Ex Hex

Skype interview by Brenda Bosma
Photos shot by Jonah Takagi in Washington D.C., USA

Ex Hex’s punchy debut album, Rips, tears through 12 power-pop jams in little over half an hour, each of which instantly puts you in a good mood. We caucht up with guitarist and frontwoman Mary Timony to talk strange shows in strange places, buddy Ian Svenonius and acting like crazy animals. She might just be on to something…

You’ve been in quite a lot of bands. Have you ever played in a weirder environment than a bungalow park?

Let me think… Mostly we played rock clubs, but there are some unusual places. The weirdest was in a barn in Maine where the horses just kind of looked back at us, totally nonplussed. That was strange and cool. And we once played near a cliff in Austin. We were playing at the bottom of it, so no risk of falling off, luckily! In London we played this boat one time. We tried to rock the boat, but it was too big.

Your music is pretty wild and upbeat. What usually goes on backstage after a show?

Crazy partying, you know, with groupies, I think – I can’t remember mostly. I’m just joking. We’re pretty tame actually. No groupies.

And before?

We act like crazy animals and jump around a lot. That’s the ritual; holding hands and jumping in the air. We need that to have the energy onstage.

‘That’s the ritual; holding hands and jumping in the air’

The video for ‘Hot and Cold’ shows you on a date with rock’n’roll wildcat Ian Svenonius. What makes you hot in the real world?

That depends! That song’s about someone that you try to figure out, figure out what that person is thinking – which is confusing sometimes. The music isn’t that confusing. It’s fun to play songs that put people in a good mood.

Did Ian pass on some of his wisdom?

Ian is our old buddy, he’s been my friend since I was a teenager because we both grew up in Washington DC. I played in Chain & the Gang for a while – our bass player still does, and my boyfriend plays drums, so we’re all pretty connected to him. He’s got a really unique view on things. That’s why we turned to him when we needed a band name. We showed him our list of ideas and he immediately picked Ex Hex. It sounds great when he says it. And we trusted his judgement.

Any expectations for your European tour?

We’ve never played in Europe with Ex Hex before, so we’re pretty excited to hop on that plane. I hope there are a lot of wild animals to meet. It’s definitely gonna be a girls’ night out kinda thing for us. We have a lot of fun together.

Ex Hex play on 6 March at De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam; and on 7 March at the Desperados stage at 18.45 as part of Where The Wild Things Are festival.