it. It’s pretty amazing.

OLM: Looking at the live show, I was so excited to hear you all play “Whammy Kiss” live, because Whammy feels a little underappreciated in your discography. Whether it’s the additional synths or just logistics, is there a reason you haven’t included quite as many songs from it on your live sets over the years?

KP: Yeah, it’s an unusual record. I mean, we did a shift then, which sometimes people are disturbed by, when a band changes their sound. It wasn’t very radical, really. We’re the same band, same sound, basically. But we did add a more electronic kind of drum machines and some more electronic sounds. But I think the songs really hold up. I don’t know why we don’t play them more. “Legal Tender” is something we’ve been doing lately. But Whammy has got some interesting songs that maybe don’t translate. We also did “Queen of Las Vegas” in Las Vegas. So, there’s three songs from there that we’ve done recently. “Song for a Future Generation” would be very difficult because Ricky’s not there. “Trism” is a really interesting, kind of strange song. And “Big Bird” and “Work That Skirt.” Skirt’s an instrumental, but “Big Bird,” it’s a real anomaly. And sometimes I listen, and I hear that. I’m not necessarily always listening to our old stuff, but we’re putting out a book of lyrics. So, I did have to listen to all our songs again to kind of get the gist. And that’s a really weird song, “Big Bird.” I love it. It’s sort of jazzy. And so sometimes, I guess some songs get more airplay. People love to hear something that’s familiar. I would love to do a couple of these songs, especially “Big Bird” and “Trism”! “Trism” is one of my favourite songs.

OLM: And the horns from some of those songs are just so fun.

KP: That’s another thing. We had a horn section. That was different, and that was really fun. And we toured with them. We did make a little bit of a change there. Maybe it’s just because, who can explain really, what is popular. We just put out what we do. And hopefully people love it. And I’m glad you like that record.

OLM: Well, to me, as well, “Butterbean” is also a quintessential B-52s song, very fast and aggressive synths, but the lyrics are all about making butterbeans!

KP: Butterbean! Butterbean! [Laughs] Songs about food are always…well, not many bands write songs about food. It’s a very Southern kind of thing. I think just when we started the band, we kind of lived on collard greens and butterbeans.

OLM: You’re also a journalism grad, which you were following before the band took off. I know you got to do this great interview with Yoko Ono and talk shop about singing and music, did you want to explore that marriage of your backgrounds more?

KP: I didn’t really follow that path. I should have probably done more interviews! I think if I hadn’t been a musician, maybe I would have. But that’s all I really wanted to do, was be a musician. Journalism was a kind of backup, you know, the old backup plan! But I think as far as an investigative interviewer/journalist, that would have been something I’d love. I love Rachel Maddow. I love listening to investigative journalism podcasts, and I think they really helped me as far as doing interviews. I’ve done interviews for many podcasts. I think I would enjoy interviewing people more. Maybe I will jump on that bandwagon sometime. Because I think it will be so interesting to have different questions. I’m usually asked, of course, similar questions. Everyone asks similar questions, and no one asks because who wants to know? But maybe some people want more intimate details, like their likes and dislikes, even what clothes they like or what’s usually not on the board or table for questions that would interest me.

OLM: Was there any artist that you’ve listened to recently that really stood out to you?

KP: I loved Tyler, the Creator’s performance at the Grammys; he’s really cool! I like Brandi Carlile a lot. I’ve discovered her over the past couple of years. I really loved Adele’s music. I listen to a lot of different music, and there’s so much out there. I’ll Shazam things, I’ll follow up on stuff I hear on different TV shows. And I hear things that I love in different languages. I’m pretty impressed with Bad Bunny! I think it’s great he’s singing in Spanish! I’m waiting for the next artist that’s just “Oh my God! This is so different!” I remember when punk started, and as a child of the 60s, there was the Beatles, the British Invasion, all these things coming. Those all changed the game. I remember when rap started; that changed the game! And I’m waiting for that next thing that’s going to change the game. And maybe that’s AI, unfortunately. Whether people are going to accept it or not. It’s just a very scary thing to experience songs now that are written by AI. Either way, it’s going to be a game-changer. Even experimenting with it, you get an icky feeling. I don’t discount it for a place to get ideas, maybe, like you can Google something or get an idea from a book. It could help with inspiration, but for a creative effort, I hope it will never surpass humans.

Photos: Josef Jaffe

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