Chris Mansfield
Chris Mansfield, frontman of Seattle band Fences, is heavily tattooed and seems to have a rough-and-tumble “chip off the shoulder” air about him. Though I’ve always been told not to judge a book by its cover, such judgment is something easily passed in the music community. I have to admit my own guilt in this situation—Mansfield’s simple, quiet, Elliot Smith-esque sound was not the first thing I would have expected from this tough-looking fellow.
Though Mansfield seems to resent having his tattoos mentioned as being in any way related to his music (and who wouldn’t?), they’re something that really makes him stand out in Seattle’s relatively monochromatic folk scene. There’s nothing forgettable about him. I clearly remember almost everything about the first Fences show I went to—Mansfield was quiet, relatively awkward and avoided looking at the crowd for most of the show—but mostly, I remember being floored by his stellar performance.
This is an interview I originally did for the KEXP blog.
Katy: So Where did you grow up?
Chris Mansfield: Kind of all over, like, mostly Florida, here when I was really young, California, Arizona…but from age 13-22 was in Boston. Then I moved to New York and then Seattle.
Katy: Were you in a military family?
CM: Nah, my Mom and Dad were separated when I was really young. They had me when they were teenagers, so they got married because of religious reasons on my Dad’s side, then my Mom kind of freaked out and moved back in with her mom. Then she’d meet a dude and we’d go there, then she’d break up with him and we’d go back to where her mom or other family were. So it was just kind of…rolling around with my mom for a while until I was old enough to know that I didn’t want to do that. Then I figured out that I had a rich dad in Boston, and I went there. Then I went there and he put me through college and all of that good shit. So that’s what happened.
Katy: When did you start playing music?
CM: Pretty young, none of it really had to do with the kind of music I do now. I was pretty much into jazz and Frank Zappa and weird crap like that. I ended up going to Berklee, and I wasn’t even playing guitar at the time. I was playing upright and jazz bass. My roommate John was really into folk songs and stuff like that…I don’t know. It was a bummer because we’d be drinking beers or something and he could play songs and it would be really entertaining, and I hated the fact that I couldn’t really…I mean, no one wants to sit there and hear you play some jazz walking line or hear you play a jazz solo on a trumpet. I just wanted something that you could communicate more to your peers. I wanted something that could be expressed a little easier, not as abstractly as with jazz. I just kind of freaked out and just quit what I was doing and started copying him pretty much. This girl that I hung out with a few times, she was a pretty girl. And she played Elliott Smith for me, and I was obsessed with it. Six months into me being really into him like “man, this dude’s saying how I feel” and shit, and then he killed himself and it kind of freaked me out. It kind of inspired me to keep playing music.
Katy: In all of the descriptions of Fences I found, people said very specifically that Fences is your “solo project”. Have you been involved with other bands or projects?
CM: No, I don’t really understand why people say that. I mean, all of the reviews are pretty stupid. They all talk about really stupid things like “oh, he has tattoos”…I mean, yeah, I write the songs alone on my acoustic guitar, but when I play live I have other people. I think the only reason that it could be considered a solo project is because everyone in the band can change at any given time. I don’t necessarily have a lot of emotional attachment. It’s not like I grew up with them and we started this together. I guess it is my band…I mean, I could move tomorrow and find new people if I had to. I just don’t necessarily play solo live anymore…but I guess that’s probably what they’re talking about.
Katy: Can you tell me about your work with Tegan and Sara?
CM: It’s with just Sara, and she just found me through a producer in Vancouver that had found me on Myspace. I kind of ignored the guy for like a year because I don’t really respond to compliments. I’m always kind of nervous about shit like that. I don’t want to be like “Oh yeah, totally, I don’t know who the fuck you are and you’re from Canada. Let’s do it.” But it turns out that he’s friends with Tegan and Sara, and he gave them my music and I was home one day and Sara had emailed me—it was really random, but awesome. We just kind of stayed friends and talked back and forth and I would send her music and come to their shows when they were here, and one day she was like “Dude, you should come to Canada and I’ll produce a record for you. It won’t cost anything, just pay me back when you sell ‘em”. So I went there and stayed with her for like two weeks and we recorded every day from early morning ‘til night. I used their band for the recording, and then I was done. It was cool. It was totally random and a good deed on her behalf, just helping out some bum, y’know.
Katy: The last couple of times I’ve seen you play, you’ve played some new songs that you’ve written just a few days before. Are you working on some new material for a new record?
CM: In all honesty, you just don’t know when songs are going to come. I mean, you’ll have a dry spell for months and you’re like “man, I’m fucked, I got nothin’”, and then one day you’ll wake up and pick up the guitar and just start playing. I could be sitting there watching ‘Rescue Me’ or something and just be playing and then start humming something and be like “woah, oh shit.” Once you go a certain distance with it you can’t really stop, so it’s just like “man, I better think of some lyrics and finish it”—and it’s totally not on purpose, like I’ve never just sat down and said “I’m going to write a song now”. I could write my best song tomorrow, or I could not write a song for another year. The record I did with Sara isn’t even out yet, so I’m not really planning anything.
Katy: What was your first tattoo?
CM: It was a Chanel tattoo on my left calf. It was with a homemade tattoo gun, and we traced a sodapop lid…John, that kid that pretty much showed me how to write music, he and this other kid and I had a grindcore band called My Spine Your Spine, and I just screamed into the mic …it was ridiculous and mostly for fun. We all got a circle tattoo in the same spot. But a week later I was like “dude, you should put the Chanel C’s in mine”, because I thought it was funny. I still like it. I don’t regret it at all.
Katy: You went to alcohol rehab earlier this year. How has being sober affected your music?
CM: It’s alright. I mean, it’s a little difficult because it was such a part of the live experience on my side of the stage. I’m not a naturally brave person. It makes me uncomfortable to be looked at by a bunch of people, especially now that the shows are a little bigger. It kind of scares the shit out of me. It’s harder in that respect because alcohol makes nothing scary. That’s kind of a bummer, but, I don’t know, I think there’s a time to be the drunk crazy guy, but I think you have to be famous first. I mean, I could be wild now, but then it’d be like “yeah, his music’s pretty good, but that guy’s an asshole and he’s kind of crazy.” I just have to be responsible I think.
Fences’ new record is expected to drop in early 2010
The new cd is bomb
Love Fences!